LiberAmoris

Shiny Furball is woodsy, furry happiness. The cedar, lavender, fir, and juniper berry give it a woodsy and herbal base...and the vanilla musk, black clove, and honeyed coconut sweeten and temper it. The coconut is kind of genius here—I would never think that coconut and cedar would go well together, but they do. It does smell a bit like fur, like something pure that's run through the woods.

 

This hair gloss is total aromatherapy for me. I wear it, and I feel relaxed. Paired with Sylvia, it's even more wonderful.

Hair Loosened and Soiled in Mid Orgies is happy honey musk. Like others have said, it's reminiscent of O but muskier, like O with a drop shadow. Great to wear on it's own, and fantastic with Womb Furie and Crib Girls.

I picked up a bottle of Hesiod's Phoenix in 2013 and have been enjoying it ever since, but never reviewed it. I concur with my colleagues, this is SO good. Amber, vanilla, and oudh—it's honestly tough to go wrong with that slate. On my skin, when I take in a deep breath it's like a dreamy, caramelized, vanilla-soaked wood. In the air, it smells a bit like a toasted marshmallow. One of the best amber scents in my collection.

Vintage 2010:

 

I can't believe I've never reviewed Womb Furie! This is definitely like O meets Snake Oil on me, and it's aged well (just like Snake Oil, go figure!). It's not something I reach for often, but when I want a sexy, snuggly scent...this is great. Wearing it is like walking around in a personal, incensey cloud of honey, resins, patchouli, and vanilla. Not bad at all.

One Pale Woman smells pink and white to me. At first the apple, pink pepper, orange blossom, and jasmine are a little much together—it's so sweet, like fruit candy. But as it dries down, it mellows out. I can smell the vanilla and champaca and tobacco flower, and the mint. It ends as a sweet incensey mix of flowers, framed with a bit of apple and mint. The champaca is especially nice here. Definitely smells like spring!

Little Maggie is one of the scents I only wear every once in a while, because I'll be so sad when I run out! Wet, it's all vanilla and light flowers and chocolate on me, then, as it dries, the white sandalwood and honeyed patchouli come forward. The patchouli here is very subtle and golden. Fully dry, it's an almost dusty sandalwood (with something just a touch smoky), vanilla, honey, and light patchouli. I can definitely see the comparison to Velvet, and it does layer incredibly well with Silkybat hair gloss.

Splendid Summer Days atmo really is like an amazing florist shop. It's straight-up rose, carnation, and a touch of honey and sunlight. The carnation is in the lead here, so if you love carnation...you might not want to miss this. It's like 19 degrees outside right now but in my apartment it smells like spring.

 

Cake Smash is one of those scents that I wear when I really need a foody, dessert-y hit. It's absolutely red velvet cake and cream cheese frosting, against a subtle backdrop of what feels like the BPAL supernote: Dorian + Snake Oil + Doc C. It reminds me a lot of the original Beaver Moon, which I also love. I'm not in the mood for this often, but when I am, it's great. Sometimes I layer with a drop of Snake Oil or Dorian, if I want the sweets to take a back seat.

Wow, this smells like spring! Kind of a weird experience to spray this when there's snow on the ground outside, but I'll happily indulge in anything to distract me from winter's chill.

A Triumphal Arch of Leaves and Flowers atmo spray is really equally split between the herbs, the snow peas, and the roses. The herbs and snowpeas make a kind of phantom note that reminds me a bit of seaweed—in a good way! There's something very green here to balance out the rosebushes. After spraying, my husband walked in and said "Roses!" so clearly it's not rose-light, but the greenery is prominent. After a bit, this smells, somehow, like a green rose. It's fascinating! I'll definitely keep and enjoy this one, especially since spring is a ways off yet.

 

ETA: This morning the room I spritzed this in smelled mostly of roses, with just a hint of green. I love rose and am so glad this note won out and lingers.

Chorion hair gloss is truly delicate, and sticks close to me when I wear it. It opens with iris and white musk, tinged with vanilla. The white patchouli and mimosa blossom are very faint, to my nose. After blow-drying, it becomes mostly iris and vanilla, with very light patchouli and white musk. It's really pretty and another gloss that I feel more than comfortable wearing to work. It layers beautifully with White Peacock and Yucca Giant-Skipper.

I'm unable to resist anything with 'animalic ambergris accord', full stop. Black Silk starts off as bourbon vanilla and that fanged ambergris accord, with white flowers swimming in the background. There's something very dark here—the patchouli and tobacco pull down the shades on everything. As it dries, the tobacco comes forward along with the immortelle and it starts to feel more grey. An hour or so after application, it feels dove grey, like a curl of light vanilla pipe smoke wrapped around my wrist. I agree that this will age magnificently!

I'm nearing the end of my bottle of Implacable Beautiful Tyrant, and can't believe I haven't reviewed this one yet! It's absolutely beautiful. A scent that I would happily also buy in perfume oil form—the frankincense and white ginger here seem to meld to create some kind of supernote that's just stunning with the amber and oude. Lovely on its own, or great with Snake Oil, Morocco, Lyonesse, or any amber or ambergris blend that I have on tap.

 

This leans in the sexy direction, but I wear it to work all the time where I regularly receive compliments on it.

I got my Lady Fleming's Gingerbread atmo spray late-ish in the Yule season last year, and put it away so I'd have a spray to use this year while waiting for my Yule order. This proved to be a good plan, and I'm so glad I picked this one! It smells just like gingerbread, and definitely put me in the right seasonal spirit, especially since I didn't do any holiday baking this year. When I wanted a hit of baked goods, I just spritzed as needed.

 

I've also layered this atmo with other Yule sprays in order to achieve maximum holiday goodness...it goes well with Sugar Plum and Vanilla Bean!

I travel a lot for work, and when I do, I try to pack light. So I only take one hair gloss with me, and that hair gloss is always Morocco.

 

Morocco is perfect for every situation—not too overpowering for work, outgoing enough for going out after work, and relaxing at night when I'm trying to unwind. The musk, carnation, and sandalwood together are so gorgeous, and then there's just a touch of cassia there to add a bit of spice without being overwhelming. With so many great LE hair glosses, I feel like my love for this one doesn't get enough ink—but it's become a true staple for me and part of my away-from-home hair care routine.

Yep, The Phoenix, Having Burst Her Shell is good. The orange and tangerine are a great pairing with the patchouli and amber. The tobacco note isn't strong on me, and the white musk is hard for me to even detect, although there's something smooth and soft mellowing out the brightness of the citrus, so maybe that's it. It's like if Sin (minus the cinnamon) and Eastern Comma had a baby!

Yellow Metal With Mingled Purple Blushes is such a great capture of the inspiration. Smells like bright yellow amber and a touch of metal, plus just the barest hint of wild plum and blackcurrant. This smells very upscale and elegant somehow, and is the kind of blend I could wear anywhere...it smells warm and clean with just a touch of fruit. This smells better the longer it's on, ending as a soft amber with something fretful and complex at the very, very back of it. Another keeper from this year's Phoenixes!

I've tried A Rosy Colour Paints Her Claws With Honor a few times now, and each time I dab it on, I get that hit of musky rose and it's so nice.

 

This is a rose-forward blend—that rose tint comes down like a pale red wash over everything it touches. It smells like a straight split between red rose, red musk, bourbon geranium, and vanilla. Bourbon geranium smells like rose with a citronellol edge—think a rosy citronella candle (better than it sounds). It's like rose if it were in the citrus family. Here it's also a bit herbaceous and it gives this phoenix some claws.

 

A few hours into wear, this is a nuzzle-soft rose with vanilla and musk and a twang of something citrusy. Very nice.

Shards of Looking-Glass hair gloss really does smell reflective and bright. I'm getting golden lilies, a touch of ozone, lilies of the valley, and mugwort—which I think is what's giving it a subtle herbal, camphorous edge. But mostly this smells like golden lilies with a bit of water. It's a lovely floral and the kind of hair gloss that, at least on me, makes blow drying my hair an absolute pleasure but then doesn't announce itself overmuch. This is very light about an hour after application, and I can only smell it if I bring my hair to my nose. When I do, it smells great.

I'm so pleased to have another gloss that I can wear to work! This makes my hair smell like clean lilies and winter sunlight.

Snow White hair gloss is so lovely! I also adore Snow White and being able to wear this in my hair when I wear the perfume makes for a fantastic layered scent experience.

 

From my review of Snow White, the perfume oil, about 10 years ago: ...Trying to describe Snow White is like trying to describe a winter flower from a fairytale---there’s just nothing to compare it to...I pick up on the buttery floral, the gentle tropical vibe, and the pastry/almondy/coconutty edge. And yet, it seems to me one of the most elusive BPAL blends I’ve tried, changing so many times on my skin that in the end I can only imagine an expansive field of untrammeled snow, broken only by pale yellow anemones. When fairies dance in the winter, this is the smell of the flower that springs up at their feet.

 

It's still tough to describe this scent, and it still smells like a winter flower from a fairytale. In my hair it's a gentle scent, the kind of hair gloss that sticks close. After 8 hours, it's faint but present. I get wafts of vanilla from time to time when I turn my head. So glad to have this in my glossy arsenal.

I've been delaying reviewing Pouring Strains of Sacred Song, because I kept thinking my skin chemistry must be making it wonky...it smells so foody on me! But after a few tests, I'm ready to concede that somehow it smells a bit like coconut cake, honey, flowers, and frankincense on me—and I'm not complaining. There is something almost green in this that pushes it off the foody mark, something that makes me keep going back to it to try to figure it out. I still haven't figured it out and I'm not sure I will...and I'm not sure it's quite me. But there's enough here that I like (coconut!) to merit setting it aside for a bit of aging (and I mean both me and the perfume) to see if it can work itself out.

Coquelicot Snow is so very orange! I do smell all the notes here, but they blur into an orangey melange with a soft, fluffy, creamy underlayer. At first it's a blast of tangerine and blood orange, though—a true bright spot of scent in the middle of winter. Then it's the musk, with the mimosa trailing behind sweetly. That snowy undercoat comes out in the drydown. It's powdery after a while in a way that I like, like a fine-grained orange snowcone with a bit of vanilla.

 

The snowballs this year are all so fun and yet totally wearable. As with the others, this is wintry but would truly work year round. So glad I tried all three!

Sleeping at the Feet of the Snow Queen hair gloss is definitely well-blended—very nuanced and soft. I get no snow note or accord from this, just a sense of chilliness from the white musk. The white tea note is absolutely lovely, and the lemon rind is fresh. The oakmoss and tobacco round out the bottom and add lasting power. The juniper note is balanced, clear, and bright.

 

It's really tough to describe because the notes sing so well together, but when I turn my head, it smells like a lovely, upscale white tea with lemon—if that tea was a fancy perfume. I think to the uninitiated this will probably smell like the remnants of the best shampoo in the world. Really wonderful, and again, this hair gloss will be just as lovely in the spring and summer as it will be this winter.

Have you tried Gobo? Gobo: Tangerine, lemon peel, sugared pink grapefruit, and vanilla cream.

The snowballs this year are all fantastic. That snow note is like a fluffy, vanilla cream underlayer in all three...so pretty and delicate. If you're on the fence because of the snow association, definitely give these a try because they don't telegraph cold and winter outright. It's very subtle and I will wear these snowballs all year long.

 

Glaucous Snow is like a light blue cloud. I had to look up cade—apparently it's a prickly juniper? Mostly what I get from this is blue lilac and cream, with a touch of lotus and chamomile. The lilac is kind of wondrous here, bringing its fierce assertion of sweetness and spring and renewal, like a floral outlier. The creaminess underneath reminds me a bit of Lush's Snowcake, a scent that I love. Definitely in the same blue fam as Blue Moon, although also its own creature altogether.

 

Also, this is a fantastic sleep scent. It's so soothing!

I never picked up Eldritch Dark as a perfume oil, so my first experience with the scent is the hair gloss. It's so fun! Whip-smart leather, honey, black rose, and those musks. The leather is really strong, followed by the rose and then the honeyed musks. A few sprays in my hair yesterday and it lasted all day. When I took a shower this morning, I shampooed twice to get it all out my hair—that's some serious staying power! I think it's the first gloss to last that long on me.

 

This layers beautifully with Psychodynamic Discharge, and I'm sure it also would play well with Whip...and of course, Eldritch Dark! It's so delightfully naughty that I might not wear it into work, but if I worked somewhere cooler, I certainly would.