Laurel-Crowned Skull With Caesar's Band Flyer

[Seajewel]

Bay leaf, shimmering amber, tobacco flower, golden fig, Italian cypress, silvered ambergris, and warm balsam.

[doomsday_disco]

At first, I get fig, bay leaf, strong tobacco, high-pitched amber... tobacco and amber are very dry and sharp. I have been trying to avoid gendering scents but couldn't help thinking of this one as very masculine... I think it is the bay leaf and the tobacco combo. Then the fig calms down, and the cypress, balsam, and ambergris emerge and soften the scent up a little, even though it is still pretty dry and sharp. I'm reminded of some wax I like from Rosegirls called Spruce Willis, which is spruce combined with BBW's flannel type. I think it's the cypress and musky ambergris pulling my brain that way, even though this is drier, less coniferous, and darker. 

 

Both my brother and I thought this one smelled unappealing when we were sniffing some Weenie decants on Thanksgiving, so I saved this one to test last. But it is better on the skin than it is in the decant, and while I wouldn't wear this one myself, I think it would be great to smell on a guy.

[BoneBone24]

Wet: Sweet, shimmery, and greenish-gold.

 

Drydown: A deep, spicy green blend of cypress, balsam, and bay sits in the middle, surrounded by splendid rays of light. Sweet, musky, resinous, and fresh. The overall impression is almost foresty (but not quite), almost cologney (but not quite), and almost perfumey (but not quite). It shimmers but doesn't gleam.

 

Dry: It smells like breathing in magical forest air during golden hour, with a hunky centaur at your side. It's faery sex. Masculine-leaning faery sex.

 

 

8 out of 10 bones

Edited December 15, 2021 by BoneBone24

[Lucchesa]

I kind of love this.  Testing blind, I wasn't able to pick out any of the notes except for amber and some kind of evergreen.  It's obvious there's a whole lot more going on, but it's seamless.  Looking at the notes, I can say ok, there's the earthy sweetness of the fig, there's the cypress and balsam, but I really can't isolate the tobacco or ambergris or bay leaf.  It's soft on my skin, not overtly masculine but unisex.  BoneBone's greenish gold -- her whole review, really -- is very close to my experience of this one.  I wish it were a bit stronger but that may come with age. 

[zankoku_zen]

Bay leaf, green fig, amber, tobacco, and ambergris. This ended up as a very green blend on me. It's pleasant, but not knocking off my socks. Good throw and wear length.

[groovyrooby]

I wasn't sure what to expect with this, but it ended up on my shortlist of big bottle needs!

 

Amber, tobacco, and balsam notes caught my attention. Fig, ambergris, and bay raised an eyebrow. Together they morph from heavy cologne vibes (guessing the bay leaf) to a sweet and warm, rich and herbal. Something here is suggesting orange - maybe the fruity tobacco flower. It has a glowing feel to it and decent length. This started much more masculine than it ended.

 

Intriguing and complex and feels powerful without overpowering. I will probably wear this to work on days when I want to be a formidable presence but stop short of the intimidation factor. 

[PCPal]

This and Mouth So Sweet So Poisonous were the first bpal bottles I bought this Halloween. I had used them and decanted them into some cute antique perfume bottles, but now they've had about a month and a half to settle and begin to ever So Slightly deepen so I thought It's time to write my first bpal review!

In the bottle I definitely catch that shimmery Amber and the deepness of the cypress as well as the tobacco creating a darker vibe and air in the background. I agree with the aforementioned greeness. My friend recently got married and the color scheme was gold and deep green, reminds me alot of that combo.

 

Wet: When first put on its definitely the strong amber right at first which gives it a powerful aroma, this reminds me of a classy young man in a suit drinking champagne! I also catch the slightest amount of that fig in there upon application and the ambergris I believe and cypress start to make there presence known as it starts its Drydown.

 

Dry down: This is one of those scents that doesnt change much upon drydown for me, not till the very near end of its lingering on my skin atleast. The deeper subtler notes are definitely allowed to take the stage a little more here. Really catching the slight green fruity deepness of the fig and tobacco. It's got a good throw for me aswell. I've had people ask me what it is I'm wearing even an hour sometimes more after application. In terms of the bpal I have this one tends to last quite a while, and doesn't require much slathering (Although I love it so I do anyway!) I definitely get a big masculine energy from this, I tend to have a pretty masculine preferred skin chemistry (atleast I believe) and this definitely suits that. 

 

Overall I really like LCSWCBF. It definitely pushed me into falling deep into the rabbit hole of bpal obsession, and for that I massively appreciate it and have a backup bottle coming in my next order! Oh and I forgot to mention that this scent layers WONDERFULLY with Dee, they just compliment each other so well, Dee likes to stay in the background for sure, but ads a whole new deep green level.

 

 

 

[WoolyBee]

Okay, y’all are going to think I’m crazy. But it’s unavoidable at this point... this one gave me instant scent memory to a bath and body works fragrance for kids in the 90s/early 00s. I looked it up and it’s called Art Stuff in the blazin’ blueberry scent. I don’t know what it is about it. 
 

That being said, I definitely get those shimmering, sparkly notes that everyone else has been saying. And I pick up on the amber and cypress/balsam. But I think maybe the fig note is leading me into fruit territory. Actually now that I think about it, I bet it’s the ambergris that’s reminding me of the BBW scent. 
 

Overall, I think I like this one. I don’t think it’s too “masculine” at all. And if I get over the scent memory, quite sophisticated. 🥴

Edited January 16, 2022 by WoolyBee

[LavenderCoffee]

In the bottle, I get bay up front and the slightly astringent cypress note. Once my skin comes in contact with the fig, that note comes to the foreground in a big way and stays there. The bay remains prominent, closely followed by the ambergris, and this basically becomes a gorgeous three note blend for the duration. 

 

I'm reminded of the bay and ambergris combo in Falling Leaves Moon, but instead of leaves on top, it's fig.

The throw on this is phenomenal. When I did my own amateur 15 Minutes of Fume session and applied like 6 different scents at once, this one jumped out over all the others. It also has excellent weartime. 

[WhatAHoot]

When I first got this, it was a bit too "clean" for my taste (I tend to be very sensitive to scents that have the potential to go the direction of bracingly clean or "laundry" adjacent), but 3 months of rest have been great for it. 

 

This is still a clean-leaning scent, but it feels like a less skin musk-focused cousin of Like The Very Gods. I'm getting the herbal bay leaf, a smooth touch of golden tobacco, the dry woodiness of the cypress, some salty ambergris, and golden fig. I think this will continue to age beautifully. 

Edited April 1, 2022 by WhatAHoot
Typo

[starbrow]

The bay leaf that I remember from Kommt Mit Zacken Und Mit Gabeln is back! If you have tried Hierophantes, you know it well too. It is a clean-leaning herbal, somehow leafy and masculine and fruity-fragrant all at once. In the case of Laurel, it starts out very beautiful, but dries down with a burn to it that is too nose-singeing to be bottle worthy for me. I smell no fig, tobacco flower, or even really any other discernable note other than the bay leaf. It reads as a health food store scent to me, very herbal/homeopathic medicinal, astringent. It's not for me, but I can see other bay lovers loving it.

[murqmaid]

i really wanted to love this, but I just don't.

 

im getting the bay leaves, fig, amber, and balsam/cypress in that order. this wore kind of perfumey/cologney on me, and i much prefer Diana.

[Ennikar]

Reading the reviews above, I had one major concern before picking up a bottle (secondhand): is this gonna be soap? Like WhatAHoot, I can be very sensitive to 'clean' or 'detergent' vibes, which has cursed my aquatic hunt for years.

Wet on skin, the answer appeared to be "yes, but also you're miraculously not mad about it". The first impression was almost like soap, yes, but like the more "masculine" scented soap I can sometimes tolerate - probably the bay leaf, tobacco, and/or balsam, which are popular components for those types of smells. Kinda clean-herbal. Still, that would have put it in "okay" rather than love or even like. The fig is here, adding some fruity sweetness, but overall still on the dry side. As it dries, though, the floral elements of the tobacco flower, the ambergris, and the amber start to come forward - and here it's giving, of all things, To a Wreath of Snow, minus the vanilliac/pseudo-gourmand elements that scent carries.

Now it's basically dry and the bay, fig, ambergris, and tobacco flower are making a light clean-skin unisex-to-masc cloud. I'm excited, honestly, because most of the masc scents I love are on the spicy-resins side and can be just too heavy for warm weather, but I think this one is going to shine.