Oil of Flight and Vision

[Seajewel]

Inspired by witches’ flying ointments, this is a deep, rooty perfume flecked with grave soil: sweet, tar-like 7-year aged patchouli, henbane bell accord, smallage, opium pod accord, cinquefoil, mugwort, and soot.

[elissamay]

Deep, rooty, indeed!

 

When first applied, there is no patchouli to speak of (for me). I get the herbaceous, almost floral influence of the herbs and magickal plants listed, but the patch and the soil take a backseat. OOB and while wet, this is all green, herby, and maybe a bit of petrichor.

 

But when it dries down, oh. The patch blooms into the patch of dreams. It's reminiscent of the chewy patch in Silky Bat or maybe Revenant Rhythm, but this isn't sugared at all. It's sweet, but it isn't sugared. It's rooty, dark, forest-floor funky patch, but sweetened with age and the wisdom of ancient mysteries. Maybe that sweetness is the "tar-like" descriptor, because it feels condensed to the essence of aged, sweet, and deeply intense patchouli.

 

Staying power is epic, and the throw is probably epic as well, so apply this treasure sparingly. I applied just a drop from the cap, and it stayed with me for hours and hours, into the next day. The hoodie I wore smelled like that spectacular patch just from me applying a drop to my wrist.

 

I cannot wait to use this as a signature scent for circling! So many thanks to the fairy who made it possible.

 

 

[pinkgyrl]

Reading the notes, I thought this would be a heavier blend.  I also thought of Graveyard Dirt - which was one of my first bpal loves.  Except for the initial soil note which feels similar to the soil of Graveyard Dirt, this is completely different than I expected in both respects. 
 

Upon application, the soil note is the first one to reach my nose; however, it soon starts to dissipate - the soil note receding into its place within the blend giving way to a beautiful pillowy sweet patchouli.  This patchouli is gorge.  In my head, I see a dark colored patchouli oil thickened and sweetened with age. The base feels familiar - a melange of herbs and flora that read as “creamy” to my nose lending the surprisingly delicate feel to this blend.  It isn’t until the very end of the drydown that I can smell anything even faintly vegetal.  I would describe this primarily as a loamy sweet patchouli blend resting upon a creamy floral/slightly herbal base. 
 

I always ask my fiancé to sit with me if it’s a bpal mail day after he gets home from work. My enthusiasm is higher if I can open the package with someone else and talk about the contents; I also like to test some on him to let him be a part of the process - today, I accidentally got too much oil on me, so I tested this on both of us.  My fiancé has suffered from aggressive early onset Parkinson’s for a decade. He struggles with language and communication, most especially when he’s tired.  When he smelled this one, he said the soil was like when you dig something out from underneath the ground like a treasure - bits of the soil cling to the item and start to fall or be brushed off - as if something was “unearthed.”  I don’t know where this came from within him!  He makes it day-to-day but rarely gets moments of insight that he can communicate with clarity.  I’ve been asking him questions about notes and how he feels with certain blends.  I love when art inspires another to feel and even to be better able to communicate those feelings.  
 

Thank you to my fairy for allowing me and my partner to try this one! 

 

 

Edited March 31, 2023 by pinkgyrl

[MamaMoth]

the herbs and plant matter are what hit me first, greenly herbaceous, flirting with bitterness. they're not freshly gathered, but rather lightly dried. i can see bundles of herbs hanging from the rafters of a rough hut, speckled with the rich garden soil they were gathered from. 

 

patchouli waits for the drydown to really emerge. when it does, it's everything you'd imagine from those notes: dense, earthy, sweet, and utterly beautiful. it's accompanied by a touch of opium, that dark sweet floral note. i keep mentioning sweet, because there is an unexpected natural sweetness to this blend, which is playing very nicely against the slightly-bitter, slightly-sharp greenery. i also find it to have a surprising lightness. it may begin on terra firma, but it takes to the air. 

 

in a way this feels like a TAL, something crafted and worn with intent. it smells great, but that seems almost incidental.  

 

many thank yous to the wonderful fairies who allowed us the chance to experience this! 💙

Edited April 4, 2023 by MamaMoth

[ghoulnextdoor]

Oil of Flight & Vision is rooty and resinous, dark and droll, and brings to mind Ralph Waldo Emerson’s poem “Hamatreya”, in which the poet reveals the earth song of dark-humored flowers, laughing to see the men who steer the plows unable to steer clear of the grave. How every one of them who lay claim to the land, who wished to control it, are now asleep beneath the very dirt they thought they owned. I like to imagine subversive, psychoactive roots and blossoms,--hallucinogenic henbane, tarry opium, bittersweet mugwort--growing from the bones of those dead and being used in enigmatic preparations like fabled witches’ flying ointments. And whether or not those witchly botanical balms induced actual levitation and soaring under a full moon through the midnight air or was key to a ritual for one to travel the astral planes in spirit, I delight in the imagery of witches being borne aloft on the musky-throated gallows humor of grim growing things sprung forth from and thriving in grave dirt.  Oil and Flight and Vision perfectly encapsulates the poetry of that sentiment.

[doomsday_disco]

This starts off with the most glorious sweet black patchouli, backed by some mugwort and other herbs. But then the green herbs rush to the forefront, and the patchouli gets buried behind them. 😭 This ends up settling into a mineralic, herbal scent swirled with soot on me by the end of the day, and while it's not bad, it's nothing compared to the glory that it was during the initial application.

 

I let this settle for a few days before testing it, but I'm going to put my bottle in timeout and hope that the patchouli and mugwort stick around once it has had more time to settle. Because that's what I'm here for.