Lucchesa

My experience was very similar to tinyvulture's. I was expecting a big initial blast of evergreen, and I've really been grooving on the outdoorsy scents lately. This is not one of them on me. I get quite a bit of honeyed rose and almond - in fact, it reminds me a little of the Deliver Them scents Job & Romans. If you love En Eski and can't find it, those would be great options. The myrrh keeps this from being foody; instead it's got that Middle Eastern bazaar feel, a little incense, a little rosewater, some halvah. Just lovely, and it developed beautifully on my skin.

Wet, the Fairies is an appley spring green floral. Apple, clover, dandelion -- it reminds me a bit of an apple blossomy version of The Passionate Shepherd to His Love. I don't get a traditional wine note from this at all. As it dries down on me, the apple note recedes, and it becomes a lovely mossy springtime meadow scent, true to its inspiration though not perhaps as dark...

I don't think I looked at the notes before I bought this imp. I was expecting it to be in the vein of the AG Zorya Utrennyaya, which I'm very fond of. Oops, no similarity whatsoever. This is a cool minty floral, rose forward at first, but the rose fades quickly on me, to be replaced with lots of violet and floral x which must be osmanthus and delphinium. I'm not getting a lot of sandalwood. Violet almost never works on me, nor mint, so this was unlikely to befriend my skin. Swaps!

Midnight was unlikely to work on me, but I try everything that passes through my hands just on principle. Sure enough, a bouquet of night blooming flowers is not my thing. I don't know most of these notes (Nottingham catchfly??) but this is a heady floral, less delicate than what I think of as white floral, a little tangier. Purple-green floral? Tobacco flower can be very sharp on me, and I think I can make out some of that effect here. Once it dries down it's actually very pretty; I just don't wear florals.

I tested 51 when I was first starting with BPAL and put it with my keepers, but retesting, this is not an imp I will wear again. It starts out high-pitched citrusy white floral and becomes increasingly soapy on me. White musk and green musk are both big question marks for me, and here they take over and railroad 51 into screechy soapy territory. Swaps.

I retested my tester of Imaginer this morning to decide whether or not to buy a bottle here on the forums. (My notes said only "want more!") Imaginer feels really right on my skin: a deep russet cloak to wrap around myself on a frigid day. It's dark honey and the rich amber I love so much and warm patchouli, a gorgeous warming blend for autumn and winter. I'm often anosmic to the Lab's pepper note, but the pepper and saffron seem to be contributing to the overall warmth and depth. No hippie patchouli here; this is sophisticated and work-appropriate. The throw is low, but it lasts really well on me. Want more is right! ETA 3/1/21 and I'm wearing the scent in the bottle I did acquire. The throw is massive! Particularly when wet. This bottle has less patch and more beeswax. Still gorgeous.

An Incubus Leaving Two Sleeping Women is very pretty, though a little more floral than I expected. It's mainly honey-vanilla-white floral with a little patchouli for structure. I'm getting more magnolia than ylang ylang which is good, as it's the better note on me. I'm not getting much musk. This has no throw on me (which is normal for my skin) and fades quickly.

I am not a morning person, so maybe this was never going to work. The Phoenix at Dawn smells like very expensive French-milled soap on me. High-pitched citrusy floral, no patchouli or sandalwood in evidence, but I would have guessed there was white musk in here. I agree that the white wine grape is like the champagne note here, and that is not usually a success on my skin. Glad I got to try it, but I'll be passing this one on.

Singularly at Ease, which is lovely rum-infused blueberry muffin in the vial, goes tragically wrong on my skin in the exact same way that Eat Me goes tragically wrong on my skin. It was frimped to me, and I'm glad I got to test it, because it might have surprised me. Sigh. If you love Eat Me or the cakes note in general, you should definitely try this.

Amaxophobia is incredibly evocative of the description -- motor oil, artificial pine scent, right down to the stale chocolate. It was an interesting scent experience but not something I would want to smell like frequently, and my skin ate it up fairly quickly. If you enjoy trying oddball scents, you should definitely give this a try.

Obviously my Pliny's Phoenix decant is well-aged. It's a beautiful, long-lasting, warm frankincense on me, practically a single-note frank with just the tiniest hint of cinnamon. Absolutely lovely, and something to warm up a wintry season.

I didn't get any Cinq when the lupers were live because tea rose is one of the rose notes that's pretty reliably bad on me, but I was intrigued enough by the all-over-the-place reviews to swap for a decant. And it's so pretty in the imp, and after about an hour the drydown is such a pretty sugary buttery rose, like Hope with crumbs, but wet my skin makes a mess of those tea roses. Oh well, I'm delighted I had the chance to try it.

Testing blind, I, like Sangria2, thought there was cedar in this blend, which I now see was the blend of balsam and patchouli. Evergreens and leather, just a faint hint of fruit and cardamom, and I'm not getting any recognizable (i.e. indolic) oudh, just a general warmth and depth. Definitely masculine, definitely sexy. and while I like this as much as I hoped I would, I'm not madly in love with it the way I am with, say, Wulric.

I got to try a decant of Eldritch Dark, and I love it. Certain rose notes can be problematic on me, and red musk has a propensity to go all SN Red Musk, but I had a good feeling about this one. Psychodynamic Discharge worked surprisingly well on me recently, so I guess I need to look for blends where red musk is reined in by black musk. This is primarily a black musk blend on me. Leather and honey, yes, especially when wet, and a little sweet rose on drydown, but an absolutely gorgeous black musk grounds this and slow-dances with the red musk and steals the freaking show. Good throw, though the wear length is only average on me. But while it's around, it's sexy as hell.

Transeo is much more floral on me than I expected. Orange blossom and wine are the two most identifiable notes for me, and they are both problematic on my skin. So instead of the spicy woods and citrus with a little bloody wine I was hoping for, it's more blossoms and red wine and everything else is muted. This is a skin chemistry fail on me.

I'm on a roll with goat's milk recently, so when I found a few decants I'd misplaced after a recent swap, this was my immediate choice. The goat's milk was strongest when wet, and it gave Depart pour le Sabbat good wear length and throw on me, even after it became more subdued in drydown. Chewy patchouli and honey take over with a warm, pleasant grounding of oudh, which was the note I was most worried about here, but there's nothing indolic about it. Another win for goat's milk; a gorgeous, earthy-sweet fall blend.

Wow, no one has tested Masabakes for a while. I was lucky enough to find an imp, and on first application, I was not so sure about it. I got little to no black currant but lots of myrrh, something bitter (mimosa?) and something sour (mandrake?). Frankly I would generally rather have bitter than fruity, and the sour didn't last for long. Once it dries down, I get deep dark myrrh. In fact, this is the scent that most illustrates for the the line in We Three Kings: "Myrrh is mine, its bitter perfume breathes a life of gathering gloom. Sorrowing, sighing, bleeding, dying, sealed in the stone cold tomb." And it is beautiful on me. There may be a tiny bit of sweetness from the currant, but I'm really not getting any floral or greenery; the myrrh is the star here. Good throw (for me) and wear length. Obviously this has aged for a long time and may no longer correspond exactly to the initial conception, but it is still a work of art.

Sometimes BPAL oudhs are marvelous on me. Sometimes they go all poopy on my skin. This one is in the latter camp, and the beautiful amber can't save it, not even a couple hours into drydown. I may need to avoid black oudh in the future.

2018 version I can absolutely appreciate the beauty of June 23, 1868. It is a bouquet of beautiful, heady-but-not-cloying white florals, most of which I'm unfamiliar with, but it smells the way I imagine moonflower would. Lovely and ethereal. Unfortunately, I was hoping for those sepia tones of tonka, tobacco and bourbon vanilla to come dirty things up, and while I may get a touch of vanilla, I really get no tobacco at all. So it's a gorgeous floral, but I almost never wear a pure floral; it's just not me. This would be a fantastic scent for a bride in traditional long white dress and veil. If the lab ever made the reverse scent, tonka-tobacco-bourbon vanilla with a hint of moonflower, I'd be quite excited. I'm delighted I got to try this one, and if white florals ring your bells, don't miss this.

I got to try a decant of the original Saw-Scaled Viper via a swap with a marvelous forumite, and after applying I had to check the site to make sure it was indeed a Snake Oil blend. Unusually, it took a long time for the SO to assert itself; instead, this was like Chimera (which I love) with vanilla. I didn't get nearly as much ginger as I did cinnamon and cassia. While most of the Snake Oil blends I have tried sooner or later turn into Snake Oil, this one never did; the warm sweet spices remained its primary identity. What I did get and appreciate, though, was Snake Oil throw. This is lovely on me and may well warrant a bottle purchase.

Like a Girl is mostly sweet bourbon vanilla and skin musk on me, and it's lovely. I get a little sandalwood but nothing that I recognize as frankincense. This is a skin scent on me (I rarely get much throw from anything), much more vanilla than boozy, absolutely work appropriate. I think it would also be quite a nice scent for a preteen girl, but it's not obnoxiously girly, just pretty in an unobtrusive way.

The Carousel is the kind of scent I used to avoid because of too much going on. But after loving OLLA Eve, I thought I would give this one a whirl, and I'm super glad I did. This actually reminds me somewhat of Eve, both in terms of the ambitious scope and complexity of the scent and in the fact that both have an undercurrent of a rose that works on me. I do not smell a lot of cinnamon here, and I swapped with dementia_divine for this decant, so it's there, it's just my nose or my chemistry that is masking it. Instead, the first notes I get are ozone with a kind of green meadow scent. The ozone doesn't stick around on me at all, and I start to get sweet incense, green honey amber, earth and moss, the aforementioned rose... And surprisingly for such a jumble of notes, it works. It dries down to a skin scent but lasts a good while, and on me I would say it leans to the feminine side of unisex.

My decant of The Mahogany Tree is also old now, but I do get a hint of redcurrant and wine along with the mahogany and amber. The amber-dominated drydown smells really classically BPAL to me, lovely and warm. I'm not getting the snow note, which is fine with me. This wears close to the skin on me, but so do most things.

On me, An Excerpt is all about the vetiver. The forest notes form a backdrop to the smoky charge of vetiver, with soft myrrh playing around the edges, and everything softens together as it dries down. Definitely on the more manly end of unisex, and a great forcefield scent on days when you need a little extra personal power. Once it's dry, there's not a lot of throw on me (which is typical of my skin), but very good wear length. If smoky forest is your jam, this is hard to beat.

Having enjoyed My Baby and a Baby Goat tremendously, I decided I should test the other goat's milk scent in my stash, Nonae Caprotina. It is definitely the same goat's milk note, earthy, a little more pungent than cow's milk. Here it's sweetened by the similarly earthy fig instead of honey, and it's a marvelous combination. The myrrh is very soft and light on me. It doesn't have quite the throw and wear length of My Baby, but it is lovely as a very natural-seeming skin scent.