invisible iris

In imp: Plasticky chocolate On skin: Plasticky chocolate and vanilla. Dry: The plastic faded completely. Now I smell true sandalwood, not like incense but like the woody dusty sandalwood that you get if you smell an old wooden box from India, made enticing and smooth with deep cocoa. Like smooth polished sandalwood dusted with dry dark cocoa. Very elegant, now that the wood has come out. Not foody, not sweet. Meditative, simple, rich, warm, dusky, velvety, matte, tantric. Amazingly, an everyday scent. Restrained, understated. Love it. Top 5.

In imp: Candy corn? On skin: Brown sugar coconut sticky rice. I swear. Dry: The candy sugar sweetness of this has retreated somewhat in the drydown. However, it still hits the caramelized coconut sticky rice button for me. With a touch of whisky. If I really try, I can read a bit of wood somewhere in the back of it. But it’s hard. And I love the sticky rice smell, like, a lot. So I’m okay with this stage. Later: Ah yes. Come with me now, if you will, gentle readers. Two or three hours in and the tomes are emerging, the sticky rice is absorbed into the woodsy brown booksyness. Delicious dusty caramelized old books, is what it smells like now. A 19th century library for dessert. Yum. I like it. The longer this has to dry and develop, the more the burnt sweetness sinks into the books and the beautiful oak, and the less foodie the blend becomes. It sticks around all day (8 hrs or so). The name and concept behind this scent give me an excuse to wear it to work, so… If real-life universities smelled more like Miskatonic U, they’d be way nicer places to be.

In imp: Vanilla. On skin: Vanilla, amber, sweet pea. Dry: I love the way sandalwood always emerges in the drydown. The sweet pea makes it demure, but otherwise on me it's all sweet ambery vanilla with an underlying solidity from the sandalwood. It’s the sweetest amber blend I’ve yet tried. Almost girly, but the amber and sandalwood keep it “sad”, warm, and lightly powdery incensey. I quite like it, but I’m not sure I’d wear something this sweet on a daily basis. Hopefully the sweetness will mellow a bit with age?

A free imp from the ever-generous Lab. In vial: Dark intensity. On skin: Cocoa, mandarin, and a dankness that I could swear is patchouli? But maybe that’s tobacco leaf. It’s not bad. Dark herbs begin to emerge.. Do I detect anise? Clove? Black pepper? Dry: Wow, this is intriguing. I adore the dark “herbs of conflict,” whatever they are (still guessing star anise and/or anise, clove, black pepper, maybe another variety of pepper?). They're intensely stimulating, in a desolate, scorched way. Cocoa, patchouli-like tobacco, and tonka are other major notes for me, which along with the herbs (and maybe bitter black tea) evoke deep roiling darkness. With mandarin/saffron a shot of dying sun glimpsed through the billowing black clouds of a Miltonian battleground. This is dark without being a nose-killer, dry spicy, and dynamic. Beautiful and amazingly evocative. It smells like fate. Inexorable fate. It says, in the grim words of War, “I am going to kill some fools.” Applied sparingly, it mellows a bit in the late drydown (2 hours or so), leaving the dusty aftermath of well-rounded pepper/clove/anise, cocoa, tobacco, tonka (adds a hint of sweetness), + a trace of orange hue. Lovely. Might be my favorite evening scent so far.

In imp: Woah complex floral? On skin: Gardenia blast. Dry: Expensive-perfumey. A lot of booming heady florals swirl and waft around, the gardenia never recedes and has been joined by tobacco flower and lot of others that I can’t specifically id. I detect the ebony wood backing up all those florals, and maybe another woody note from the “aged” whiskey. I do really like the woodsy backdrop of this blend. I never get any boozyness, except perhaps as an alcoholic tinge contributing to the overall perfume feel. I can see how this would be beautiful on the right person. I think someone who liked more heady, floral perfumes--someone who is used to a more elaborate “toilette” than I am--would like this. When testing I used my left hand to fan the scent up to my nose, and I could hear my rings clinking together, and the scent struck me as appropriate for a woman who likes to wear Jewelry. Jewelry with a capital J. Verdict: Although I applied sparingly, the florals are far too intense for me. One or more of them are triggering allergies. DH says: “I’m glad you’re not that sort of lady. My nose would get… tired.” I have to agree.

In vial: grapey winey Wet on skin: deep red grapey winey, I read dripping honey & syrupy cherry too, with vetiver lurking dark & dirty underneath. Dry: To me this has a similar vibe as Perversion, but while Perversion is golden raisiny, Blood Kiss is red cherry and more syrupy. Fruity, spicy, boozy cherry (kirsch-like) honey. Deep red and goopy. Also dirty/dark from the vetiver, and the musk and clove help with the darker grounding too (and those darker notes keep it tolerable for me, as I don’t prefer unhinged fruit booze), but they don’t dry it out or make it fuzzy. It’s juicy and pulsating and heady. It does smell like something a vampire would like, the smell of vampire-bait, an I-will-eat-you-and-get-drunk-off-you smell. Several hours later: The wine has mostly burned off, and this has calmed down to red honey and vanilla with a hint of vetiver. Overall it has almost become dry. It’s interesting and has decent throw. If I hadn’t tested Perversion yesterday and been so blown away, I’d probably be more impressed by Blood Kiss. I’ll definitely play around with the rest of the imp and see how my opinion of it develops with repetition.

Perversion smells like bad judgment. In imp: Woah. Different. On skin: Booze. Is what I smell. Wine and then liquor, etc. Dry: Spicy rum and tonka give it spiced creaminess, but that’s not what’s sweet here, it’s just spicy, like a really good rootbeer herbal/spice combination. Tobacco adds raisin to the spice mix. Intoxicating. Illegal. Chardonnay adds the fruity boozy note, I dislike fruit, but this kind is good. Leather makes it naughty, a bit of smoke makes it dangerous. Juicy boozy bad behavior. It all blends unbelievably well. Perversion is evil, crazy, amazing. A bad influence kind of scent. Unleashes wild things. Scary, but addictive. DH says “It’s like ‘Raw Power’ Iggy Pop in a bottle.” (“I’m a street-walkin cheetah with a heart full of napalm,” says Iggy.) He made me include that in the review. Major throw on this one. Hoo, boy!

I got this as a free imp with my first BPAL order, which made me happy, as I really wanted it but only subconsciously. Thanks, Lab! Y'all are magicians. So I popped it open first out of everything. It started off fine, hot & heady spicy vanilla. But then ohno! it turned to baby powder. It was awful! I scrubbed and scrubbed to get the headachey nightmare away!--However. I knew from reading reviews that I should let it age. And age it did. For about 2 weeks. And then my patience failed and I tried again. And lo, it has never since turned to baby powder! Strong, sweet, spicy, deep, reddish amber musky creamy vanilla. Is there red musk in this? Is there amber? Maybe cinnamon, because at one point I thought I smelled like a very sultry graham cracker? If so, I love all those things. Snake Oil is the most sensual blend I've yet tried. It walks the line of being foody, but then it transcends foody-ness altogether with some kind of ridiculous fuzzy warm sex smell that makes it too delicious to be eaten. Almost powdery, but in a very good way. I like to put it on directly after taking a bath and it makes me feel all pampered and divine. Then I lie around the bedroom half-naked like some kind of goddess. Seriously! DH seems to like it, too. Anyway, I am so happy that it got better, and that when it did, it got so good. Great basic, go-to, one-size, feel-hot scent. Snake Oil gets the job done. Ain't fer nuthin' that it's the most popular blend.

Apologies in advance for the "!!!", this is just too good. The story of The Last Unicorn is one that I like, but this blend outdoes it. It's like it captures the concept behind the character, and expresses the idea better even than a story could. The weirdest thing about it, for me, is that The Last Unicorn feels very me---I never would have believed that I could identify so strongly with a mere smell. It almost makes me weepy, it feels so intimate and personal! In the imp: lilac and white chocolate Wet on skin: It begins on me with lilac and white chocolate, though these soon make room for the violet leaf and wild lettuce, and something earthy and dark, I'm guessing oakmoss. Dry: It comes to a harmonious balance, and hasn’t morphed very much since. I think I detect lilac, orris, white chocolate, coconut, wild lettuce, white sandalwood, and a lurking hint of dark oakmoss, all blended together to form a well-rounded, complex whole. The Last Unicorn is misty-opaque lavender-white floral chocolate, pure and untame, with ghostly sandalwood and a hint of woody coconut to keep her minimally embodied. Vain (the last unicorn is a bit vain!), but lovable. Pretty and gourmand like a heavenly dessert, but mysterious and deep like an overgrown forest. White, but dark (this is how I read the white chocolate, not as overly foody, but as a contradictory white velvety quality that does amazing things with the contrarieties of the other notes), but also green, and a bit humus-y brown from the oakmoss. I love the wild lettuce note---this is the residual odor of a sinless herbivore. And inasmuch as it’s a sex scent, which in some ways it really is (from the chocolate and sandalwood, I think), the more ethereal florals combine to evoke a sweet, mysterious, and magical sensuality, reminiscent of how unicorns have sex, which is of course by touching their horns and having a glowy, magical unicor-gasm of pristine, wild, virginal love. Rare, divine, bestial love---that perpetually withdraws from human confinement. Words cannot express! This stuff is utterly amazing. It makes me swoon. It is such a treasure! I want to smell like this all the time, and it is so insane that I can! Thank you a million times, Beth! Very long lasting, with excellent throw. In the penultimate stage, after maybe 8-9 hours, the still-balanced scent hovers like misty satin over the skin. It lasts on me for a long time yet, and I still get light wafts of it the next morning. I'm a bpal newbie and I look forward to experimenting with many and sundry other scents, but after a month testing this I can just tell, The Last Unicorn is destined to be my *forever and always*.

Backstory: At first I was really optimistic about Nemesis. I like her, or I feel a kind of closeness to her, if you know what I mean. However, reading the reviews, it seems that Nemesis is one of those blends that can develop differently depending on skin chemistry. And I'm afraid me and this one just didn't work well together. In the imp: I smell patchouli and rose, both of which I like, especially when they balance each other out. On wet: It begins as rose, cypress, and patchouli. A nice, laid back rose blend. Rosy floral, but also a bit woodsy and wild and creamy and fresh in a way that I like. A few minutes in and it's rose, cypress, fig, patchouli, and tonka, all blending together really well. No whip-wielding retribution, but pleasant nonetheless. Dry: As it dries, however, it turns all figgy rose on me. I’m discovering either that I amp fig, or that I dislike fig as a note. After half an hour, the cypress, tonka, and patchouli have disappeared, and Nemesis gets the same “blech, fig” reaction from me as Carnal. I’ve tried wearing Nemesis several times now over about a month, and every time it dries down to be just too figgy syrupy sweet. Conclusion: On me, Nemesis is "whip-wielding fig", "fig whom none can escape", or "implacable fig". If justice = fig, then Nemesis = right on.

I like to wear Arachne of Lydia to bed. Wet, it's clove & sweet red fruit. But soon, it turns dry, warm, simple, and comforting, with a touch of red-purple in the black-brown. The dust of the clove takes the juice out of the blackcurrant and leaves it dried and cohesive with the spice. Like a retreat into a dusty dream, melancholy, resigned, lost to the world, a threadbare prison, self-designed, of industriously-premeditated safety. It suits the concept beautifully.

I ordered an imp of this in my first BPAL order ever, and this is the second scent (after The Last Unicorn) that has really put me in awe of the lab’s abilities. I tried it on my husband first, and we both agreed that on him it smelled like a cheap "autumn spice" candle, so I was wary when putting it on myself. But after testing it a few times to make sure, I discovered that I really, absolutely, love this scent, so much that I had to come write a review. In the imp: resiny balsam & lemon balm Wet on skin: At first the resins dominate for me, with an herbal sizzle. Dry: Beautiful beeswax comes out from behind the resins & herbs to make this into a warm, comforting, golden incensey beeswax that (as I said) I love so, so much. It is not overly metallic on me at all, no no, though the figurative color of it is brassy and golden. The balsam, saffron, lemon balm, & maybe hyssop(?) keep it fresh, and even energized, but I keep receiving wafts of true, golden, soft & malleable, beeswaxy beeswax. I’m not sure I can detect the mastic, or a number of other notes. But it wafts amazing resiny beeswax, with just the perfect amount of sweetness. It makes me feel both cozy and curiously industrious, and I'll wear it both at work and at home, for my own pleasure, on a chilly or rainy day. It’s not sexy, and it’s not especially pretty, but for me, it’s simultaneously warm, evocative, comforting, stirring, and altogether very, very good. It is a happy-making scent. It doesn’t last extremely long (maybe 3-4 hours until it grows faint), but it has good throw, and it's definitely worth reapplying. Also worthy of a bottle.

in imp: cedar & honey wet on skin: honey & gunpowder; peppery, smoky honey. dry: The honey turns kind of floral on me, and the peppery smoke of the gunpowder melds with it so that the notes become indistinguishable. I agree with the reviewer above who detected black cedar--for me, that adds warmth and strength to the blend. Mommy Fortuna smells slightly sadistic, or slightly offensive, or abrasive (in a good way), which comes from the acrid choke of the gunpowder. The offense is outweighed by the allure of the smoky, woodsy honey, but it’s still there. I could see wearing this at night to go out. It’s very sophisticated and it also has a “Fuck you” bite to it.

For me, this is an intensely nostalgic scent. I've never been to NOLA, but this blend reminds me of my childhood in Houston, summertime evenings with jasmine & honeysuckle in the humid air in the backyard & my mom making Constant Comment iced tea with lemon. in the vial: JASMINE. yowch. wet on skin: It begins with big headachy jasmine at the fore, though that almost immediately settles into a wistful backdrop of less-defined spicy opacity. After maybe ten minutes, the lemon appears, and then the honeysuckle, which helps by adding a sweetness that relieves (to an extent) the headache. And the spice, which I think is clove, begins to ground all that heady floral intensity. finish: This has become a beautiful spicy-floral blend on me. Feminine but not necessarily outgoing, due to the depth of the clove. The juicy- sickly- or rotten-sweetness of it has died down in favor of a contemplative almost-powdery warmth. At first, I thought I'd wear this when I wanted to feel young and southern, and maybe slightly tacky(!), in a Sookie-Stackhouse-sunbathes-in-the-front-yard kind of way. But after I give it an hour, with the retreat of the jasmine into the spicy undertones, I've changed my mind. It gets mysterious and romantic in a way that I love. It lasted for a good 5 hours on me, and I could still smell it faintly the next morning.

I got Carnal as a frimp in my first order. in the vial: Juicy & sweet mandarin orange. Nice! wet on skin: Juicy spicy orange that... begins to smell like a cheap xmas candle. dry: At the very least it doesn't smell offensive on me. It mellowed a lot in the drydown, and now it's mostly light, sweet, fruity, slightly spiced, holiday fig. But honestly the wax is still there, and I can't stop thinking that I smell like a department store candle. This would probably be nice on the right person. But that person sadly is not me.