starbrow

A 2005 vintage cobalt blend for me: This is a quiet cherry tobacco, but quite rough around the edges for a few hours. Finally it mellows into something smooth and woody. I like it but not in love with it. The smokiness is not bbq, at least!

Smelling this blind, I get...pine sap. Less bitey than pine needles, this is sweet and green and fresh. I definitely get some powdery rose too, and something grassy. I wouldn't have guessed hay or carnation. The torch smoke is extremely soft - much softer than the Pine Smoke HG but in that same vein. It is beautiful. However, the rose makes it something I wouldn't really wear much, and I think someone else would!

I adore a good hay blend, so I quickly snagged some of Wheatstacks in hopes it would be a good wintry version. However, the peach and osmanthus are combining to make this VERY peach-floral, with powdery orris and perhaps a more lemony hay note than normal. I don't think this is white musk, the opalescent musk is pretty and not too dryer-sheety. I keep wanting to love the creamy hay underneath but it's buried under thick blankets of old-fashioned perfumey florals and powdered peaches. I picture someone who still uses Coty powder poofs to wear this as a perfume. Ultimately, I had to pass, as this is not the hay I'm looking for!

Yum! This has very little blackcurrant in it to me, which I am really thankful for because it can go DOOOOM note on me. I got tons of pie - sweet, doughy crust, but more savory than sugar-bomb the way the Sufganiyots can lean. The cinnamon and cardamom are gentle but also more present to me than the blackcurrant, and the spices are definitely what's making this little pie turn savory. The more it lingers, the more that becomes present on my skin, with the sweetness melting down and away, making this a lot less gourmand than the Sufganiyots. Like, compared with the Pomegranat Sufganiyot of 2020, Blackcurrant Pie is so much tamer and less sugary of a scent, and it has more complexity and depth to my nose. I am surprising myself into needing more of this than the little sniffie I got. I think...this might even be a bottle for me? YUM!

I really adore the first fifteen minutes of Pomegranate Suf. The pomegranate has an amazing dark red smokiness that is so unique to the Sufganiyot family of scents. To call it "tart" would be to make it sound too bright. This is a rich, dark bite of fruit, distilled down into a delicious filling with the right amount of piquancy and sweetness. Swirled around it are the traditional Suf elements, which can read as pastry, donut, or in this case it's almost the lab's eggy cheesecake which makes my mouth water, it's so good. In the first fifteen minutes, I'm convinced I need a bottle of this. It's so good! It's like Madame Moriarty put on her baker's hat and made some Sufganiyot! So why don't I have a bottle of this? It's because the powdered sugar completely swallows up the pomegranate within that first hour, leaving little of the delicious snappy fruit and instead enveloping you in poofy sugary sweetness. It is so, SO sweet. And I like sweet things. But I think this could have used perhaps a touch of a base note to bind with the pomegranate (the bready patchouli from Bloody Mary Bloody Mary?) and keep it around longer. Frankly, this baby dries down to exactly like any of the other sweet Sufganiyots that poof into saccharine overload. It is not very different than Fig & Cranberry Suf after those first crucial minutes. I already have a bottle of that one, so alas Pomegranate is not getting upgraded. Don't be fooled by its wet state! This is definitely one to reserve judgment about until the drydown is complete.

This is a gorgeous hair gloss that is primarily a peachy apricot blend with sweet florals and a soft, feminine musk. The hay note (which I love) gets swallowed up into the fruity florals and just lends a creamy, hazy depth to My Sweetest Lesbia. It is somehow both girlish and mature, nothing heavy or unappealing about it. Almost Shunga-esque. I get zero lemon from it (which was apparently a thing in the perfume oil.) The sweetness and poofiness of the blend never tips over into candy land. Nor does the herbiness/earthiness of ambergris or catnip weigh it down. It's beautifully balanced and utterly wearable. I just....never wear it. Ultimately, the vibes of this one were almost a little too commercially feminine for me to dig, and so I've let my bottle go, but I highly recommend that any fruit or Shunga lovers check this one out!

So tricky to pin down. Sharply golden, gleaming but with teeth. I smell once-green things now scorched, which makes me think of how Under the Maple Boughs HG was the smell of hair straightening, right down to burnt hair and heated hair product. The Crown smells like an extremely expensive salon with warmed metal tools, rich hair product swirling in the air, mirrors all around reflecting gilt furniture. For the life of me, I can't detect any dragon's blood or pin down what spices are here. I feel sure the bramble note is some kind of moss or bark, and I am almost sure there is ti leaf in here too. But then there is also a warm, shining amber, a glowing nimbus around the prickly earthen notes. It's not a HG I would want to wear every day. It's special occasion for sure. You have to be in a Big Mood for this one, I feel like. You have to have Boss Energy to wear The Crown. Which...makes sense. I pull this out when I want to feel strong and empowered. Rich and ravishing. Highly recommend grabbing a bottle of this before it comes down and seeing if you, too, are fit to don The Crown.

The first hour of this is really strange to me. Like bright orange-colored kitchen spices, maybe curry powder mixed with powdered ginger and annatto. It's so foodie in a spicy way, I just...feel really weird wearing it. Like I got some curry sauce on me and was wearing it as a perfume. Not sweet at all, just very powerfully hot-spiced. I don't like this phase. The drydown goes quite jasminey orange blossom, with a hint of spice, the clove and ginger keeping it from turning too floral-y. I do like this orange blossom quite a lot. It's indolic in a humid summer night in Florida kind of way. However, much as I love orange blossom, that early phase means I don't think I'll be keeping this one.

Very interesting. This reminds me of a minty Snow White. I get mainly spearmint as the herb, with a poof of sweet, cold, powdery snow. Powder is something that leather can do to me, and while amber usually behaves, perhaps in combination with this particular leather, it is turning faux-Snow White on me. I can't really smell the frankincense, and the amber is much fainter beneath the other two notes (the mint and poofy-sweet leather). Those fearing a strong leather should not! This baby is all sweetness and light. That said, I'm not the biggest fan of Snow White nor of the powdery leather. I really appreciate this for the atmospheric of a cold, snow-strewn forest and a witch's garden on the edge, peeking through with mint and shiny things strung up on the fence, but ultimately it's not a hair gloss I plan to use and thus, I won't keep.

Gross. I hated this from beginning to end. I love vetiver, the smooth silvery grassy vetiver, but it's a full-fledged monster here, a three-headed Cerberus with black licorice and lemon peel, somehow both ash-dark and aggressively bright. This reminds me of The Highwayman, which made me think I hated vetiver for the longest time. Here, it is definitely acrid and vengeful in execution. Do not judge vetiver based on this god! I love opoponax (a deep rubbery resin) and black tea and cashmere wood too. I'm frankly not getting any of those from Levitating Phallic God. Instead, I smell like cigarette butt-filled ashtray. Right down to the papery tar. I am not about this life. I am not the right person to wear this blend, I'll tell you right now. I love the artwork and the name, and I am just mighty glad I didn't blind-bottle it for those alone. If you are in doubt of what it's like to experience a Levitating Phallic God of your own for the first time, just have a peek at Galen's face in the 15 Minutes of Fume Shunga reviews upon smelling it. That will tell you everything you need to know about it! I should have listened to that face. This is a no for me, dawg.

My nose is so confused. There's just a lot going on here. At the moment, I get a lot of the smoky embers, without it being any sort of bbq char (thank goodness) and a dash of pepper that I would swear was pink, but of course we know from the listed notes it's black pepper. Could the red musk + pepper combo be playing tricks on my nose? I honestly keep sniffing this and being unsure what I'm smelling. I get the wood and smoke, a hint of leather, a spice of green tea, and basically no red musk. The blend of it all is kind of going straight to my sinuses, and I don't know if that's the smoke or what exactly, but I kind of like it and I kind of find it repellent. I wish this review could be more helpful. I think this blend needs time to chill. I will hold onto my decant and not upgrade to a bottle. This is not a red musk bomb, for those who fear that note! This is also a very strange little bird and I'm not sure which way it will turn, for better or for worse. It's spicy, mysterious, weird, very interesting. I think it's the kind of scent that needs to be experienced in order to know how all these notes come together. It's a bit of a Mona Lisa for me because I have definitely not figured it out yet, whatsoever!

Jasmine is ruining this one for me. Butterfly jasmine seems to be reading as jasmine sambac to me. That really strong, piercing jasmine that I associate with perfumes from the 70s and 80s. I have smelled actual jasmine sambac flowers right from the bush, and they smell that exact way to me. I can smell a drop of honey here, and something cool that is probably the cypress and green tea, and it's a welcome cooling sensation against the screechiness of the florals. Orchid is usually a very well-behaved floral for me, and champa can go high-pitched or sometimes behave. Guess what it does here? Way too loud and screaming flowers for me, not a jasmine tea kind of scent if that's what you're hoping for. I don't think I'm the right customer for this scent, however. I just fooled myself into thinking it would somehow turn into jasmine tea. It didn't! The drydown is very pretty. If I were someone who loved bright springtime florals, this is it. A touch of orange blossom honey. Nice. Still not for me, but nice.

I really like how this smells in the decant. Cool mossy stone, emphasis on the stone with a lovely watery shimmer over it. Very reminiscent of the name, with stone and rippling water both reporting for duty. I hate with this turns into on my skin. Arctic Blast men's deodorant. Just pure "cool sport" typical blast of scent, a touch of oakmoss and lots of cool pine and aquatics, which can actually be kind of sexy on a guy if you associate that scent with a hunky man, but also I don't want to smell like it if I'm choosing a BPAL! On the other hand, Rippling Water would be perfect for a dude looking to dip his toe into indie fragrances. It would be a very easy transition from something familiar to something a little more elevated. I like the drop of bergamot here, a little limey. Otherwise, this one is so not for me, but it's for someone!

Fracas leads with ALMOND but not poisonous almond. As we all probably know by now, bitter almond and cherry share that cyanide chemical component that is so recognizable. My brain registers it as poison almost all of the time. In Fracas, I can smell a very strong sweet almond oil leading, but it is kindly even from the start. Then, as it sits on the skin, the cream starts to emerge, a sweet warm kind of cream that is effortlessly blending with hay to create richness without the sourness of milky creams. The more this one dries down, the more the almond turns toasted almond - that sandalwood note is definitely helping lock in the toastiness and nuttiness and helping me to smell what most people probably smell from almond! Just short of gourmand, but this is almost bready. I get a soft floral in the background, but nothing very strong or high-pitched, thank goodness. I think I like mimosa? It's very pretty and also quite strong. I like the whiffs I get of it wafting around me more than I do the actual close-to-the-skin smell of it. But I keep going back for more sniffs in spite of that. I like my decant. I don't know if I'll go for a full bottle of it, because unlike others, this almond does not burn off in the first thirty minutes but sticks around in a different form for a long time. However, it is very appealing and the best almond I've smelled. Decant is a keeper, just to see what it does!

I love Cooling Breeze and A Balmy 26 Degrees, so I was hoping A Hundred Years Ago would be in that vein. Alas, it is not! Where the others are fresh and vibrant herbs, A Hundred Years ago quickly goes soap. Specifically, a strongly detergent-y blend like Dawn. So a man who washes everything including himself in Dawn dish soap would be a very apt picture of this blend dries down. It's way too detergent-y for me; I think that same white musk in a lot of the strongly 'soapy' blends later is in A Hundred Years as well, and for me it just completely swallows up the other notes. I can't even smell anything else in it.

A strange one. I get Arm & Hammer Baking Soda toothpaste from it in bottle/fresh on skin. A strong spearmint and baking soda kind of combo that is really strange as a perfume. As it dries down, I get a sharp-pitched salty aquatic wood that attacks my sinuses. I hate both phases. This one is not for me.

Sniff sniff...mmmm sexy red sandalwood, spiced and sweet. My first few whiffs of this in my empty bottle were nothing but great! I immediately got taken back to my days of smelling Anne Bonny, so of course I had to whip her out to do a little comparison once it was time for skin testing. On the skin, this is still predominantly red sandalwood, which is a smooth, dry, deep sandalwood with some heat and spice to it - hence the "red". Coiled around this beautiful red wood is the hemp note, which lends both sweetness, a touch of salt, and a hint of mustiness. Like I don't want to scare anyone off by thinking this is animalic or repellent - I've smelled some blends that are one or both, and Johnny is not - but there is definitely some "lived-in-ship"ness to this scent. The white cedar is a sun-bleached, pale-smelling version of what may be a familiar note in its traditional form. It definitely lets the red sandalwood and hemp speak plenty loud. Now, let's compare! Anne Bonny has always been a dry, androgynous kind of blend, beautifully balanced, nothing flashy, a little incensey from the frankincense backing the red sandalwood and red patchouli. In the beginning of my BPAL days when I first smelled her, I thought she was missing something. I know now I was looking for something a little sweeter before I really learned to adore the frankincense note on its own merits. If "sweeter Anne Bonny" sounds fab to you, Hanging Johnny is your ticket. He's Anne Bonny's surprisingly adorable lover, picking up plenty of her red sandalwood from all those nights in the sheets, but both more tender and more saucy from the hemp (is he smoking it? HMMM) and his woods have a scruffier quality to them from the white cedar, with some sharp edges as opposed to Anne's smooth impenetrability. He's just as wearable by many genders as she is, he just is not as stoic as she is, more spicy and dirty, and I kind of love that for him. I will absolutely be picking up a bottle!

My little empty bottle smelled Christmasy! Sweet pine sap, berries, spices. The dregs of it are still nicely spiced once it hits the skin - love the spiced rum! - but the manly cologney elements are taking over, and I'm kind of getting potpourri vibes from it too. Like something really strongly scented but also a little fake. Lots of wood, and the fig and coconut are coming out now too, a more woody ghost of the Coconut, Smoked Vanilla, & Fig trio. That brings this away from Christmas and into tropical land. Still fruity, but less berry and way more tropical potpourri. It's not suntan lotion levels of coconut, it's a lot more subtle than that. On the whole, though, it's something I'd expect in a bowl in the bathroom than to put on my skin. (Sorry!) I'm loving the spiced rum and some of the woodiness (the oud is a gentle one and the cedar lets other notes speak just fine), but this particular combination isn't doing it for me. I think those who like that trio and who enjoy woods too would dig this one.

Hot off the presses, Amoretti smells kind of like a trio to me. She's sweet and simple apple, made deeper by a rich and not-too-sweet vanilla and backed up a softened red musk. That said, I think she will age beautifully, with the amber a softening influence on the red musk, a nice thickening resin in the benzoin that should emerge more and more as it develops, and the perfumy-ness of the fig that helps keep the apple from going apple-bomb and gives her more elegance than your basic b!tch apple. What made really NEED this one was when I heard it compared to Dried Strawberries, Red Musk, & Bourbon Vanilla trio, but an apple version instead of strawberries. I think that comparison is dead on! Amoretti is not as bold nor as sweet, and I kind of like that! It's softer, thoughtful, more restrained, the Elinor to Strawberries' Marianne. But the same kind of person (me) would absolutely wear both. A lover of red fruity perfumes looking for something perfect for spring and summer, even into fall. I was worried this would be too much like my beloved Vetiver, Patchouli, & Apple Peel, but not to fret. Amoretti has a charm all its own. The trio dries down to a silvery vetiver, and in my head that scent is a silver apple. Similarly, Poisoned Apple is dark and billowing with plumes of opium, like the apple pulled out of the witch's cauldron. It is a deep purple-black apple. Amoretti is a pinky-red dappled with brighter streaks, which could well darken over time as the fig and benzoin grow richer. It has a place as a bottle in my apple collection!

For the life of me, I was having trouble picturing what this one would smell like from the notes. Such a sheer collection of three delicate beauties. In action, it reminds me of a gentler, warmer The Crown HG from the Hellboy collection. Toasted sandalwood is both smooth and dry, a warm desert breeze that carries with it the whiff of spices. Those spices are, of course, the nascent saffron, which I already know needs time to age, but already it has a soft golden metallic-clove halo that shimmers, mirage-like, over the core of this scent. At that core, the beautiful amber from Amber Incense and Honey Cakes. If you loved that 2019 Yule, then Kimi may be for you. Here, it is less gourmand but still warmly comforting. The way it holds hands with the sandalwood and saffron smells expensive in an ancient perfumery kind of way. I could picture Cleopatra smelling like this. Also, I want this bottle aged like 10 years but I want it NOW! This is artistry and I want to hang this art all over my body. If you were worried about the sandalwood going funky (as some of the 2020 Shungas did for me), fear not; this is a queenly, sophisticated sandalwood and she smells fancy. I am bottling ASAP so that this baby can age!

First hour: oh squishy grass! Just about the freshest, greenest, least fake grass scent I've ever smelled. Like when you crush a few blades between your fingers, freshly ripped from the earth, and a little bit of the plant's oils get on your fingers. Sweetly musky. Very nice. Great for spring. Kind of single-note grass. Interesting. What will this turn into? Next hours: what the glorious fV(k is on my wrist? Something that smells like what I wanted Thorns Clove Cigarette to smell like. The stale smoky clove cigarette goth club air, swirled in fog machine fog, which has its own distinct sweetness which is so reminiscent to me of halloween and clubs. This is transporting me. I feel the instinctive need to dress up in something dark and sexy, with big hair clipped up in lots of layers. I was not expecting this at all. There is zero clove in this blend, from the listed notes. And yet, the pale spectre of many nights' clouds is looming around me, and I am here for it. Final conclusion: this will not go clove bomb, but it will go stealth goth club on me! I won't even speak to all the listed notes, because frankly I'm not getting anything so distinct, just two phases: grass stains with puppy phase, and After Da Goth Club phase. I am here for both of them. Unf. SO glad I have a bottle!

This one is pretty! In spite of the name, there is nothing dead leafy (ick, Dead Leaves the scent note is just awful for me!) or heavy-spooky about An Open Grave. It's much lighter and fresher than I thought it would be, kind of sweetly dusty in that newly dried herbs way rather than fiercely green and oakmossy, so that's a huge plus. I think this is perfectly appropriate for both Spring and Fall, a very nice complement through the seasons. My complaints are as follows: there is something in here going a little floral for me (broom flower) and I'm not about that floral life. With only three notes listed, it comes up lacking when compared to my favorite Hay (Hay Moon), Grasses (Fool's Dog), and Dried Herbs (Verdandi). And, frankly, it's a little...dull. I just wanted MORE. I think there may be something broken in my nose. I just don't get much from this. I kind of wonder what some aging will do to it, but I'm probably not going to hang on my bottle to find out. I have other scents that float my boat for each of the three notes, and I think An Open Grave deserves a more appreciative home than the one I would give it.

Doleful Pipe Organ is one I blind-bottled partly because of the name and artwork (I am a pianist) and partly because the notes looked awesome. Alas, I have decided that the patchouli or something in here is a little too rooty-patooty for me and ends up kind of smelling like root beer or something really odd in that realm. The oud is smooth but also not too prominent, nor the vetiver specifically, overwhelmed as they are by whatever that root-centric note is (I've experienced it in patchouli and labdanum before). I get no incense smoke from it, no cacao, and no recognizable pings from the 'burgundy pitch', guiac, or opoponax. Altogether, It's dark and very interesting, not too heavy or oppressive, with some rich woods backing the zinginess of the roots, but also just an odd duck, like the kid who has to take organ lessons when his friends are at baseball practice. I don't really enjoy wearing this one that much, but I think someone will get a kick out of it!

Pretty - this might age like a champ - but I don't have the patience to bear with it for five years waiting for the saffron to pop. Gimme that good shit NOW. For now, it is very faint on me, just a whiff of apple, a little sweet (vanilla and honey) and a little dry-musty (cedar?). For sure, I don't get any oud, either good or bad! I almost wish I did, so it would smell like SOMETHING! I love amber, but this is not a noticeably amber blend. Those scared of the honey or the cedar shouldn't be. They are so soft and subtly blended into everything. However, because it is SO apple-dominant, I think you'd have to love apple to love Liquid Gold. This is quite pretty, but the Vetiver Apple Peel trio was such a huge hit on my skin, this one came up lacking in comparison as a keeper in my collection.

This very much smells like lavender white tea, extra-poofy and vanillic, with some beautifully aged Dorian emerging as it dries down. I was in love from first sniff, and am loving the drop of bergamot that is giving a not-lemon-but-better kind of limey fuzziness to the blend, as anyone who has smelled bergamot will attest to. I love how limey it gets over time, just like Lilith's First Concert, and how lime is not the top note but a beautiful grounding middle, as bergamot usually behaves for me. I also love how aged and just in general how amped this smells. Every note in Dorian is super extra here! So much fluffy lavender, so much vanilla, so much delicious white tea. The one note I'm not getting - and I'm so glad! - is oakmoss. French oakmoss must be very kindly, because it's not assaulting my nose like oakmoss usually does. I am so happy about that. But someone who's hoping for a strongly oakmoss blend may be disappointed? On the other hand, anyone who wants aged Dorian will want to check this out for sure! Everything about Walking My Daughter to Class was a major win for me, and it's one of my favorite releases from 2020 period. Treasuring my bottle ❤️