Quintessence of Dust

[biggnerd]

This is a strange scent on me.  It's mainly sweet beeswax and ozoney leather.  I see golden honey and shiny black leather when I first put it on.  It eventually (after about 3 hours) into a honeyed, incensey, papered ozone.  Perhaps the metal is reading as ozone to me? It's an outburst of lightning that settles into rumination.

 

I'm never sure if I truly like this scent, but I can't stop wearing it or smelling it when I do. 

[witchytwitchygirl]

I get mostly sweet, sweet beeswax. It smells old, somehow reminds me of studying in the basement of my university library. It’s a good beeswax blend if you like the Lab’s beeswax/honey, but I will have to keep testing it to see if the complexities come out for me.

[windbourne]

I went through a very long phase where I was absolutely obsessed with beeswax scents. I still like quite a few, but I've discovered that it doesn't always work for me anymore. Even a few scents that I went berserk over a few years ago are now surprisingly cloying on my skin. I don't think it's the scents aging, I think it's my tastes (and possibly skin chemistry) shifting. 😕 Anyway, this is one of those. I wore it a lot shortly after I got it and loved it to death. Now, it's stickier to my nose and I'm not as in love with the particular leather -- it's not the softer worn-jacket leather of Adam or the fuzzy suede leather of Ian -- it's smooth, brown, and ...well, it does smell like libraries. Old books, slightly musty. Unfortunately, the blood is on the sweeter side as well, and the salt isn't quite enough to counteract it. The ink is nice, lending a blackened swirl to the scent, and the way it dries down is still beautiful (especially once the leather settles down a bit)....but it's no longer a favorite. It doesn't have major throw and lasts 4-5 hours. I don't get the incense until about the midway point, at which point it's mostly a slightly smoky, dusty haze.

[QueenProserpina]

My fifth BPAL purchase, June 2023. This fragrance must be very different on different people. The first note to make itself evident on my skin is a strong burst of ink, with possible components of smoke and beeswax, which I found slightly sickening, and potentially headache-inducing, almost like a black licorice jellybean, or the scent of an artificial blackberry or purple grape candy. If I am detecting a smoky note, it is not of the campfire variety. After the fragrance dries and settles for awhile, some subtle honey (although that could be beeswax), gentle incense, and a possible blood note surface with the tiniest whiff of salt or metal, and the ink and beeswax calm down somewhat, although the general fragrance has faded into a close-to-the-skin scent. I'm not getting any discernible leather notes, and I’m not certain about the dust. This fragrance would be a favorite if the initial ink/smoke/wax note was not as overwhelming and the scent as a whole was more robust.

Update two weeks later: this fragrance has settled after shipping and become one of my favorites! The notes play together better now, and a lovely, powdery note has emerged, leaving the impression of the most lovely candle imaginable.

Eleven months later, the blood, tears, and metal are becoming more apparent, adding notable complexity and a sharp, tart, almost lemony tinge.

Edited June 1 by QueenProserpina
Additions

[Nix]

Oh boy, where do I even begin? with a WARNING: this is overly sweet and really soapy. 

So, I was eagerly waiting for this perfume to arrive, filled with excitement and curiosity. The description promised a delightful blend of beeswax, smoke, yellowed paper, well-worn leather books, salty tears, and even a hint of metal. How intriguing, right? I was envisioning a complex and unique scent, something that would transport me to a world of bees and old books, with a touch of mysterious metallic allure.

But oh dear, reality hit me like a ton of bricks. As I took that first sniff, none of those promised notes greeted me. No beeswax, no smoke, no paper or leather – they were all MIA! Instead, what I got was an overwhelming blast of sweetness that bordered on nauseating. 

The disappointment was real. I was hoping for a bee-smelling, bookish wonderland, but all I got was the scent equivalent of an Indian incense shop or an old lady's perfume box. 

And let me tell you, this was the most expensive scent in my whole order. Can you believe it? The more I thought about it, the more I found myself questioning why I took this risky perfume plunge in the first place.

But I wasn't about to give up just yet. I heard rumors that aging might work some magic, so I decided to leave the bottle in the sun, hoping for a fragrance miracle. Maybe, just maybe, it could redeem itself and become the scent I had initially imagined.

So here I am, crossing my fingers and waiting to see if time can work its wonders. Will this perfume transform into the sophisticated blend of my dreams (as promised!), or will it forever be that overly sweet soap bar I didn't sign up for? Only time will tell, and in the meantime, I've learned my lesson – not all fragrance adventures turn out as expected, and sometimes, you win some, and sometimes, you get a scent-gamble gone awry. Here's to better olfactory journeys in the future!