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Showing results for tags 'The Phobias'.
Found 20 results
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Fear of Dolls (But not ventriloquist dummies. Thats an entire phobia unto itself.) White porcelain cracked by white tobacco, threads of brittle cognac, and vanilla filigree. This is a very interesting blend. I suspect this will be something that I won't reach for much in the near future but will come to really enjoy it later after it has aged and after I have come to associate it with my life at this point. That doesn't sound like a ringing endorsement. I do like it, though. I had hoped for more sweetness from the tobacco and vanilla, but it is dry, elegant, perfumey, even. I detect something that smells like white tea; I wonder if that is the white porcelain note? The more I wear it, the more I like it. The throw is very good, and I when I get little whiffs of it, it's very pleasing. It does have a bit of the loud 80's bombshell perfumes feel to it.
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Fear of Relatives and Relations God damn it, Uncle Steve. Nobody cares what Hannity has to say about anything. Buckets of red wine, a splash of aftershave, and copious amounts of blossoming gin. Oh my goodness this is gorgeous. I originally got the decant for my guy because he loves gin and I thought this was going to be a lot darker. However it is bright and sparkling and a bit on the sweet side. The wine is lighter than I expected and I expects gives the blend its sweetness, and it is not profoundly grape-y either. The gin and aftershave combine to give a clean but not too strong bite of juniper. Classic, sophisticated and very fun. It makes me think of a glittering party of the 1920s.
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Fear of Kissing Under the Mistletoe Pale, sickly flaps of vegetation looming over gaping archways, flaccid lips wet with hunger: cucumber and spearmint curling against the edges of dry, crumbling mistletoe. All I get is slightly dried cucumber peel. It's not bad; sort of the seasonal opposite of Squirting Cucumber. No mint, no mistletoe.
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Fear of Gaiety Clacking white teeth bared in repugnant, feral upturned leers. Laughter, hideous laughter: bubbling white ginger gurgling through hot red carnations, shreds of orange peel, and cloying globs of honey. In the bottle - Ooh baby. It's sweet-citrus-ginger. I have a good feeling about this. Wet - Yup, that's carnation. Drydown - I want to say that I'm getting something else -- anything else -- but it's alllll carnation. Damn you, skin chemistry. Verdict - Although I like the scent, I didn't need a whole bottle. I might look for an oil burner so I can get that in-the-bottle ginger back in my life.
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Fear of Parents-in-Law A scent of judgement and scorn: blackened vetiver, smug vanilla, and a dismissive, sneering dribble of black coffee. Nice to meet you, Mr. Soceraphobia. I can see where your daughter Europa gets her good qualities from. *awkward silence* *coughs* Just tried this scent out for work today, and it really does remind me of the Europa scent. Upon opening and trying out Soceraphobia, the most out in front note is the vetiver. The harshness is echoed with the coffee, which itself is barely noticable as a separate note. The vanilla underneath does give it a sweet, mellow flavor to it, but it is not nearly as pronounced as it is in Europa, although is it enough to make the connection. Vetiver remains in control throughout drydown, and although the scent fades in a few hours, every so often it re-emergers, lingering a bit only to fade again... Definitely a keeper for the days I want something a bit more subtle.
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Fear of Riding in Cars Encased in a roaring tomb of vinyl siding, strangled by nylon bindings, arms bruised and battered by writhing bodies punching and pummeling—punctuated by wild cries of SLUG BUG and CALL BOX—and endless discordant choruses of 99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall. Motor oil, a burst of exhaust, a faded tree-shaped air freshener, and crushed gas station chocolates. Based on description alone, this is less an everyday scent and more of a marvel, not the most wearable but certainly impressive in terms of accuracy. That said, this is a very nostalgic scent for me. My father is what some might call a 'gearhead', and as such I was made familiar with the smells of everything automotive from a young age. This reminds me of all the times I was dragged into the garage to unwillingly assist with some project, and the smell that clung to my clothes thereafter. All the fumes without the headache; the smell of a busy garage or mechanic's shop. The exhaust note is strongest at first but the air freshener (pine, like the little tree-shaped ones) is apparent too. I also get a whiff of what smells like tires, and perhaps antifreeze as well. This is not a casual scent by any means! I'd likely wear this to a racetrack, rock concert, or out drinking.
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Cold - unending, heart-piercing cold - that slices through skin and muscle like a gleaming, razor-edged dagger until it penetrates bone and fills your marrow: white eucalyptus, frosted mint, raw frankincense, davana, iris petal, white grapefruit, and wormwood. I can smell every single note in this right on application. The eucalyptus and mint are both indeed "white", i.e., mild and sweet, not like an ice pick to the brain via the sinuses. The grapefruit is a bit bitter, like the peel more than the fruit, but it's very pleasant and off-sets the eucalyptus and mint perfectly. The frankincense fades quickly, and I smell almost no iris or wormwood at this stage, but there is a rich, sweet background of davana. The key players are mint, eucalyptus and grapefruit with darker, grounding undertones. There is a short phase where I think, "Huh? Wrigley's Doublemint gum?", but that settles as it dries. It smells more like a therapeutic or spa scent than a perfume, which I like. Not sure I'll keep this, since I have other blends that fit that slot, but it sure is nice!
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Fear of Flashing Lights Pummeling flares of lemon peel and sparks of peppermint under a lime-green strobe.
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Fear of Loud Noises Christmas crackers detonating like mortars: cinnamon-soaked black musk. [Please note: cinnamon perfume contains cinnamon. If you have sensitivities, please pass on this one.]
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Fear of the Color White Dry white tea leaf and a hollow, sharp musk.
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Ghastly misshapen branches casting long, twisted shadows and clutching at you with prickly needle-like fingers: pine pitch, bone-white dried fir, and spruce tar with opoponax and blackened tobacco. First off, take this review with a bit of salt. I just got it in the mail this morning and my bottle was so cold it misted up when I took it out of the box. But I was dying to try it, so here we go. ITB: Pine and something almost lemony sharp. Unsettling for sure. Wet: That lemony thing is totally gone, replaced by a sweet pine. The combination of the balsams and the pine is both sweet and dark and very masculine on me. Evil christmas tree is very much the right frame of mind for this. It's obviously pine and tree resin, but something else lurks in the background that's a little sweet, a little unsettling and very wonderful. Drying: Opoponax tends to be a sweet resin on me, and I can really notice that sweetening here. It's still a very dry scent, but there is something almost fruity about it, the way I had hoped Skadi's berry note would behave. I can barely notice anything I could call tobacco, which is a shame because I love it, but there is something blackened about this for sure. Right now it's prickly to the point of being a bit sneezy when I really huff it, but its not at all cleaner fluid, which I was worried about with all the pine. Dry: Surprisingly sweet. While there is still a bite to this, it settles into something that's a lot more unisex than I expected from the first initial blast of pine and woods. The brightness of the pine takes a back seat and I'm starting to get a wee bit of the tobacco, which I expect will be more pronounced as this ages and develops. My other really woody blend in my collection is Jupeterian Phoenix, which is an amazing and very snuggly wood scent. This, while still being wood dominant, is like JP's evil brooding brother. It's dark, pine rich and really wonderful. I made a good choice for my single bottle Cyber Monday purchase.
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Fear of Tyrants This has jack all to do with Yule or winter, but it sure does apply to current events. Proceeds from Tyrannophobia benefit the ACLU, thereby helping stem the imminent assault on civil rights. Birch tar, tea leaf, and black raspberry strangled in an iron fist. In the bottle it smells really strongly of raspberry tea. I may as well have stuck my head in a tea chest full a raspberry black tea, it smells just the same. And it stays this way wet and dry. It's really distinct raspberry, not the vague berry smell that sometimes happens. I don't get much of the birch tar till it dries. Even then it's not strong. Again, it's like sticking your head in a wooden tea chest. You notice the tea first, then the wooden container. It's simple but beautiful. I don't get any metal notes for those worried about that, but I'm sure YMMV. For those who are looking for a berry tea, this is strongly advised.
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Fear of the Aurora Borealis Hellish shimmering streaks of unholy, alien light: electrically-charged lavender, yellow bergamot, agarwood, blue plum, and a peculiar, discomfiting green musk. Kinda surprised that no one's reviewed this one yet, the Lab's description is so intriguing. This one caught my eye because I'm such a fan of 51 and its green musk, also the inspiration behind it. I'm fairly new to the world of BPAL and this is my first review so go easy on me In the bottle: this is mainly lavender with a bit of bergamot and maybe something a little woody, which I think might be the agarwood. Wet: The lavender, bergamot and agarwood really come together and remind me almost of an essential oil blend to aid sleep, quiet and peaceful, but that is held back by something bright and quite electric in the background, a freshness adding depth which i assume is the green musk. No plum yet. Dry: The green musk has taken over a little bit, although the lavender is still quite prominent, and the plum has appeared! To my nose, it's not a thick, sticky, chewy, blue kind of plum, it's like a super fresh, green on the outside, yellow on the inside plum. Fresh and gorgeous and compliments the green musk perfectly, ties it all together. I think this is a wonderful winter/spring scent, possibly unisex as well. I really like this, it's different and all the notes fit together really well.
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Fear of Religious Services Sour wine drying on an ancient ciborium, crumbling pages of a yellowed sacramentary, blinding glints of bitter white sunlight shattering off a tarnished monstrance, and doleful voices droning through a haze of oppressive, smothering incense. Tons of red wine, squeeze of orange, and a hint of incense. This one just smells like fruity red wine. Sangria anyone? Great throw and wear length. For lovers of sangria.
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The scent of mad piety, blood and martyrdom, soul-crushing guilt, and frenzied devotion: frankincense and myrrh disoriented by labdanum, unsteady yuzu, shredded ginger, black cypress, and Aleppo Pine wood thickened with dragon's blood resin. Sniffed: wow, that's a brisk snap of the fingers under your nose. Peppery ginger, bright yuzu, and fiery red resins. This smells . . . martial and reverberant. I don't get any soul-crushing guilt, but there is indeed a frenzied energy to the blend. Wet: I. Love. This. It's perfectly seasonal, too - the yuzu and pine with church incense notes make it smell like a room full of evergreen boughs and brightly burning red Christmas candles, turned up to 11. The dragon's blood is fruity and round; it's almost got a bayberry quality. How on earth does something smell like candle flame? I hope this dries down well, because it wasn't even on my list and now it's shot up to purchase status. Worn: it gets drier and woodsier as it ages, fading to the ghost of burned incense. Really, really good incense. I'm not normally into the incense-heavy blends, but this is a winner.
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Wine spilled across freshly pressed table linens, a wilted holiday bouquet, and a furtive hint of whiskey and baked bread. I was so intrigued by this, and I'm not even sure why! I do love dinner parties and the smell of ironed linen. Wine usually gets too noisy on me and I don't like gourmand stuff...but I bought a bottle untested? Okay. In the bottle, the cakey/bakey/bread note was quite strong, Eat Me-like with the berryish wine note. I wasn't going to give it the honour of First Tested, but I spilled a couple of drops so I decided to make this Deipnophobia night. On my skin, the baked goods calm right down and I get barely a whiff of wine--that's really good, since the Lab's wine note often gets cloying on me. The linen dominates, with wisps of subtle whiskey, wine and bread. It's more of a perfumey "linen" note than a photorealistic slightly-scorched smell of ironed linen, but I'm really loving this. Are there florals? I can't pick them out, me. The bread reminds me of the yeasty sufganiyot note in Chanukkiyah (which I also got another bottle of in this order). Nom.
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Fear of Beards Definitely bad news if you live in Silverlake, Williamsburg, or the Mission. A tangle of patchouli, upcycled leather, artisanal honey, and a couple of oils youve probably never heard of. First on this one? That's new! In bottle: It's a lot of patchouli, very woodsy. Applied, Wet: Very, very woodsy and almost all patchouli. I'm not getting much of the honey, but the leather is underneath trying to cut through the patch. It's almost a little tangy. It's not unpleasant, but it's not me. This is definitely a more masculine scent, and I'll be honest, I bought it to try & be somewhat ironic - I work at a company filled with men & their hipster beards. I would *love* to smell it on one, in particular ... Editing to add: Aaah ... there's the honey. It's finally come out of hiding, tempering everything else blending quite nicely. The drydown is really quite wonderful.
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A suffocating, oppressive white shroud: a fragrance heavy with ice, strangled by damp oakmoss, artemisia, and muguet. A very clean soft scent. Slightly powdery. Can definitely smell the oakmoss and muguet/Lily of the Valley. As it dries the Lily comes out a lot more and it becomes lemony floral clean powder scent. I think this would be really pretty in the spring and summer as it doesn't make me think of ice when I smell it. Reminds me a lot of Lily Savon from Lush so if you liked that definitely give this a try. ETA - To add that this scent has decent throw and good lasting power. I applied it mid afternoon and it was still on when I went to bed around midnight.
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Fear of Happiness Gibbering chitters of laughter, gleaming grinning mouths peeling open like a knife-slash: high-pitched lemon peel and pink pepper, white orris, and garish tangerine. OMG. This smells like candied lemon peel and lemonheads. It is lemon, lemon, lemon, and it is divine. This is no weak and retiring lemon. The pink pepper and tangerine seem to give the lemon some background strength and staying power. Seriously. Lemonheads.
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Fear of Church Suffocating clouds of shroud-thick frankincense and myrrh, sepulchral tolu balsam, black labdanum, and a sin-sick thread of jasmine sambac. Wow, this is strong and heady! On application I immediately smell tolu balsam, labdanum and jasmine sambac. The jasmine is more than just a "thread" on me, so either I amp it or there's a lot of it here, but despite the floral note, this gives off a dark, heavy almost brooding impression - "shroud thick" is a fitting descriptor. The jasmine is sweet, not the kind that goes sour on me, or that smells like soiled baby nappies; it's sweet, but not to the point of being cloying. Myrrh comes forward a bit as it dries, and now I can tell there's frankincense in here too (though barely), but it's still pretty jasmine-dominated, though that note does settle down a lot by final dry-down to let the resins through. Despite the jasmine, I'd say this is just this side of gender-neutral (well..I think I can pull it off as a guy, anyway). I'm liking this more, the more it dries down, in fact I like it a lot. It's dark, resin-heavy and with jasmine, and really damn good!
