bheansidhe

Lemon verbena pow. This reads as a lemon starkist candy plus a faint hint of (I swear) barbeque buffalo wings. There might be a touch of anise in here, but only because I'm looking for it. Cloying lemon perfume note over dusty-woodsy base. It backs off and sulks at me from a distance after a while. Finally the lemon gets tired and lies down, and I can smell the vanilla and licorice behind it. Sad for me, because I love lemon (this may be lemongrass at this point), but the Lab's version never plays nice with my skin.

I like this better than the released Absinthe or Absinthe v7. I get lots of true licorice, which is sweeter and more reminiscent of a black vanilla bean than licorice-flavored candy would lead one to believe. There's a touch of woodsy bitterness from wormwood, and a mild anise-and-hyssop tinge, and a gentle true lemon in the background. Not a ton of throw, but it wears well, and stays sweet without devolving into candy.

Lots of leather, and the same kind of spice medley as Velvet Bandito. And tobacco. Acrid tobacco smoke, rather than wet tobacco leaf. Very realistic leather drydown. This is actually making me a little queasy; there's a kind of grassy musk in the middle that isn't behaving on me. It's not you, BPAL; it's me. Off to wash.

Imagine those Ricola herbal honey throat drops, plus tons of minty wintergreen. My sinuses cleared when I sniffed the vial. On my skin, it swapped ends several times (MINT! Dirt! Leather! Bright hot honey! Something orange! MINT!). I definitely got honey, but the note wasn't behaving at all like the lab's honey notes usually do. Meanwhile, I could feel the minty astringency working through my tearducts, but it's not a green herbal mint; I see how people guessed eucalyptus - I'm going with camphor. That warm orange-honey note kept baffling me, though - and then it dawned: smells like the cubeb in Crib Girls! So. Cubeb, camphor, and herbal throat drops. I don't get dragon's blood, but I don't try it that often, so I may have forgotten what it smells like.

I get all of the above - hard cherry candy, watermelon jolly ranchers - plus LIQUID SMOKE. Maybe because this tester has had a while to oxidize? But there's a faint but discernible note of bright, acrid campfire with the sweet fruity candy. (This sounds weirder than it smells.) The smoke edges away as it wears, and I get a low but definite peppery floral with the fruit candy. Not carnation, but a similar note - stock, or sweet pea? It's reminding me of Mania or...Eris! This is Eris bellied up to the Tiki Bar, swilling mimosas and grinning while things randomly catch fire in the background. Never reads as bubblegum to me. ETA: I just tried my Luna Moth decant, and this is VERY similar to the lime sugar and pear notes in that blend.

My initial impression was "wood candy with a big glass of limeade!" What would wood-flavored candy smell like? Like XCDW5! This isn't a masculine lime-and-woods blend; it's a bouncy, fizzy, sweet lime soda and sweet woods. There could be a touch of red musk, or... red currant? I'm getting something that's also in Frivolous Wheeled Footwear. Very sweet and summery, but with depth to it. The longer it's on, the more I like it.

Red wine and cherry cough syrup. Maybe grape cough syrup, but smells redder than grapes to me.

Wet, this is the kind of scent my SO brands "a whore's handbag;" a strong, spicy floral with a heady solvent note. This has the feel of a Conjure Bag blend, like the older sister of Follow Me Boy. Dries to a black floral bouquet. Orris, jasmine, soap, possibly gardenia, with a dash of black pepper. Lush and blowsy, but still sophisticated. I just can't work any of these notes.

Sour lime, fizzy gin, yuzu. Adds a white tropical floral as the initial sour-lime fizzes down. Smells like the same gin base as Swank and several Tiki Bar blends.

OMG, I remember those! Wet, I get that comparison. Agreed on the floral, but there's a pollen note in here that I think is stargazer lily along with violets and jasmine. The jasmine has that nutty tinge that makes me think it's night-blooming or jasmine sambac. I also get sharp, fresh lavender. Not me, but not as awful as I was afeared of after reading the reviews.

Wet, I get a big hit of boozy cherry liquor and vanilla extract over vintage Antique Lace. Are those Miss Mary's babas au rhum I smell hiding behind the cooking vanilla? The boozy overnote fades fast, and the hint of cherry evolves into a distinct carnation or stock note. This turns straight carnation single-note for a minute, in fact. It dries into a light, elegant vanilla musk over carnation powder and sweet pea-type florals. The end result is too pink and powdery for me (just as Antique Lace was), but I see how this would be a big hit for AL junkies.

Lush, but not overpowering. Wet dirt and cool green florals and moss and dried rose. This is almost a dead ringer for Zombi from the vial, but with the addition of that green note. Could very well be bamboo in there, and maybe a brush of oude. This dries into a light, fresh dirt note, sweetened with bamboo, with ambiguous dried florals background. The overall feel is very much Ars Morendi.

Wet: a big blast up the nose. Minty and astringent, but not a green mint; this is camphor, sharp fresh birch oil, or pine turpenoids, plus unidentifiable spices. I also get a hay or chamomile middle note. Maybe a very green sandalwood or benzoin as well? Maybe some clove waaay back there. As the medicinal note wears down, I get a very herbal bottom note. You know... the dried version is reminding me of Vipralabda (benzoin, Greek sage, hay, melaleuca ericifolia, oakmoss, and blue chamomile). Eeenteresting.

I'm testing a quarter-imp that's been through dozens of hands by now, so it's safe to say we've got some aging and oxidizing going on here. This is a gorgeous foodie scent from the vial. Oddly, my first thought was "Crumpet Rebellion!" I got the butter, the pastry, and a red-berry filling like raspberry. There was a boozy depth to the background that resolved into a chocolatey Nutella note. There's none of the bitter or dust that I associate with several of the Lab's cocoa notes, but rather a smooth, pure milk chocolate cream. Unlike Bliss, this chocolate element doesn't go plastic on me. This does morph into an oddly peanut-butter like note, as Myth noted, but it's not unpleasant. Verdict: heavy on the cream, the milk chocolate, and the pastry. Light on a sticky raspberry jelly note, and a final hint of hazelnuts.

It's much drier and resin-y when sniffed than when worn. My impressions are a lot like fairnymph's, except that I'm getting yuzu, lime, and bay - though my nose can't decide between sweet bay and bay rum. I don't get the green of balsams; I think that's the bay. As it wears, I also get hints of sea salt. A very sophisticated masculine cologne that could be gender-neutral as well. I like this MUCH better than Nepthys v2, and would love to see this blend released. I'd buy a bottle for the man-thing-in-residence.

Wet: burnt French roast, black cacao nibs, salt, and Yorkshire pudding (the savory gravy kind, not a sweet kind). This is the office breakroom on the weekend, with coffee scorched on the burner and the vague hint of burnt popcorn and leftovers wafting from the microwave. I would love to peel that black coffee bean note and the bitter chocolate and put them in another oil, because this is trying to be amazing on my skin. It really is. And the salt and bready bits aren't.. actively offensive. Just odd.

Buh...what? It's the Chicken Legged Snack Hut! This is the saltiest roast turkey gravy you have ever smelled. It's going to pucker the hell out of your mouth, it's that salty. If you dare to skin test it, it actually wears down to a salty, yeasty note that's vaguely like the bread note in Drink Me. It's not.. horribly offensive, but I'm not a fan of the savory perfume concept. And I totally get how people smell burned popcorn.

Dorian plus... cream, light soap, and coconut? I don't smell any bergamot or tea. This is Dorian in drag as Snow White. As it dries I begin to get whiffs of the lavender fougere; actually, I detect a background similar to the released TKO blend (which is a favorite). The soap wears away, but it stays a white-cream-and-coconut blend over a very faint grassy lavender and marshmallow. No tea, no, sir. Not wild about it. If I hold my arm sideways and give a long glancing sniff I get the released Dorian under coconut body lotion. I can see how the soft white creaminess would appeal to a lot of people, but it isn't me. Okay. I applied a second time and really slathered, rather than dabbing like I did at first. That got me a blast of lemony bergamot/Earl Grey tea and lavender, with a stronger lavender in the background. Again, it quickly collapsed into a billowing poof of coconut-lavender milk body lotion. Lovely and feminine and delicate, but really Not Me.

Starts a very realistic green grass-sap note, like broken dandelion stems. It stays herbal, but as it dries I get whiffs of fresh-mown hay, angelica, hyssop, and chamomile.

Tobacco (both wet leaf and smoke), a hint of sweet sandalwood, a light woodsy balsam, black pepper, and dusty dusty dirt. It develops an oddly orange-blossom note as it ages that is possibly cypress.

Almost dead-on sweet, buttered kettle corn and pastry crust, though I should note I'm testing a quarter imp that's been shipped around a bit by now. I see the hints of eggnog and apple pie spice. Zero jelly - guess the zombies sucked it out before it got to me.

I'm glad so many people like Panther Moon, and equally glad it doesn't appeal to me, because I'd hate to hunt it down. OH THE HUBRIS, THE OVER-CONFIDENCE! Read on and WEEP! I had the opportunity to test it during my eight-bottle pickup at Will Call. I get the black musk, champaca, myrrh and ambergris right off - the latter two being death notes for my skin, and the former creating an overwhelming Eau de Headshop. So while the scent is evocative - black, exotic, velvet-furred and powerfully muscled - I just don't want it pushing into my nose-space. About two hours later, on the faaaar drydown, I get a lovely dry, spiced ginger, anise, and wood (possibly from the benzoin). If it was like this from the get-go I would have bought it. Incidentally I wrote on R.M. Rilke for my dissertation for my German degree (and translated some of his poetry myself, which I won't inflict here). I always liked C.F. MacIntyre's version of this poem; normally it sounds forced when a translated poem attempts to rhyme in the same meter as the original, but I think it works for this translation. The easy motion of his supple stride, which turns about the very smallest circle, is like a dance of strength around a center in which a mighty will stands stupefied. Only sometimes when the pupil's film soundlessly opens . . . then one image fills and glides through the quiet tension of the limbs into the heart and ceases and is still. ETA after three hours: What... what's this? What's this on my wrist? This beautifully dry, warm, sibilant ginger-box of really slinky seductive smelling STUFF? That's the Panther Moon I let pass me by.

I have these listed under "Mint, medical, astringent" on the Scent Notes page of my spreadsheet. WHUT. YES. I HAVE MULTI-PAGE SPREADSHEET FOR BPAL. Baku, Burial, Jabberwocky, Kathmandu, Loup Garou, Mad Hatter, Oneiroi, Pain, Red Devil, Undertow, Wolfsbane (and LE) Bitter Moon, Ded Moroz, Dragon Moon, Schwarzer Mond

I have a seriously aged partial imp on my hands that I just tested. BETH, OH, PLEASE, BETH, BRING BACK THE KING AND QUEEN OF CLUBS!! It's not fair that they came and went before I ever discovered them!! King of Clubs, in his current incarnation, is seriously aged, soft, well-worn leather, grown over with green moss, covered in damp black humus-y earth. There's a gentle sweetness from the dark musk and almond. I don't get amber or fig, or if I do, they're one with this amazing blend. The drydown is a little dusty, but again, that may be because he's five years old at this point. WANT BOTTLE!

This comparison would never have occurred to me had I not been testing them side by side, but the vanilla bean note in Wezwanie/Hold is a dead ringer for the vanilla base in Hellboy's Liz: rich and voluptuous, and decadent as Haagen-Daas. The scents aren't otherwise alike, and I went into the skin test knowing full well and myrrh and honey hate my skin. So, given that caveat: The first slather is warm and sweet, anchored by amber and sandalwood. Not foody, but definitely gourmand. It's warm and blowsy and almost unbearably rich. This is by no means a dry or woody blend. But at my back I always hear Myrrh's thunderous footsteps coming near; And yonder all before us lie Deserts of vast honey, horrified. For three shining seconds this is a luscious melange of amber and vanilla bean-flecked Nutella. In fact, it's vanilla Nutella incense. And then the myrrh and honey pull a Godzilla Meets Tokyo. I think it best that we draw a merciful curtain over the end of this skin test. Suffice it to say that if you're a fan of these notes, you should beg, borrow or steal a decant to test.