gothteacup

The ale reads strong at first and very much dominated, but the dry down is worth waiting for. The cake and honey are softer but present. There is a touch of smoke somewhere in here as well. This is simply damn good. Smells like I had a night at the local pub, got properly toasty on a thick stout, and then drunkenly fell asleep after eating a sweet honey cake in bed. If you like Smut and Cockaigne, and wish that they had a baby, and then that baby happened to like ale instead of the ambiguous booze, this is for you.

Scent: This is strong: rose and strawberry dominate at first, for a long while, with a ton of throw. The whole household can smell it! Then it blossoms into a fruity, lightly herbal, very soft wood, rose-strawberry musk delight that has me smiling, and my kids grabbing my arm to smell me. I can smell this the next day, and it still smells good, if not better. I initially thought the strawberry was too much after an initial toothpick test of my bottle (the oil was that strong) and had it on my swaplist. But I decanted a small amount into lil’ bottle, added sunflower oil. I found that doing so really brings out every element of the oil, which I’m really happy about. Initially, all I could get was strawberry! rose! forever! Energetically: There’s a lot sweetness in each sniff, literally and figuratively. I found myself gravitating to this often the past week, during the afternoon slump around these parts. It’s been a nice boost of sweetness and clearing out “bad jubies” as we say at my house. We can all use more compassion and empathy some days here, with the kids bickering about this and that, and the usual end of the day grumpies that tend to pop up. Being mom, I have been the one to try to smooth things over, and for years have diffused grapefruit or another brightening, cheerful oil. This would be perfect in a diffuser for just that! If nothing else, my kiddos enjoy smelling me, and it makes us look forward to strawberry season (Hood Strawberries!) even more so this year. Final thought: When smelling it the next day, it brings to mind Strawberry Shortcake dolls. As an 80s girl, this warms my 40-something-year old heart.

Take Snake Oil and moosh it into a sugary fluff of lightly fried delicate dough. That is what this is, and I love it. So you have Snake Oil’s sugary dark musk with extra sugar, and a light doughy edge. I’m not getting any powder that fresh Snake Oil can have when it’s fresh, either. I’m not a huge gourmand fan, but this stays mostly in the musk category, although some days it does read a little too sweet for me. Other days I could take a bath in it.

This is a bright, uplifting, and cheerful oil. I’m in the habit of starting my day with a ritual of oil anointing and setting intentions, so I tried this on a particularly rough start of a day. On another day, it paired well with my usual base of frankincense oil, and the florals blended well with the golden resin. White Light is a welcome ray of sunshine on dark days, like a walk in a vintage flower garden at dawn.

One of my lovely swap partners sent this along in a recent swap, and last night I gave it a whirl around 2 or 3am during another night where sleep was hard to find. It’s smelled weirdly comforting in the vial, so a-slathering I went. It started out ok, with Mega Fresh Lavender™️ and other blow-up-your-skirt herbs. But once it dried, something camphorated, eye burning, and medicinal plowed the lavender/herb field and left behind a scent that made me go scrub the hell out of my wrist. The opposite of a sleep scent for me, since it actually forced me out of bed. 🙃

I held off on trying this because the black musk sounded intense, but it’s really smooth and inoffensive. Just a touch of powder from the orris keeps this from leaning into a full on incense and resin party, which would be an elegant and refined party, not a bong rippin incense party. A bit earthy on the dry down, almost a stone like note. It’s really lovely, and reminds me of Hexennacht without the smoke.

I was very much looking forward to this bottle, anticipating a rosy/vanilla, marshmallow lavender scent of my perfume dreams. Blind bottling is risky, but the notes, reviews, I thought ok, this will work, I know it. How can it not? These are my notes, I know this, the notes know this. I received the bottle, sniffed, and knew it needed to have some downtime. I thoroughly believe in the power of resting, aging. Both for perfume and people. So I let it rest, and rest some more, and take an extra nap with a frickin blanket and stuffed animal. I tucked this perfume in. Then I applied it to my skin and what I smelled was Obsession by Calvin Klein. Virtually no marshmallow, no rose, lavender. It was all amb—no it was ALL OBSESSION, ALL THE TIME FOR ALL TIME. I looked at the bottle, looked at the notes. The bottle. Notes. The BPAL website. The forum. Reviews. The wall. The sky. The stars. Inside my heart. obsession…by Calvin Klein. While I enjoy really old bottles of Obsession (I have a bottle from the late 90s skanking around my perfume cabinet like a lost cat) I just couldn’t hang with this. Definitely not what I expected. I have already swapped this away. It seems like everyone else has a much different experience with this than I do. Good. For. Them.

This reminds me of the GC: Arcana. If these two perfumes were related, I would say that The Choirs of Angels is the witch auntie, with her apartment filled with hanging dried herbs, resin incense, a bunch of plants and herbs growing, jars of oils… while Arcana is the niece, who wants to be like said Witch Auntie, so she stuffed herbs from her mom’s kitchen garden into a jar of olive oil, and has crystals and glitter and unicorns all over in her room. (I am subsequently both the auntie and the niece.) While I agree with others that this does smell somewhat golden, it does have a muted quality. So white gold? It is resin, herbs, ritualistic. It smells like a workspace of an herbalist or a witch, or a healer of ages past. A lot of frankincense, with touches of herbs and very light neroli. Very smooth, medium throw.

energetically: while this doesn’t make me sleepy, I’ve found that it is a calming oil for me. It brings a smile to my face when I wear it, and I’ve taken to wearing it when wanting to feel a little boost of happy. I have worn it to bed several nights, since my sleep is often disturbed and erratic, but haven’t noticed much of a change in th sleep department. Sometimes oils of intent are useful in other ways, so for me, it will be my oil of happy! scent: smooth lavender, creamy vanilla, (how is there) marshmallow??, and straight up flippin magic✨

I’ve let my bottle take a proper snooze for a few weeks, I did test it a few times, knew I adored it, and waited a bit to give it a formal review. At the beginning, this is a little on the sharp side, but after a few minutes it becomes a pillowy dream. Lavender, soft and not mentholated. Wisteria isn’t as forward as I had hoped, but it’s there, mixed in the melange of quiet florals and what smells like very airy musks and resins in the background. If you enjoy Lilith’s lavenders from years past, scents like The Air and The Ether, Ubi Bene, Ibi Patria, this is one you might love.

This is lightly boozey, with a lace-like note, dusky florals, lavender, and a soft wood/incense like background. I enjoy the dry down more than the initial wet phase. I feel like this will age well. *I’m attempting to consider and review perfumes without pouring over other reviews or even looking at notes

I’m attempting to consider and review perfumes without pouring over other reviews and even looking at notes after the initial time sink. Matthew 18:6 digs up an old elementary school scent memory for me. A little girl roll-on or spray from the drugstore that I received as a stocking stuffer, or a scent drawer sachet that my grandmother gave me. Either way, it reminds me of childhood in my room after school, curled up on my bed, reading a book, cozy as hell. Its perfumey, incense-like, with sweetness like honey or dark sugar.

Smokey fruity datura, oud and patchouli start this off. Datura is such a unique note- a soft oudh almost, a little bitter, a smokey unique mysterious floral. I really enjoy The Wish after it’s dried a while, and if I pass my arm in front of my face, the smell is intoxicating. That’s when I can really pick up the vanilla and osmanthus. Many layers to this, and it’s beautiful. I was on the fence about getting a bottle of this, and now I am wishing I had gotten another one. I bet this will age very well.

I was sent an imp of this in a recent swap. It looks to be an aged imp, which I am glad about-I can get a good measure of what Cleric is all about. I first looked up a few of the notes I am not familiar with: palisander = rosewood canaga = ylang ylang cistus = laudanum I am getting a lot of frankincense and myrrh right away (classic, love it) and rosewood, as well as soft rosy amber. There is bit of an herbal, almost medicinal edge which adds a nice touch to this. The narcissus becomes more prominent as this dries. I don’t get a lot of champaca singled out, but there is an incense vibe floating around it all. The florals get stronger as it dries, which is kinda disappointing-I liked the initial stages of this better. The resins/wood are still there, but the flowers are rather strong, and start to become a little soapy, like others have said. That said, it’s some fancy, fit-for-a-Queen soap.

So I blind-swapped this bottle (among others) primarily for my son, who loves both Snake Oil and dragon’s blood. I usually can’t wear DB, it becomes a powdery mess on my skin, which is disappointing to say the least. However, I love me some Snake Oil, patchouli and honey. And this kiss from a Dragon is just subtle enough that I can handle it, and it smells damn good. This is strong a Snake Oil scent though (duh) with just some touches of the other notes, they make it sweeter and more patchoulied, and the dragon’s blood gives it a softness. It smells good on my skin, but amazing on my teenage son. Happy little accident!