Thirteen (13): March 2015

[annemathematics]

Blackened cacao with thirteen herbs for navigating your fortunes through lucid dreaming and trancework: lemon verbena, helichrysum, nut sedge, Roman chamomile, naab, lavender, citronella, galangal, wormwood, patchouli, tulsi, hoja madre, and mugwort.

I have not yet attempted to navigate my fortunes with lucid dreaming or trancework. I have instead come home from work and torn open my box and tried on this scent first thing. And I love it.
I'm still trying to make sense of it. The whole is so nice that I'm not motivated to sleuth out the individual notes, but fresh on I get the rich dark cacao and a chorus of high and bright notes: the lavender, wormwood, citronella, verbena. It dries down to a pretty perfume mostly featuring these notes. The cacao drops back and I get some warmth from the patch.

A few hours in, it's mostly patchouli. Slightly funky patchouli. Kinda like if patchouli went to a costume party dressed up in a dirty vetiver getup.

I know this 13 won't be for everyone, but for me this perfume continues my winning streak with bpal blends containing mugwort, wormwood and cacao. Looking forward to seeing how this shifts with time and age.

[rinster]

I got this for the cool TAL-like description, fully being prepared to not be crazy about the scent and I was ok with that. (Chamomile smells like hay to me and anything lemon related usually trumps everything else.) This smells incredible on me. I think I'm picking up the wormwood and if so, I need to find some more wormwood scents! This isn't "herby" in the sense I'm used to (i.e. plant-like or medicinal) but very it's very pretty and little mysterious. I pick up the cacao and citronella a little, but they are supporting actors. I don't get the dirty vetiver patch drydown, which is fine with me. If this comes around on etsy or ebay, I'd like to get a backup.

Edited March 24, 2015 by rinster

[stellamaris]

Well, in my quest to have all of the Thirteens, I thought, this one probably won't smell THAT great but I'll take a chance. Wow. Was I wrong.

This is awesome! It's super lemony on me, which I love, but not like a citronella yucky candle to keep the bugs away, this is sweet lovely lemon, which then dries down into who knows what but it's springy and marvelous. I can see wearing the heck out of this. This is one of my only 13s which does not have a very upfront chocolate note. I can sort of smell it? But not overtly.

Love this.

[lady_pandora]

In the bottle, this smells like dark chocolate with medicinal lavender; once it hits my skin, it starts out with something like lemon cookies! Then it morphs, keeping an essential cookie-ness while also smelling kind of medicinal and also kind of vegetabley, like pickles or green peppers or something, maybe. This stage is actually kind of gross on me, and I wouldn't pick it as a perfume, but when combined with the concept, there's something evocative about it. It's like you went to the witch's cottage for her magic dream cookies, and she put all the herbs and magic plants in the mix but tried to cover the pungency with the cookie's sweetness, and it didn't completely work but you eat it anyway because you want those magic dreams. Eventually it morphs again into kind of a murky mixture of the heavier ingredients, though I can't pick out individual notes at that stage, and then it morphs yet again and the lemon is once again dominant. It reminds me a lot of the lemon note from Seven Herbs Charm, but with an earthiness underneath that's probably patchouli, rather than the doll-heads vanilla I got from Seven Herbs.

 

So anyway, this one's really weird! The vegetable phase will probably keep me from ever wearing it just to smell nice, but I can live with all the other phases, and it's also evocative of the concept. I'll update if I have dream experiences with it. I did have vivid dreams last night, but it's too early to ascribe them to Thirteen--it was largely faded by then, and I was all slathered up with Midnight Mass when I went to bed.

[Mokiefraggle]

I'm not sure quite what to think of this particular 13, though I know I don't dislike it. It's just...so very peculiar to my nose, though without being displeasing. Just odd.

 

Right away, as soon as it's on my skin, I get a strong mix of the cacao and the two lemony notes of citronella and lemon verbena, both very distinctive and different, with a lavender note making it a little herbally sharp, and the patchouli and galangal adding some earthiness and some spice. There's also a definite herbal note from the mugwort, and a note of chamomile that I can definitely make out as it dries, but I've no clue as to what most of the rest is or should smell like, so I can't tell what's going on from that.

 

Cacao, lemon, tiny bit of gingery heat, lavender astringency, and some herbal and earthy notes. I don't know quite how it all works, but it's strangely good. I'm happy to keep it and try to figure out what the heck is going on in this, because right now, I'm so very confused by this scent.

[zankoku_zen]

So this smells like cocoa, lemon verbena, hints of lavender and a bajillion other kitchen herbs.

 

This actually makes me think more of a TAL blend than a perfume blend. In that it doesn't smell like something you would just wear because it smells pretty, but because it has a purpose.

 

Herby, chocolately, cool.

[Little Bird]

Savory herbs, sharp and herbal lemongrass, burnt chocolate and a dry, gritty patchouli. Smells like I randomly threw together a bunch of aromatherapy notes, and is strangely medicinal. Lemony, herbal, medicinal, and weirdly dirty smelling on my skin... I like the foodie and sweet Thirteens, and this doesn't fall into that category for me.

Edited August 14, 2016 by Little Bird

[SophieCedar]

Due to the citronella I almost wanted this off my skin immediately...however being a TAL-ish blend just rode that thought out and kept in mind that this is not a powers of attraction or comfort scent. Drydown is pretty frikkin gorgeous. Its light herbal green/yellow wonderfulness. The lavender chamomile tulsi and mugort are harmonious and the most notable, on my skin. Lemongrass is keeping it fresh and a little citrusy.

 

Wish I had this scent when it came out considering I was going through the worst time of my life. I coulda really used it!

[bellumed]

Lemon, lavender, citronella. Smells tasty! Also very cool-smelling, minty, which would be the nutsedge, I believe. Distinctly herbal and a bit “harder” on my skin. Dominant vibe is planty, minty, a touch medicinal. Once it’s dry, I get some of the lemon back, too. This is unconventional but very likeable.