starbrow

2010: Truly, eleven years later, this baby is ALL wine. That's no dribble, that's a whole bottle. I am not sure it's behaving nicely on my skin anymore. The wine goes sour, almost like vinegar - and I see I'm not the only one who has this experience. It does die down, but it leaves a grapey note behind that swallows up the beautiful beeswax and frankincense that I was hoping to smell peeking out after the wine calmed down. Spoiler: the wine doesn't calm down on me! I wouldn't have guessed there was rose in here, but I can see it lending a little aromatic spicy quality to the wine. Where does the grape end and the rose begin? Hard to tell. Strangely, upon drydown the waft IS rosy, a deep dark red rose, but only when one is smelling it from a foot or two away; up close, the wine note is still strong and dominant and not very pleasant on my skin, but I'm strangely enjoying the rosy waft! I am not sure about this bottle. It's so very odd on me, and I'd definitely like to see the beeswax and frank make more of an appearance, but the rose halo is really cool, and I don't even like rose much? Will continue to experiment.

This is possibly the best leather in my collection, and I finally cracked the code, three years later. That incense ash is totally frankincense, and it is the Lab's beeeeautiful frankincense, all churchy-smooth and a little sweet and dreamy. It curls around the warm leather in a heady swirl of incense. It is such a powerful presence that the leather doesn't really stand a chance against it, and that's exactly the way I like it. The sandalwood is very quiet beneath it, and I know the ambrette is lending a little sweetness and earthiness to the leather and the blend as a whole, but I wouldn't have been able to blindly tell it was in here. I can't even smell the tobacco, it's blending in so well with everything else, so no need to worry that it will dominate if it usually does for you. So if a swoony frankincense church-incense kind of blend will make leather wearable for you, I absolutely think Some Heraldry is worth a shot. I love my bottle and will keep it forever. (I'm excited to try We Believe That Death is Not the End of Man again from the same collection, because in my mind these two are sister scents, but Some Heraldry has definitely taken its leather-clad self to church and I am here for it!)

This, so far, is the only oak I've been able to keep in my collection. It is like a vanillic oak cream snake oil, a little chewy and resiny from the tobacco and black amber, but otherwise no specific notes standing out. Aging has developed the Snake Oil in all these dark notes like a bourbon oak barrel brew. Delicious but hard to isolate any one note from it. The overall effect is woozy and rich, truly almost boozy. I am amazed that neither the caramelization (problematic) nor the oak (also problematic) nor oakmoss (EEK!) have slowed me down from enjoying this one. It is chocolatey without being actual chocolate. Sweet and thick but not syrupy. Dark and brooding without being heavy. Now in 2021, Snake's Tongue has gotten so much stronger than the first days of it. This and Snake's Kiss have both taught me to hold onto Snake Oil blends if they show promise but are quite weak upon arrival. This is one that people across the room comment on when I put it in. It has both powerful throw and a long wear, slowly melding down onto the skin but sticking around for hours and hours. Surprisingly unisex, this one is just sexy for anybody.

Blue musk is a win for me! It helps temper the florals of Night Thoughts into something wearable, even keepable for me. The first few hours of this blend has that sultry cool funk that is not indoles but is something both breezy and animalic that turns sweet florals into something really sexy, almost salty or aquatic. Once that dies down, I'm left with pure florals that are honestly kind of stinky on my skin and not in a good way. I don't like what Night Thoughts turns into, but the lead-off is really shockingly fun. The bottle survives another year, I think.

This one has survived multiple purges of the chocolate BPALs, thanks to a few things. The main one is how it truly does smell like a rich mexican hot chocolate flavored coffee. Like I can barely pick out the individual bitterness of the coffee, but without it, this chocolate would have been long gone from my collection. The coffee and cinnamon add balancing notes of warmth, spice, and acidity to the sweetness of the chocolate, cacao and cream. This is thick and mellow and warming and beautifully rounded. While similar to El Dia de Los Reyes, this box o' chocolates is creamier and thicker on the spices, with the sultry heat of ceylon cinnamon more prevalent than ever, and I adore it. The bottle survives another purge to live on with my 'delicious hot beverages' collection.

This was a surprise half-frottle at some point (thank you, mysterious gifter!) and each time I've worn it, I've enjoyed it. I keep smelling it blindly to see if I can tell the notes. This time, I absolutely picked up "creamy vanilla floral but not punch-of-flowers" with something vaguely fruity or rosy, then went to look at the actual notes. Vanilla cream, bam! That is very much the dominant vibe, with just a hint of the off-ness for me that cream can sometimes have, but not enough to spoil anything. Smells like the French Vanilla SN, absolutely! Now that I know the apple is in there, that is what my nose was picking up as vaguely fruity-rose. Apple lands somewhere between fruit and rose to my nose, not sure why, but it's there! The soft wisp of florals is the lavender, but I didn't recognize it as such because it is so gentle and non-herby. The white patchouli also is not sharp like it is in Dalliances by Candlelight. I wouldn't have known it was in here from a blind test. I think this would be a beautiful spring or summer apple-vanilla cream fragrance and I've worn this as such throughout the years. Very pretty!

Looking at all those notes, it's hard to predict what this one will smell like. Well, I can tell you exactly what it smells like. Mulled wine, clary sage, and something as decadent as chocolate without actually being chocolate. Like it stops just short of being a 13-type of blend with that whole wine and chocolate and herbs vibe, but where those have always been rather muddled and unsettled to me, I Married a Vampire knows what it is. Sex sex sex. This is insolently musky with Epicurean vibes, languishing on a chaise lounge somewhere with a teddy half-falling off one shoulder. It's one sexy blend, with a bit of hypnotic effect from the clary sage. All the fruits really aren't playing into anything except a mulled-spice wine effect. Like I swear there is a wine note in here, but of course there's not. I think people who tend to like those dark amber/dark musk/wine kind of blends will adore this. And if you are a clary sage fan like I am, this is a must have. Adore my bottle, probably don't need a backup but DAMN it's sexy.

This is in the "delicious drink" territory that Shungas do so well in. Here, it's a cool, frothy beverage whipped up with rice milk, toasted almond (yes, I really do smell the toastiness of them!), and a drop of red currant, all in kind of a sweet tea type of blend. The 'red currantness' of it is apparent but not very strong to me. I usually hate almond but the creamy blossom base of this almond makes it quite livable. Altogether, it's pretty, snuggly, and, yes, delicious. When I first got it, Hojojutsu was so soft, it poofed immediately on my skin. Three years later, it's still a quiet blend but it hangs around a little longer than before. It is a great one to wear at work (or working from home) because it doesn't demand attention but you will turn your head and be quietly enchanted and also a little thirsty. I love my bottle and will be hanging on to it, no doubt! If you are a fan of this category of Shungas, I highly recommend this addition to it.

This is a beautiful sweetened white tea kind of blend, with something wonderfully fresh and floral in it. I am not a floral kind of gal. And yet I had to backup-bottle this one, and wasn't quite sure why for a long long time. Until today, actually. Yo. This smells like a REAL garden rose. Like a white-yellow rose flecked with pink. Sweet and spicy and verdant and leafy and a little woozy, the way you feel when you stick your nose in a really great rose in the garden and inhale and it's just all SO MUCH in a good way. I was amazed to realize this, because I've never felt that way about any BPAL rose. It has to be the vanilla orchid. It's a total stunner. The honey is definitely the sweet part, with kind of a whatever-the-bees-have-been-sucking-on kind of clover-honey quality. I don't smell any sandalwood, really. I *do* smell lots of crisp white tea (like Tweedledee) and plenty of authentic-rose spicy-sweetness. I am a rose-avoider, even a rose-perfume-hater. This is the one I will keep, even my backup bottle. It is so wonderful for spring!

An aristocratic prostitute's perfume, for sure. No baby prostitutes here (TM Janice). This one is elegant and snooty, rich with opium smoke and a creamy jasmine, grounded by the smooth woodiness of aged patchouli, refined to the core. The plum is very different than A Savage Veil's, though the two blends share black plum and aged patchouli. Three years after its release, Aristocratic Prostitutes leads with florals the whole time, just a drop of bright plum to make the jasmine extremely purply. This is neither a juicy plum nor a dark gothy plum (which is where A Savage Veil lands). I'd put it more in the realm of plum blossom thanks to the context. This is the only jasmine I've been able to keep in my collection. Don't get me wrong, it is very perfumey, and insanely strong. A drop lasts hours; I slathered my wrists and it stayed strong for 12 hours, never ever dying down. But if I'm in the mood to wear something this floral, the smokiness of the opium swirling around plum and patch are what makes the jasmine tolerable and even workable. The bottle is a keeper in 2021!

A dreamy, non-floral Shunga that is gorgeous for writing. There is something that conjures paper and pencils and stony towers for writing in, lit with beeswax candles and incense. The beeswax is silky smooth and creamy (that's probably the oudh!), but I kept smelling something both bright and soothing - duh, it's the clary sage! I *love* how strongly I can smell its presence here, twined with olibanum (frankincense) for even more dreamlike intoxication of the senses. I get almost a cedar-esque whiff of woods - perhaps violet leaf combined with the opoponax and oudh? Those notes might be playing cedar tricks on my nose. In any case, it's a bookish cedar like old chests around a writing desk in the attic. There is no poudh in sight. I would not have guessed there were any florals in here either. The beeswax and clary sage are certainly the stars, and I adore both of those notes, so it's no wonder that Calligraphy Practice is a huge winner in my book. I'm not saying this one smells like books per se, but it smells like an atmosphere made for reading or writing, and that's my jam. In spite of all the thick resiny notes, it is light and uplifting, hugging the skin but curling around you for hours. If you can get your hands on a bottle, count yourself fortunate!

Three years later, this is one of the best bookish BPALs out there, to my nose. It reminds me of crackling stacks of dusty paper and thick black ink at an attic writing desk, a lilac sachet somewhere nearby. You could almost imagine Jo March scribbling away at her stories, author's hat perched on her head. It's an old-fashioned scent, something from another era, without being too mature or decade-specific for a modern wearer. I love wearing a few drops of it while I'm writing. The ink note is really wonderful, not pickly. The parchment is one of the best scent representations of paper I've smelled so far, and the lilac doesn't take over, ever, rather lending a softly feminine touch of sweetness without blasting florals all over the place. I'm so happy I have a bottle, and will need to wear this more as one of my favorite bookish blends!

Very much a floral, with lily dominating as it usually does on my skin, although I'm enjoying the creaminess of the orchid, if not the dankness of the dragon's blood. I can smell the cacao in the bottle, faint but present; however, it is nowhere to be found once applied! Amber doesn't have a shot at peeking through all these bossy florals, and surprisingly, neither does the blood orange. I get something like orange blossom, though, from the combination of the mild citrus whiffs with the humid flowers. Honey is really not an issue at all. I think I will be passing my bottle on to another home!

2010: Luperci, 11 years later, is raw, turgid, and thick. Veiny, even. This is a rugged naked man living in the woods for a few weeks. Hair on his chest and sweat on his skin. There is little sweetness and a lot of dirt. Luperci might just impregnate you, it's so potent. Alas, oakmoss won't let any of the more interesting notes peek out for me anymore. Too virile for me! Holy oakmoss, batman. On someone for whom oakmoss behaves, this would surely be dynamite.

This Spotted Cat is so slippery! On my skin, she resembles nothing from How Doth the Little Crocodile, despite sharing several notes, but is instead her own strange breed. Ginger tea and sparkly mandarin burble for most of its early life, with something zingy-fresh and green hovering at its edges (that tropical ti leaf and perhaps the mint), and a hint of woodiness from the cedar and vetiver. Once the top notes burn off, this is a mild herbal tea kind of scent to me. Nowhere to be found is that sensual chocolate mint that's like sex in a hotel room from How Doth. I rather like this kitty but I'm not rushing to buy a bottle. It's cute though!

I heartily agree with so many of the other reviews. This is Mediterranean beachhouse candle territory. There's something a little salty and wafty about it that I appreciate, but I can't get over the "this is a candle I'd like to smell while bathing" feeling. I would love this as an atmo. I just don't think I want my skin to smell like this!

I love all three notes in this blend, so it was a no-brainer blind bottle last Yule. I was surprised when it was mostly fuzzy amber and fuzzier bergamot, with little influence of the frankincense. After a year of aging, however, the resins in this one have thickened considerably! YESSSS this is the thicc frank I was hoping for! It is now a rich, warm incense, glowing considerably with that amber that sticks around and melts down into the same amber as the Amber Incense and Honey Cakes (from the same Yule 2019 release). The cuddly citrus of the bergamot is still quite present, distinguishing it from other churchy incense blends. It gives this a bright, golden quality that is now beautifully balanced by the chunky frankincense, when before there was definitely an imbalance. If you smelled this one last year and were hoping for something different, give it another chance now. I am so glad I kept my bottle and plan to hang onto it and wear it a lot this Yule and future ones to come. For fun, I matched it up against two of my other favorite Yule church incenses, Midnight Mass and Snow of the Gravestones at Petersfriedhof. All three are very distinct! Midnight Mass is just as bright in its own way, but instead of bergamot, I smell a red fruit in it almost like red grapes or a cherry incense. I can't identify the exact red fruit, but it's almost a blood red wine kind of quality. The frankincense is less up front than it is in In Splendoribus now. And Snow of the Gravestones is a beautiful chilly frankincense (maybe even champa) with the best snow note I've ever smelled from the lab. You can smell the warmth inside the church, but you're viewing it from outside in the cold of the snow. In Splendoribus Sanctorum undeniably has its own unique place in the pantheon of Yule incense. I love it now.

Last year when it was first released, V'al Hanissim was extremely similar to Light of Men's Lives, just with a 'louder' beeswax. After a year of aging, the beeswax has smoothed out into an ultra-warm creamy glow, with that distinctive cuddly amber around it like a glowing nimbus, and almost no smoke note. I almost smell a very smooth, light olive oil kind of note, very appropriate for the theme. This one is absolutely beautiful now, nothing sharp about it whatsoever. I adore it and it is now quite different than Light of Men's Lives, which has even LESS beeswax and gives off a wafty floaty perfumed kiss like Zorya P by candlelight. V'al is more grounded but just as beautiful in its own way. They are not total dupes and they are worth having a bottle of each. Just for fun, I also applied Endless Corridors from the 2020 Weenies. This beeswax is much scarier! It has the same "dread" ingredient from Amaxophobia and Shadow & Light (2020 Lilith). I happen to like that scary smoky-shadowed impending-doom kind of note, but if you are sensitive to beeswax, the unknown dread note might push it into harsh territory right now. I will be very curious to see how it ages too. All that said, V'al is amazing and I am so glad I have a full bottle of it. Keep keep keep.

I feel like this is such a personal experience of a scent, it's so different to everyone's nose and chemistry. Here is my own: Initially, the only thing I smell is the smoke, a slightly headachey whiff of the same smoke note used so sadly throughout 2018 (sad to me, brilliant to others!). As it mellows on the skin, more of the warmth of the spiced chai and the gently furry quality comes through, but only when I press my nose right up against my wrist. There is zero throw on me. I am not reminded of books at all. Alas! I adore the description and would love a scent that matches it.

Typhon Resurrected bottle: A blind buy for me, and a HUGE win. I was a little scared by the Malediction comparisons, not gonna lie, but I took a leap of faith and went for it. From my SN tester of Red Patchouli, I can vouch that there is a beeeeautiful presence of it in Typhon. It's a resiny-warm patchouli that feels like the patchy sister of red musk, and a third cousin once removed from the dirty-hippie patchouli. It's almost a redwood kind of woodiness, which may be the sandalwood playing into it. Perhaps it's Indian Sandalwood, all rich and spicy. YUM. There's also a ton of silky-smooth vetiver, cool and slinky, not menacing. It invites you to sit down and have a drink, it's not going to punch you in the face. It's not Malediction's vetiver. It's smoooooooth. It's here to seduce you. And traditionally, black musk is my friend, except in powdery form like Haunted, but in Typhon it's all dark smiles and warmth, and stays away from any powder puffs. It is, indeed, still my friend. Together, these players form a blend that is warm, rich, decadent, beautifully aged, exquisitely resinous. It doesn't smell like many other BPALs to me other than Anne Bonny and Il Matto, but does have a classic BPAL vibe that age has only improved. I encourage anyone with the opportunity to get a decant or bottle to spring for it.

Hold the presses, there's a strawberry perfume that is freaking delightful. Prior to this trio, only Beating the Tatami (and, lightly, Party Tricks HG) really satisfied my hunger for a good strawberry. Dies Patribus was a very cute bits of dried strawberry in cereal and cold milk, but the strawberries weren't really the star. Almost every other scent with the note has come up lacking in some way. Dried Strawberries, Red Musk, and Bourbon Vanilla straight up slaps. She is bawdy, gothy, vampy, the blood-red-lipstick-wearing big sister of more innocent days of strawberry perfume. Let us not deceive ourselves, she is a perfume. Nobody will think you've dribbled strawberry juice on your arms. But the red musk does exactly what it needs to do: give the strawberry something to latch onto and bloom within. a foundation of slutty-spicy-musky perfection that lets the summery aroma of the fruit waft. The vanilla does what it needs to do too - sweeten it all up - with a little extra complexity from the bourbon. The combination is utterly charming. She's grown-up, yet playful; sultry, yet breezy. I want to wear her all day long. It's THE summer perfume for me. I feel like someone on the fence about strawberry, who has never had one work for them, should at least give this a try. I think if you hate red musk, this will probably not be a winner, but you probably already know that . But if you get along okay with red musk, and you're looking for Strawberry Holy Grail, this trio is a MUST!

There is so much bitter-almond cherry at the onset of this, I am kind of scared, because that's my least favorite note of all time. Thankfully, it burns off within minutes, leaving the good kind of cherry behind, along with a spiced (cinnamony) mahogany that does indeed have that polished lacquery effect that the lab loves to pull out time to time, like notes of polishing wax over the woods. This might sound a little odd, but it's strangely comforting. The spiciness and the lingering black currant behind the cherry and woods is giving me some holiday vibes. I'm not mad at this at all! The Red Queen gets a solid vote from me!

Very soapy florals and a pop of something I thought might have been lemon peel when smelling blindly but turned out to be tangerine. The longer this dries down, the more grandma it gets. Like the grandma who wears perfume that she thinks smells fancy but actually faintly smells like her twelve cats. Sorry, Moscow. You get nothing. You lose. Good-day, sir.

Those five nightbloomers (I think lizabelle hit the nail on the head with jasmine, honeysuckle, ylang ylang, gardenia, and moonflower) are really barking! So is the violet, powdery and wistful. I wish I got more of the purple fruits (PLUM! berries!) because they are far less present than the florals, and I would love it to be the other way around. For someone who likes beautifully blended night florals with perhaps a touch of soft frankincense, this is a nice option. However, an imp is plenty for me, whereas I dearly want a bottle of The Scales of Deprivation, so that should tell you where my vote in Tournament of Underdogs goes

Initially, this is a lot of sweet patch and apple peel (which smells more woody and fibrous, like the solidity of crisp curls of peel rather than the juiciness of the fruit itself). I like this version of apple, it doesn't take me back to Country Apple places at all, but I'm not the world's biggest fan of apple patch scents. For instance, Glittering Waterfall (although I just retested that too and am in love, so...who know what this world is coming to!) After a few minutes on the skin, the patch and apple burn off and leave a vetiver that is so delicate and cool, I describe it as a silvery vetiver. If you've never smelled a vetiver that shimmered, mirror-like, and hovered in the air (as opposed to smacking you in the face with smoky grassy sweetness), you need to smell this one. This is the vetiver that shows up in those sheer orange blossom blends, but even better here. It is making some kind of magic with the apple peel, and the patch becomes a quiet support for the shining silver of the vetiver, which quietly clings to the skin for hours and hours. I wouldn't recommend this one to those who HATE apple, but if you are ambivalent or a fan, and the thought of a gorgeous, elegant vetiver appeals to you, this trio is a must-try.