LiberAmoris

The White Bees Swarming is very straightforward and very pretty—honey, honey, honey (and a little frost). The frost is so light in this that it truly is just a dusting. As with the white lilies hair gloss, I think this one would also be perfect in the spring...the honey is warm and sweet like late winter/early spring sunlight.

It's tough to describe the type of honey here and I'm sure others will capture it better, but it reminded me of the type of honey I love in Crib Girls. Even though Crib Girls is a melange of many different honeys (and other notes), there's a similarity that makes me happy (I love Crib Girls!). Maybe because the honey note in The White Bees Swarming also has an almost floral tinge, like honey from wildflower-loving bees? Whatever it is, I like it.

This hair gloss could be a revelation for those who love the honey note but don't like the way it smells on their skin...and for those who can wear it on their skin, it will be a great layering gloss. I can't wait to try it with Osun, Bengal, Honey Moon, and O—just for starters. I wore it with Crib Girls today and the combo is out of this world.

Bumping this to add both A Lady in White and Some Strangeness in the Proportion to this conversation.

 

I still think Velvet and Sin are my favorite BPAL sandalwoods—it's tough to beat the classics!

Vetiver is not a note that I generally love, but I've recently found two reasons to continue testing perfumes when I see it listed: The Tumultuous Vultures of Stern Passion (vetiver tar) and Psychodynamic Discharge (Haitian vetiver). The vetiver is really beautiful and perfectly balanced in both of them, and if I'd passed them by due to the V-word, I'd have missed two new favorites!

 

Are there any other recommendations for either vetiver-strong or vetiver-soft scents?

Necrobumping this topic...Those who love orange, definitely try Coquelicot Snow: Snowballs of poppy-red musk, tangerine, blood orange, and mimosa blossom. This is the orange-est perfume I've worn in a long time (since maybe Orange itself?), and it's lovely.

Winter lily and sugarcane hair gloss is simple and pure: just sweet white lilies with a dusting of snow. There's something luminous about the lilies—they almost have a glow. Dry and hours later, my hair smells faintly of lilies and something clean (must be the snow note). Although it's delicate, the scent has good staying power.

I plan to layer this with some of my Yule scents this winter, but will also look forward to using it in spring. This smells like winter thawing and the first brave flowers pushing through.

Aged Velvet is also phenomenal. I have a 10ml from maybe 2004 or 2005 and at this point, it's like the smoothest myrrh ever. So good.

I have absolutely fallen in love with the myrrh in This World, Where Death Reigns. Anyone have recommendations for myrrh-dominant blends that are not churchy incense?

 

Have you already tried Velvet and Chimera? Neither of those go churchy on me, and they're both great. Myrrh isn't the most dominant note—but I think they both showcase it well.

Black tea! I love that note, so Spirit Board was a must-try. For sure, this the smell of a proper Victorian life gone a bit off the rails. I love the redwood note here—I'm not sure I've tried a blend with that note before. The rich redwood lasts all the way through the drydown, twining with the rosewood to give this staying power. A notch above, the black tea gives a sheen of refinement—and then it's a profusion of white lilac and pink rose at the top that the woods help to drag back down to earth. Ends as flowers and woods, with the black tea giving just a bit of edge. Very pretty and wearable.

Chocolate Stout Cupcake is definitely one of the blends that needs to be thoroughly rolled before application. Wet, it smells just like chocolate cupcake batter and buttercream frosting—the chocolate stout is in the background on me and there's just a hint. Where Bliss is pure, unadulterated melted chocolate, Chocolate Stout Cupcake is a melange—there's chocolate, but also vanilla and a gentle beer note (a bit like roasted barley) in play.

 

As it dries, the chocolate lifts a bit and drifts into a murky, boozy vanilla. Vanilla is one of the notes that can smell artificial on my skin, and this is dancing on that edge but stays on the right side. I think it will benefit from a little aging, as Bliss does. Fun!

A Lady Tall and White offers an elegant twist on the snow note with vanilla and sandalwood. The sandalwood is particularly nice here and comes forward beautifully on the drydown. I'm someone who really amps the snow note so have to be careful about wearing it on my skin, but I'm going to hang on to this and see if aging mellows it out a bit—the combination of notes is really pretty. If you love the snowy blends, definitely try this one!

I'm so happy with Frosted Silkybat—the snow note isn't one that's historically great on my skin, although I like it in the air (in atmo sprays and oil burners). I love the creamy fluffy snow note in the snowballs, but that's really different than the snow note here, which is the classic, slightly ozoney, minty/lemony accord that smells like cold air. And that's the one that's always better off my skin than on it. So having it in a hair gloss is pretty much the best, as I can smell it in the air around me, but it's not on my skin where I'd amp it to high heaven.

 

This smells like piles of fluffy white snow and a shadow of sugared patchouli. The patchouli is much lighter here than in Silkybat proper, as it's mixed in with all the snow. As the day goes on, I get more patchouli—it deepens and darkens a bit. I'm so glad to have a snowy hair gloss to wear this winter! Definitely a nice twist on my beloved Silkybat.

Just as advertised. I smell all of the notes, and the combination is unexpected but kind of wonderful in Yule Buddies. Leather and frosted gingerbread...not two notes that I'd imagine would harmonize. And yet, they work. This is definitely not just leather and pipe tobacco on me—it's both of those if they careened and crashed into gingerbread and fruitcake. Perfectly Yule and fun and festive.

This is totally Yule Smut. The birch tar and patchouli darken Krampus' Shadow quite a bit, and render it a bit sooty in the best way. There's definitely a pitchy, charred note that's really evocative and nice with the patch and red musk. As it dries down, that note lessens and this is a shadowy patch/red musk...really nice on me and pretty damn good on the man. I might try to get him to wear this out one night when I wear Smut.

Rose Red hair gloss is everything I hoped it would be. Rose Red on my skin is a lush, dewy red rose, with a hint of something that comes across a bit like raspberry in the sillage. In my hair, it's just the same, and as on my skin, it lasts a really long time. A few sprays of the hair gloss this morning and hours and hours later it's still throwing off the most beautiful rosy scent.

 

In addition to being lovely in its own right, this HG will be wonderful to layer with some of my favorite rose scents.

Fulvous Snow is absolutely beautiful. The snow note here is very faint on me, and comes across more as a slightly creamy, fluffy undernote to the amazing golden-brown, tawny play of notes above it. Wet, everything is seamlessly stitched together—there's no one note that jumps out and asserts itself on my skin. Instead, there are moments where I can smell something individual, but then it's immediately subsumed by what smells like ambered sunlight. After it's fully dried down, the patchouli, honey, and tonka pull forward a bit but stay close to the skin. This is one sexy snowball, my friends.

Although there is a touch of something wintry here, I think this is one that I would happily wear year round. A backup bottle will be necessary.

Blue Spruce and Snow-Capped Pine is like a snowy forest scene in a bottle. Definitely blue spruce and pine, and heavier on the spruce, with light touches of juniper and cypress, and then a big dollop of the Lab's snowy accord which smells a little ozone-y, a little minty, a little lemony, and a little eucalyptus-y (at least to my nose).

I spritzed this in my office fairly liberally and now it smells just like Robert Frost's "Stopping by Woods on a Snowy Evening". Perfect for this time of year!

2014:

 

Faunalia is like forest musk champagne on me. There's definitely something effervescent here, reminiscent of the Lab's champagne note. The musk is crazy good, equal parts ambery/mellow and animalic/feral. The forest foliage and woods smell almost like they've been crushed underfoot—they're present but not overwhelming. The musk is really the star here, from wet to drydown...and in combination with the other notes it smells a bit like my big dog's underfur after a run through the forest. A little wild, a little sweet, a little like soap, and a little like the outdoors (greens and dirt). I love that smell, it smells like happiness. Definitely a keeper, and I think this will age well.

Hagiophobia might embody the fear of saints and holy things, but it smells like Christmas! The ginger and yuzu are effervescent and bright (I might even say jolly), and the cypress and pine smell like fresh boughs and holiday trees. The frankincense and myrrh...classic Christmas. Wet, this is HOLIDAY SPIRIT. Dry, this is the best Yule incense ever.

 

I used up my last drops of Skadi last week, but won't be sad, because Hagiophobia will fill that niche nicely. So glad I picked this up!

Dorian Dopplegänger! Dumb Cake smells like Dorian on the other side of the looking glass.

The spectral cologne note is pretty great—like a luminous Dorian. The blurry herbs and dusting of crumbs are very faint...there's just an edge of something foody here, like white cake and the barest hint of perhaps rosemary? The ash is also spectral—pure grey-white, rather than gritty, sooty black. It's fantastic, and I will enjoy every drop (and endeavor to get some on my husband, because I think this would be amazing on him).

 

Gossips of Ghost Land is kind of a wild olfactory ride. First applied, it's definitely cedar and patchouli, with something that feels minty but might be the lime? The tea leaf, mate, and pink peppercorn add color and movement so it does smell restless, like different spirits moving around in the dark.

Dry, this is primarily patchouli and tea leaf on me, with cedar lingering but not dominant. (I don't amp cedar, though, for the record.) The pink peppercorn and lime smooth into an interesting layer that adds subtle spice and freshness. The sillage smells a bit like chocolate, which is so weird and fun. The overall effect is really unusual and perfectly evocative—there's something a bit disturbing about this one, in the best way. I'm definitely hanging on to my bottle because the progression is so fascinating and the patch/tea leaf drydown is really nice.

I think bheansidhe nails it here—Claircognizance smells like clean linens and sandalwood. It's definitely reminiscent of Antique Lace minus the sweet vanilla. On its own it's like white flowers and white linen plus something mind-clearingly bracing...not like mint but with the same effect on me. It smells very pure, very white, very clean.

 

I think I'd enjoy wearing this on its own if I wanted to feel focused but it would also be great as a blender. I can imagine this with all kinds of scents that could go lace-y. I'm looking forward to doing some experimenting.

Agree 100% with Silvertree, this hair gloss is the sh*t. It's Sin, in the hair. What more could a person want? I wore this the other day and went out with friends after work, everyone who hugged me mentioned how good I smelled. Definitely the Sin hair gloss. I bought two bottles and will enjoy every single drop.

 

This is my favorite item to come out of the lunacy poll, and I'm still so grateful to have another way to wear my beloved Sin.

Psychodynamic Discharge is as dynamic as its description. Leather isn't always the best note on me, but here it's balanced beautifully with the rose, pepper, red musk, and coconut. The vetiver is exactly how I like it: a sharp, slightly disruptive green spike that knows its place. The ginger is subtle on me...this is mostly leather, red musk, patchouli, rose, and coconut. It smells like a leather jacket worn by a god. I can imagine myself reaching for this in certain moods, but I think this would be unbelievable on my husband. Like Whip's bad-boy boyfriend riding in on a motorcycle. I may give him this one and get my own bottle. I agree that this will be very popular...buy it now or hunt it down later!

Gingerbread Cathedral! Just as it says on the tin, my friends.

 

Cathedral is so good (another nostalgic fave from my early BPAL-addiction days), and the gingerbread here drives the churchy incense back to earth in the best way possible. Wet, it smells like a peppery, gingery Cathedral. But dry, this is gingerbready incense, with all the in-the-body notions of satiation and hunger (and maybe even gluttony!) up against the rising-toward-the-Godhead resins I associate with mass. It's perfect for this time of year, as it puts together both the secular and divine. Definitely a keeper, and I suspect this will age very well.

I love all the gingerbread mash-ups, and I love Sin, so this was an immediate, no-holds-barred Yule purchase. And gingerbread is so good with Sin! I definitely smell both parts, but Gingerbread Sin is more than the sum of its parts, just as Nepthys says.

 

Wet, it smells like fancy, fancy gingerbread—gingerbread with depth and dark sweetness, caramelized patchouli and amber, an undertone of sandalwood and a hit of cinnamon. Dry, this is Sin with ginger shot through it...and it's fantastic. If you like Sin, and you like ginger, don't miss this one!