Lycanthrope

Sir Philip Burne-Jones Thick snow banks, wet soil, and frost-caked wood shrouded in opoponax, labdanum, and birch tar. Ok, so I like this a lot! This definitely has almost a cool, Yule-like feel to it. It smells like mud, in a good way, kind of loamy and sweet, but not as pungent with mushrooms as Graveyard Dirt. So it's a bit rich, like Penny Dreadful-level soil, a grittiness. The wood is kissed with mint, but only enough to bring the snow/slush note forward. The tar component may be like a vetiver-ish smokiness smoldering under the surface. I can definitely detect the labdanum in the drydown, which mingles with the opoponax to create a pretty unique gummy resinous base. Over time it hovers in the air a smoky resin, more than an environmental scent, and it's a lovely darkness.

Not so spooky, right? Here's to finally being able to hit the slopes again! Soft white powder snow with a touch of youthful girlie perfume. This is an excellent atmosphere spray. I'm debating loading up on this one! I remember my first set of Yules from BPAL, Snow Bunny 2005, and the 2008 release. Both are great on my skin, and had a great, sweet, powdery pine scent with a little bit of sugary sweetness. I think there's a subtle vanilla / berry note behind it all. On my skin, Snow Bunny faded pretty quick. This is similar in terms of lasting power, but it's a pleasant, sweet sugary pine scent, somehow reminds me of soft flurries and marshmallows (kind of). The drydown with the spray is more vanilla-ish, white sugar, not burnt. I'm not sure exactly what kind of 'girlie perfume' this is, however it has a similar feel to the top note of Jailbait, or Penny Dreadful's perfume. I want lots! I wish this could become GC spray, but... I know it's seasonal. It's less foody than Christmas Present (very strong cookies) but similar snow note. It's more piney than Winter Wind (but less mentholic notes). Still lovely!

Oh bother. It's a trouble that I love oceanic scents and marines, but now I think some of the 'beach' scents or anything with 'sea salt' does the dreaded tortilla on me. The corn-chippy like smell starts off amping on me and I can't move much past that. Eventually it becomes a sweeter, less corny atmospheric light sky-aquatic, which is nice, but I just have so much trouble with the 'sand' or 'sea salt' note... sadness.

This past March, Lilith played Kaa in a small kids’ production of the Jungle Book. The image here is from a test photo we took of her snakey makeup! Lilith says that Kaa smells like the jungle, so for her and for the Great Python Snake, I’ve bottled an impenetrable canopy of thick, vine-draped trees, primeval flowers blooming in the shadows, and dark, wet earth that has not been touched by sunlight in a millennia. Wet from the bottle, this is not a very 'dirty' scent. I get a little bit of moisture, like a hint of aquatic, but mostly very green viney waxy leaves. On the skin immediately there's a pretty good stemmy / leafy scent kind of like broken dandelion tubes, but without as much milkiness. If there is dirt, it's very silty, more like a muddy type of scent, akin to the Season of the Inundation rather than, like, uh, Badger, or the Down the Rabbit Hole Atmosphere spray. On me, there's even a kind of... birchy, aspen-y type of note, but I'm very surprised by how very uniform the scent is. It reads definitely as 'canopy, green, thick.' I think probably there's a kiss of orchid but it's not very prominent. This is a remarkable atmosphere scent. On me, too, it's a very unique green, subtle but evocative aroma. I think I could get away with wearing this at work!

Champagne-splashed amber with vanilla, ambergris accord, Damascus rose, white patchouli, and leather. Immediately, a flush of bright champagne note, a bubbly sharp and dry grape-y scent, very alcoholic. Similar to fresh Bon Vivant. The note does die down a bit after application and some time for the scent to settle on the skin, but the predominant crisp 'yellow gold' of the champagne lingers. As that top note dissipates, there is a slightly deeper yet still not very heavy base of a cool leather (not terribly brawny), and the patchouli and amber are not very strong. This reads as a fruity, fresh, slightly bright leather scent (think White Rider). Though rose is in the note list, I don't actually get much at all! Since I am a rose amper, this may be circumstance versus a very small amount of rose actually in the blend. Deep inhale, I do get some of the lighter patchouli, yet still tons of the champagne fruit note. While fresh and forward, this is not the kind of scent I tend to gravitate towards, since piercing fruits give this wolf a bit of a headache, but if you love teh bubbly notes, this is a good one.

Several years ago, I went to Stonehenge for the very first time. Walking through the center of the stones was transformative, and watching the sun set behind the stones stole my breath like a cold dagger of joy plunged into my heart. Teddy and I wanted to share that moment – the feel of the place, the enigmatic majesty of the stones, the mist-shrouded history – with Lilith, so we took her there last March. I cannot put into words what it felt like to watch her run and laugh through the standing stones, to watch her skip and laugh and dance through the shadows and sunsets of thousands upon thousands of years. Wiltshire’s burnt-tip orchids, a scattering of dandelions, crushed grass, wild daffodil, and chips of fog-wet bluestone. Smells like wet grass in the bottle. Oh, and then on, there's the dandelion sap, milky, blending with the grass to lend the immediacy of FIELD: VERSION SPRING, WET. Wow, this is like, catch a football, have terrible grass-stains, realistic. The florals are probably quietly present lending a hint of sweetness to the leafiness. This is not like, heady orchid floral, but just a subtle background mellow kiss of something light and pollen-y. The stone is not terribly potent, so not like mineral 'Black Opal' strength, but likely present lending a bit of stoic base to the overall scent. This is like a more leaf/grass-forward 'Summoning Stone Play Structure.' Excellent if you love grass and field and natural notes. So very green! I'd whip this one out in early summer to run around with.

Every instrument she touches, she adores. If she had the money and the space, her bedroom would look like a basement storeroom at the philharmonic. I played violin as a child, so when I saw her waving that bow for the first time, my heart grew ten sizes. Of course, she prefers the drums. Bow rosin and bubblegum. I was (am?) a violinist, so this spoke to me. I also love bubblegum scents, but have been hard pressed to find anything that surpasses Lilith's Bubblegum and Roses. Immediately wet, this is a very similar scent in terms of the type of bubble gum - very pink, very fruity, very chewy. I'm not getting much other than the sweet fruit and even the powdery covering of the bubble gum (think... Bubble Tape... original. I can even taste it!) I'm searching for the rosin, but not really finding it... I'm sure it's probably there. I can detect something kind of sweet, syrupy, a little amber-y, tickling around at the edges. It's remarkable how this reminds me of the smell of unchewed gum with the cornstarch powder sitting on top of it... surreal... Even after a good ten to fifteen minutes I'm not getting a big change from the super realistic bubblegum scent. I think the rosin, sweet as it may be, complements the scent so well it's pretty seamless. If you love Jailbait, Courtney, any of those types of scents, Pop!, Lil's BG and R... this is a very good cousin, pretty straightforward, but awesome.

LILITH'S FEEL BETTER FLOWERS I've been trying to teach Lilith a little bit about herbalism, aromatherapy, and plant lore. We talk about all the plants that are growing in the yard, we talk about all the tinctures, simples, and other concoctions that mom makes, and we play a board game that's all about wildharvesting herbs. Lilith and I were talking about oils one day at work, and she told me that she wanted to make a perfume with all the "feel better flowers". I told her that I'd put in every flower whose purpose she could remember… … so here's what she made: + carnations (to make people happy) + lavender (for sleeping and keeping away bedroom monsters) + honey (it's for smiles and good throats) + ginger (for tummies) + aloe (for too much sun) + blessed thistles (for buronic (sic) plague) + chamomile (for happy families) + chocolate peppermint (because mom grows it just for me) Please remember! – this is a perfume, not a medicine! Please don't drink, rub on wounds, use as a suppository, or anything else nutty. Lavender is the dominant note when wet. I can detect a hint of chamomile as an earthy deeper mustier floral note, ginger and honey are now sweeping to the front. I'm getting a tiny bit of peppermint. A bit more herbal than most blends but still a beautiful sweet spicy lavender scent. As it dries it would do well for people who like smooth, sweet honeys. It has turned into something like the trading post's Xvclemab (sp?!?!) soap. Very nice. Debating a bottle.

Ok, this is always a challenge mode when there are no notes listed. I really love both the animals, and the story... The world is a scary place but there's so much love in the passage. From the bottle, I get these three notes: red musk, cedar (soft), and a little bit of... maybe mint? A hint of sassafrass or chocolate? Immediately wet on the skin, still musky, then I get something... like from Tzadikim Nistarim, like, uh, something reedy? Papery? Oh, wait, that left. Now I get more dryness, definitely the cedarwood or sandalwood coming to the midground. About ten minutes in, it's still pretty musk/woodsy, definitely a ... burgundy brown color to me, is there pepper in this? No, it's not pepper, but it's warm... saffron? About thirty minutes in, it's like... a gruff snake oil + fuzzy brown resinous fuzziness. It's really good. I think it's kind of similar to WILF and Fenris Wolf but much deeper than Fenris and not as... uh, forward, as WILF. Thanks for dealing with my weird notes and my train of thought rambling.

I really wanted to like this one, as I love and adore honeysuckle (it's a rare component in BPAL, it seems). I really really like the one in Liaidan and Curuthir, that sort of honey-sweet sparkling white-gold floral. Apparently in Heel, it's just too much! I put it on and was enjoying my little honeysuckle cloud, but quietly it started amping up on me over time and then everything became just too much floral. The grassiness was present but it was like the honeysuckle sweet turned up to eleven. I may try to use it in a diffuser or as an addition to a bath but on my skin it does something really odd. A very potent creamy SWEEEEEET heady floral for sure.

I'm reminded a lot of a more lavender-y Bly. This starts off with a very nice, smooth lavender, definitely not terribly herbal or anything, probably offset by the white / pale musks. The drydown is a soft rain-lashed asphalt, very much like Bly with that quiet concrete grayness, mist, and it smells kind of like... rainstorms... the smell of the road afterward. Yes, I totally go outside after a rainstorm in Denver to smell the earth.

It's interesting what our skin chemistries do to this scent, apparently mine eats cake. This is like a very true cardamom seed essential oil - so for me tons of cardamom all the time with a teeeeeensy bit of cake.

Black pine and crooked oaks draped with Spanish Moss, dimly lit by flickers of juniper. Oh, baby. This is like a brooding, Black-Forest like atmosphere spray that brings to mind a deep forest that you really shouldn't be in. Add to that a quiet room and you can be transported to the center of a forboding grove. While the predominant topnote is a pretty classic pine, the oak supports it with a powerful, warm midnote. The spanish moss is present in a slight sourness / tang to the pine top notes, and the juniper comes across mostly as tiny spark of gin-berry. The overall drydown is a blended mixture of 'forest' and this would be super awesome for a forest-themed halloween party. I can see this also being a fall / Eastern Europe forest atmosphere inducer. Mmm.

Sleek vetiver-limned musk with tobacco absolute, smoky vanilla, carnation, and lavender. I get a hint of the sweet vanilla-carnation-lavender right off the bat, which is my scent cue for scents like Hod, Bow and Crown of Conquest, and Dolce Stil Nuovo. But! Boy! The vetiver-limned aspect is definitely present since I get a husky vetiver chomp at the first bit, and it's not subtle at first! It's like two different personas trying to fight to the surface - the restrained prettiness of the vanilla-lavender, bridged with husky vetiver musk, combined with the carnation. Tobacco makes its appearance as a very rich, potent smoke, and it's a very good tobacco indeed. Polarizing for me since I can't tend to pull off tobacco due to skin chemistry. It's not a cigarette tobacco, but the tobacco leaf type of richness. The floral blend lends this a type of strong femininity (scent wise!) which really fits the character of the blend well. This is a feisty no-nonsense-but-still-rocking-the-perfumes type of scent. Drydown this is definitely not your sweet, sleep and relax type of vanilla-carnation-lavender blend, it retains its purposeful grittiness. As time passes, the vanilla-lavender rises to the surface and I get glimpses of TKO sweetness. ETA: It is interesting to see what skin chemistry does! I'm a single guy in my 30s, and to me, TKO has always read as vanilla-lavender forward. When I'm wearing Laura Belle McDaniel it does have a bit more husky tobacco. I thought maybe I was crazy because the reviews below mentioned that this did not have strong resemblance to TKO. So, I wore it a few times. Scents in the family of TKO, Hod, Dolce Stil Nuovo, all seem to light up the same notes for me - the whole creamy vanilla lavender + carnation spice that reads to me as 'lavender vanilla!' I still get that same feel, although it appears it's not everyone's experience.

A sister’s grief: carrot seed and blue musk, grey with labdanum, bitter frankincense, champaca blossom, and salt. I'm a sucker for aquatics. I, however, have had terrible fortune with Carrot Seed blends. I don't know what it is (possibly a run-in with the carrot seed CO2 extract when I was a younger wolf). This is immediately salty-aquatic like Pool of Tears aquatic, with a swiftly apparent sweetness. I think possibly that's the blue musk with the top notes of laudanum (cistus). There is frankincense here and it's probably adding to the first sparkle. It's combining well with the wry twist of salty aquatic and giving it a bit of a complementary high smoke, incense note. I'm probably getting champaca, as an equally higher toned white-yellow floral note, as parts of me are going Khajuraho? What? And that's likely the influence of that note. I love Khajuraho, for its sultry-sweet over the top exotic note. I'm not getting too much carrot seed directly, although I'm sure with all these high notes, it's layering and helping to ground something here. The labdanum / cistus is also providing some depth and grounding. This scent is a very nice aquatic, slightly different from aquatics I have. It reads more light and top-note-ish, and I think because of less purely rich grounding notes, it burns off on me pretty fast. But, it seems light, inoffensive, very beautiful. I think extremely wearable for work.

I use my scent locket, I happen to have a clocket from BPTP. I find that when I wear it against the skin, it warms and then I smell a little puff of fragrance. This is generally when I'm charting or doing office stuff. Then if I wear it over my clothing it tends to not emit as much fragrance - sometimes I slip it into my white coat, although with my absentmindedness that would be a recipe for disaster. It's worked out pretty well and worst comes to worst I just put it in my work bag and take it off completely. They make variants of scent lockets and scent jewelry online if there aren't any current scent lockets available.

An unfortunate electrical storm: lightning striking the tops of venerable oaks, Alpine moss tucked into dark mountain crevices, rain-drenched German chamomile and tulip, and a handful of wet, shy violets. Whoa. Like, this was totally unexpected for a Halloween update. I was thinking, beaches, pumpkins, blood, musk, yeah, Weenies! This instead is like a sprayable spring storm in the mountains. It seems light but there's a lot of complexity. Right off the bat from the nozzle it reminds me a touch of something piney, tree-like, resinous. In a way it's like Fae Forest but not nearly as lush, it's more the snap of lightning and rain spray over pine needles. The oak is not overpowering but it lends a very true forest-y feel to the spray. Moss is detectable as a roughness around the stormy rain. There's an element like Danube or Amsterdam in the moist aquatic tones. The violet is present, but it's not a violet-forward scent. They peek around, and with the moss and oak, really lend this a wild feel. I let it sit around in my bedroom for about half an hour, and it remains a complicated, airy, but extremely evocative outdoors scent. It lingers in the air like mist after tumultuous weather. Good god. I just bought four more. I haven't done that since Snow Bunny. If you love Fae Forest, Arkham, lighter versions of Black Forest, etc... you owe yourself this spray!

Truly a lady loved by many: white almond-tinted musk and heady orchid with cedarwood, vanilla orchid, ylang ylang, Chinese peony, and honey. Sweet, sticky, cyanidic almond right off the bat, but this swerves away from the pure almond very quickly with a mid-note rise of the florals in a very subdued way. Lace under a fluffy white gown? The florals are very exotic - and this is probably what I am getting now as the almond is segueing into the background - oh, and there's the honey, but it's like honey rubbed into a cedar chest, since I can get the hint of cedarwood. The cedarwood though is... kind of buttery, since I can also get even with the light exotic florals the kiss of almond. This really reminds me of a less WISTERIA'D Cordelia, which is one of my favorites. This may be more sweet and soft, lightly floral due to the honey and the peony/orchid. I do get some ylang ylang but to be fair most of Beth's ylang blends on me I have a blind spot for picking it right out. This is the one I bought a few bottles of right at the table. I think I will like them a lot, since even with all the sweet and floral notes, I read this is a woodsy foody, which sounds weird, but is very unique. I like unique! I really get the 'Colorado Bordello' feel from this, probably the cedarwood talking. Over time, this has gotten more honey-ish, and the cedarwood has retreated. I think the orchid is also rising, since this is reading as 'O' in familiarity.

Huh. It's very cool and bright from the bottle. On my skin it smells like Colorado. There's a bit of a piney bite to it, and with drydown it really smells like when you're trimming the groundcover around your house you regret putting in because it's frickin' everywhere and on a mountain but you're enjoying that halo of intoxicating pine oil mist that you're kicking up. Drying down, definitely not a sweet or perfumey type of scent or 'interpretation' of juniper. There's a hint of a reminder of gin, but probably only because gin contains juniper berries, and not alcoholic. Very light.

TACITUS’ PHOENIX That it is a creature sacred to the sun, differing from all other birds in its beak and in the tints of its plumage, is held unanimously by those who have described its nature. As to the number of years it lives, there are various accounts. The general tradition says five hundred years. Some maintain that it is seen at intervals of fourteen hundred and sixty-one years, and that the former birds flew into the city called Heliopolis successively in the reigns of Sesostris, Amasis, and Ptolemy, the third king of the Macedonian dynasty, with a multitude of companion birds marvelling at the novelty of the appearance. But all antiquity is of course obscure. From Ptolemy to Tiberius was a period of less than five hundred years. Consequently some have supposed that this was a spurious phoenix, not from the regions of Arabia, and with none of the instincts which ancient tradition has attributed to the bird. For when the number of years is completed and death is near, the phoenix, it is said, builds a nest in the land of its birth and infuses into it a germ of life from which an offspring arises, whose first care, when fledged, is to bury its father. This is not rashly done, but taking up a load of myrrh and having tried its strength by a long flight, as soon as it is equal to the burden and to the journey, it carries its father's body, bears it to the altar of the Sun, and leaves it to the flames. All this is full of doubt and legendary exaggeration. Still, there is no question that the bird is occasionally seen in Egypt. - Tacitus, Annals The Incense of the Altar of the Sun: ambrette seed, olibanum, benzoin, labdanum, galbanum, frankincense, calamus, clove bud, and orange peel. Wet: Smells a bit like Aveda's Sapmoss, but this was always galbanum in my experience. On my skin this starts to develop a very strange pathway towards being a smoky, highly resinous slightly spicy orange-whispered clove. The overall tone of the scent is very much lighter orange-yellow with a bit of gold flakes showered in. It overall has a sharper resin tempered with only a hint of sweet orange. I like it, but it's also not a very 'pretty' scent. It's quite warm, orange and glowy.

Rose oudh with fossilized amber, benzoin, blackened labdanum, golden myrrh, and dark musk. Ah, pressure's on! Wet, this is the dark musks with a hint of red rose. There's mostly the sweet resins and amber, all a deep, thrummy, spicy melange that provides a nice base for the subtle rose in this scent. I am mostly getting a rich, chewy, deep and delicious amber/myrrh base. The rose is just a gentle hint, but it provides a touch of lighter floral in this resinous choir. Worth a try! ETA: This reminds me of the rose in Elizabeth of Bohemia, but more resins. Also, strangely, the rose amps MORE over time, so different from my first impression.

The Mikado Saloon and Bordello, run by Pearl “21” Thompson, was a small, intimate establishment: well-worn leather with bourbon vanilla, dark musk, and ambergris accord. Sweet, sweet on the skin off the bat. Vanilla leather. This is a deeper more fleshy leather. Then, very rich black musk. I amp black musk on my skin. I can tell this would be a very potent, musky leather cloud around my hair. I am terrible at identifying ambergris in any scent (even the ones with it like listed as the third ingredient of three items), but I guess that would add a waxy richness and slight saltiness (I do get that but it's not bad). In the end, a rich, black musk vanilla with maybe a twist of spanked leather and sweat-salt. I could probably as a guy get away with this but I would feel like this would go on a more ravishing gentleman than mild-mannered me.

HAI I'M A BULL AND MADE OF ROSES AND YOU WILL SMELL LIKE ROSES (do you want to? no? MOO BAD!!!) So much rose. It overpowers everything else, even the jasmine (which is probably there but I can't tell, it's all floral!) Please be aware my skin amps rose.

I am a Leo. I don't know all the rest of my zodiac spread because... reasons... like not remembering what time I was born... but I am a preemie so I was supposed to be a Virgo. I've been doing all the Starstrucks - some good hits, some really weird ones, and then there's Taurus, which is like HAI I'M A BULL AND MADE OF ROSES AND YOU WILL SMELL LIKE ROSES (do you want to? no? MOO BAD). POW. Leo starts on me pretty much like a reddish spicy cloud, a little similar to Three Cocks but definitely a bit peppery and also herbal. I think it's the chamomile adding that weird type of grassy floral thing it does. With my skin chemistry it quickly veers towards carnation, a lush, Clemence-like carnation, with a dry backdrop and mild heat likely from saffron. On my skin saffron is a little funky but then also does not persist - it tends to retreat and just blur the edges of scents a little. In this case, the carnation showcases almost like a carnation SN to me with just a bit more complexity. I already got a few bottles since this is my birth sign. It's so very different from the past Leos! I think those had more walnut or something. Nuts. Hee. This is a desert warmed carnation blossoming in a handful of sand.

I'm so confused. On the skin, the salt note, I've determined, turns into a bit of corn-tortilla type situation. I've experienced this in a few other oceanic/ocean salt scents. It's different from the bladderwrack seaweedy salt, this is a warm, foody salt. I don't know if it's my chemistry or what. This is the same thing that happened to me with that Lilith scent I can't remember the name of for the life of me that featured a humpback whale or some type of marine whale-type crittermon. Also, tortillas. Happy tortillas, but same. After it dries down, it smells like a foody type of spiced bread. What. But, it's like totally BREAD and not like CAKE. I wonder if this is the saffron and nutmeg and the salt note + Lycanthrope chemistry reading as such. So, I'm not getting much ocean from this, and the sacred plants are very quiet - I think even the sage is processing to me as kitchen. Don't get me wrong, it's super comforting, but this is not too aquatic to me.