annemathematics

omg so grateful to lilith and puddin for brewing this potion and for puddin for puttin' it up on the ol' etsy. I'm familiar with each of the notes listed in real life forms and as perfume elements in other bpals (and vetiver in EO form), but this blend stands out as being its own thing, not really playing like any of the players. this is very much a high class super tough glam scent, like angelica huston in witches or as morticia addams, maybe rosi de palma in latex (someone please layer this with the latex SN or a leather scent). very very expensive, refined, high class snooty department store concoction but with something sinister underneath...that, uh, actually reminds me of childhood summer camp bug repellent (yes, that sounds like a backhanded thing to say but I do mean it in the best possible way as I love this scent) there is, as ZZ mentioned above, something also nostalgic about it. I grew up with lilac bushes all around me so perhaps it's this that does also signal "teenage girlhood." but this teen girl reads a lot and pets cats and wolves and sneks and spiders and is a keen obvserver and makes art her parents kinda wonder if they should worry about. bravo, Lilith, bravo.

I like lily! I really do. but...don't really reach for gorgeous white flower perfumes all that much. this is a beautiful balance between the lily and the labdanum/cistus/rockrose. the lily isn't soapy to me/on me, but there's something about the drydown that does feel very clean (esp compared to the suggestive honey in the magus). this hovered gently in my aura for two hours and then stayed a skin scent for the remainder of the day/into evening. if I wore lily scents more than twice a year, this would easily be a bottle upgrade for me. it's beautiful!

remember the bpal and haute macabre collaboration ARADIA? soft, lovely, dang near impossible to find. the magician's wand magically resurrects that scent BUT AMPED UP TO ELEVEN AND LASTING FOR DAYYYYZ. my impression of aradia was that it was the lovechild of antikythera mechanism and banshee beat. this is as lovely but heaps stronger and huzzah!: easy for everyone to acquire and enjoy.

thick, heavy, raunchy, musky honey with a bit of frank with a subtle wash of lily in the background. on me, the honey morphed kinda like a heavy breather in perfume form. i do very much like this. something kind of primal about it. not office appropriate. editing to add that after a few weeks, this has become a bit more floral-forward. the honey merges more wit the frankincense. I still like this, but I miss the longer-smutty honey stage. very beautiful asphodel scent!

media, closet raid, claircognizance, an oiran of the yoshiwara and her customer, the fool's rose all kind of have that perfumey thing to me

His hair was a reddish gray; his beard, little more than stubble, was grayish red. A craggy, square face with pale gray eyes. The suit looked expensive, and was the color of melted vanilla ice cream. His tie was dark gray silk, and the tie pin was a tree, worked in silver: trunk, branches, and deep roots. He held his glass of Jack Daniels as they took off, and did not spill a drop. Sleek cologne, the memory of a Nine Herbs Charm, gallows wood, and a splash of whiskey. this is mostly a bright and shiny cologne on me. not actually all that herby, nor really very boozy, although there are faint suggestive traces of each. this smells old school, with a tarnished sheen of respectability and a very subtle suggestion of sleaze. nice big persistent sillage and still detectable the next day. I really like this one.

this was thick and sticky as sap. slightly sweet with an edge of sinister. very very dark in feel. like a molasses oil slick reflecting a new moon. for those of you familiar with the bpal good omens scents, temperance smells like a hot lady demon that both hastur and ligur would want to date.

hellllooooo!!! has anyone here tried the post luper DIX and the yule ROSE OUDH AND MYRHH that can please compare the two? thank you!

Yellowing parchment and lampblack, a drop of lilac, a smear of labdanum, and a splash of white musk. if the lab didn't already have a scent for good omens' aziraphale (which I haven't ever tried so please don't mistake this comment as implying any sort of death match or informed comparison), I'd nominate this as a solid contender. smells smart, distinguished, pedigreed, a little bit bright (lilac!), a little bookish, unisex in the way that angels are supposedly not quite one gender nor the other. dashing but slightly asexual. the drydown reminds me of a less-sweet, no-tea dorian ancestor. modest throw that lasted all through a 14+ hour workday.

can you describe how the candy tastes? otherwise I'd layer a pine-focused scent with something sugary, honeyed or sweets to the sweet.

Kadu leaf, white lavender, plum and ume blossom, a drop of pale cedar and crystal musk. first applied there is a strong note of chemical but this burns off quickly, leaving a bright and elegant, classic-in-feel perfume that then holds true for the rest of the drydown. plum/ume fruit focused, with the lavender and kadu keeping it close in kin to fancy dept store perfume. although there is a touch of sweetness, this is a far cry from fruit syrup. I amp cedar always and forever, but not in this blend. the cedar grounds the scent without standing out. strong throw and lasts overnight and into the next day. I picked this scent as a random extra decant to try. I was curious about the kadu, wary of the cedar and a fan of the other notes. there was speculation in the luper thread about what the heck kadu would smell like. folks/google suggested a range of things from almond to bitter herb to squash blossom. I don't get almond, nor do I get anything forwardly foodie as pumpkin/squash. there is a hint of leafy bitterness that anchors the fruit that is completely removed from the dead leaves notes and the herbal notes (mugwort, sage, thyme, etc). this is a sophisticated beauty and one of my 2018 luper favorites.

A fair witch crept to a young man's side, And he kiss'd her and took her for his bride. But a Shape came in at the dead of night, And fill'd the room with snowy light. And he saw how in his arms there lay A thing more frightful than mouth may say. And he rose in haste, and follow'd the Shape Till morning crown'd an eastern cape. And he girded himself, and follow'd still When sunset sainted the western hill. But, mocking and thwarting, clung to his side, Weary day!-the foul Witch-Bride. (Aw, c'mon, Allingham. Foul is a pretty strong choice of words, dontcha think?) Pale and lovely, with eyes belladonna-wide: hemlock blossoms and ghostly nightshade veiled by wisteria, white frankincense, black amber, and narcissus resin. I'm at a loss as to how to translate the scent experience of witch bride to words so that you, the reader, could gain some understanding of how it smells and decide if it's something you want to seek out. sorry! I blind bought my bottle based upon the label art and the theme and the notes and I adore it. I don't tend to go for straight up florals, and this isn't that. there's a sweet and warm resiny base, and some light florals (my favorite bpal narcissus experience to date!) on top, and it's just a nice beautiful blend. I only detect the herbal notes if I look for them, and I may only be sensing them because I read them in the description. they are subtle and add a nice bit of complexity (spoken by someone who loves very herby winter stars and the waters of the well of wisdom). witch bride is light to moderate in strength. very addciting.

gonna give much love to A DUSTY MOTH

this is a creamy vanilla floral on me. very pretty and girly. hints at innocence but exudes confidence.

opens with a wood-focused, tea-stained, spicy cologne. dries down to a rich patchouli aura of gentlemen's BLING. fan-flippin-tastic.

a very pretty rose scent. I was expecting something regal and old-fashioned, but this is actually bright and youthful in feel. the orris adds elegance but in a subtle way; this scent doesn't have that classic powdery feel that some orris-heavy perfumes have. like the reviewer above, i also wore this against the Waltz to compare the two, but I found this one to be the younger sister. the waltz was richer, deeper, more shadowed. this was brighter and carefree. sadly like youth, this blend was too too fleeting on me. while I'm confidant that aging will improve throw and longevity, my ability to give a more detailed review is hindered. but i do like this as is very much!

the lab's bright grass and silky sap notes woven into a dapper oakmoss tweed. feels kinda old-timey, dashing, distinguished. if you've been craving earthy oakmoss brightened up with grass/sap notes or wanting the lab's grass-sap notes smudged and made slightly more serious with oakmoss, this is your baby right here! makes me think of an old-fashioned university-schooled naturalist dressed up in a suit, out and about recording field notes about blooms in a city park.

super dreamy sublime-smelling unisex scent focusing on the lab's black tea note. has moderate throw and layers beautifully with other scents (I tested it against globe and recommend trying the two scents together if you're able.) fades after a few hours, something i'm hoping a bit of time/aging will improve.

Mabel Loomis Todd is probably best known as the first editor of Emily Dickinsons poetry and editor of publications of Dickinsons posthumous works. She was also a fearless and experienced adventuress, eclipse chaser and astronomer, and trekked over the globe locating unobscured sites to witness solar eclipses. She published Total Eclipses of the Sun in 1894, a list of past and future total solar eclipses, and recorded her experiences in her travels through painting and journals. Rose-tinted amber, golden chypre, ambergris, tobacco leaf, and clove. mostly a strong ambergris/tobacco combo, similar to Hag Grey hair gloss, only the tobacco is louder and grittier, enhanced by the spicy sidekick of clove. while I do get some rose in the bottle and when first applied, the floral sweetness vanishes during drydown and I'm left with something strong, dark and authoritative. powerful stuff! eta, after 5 days of settling, this dries down to a dark rich ambergris-focused perfume. the rose amber feels more emollient in spirit and the tobacco clove lend a dark gritty edge to the ambergris: aka ambergrit?

this opens with a vetiver-heavy patchouli over a light rose. as it settles, the rose remains until the end but functions more as a beautiful emollient than a star player. the vetiver recedes a bit, and the vanilla comes out. a few hours in, the tone is set by warm and fuzzy myrrh, with wafts of soft, sweet vanilla. this lasts overnight on me and has a nice throw that lets me smell it without overwhelming my coworkers. this past week I've been reaching for it every day. it's lovely and very easy to wear. elegant and glamorous but insanely comfortable and happy too.

and the Sun has perished out of heaven, and an evil mist hovers over all. Homer, the Odyssey An evil mist hovers over all: Tunisian amber, wilted asphodel, myrrh, and smoke. the lab's beautiful asphodel over a base of smooth myrrh. some ambery sweetness, very subtle smoke (leans frankincense and not tobacco). a feminine sibling/lover to orpheus charming animals from last year's unicorns. I love this and will be wearing it on monday for the big event. eta this has had about five days to settle, and currently dries down to a asphodel over frankincense with myrrh/amber swirling in the background.

My bottle came directly from the lab, ordered when the yules dropped. It's all uniform in color and texture. I shook it up, and a moderate amount of slow-moving bubbles did form, but it didn't get foamy or effervescent. Hope that helps. (Put some on. Smells beautiful.)

I took out my imp from the 2014 release while revisiting my evening with the spirits decants, and it completely rocked my world. the opening makes me think of a classic department store type scent but a classic blend from decades ago that one "discovers" either on one's grandmother's dresser or via the vintage sellers on ebay. very strong and rich as though all of the alcohol/filler evaporated away and one is left with a sweet concentrated sticky syrup in a spritzer bottle. as it dries down, a sense of it's youthful spirit returns and I'm wearing a labdanum/rockrose-focused cloud of beauty. the throw is good and it lasted overnight. not only is it a gorgeous scent, but one that "fits" me in terms of mood and chemistry. I adore the little wafts I get throughout the day. they brighten my mood and make me feel elegant. unlike some folks above, I don't get an aldehyde-heavy chanel number 5 blast of prefume, but something far deeper and richer, more vanillic, but in the rockrose/benzoin/amber sort of way (aka not foody). it also feels very different to me than the lace scents. and I don't get anything soapy or powdery (I do like powdery perfumes, but this isn't playing that way on me) eta the 2017 bottle I ordered arrived, and indeed as mentioned above it does smell like the aldehydes in closet raid. not sure if it's a big change in formula, if it's because of different components, batch variation, OR if this was why I tucked the 2014 unloved into my imp box and three years has morphed it into the incredible scent it is now. fingers and toes crossed that my 2017 bottle will age into what the decant has become.

lavender, amber, ambergris...all winning notes on me from the lab. this was a no-brainer blind bottle buy. and I like it, but something in the wet stage keeps me from loving it. freshly applied, there's a blast of something that smells like old boiling unspiced apples, very clammy and foul. like going into someone's home where a kid has spilled his apple juice sippy cup and made everything grimy and sticky. liberamoris above mentions chamomile, which in essential oil form does this for me, and makes perfect sense, as I know I'm not smelling literal apple fruit perfume. then the lavender appears, herbal and trying to shake off the chamomile/steamy apple thing. it succeeds, and the ambergris comes forward, and then all is good, all is well. low throw, fades after a few hours.

sprayed on hallway curtains. this is lovely! mostly stone and moss, a little bit of verrrrry dark, rich fertile soil in the beginning, the slightest hint of resin wafting about in the night air under the darkest moon. (I might be dreaming in thinking that the church's incense is wafting faintly in this; it might also be resins from other atmos being reanimated by the fresh application of this.) beautiful stylish outdoor scent of nature meeting stone and metal. a good scent to huff while watching burton's sleepy hollow.