Lucchesa

I've worn Karikkotsu a couple of times lately as it's the only imp in my car right now and I removed my purse imps for TSA recently and haven't put them back (going to do that as soon as I finish this review). Fortunately, Karikkotsu is beautiful and work-appropriate. She knows she's out of the league of everyone else in the room, but she's only a tiny bit condescending about it. I've been burned by black oudh lately, but white oudh is something I need to seek out: very polished, elegant, even snooty, but not indolic. I don't usually wear iris, but it works here, tying together these pale, dry components. And although my middle aged skin usually drinks things right up, I get better wear length than many earlier reviewers, so age may be helping with that.

Wet, the galbanum hijacks Pottery Phoenix on me. It's the unfamiliar note to me in this trio, and I wish I could describe it because it does connect with a scent memory playing around the edges of my consciousness, but I can't pin it down. I've even googled it and am getting impressions like "very fresh, vegetal and sharp," but it's not helping me be any more specific. It settles down in 30 minutes or so and then the sandalwood and myrrh come through; the drydown is very nice but less distinctive (I have other sandalwood and myrrh scents I prefer).

Winter (de Tuin Van de Vicaris Onder Sneeuw) kind of went backward on me, in terms of seasons. It starts out very wintry, with a blast of the minty snow note that I don't care for as much, and then the strong conifer notes, with lots of juniper. It's a blast of January, but as it dries down, over about an hour the juniper and other evergreens soften and recede and what I'm left with is the dead leaves note, so I'm back in early November. Maybe the fellow in the painting is unearthing the dead leaves as he shovels away the snow.

Honeyed cedar. So good! If those two notes work for you, don't miss The Pillars. Woods and honey myrtle with the resins in the background, just beautiful. I didn't get great wear length from this, but I was in a hurry and applied straight out of the shower without any moisturizer, so I suspect lasting power is normally pretty decent.

In the imp Slaugh is delightfully rootbeery, but it goes on minty on my skin, which I had forgotten had happened once before with sassafras -- Laudanum was straight-up toothpaste on me. I'm not a fan of mint. Eventually the toothpaste vibes settled down enough for me to appreciate the tonka and black tea, and the champaca was perfectly well-behaved, but the drydown would have had to be incredibly fabulous to salvage the scent for me. I'll be passing this decant on.

I will retest The Dream is Big Enough for Everyone in a couple more days because today my skin just ate up the patchouli. I got honeyed fig and creamy redcurrant with a base of warm feminine oudh. I'm hoping a little more age will allow the patchouli to come forward; right now it's a little sweet for me, though very lovely.

I'm very particular about foodies, and the operative word that attracted me here for me was "scorched." So when I first applied Scorched Marshmallow and all I got was milk chocolate, graham cracker and warm marshmallow, I didn't think it would work for me. Too sticky sweet. But within minutes, the smoky note emerged on my skin, and the combination with the s'mores scent was glorious. I got better throw from this scent than I usually get and good wear length too. It's not heavy; the sweetness and smokiness stay in a nice balance on me, and it's a wonderful sweet campfire scent. Win!

I'm unfamiliar with palo santo -- a quick search of my database shows I've never tried it in any scent -- but I know that labdanum can have an almost cola-like sweetness. That being said, this was so different from what I expected that I wondered if I'd received a mislabeled decant of Absurd Origin Story. So take this review with a big grain of salt. On me, this smells very reminiscent of cola Willy Wonka Bottlecaps candy from my childhood. Low throw and average wear length.

Embalming Fluid?

I was worried about the shadow oudh here as I've been burned a couple times by black oudh recently. I should have realized that, being a Lilith, it would be a soft, pretty oudh, nothing to fear. I get very little patchouli in Euterpe's Ukulele. It is mostly sweet plum, soft dark oudh, and a gentle floral that must be osmanthus. My skin eats this up fairly quickly, but I suspect age will help the wear length. Maybe the patchouli will emerge with aging as well.

Count me in on the She-Goat lovefest here, from another native Californian. The evergreen notes (juniper and cypress) are most prominent when wet, along with the sagebrush. As always, they soften as it dries, and then I get a warm, dry, sunny outdoor scent that evokes the California foothills in summer, with bees bumbling all around, maybe some dragonflies buzzing, and it doesn't morph much from here. Though I think I can smell the California lilac, this is not a floral on me by any means. I get a little throw from this (more than is usual for me) and good wear length. The She-Goat is a beauty!

Wet, Phantom Queen smells very clean on me. Clean and springtimey, like what Irish Spring soap ought to smell like but doesn't. I didn't get a discrete apple note; this was definitely floral and herbal, not fruity on me. Though I like clover scents, this one has too much dew along for the ride. Try Phantom Queen if you like The Fairies, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, or Glasgow.

A carnivorous enchantress: diverse, lovely and graceful, emitting a sticky, glowing golden, sweet and terminally inviting scent. Its dew is believed to grant eternal beauty and longevity, and restore vitality and vigor to the magician. I couldn't really identify any of the notes when testing, then I checked and saw that was because there were no notes. If I had to guess (and obviously I do), I would say some kind of jungle greenery, honeysuckle or sweet tropical floral, amber and a sweet orange or mandarin, something like Xiuhtecuhtli without the incense. Green and gold in tone. The drydown was lovely and long-lasting, sweet amber and growing things.

I agree with a couple of other reviewers that the combination of black musk (which almost always works on me) and white musk (which rarely works on me) with the golden amber settles into something like fruity red musk -- maybe there's some red musk in a rusty iron note? Actually, the drydown is a little like Smut on me, almost with a cola sweetness. This is not nearly as masculine as Czernobog from the GC -- We Cared is definitely unisex. No throw (normal for my skin) but good wear length. ETA On a second test, I do get some throw. I keep wondering, what am I wearing that has red musk in it? Red musk tends to do that taking the hell over thing on me, but it's actually really nice here.

I wasn't sure The Mournful Influence was going to work on me at first. It was nice, but not outstanding. But the longer it has stayed on my wrist, the deeper and more beautiful it has gotten. The patchouli comes more and more to the forefront, and the resins get warmer and sweeter. I don't find this melancholy at all, and it is more hippie than ecclesiastical on me, but it's gorgeous and I will get a lot of wear out of it this winter. EDIT 11/13/24: This has aged SO BEAUTIFULLY! Not a surprise, with these notes, but I'm so glad I hung onto it. I have been wearing it a lot since the election, initially for the title and then because it's just so lovely and is making me feel better.

Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. The Great Sword of War doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Foody or sultry? Right off the bat it's mandarin-red musk-tobacco, with a little chocolate. I never get the tea, but my skin often swallows up tea notes, so that's not surprising; the saffron is quiet, too. The last time I tested this I was certain I knew at least one of the classical herbs of conflict, but now I can't remember what I thought it was. The red musk takes over a bit, as red musk tends to do on me. The result is kind of strange, and I'm not sure where I would wear it, though I love the name and the concept. ETA Jan 2021: I actually do wear Great Sword of War with pleasure -- it's a great scent if you need to do battle of any kind (workplace, relationship) but want to stay calm and grounded and not project any martial intentions. I find it both sexy and comforting.

Megaera was in the first batch of BPAL imps I ever tried. I liked it a lot at the time, less so now that my tastes have matured. Retesting blind, I thought citrus, plum and maybe amber, which is better guessing than I usually do. It’s a flowery fruit blend, candy sweet on my skin. I like my plums deep and dark, with tobacco and resins; this seems more like one of those golden plums. The grapefruit ought to be a foil for the sweetness, but it doesn’t last long on me. It’s nice, just not really my thing.

I was hoping Black Swallowtail would be really licorice forward, but instead it's all tropical flowers on me, mainly freesia and orchid. The jasmine is well-behaved enough not to ruin this for me if the licorice had been more prominent, but it's not. I'm never able to differentiate any rose. The late drydown is beautiful, with a vanilla tinge and a floaty breath of tropical florals, but I just don't wear tropical florals or white florals or unadulterated florals of any kind, and since the licorice is practically MIA on me, that's what this is.

I was excited to try Allegory of Winter in a swap. Wet on my skin, it was orange and vetiver -- I reread the ingredients and decided the coal dust must be mainly composed of black, smoky vetiver. Fortunately, I like smoky vetiver, because I got a lot of it in this scent. As it dried down, the leather and red musk came out to play with the vetiver, but what do you know? The vetiver was bullying the red musk rather than the other way around. Funny, red musk has worked for me as often as not lately. I honestly did not get a lot of amber in this scent for the first two or three hours; it was really citrus, leather and vetiver on me, though I'm sure the amber was there as a warming base. It lasts a long time, manages to be both sexy and cozy, and the late drydown is really beautiful; the vetiver dies away and leaves a sunset of orange, leather, amber and red musk. I'm delighted I got to try this -- it's unusual and very satisfying. And it would be gorgeous on a guy if I had one who would wear scent. ETA the visual:

I was waiting for the white musk to ruin Elegy No. 1 for me. It never happened. It's more of a pale musk with none of the screechiness of the white variety on me. The bergamot-sandalwood combination is lovely, and the ambergris is more evident in drydown. There is a pale, ethereal quality to this scent, and in fact the wear length on me is not great, but it is a beautifully evocative blend.

OK, now I understand why I see La Lugubre Gondola in so many wishlists. This is gorgeous, and it has probably just kept getting better and better since the day it was created as that 7-year-old labdanum is now 12-year-old labdanum. Amber is the standout here, deep golden amber so rich it is almost spicy. This is backed by dark syrupy labdanum. I'm not sure I can really make out the oudh, which is a good thing because when oudh is pronounced on me, it's almost always stanky. No throw (which is normal for me) but when I sniff my wrist I am transported into a golden world of amber.

I have really been enjoying some of the outdoorsy scents lately, and Of Earth is a lovely addition. It starts out strong, sharp evergreen on me, pine and cedar, but within 45 minutes or so this has softened considerably and I'm getting wood as well as needles. As it continues to mellow, I can make out forest floor, the loam beneath the trees. It takes a couple of hours to soften to the point where the tobacco and ambergris make an appearance, and lily of the valley is a no-show except that there is a sweetness here, whether it's from the lily or the woods or the tobacco or ambergris I'm not sure. I love that this is at once earthy and mystical. I like this a lot.

Champaca often goes weird and wrong on my skin. I think there's champaca in this. I was running through the mental list of what flower is it that's ruining this for me -- is it violet, is it tuberose, it's not jasmine, is it... yep. I think it's champaca.

A symbol of Divine Power made manifest in man, of the order of the universe being executed upon earth. It signifies the apex of glory, triumph, and immortality, and the extension of dominion: a symbol of rulership blessed by celestial providence. Self-control that leads to self-realization: frankincense and styrax with bergamot and lemon peel. My first first review! I'm glad it's for something I like a lot. Wet, The Emperor's Crown is frankincense and realistic lemon. Fresh, bright, golden yellow like the crown and the globe and scepter in his hands. I always think of frankincense as a righteous scent, a cut-through-the-bullshit scent -- a little austere but with its own inner light. As the scent dries down, the bergamot becomes more apparent to my nose, so it's sunny citrus and frankincense and a hint of something vanillic which is probably the styrax. Wikipedia suggests that styrax may be the same as benzoin, and while I'm sure Beth has perfectly good reasons for the varied nomenclature, it does get confusing. The wear length is not outstanding, but that may well improve with age. If lemon and frankincense sounds lovely, well, it is.

I have a half decant of Siberian Musk I have been putting off skin testing because it kind of scared me. It had leaked a little in transit, and the plumber's tape was brown and oil stained and you could smell it through the tape, kind of dark and animalic like the olfactory version of a horror movie... Anyway, I finally decided to try it this morning because it's on the love list of someone I'm swapping with and I thought I'd test it then frimp it along. Sorry, dear. I'm not letting this go. Siberian Musk is yowza on me. Just grrr. Dark, sexy, smutty, NOT work friendly. Gotta go rut in the forest now. Grrraowhh.