Skeleton Hands

[Seajewel]

All through 8th grade Lilith would come home with various “tattoos.” This one is my favorite, and one that they swear they’re going to get someday. Bourbon cream, bony sandalwood, oak bark, frankincense resin, hazelnut, myrrh smoke, and tattoo ink.

 

 

 

 

[batsy]

In the bottle: Super sweet and creamy, very sugary. Kind of like hazelnut cream with a bit of bourbon. Quite foodie!

 

Wet: The ink comes out in a way that I could only describe as "wet ink on parchment". It smells lovely, it's hard to convey in words. It has quite a bit of throw when wet. I found it a comforting scent, possibly due to the mix of sandalwood, frankincense, and myrrh. It's not particularly "deserty" but it has a warmth to it that envelops the wearer. I won't hesitate to say it sparked happiness in me.

 

Post dry-down: The hazelnut really stuck with me the longest; I think it's a deeper hazelnut with the oak and sandalwood mixed in, but it's still that distinctive hazelnut.

 

Verdict: I'm super happy I picked this, not just because of the notes but also the label image. As an art school kid who "tattoo" all over herself with Sharpie in high school, I feel like this was a scent made for me. It's a warm foodie scent with a dollop of dark ink.

[DiesMali]

In the bottle: Thick, sweet, boozy cream and a little bit of mixed resins. 

 

Wet on my skin: This goes on much sweeter than I anticipated when I ordered it, because I guess I didn't realize bourbon cream is an actual liqueur and that it's sweet like Irish cream. It's fairly boozy when wet, and the bourbon cream note is definitely the strongest on me for the first 10 minutes or so. I can smell the frankincense and sandalwood as well, and they get much stronger as it starts to dry. 

 

Dry: This blend took a couple days to settle down after the first test, and this is now the third time I've worn it, one week later. The thick, sweet, boozy bourbon cream now settles down fairly well after it's been on for 10-15 minutes, for which I am grateful! It is sweeter and less dry than I think I was anticipating with the listed notes, but not in a bad way. After the bourbon cream, the most prominent notes are sandalwood and frankincense, and I can pick out everything except the hazelnut, which seems to be combining with the oak to give it all sort of a woody, dry-gourmand warmth. It isn't outright foodie, but there's definitely something edible and sweet in it. The ink is hard for me to pick out specifically, because I've only tried BPAL's ink notes once before, but there's a whiff of something both sweetish and a little bit bitter, and I think I recognize it as ink because that's what is in the note description. Overall, it's a very "comfortable" type of scent, with the liqueur-sweetened woods and resins, and it wouldn't smell out of place if it had been released with the Yules rather than the Liliths. Golden-brown in tone, warm, and the descriptor "ecclesiastical gourmand" comes to mind. It's really nice, and I suspect a little bit of aging will go a LONG way with this blend. 

[Threemoons]

I had to get this just for the name, but the notes sounded intriguing also.  In the bottle:  Oh my stars, is this a candy corn note, which I love???  On, wet: An explosion of toasted hazelnuts with a dark ink bitter background note, and some burnt sugar maybe?  Drydown: Long and complex over many hours, goes from a gourmand which is heavy on the nuts and sugar and bourbon to a dry, inky, smoky note.  Really lovely.  OTOH the one problem is that I want to keep dabbing it on for the initial sweet rush!

[MamaMoth]

this is splendid!  creamy, sweet, and nutty on one side of the seesaw, perfectly balanced by incensey resins, woods, and a bit of sharp booziness on the other.

sometimes i sniff and think its a sweet rich gourmand propped up by deep resin.  then with the next sniff, i decide that it's actually sandalwood and resins sweetened and rounded by rich, nutty cream.  i absolutely love that i can't pin it down.

the more i smell it, the more convinced i become that there's a dark fruit component to that tattoo ink.  maaaaybe black currant? 

Edited October 24, 2022 by MamaMoth

[radiantfracture]

On me, this is a delicate foodie scent.

 

In the bottle: sweet and creamy; a "pink sugar" smell with good throw -- maybe a little of the alcohol

Wet: A flicker of the resins; more sweetness winding through; a little more alcohol adding a touch of intriguing sourness

Drydown: creamy, almost waxen; sweet and delicately boozy; sometimes I think I catch the ink

Dry: This gradually becomes a sweet but slightly drier scent, in which the woods come forward a bit - becomes a little powdery (the sandalwood maybe);

 

I second the idea that there's something fruitlike here, though it doesn't take over.

 

This maintains a sweet, almost fruity creaminess on my skin throughout, more candylike than I expected, with a ghostly dry resinous character hovering in the background. It's pleasant, though I was hoping for more from the other notes. In particular, I love the Lab's take on ink, so I was hoping that would come up stronger for me. This is a fairly new bottle; I might age it for a few months and see what happens when I return.

Edited November 12, 2022 by radiantfracture

[deadlyves]

Starts off strong on the hazelnut and bourbon cream, but the smell gets drier as it dries on the skin. The sandalwood and oak bark start to come out more and the nutty, creamy sweetness that it starts with fades to the back. Im not great at picking our frankincense or myrrh but i think im catching them rounding it out. Im not sure what the tattoo ink is meant to be, so not sure if or where thats showing up, nothing too dark sticking out.

 

Overall its both creamy from the earlier notes and dusty from the woods, a light brown, warm, cozy scent. Its not too foodie on me. I love sandalwood blends so this is a favorite for me. I think folks who like Brown Jenkin or Partridges in the Snow would enjoy this one.

[Lucchesa]

Skeleton Hands starts out as a sweet, nutty sandalwood on me and gradually softens into a warm boozy not-quite-gourmand. This is my sweet spot with foodie blends — I prefer them combined with woods or resins, here both. I don’t get the smokiness or tattoo ink, and at one point the bourbon cream threatened to curdle as all cream notes are doing on my skin lately, but it only flirted with spoiled milk. Mostly it’s a solid comfort scent, perfect for fall. 

[Poenari]

I am finally getting around to testing this. My first impression: "this is unmistakably a Lilith scent!" It has that creamy sweetness that is so prevalent in many of the Lilith blends, especially in the last few years. My daughter and I love to drink bourbon cream, so I know that smell quite well and it is definitely what I get right off the bat. It calms down and the hazelnut comes through, but everything is grounded by the wood notes. I usually amp frankincense and do not here, it's very much a supporting player and does not stand out.

 

Overall this is sweeter than I expected, and another lovely Lilith to add to my collection!

[doomsday_disco]

This one is really nice. It starts off with the sweetness of the bourbon cream and hazelnut accompanied by a sweet, yet dry sandalwood (getting serious OLLA Kit vibes) and and oak. A lot of scents with hazelnut in them lately have been really sweet, but the woods keep the sweetness in check, so this isn't as sweet as, say, The Empress and Their Heckhound from last year's Liliths. I'm never able to pick out the myrrh smoke (and I'm fine with that) or the tattoo ink, but this is a nice, slightly nutty =, sweetened resin scent with a more powdery and dry woods feel by the end of the day.

 

I'm trying to be good about only upgrading things I really love now because my collection is so large, so at the moment, I'm thinking I'll keep the decant, but that I don't need more of it. The stock is low, though, so I am going to retest it soon and see if I still feel that way. Thank you to the lovely forumite who sent me some of this to try!  

 

ETA: I swapped for a bottle of this, and the bottle is completely unlike my decant. It was somehow fruity, and I believe the fruit note is cranberry, as it reminds me of the cranberry bog scents. I'm not sure the bottle was mislabeled or if it's just a batch variation, but I prefer my decant to the bottle scent, so I'm trying to destash the bottle.

Edited August 11, 2023 by doomsday_disco

[Bassmastadroog]

A thick burst of bourbon cream in the opening, a hint of potentially fresh ink, then for me I mostly smell bourbon cream and myrrh smoke/frankincense resin throughout the drydown. At first I thought this was a generic sweet smelling perfume and wasn’t into it. Then the more I tried it the more it held on to that bourbon statement. I think the woody notes ground that. I really like it!

[zankoku_zen]

Resinous oak, hazelnut and a whiff of bourbon cream. Medium throw and wear length. 

[feyofthefellwood]

I decided to snag a last minute bottle of this, after neglecting to get a decant because I thought it would be too similar to other hazelnutty scents I already have. And . . . dang, I really like this. This is a wonderful blend of contrasting creaminess, woods, sugar, soft incense, and ink. The hazelnut is there but it doesn't overwhelm. I've been really enjoying the Lab's ink notes lately and this is another good one. This one reminds me a little of ballpoint ink, but fruitier (though I don't think there's a fruit note per se, it's just sweetened by the bourbon cream). 

[spaghettysburg]

The ink note is strong in the beginning, and smells berry-tinged to me despite there being no berry or fruit notes listed. It's back by a nutty sandalwood that, as it dries down, becomes the only thing I can smell. Sandalwood is not a favorite note of mine and while I liked it while the ink aspect is present, once it fades the sandalwood is too much for me. I'm really glad I got to try this one though, the ink accord is super unique and I think I might hang on to my sample just for that opening.