Lucchesa

Testing blind what must be a pretty old imp by now, the only note I can make out is rose. That doesn't surprise me when I look at the list of components; when there's this much going on, I usually have trouble picking out notes. What's surprising is that the florals stomp all over the red musk instead of the other way around; I usually amp red musk to heaven, and I can barely tell it's there. The frank is imperceptible; the amber and blood orange, once I know they're there, are a warm glow. But ultimately this is too floral for me to enjoy wearing.

Stillness wet is predominantly lavender, like nearly every lavender blend on my skin. But it also highlights pine, and as it dries down that pine edges out the lavender as the dominant component. My skin usually devours lavender, but it lasts longer than usual in Stillness, backed up by the chamomile. I'm not getting a lot of patchouli here (which is fine), and I have no idea what palmarosa smells like. All in all a sort of woodsy herb garden, maybe like the lavender gardens on the Olympic Peninsula, and a marvelous scent experience. I'm so pleased I got to try these imps -- thank you, Lisa!!!

Silence is all lavender on me at the beginning, but lavender never lasts long on my skin. It took 10 minutes or so for me to start to perceive the gardenia and cedar, but on the drydown this is a lovely gardenia/cedar blend with just a hint of the dry, herbal sort of lavender. The cedar is gentle, not pencil-shaving-like, and beautiful. Gardenia is always a good note on me, and its creamy sweetness plays well with the foresty cedar. I wish my skin didn't eat up lavender immediately, though...

I like the idea of Beltane and Lughnasadh not because I know anything about pagan holiday, just because of the timing. I did Halloween (and can’t wait to do it again!) but not Xmas, Imbolc but not Lupercalia, just in terms of what I can handle. I loved learning about Imbolc and look forward to learning more!

I recently retested an imp of this after I was frimped it and couldn't remember why I had rejected it earlier. Looking back, my notes say only "Hello, red musk" and I'm wondering what I accidentally mixed up with La Petite Mort, because there's certainly no red musk here (which tends to take over completely on my skin). Instead, this is warm, creamy, insinuating. I'd call it a light floral with warmth and depth. It has a gentle, sweet myrrh, not a high church myrrh, and the ylang ylang is not screechy. Although it may be in the same family as O and Snake Oil, it is by no means a duplicate of either of those scents, so if you are looking for that vibe but O and Snake Oil don't work on your skin, this would be an excellent GC to try.

I have just a tester of The Book. I have tried several BPAL library scents because of all the time I've spent in libraries and archives, plus I love soft leather and beeswax as notes. And I think they are all beautiful (the other Book, Scholar's Tower, Buggre All This Bible, etc.) and my skin eats them right up.

I tried The Book about an hour before bed last night. I can still smell it this morning. Not strong, but there, unlike La Petite Mort which was on the other wrist. This is shocking. My middle-aged skin rarely allows me such staying power. The throw is low, even when wet, making this a very appropriate work scent. On me, at first it is all warm dusty paper, and then the worn leather emerges as it dries. It is very soothing, as LizziesLuck mentions. I definitely need more than a tester!

Oh, I'm so glad I snagged a decant of this before Yules went down! Chocolate Stout Cupcake is delectable. I totally agree with the previous reviewer: dark chocolate brownie batter. The stout doesn't read boozy on me so much as deepening the scent and adding a less-sweet edge. But basically it's deep dark chocolate, and if that's your BPAL groove, don't miss this one!!!

ETA 2017 version

It's funny, there are many unisex scents I love to wear, but this one read as too masculine on my skin. It had that cologne vibe zanzoku_zen mentions that always puts me off. Not a lot of spices, primarily leather-tobacco-sandalwood with a faint hint of rum. I don't have a scent-wearing man in my life, but this would be marvelous on a guy. Elegant, sexy, with a dry wit. It sweetens on drydown and I'm quite enjoying it now, but I don't need a bottle.

I'm trying Wolf's Heart because courage has never been my strong suit, and I could use a boost. It's a nice dragon's blood fragrance on me. I'm not sure about the jasmine, which can go tragically wrong on my skin, but there is definitely some floral, so maybe it's star jasmine or one of the variants that work ok. Definitely more floral and less earthy than I would have expected from the concept. I'll give it a few hours and see if I feel any braver.

Wet, Masquerade is orange blossom-ambergris-patchouli, with maybe a little spiciness from the carnation. The fruitiness of the orange blossom fades quickly on me, though, along with any hint of carnation, and the patch gets stronger and stronger. It's one of the drier patchoulis that work less well with my skin chemistry. I can see this being a favorite of die-hard patch lovers, but it's not really my thing.

I was fortunate enough to swap for a bottle of this and LOVE!!! It's not really morphing much on me at all; it's just big spicy dark sexy smoky wicked gingerbread goodness. Vetiver is not always my friend, but this is the deep molassesy vetiver, not the dirty barbecue pit vetiver. If that's the vetiver you groove on, this is gorgeous.

This checks a lot of boxes for me -- warming winter scent, comfort scent, confidence scent, sex goddess scent. I'm thrilled to have it and will wear it often until mild weather arrives.

This morning my husband decided to make coffee in the stovetop espresso maker. He forgot to put any water in. He didn't notice this until there was a fairly strong aroma of burnt coffee and rubber wafting through the kitchen. Malediction basically smells like that.

I have been learning to love both vetiver and patchouli. This morning I was joyfully wearing Gingerbread, Vetiver and Black Clove. But this is a dry smoky vetiver and a dry dirty patchouli, no sweetness whatsoever, and this is a no.

Goats are awesome! Another beautiful goat milk scent is Maiko with Hair Unbound from last year's Lupers. Goats milk, coconut, rice milk, honey carnation, and sugar.

I have a head cold for the first time since I acquired OOF and fortunately remembered to give it a try. I don't particularly like the smell of this. I would never wear it as a perfume. But it seems to be clearing my sinuses quite nicely!!

This is bright and fruity and upbeat. I initially thought summer scent, but mandarins and dried figs are things I eat in winter, so I think it would be good for brightening up a dreary day as well. I only had a sniffie with just barely enough for a skin test, so either it doesn't last long on my skin or I just need to apply more generously than I was able to.

I can almost never do red musk as it turns nearly every blend it contains into SN Red Musk but I have gotten away with blood musk and decided to try "infernal musk" as Crowley is my favorite character in Good Omens. And it works! Yes, it's very red musk-forward, but I also get lilac cologne and soft leather and something sweet which must be the vanilla husk. The woods stay in the background, and I don't get the lemonrind at all, but for red musk it's a surprisingly ensemble scent. I always get good throw with red musk and this is no exception. I may need a bottle of this one.

ETA I forgot to mention, as most everyone else has, that it's sexy as hell.

I had a liquidambar tree growing outside my bedroom window as a child, so I had to try this one. I'm so glad I did. It's outstanding. I see a lot of comparisons to Midnight Mass in the reviews, but where Midnight Mass 2017 (only one I've tried) does not last long on my middle-aged skin, I put In Templum Dei on yesterday around noon and could still smell it at 9;30 at night. It was a skin scent, but that's normal on me; such a long wear length is not.

Wet, it was all glorious resins, but as it dried down the sandalwood made itself felt. I'm not sure I could really parse out the contribution of the liquidambar, but after about an hour I was looking up the ingredients to see what the whisper of spice was, so I think the gum was adding that hint of warm, slightly sweet spiciness. Some franks are too dry for my taste, but this is gentle and absolutely gorgeous.

I really don't know what black iris smells like. For me, this went on in a blast of lavender, like so many lavender blends. Then it settled in to be a wonderful resiny herbal. From this mixture, I would say black iris smells green? The lavender-frank combination was what I was really interested in, and it is lovely, dry, a little sharp, herbal from the chamomile, but like so many lavender blends, my skin eats it up in short order.

Cardamom is my favorite spice note, and this is exactly as advertised. In a word, yum! The cake note in Eat Me is awful on me, but pumpkin cake is quite lovely, and I want to bathe in vats of cardamom cream. For me the cinnamon definitely took a back seat to the other notes. Average wear length on my skin.

2017 version, and the only one I've tried

Calavera Catrina was surprisingly bright on me. The dead leaves were in the background, and I did not get the harsh, weird marigold smell that ruined Biwa for me. Instead, it's an unusual (in a good way) herbal floral, with light roses and mums and chamomile. I don't get a lot of bourbon vanilla; I wonder if that will become more prominent with aging.

Whereas October and Samhaim conjure up an autumn day in the northern latitudes, this is a sunny October afternoon and reminds me that people have picnics and parties on the Day of the Dead.

Aluminum Phoenix is not for me. The opening is juicy with berry and mandarin, but the white musk, which tends to be high pitched on me, quickly begins to go soapy, as it did on VetchVesper. I was really hoping the smoky myrrh infused oudh would deepen and darken the fruit, but no go. Good wear length, though.

How about a smoky myrrh-infused oudh scent, Lab?

2014 version

Samhain is a mysterious and wonderful scent. It doesn't smell like any one thing to me. It is not at all foody on me, nor aquatic (I worried about that "damp" bit. It is smoky and dark and sweet and spicy, but not like a pumpkin pie or an autumn-spice candle. It lasts a long time, and although I rarely get throw with oils, Samhain gives me variable wafts of gorgeousness -- sometimes cider, sometimes evergreen, sometimes bonfire smoke. It's incredibly evocative and I love it.

I had been given a tester of 2012 Samhain, just enough for one wear, and it was very similar in its effects. I think I will need to get some every year!

Zorya Vechernyaya is a red musk blend I can wear. (Happy dance!) I generally amp red musk to the exclusion of everything else, which means it has great throw on me, but with the plum, the incense, and the one-two punch of vetiver sandalwood, there are enough other strong notes here to keep it in check. I frankly do not perceive any orange blossom or jasmine at all. Sexy, dark, a little smoky, a little jaundiced about human nature in general -- I had almost written this one off because of the primary note, and I'm so glad I didn't!

Pride goeth before

me, announceth my presence:

overweening rose.

Lime aftershave, steel and the oil my father used for cleaning his shotgun. If that sounds repellent, it's actually quite wonderful. After a while the softness of the tweed emerges, and it already has a clean feel that may be the linen, but it's not soapy on me at all. I like this much more than I expected to. It's unisex and would probably be fantastic on the right gent (mine is utterly uninterested in wearing scent, more's the pity), but on my skin it's sexy in a clean, strong way. It makes me feel competent, in control. Adding this to the already overlong GC bottle list.