Lydia

[Balame]

Opium tar and sweet patchouli with labdanum, awadh, and inky black myrrh.

My reaction when I first smelled Lydia:

Aaah so good! I got three of the Exquisite Corpse blends (Djed, Silky Bat and this) and Lydia is easily my favorite.

Ruler of hell, vampire queen, gothic villainess. All associations I had when drinking in this potion. It smells elegant, beautiful and dark as the depths of the night. It reminds me of another favorite, The Final Darkness, but this has no florals peeking out from the shadows. It's all about the sinuous and seductively sweet resins.

The labdanum, myrrh and opium call out the most. I think the labdanum is particularly stunning, as it puts me in the mind of amber or ambergris with a sticky, somewhat powdery sweetness. When I first put this on, there's a heady smokiness from the opium that makes me feel like I'm getting high on (really good) narcotics, but it's not overwhelming and comes without the negative side effects!

Surprisingly, the two notes which are usually the loudest didn't wrench my focus away from the resins at all. I don't smell any patchouli or vetiver (awadh), so if they usually scare you but you're looking for a killer incense blend, this is going to be a favorite. Although I like the pair, I'm more than happy with the scent as it stands.

Lydia feels like a room full of smoke, velvet and death. You're hypnotized by its splendor, but in the vague corners of the room, inky black tendrils wait to consume you...

Edited December 21, 2016 by Balame

[zankoku_zen]

Oudh, opium tar, and myrrh. This one is a little smoky, a ton of resins, and hints of incense. Good throw and wear length.

 

Darker than I expected.

[LizziesLuck]

Thanks z_z for decanting this! <3

 

 

Wet: Yep, that's DARK. Like, gritty, grimy, kick-your-ass-and-look-hot-doing-it dark. I like it, but let me tell you, this oil is INTENSE. The patch in it is of the gnarly variety, but not so gnarly that it dominates. The musk is murky and blended really seamlessly with the labdanum and opium. It's actually really hard to pick out any notes at all. Having a hard time deciding how I feel about it. I like it, but enough that I would wear it? What setting would you even wear this in? I feel like you would have to have the right attitude to pull off wearing this. That being said, this should age gloriously. I would expect a lot of the sharp edges to wear down, and that it would blend even more seamlessly together. Hmmm.

 

Dry: Once fully dry, this gets sweeter, and rounder, and a bit spicy, and altogether quite lovely. But I worry it is fading really quickly, and I have a feeling it is going to fade down to all dry patchouli, which I don't care for. I am CONVINCED that in a year, I will adore this, but I could be wrong. Not sure if I should risk a bottle or not. I should likely test again. So much promise, though.

 

ETA: So glad I kept my decant - just retested it, and after only about a month, it's so glorious. Got a bottle. It's only going to get better! <3 The resins have really bloomed, they now sweeten the patchouli and keep it from dominating and being too dry. This is dark and rich and perfect.

Edited February 11, 2017 by LizziesLuck

[LiberAmoris]

Lydia, oh Lydia, say, have you met Lydia?

 

On me this is sweet opium incense...it smells like a loose blend my boyfriend used to buy from a vendor on 14th Street when we first moved to NY. The patchouli is awesome, unabashed. There's a strong vetiver note that comes out on drydown, but even though vetiver isn't usually my friend, it's submerged here in the darkness of the other notes. I also get a phantom black coconut note that I quite enjoy.

 

This smells like a shadow that turned into smoke.

[Madame Mew]

Lydia is EVERYTHING!!! I cannot even begin to explain how much I love this.

UGH, SO good!

 

I had a co-worker say I smelled like an old library.

 

The patchouli is why I went for this, but the opium and labdanum are so captivating and come to the foreground as it dries. I have had this for a month, and it seems to keep getting sweeter?

 

Great wear. This was my absolute favorite of the 5 I purchased from this collaboration (Silky Bat, Belonging to the Darkness, Lorraine Cross, Owl Moon, and Lydia).

 

I should probably buy another bottle...

Edited August 15, 2017 by Madame Mew

[Samuraibrarian]

Interesting. This is a big heap of sweet, smoky resins; I expected the patchouli to be louder, but the amber-like labdanum, oudh, and myrrh are out front. I'm also getting a gardenia-like floral note that's not listed in the description. Under normal circumstances that would be a deal-breaker, but it's well-blended with the resins and gives the whole "picture" an appropriately funereal, goth-y feel.

[DiZZysTARdust]

i was a little surprised by how light this blend is considering the ingredients. i got this expecting a vampy goth incense blend. in the bottle this is kind of flatish to me. i’ve encountered a few oils like that so i applied expecting it to blossom and warm up. it kind of didn’t. i didn’t smell any patchouli so if that’s a concern you’re probably good. lydia on the skin is very clean and aquatic. i was reminded a little bit of cologne, but also a little bit of generic aquatic shower gel. this had an also surprisingly medium-light throw (i really expected this to be very heavy). it was cooler in the throw; up close on the skin this did get slightly warmer, almost peppery. it was definitely sweetish which i attribute to the myrrh coming out. despite the sweet peppery quality i wouldn’t call this foody in any way. this lingered close to the skin for several hours without much change. 

 

ETA (2022) so i just found this bottle and I had to try it again because after so many years as a bpal fan i’m definitely eager to see how my impressions have changed.

 

Lydia is GORGEOUS. still lighter than I would have guessed from its elements but very resinous and feminine. I would definitely no longer describe this as aquatic. still not much patchouli at the onset, this is definitely all about the opium and labdanum

Edited April 19, 2022 by DiZZysTARdust

[Lucchesa]

Lydia is wonderful on me -- I'm sorry I only have a tester.  It's an almost spicy patchouli with dark sweet opium.  Awadh is apparently oudh (just google) but it's only adding richness, nothing fecal here.  The labdanum keeps it lighter than the other notes might suggest.  Dark sweet resiny patchouli goodness, total win. 

[bheansidhe]

Tarry and headshoppy to the max - as if Madame Moriarty were left to char and boil down and then was smoked over an incense log fire, rolled in black silk, and sprinkled with garnets and indigo glitter. The finish is a flourish of garnet velvet ruffles.

[lipstickonmyteeth92]

Lydia, oohhh Lydia! 

She's sweet and DARK. "My whole life is one big dark room" dark. But the dark room is the Countesses' bedchamber in "The Lady of the House of Love" heady with incense and glittering with the pearl tears stitched to the black velvet draped on the walls. 

[Fefi]

Oh I absolutely love this scent. Its dark and spooky with little hints of sweetness here and there. I can pick up on almost all of the notes except the Labdanum but it doesn't really matter. The Patchouli here is wonderful, the likes from which can be found in Silky Bat so you can get an idea of how it plays. It has an almost smoky like background note I don't really know what to attribute to, maybe its the patchouli? maybe the opium tar ? I feel its more the opium tar.  This scent is super rich and gorgeous. It feels luxuriously gothy. I hope this scent is always available because its one of my candidates to be my forever signature scent. 

[elissamay]

Where has this been all my life, and why is every Bloodmilk x BPAL blend I own so effing good?!

 

Silky Bat's much darker, broodier, and much more strange and unusual sibling. That same chewy patch is here, with a gorgeous fizz from the labdanum, sweet resiny myrrh, smokiness from the tar, and a spiciness I attribute to the awadh.

 

I adore it!

[ghoulnextdoor]

Inspired by the sparrow claw clasped Lydia cocktail ring and does indeed smell like how you might imagine our beloved goth icon and kindred spirit Lydia Deetz in 2016. Bitter at the onset, with a metallic tang, it swiftly evolves into a rich, leathery, balsamic amber fragrance. Sharp and biting, moody and mercurial, Lydia is indeed strange and unusual.

[Little Bird]

Every time that I wear Lydia, I wonder why I do not wear it more.  Opium is one of my death notes, but it perfectly cuts through some of the sweetness of the sticky, slightly cola-ish myrrh, awadh that smells of sweet-yet-dark-and-slightly-earthy chewing tobacco (reminiscent of French Tobacco single note), and the resinous amber/labdanum.  All of the notes are dark, strong, and on the sweeter side of their spectrums, which I love.  Good throw and staying power and doesn't change much through hours of wear.