LiberAmoris

Départ Pour Le Sabbat is definitely for red patchouli lovers. The red patch is glorious here, and I can also smell the honey and vanilla—they're not shy. The goat's milk accord is strongest on me when wet, but gives a subtle tangy creaminess to everything when dry. The oudh comes out on the drydown and I get some wonderful wood notes about 20 minutes after application. Another one that could be either sexy or comforting, depending on mood. Really glad I tried this, and I think it will age like a dream. Going to have my husband try it as well...I have a feeling this will be great on him.

En Garde smells like rum jelly beans on me—with a big dollop of caramel and a whiff of tobacco. It's really fun, but it might be just a touch too sweet for me...although every once in a while I get a craving for a candied scent, and this would definitely fit the bill!

Meus Amor Aeternus is another one I've had to try a few times to get a read on, because it shifts every time I wear it. Mostly, it's like Dorian and Snake Oil and honey, with a wreath of carnation and moss. That probably sounds weird, but it works. Like Lilith Victoria, this is a blend that takes Dorian and Snake Oil and blends them up with striking and unusual notes—and like Lilith Victoria, I find it very soft and comforting and cosy. It even smells a bit outdoorsy, like fresh breath breathed into our beloved BPAL classics.

Wow, Muse of Fire is like a firework of flowers and colors. I find it impossible to pick out any individual stem, but at times I think I catch: daisy, lilac, cotton blossom, clover, rose, and phlox. But I really have no idea, because it's an absolute tumult of petals, built up to the point where my brain is awed and then I can only think: flowers. In this sense, it seems wonderfully spring-y to me, like the month of May in a bottle. I wore it today at work and when I went to pick up my salad at lunch, the guy at Pret leaned in and said: YOU SMELL SO GOOD. This is so lively and hopeful, I have to keep it for those days when I need a rainbow on my wrists.

Ok, I'm going to try and be calm about this, but Captain Lilith and Her First Mate hair gloss smells like coconut Midway on me. The rum and hot toddy notes are very, very subtle, so mostly I get creamy vanilla coconut cupcakes wafting about in my hair, and it's absolutely delicious. I'm very glad I picked this one up.

In college, my work-study job was in the theatre costume department, where I was a stitcher and draper, and then a costume designer on a few productions. It was a fantastic job, full of creative decisions and geometry and quick changes. My boss, the head of costume design at the university and an incredible designer, also taught makeup. Before shows, while quickly whip-stitching some decorative element back onto a costume that fell off during rehearsal, she would pull out boxes and boxes of Ben Nye makeup (maybe Stella's uncle?) and, pre-Kim Kardashian, contour the hell out of some sophomore. The small room would fill with the smell of the makeup and the sweetness of whatever cookies or cake someone brought in. Clown White smells like makeup and sweets! There is a bit of a Play-Doh vibe, but to me it smells more like pale marzipan and marshmallows and something faintly reminiscent of grease paint. It smells just like that classic white makeup base and a faint trail of something sweet. This makes me so happy, and I'm in awe of Beth's ability to capture 'Clown White' so perfectly.

Oh boy, Pumpkin Cheesecake Cupcake smells just like one...almost like carrot cake, as mentioned above. It makes me want dessert...badly. On the drydown, it's pumpkin spice cake with cream cheese frosting. I'm one of the lucky ones for whom the cream note stays pretty true, and this is just delectable.

The Witches' Sabbath is kind of fascinating...wet, it's very 'red', with the Burgundy, wine-soaked red fruits, rose geranium petals, and red patchouli. But dry, this is immortelle, champaca, candles, and smoke on me—strained through the sieve of 'red' but mostly feeling white and pale yellow and pale orange. It really does have a moment where it smells a bit like Blood Rose and then it banks left. The remnants on my wrist after an hour smell like the wee hours of a Bacchanal, when the candles are moats of molten wax, dripping over their forms, and the smell of wine and flowers and spent lust are in the air. Really interesting and artful, and quite a progression!

La Femme de Satan is a dark beauty. Wet, it's loads of red musk and cacao, tobacco, and patchouli...like a clove cigarette-infused red musk with a kiss of chocolate. As it dries, I get more currant and clove, and the leather and vanilla-infused amber purr along. The black leather note is very subtle on me. It has good staying power, and in the air I'm getting red musk and patchouli darkened with a scrim of cacao, tobacco, leather, and currant—all handled rather delicately so they don't crowd others out. Nice, and will only get better with time, I suspect!

Wow, MPF 13 is great. This is like Silkybat plus red musk, red patchouli and a touch of coconut on me...I have no idea if there's actually red musk in it, but it smells like it to me (and I love red musk!). The list of notes might make it seem heavy, but it smells much 'lighter'. The coconut is perfect...enough to pitch this in a summery direction without making it feel like the kind of gloss I'd only wear in one season. I would in fact wear this all year long. This is a long-lasting gloss in my hair and I've already received a few compliments at work.

The Magic Circle really is a morpher. I've worn it a few times and it's been slightly different on me each time. I find this kind of delightful...it seems magic? Tonight it's mostly frankincense, clary sage, and patchouli on me...sort of hypnotic and relaxing. The vanilla and jasmine trail and inform. The honey myrtle and oudh are at the edges, sweetening and warping ever so slightly. On the drydown some kind of wood note appears, but I think it's a phantom note created between the clary sage, frankincense, and honey myrtle. Then the vanilla comes forward and everything goes blurry and incensey and the jasmine floats through like a spectre. It smells a bit sour at my wrists, but the air around me is pretty heavenly. Definitely a keeper.

A Fling in the Lagoon is such a zippy, bright, energizing bath oil! Applied as after-shower moisturizer, this is all lime and mandarin on me, a 'wake-up call' scent that's perfect on a workday when I'm feeling sluggish and the coffee hasn't kicked in yet. The mint and coconut are very subtle...I would not call this a 'tropical' blend, but a juicy, citrusy blend with a shadow of mint and coconut. Like a palate-cleansing sorbet, this is one that I'll turn to when I need something really refreshing.

My Baby and a Baby Goat really does smell a bit like babies, like milk, warmth, and sweetness. There's the gentlest milk and honey, that lovely rice flower note, and a fuzzy, white and grey musk underneath. It's a really comforting and beautiful scent, and one that I think would be great as a sleep oil as well. Reminds me of Milk Moon 2005, one of my favorite early lunacies.

OMG, Sticky Eyeballs and Floppy Entrails is like a strawberry and cream gummy candy. This is definitely candy, there is no getting around the sweetness here, but it's so much fun and absolutely mouth-watering. I'll have to be in the right mood for this one, but I kind of love it and will tuck it away until the right mood comes around. There's something unabashedly playful and sweet about this that reminds me of the Monster Bait series...which makes me very happy.

Little Lady Macbeth is a happy surprise—this is really half and half, sugared red currant and honey cake, and somehow the true split is not too sweet or cakey (thank you, tart currants, for cutting the cake!). It does feel 'related' to Eat Me, but LLM is less sweet, less heady on me. It's not so juicy on my skin, more like a dense honey cake with currants rolled in sugar as a garnish. It's a cute take on BPAL's Lady Macbeth, which is all wine and red berries on me. I think I like cake and berries even better.

Once Upon a Time is definitely soporific, a true sleepytime blend. It's also a little 'soaperific', because the lavender, hops, yarrow, and chamomile create an 'herbal bouquet' that mirrors the scent profile of many fancy natural soaps. The vanilla is very, very subtle—if I didn't know it's in here, I don't think I'd be able to detect it. I'd hesitate to wear this again during the day because it honestly is knocking me right out and I may have to grab another cup of coffee (although I'm oddly relaxed at work, so maybe there's a net gain?). But it will go in my little box of 'sleep blends', and will get good use on nights when I need help getting and staying asleep.

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The Sorceress is one my favorites from my Halloweenie order this year. It's tough to describe, but it smells like flowering moonlight resins on me, like blues and purples and whites and dark shadows. I've only recently connected the dots and realized that I love tuberose, so I can smell it here because I'm now obsessed with it, but the strongest notes on me when wet are frankincense, lavender, and violet. The moonflower (also a favorite) and tuberose are just gorgeous, bringing a haunting sweet whiteness to the blend as it dries. Those night flowers crest underneath and knit up with the mastic, sandalwood, and musk in a way that smells almost seamless. It's definitely incensey (the influence of frankincense, styrax, and mastic!). Absolutely lovely.

Oh, yum. The Witches is like a whipped vanilla dessert with a tuile of pumpkin and an artful drizzle of honey over everything. If you like sweets and the honey note loves your skin, this is likely to be right up your alley. There's so much vanilla here! Almost marshmallow-y, like Klepz said. The pumpkin is very subtle. Wet, this goes a little wobbly on me, but it only lasts a few minutes and then I'm enveloped in a vanilla cloud. This would layer beautifully with Boo hair gloss, and I think it would also be great with Pumpkin Spice Everything hair gloss or perfume.

TKO atmo spray is so wonderful—everything I love about TKO in a diffusible, linen-safe spray bottle. I've been spritzing my bed before bedtime and it makes for a pretty heavenly sleep. As others have said, it smells a bit like lavender marshmallows. If this were GC, I'd probably purchase a few bottles a year for my personal use and a few to give as gifts. It's that good.

For autumn leaves, I'm sure you've seen the just-released Pile of Leaves series in the Halloween update?

Ask the Nearest Hippie, indeed. Looking at the notes, I wondered if this would be the kind of scent I could get away with wearing to work, as wafting hemp and cannabis might really put the rumor mill into action. But the cannabis is really only present in the first 20 minutes on me—wet, this goes on all vanilla and cannabis, with a shadow of patchouli. Cannabis has that herbal tang to it that's pretty distinctive (smells like college!), but it's not a note that I love in large amounts. Luckily, it recedes, and I'm left with a velvety patchouli and vanilla, with a bit of what smells like tobacco or smoke and a hint of pot. It sounds odd, but the balance ends up being great. Definitely reminiscent of Revenant Rhythm, like if someone wearing RR toked up and the smoke clung to them a little. If that's your jam, I wouldn't puff puff pass on this.

I keep some notes on my favorite combinations. Frosty Silkybat HG with A Lady Tall and White Sin HG with O Love and Time and Sin Sin HG with Gingerbread Sin Implacable Beautiful Tyrant HG with Hal Winter Lily and Sugarcane HG with Tumultuous Vultures Eldritch Dark HG with Psychodynamic Discharge The White Bees Swarming HG with Crib Girls Shards of Looking-Glass HG with Jacob's Ladder Red Apple HG with The Gas Lamps' Flare The White Bees Swarming HG with Womb Furie Implacable Beautiful Tyrant HG with Hesiod's Phoenix Silkybat HG with Little Maggie Dorian HG with Dumb Cake Boo HG with Boomslang or Little Maggie Rose Petals and Champa HG with 2, 5, &7 Black Vanilla & Cardamom HG with Furo or Blacker than the Raven Wings of Midnight

The Scales of Deprivation is a lovely, clean, very pretty skin scent on me. The lemon peel is so perfect here, there's just the lightest touch. The sage, frankincense, labdanum, and sandalwood together are woody and resiny and again, so light. The lavender fougere doesn't overwhelm on my skin, and the vetiver is barely present at all. This is one of Beth's blends where I marvel at how so many notes that could be heavy are made so airy. It feels like a pale yellow wash of incense touched with lavender, and I think I could wear it even in scent-averse workplaces and not trigger any concern. I'm so glad I got to try this, and will certainly finish up my imp!