Lucchesa
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Everything posted by Lucchesa
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Apparently I never reviewed Mage. And I haven’t really worn it since testing it, though I kept the imp. So this is a very well aged imp, possibly close to a decade old. Nothing sharp or evergreen here, or smoky; if anything, Mage is fruity on me. DBR is problematic — often cloying— on my skin; here it’s like a dark berry note with some non-specific resins in the background. It’s nicer than I remember, tbh, and deserves to be worn more than once every eight or nine years.
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Flaxen Flame is so gorgeous, I wish I had a bottle and not just a decant. Dragon’s blood is always a big question mark on me. Here it’s quite light against a lovely warm amber like in The Lion and gentle spices. It all just works together beautifully on my skin. There’s something sunny and hopeful about this one. Maybe I’ll see it on eBay or Etsy some day.
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Huh, I realized I never reviewed Bram Stoker. Nothing bloodsucking here: this is the writer, not his creation. I have a very well-aged lab imp, I'm guessing at least eight years old, and it goes on strong whoa cologne. It is never soapy on me as some have experienced, and it settles down quickly and lasts a long time. Lots of smoky vetiver and a little grassy, maybe vetiver, maybe the hay; a little bergamot, I'm not making out opoponax or bourbon, but this is very traditionally masculine and sexy. I wear a lot of unisex blends and this definitely trends more m than f. I like it, but you need to be comfortable with something on the masculine spectrum to enjoy wearing this.
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This is a very sweet peach, and the combination with the fruity red musk and fig taking it even further in that direction. I was hoping for a smutty Depraved but the patchouli is very light on me. Good throw and staying power as is typical with red musk on my skin.
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There was an imp of Fae in my very first BPAL order years ago, but apparently I never reviewed it. I remember liking it well enough, but there were other things I loved more, and I never wore it much. I got a fresh one as a lab frimp recently and decided to put it on as an evening scent tonight. This is more of a light summery blend. It’s a delicate peach, like a white peach, rather than a juicy ripe running-down-your-face yellow peach, with a lot of powdery white musk and a floral I wouldn’t have been able to pinpoint as heliotrope. I can make out some oak moss, but the bergamot is MIA on my skin, a shame as I think it would work nicely here. Fae is too femme for me to wear often (Depraved is my go-to peach), but if you’d like something silvery and girly — something akin to Cate Blanchett in LOTR — this is well worth a try.
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My Sugar Plum Snake Oil is definitely much more the former than the latter. Lots of sticky purple sugary plum, lots and lots; just a little Snake Oil, and only after a couple of hours of sweet plumminess. Good throw and longevity; I just wish I got as much snake as some of the other reviewers have.
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I’ve worn this a lot this fall and find it invariably lifts my mood. I hoping for dead leaves and Earl Grey, but that’s not really my experience. Wet, it’s a crunchy dead leaves note and lots of bergamot, very bright and citrusy, the color of the brilliant reddish oranges of sugar maples or liquidambar at the height of their glory. The tea starts to insinuate itself about half an hour in, or maybe the bergamot settles down enough that I can make it out. It’s really a base note in this blend, or a bass line, with dead leaves as a tenor and bergamot a sassy mezzo soprano. This has good staying power on me though not a lot of throw (typical for my skin), so it’s completely work appropriate..
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These are not my usual notes; in general the rose and resin combo goes sour on me. But Rose Moon is really quite lovely. It’s kind of like a rose version of Blood Kiss, with lots of port wine and the dragon’s blood standing in for the sweet fruit of the cherries. Rose, wine, DBR and myrrh are the notes I can pick out; nor getting much clove or tobacco. It stays pretty true as a sweet resiny rose and wine. I have no idea where I would wear this — midnight garden party? — as it’s not really my style, but it’s objectively pretty.
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Oh, I definitely get the Cafe Mille et Une Nuits (which I love) comparison. Musky coffee when wet, then the cardamom starts to shine through. Dbr can be cloying on me, but it’s subtle here, blending with the dry vanilla. Is there a category for not quite gourmand? Dirty foodie? It’s a category I enjoy, and Bearded Dragon is a very nice entry.
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I would never have bought a perfume vaunted as an indolic oud because that black oudh note is just nasty on my skin, and not in a good way. But the splendiferous @Teamama passed on the decant, and it’s surprisingly lovely on me, gingerbread spice with a well-behaved, perfumey oudh note and a little bit of molasses. I get pretty good throw for an hour or two. I was testing Wild Strawberries and Patchouli on the other wrist and the combination was fire!
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Pink Moon: Wild Strawberries and Patchouli
Lucchesa replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This is the nicest BPAL strawberry note I’ve found. Usually berry notes go straight to candy on my skin, but this wild berry note is not quite as sweet, plus the very dry patchouli seems to be anchoring it in more realistic strawberry territory. On me this is definitely a berry scent, not a patch — it stays in the background. I’m much more a patchouli hound than a fruit lover, but this one makes me smile. It’s like sunshine. Thank you, @Teamama, for the decant !!! -
This is quite lovely on me. It starts out as an intense blast of lavender, but as always the lavender is fugitive on my skin. It gives way to a not overly sweet fig and a delicate cedar. The late dry down is mostly fig on me, just hints of cedar and the memory of lavender.
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Rose almost never works on my but I was curious about Hearts because the other notes are all terrific. Yep. Rose. So much rose which as so often goes sour on my skin. No hearts for me. If you can wear rose, this is a big scent with good throw and staying power; I can still smell it more than 12 hours after applying. Thanks, @Teamama, for letting me try it!
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This decant was a gift from the fabulous @Teamama and went exactly the way I imagined based on my skin chemistry and history with rose/resin scents: sour rose. Oh, well, I shall pass it on.
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Lilies amp on me, and this is a whole lot of lily. I can smell the tea in the imp, but on my skin the lilies overpower it, the way a bouquet with stargazer lilies will smell like lilies and nothing else. Great throw and wear length. Thank you, @Teamama, for letting me try this one!
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With these notes Les Passades should be fab on me, and it's only OK. I agree with the last three posters that there's something fizzy and even cola-esque in here, and it is quite prominent on me. The patch and vanilla are quiet; it's more of a gentle musk with Pepsi and amber. I have so many BPAL patchouli blends that I absolutely adore that I don't need to keep this decant.
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This More than Bloody Deed reminded me at first of Against Idleness and Mischief, which I haven't worn for a minute. Both feature a strong wildflower honey note. Eventually the red labdanum comes through, warm and tending toward cola, but always in the background compared to the honey. I never get the vanilla at all; I think the honey just kind of subsumes it. But this is a lovely honey blend and I will keep my decant, a gift from fabulous @Teamama!
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Rose is iffy for me (this decant was a gift from the incomparable @Teamama), but it is not strong here and reminds me of the dried rose petal note that often works better on me. Wet it's musk and myrrh and I would have said amber so it's affirming to see Casablanca mention that it's related to labdanum, which I wasn't aware of. Dead roses on an altar with sacrificial chunks of resins not yet burned as incense. Goth AF and swoony.
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Breathing Destruction From Their Lips Like Flame
Lucchesa replied to Seajewel's topic in Limited Editions
Breathing Destruction is very sweet and almost pink on me. Wet it's the berry candy smell I usually get from berry notes. I don't read it as specifically dried fruit. Cranberry and pomegranate, maybe some cherry or even grape as starbrow suggests because that is always a very sweet note on me, and I feel like it's the pink fig I smelled in another blend recently. It does develop into something a little richer, but the vetiver never shows up on my skin, and that's what would have made this work for me. -
Oh, this is gorgeous if you like the kind of scent that leans lumberjack. It's fairly sharp evergreen when wet, but it quickly settles down into a welcoming forest with the addition of very soft leather, a hint of the sweetness of maple leaf, and an extremely wearable patchouli. I love patch in all its forms, but I know that's not true for everyone, and this one on me is not at all head shop, more of a gentle hug. Throw is quiet, which is normal for my skin chemistry, but it lasts a long time. Utterly without gender. I need more.
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Wolf Spider has aged beautifully. It goes on my skin as a still pretty gritty tobacco with the herbal notes, sage and chamomile, but it softens up quickly with the sweetness of the coconut and the warmth of the tonka and vanilla. White musk can be high pitched on me but any tendency in that direction has aged out of it. Just a warm, cozy, sexy unisex cuddle -- kind of the opposite of the feeling most people get when looking at an actual wolf spider. And yet there's a ruggedness and rawness, especially when wet, so it works with the name. So thrilled to have this one!
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A gorgeous addition to the handful of lilac scents I wear for about three weeks when the lilacs are in bloom. As they are now! Lots and lots of sugared lilac with no appreciable blackcurrant or absinthe and just a bit of tobacco. This just arrived by mail two days ago so I wonder if the tobacco will become more prominent as it did for @forspecial_plate, which would be fine for me as long as the lilac was still present. So pretty, so much spring!
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Dead Leaves, Scorched Pumpkin, and Marshmallows starts out a lot like Dead Leaves on Fire, a signature scent from that dumpster fire of a year, 2020. If there's pumpkin and marshmallows, they're scorched, too. It takes the better part of an hour for the burnt leaves smell to recede, but since I own and wear DLoF, that's not a deal breaker for me. Eventually it's smoky dead leaves and roasted marshmallows with a little bit of pumpkin in the background. Just pumpkin, no pie spices. The toasted marshmallow note lasts the longest, as a skin scent. Very nice.
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I can't believe that Wayfaring Stranger has only two reviews. It's a gorgeous and unusual addition to the Lights of Men's Lives family of candle scents. This one starts out harsh, with the raw whiskey and tobacco notes in the forefront. This is not a lovingly aged scotch and a smooth tobacco; this scent starts out a dive bar. I get rust but surprisingly little dust, which can be a strong note on me. So yes, the opening is kind of foreboding. But as the booze and tobacco warm and soften, the sweeter coconut husk and especially the beeswax emerge, and the combination works really nicely. I love elissamay's description of an ofrenda -- it's very evocative of the vibe I get from this. My favorite 2023 Weenie so far.