filigree_shadow

Louder and louder, wilder and wilder, mounted the shrieking and whining of that desperate viol. The player was dripping with an uncanny perspiration and twisted like a monkey, always looking frantically at the curtained window. In his frenzied strains I could almost see shadowy satyrs and bacchanals dancing and whirling insanely through seething abysses of clouds and smoke and lightning. And then I thought I heard a shriller, steadier note that was not from the viol; a calm, deliberate, purposeful, mocking note from far away in the West. A ghoulish and tortured scent, suffused with the blackness of space illimitable: ajowan, vetiver, black musk, opoponax, mimosa, and tamarind. I was really looking forward to this one because I love opoponax, vetiver, and black musk. (I'm not entirely sure was ajowan and tamarind smell like though. Truth be told, I'm not an expert on mimosa, either.) At first it smells mostly dark and musky with a sweet resin scent. There's a little bit of some sort of spice that starts to come out on drying, but that doesn't make it smell hot or like there's something burning, which I was a little afraid might happen. I think these are the most understated spices I've ever smelled in a blend. Also the scent seems like it's on the verge of becoming powdery but it never actually gets there. The spicy factor in this is very gentle, almost foody, and that's combined with the sweet and almost powdery resin over the dark and smoky vetiver. All that together equals EXACTLY the kind of scent that I love. This is really, really good. Just what I was hoping for. YAY! I love it!

Regret born from ceaseless longing: wisteria, white grapefruit, neroli, green tea, jasmine, white ginger, honeysuckle, iris, and tonka. Hmmm. I searched but can't find a review page for this one. At first I get a big blast of white grapefruit. Definitely not pink -- it's not that sugary sweet kind of grapefruit. And underneath the grapefruit I can smell mostly green tea and ginger with a little bit of jasmine and honeysuckle. I am not a jasmine fan; in fact, I'm more of a jasmine hater. However, it does not overwhelm in this blend. I usually like the tea + ginger combinations, and I think it's even better with the addition of grapefruit! This scent is more mellow than refreshing, calm rather than excited... but it's also more cheery than I would have guessed, from the description. (I usually find tea scents rather cheery, so maybe that's why it seems that way to me.) I've been on a grapefruit kick lately for some reason, and this will be a great one to add to the rotation. I like it a lot.

The Cup of Death, Elihu Vedder.Peach blossom and peach tree leaf, Mysore sandalwood, French lavender, bois du rose, myrtle, and blue yarrow. In the imp: A lush peachy floral. Wet: A bit herby smelling. Rather strong. Drying: Ooo. This is becoming quite nice. If I hadn't bought the entire set of Salon imps I wouldn't have been very interested in trying this one because I'm not usually a floral person. But this is really starting to interest me. The floral notes are kind of swirling around... I sniff once and I think I smell lavender; I sniff a few seconds later and it seems like peach blossom. (I'm not sure exactly what myrtle or blue yarrow smell like, so I'm no help to you there.) Dry: The sandalwood is keeping the scent from going overly in-your-face-floral on me. When it's dry I can't quite pick out any one note, which surprises me because often anything that has lavender in it means I'll be walking around in a lavender cloud for the next few hours. It's not overwhelming the blend here at all. The floral part of this is a bit more of a sweet floral than I usually like; however, it's also more of that kind of humid-smelling floral rather than that dry soapy floral scent. Deep and lush. That's definitely a plus. It almost smells blue to me. Slightly melancholy. Definitely not green or red. I'm really glad I gave this a try. This is the kind of floral I would wear. Very pretty. Edited to add image - clover

Les Anges Déchus, Edouard Cibot.Khus, blonde tobacco, life everlasting, orris root, black currant, cabreuva, Spanish moss, leather, and ambrette. In the imp: It smells, um, boozy. I'm not sure why. Wet: Perfumey. Very perfumey. Drying: The scent gets a lot less perfumey over time. It's sweet and dry, with a bit of leather. Dry: This one's a real winner for me. It smells dry without smelling stark. I wouldn't call it a floral at all, but what's there does seem to be more of a plant root scent rather than a plant blossom scent. To be honest, the only notes in the whole description that I feel like I'm qualified to discern in any blend are leather and Spanish moss. I can smell some leather in this but it's blended in there and is not prominent. If I had to guess, I'd say that the Spanish moss is contributing to the "dry" aspect. I bet this is probably not very helpful as a review, but no one note is really jumping out at me. When it was wet I thought it smelled kind of masculine, but now that it's dry I don't think so. It's turning into a strangely sexy scent, which is quite surprising to me. This just smells good. Period. It's that kind of scent that, when you smell it, you don't necessarily think the person is wearing perfume or anything, you just think, "Wow, that person smells good." You know what I mean? It doesn't bowl you over immediately, but it has a subtle and strong allure. I'm going to need a whole bottle of this one.

Grants courage under extreme conditions, helps overcome fear of death, and strengthens the fortitude of artists and businessmen, enabling them to further their goals. At the moment I can only comment on the scent. It's definitely different from the GC Wolf's Heart. I'm pretty sure it also has dragon's blood in it, but it's more herby than the GC version. Maybe a tiny bit of lemon or white musk or something like that. It smells golden, warm, comforting, and peaceful. It has a similar feel to it as Lionheart. I got this bottle intending to wear it to bed. I often have anxiety attacks when it's dark because I start thinking about being dead... which is why the "helps overcome fear of death" description appealed to me. Here's a link to my review for the GC Wolf's Heart, which explains a little more about my problem. I will be back to edit this post after I have some information to report about Wolf's Heart's usefulness. ETA on 7/12: Last night I fell asleep with no anxiety at all. It was wonderful. I practically fell asleep when my head hit the pillow. And to tell the truth, by the time I went to bed last night I had forgotten that I used Wolf's Heart, so I doubt it was a placebo effect. ETA again on 7/19: I have now enjoyed a full week of anxiety-free bedtime. Maybe by the time my Wolf's Heart bottle is gone I will no longer have the bedtime/darkness trigger for that anxiety. I hope so. Getting to sleep this week has been very nice. NOTE: This review topic is for the Twilight Alchemy Lab oil. If you're looking for the BPAL Bewitching Brew of the same name, those reviews are here. --Shollin

Lot and His Daughters, Hendrik Goltzius.Indonesian black patchouli, petitgrain, brandewijn, incense, saffron, lemon peel, myrrh, skin musk, bourbon geranium, and tangerine. In the imp: Sweet and spicy. Wet: Mostly lemon peel and a little bit of tangerine, with something that smells slightly smoky behind it. Drying: It's becoming kind of a sweet and deep scent. It's kind of like the sweetness of the citrus stays around, but if I didn't know what was in it I wouldn't necessarily have pegged it as citrus. It is a fruity-sweet kind of sweet, though. The lemon peel, which was quite strong at first, seems to be fading out completely. Dry: When it's dry, I can detect the incense and myrrh, with a very gentle musk underneath. That fruity sweetness stays on top, but it seems like it becomes less sweet and more round over time. I really like the smoky undercurrent. Also, as it's drying it seems to be developing a very slightly spicy scent, I guess it's from the saffron? Also I think I can start to smell the patchouli more when it's dry, but it's not prominent at all. All in all, this seems to be a "skin scent" type of scent -- it's not overly strong, and it doesn't go too far in any one direction as far as scent families. I wouldn't call it fruity, incensey, or musky. Definitely not floral. Also, call me crazy, but it kind of seems like there's something almost foody underneath it. Very slight, but I swear I can smell it. I'm glad I held off judgment on this until it was dry because I didn't care for the lemony phase much (I'm not a lemon fan). I like it when it's dry, though. It smells kind of exotic and spicy.

Lucretia, Albrecht Dürer.Iris, black amber, sage, Kashmir wood, vanilla musk, mandarin and violet. In the bottle: A little bit woody and a little bit of mandarin. Initially: Wow, this smells wonderful. I can smell both vanilla musk and mandarin, and the black amber makes it smell a little bit perfumey. I was a little worried about the violet because that's a note that gets amped ureasonably on my skin, but it's fine here. Also I can only detect the mandarin in this when it's wet. Dry: This is a beautiful perfume. I wasn't sure what Kashmir wood smelled like, but if that's the wood I'm smelling in this blend, it's gorgeous. What I'm getting mainly out of this is a slightly sweet woody vanilla amber scent. Lovely! edited to add hyooge image. - clover

If there was one thing that I think encapsulates the whole experience of pregnancy for me, it would be the Irrelevant and Disturbing Surreal Crawdad Dream. Since conception, my dreamscape has been unusually bizarre, bordering on the demented. One of my baby books told me that I'd be having nonstop dreams about puppies, kittens, and baby bunnies. Really? 'Cuz my dreams are filled with zombie-driven ice trucks that are late for delivery on my kid's birthday, masquerades where people come as themselves, a quest to cure possessed individuals (in this dream, you could tell that people were possessed by how annoying they were) by hitting them on the head with large rocks, and, of course, millions of malformed crawdads with human faces filling up numerous 18-wheeler truck beds. Nary a bunny nor kitten to be found. Par for the course during pregnancy? For me, it is. An irrelevant, disturbing, and surreal scent: red currant, green tea, red musk, Hawaiian ginger, benzoin, vanilla, coriander, squash blossom, and blueberry. When I first put this on, it smelled like sweet red currant -- very bright, red, and fruity. As it dried, the red currant backed off and the blueberry came out. After about 30 minutes, it's a lovely soft fruity scent with some delicious-smelling tea and musk. Just a hint of ginger and vanilla. I really like this a lot -- it reminds me of some of my favorite scents from the Mad Tea Party category. It's sweet and pretty and fun.

Very sweet, snowy pine trees. I used to say "all BPAL snowy scents smell the same on me," and I'd just swap them away, because I wasn't crazy about the snow note. Well, I like it now. But... they kind of do still smell the same on me. With slight variations. I like this. But I don't think I like it better than Snow Maiden or Snow Flakes. It's almost too sweet. If I didn't already know I like those other two, I'd be very interested in this one.

I had this stowed away in my "try again" box for a long time... and I don't remember why. Maybe I thought the ginger would die down a bit? I think I can smell all three: chocolate, ginger, butterscotch. But, on my skin the combo is not exactly appealing. It smells like sour chocolate. Oops. I'm sure it's the ginger -- it just doesn't agree with me.

I vaguely recall not liking this a whole lot when I first got the decant, but of course that was years ago, now. When I got it out of my "try again" BPAL box today, I put it on and got a huge blast of blue-smelling lavender. I thought, "Oh. That must have been what I didn't like." Used to hate lavender. I like it now, strangely. But now, this perfume doesn't really smell like lavender anymore. It did for about 20 seconds, and then it turned into a sweet milky soft scent... almost chalky. Like baby aspirin other reviewers mentioned, but a lot softer and prettier. Normally, I do not age floral or herby scents. Resins, sure. Woods, yes. Florals? No. However... this one seems to have improved. Interesting.

I've no idea why I wanted to try this one, since yuzu is one of my worst death notes, and frankincense very often is a super killer for me. But... this? Quite pretty, actually. The Lab's peony note is one of my favorites of all time, and I can definitely smell it in this. This is sweetly pretty and kind of cute. This is surprisingly awesome. One of those shockers that you're pretty sure will be awful but you try it anyway... and it rocks. It's kind of cheerful and happy and pretty, and I sort of love it.

Dark and smoky, for sure. Very definitely gives off that smoky reed scent that I get from the really good vetiver notes. The cacao over the top is pretty amazing. Just the right amount of light sweetness. I'm a huge fan of the Lab's copal, but I don't smell a ton of it in this. Which is odd, since historically my skin amps it (which I love). Interesting, unusual, mysterious, gorgeous. Fantastic.

When I got this bottle I thought it would be great, and I sort of liked it but not hugely. I figured I'd age it for a while and try it again. Weirdly, I think I actually like it less now. When I first put it on, I get a weird licorice-like overtone. Like anise. Or maybe herby in some way. I rolled the bottle a lot to blend it up and tried it again, and still got the strange anise scent. It definitely wears off when the oil is dry, but I'm still not a big fan of it. I ordered this bottle straight from the Lab and it's been sitting in a box for 5 years, so I know it hasn't been tampered with. I suspect my skin chemistry is doing something funky to it.

I like Celeste. It does remind me of Love's Philosophy, and Antique Lace, and Morocco... pretty much everything everyone has mentioned. It's like a musky version of Love's Philosophy and a more vanilla version of Morocco. Sadly it does that overwhelming thing on me that Love's Philosophy did. It smells really good, but there is something about this scent that I get tired of really fast. I don't want to smell it for four hours. I'm tired of it after 15 minutes. I never end up wearing scents like this, and it always kinds of pains me to give them up because I like them... in super small doses. I might keep my bottle around for a while to try one more time to wear it and see if it works.

Yeah, if you don't like vetiver, skip this. For those of us who like that reedy, smoky grass scent -- try it. This is the really nice dry smoky kind of vetiver, not the dank basement kind. The pepper dries it out a little more and gives it a little bite, and I think the patchouli is smoothing it out slightly. But I don't smell any grapefruit at all, and to me this smells almost like a vetiver single note.

Mmm, this smells great. Soft, resiny, sweet, and deep. I can smell the patchouli in it, but it's not overwhelming, it definitely smells sweeter and smoother than usual. I guess my little decant here is at least 5 years old at this point, so it's fairly well aged, and as you know those resins, wood, and leather notes get better with age. That certainly seems to be the case here, as this is outstanding. Sweet, pleasant, deep, soft leather.

This smells like mostly incensey resin to me. People who like resin blends will probably like this -- it's similar to others that are also good. Not as dark as Schwarzer Mond or Minotaur. Definitely smokier. I have trouble with BPAL's ambers turning to powder on me sometimes, but this one isn't bad at all.

I like the combination of soft lavender and lemon that I smell in this. I'm a chiropractor and I do soft tissue work every day, and although I like the scent of this and even the feel of it, I wouldn't be able to use it at work. It sinks in too quickly. I might be able to add it to the oil/lotion I usually use, for the scent, but on my skin the scent didn't stick around very long. The oil definitely did soften my skin, though. It feels like good quality.

Sweet, very slightly fruity (in a round way -- the fruit is not easy to place) dry chamomile. Warm, pleasant, sweet, and kind of clean-smelling. I very definitely like this. I'm not totally sure how often I'd wear it because it's out of my usual comfort zone, but I do like it. It for sure is more of a spring/summer scent than a fall/winter one, though. So right now isn't the right time of year for it. I should try it again in a few months. This is one of those BPAL blends that I come across from time to time that is very unusual -- it doesn't remind me of anything, and I don't think I've smelled anything like it before -- but it really smells surprisingly very good, and it makes me wonder why people don't wear scents like this. Like why does everyone and their sister wear some department store perfume day after day, wouldn't people want to smell like this, if they knew they had the option? I feel like people would want to smell like this. Unusual does not mean bad. At all.

I smelled this without knowing what was in it, and I was sniffing pretty hard and couldn't place the notes. I was having a hard time guessing what's in it. After I looked at the notes I thought, "Oh. Yes. Lilac. Now I smell it." The olibanum is behaving itself, which is super rare for me. This is a very nice dry, only slightly mossy, smoky floral. I like it. It's pretty. Not in-your-face at all. Definitely a night-time scent, for me. Not a day scent.

I'm not totally sure why I even have a decant of this, because a lot of the notes in it aren't my favorites. I'm betting I wanted it because of the saffron, which is both unusual and a favorite of mine. I think I can smell the saffron in it, but the amber is a little powdery, and I'm not a fan of the incense in the combination. Also, something about it is a bit pungent, and I'm not sure what that is. I'm glad I tried it but it didn't work out for me.

I was hoping this would be a knock-it-out-of-the-park scent for me, because I like almost all the notes. Red patch tends to be a no-no on me, and I don't like gardenia. Other than that, I was hopeful. As with all red musk blends, this smells very strongly of red musk on my skin. Apart from that, only kind of a dry floral overlay. It doesn't smell as complex as I expected. Kind of like just a particualarly dry red musk. Another reviewer mentioned a grapey scent, and I get that too. I have like a billion red musk blends because it's a favorite note of mine, but this isn't my favorite combination so the decant will be moving along to another home.

I like the scent of this -- kind of a soft herbal scent. It's not harsh, more rooty than bitter. I think the patchouli rounds it out nicely and takes an edge off of it. I don't typically wear this type of scent myself, but I wouldn't mind sitting next to someone who smelled like this. It's pleasant.

This actually smells really good on me. I expected it to be kind of gross, because, it's Croup. But it's a nice musky scent that smells a bit aquatic on me, like a traditional cologne. I like it.