LiberAmoris

The Geisha and the Samurai hair gloss is tough for me to describe. The blood orange smells naturalistic and bright and juicy, and yet, it smells gently dimmed and blurred by the wood amber. Almost caramelized a bit by the amber around the edges. And the white tea is very clean. The blood orange is the strongest note when first applied, but as everything settles and mellows, I get more amber and tea. It's very simple and beautiful, and the blood orange note is uplifting and happy. This is the kind of hair gloss that could really go anywhere—at the end of the day yesterday, most of the orange scent had dissipated, but my hair smelled clean and warm with the lingering amber and tea. Lovely.

Smut hair gloss is like a dream come true for me, because Smut is one of my favorite musky BPALs and I've long relished the idea of layering a hair gloss with the perfume. I don't know what three musks are in here, but they're awesome and the sugar is the just at the right amount—not too sweet. I never get the dark booze notes from Smut, but I'm not complaining, since boozy notes aren't always great on my skin. In my hair, it's totally Smut, but it's not too strong—I think I could wear this to work. Every time my hair moves, I get a hit of soft, sugared musks. Love, love, love.

Bumpity bump bump. In addition to the lovely Terra Vigoris I noted above last year, I'd add: Père Noël - Bright Sicilian oranges and sweet tangerines with a clink of lavender candy and a drop of anise. Fire Monkey - A new year’s blessing! Peony, China’s national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, orchid for luxury and elegance, pomelo for luck, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat for prosperity, pussy willow for growth, King mandarin for good fortune, cypress for longevity, and peach fruit to represent the fourth phase of Wu Xing. This year’s Lunar New Year blend also has an extra dollop of wild orange and flaming red dragon’s blood give you fortitude and strength, and, of course, to assist in scaring away the rampaging Nian. We've really been blessed with some awesome tangerine scents recently!

Père Noël is a lovely fragrance, but it took me many tries before it finally smelled the way others have noted it above. For the first 3 or 4 tests, it smelled a bit chalky on me, an issue I attribute to some wonky skin chemistry lately. Orange and lavender are fantastic together, and one of my first signature fragrances was a solid tangerine-lavender perfume that came in a tin. Père Noël reminds me less of Yuletime and more of that fantastic natural fragrance I wore as a teenager. Amongst the orange, tangerine, and lavender, the anise is a nice touch—it's pretty light-handed and just makes everything a little richer and more nuanced. So glad that I hung onto this and kept trying!

Wow, Fire Monkey is one glorious bouquet of notes. There are so many that it's tough to pick any one out. I mean, look at this list! Peony, orchid, pomelo, plum blossom, tangerine, lychee, pine resin, golden kumquat, pussy willow, king mandarin, cypress, peach fruit, wild orange, and red dragon’s blood. The overall effect is a luscious, lovely fruity-floral, dripping with citrus that smells so real it makes my mouth water. The floral notes come out after about a half hour, and they take on the glow of the fruits somehow. This is happy and bright in the way that Terra Vigoris is, and I couldn't be happier to have a bottle. This will be great for springtime!

Hmmm, the only lavender and coconut blend that I can think of off the top of my head is Antonino, the Carny Talker: White musk, wild plum, vetiver, black coconut, verbena, fig, and lavender. But some people seem to pick coconut up in TKO, so that might also be worth trying?

I love this bump! Red musk is one of my fave notes also. A few suggestions: A Rosy Colour Paints Her Claws with Honor (if you're also ok with rose and bourbon geranium) Psychodynamic Discharge (if you're also ok with leather and vetiver) The Tumultuous Vultures of Stern Passion (more vetiver here) The Infernal Lover is really tough to find (and was released more than a few years ago), but it was AMAZING. I dream that it will come back some year.

Haloes for sure, and also The Antikythera Mechanism (Teakwood, oak, black vanilla, and tobacco).

Volcano in Springtime (Whipped vanilla cream and white sandalwood with a touch of lotus root) and Love's Philosophy (Vanilla, saffron, and cream) from this year's Lupercalia release are making me SO happy. Also, I'm a wee bit obsessed with my bottle of Peach VIII (Whipped jasmine cream and peach blossom with vanilla orchid and white frankincense). What other standout milk/cream scents should we record here for posterity?

Aaaand, gonna perform a little necromancy on this topic, since we've had so many lovely items with strawberry notes released in the last year or so: Sticky Eyeballs and Floppy Entrails - Sticky white glops of marshmallow and clotted cream with ropes of sinewy strawberry licorice whips and oozing pink jelly. Battle Fairy in Training - This Battle Fairy smells like blue cotton candy, strawberries, a plop of vanilla icing and a bit of crushed peppermint candy. Pop - This is the scent of the bubbles that she popped all over the city: strawberry bubblegum against a backdrop of chilly wind. Strawberry Sufganiyot - A sugar-dusted pile of sufganiyot, trickling bright rivulets of strawberry jelly. A Mirror of Spring Pleasures on Kites - Pink strawberry, gardenia, blackberry wine, vanilla frankincense, and champaca absolute. Kertasníkir - Beeswax, strawberries, and bits of hard candy. Round Dance - Blush amber, wild carnation, French lavender, hay absolute, strawberry candyfloss, and vanilla cream. The Instructional Manual - Cherry blossoms falling into folds of red musk, bourbon vanilla, and strawberry cream. The Small Harem - Tahitian vanilla and strawberry with tonka bean absolute, Italian bergamot, ylang ylang, and Haitian vetiver. And from the Trading Post: Enveloped in Silk Hair Gloss - Strawberry cream, white musk, and orris root. I've tried many of these, and my favorites so far are Strawberry Sufganiyot, Round Dance, and Enveloped in Silk hair gloss. Thoughts from others?

I was also going to recommend Peanut Musk mixed with a berry blend like Blackberry Jam & Scones. But really, I just popped in to post this:

The Round Dance is so curious! Wet, the lavender and carnation are most prominent, and smell bright—like there's sunshine falling on these notes. I love the hay absolute note, and here it smells tawny and natural, like a plein air painting or something. As those notes mellow, the strawberry candyfloss (aka cotton candy, for us Yankees) and vanilla cream come forward. The result is a perfume full of notes that don't seem like they'd work together, but they genuinely do. It smells like summertime, like having sweets outdoors and sunshine. So much fun, and I think this would make a great sleep blend in the summer due to the lavender!

The Instructional Manual is a pink and red blend, perfect for this warm spring day in NYC. Wet, there are a lot of strong notes vying for attention. But dry, it really blooms into a charming red musk, vanilla, and strawberry scent. The cherry blossom and cream notes are more subtle on me, although the longer I wear it, the more cherry blossom I get. It runs pretty sweet, but it's very fun and lighthearted and I think this will be great to hang on to for layering with Enveloped In Silk hair gloss.

I ordered Enveloped in Silk because I couldn't pass up the chance to try a strawberry hair gloss. I figured I'd like it, but I didn't expect to like it so much! This is definitely a strong gloss when first applied, but it mellows to the most amazing strawberries and cream scent, backed by the white musk and orris that make what could otherwise be a straight-up foody scent more dimensional and elegant. My husband, who's usually indifferent to my hair gloss choices, was like 'Hmmm. Your hair smells good."

Lizzie, I can't wait to hear what you think of Snake Charmer! It's one of my favorites. And you're reminding me to find Tiki King in my husband's BPAL drawer and re-test it...I bet it's aged magnificently! Sprout, agree on Tarot, the Star and Spooky...they can be tough to find, but they're both wonderful.

The Avenue is the pepper-iest blend I think I've tried! I love the black and pink pepper that comes through like gangbusters when wet—it's just a really different start. Aside from the pepper, I get dark, dry chocolate and clove. The smoked amber and bourbon vanilla tar come through as slight caramelized vanilla sweetness, rounding out the dark chocolate and spices. Dry, this is an amber-chocolate perfume on me with pepper and clove at the heart. It's really unique and I'll enjoy using this up.

Fancy! This bonbon smells like a truffle from Vosges. The chocolate and jasmine are strongest on me, with the marshmallow and orange blossom trailing. Wet, it smells like eating chocolate mousse next to a bouquet of jasmine. Dry, this is still jasmine and chocolate—at times I smell more jasmine in the air, and then a moment later, it's mostly chocolate. They sound like strange bedfellows, and I suppose they are an unusual pairing. But it's an interesting and enjoyable combo for me.

Mmm, The Love Swing is so yummy. I definitely see the comp to Black Vanilla & Cardamom HG—vanilla and cardamom here also. The black patchouli is sleek and dark, just as described. Even though this has a strong smell when I first apply it, it's not heavy and the lingering smell after ten minutes or so is faintly sweet, like vanilla-cardamom molasses chews. I love it.

Adding Hidden Pearls into the mix—strong but balanced coconut on me, and the blend smells white and pale green. It's a really refreshing, pretty blend, but I would only recommend it to those who like iris and orris, as those notes are strongest (at least on my skin).

Fleurette’s Purple Snails is pretty great—a worthy addition to this violet thread! It's the most violet-y blend I've tried since Faith.

Hidden Pearls is one of my favorites from my Lupercalia order. This is definitely reminiscent of Blood Pearl, with which it shares notes of orris and coconut. But Hidden Pearls is gleaming and white as opposed to the dusky, musky pearls of Blood Pearl. The iris and orris are the most prominent notes on me (it's like Iris Squared!), with the coconut trailing and the vanilla and pear just behind. The result is a gleaming, nacre-d, gorgeous blend that smells white and pale green. Orris does smell a little like violet, and at times this smells like some just-discovered 'white coconut violet' that only grows in the rainforest or something.

Woah, the oil color for Philostratus’ Phoenix is a very dense golden brown. Wet, the Calabrian lemon is really bright and fresh, and then there's loads of honeyed incense and amber, and golden vegetal musk thrums along underneath. The orange blossom and saffron are nice accents, but don't take over the blend. Once it dries down, this is primarily amber-honey incense with a highlight (lemon) and a lowlight (vegetal musk). It manages to be both sunshine-y and earthy, and when I asked my husband to sniff it, he told me it smelled like really fancy nag champa incense. I think that's a thumbs up from him.

Testing a well-aged imp, so I imagine certain notes were stronger back in 2006, but And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt is lovely. The amber, myrrh, hyssop, and cypress are the strongest notes on my skin, with the honey, sandalwood, frankincense, cardamom, saffron, and red musk just behind. The cypress is really wonderful here, and this smells like some very fancy handmade incense I have, minus the smoke. This is the kind of perfume that I find really relaxing: woods, amber and honey, a little musk, and spices. Had I had a greater notion ten years ago of the kinds of scents I like, I think I would have picked up a bottle.

I'm loving The Top. All four notes come through, but the result is something that smells less like four notes coming together and more like 'rock 'n' roll rose'. This is a rose that's lived a little, y'know? This is rose with the faint smell of cigarettes in her hair and smudged eyeliner, who travels the world and then when she gets home, throws her girlfriend's black leather jacket over a long white t-shirt to get a big bottle of mineral water at the corner bodega. It's self-assured, a true don't-f*ck-with-me rose. Definitely incensey and a little perfumey (again, that blend of downtown and uptown), but also smolderingly sexy. The drydown, once the musk settles in, is BEAUTIFUL.

2016 release: Ooof, yes, this is very pretty. Elizabeth of Bohemia is a truly perfect rose oude. This is straight up red rose and oudh on me, and it's perfect in its simplicity. The oude gives depth and a sense of maturity...this is a regal rose perfume. Although I already have dozens of BPAL roses in my collection, there can never be enough.