DiZZysTARdust

So i just purchased this second hand. I was very intrigued by the notes so this has only had a few hours out of the mailbox. In the bottle there is def a cologney fizzy vibe that i would call unisex over straight up masculine. I sometimes get a fizziness from oudh and labdanum. So i'm wondering if either of them are in this mysterious mahogany note. On the skin it's much the same as it's drying. Fizzy and def still unisex. It's almost ozonic in a way, not like a straight up ozone blend or rain of anything but just very light and airy. As it dries the fizziness settles down and the throw steps back a notch. The myrrh is not heavily noticeable yet except for a faint powdery sweetness. As it continues to dry this overtakes the fizziness completely and becomes a soft and close to the skin. Kind of clean smelling in a non soapy way, like a skin musk. This would probably make a great base layer if it stays as low amping and neutral as it is now. I'll have to do a retest in a few days to see if that changes.

I was super excited to try lady death cause i am interested in perfumey blends, and she did not disappoint! Freshly on, lady death is sweet, floral, and well blended. It kind of reminds me of kanishta where it's sweet flower candy with a woody background at first then softly transforms into a powdery, still sweet but now muted, close to the skin muskiness. This is super well blended, though when fresh a hint of the sweet clean greeness of the muguet shines pretty strongly, though not as an in your face bouquet of them. This is def perfumey, and it reminds me strongly of the cheap ass, strong af girl axes sold at walmart n such. Sounds maybe like a weird description but totally in a good way. Sweet and pink and a bit bubbly, but also kinda sleazy and over the top glitzy. I am transported back to high school pre-dances, partying with my friends, practicing our dance moves and putting on way too much eye shadow, then spending the entire dance sorting out the dramas in the hallway. Good throw and pretty lasting

Sometimes i get a little wistful when i think about the many years bpal existed that i didn't know about them, and then other times when i hold a 10+ year old bottle i get this feeling of excitement. Kanishta is one of those times. Although i'm sure it would have been fabulous sniffing her fresh and vibrant and young, she has truly aged with grace. In the bottle there is just a sweet floral menage coming out. This isn't soapy green florals or heady white florals, rather sweet and pink. Flower musk is a good call. Nothing stands out. Freshly applied it is much the same. No overwhelming patchouli or vetiver, which would have been equally nice i'm sure. I feel like they're giving the flowers something dark to stand on. When first applied i thought i detected a whiff of patchouli on direct sniff but that melded beautifully back in as she dried. As she dries, the floral blend is almost tooth achingly sweet. I'm reminded somewhat of maenad. Not an exact dupe but similar. Poppy is a common note in both so that might account for it. This is so super well blended. I don't get the powderiness that jasminr can do. Sort of get the creaminess from magnolia but it's like it's blurring everything else together. About two hours in the super sweetness has burned off. I guess i would classify the more subdued and closer to the skin scent as "woodier" although more in the sense that it's not as much a flower bouquet as before, though i am still not getting any noticeable patch or vetiver. Overall, i love this. Very elegant and perfumey. Tbh i could have even stood a little MORE woodiness but i love it as is. Moderate throw at first, then pulls back into a more snuggly skin scent. Gorgeous. This also is very lasting, most oils on me last maybe 4-5 hours at the most, especially when i wear them to work and sweat them off, and rn seven and a half hours after application my inner arms still have a faint floral sweetness. Def becomes more powdery the longer it sits.

So al azif gave me quite the scare. ***head's up, this review could be totally off base!*** First, full long backstory time. I just found a bottle of al azif that never made it into the folds of my collection and since this is one i've been intrigued by i decided to try it on right then. I opened it up and gave it a sniff and was crushed to smell straight carrier oil. Sort of light, def like jojoba and or almond, which makes sense cause i know the lab uses jojoba oil as a base. So my immediate thought was that the bottle was compromised from not being put away, but i decided to try it on anyway. It takes a minute, but on the skin this did start to come out to play. First there was like a foodie sweetness. Not exact but i am strongly reminded of bananas. I could be way off base here but as it dried there was a chewiness that makes me think more of fig. But still lots of banana. A little bit dark, like a banana dipped in resin. There's a hint of powdery woodiness that seems very well blended to me. I see some mention of vetiver in reviews, to me this is not coming out strongly. I wouldn't have guessed that based on what i'm smelling, tho of course that doesn't mean it's not there, but def none of the dry, herbally, bitterness i associate with vetiver. I almost feel like the sweetness is partly coming from myrrh, which goes sweet and powdery on me, but it's hard to pick out. Overall this is not exactly what i was expecting and i certainly wouldn't call it sinister. It's actually kind of comforting, and almost beachy, like a hint of suntan lotion. Not like lotion in the bottle tho, more like the remnants of it on the skin after a long day of being out in the sun. The sweetness tones down somewhat and it becomes a little warmer as it dries. It's really wild cause i'm sniffing the bottle and then sniffing my arm and in the bottle it still totally smells like carrier oil. i am honestly not sure if this is compromised or not, tho i did end up finding an imp of al azif and giving a quick sniff in the vial i did get the same generic carrier oil scent. So this review could be totally off base. But that's what i got Eta: i was wearing time's infliction of eternity the other day and it struck me that it smelled familiar, it smelled like the banana-y vibe from al azif! And today i have on ill mannered dragon and same thing at first, though it quickly blended in with everything else. So i am now certain that dragon's blood is a component of al azif

This note list reads like a dream scent for me so i was def expecting to love court of honor. In the bottle i was pretty surprised to smell like a generic soapiness. This stayed the same when freshly applied, like i melted a dove bar over myself. Not unpleasant but i'm not really about that, and like i said it seemed very generic, nothing special, not even a fancy soap. I am a fan of morphers so i stuck it out hoping for an imorovement, and it took about 15 minutes but it did lose a little of the harshness. It sort of turned more mellow and golden. The description in some reviews of "creamy but not foodie" is p accurate. Unfortunately there was still a soapy aspect to this, now mixed with straight baby powder, that keeps this from being a scent i love personally. The tobacco is probably the most prominent (i'm not good at id'ing that), with the orris a close second. My mom was reminded of the guest bathroom of an elderly woman living in the south/by the seaside and i think that's p accurate. ETA the word i was searching for here is aquatic. This is an almost aquatic soap with a cologney edge, a trifecta of Things I Do Not Like Overall it's hard to give an impression of this. I definitely did not like the beginning wet phase, and this is def something that needs to be applied while getting ready to give it some time to settle. The drydown was a little more baby powder than elegant powder for me, though not bad. I'd say this is a scent i like but don't love and i'm happy with an imp's worth. I could see myself reaching for this before some kind of professional event or as an office scent. Light throw but seems to have good staying power.

This is one of those don't judge in the bottle moments. I am an oud convert thanks to bpal, i usually find it to be almost fizzy and don't get the indolic fecal interpretation some people talk about. Not so with this. When this bottle, which i was p excited about, arrived it smelled like straight ass in the bottle. Like whoa and not pretty and very strong. Hard to describe, not exactly fecal but kind of sweatyish maybe? So i was v intimidated to put this on, until tonight when i was like okay now or never. And to be clear i am normally excited about strange in the bottle blends cause i'm a fan of morphers. On this retains the sweaty, assy kind of throw for a few minutes, and i held myself in check to give it some time before trying again. Luckily it mellows out pretty quickly. Kind of strange but it's almost like fabric that was bunched up and on the skin it's all smoothed out and milder. There's a woodiness, and underneath that is an almost but not quite leathery muskiness. To be clear, not leather. Like a workshop maybe, with raw wood and oils and gloves laying around. Kind of reminds me of capella dos ossos with that dusty wood-stone vibe, tho capella is more sweet-vanillic and this is decidedly more masculine. The woodiness is not exactly piney to me but like the leathery muskiness there is like a resinous pininess lurking in there. Ugh i just love this. The longer it's on me the more it really seems to warm up and blossom. Doesn't sweeten or morph much further past the initial drydown but it seems so much more warmer. I got this with the intention to use it as a layering scent but honestly i would wear this as is. Good throw on this too

as a rose amper, i was very happy with this scent. the rose is very tame on me. it's very sweet and heady, with the tuberose coming to the forefront. there is def a sort of golden creaminess underneath that keep it from turning into a tuberose single note. the cloves and honey lend a slight sweetness without making themselves overly known. this is def one of my faves from the collection, a very late spring floral scent that could easily go from a daytime scent to a luxe evening scent.

This is hard to pin down, but freshly applied i get lemon verbena with a weirdly familiar, chewy type of incense that i think is labdanum. Okay after reading some other reviewers i hear people saying vetiver, and that's def the rooty chewiness but i think there is something else in there cause as it dries it mixes with the verbena to create a tolerable lemony haze distinct from the vetiveriness. I still think labdanum. A strange blend but interesting, i would wear this for those times when i want to wear a more discreet scent that is not overtly perfumey but still distinct. Pretty good throw on the two imp swipes i used

Picked this up randomly this morning and for whatever reason it seemed like a good day for a harvest feast. In the bottle this is boozy blackberries. Freshly on the blackberry stays strongly present, but everything else is somehow present underneath. There's a bit of a warm herbally nuttiness to this that enhances the berries while remaining a well blended base. However, i cannot shake my association of this scent with a candle. It smells like a blackberry candle. On me maybe. Like a really nice candle, but all the same there is something in here that is almost- waxy? Not in a beeswax type way really, just in a candle way. I feel like an autumn harvest berry themed candle. I do love it, but this was totally out of season for this scent. This dried much the same as wet and it has some serious throw. It also lingers. 5 plus hours after applying it before my shift i could still smell traces of it on my elbows and other test patches. Def excited to be wearing this in the upcoming fall season

Thanks for the breakdowns and the science@VetchVesper and @niffler! Also looking forward to those reviews, all the menages looked so pretty this month! Sandalwood doesn't really seem to jump out at me in blends, it seems somewhat subtle but maybe that's just my chemistry

so i don't know why i'm surprised by this but i find body remember to be very beachy. must be all dat coconut. reminds me of a luxe suntan lotion. but like in a really good way. fresh in the bottle, i'm reminded of some kind of conditioner that i used to use that worked wonders on my hair. it's very sweet, almost marzipan-y in a way but not really. wet on the skin the coconut comes out more fully and this is when i get the suntan lotion impression. but also, i feel like i'm chilling on a beach. profoundly sensual is a good way to describe this because this has a really relaxing, lovely vibe. to clarify, when i say beachy i don't mean aquatic or salty. more like i'm chilling in a lagoon, i have this awesome suntan lotion on, and i'm surrounded by some big jungle flowers. doesn't morph much on me as it dries. becomes a bit less sweet but not much. really sexy. great throw. definitely a summer scent.

i am loving the challenge of id-ing the notes in this. and what a beautiful scent to play this game with ❤️ in the bottle, this is sweet. almost fruity. i sort of agree with the berry comparisons but not a specific berry. ALMOST the scent of cherries but not quite that either. a little powdery, a little soapy. sort of like berry shampoo? but not in a bad way. this could be red musk as red musk sometimes goes cherry almond on me. wet on this is a slap of wet, vanillic, musky goodness. still sweet enough that i can see where some might get honey out of this, although to me this is not a "honey" or even beeswaxy scent. the vanilla is like a vanilla edge but without being foody or grainy, maybe more like tonka or possibly benzoin than actual vanilla. i still get a musk vibe but red musk on me does two things, either dry herbal or sweet cherries, and this does neither. it becomes a little bit powdery. black musk tends to do that, but also amber. maybe there is some kind of amber rather than out and out musk? i def get the floral vibe. something else that does the powdery thing. orris or maybe violet? i could see a bit of jasmine maybe. honestly there is even a bit of a rosy vibe to me, but very held in check by the powdery musk. more like a soapy floral. as it dries the scent itself literally dries. the sweetness fades. i would say agree some saffron could be blooming now, giving it a dry redness. i could even see a tiny bit of other spices in this, possibly some ginger or maybe even a dash of cinnamon (i have cinnamon on the brain tho). the florals fade out and become, to my nose, a bit greener. i could very much believe there are lilies in here. or maybe, the sweetness and greenness and fruitiness were the same all along. could it be- osmanthus? that's all i've got. beautiful. i would def use this as a musky/ambery under scent for layering purposes.

This is very colognesque to my nose. In the bottle it's like spiced powder. Can def tell that black musk is in there. Silken is an apt description as it's not heavy or cloying, it's like a dark, sinuous, spicy skin musk. The clove comes out strongly when freshly applied. The powdery edge is still there, and its like it's trying to take over but everything else is keeping it in check. This scent is a little discordant to me as when it's freshly applied, when i sniff the test patch directly there's like a weird sour, flattish edge first, and then the scent unfolds itself. It's like two distinct layers. However, after a few minutes of dry time that edge has disappeared. This is still cologney but def more in the head shop vein. I almost get like a cocoa vibe from all the warm spices. Really nice bedtime scent, it's like a thick blanket and warm mug all rolled up in one.

Opens up heavy on the sugar and pink musk. Very sweet and feminine and definitely well blended and perfumey. As it dries the fruitiness comes out more. The pomegranate is def there with a bit of tartness, and also i think the coconut cause i get a bit of a vanillic layer, and then there is the piney cypress underneath both of those adding a deeper, darker, mysterious layer. Decent throw. As it dries further, over an hour in, the sharpness from the pom and cypress fade beautifully into the overall scent. The throw lessens somewhat but is still very present and sweet on the skin

There is something syrupy about calaveras that is explained when i looked up cajeta, which seems fo be similar to dulche de leche. In the bottle it's like v strong, foodie, and vanilla-centric. A neutral vanilla bordering on almost dry and masculine but with a sweetness that keeps it in neutral territory imo. When it goes on the sweet syrupness is amplified in the throw which seems decently strong. Sniffing my wrist up close this is a little spiced, i'm guessing from the chilis. It closely resembles, although not exactly, the cinnamon scented stuff from christmas time. In a very elegant way as you can tell there is other stuff mingling in there. Like maybe, the remains of a christmas party with some scented decorations lying around and spilled food and drink everywhere. That spiciness isn't as present in the throw for me, that's more of the vanilla blanket, but again with some of the darker elements threading through. V nice

i must say first that i was never big on dragon's blood, and while i can appreciate what figs and blackcurrants do to some perfumes they also have a tendency to go masculine and/or soapy on me. so this scent was like super intimidating to try on, but red musk is red musk. in the bottle this was omg! dragon's blood. very sweet and incensey and bloody. but i can def smell the red musk underneath so that's cool. on the dragon's blood and musks are becoming some kind of super power. i'm not too familiar with black musk yet so it's difficult to pick out but something is holding together the dragon's blood and red musk. the fig and blackcurrant seem to be a layer of sweetness underneath but both behave impeccably. no high pitched blackcurrant, not really any of the chewiness of fig, but like an underlying fruit direction without becoming fruit, fruit candy, or industrial cleaning products. as it dries, the dragon's blood seems to be the major player (as one might expect of a scent called dragon's heart) but in a beautifully blended way, not sickly sweet at all. all in all, GORGEOUS. i'm going to have to track down more imps. this lasted a good long time with decent throw. after like, maybe fourish hours into the drydown this took on a baby powder scent. not just powdery but full on baby powder. this took me a bit by surprise as this doesn't often happen to me so i'm wondering what caused it. i'm guessing either the black musk or dragon's blood, since i don't wear them too much, or maybe the combo of the musks and dragon's blood. there was still a bit of a reddish tone so i liked it but def was surprised based on how rich and syrupy it is when wet.

I'm on a red musk kick so this needs testing. In the bottle i smell the patchouli. Going on it's a battle for who wants to be more prominent, the musk or the patchouli. I agree with the candy comparisons. There's a sweetness to this from i'm guessing the ylang ylang and myrrh that grounds the scent without being specifically identifiable to my nose at the same time. As the scent is drying the red musk wins out over the patchouli, with the result of a sweet piney musk without the grape cough syrup vibe i usually get (in a good way). Stays sweet but veers toward the delicate powdery side as it dries

omg this is hella gorgeous. very light and perfumey. not fruity at all in the sense that i can't pick out the plum and blackcurrant. wet reminds me of a bathsheba somewhat, but much lighter and more girlish. the blackcurrant makes itself known a little more as it dries, lightening the scent even more. decent throw ETA: this doesn't remind me of metal at all, nor of the golden powderiness of amber. to me it seems very much like a posh, office to the night club type of scent.

In the bottle this is very green, and freshly on i am immediately reminded of witch bride. I was positive narcissus or something related was in this. This is an interesting blend, it's like a layer of sweet green floral with the powderiness detectable yet distinct beneath it. After a little time to dry the green floral element kind of sharpened, and i think it must be the eucalyptus and tea mixing with maybe the sweetness of the frankincense/myrrh? The eucalyptus def becomes distinct but does not dominate at all. More like, it makes itself known then melts gradually back into the blend. I don't get red musk at all, not the sweet fruity kind nor the dry bitter one. After this is well and truly dried it does get a touch drier, as if the green and powdery elements are combining, but it stays sweet overall. This is a very perfumey scent to me, i could totally see an undead bride walking down the aisle in this

Reviving this post with a question for sandalwood vets: As a sandalwood newb, i'm trying to track down a sandalwood sn with which to layer my scents and i see at least three: austrailian, red mysore, and white. Is there any opinions on which is the best option for layering?

In the bottle this is sweetish. Fresh on the skin was a blast of sweet flowers. It's a thick dark oil with strong throw, my favorite. Freshly on i got a strong whiff of roses actually. Not like actual roses or even rosewood or rose geranium, more like a general reddish rosiness as if these notes combined just happen to mimic the scent of a rose bouquet. They pick themselves apart pretty quickly tho, and leave behind a lovely floral scent that i would definitely call white flowers, even though the scent is to my nose quite warm. Hard to explain but it's like a clean floral. I agree with some previous reviewers calling it perfumey in an elegant way, although i disagree personally with the soap comparisons. Looking at some of the reviews, i am guessing that the strong floral blast when wet is the orange blossom. I'm not really familiar with orange blossom, or neroli, as i'm not a citrus fan. I've always wanted to smell some straight EOs as i've heard it said they smell nothing like citrus but the comparison is made in my head and i can't undo it. However, i was curious about this blend and decided to try it, and now i love it. There is a sharp fruitiness (NOT in a citrusy way) that i think must be the tea combining with the orange blossom, which fades as the scent dries and is replaced by more vanillic undertones. The carnation is also i think more noticeable as it dries, making the scent even warmer and redder than before. Gorgeous blend ETA the throw definitely decreases as it dries but is still p strong

So this morning i picked up vital fluid and decided why not as my sotd for work today. I put this on and got the surprise of my life when it was not as i thought i remembered, sweet cherry wine, but rather dry and almost salty and extremely strong. My first thought was that it had since gone flat, but going through my old posts it was actually a brilliant and ruby colored fluid that i was thinking of, so this was my first official test of vital fluid off to a roaring start. I'm guessing i never tested it because of the strong herbal bitterness in the vial, and wet on the skin this stuff is like whoa. Salty, dry, bitter, and very very evocative of a vital fluid. Almost like blood, but not at all in a dragon's blood type incensey way. It's just like very earthy, musty, organic, very unique. Very off putting tbh. I was like shit i have to go to work with this on. So i'm sitting there, looking through my old posts cause at the time i swore i had favorably reviewed this, and all of the sudden i smelled this amazing, sweet, sort of clean scent. It was like a switch flipped. Vital fluid became this amazingly beautiful resinous musk. Strooooong throw. I normally work scents off in the first hourish but this shit lingered, soaked into my clothes and everything. I kept catching little phantom whiffs of it at work and going all starry eyed. It's well blended and feminine enough that i would say it has a classic perfume tone to it. It is very classy and beautiful, i could see wearing this out or to an important event. I'm very happy my bpal-newb self picked this up because looking at the note list i would have had no clue what i was purchasing at the time and i can't imagine why i did, but very glad to have the chance to try such a lovely, intriguing scent.

Omg i am in love with this. I randomly choose my perfumes in the morning and i happened to pick this up twice, which lead to the realization that i accidentally picked this up from two different decant circles during it's release and also that it was obviously meant to be worn (this having happened yesterday). So based on the note list i was expecting an overwhelming powderiness and this is basically true, but in a totally fabulous, rich, golden way. In the decant the myrrh is p strong, and both in the imp and right freshly on there is almost a cocoa-y tone to it. Very sweet and warm. I assume that's the myrrh and the cardamom combining. I love cardamom so i was hoping it would be a strong player over the others but it's very understated. If i had to compare it i would use cave of treasures, where it's more noticeable on the skin but in the sillage it blends pleasantly. Except in this it blends even better and i would think is probably in a lesser amount cause it is definitely not standing out to me. The myrrh stays pretty dominant and sweet at first and then the powderiness emerges in a very comforting way. This is definitely golden and powdery in the throw, although not in a hard metallic way that is reminiscent of a scepter. Up close on the skin as it dries more there is the vaguest hint of green reediness which i think is the calamus coming through. That stays very distant but gives the scent a pleasant almost clean feeling. I'm so glad i have the 2 decants of this although i foresee myself using them up fairly quickly. I'm contemplating leaving one to age for a good loooong time before trying it again just to see what happens.

Def agree with the comparison to spellbound. Right out of the gate this is strong musky rose. The red musk is most obvious, to me it's slightly grapey or cherry or wineline or somehow a combo of that. There are threads of the evergreens peeking through in an absolutely gorgeous way that reminds me of brangwy somewhat. The greens are more present in the imp and freshly on. They are first to go, then the rose loses its body, and what's left is slightly powdery. But in a very lovely, sweet, red, floral way. The incense is more present in the throw than sniffed directly on the skin. The scent of the drydown is more akin to what i would imagine the gc lucy's kiss to smell like based on it description, although not so much a "rose" scent after the first half hourish (and i amp rose). A spicy floral. Definitely reads dark to me

Definitely a green scent. As i remove the stopper from the imp my first impression was actually of lettuce. Very crisp and green, not really herbal or grassy just watery. As it goes on wet the green kind of deepens, gets a little murky. The floral comes out, and it's almost rosy but maybe that's just wishful thinking. It definitely wouldn't be a red rose. More like a white floral in the vein of water lily or lotus. As that settles the citrus notes come out to give this a little golden fleshiness. I don't really get the peel notes, definitely more of the blossom components. The bright green- citrusy floral phase burns off pretty quickly, within the first hour of application on me, and the dry remainder is a little powdery, a little more unisex, and back to the dark green. This is a very beautiful scent and an interesting morpher. Light throw.