Inside the Golden Amber of Her Eyeballs

[annemathematics]

A ghost, though invisible, still is like a place
your sight can knock on, echoing; but here
within this thick black pelt, your strongest gaze
will be absorbed and utterly disappear:

just as a raving madman, when nothing else
can ease him, charges into his dark night
howling, pounds on the padded wall, and feels
the rage being taken in and pacified.

She seems to hide all looks that have ever fallen
into her, so that, like an audience,
she can look them over, menacing and sullen,
and curl to sleep with them. But all at once

as if awakened, she turns her face to yours;
and with a shock, you see yourself, tiny,
inside the golden amber of her eyeballs
suspended, like a prehistoric fly.

– Rainer Maria Rilke

Sleek black fur and gleaming amber shining in the shadows, a rumble of myrrh, and claws as sharp as ti leaf.

fans of the beautiful Raven Black and Pugsley hair glosses from the post should rejoice that there is a stunning perfume oil to layer seamlessly with them.

inside the golden amber is a beautiful feminine musky black tea scent. soft and sleek and slightly more refined/subdued in feel than either of those two glosses...although both glosses have significantly upped their ooOmph since they first landed, so this might also increase in sillage over time. the label art is adorable

[brettashley]

This is a glorious scent - I'm so glad I blind-bought a bottle! It's golden, luminous soft amber, musky and sweet. This is something cozy you can live in. So happy to bathe in this scent this fall.

[zankoku_zen]

Resinous amber and fur. This is a very warm blend. Furry. Medium throw and wear length.

[SophieCedar]

Excellent amber blend.  Its warm, grounded, clean, and evokes beauty. This isn't a hippie pungent overwhelming incensey amber. Its pure baltic amber incense.. the kind packaged in little black boxes, sold at expensive french lingerie boutiques and such, and looks like gold nuggets. I love it.

[DianesTulpa]

Wet: I get mostly black tea, some warm amber, and a smudge of something musky

 

Dry: The ti leaf is still in the forefront, but the amber is right behind it...and myrrh has emerged, adding that hard-to-describe "furry" element to this. I woild mostly describe this as a feminine, fuzzy black tea blend with a little "bite" to it. I think it definitely evokes a black cat, gleaming amber eyes in the dark, and Autumn itself. While I do like it, I'm not totally in love. I would prefer it either amped up the amber, or reduced the tea, as it seems these elements aren't playing nicely together on my skin. 

[patina]

This is a yellow-green scent. The amber smells pale golden, or maybe it's the Ti leaf that has a lemony green tea quality to it. The Ti leaf is the strongest element. While the myrrh and musk are very much present they stay in the background, giving an impression of sleek blackness, fur and silk.

 

This is not a powdery, chunky old fashioned amber on me, this is a light silky perfume. .

[doomsday_disco]

I wanted to love this because I adore the label art.

 

Alas, it was not a win on me, and my experience is really different from that of the previous reviewers.

I got a blast of strong lemony white tea upon application, which remained the dominant note on me for a long time, and behind it, I smelled a very tart, dark berry-like fruit that I kept thinking was pomegranate. After a few hours, the resins became the main players, but it was more dark myrrh than amber on me (much to my dismay).

If only I had the scent experience that other reviewers had gotten from this!

[theseagrows]

at the beginning i believe i get the fur and ti leaf. it's warm from the fur and cool from the ti leaf. awhile later something deepens the scent. it doesn't seem like amber in the typical way-like warm and powdery (which i love!) but it's still gorgeous. i guess it's because it's 'gleaming' amber, there is a hint of something cool and shining. ahh i really love bpal's furry scents sometimes, and this may be a favorite...perhaps bottle worthy. 

[Juliamon]

To me, this is a shining example of everything I adore in a BPAL. Rich incensey resins up front, a sharp bite of ti leaf, a hint of tangy musk like when you bury your nose in your cat's fur, and a soft fuzzy quality enveloping the whole thing in a way that's more than the sum of its parts. This is a pet cat perfume through and through, soft and warm and clinging close to the skin.

[Juushika]

In vial: Astringent, lemony, with something darker hidden underneath. This reminds me of Haunted (soft golden amber darkened with a touch of murky black musk) before drydown, which has a similar lemony topnote.

 

On me: Lemony and astringent when wet, drying down into a more complex scent: a sharp lemony/green golden topnote overlaying a darker, fuzzier combination of myrrh, amber, and (I would argue) musk. It reminds me of Haunted-with-additions; the amber/musk is familiar. I'm not convinced I like the top note (which may be ti leaf?); I'm not a fan of astringency and it goes sharp, almost citrus.

 

Verdict: The first time I tested this, almost all I could get was a Haunted-clone, which was pleasant but redundant; I can pick out more notes from the blend now, and admire how it fits the inspiration, a glowing light, a sharpness, against a convincingly fuzzy base. But I don't really like it.

[Lunasariel]

In the imp: A cool, smooth, sophisticated, musky amber, very a la Haunted. And maybe with a hint of lemon, also as in Haunted?

 

Wet: Musky, resinous, and maybe a little soapy? I'm definitely getting the ti leaf, which reminds me strongly of certain Shungas, White Rabbit, or maybe even Dorian. But Dorian goes *very* soapy on me, so that might be appropriate, too.

 

Dry: After a few minutes, the soapiness fades and the musk comes forward, making it warmer, cuddlier, and, yes, fuzzier. It remains a musky amber throughout, with the ti leaf being a persistent accent. It's the ti leaf that takes this away from being a Haunted clone and into something softer and a little bit fresher.

[Lucchesa]

Haunted is one of my favorite GCs, so I was excited to try Inside the Golden Amber of Her Eyeballs.  I got golden amber and dark fuzzy musk but also lots of citrusy ti leaf, giving this a brighter feel than Haunted.  Myrrh feels kind of fuzzy to me, too, and while I couldn't pick it out, it may have been adding to the furry vibe.  I was really enjoying Inside the Golden Amber, but it didn't last long on me, which I might have expected given my skin's tendency to gobble up tea blends.  

[Casablanca]

Fuzzy-wuzzy dark and ambery musk!

 

I soon get a lot of myrrh joining them.

 

Yup. Fuzzy black musk (something like furry musk, vetiver, and lemon myrtle) with golden resins. It's not for me, but it's neat.

[roseus]

Fresh zingy green dominates this scent, I just get the tiniest bit of warm myrrh and amber underneath. 

[Padparadscha]

I fully intended to blind buy a bottle of this when it was live during the update based on notes alone, but I never got around to it before the 2018 Weenies came down. So, a quick thank you to the lovely forumite who sold me a new bottle of this after I missed it.

 

In the bottle: Mostly ti leaf with a hint of something murky underneath--the black fur/musk note--and a gentle whiff of the resins. The fur note in here is vaguely reminiscent of The Cat from the Neil Gaiman/Coraline series.

 

Wet/top notes: Strong, sharp black tea that quickly reveals that fur note. However, that similar fur note I smelt in the bottle has become something entirely different on my skin. It's much muskier and dirtier than The Cat; that's likely the amber interacting with it. Amber is sometimes powdery on me--not this amber, though. This is that rich, earthy amber, smoky and warm. It's dirtying that sleek fur note as if this cat rolled around on the ground, amplifying the "musk" in the black musk. The sillage is mostly black tea and myrrh with the black fur/musky amber staying close to my skin. This is primarily a musky black tea at the onset; everything else is supporting it.

 

Dry down/middle notes: After about fifteen minutes, the musky amber is softer, cleaner, and more powdery as a result of that ti leaf. It's still mostly black tea on me, but the resins are starting to trade places with the musk near my skin. There's definitely a clean, vaguely floral vibe from the tea, but this is not a "clean" fragrance. It's a rich, dark, smoky, musky black tea. The kind of tea that a witch who lives alone in the woods serves you when you visit her. Sure, it's black tea, but it's also something else.

 

Dry/bottom notes: At the hour mark, this continues to just be more of what it already was: musky black tea with a resinous support. It's definitely softer and less astringent than it was at the beginning, but I couldn't really pick out any specific notes other than the tea because the rest of it ends up being so well blended. It lasts  f o r e v e r  on me, but that's usually what black tea does on my skin.

 

Verdict: Remind me to never sleep on black tea scents from the Lab because WOW. I am soooo in love with this. It's a fairly gender neutral, year round fragrance, and I see myself wearing this literally all of the time. I'm a little biased towards musky black tea scents--I wore Burberry's The Beat EDP everyday for years (and still do on special occasions!)--and this reminded me of why I love them so much. This is a dark, resinous, smoky, musky, spooky take on black tea. If you're iffy on black tea/ti leaf or if it tends to go soapy on you, you probably won't like this. If you're looking for something resin-forward, this isn't that either. This one is for all my fellow musky black tea brewers and drinkers--witch and non-witch alike.

[starbrow]

Most of the time, I like a scent the best in that initial drydown stage, when it's strongest and most present on me. Inside the Golden Amber of Her Eyeballs is an exception to this rule. Out of the gate, the furry musk and ti leaf feel like they've got claws out and are battling for dominance. The animalic smell of fur is rather at odds with the dark tropical green of the ti leaf when they're both fresh and new. I almost decided to let my bottle go during this stage.

 

It's hours later when the amber emerges that this turns hauntingly beautiful. It's a sweet and cuddly golden color, like the softest honey, gently warmed from within. The fur is still brushing up against it, but homey rather than feral, and the ti leaf has settled down into a dark inky-herbal tinge. I don't get much myrrh at all; it is here to ground rather than to shine. The throw of the blend has subsided, but what I can smell is much more wearable and appealing to me.

 

This bottle is staying in my collection another year, and we will reassess next fall to see how many times I reach for it!