Dusk

Based on old notes, as the imp has gone missing. Very sharp geranium and yew in the imp, with cool earth. The floral blooms on my skin. A bit sweet and rose-like, much softer than in the imp, with very subtle dirt. By 30 minutes there's some Spanish moss too, and it's more earthy, with a bit of sharpness from the yew. On one test, this is when the floral totally took over and it was dry and very perfumey, on the second, it was actually fairly lush with damp dirt not being more prominent. Leans too perfumey for my taste, but it's certainly nice.

In the vial, somewhat waxy white floral and apple (blossom apparently), a little soapy. Wet, the floral blooms a bit more, almost gets a bit spicy aspect along the lines of carnation. But mostly a pale, waxy flower with crisp apple, like Granny Smiths. Dry, there's a slight suggestion of coconut, and it turns a bit soapy-dusty floral, with the sandalwood emerging. Fades quickly. Not my thing as a perfume but it would probably be a nice shampoo scent. I wish I could write a bit more in-depth, but I'm not great at florals.

I found this to be very different after a bit of aging. Fresh(-er, got from a forum purchase): Very, very sweet. Neroli, juicy red apple, vanilla, and a very plump, damp red rose. Dries down retaining the vanilla and red rose, but revealing a polished teak base and a bit of patchouli. Some sweet musk as well. Overall, sexy but quite sweet, a bit too much for me. Aged at least 5-6 months: Not nearly as sweet. A dark red rose, but not a dewy one, or particularly dry. A bit of vanilla, some neroli, bergamot, dry woods. There's a bit of apple but it's crisp, not juicy sweet. Dries down to dark dry rose, subtle vanilla, dark woods, dark musk, a bit of nuttiness and creaminess. I find the aged more wearable, personally, but I do miss some of the lushness from the damp rose and apple. Either way, an attractive, feminine scent that seems appropriate for date nights or other evening events.

Reviewing based on notes I took a few years ago, as this imp has gone missing... Wanda starts out very strong grape juice, with just a slight tannic quality suggesting it's meant to be wine. There's also a soft floral, with roses and violets, and a very light musk and an almost citrusy note somewhere. Early drydown, it's between grape juice and cheap box wine. A bit candy-like. Then grape sweetarts, but with a bit of a pretty floral edge. Late drydown, it gets a bit more alcohol-like with more leather, though it's still very sweet. It makes me think of a tart, juicy bouquet of flowers. The second test, it's a bit more sophisticated, and ends more leathery with a touch of wine-stained silk and a slightly wilted bouquet. Very feminine. Not my style and I'm not a big fan of the grapey wine note. This doesn't smell like a good, full-bodied red wine, it smells like an overly sweet Franzia red which I had the misfortune of tasting as a college student. And it's a whole lot of grape candy at times. But I would be curious to see if this smoothed out with aging, and I'll update if I ever find my runaway imp.

Perversion starts off very sweet, with a heavy dose of tonka and a sparkling, fizzy champagne quality, along with sweet rum. The sparkling champagne is a higher-pitched note that stops it from becoming a big mass of syrupy sweetness, and it contrasts with the warmth of the tonka and tobacco. It dries down with a very mildly smoky quality that also cuts the sweetness, and is mostly sweet, very boozy tonka and tobacco with a little undercurrent of wet leather. When I first got the imp a few years ago, it was way too sweet for me and I was totally scared off. After a few years of aging, it's a bit tamer, a bit smokier, and the leather has emerged to balance out the sweet tonka. It's still sweet and decadent, but not sickeningly sweet. I like it a lot now as a bold, sexy evening scent. The sweetness made it seem feminine to me when it was fresh, but the added smokiness and leather from aging has made it a bit more unisex.

Burial smells like a dark earthy pine forest. My mom said it smelled kind of like I'd been wrestling with Christmas trees.

Great picks! Baking cookies and cleaning house makes me think White Rabbit. It smells like tea, sugar cookies, and clean linen to me.

How about Orphan Black characters? Especially Felix. From the looks of it, Manhattan might suit Felix - (Sexuality, power, confidence. A meeting of modern, sleek elegance and rich, passionate history: sheer amber, black leather, white mint, lemon peel, white tea, grapefruit, kush, teakwood and orchid.) Also could probably pull off something like Iago. Or Perversion. Sarah would be something darker, maybe spicy and bold. Sin, Snake Oil? Cosima - maybe Banshee Beat, or one of the more patchouli-heavy blends. Possibly Masquerade for a lighter patch. Alison - Dirty is the first thing that comes to mind. I think it fits the image she wants to project. Helena - I think she would like smelling like food. Maybe Eat Me, The Gorobble, Dragon's Milk. Rachel - Something crisp and professional, but very expensive-smelling. I have no idea.

Electric blue sounds like a scent I would stay far, far away from. I'm guessing it would have a lot of ozone in it. Maybe Lurid, or Luminous Phasmatis? Never tried them but they sound fitting to me. As for scents that have strongly evoked colors for me... Sin and Satyr are orange-red. Mr. Jacquel and Morocco are sandy beige. Black Tower is green with flashes of red. Burial is dark green. Event Horizon is dark indigo. Azathoth is almost black. Pele and Obatala are white.

Using scents for not just strictly drag but also performative gender in general is the best thing, A+.

I also have problems with amber and myrrh, and Black Rider was too powdery to work on me. While Rogue smelled like leather and pine in the vial it went amber-y on my skin, super sweet and powdery and no leather at all.

This was only a very small test because I got frimped a sniffie. In the vial, it's not much of anything. Kind of vaguely green with cardamom. On my skin, it starts out damp rock rose then gets drier and spicer. It's spicy, perfumey dry rose for the first 20 minutes or so, but gets increasingly green. I think I smell juniper, and some kind of woody green resin (I read olibanum is frankincense, but it doesn't smell as sweet/golden as frankincense usually does). There is something a bit sour about it. This dries to a very dusty resin, almost powdery, with cardamom, a bit of green, and the tiniest hint of sweetness. Also a lot of opoponax later on but my skin always amps that.

Thanks for the suggestions! I'm a little cautious of the iris in Sheol, but I do love copal, so since it's GC I might give it a try. Atlas sounds amazing! And the Gorobble, if I can find any. Especially since that's my cat's nickname, and I'm pretty sure marshmallow scents would be her thing if she was human. Cthulhu in Love sounds weirdly appealing. Sissy the Ascendant has a lot of winning notes! Definitely going to look for that. Tattie Bogle could go either way - I think with gunpowder and herbs it could turn into acrid powder on my skin. Penitence, Relics of Herself, and Midnight Mass will be on my radar, but I'll wait until I can get myrrh to behave in a blend where it's a smaller factor, first. Priala, same issue. Which is sad because I do like myrrh as a note but after an hour or two my skin is all myrrh all the time. Devil's Night looks good from the description, then I scrolled through reviews and saw "jolly ranchers," and since some unnamed musk does exactly that on my skin, I'm going to give it a pass. Hmm, I'm going to have to try smoke + Tombeur. Fantastic idea. eta: Tobacco? Yes please! Yes yes yes. Incipient Madness, will try. I'll look into the others too. Thanks!

Digging this topic up because I just realized most of my top favorite scents are dark with both sweetness and smokiness. I don't like things that are pure smoke (Brimstone and Azathoth both failed on me) but when they're in combination with something sweet, jackpot. Examples of my favorites that have the dark, smoky sweet quality on me: Antikythera Mechanism, Xiuhtecuhtli, Goblin, Old Demons of the First Class, Perversion, Great Vampire Bat. Maybe even No. 93 Engine, it's not exactly smoky but it's toasty. Non-BPAL: Alkemia's Caveau des Innocents (sweet pear + spices + dark resins, though I'd like it smokier), Sixteen92's Salem (sweet earthy incense), Deep Midnight's Study in Brown (copal, sugar + smoke) and Halfling's Party (caramelized apple tart + smoke). I can't do dragon's blood and tend to dislike herbal and green notes (exception: Black Tower - again, sweet + smoky - not my fave but still okay). I like myrrh but it seems to always amp up and smother everything else, so I usually avoid it. It doesn't have to be super sweet - resins and musks tend to be sweet enough on my skin. I have Hellfire, Black Rider, and Tlazolteotl headed my way, and I'm thinking those might fit the bill. Does anyone have more recs for dark, smoky sweet scents? because what I really need to be doing right now is finding more smellies to covet

I wish White Peacock was more woody on me, but it's all sugary vanilla up front with a little sandalwood and patch to finish. :/

Seconding Antikythera Mechanism! It's one of my favorites, and the teak is quite prominent on me when it's dry (wet I get more dark vanilla and tobacco). I also like Desire largely because of the teak. On me it starts very sweet, with a lot of rose, apple, and vanilla, and ends with polished teak, smooth vanilla, sweet musk and rose.

I don't know about Djinn, but generally when I think scents smell "smoky" it's not a cigarette smoke kind of smell, more woodsmoke. I hate the smell of cigarette smoke but love smoky scents. I would second the suggestion for Dorian. Not so sure about Snake Oil, a lot of people find it really sensual or sexual. Otherwise, my taste in scents tends to be pretty dark so I'm going to leave the suggestions to people better acquainted with the lighter side of BPAL.

Thanks so much, Balame! I'll try to track those all down. Helpful advice too, about what kind of notes I might want to go with the leather.

I've had mixed success with leather. Iago was a great success, but the leather in Havana, Jolly Roger, and Les Infortunes de la Vertu was a pretty big failure, kind of sour and like an old boot. Any recommendations for blends with the same kind of leather as Iago?

I tested Croquet today, and though it has a lot of notes, it is mostly sugary sweet grapefruit and a little nectarine on me: "Pink lime, pink grapefruit, white nectarine, wild rose, sage, woody patchouli, bergamot, and ornery hedgehog musk."

The others have beat me to suggesting Jazz Funeral and Dance of Death. I'm also going to suggest, in a similar gothic vein: Deep in Earth: Rose geranium, Spanish moss, Irish yew, and graveyard dirt. Omen: Oakmoss, juniper berry, myrrh and patchouli. And for something completely different, since you like mythology as well as the macabre, you may be interested in (depending on how adventurous you're feeling): The Chicken-Legged Hut: Creaky wood and sun-dried thatching, clacking bones, leering skulls, burnt herbs, and enormous magical chicken feet. On me, it goes from maple-brown sugar oatmeal to "smoky, dusty, woody, and evil-smelling," according to my notes. Take a look through Ars Moriendi for more of the funeral-type blends, and Wanderlust for any places that catch your interest. And have fun exploring!

Hi all. I've been inactive for over 2 years but now I'm back and I want to branch out. Previously, I thought I had a clear idea of what I wanted, and I was trying to stay fairly solidly in masculine/unisex territory. At this point in time I care much less about what other people think and I know there are many blends that I had dismissed for probably being too feminine, that might actually be wonderful. Now I'm willing to try pretty much anything, and I have no idea where to start! Some of my favorite notes are sandalwood, ginger, incense, tonka, and generally spices, resins, and woods. I hate rose geranium and dragon's blood, and I don't like scents that are strongly aquatic or very cologney/perfumey. I thought I didn't do foody but then Saw-Scaled Viper came along smelling of cinnamon buns and it was perfect. The BPAL I go back to most often are Antikythera Mechanism, Old Demons of the First Class, Fenris Wolf, Sin, and Scherezade. Unexpected successes (I think they were frimps?) were Ehecatl (I really liked the hibiscus), Skytyping with Chemtrails, Mag Mell, and Seance (I think the rose was the winner here). Anyone have any suggestions? Thanks in advance!

Reporting back - there are a lot of recommendations that I still need to try (have a few of the imps right now) but I've just tried Sudha Segara and Shub-Niggurath - and they're great! Sudha Segara is different from what I expected - a lot lighter and fresher, with fruitiness from the ambrosia, which is actually very nice. And it still dries down to a cozy milky scent. And Shub-Niggurath is just perfect. Delicious, and throw for miles. I want to bathe in it, really. Did a retest of Miskatonic U but the sweet booziness is a bit overwhelming on my skin.Desire is looking promising in the imp, but I just got a bunch of stuff in the mail and ran out of space to skin test. So thanks again for the great recommendations!

From the "short guide to common recommendations thread", taken from the "LE equivalents" thread, some similar scents to Black Lace (some but not all GC): Antique Lace, Euterpe (dc), Dorian, Haloes, Black Opal, Zephyr, Desire, Anactoria, The Sailors’ Den, The Antikythera Mechanism, Galvanic Goggles

I haven't tried Schrodinger's Cat or Jareth yet, but I have high hopes for Jareth because I like Dorian but find it a bit too sweet for me sometimes, and I've seen a lot of people describe Jareth as a less sweet, more masculine Dorian. I'm not a big fan of aquatics so Mary Read sadly isn't for me. In terms of my personal favorites that don't necessarily have a genderqueer inspiration but kind of strike me that way, there's Dorian (because despite being inspired by a male character, it smells very femme on me) and Xiuhtecuhtli, which I *love.* Inspired by, according to the BPAL description, "the personification of light within darkness, warmth in the cold, and life in, and after, death. ... a creative and destructive God of Fire and Light." So that's some anti-binary stuff right there, first of all. The notes are: "Copal, plumeria and sweet orange and the smoke of South American incense and crushed jungle blooms," and by the end it's smoky sweet and resinous and really androgynous, but it starts out with a really soft fresh floral and sweet orange, not super-femme but definitely feminine enough so that I always forget it's not inspired by a Goddess rather than a God.