BPAL Reviews XXXIV
I seem to review more limited edition scents than anything else, and I just got another batch of decants today. So, to cull the herd a bit, here is a batch of LE reviews from the Black Phoenix Alchemy Lab.
Below are reviews of: Sol Invictus, Midnight Mass, The Winter of Our Discontent, Stardust, The Peacock Queen, The Cracked Bell, Chaos Theory III: 896, 13 (10/06 version), Creepy, Chintamani-Dhupa, Love In The Asylum, The Oblation, King of Clubs, Queen of Clubs, Queen of Spades, and Ace of Hearts.
Sol Invictus, Lab description: "A radiant blend of solar oils: golden amber, saffron, heliotrope, hibiscus, citron, frangipani, frankincense, tangerine, mock orange, and orange blossom."
"Sane, sol et in cloacam radios suos defert nec inquinatur."
"Yes, and the sun, too, pours down his rays into the common sewer without being defiled."
This is so high and bright and clear . . . amber and strong citrus with a sweet flush of flowers and a lick of tangerine. The florals come out more on the skin, with a breath of sweet, fruity resins. This is such a cheerful, radiant scent, unsullied and bright. I was expecting this to be more incense-heavy than it is, but it's mostly sweet citrus and a little floral. Lovely and cheerful.
The florals and the sharp citrus die back a bit as it dries, letting the rich amber and golden frankincense come to the fore in a scent that is fuzzy and radiantly warm.
Midnight Mass Lab description: " This perfume is a traditional Roman Catholic sacramental incense, most often used during a Solemn Mass. Traditionally, five tears of this incense, each encased individually in wax that has been fashioned into the shape of a nail, are inserted into the paschal candle. This is, of course, represents the Five Wounds of Our Risen Savior. Symbolically, the burning of the incense signifies spiritual fervor, the fragrance itself inspires virtue, and the rising smoke carries our prayers to God."
In the bottle, a sweet and hazy pure incense in crystalline form. On, it's redolent of frankincense, myrrh, and a lick of sweet wood - pine, perhaps, or cedar. It's a thick, soft scent, not too heavy, and without too much throw. As lovely as it is on my skin, I'm thinking this would probably be even more beautiful as a room scent.
As it dries, this becomes very woody and smooth, not very much like incense at all. I like it, but I don't think it's a big-bottle purchase. What I wanted from this was basically more Jacob's Ladder, and in retrospect, that is pretty silly.
The Winter of our Discontent, Lab description: "Embrace your villainy: balsam, myrrh, mandarin orange, bitter clove, artemesia, rosewood, nutmeg, dark musk, smoke and cypress."
Green cypress mingles with the sharpness of orange for a cologne-like base. There is a faint hint of clove, but not a sweet baking clove, more like an old, dry clove. The balsam and rosewood are mixed, too similar and too twined together for me to tell which is which. The smoke and musk, likewise, are bound.
Smoke roils out, and spices, but this is a cold scent, a remote scent. It's the cypress and the orange, I think.
The throw is spice and smoldering wood. Closer, it's powerful rosewood and rich musk. There is a hint of myrrh, but not too sweet. This isn't a sweet scent. It's grim, and it's rather dark.
As it ages, it gets sweeter, the spice and the rosewood predominating, the fading smoke and cypress warming a bit. The myrrh is dusty and golden.
I like this. An aged, arcane scent with a trace of menace at the beginning, that smooths out to a lovely finish with just enough of a perfume edge to it to keep it from being murky.
Stardust, Lab description: "When the holidays roll around, not everyone has mistletoe, caroling and cookies on their minds. This scent is a paean to celebrating hard: nights covered in glitter and dusted with cocaine, flutes of Cristal clutched in shaky hands, leather and lace, the Spiders From Mars in the background, and twisting, sweaty limbs entangled in dark corners. Hairspray and cigarette smoke is the incense in this temple to decadence, strobe and mirrors replace the devotional candles, and Bolan sings the hymns. This scent is for everyone that has every drifted off into Quaalude-induced reverie to the beat of a tribal 4-on-the-floor: the sound of Mott the Hoople, Sweet, Slade or the Dolls. This scent reflects the futurism, self-indulgence and excess of the Glitter 70’s: champagne, hyacinth, tuberose, ylang ylang and flashing white musk with jonquil, tobacco flower, white sandalwood and a pale poppy."
One of the limited edition Yule scents I'm only just getting to review. This is a ferociously perfume-y medley of bright florals in the bottle, very perfume-y, and just a little too much - definitely as decadent as an overdose. It's like a fugue of bright, shiny, glittering topnotes, in which no one note dominates, yet it's pretty smooth overall; a shimmery, wet scent with the same effervescence as a champagne waterfall.
On, it deepens. Here comes the musk and the sandalwood, arm in arm, just beautiful. There's a little rosiness, but it's surrounded by other florals, soft white ones and radiant, bright yellow ones. The poppy gives it a little bite. This is very beautiful on; it's beautiful and it even makes a stab at classy, but underneath it's just depraved. There's a drugged sort of stuporousness to it as it ages, the sharp and jangling flowers wearing down to a heady buzz atop the sandalwood's high. It's nice, and it gets nicer and less strident as it ages.
The whole thing has the same sort of lush, high-maintenance beauty that gorgeous young actresses have. This is Jessica Alba selling her soul and going blonde. It's sleek and sexy and utterly caught up in something out of control.
The Peacock Queen, Lab description: "In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred."
This is a full, sweet, perfumey, throaty rose. Beautiful, yes, but really, really intense, almost boozy.
It goes on the same . . . single-note rose, powerful and dark, very pretty, very haughty, and completely overwhelming. There's a warm note, almost a spiciness, that keeps it from smelling cool and sweet and fresh like Rose Red. This is a hot, velvety scent, a sexual rose, fleshy and spoiled rotten.
Definitely one to try for fans of rose scents.
The Cracked Bell, Lab description: "A winter’s horror: smoke and stillness, faded incense and the metallic tang of blood."
This is smoky and sweet in the bottle, with a bright tang of something hard and glassy bottoming it. It's not traditionally perfume-y, it is in fact slightly masculine, but it borders on it with a topnote that is high and clear.
This one is hard to describe; it's a very subtle blend with a lot of interplay and action between its various notes. I'm definitely picking up frankincense or something, a very churchy note, but there's an odd bright note, which must be the metallic blood scent everyone talks about. It smells nothing like metal or blood, but it is cool, bright, and hard. I can't for the life of me identify it.
There's a rough similarity here to the Black Tower, which was also smoky with a hard and bright topnote, but this is not woodsmoke and leather, it's ecclesiastical incense. It's not particularly aggressive or tenacious, wears off fairly quickly, and has only modest throw.
I like this. I like this a lot. It's very subtle with a touch of poise, yet not overly refined.
Chaos Theory III: DCCXCVI
I'm not sure what the hell the point is in reviewing an imp of a bottle of a completely randomly-constructed perfume, but because I'm an addict, I'm going to do it anyway! And nobody will likely be able to correct me on what I'm smelling, so that makes it even better. Oh, and did I mention that there's only enough in this bottle for one try? Well now I have! I'll never smell it again, so I'd better pay attention!
Bottle 796, for those of you not into the MCMOMGWTF system of numbering, and it smells very cedary/junipery in the bottle. Pretty! But very masculine. There's a hint of smoke, something burning, way back in there. This smells like the woodfires I used to build on the lakeshore with green pine boughs when I'd go camping as a kid. Smells great! Dies down to a cedar finish, mild and not that lingering.
13: Lab description: "In our paean to all the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic number, there are thirteen lucky and unlucky components: cocoa and vanilla beans, Mysore sandalwood, star fruit, orange rind, red amber, fig leaf, mimosa, rooibos tea, bourbon geranium, rose otto, nutmeg, and lavender."
This is the 10/13/06 version.
Chocolate and vanilla make this foody straight off. The sweetness is underscored by a hint of orange zest and a flutter of sweet florals. This is, overall, a cacaphony of the scent in which no one note dominates. Its predominant character is foody and sweet, faint florals overlaid with thick sugar and spice. The incense fills it in, sandalwood and amber, so that it's a very unified, even scent with a smooth body throughout its life.
Despite the fact that it contains orange peel, it's not citric in the slightest, and despite the fact that it contains geranium, rose, and lavender, this is not a primarily floral aroma. As it dries, the florals do come up a bit, thinned by the astringent tea note. Rooibos is thick and woody, a very distinctive odor, and I detect it here.
This starts as thick and foody, and winds up astringent and sort of wispily herbal. I like it very, very much.
Creepy, Lab description: "This season’s Ridiculous Scent! As creepy as Spooky was spooky, this is the scent of butterscotch-kissed, caramel-smothered red apples spiked with a blast of coconut rum."
Caramel/butterscotch, rum, and a faint whiff of apples are all I can smell in the bottle, a thick, sweet, yummy combination that smells syrupy and lickable.
On, it's even yummier. It fills out to a creamy butterscotch and rum scent with just a trace of apple spice. And the longer it's on the more buttery/caramel it smells. This is delicious! The apple here is not overwhelming; it's actually the apple spices I smell more even than the apple itself, and it's a very subtle note. Mostly, this is caramel and buttercream.
Chintamani-Dhupa, Lab description: "Pound well together sandal-wood, Kunku, costus, Krishnaguru, Suvasika-puspha, white vala and the bark of the Deodaru pine; and, after reducing them to fine powder, mix it with honey and thoroughly dry. It is now known as Chintamani-Dhupa, the "thought-mastering incense". If a little of this be used according to the ceremonies prescribed, he who employs it will make all the world submissive to him.
"A fumigation for fascination! A strangely sensual blend, exotic, compelling, and commanding, adapted from an incense recipe found in the venerable sex manual, the Ananga Ranga."
This is sandalwoody at heart, with a faint whiff of soft white pine, and a breath of florals taking a backseat.
The floral here is soft, rosy, sweet. On the skin, it acquires a touch of honey, pleasant and sugary but not overwhelming.
This is pleasant, a sensual blend that speaks more of slow pleasure than of lust. This would make a truly wonderful room scent, as well as a personal perfume. It's painfully polite, really, just a pleasant, woody aroma with an overtone of incense and roses. It's light but also sensual, an excellent combination.
Love In The Asylum, Lab description: "A song of love and madness: two roses, tolu balsam and ambergris with vanilla, labdanum, tobacco leaf, carnation and tonka."
This is rose and heavy incense notes with a splash of carnation's fizzy dazzle.
This is most certainly one of the most interesting rose blends I've smelled from the lab. It has not only depth, but a kind of manic quality - the rose is smooth and lovely, but the incense is sharply crystalline. The rest is slightly spicy, the tobacco leaf shows its influence more than directly asserting itself. It stays down there with the balsam and the tonka, making this scent warm and slightly woody.
I like this. It's definitely a rose scent, but not overwhelmingly so. Very agreeable!
This finishes off to a resinous rose finish. For those who might be searching for a similar scent, Pulcinella & Teresina from Carnaval Diabolique: Act II is a possibility. P & T, however, is also a limited edition, so. . . .
The Oblation, Lab description: "A stirring blend of dianthus, French lavender, blackberry, and white honey."
The strangest scent. The lightest honey mingles with fresh, herbal lavender for a scent full of . . . damn. Our vocabulary for scent is very poor. "Olfactory dissonance" is the only way I can describe it. The two scents oppose each other, one dry, one syrupy, one clean, one fleshy, one very forward, one basal. The blackberry is a persistent reverberation even after I pull back from the open bottle, but it is not apparent up close.
The fierce herbal twang to this only intensifies once it is applied. The dianthus - carnation, y'all - only adds to it. I am afraid this is foul on me, a scent tense with the feral odor of a flower bed newly soaked with cat piss.
As such, I can't even properly classify this; I'll take a stab and call it an herbal floral suitable for people who like lavender scents, but are searching for something a bit off the path, as it were, from the usual.
Those who cannot usually wear lavender, be warned. This is particularly intense and aggressive once it goes on, and the scent is not easy to remove.
King of Clubs, Lab description: The Queen’s Consort: Lord of the Wide and Fertile Land. Patient, laborious, and clever, though preoccupied with material things. A perfect compliment to his Queen: deeper, darker earth notes with dark musk, tobacco leaf, oakmoss, amber, leather, sage and vetiver with fig and bitter almond."
Oh! This is musky, mossy, and herbally green in the bottle, with a hint of warmth that is either the leather or the tobacco.
There's not a single note in here I don't love, so I have hopes this will smell as lovely as it sounds. And it does. It's much less assertive, much more low-key, and much earthier than I had expected . . . there's not a lot of throw to it, it's a very close-in and personal scent.
It's so subtle that I can't really describe it . . . the tobacco, amber, and musk form one end of the pole, with the herbs and moss on the other end. The rest is a smooth grade, more middle-note than topnote, green and yet very easy on the sinuses
This is really a mellow, spicy, earthy scent that, properly applied, could be easily mistaken for a person's natural scent. It's extremely appealing, very smooth, and much friendlier than I was expecting.
Arrrgh! Fucking limited editions. They're so yummy and tempting and unavailable!
Queen of Clubs, Lab description: "A modern incarnation of the Queen of Pentacles, or Disks, the Queen of the Thrones of Earth. Nurturing, warm and kind, she is practical, quiet and domesticated, and yet still ambitious, and possessed of the sensual lushness of Mother Earth. Soft, deep earth notes with myrrh, amber, pomegranate, dark incense, red currant, rose and vanilla."
Sweet and dark, this is currant, pomegranate, and vanilla with a rich dose on incense bottoming it out. There's a touch of something nutty or coconutty, I really can't get a grip on it.
On, the amber and vanilla come out for a moment of rough resemblance to O, but this is almost entirely done in by the myrrh and the other incense notes, which quickly overwhelm the fruity notes. The sweetness is still there, but it's barely hanging on, mostly anchored by the vanilla. There's something terribly, terribly familiar about this scent. It's complicated, deep, and absolutely beautiful, and only the fact that it is just a hair sweet is preventing me from calling it one of my favorite scents ever.
It's very female, but not overly feminine or overpowering. It's strong, but not oppressive, and the throw is very present but polite. It's sexy, but in an offhand way, not in a way that's consciously trying to please.
Queen of Spades, Lab description: "A contemporary incarnation of the tarot’s Queen of Swords. A card of decisive action, strength of Will, progressive action, justice, and, sometimes, revenge. The scent is a sophisticated, deep, and smoky floral with a decidedly exotic spice. Moroccan myrrh and black amber, with muguet, opoponax, deep black plum, cyclamen, galbanum, and wild blackberry softened by pear blossom and a swirl of exotic wood notes. (Gender neutral)"
This is musky and fruity, and very soft, a quite perfumey perfume without being stifling or over-sharp.
It goes on in a haze of resins with just a breath of florals and fruits. It's a very deep, spicy incense blend that has a great deal of gravity. Resinous with a trace of woody green.
As it dries it gets fruitier and woodier, and just a little sour. I don't think this is working for me, sadly, but it is a beautifully subtle scent. It would indeed work equally well on men and women, I think.
Ace of Hearts, Lab description: "Soul sister of the Ace of Cups in the tarot, this is the Primordial energy of Water: the Heart, emotional release and receptivity, intuition, fertility, and the forces of love, beauty, pleasure and happiness. Purest white lotus, white rose, rain orchid, rose gardenia, freesia, and Bulgarian rose."
Oh, dear. This sounds lovely, really it does, but if you'll pardon a pun, florals are not my strong suit.
I smell the rose notes right up top, with a clear perfumey floral I don't recognize. The alpine scent of freesia is a chill, sweet note, bright but almost buried under the rest.
This improves on, develops a little depth with the candylike lotus on one side and the rich roses on the other. Something in here is very green, possibly the orchid. I like it. The throw is profoundly beautiful, a light, airy floral that beckons so sweetly. It's a wistful, gentle scent, breakable almost.
It's not too perfumey, but because it's so floral it's more traditional rather than less. And, in a welcome departure from the norm, it doesn't go skanky on me. This stays light, green, and beautiful the whole time, from first application to weardown, only developing a trace of powder toward the very end.
Beautiful scent. Shame it was an LE and I'll probably never see it again.
I've been feeling the love lately; I'm down to less than 40 oils in my tester box that I haven't tried yet, and just received my decant circle package from the lovely syrenemyst today containing lots of new stuff. I also got my Rose Moon shirt, which is incredibly cool.
Now, however, I have no outstanding orders. I will have to correct this soon.
What's on your shopping list for next time?
Tiny scent icons are courtesy of Penance's BPAL Icons, Diana's BPAL icons, and Storme's BPAL icons.
Below are reviews of: Sol Invictus, Midnight Mass, The Winter of Our Discontent, Stardust, The Peacock Queen, The Cracked Bell, Chaos Theory III: 896, 13 (10/06 version), Creepy, Chintamani-Dhupa, Love In The Asylum, The Oblation, King of Clubs, Queen of Clubs, Queen of Spades, and Ace of Hearts.
Sol Invictus, Lab description: "A radiant blend of solar oils: golden amber, saffron, heliotrope, hibiscus, citron, frangipani, frankincense, tangerine, mock orange, and orange blossom."
"Sane, sol et in cloacam radios suos defert nec inquinatur."
"Yes, and the sun, too, pours down his rays into the common sewer without being defiled."
This is so high and bright and clear . . . amber and strong citrus with a sweet flush of flowers and a lick of tangerine. The florals come out more on the skin, with a breath of sweet, fruity resins. This is such a cheerful, radiant scent, unsullied and bright. I was expecting this to be more incense-heavy than it is, but it's mostly sweet citrus and a little floral. Lovely and cheerful.
The florals and the sharp citrus die back a bit as it dries, letting the rich amber and golden frankincense come to the fore in a scent that is fuzzy and radiantly warm.
Midnight Mass Lab description: " This perfume is a traditional Roman Catholic sacramental incense, most often used during a Solemn Mass. Traditionally, five tears of this incense, each encased individually in wax that has been fashioned into the shape of a nail, are inserted into the paschal candle. This is, of course, represents the Five Wounds of Our Risen Savior. Symbolically, the burning of the incense signifies spiritual fervor, the fragrance itself inspires virtue, and the rising smoke carries our prayers to God."
In the bottle, a sweet and hazy pure incense in crystalline form. On, it's redolent of frankincense, myrrh, and a lick of sweet wood - pine, perhaps, or cedar. It's a thick, soft scent, not too heavy, and without too much throw. As lovely as it is on my skin, I'm thinking this would probably be even more beautiful as a room scent.
As it dries, this becomes very woody and smooth, not very much like incense at all. I like it, but I don't think it's a big-bottle purchase. What I wanted from this was basically more Jacob's Ladder, and in retrospect, that is pretty silly.
The Winter of our Discontent, Lab description: "Embrace your villainy: balsam, myrrh, mandarin orange, bitter clove, artemesia, rosewood, nutmeg, dark musk, smoke and cypress."
Green cypress mingles with the sharpness of orange for a cologne-like base. There is a faint hint of clove, but not a sweet baking clove, more like an old, dry clove. The balsam and rosewood are mixed, too similar and too twined together for me to tell which is which. The smoke and musk, likewise, are bound.
Smoke roils out, and spices, but this is a cold scent, a remote scent. It's the cypress and the orange, I think.
The throw is spice and smoldering wood. Closer, it's powerful rosewood and rich musk. There is a hint of myrrh, but not too sweet. This isn't a sweet scent. It's grim, and it's rather dark.
As it ages, it gets sweeter, the spice and the rosewood predominating, the fading smoke and cypress warming a bit. The myrrh is dusty and golden.
I like this. An aged, arcane scent with a trace of menace at the beginning, that smooths out to a lovely finish with just enough of a perfume edge to it to keep it from being murky.
Stardust, Lab description: "When the holidays roll around, not everyone has mistletoe, caroling and cookies on their minds. This scent is a paean to celebrating hard: nights covered in glitter and dusted with cocaine, flutes of Cristal clutched in shaky hands, leather and lace, the Spiders From Mars in the background, and twisting, sweaty limbs entangled in dark corners. Hairspray and cigarette smoke is the incense in this temple to decadence, strobe and mirrors replace the devotional candles, and Bolan sings the hymns. This scent is for everyone that has every drifted off into Quaalude-induced reverie to the beat of a tribal 4-on-the-floor: the sound of Mott the Hoople, Sweet, Slade or the Dolls. This scent reflects the futurism, self-indulgence and excess of the Glitter 70’s: champagne, hyacinth, tuberose, ylang ylang and flashing white musk with jonquil, tobacco flower, white sandalwood and a pale poppy."
One of the limited edition Yule scents I'm only just getting to review. This is a ferociously perfume-y medley of bright florals in the bottle, very perfume-y, and just a little too much - definitely as decadent as an overdose. It's like a fugue of bright, shiny, glittering topnotes, in which no one note dominates, yet it's pretty smooth overall; a shimmery, wet scent with the same effervescence as a champagne waterfall.
On, it deepens. Here comes the musk and the sandalwood, arm in arm, just beautiful. There's a little rosiness, but it's surrounded by other florals, soft white ones and radiant, bright yellow ones. The poppy gives it a little bite. This is very beautiful on; it's beautiful and it even makes a stab at classy, but underneath it's just depraved. There's a drugged sort of stuporousness to it as it ages, the sharp and jangling flowers wearing down to a heady buzz atop the sandalwood's high. It's nice, and it gets nicer and less strident as it ages.
The whole thing has the same sort of lush, high-maintenance beauty that gorgeous young actresses have. This is Jessica Alba selling her soul and going blonde. It's sleek and sexy and utterly caught up in something out of control.
The Peacock Queen, Lab description: "In dramatic contrast to the soft innocence of Snow White and the dew-kissed freshness of her sister, Rose Red, this is a blood red, voluptuous rose, velvet-petaled, at the height of bloom. Haughty and imperious, vain, yet incomparably lovely to the eye, but thick with thorns of jealousy, pride and hatred."
This is a full, sweet, perfumey, throaty rose. Beautiful, yes, but really, really intense, almost boozy.
It goes on the same . . . single-note rose, powerful and dark, very pretty, very haughty, and completely overwhelming. There's a warm note, almost a spiciness, that keeps it from smelling cool and sweet and fresh like Rose Red. This is a hot, velvety scent, a sexual rose, fleshy and spoiled rotten.
Definitely one to try for fans of rose scents.
The Cracked Bell, Lab description: "A winter’s horror: smoke and stillness, faded incense and the metallic tang of blood."
This is smoky and sweet in the bottle, with a bright tang of something hard and glassy bottoming it. It's not traditionally perfume-y, it is in fact slightly masculine, but it borders on it with a topnote that is high and clear.
This one is hard to describe; it's a very subtle blend with a lot of interplay and action between its various notes. I'm definitely picking up frankincense or something, a very churchy note, but there's an odd bright note, which must be the metallic blood scent everyone talks about. It smells nothing like metal or blood, but it is cool, bright, and hard. I can't for the life of me identify it.
There's a rough similarity here to the Black Tower, which was also smoky with a hard and bright topnote, but this is not woodsmoke and leather, it's ecclesiastical incense. It's not particularly aggressive or tenacious, wears off fairly quickly, and has only modest throw.
I like this. I like this a lot. It's very subtle with a touch of poise, yet not overly refined.
Chaos Theory III: DCCXCVI
I'm not sure what the hell the point is in reviewing an imp of a bottle of a completely randomly-constructed perfume, but because I'm an addict, I'm going to do it anyway! And nobody will likely be able to correct me on what I'm smelling, so that makes it even better. Oh, and did I mention that there's only enough in this bottle for one try? Well now I have! I'll never smell it again, so I'd better pay attention!
Bottle 796, for those of you not into the MCMOMGWTF system of numbering, and it smells very cedary/junipery in the bottle. Pretty! But very masculine. There's a hint of smoke, something burning, way back in there. This smells like the woodfires I used to build on the lakeshore with green pine boughs when I'd go camping as a kid. Smells great! Dies down to a cedar finish, mild and not that lingering.
13: Lab description: "In our paean to all the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic number, there are thirteen lucky and unlucky components: cocoa and vanilla beans, Mysore sandalwood, star fruit, orange rind, red amber, fig leaf, mimosa, rooibos tea, bourbon geranium, rose otto, nutmeg, and lavender."
This is the 10/13/06 version.
Chocolate and vanilla make this foody straight off. The sweetness is underscored by a hint of orange zest and a flutter of sweet florals. This is, overall, a cacaphony of the scent in which no one note dominates. Its predominant character is foody and sweet, faint florals overlaid with thick sugar and spice. The incense fills it in, sandalwood and amber, so that it's a very unified, even scent with a smooth body throughout its life.
Despite the fact that it contains orange peel, it's not citric in the slightest, and despite the fact that it contains geranium, rose, and lavender, this is not a primarily floral aroma. As it dries, the florals do come up a bit, thinned by the astringent tea note. Rooibos is thick and woody, a very distinctive odor, and I detect it here.
This starts as thick and foody, and winds up astringent and sort of wispily herbal. I like it very, very much.
Creepy, Lab description: "This season’s Ridiculous Scent! As creepy as Spooky was spooky, this is the scent of butterscotch-kissed, caramel-smothered red apples spiked with a blast of coconut rum."
Caramel/butterscotch, rum, and a faint whiff of apples are all I can smell in the bottle, a thick, sweet, yummy combination that smells syrupy and lickable.
On, it's even yummier. It fills out to a creamy butterscotch and rum scent with just a trace of apple spice. And the longer it's on the more buttery/caramel it smells. This is delicious! The apple here is not overwhelming; it's actually the apple spices I smell more even than the apple itself, and it's a very subtle note. Mostly, this is caramel and buttercream.
Chintamani-Dhupa, Lab description: "Pound well together sandal-wood, Kunku, costus, Krishnaguru, Suvasika-puspha, white vala and the bark of the Deodaru pine; and, after reducing them to fine powder, mix it with honey and thoroughly dry. It is now known as Chintamani-Dhupa, the "thought-mastering incense". If a little of this be used according to the ceremonies prescribed, he who employs it will make all the world submissive to him.
"A fumigation for fascination! A strangely sensual blend, exotic, compelling, and commanding, adapted from an incense recipe found in the venerable sex manual, the Ananga Ranga."
This is sandalwoody at heart, with a faint whiff of soft white pine, and a breath of florals taking a backseat.
The floral here is soft, rosy, sweet. On the skin, it acquires a touch of honey, pleasant and sugary but not overwhelming.
This is pleasant, a sensual blend that speaks more of slow pleasure than of lust. This would make a truly wonderful room scent, as well as a personal perfume. It's painfully polite, really, just a pleasant, woody aroma with an overtone of incense and roses. It's light but also sensual, an excellent combination.
Love In The Asylum, Lab description: "A song of love and madness: two roses, tolu balsam and ambergris with vanilla, labdanum, tobacco leaf, carnation and tonka."
This is rose and heavy incense notes with a splash of carnation's fizzy dazzle.
This is most certainly one of the most interesting rose blends I've smelled from the lab. It has not only depth, but a kind of manic quality - the rose is smooth and lovely, but the incense is sharply crystalline. The rest is slightly spicy, the tobacco leaf shows its influence more than directly asserting itself. It stays down there with the balsam and the tonka, making this scent warm and slightly woody.
I like this. It's definitely a rose scent, but not overwhelmingly so. Very agreeable!
This finishes off to a resinous rose finish. For those who might be searching for a similar scent, Pulcinella & Teresina from Carnaval Diabolique: Act II is a possibility. P & T, however, is also a limited edition, so. . . .
The Oblation, Lab description: "A stirring blend of dianthus, French lavender, blackberry, and white honey."
The strangest scent. The lightest honey mingles with fresh, herbal lavender for a scent full of . . . damn. Our vocabulary for scent is very poor. "Olfactory dissonance" is the only way I can describe it. The two scents oppose each other, one dry, one syrupy, one clean, one fleshy, one very forward, one basal. The blackberry is a persistent reverberation even after I pull back from the open bottle, but it is not apparent up close.
The fierce herbal twang to this only intensifies once it is applied. The dianthus - carnation, y'all - only adds to it. I am afraid this is foul on me, a scent tense with the feral odor of a flower bed newly soaked with cat piss.
As such, I can't even properly classify this; I'll take a stab and call it an herbal floral suitable for people who like lavender scents, but are searching for something a bit off the path, as it were, from the usual.
Those who cannot usually wear lavender, be warned. This is particularly intense and aggressive once it goes on, and the scent is not easy to remove.
King of Clubs, Lab description: The Queen’s Consort: Lord of the Wide and Fertile Land. Patient, laborious, and clever, though preoccupied with material things. A perfect compliment to his Queen: deeper, darker earth notes with dark musk, tobacco leaf, oakmoss, amber, leather, sage and vetiver with fig and bitter almond."
Oh! This is musky, mossy, and herbally green in the bottle, with a hint of warmth that is either the leather or the tobacco.
There's not a single note in here I don't love, so I have hopes this will smell as lovely as it sounds. And it does. It's much less assertive, much more low-key, and much earthier than I had expected . . . there's not a lot of throw to it, it's a very close-in and personal scent.
It's so subtle that I can't really describe it . . . the tobacco, amber, and musk form one end of the pole, with the herbs and moss on the other end. The rest is a smooth grade, more middle-note than topnote, green and yet very easy on the sinuses
This is really a mellow, spicy, earthy scent that, properly applied, could be easily mistaken for a person's natural scent. It's extremely appealing, very smooth, and much friendlier than I was expecting.
Arrrgh! Fucking limited editions. They're so yummy and tempting and unavailable!
Queen of Clubs, Lab description: "A modern incarnation of the Queen of Pentacles, or Disks, the Queen of the Thrones of Earth. Nurturing, warm and kind, she is practical, quiet and domesticated, and yet still ambitious, and possessed of the sensual lushness of Mother Earth. Soft, deep earth notes with myrrh, amber, pomegranate, dark incense, red currant, rose and vanilla."
Sweet and dark, this is currant, pomegranate, and vanilla with a rich dose on incense bottoming it out. There's a touch of something nutty or coconutty, I really can't get a grip on it.
On, the amber and vanilla come out for a moment of rough resemblance to O, but this is almost entirely done in by the myrrh and the other incense notes, which quickly overwhelm the fruity notes. The sweetness is still there, but it's barely hanging on, mostly anchored by the vanilla. There's something terribly, terribly familiar about this scent. It's complicated, deep, and absolutely beautiful, and only the fact that it is just a hair sweet is preventing me from calling it one of my favorite scents ever.
It's very female, but not overly feminine or overpowering. It's strong, but not oppressive, and the throw is very present but polite. It's sexy, but in an offhand way, not in a way that's consciously trying to please.
Queen of Spades, Lab description: "A contemporary incarnation of the tarot’s Queen of Swords. A card of decisive action, strength of Will, progressive action, justice, and, sometimes, revenge. The scent is a sophisticated, deep, and smoky floral with a decidedly exotic spice. Moroccan myrrh and black amber, with muguet, opoponax, deep black plum, cyclamen, galbanum, and wild blackberry softened by pear blossom and a swirl of exotic wood notes. (Gender neutral)"
This is musky and fruity, and very soft, a quite perfumey perfume without being stifling or over-sharp.
It goes on in a haze of resins with just a breath of florals and fruits. It's a very deep, spicy incense blend that has a great deal of gravity. Resinous with a trace of woody green.
As it dries it gets fruitier and woodier, and just a little sour. I don't think this is working for me, sadly, but it is a beautifully subtle scent. It would indeed work equally well on men and women, I think.
Ace of Hearts, Lab description: "Soul sister of the Ace of Cups in the tarot, this is the Primordial energy of Water: the Heart, emotional release and receptivity, intuition, fertility, and the forces of love, beauty, pleasure and happiness. Purest white lotus, white rose, rain orchid, rose gardenia, freesia, and Bulgarian rose."
Oh, dear. This sounds lovely, really it does, but if you'll pardon a pun, florals are not my strong suit.
I smell the rose notes right up top, with a clear perfumey floral I don't recognize. The alpine scent of freesia is a chill, sweet note, bright but almost buried under the rest.
This improves on, develops a little depth with the candylike lotus on one side and the rich roses on the other. Something in here is very green, possibly the orchid. I like it. The throw is profoundly beautiful, a light, airy floral that beckons so sweetly. It's a wistful, gentle scent, breakable almost.
It's not too perfumey, but because it's so floral it's more traditional rather than less. And, in a welcome departure from the norm, it doesn't go skanky on me. This stays light, green, and beautiful the whole time, from first application to weardown, only developing a trace of powder toward the very end.
Beautiful scent. Shame it was an LE and I'll probably never see it again.
I've been feeling the love lately; I'm down to less than 40 oils in my tester box that I haven't tried yet, and just received my decant circle package from the lovely syrenemyst today containing lots of new stuff. I also got my Rose Moon shirt, which is incredibly cool.
Now, however, I have no outstanding orders. I will have to correct this soon.
What's on your shopping list for next time?
Tiny scent icons are courtesy of Penance's BPAL Icons, Diana's BPAL icons, and Storme's BPAL icons.