annemathematics

I snagged this because I was curious about the "wheat stalks" note and hoped that given the simplicity of the blend, it'd be a grand teacher.

surprise! the scent is worth checking out because it's gorgeous! lightly spicy clove cologne, all of the notes cooperating in harmony. refined throw but good longevity. this isn't a heavy scent. it's very much spiced breezes in an autumn field. hours into it, I close my eyes and huff and can sense the wheat stalks swishing in the wind. and it's wheat the grain; without suggestion of yeast or loaf. so simple yet utterly perfect and brilliant. the beauty extracted from wyeth's paintings in a way that leaves their melancholy behind.

this reminds me of the soft brown of fallen needles and fertile earth and moss at the foundation of a forest's mighty trees, signalling their strength and health. it's cozy and comforting. a shade of burgundy not achieved with notes of musk or wine, but instead from bark and root and berry. the throw is solid without being brash or showy. my only [minor]quibble is that after about five hours, the scent morphs and the forest becomes kind of rubbery, with an unexpected sweetness emerging that isn't as engaging as the earlier versions of the scent. regardless I am still a fan of this.

very evocative [lightly-] smokey black-sticky soil in a sunless evergreen forest scent. I love this. everything about it is nocturnal, powerful, slightly primal. the air around the hunter in the susan cooper's the dark is rising book would smell like this. ancient magic swirling about during a rite. swooon!

ugh I love this so much, but I'm at a loss as to how what I smell can be translated into words. it's smooooooth. it's all about the blend, everything working together in a way that individual notes don't really stand out.

what casablanca says rings wise and true: mediterranean blend. smooth and regal and stately, with a benevolent authority. muted lavender with bay and petitgrain swirl only slightly above the other notes. the leather is muted, smooth. the oakmoss isn't dry or dusty, the ambrette not suggestively musky, the cedar not amping on my like it usually do. everything is collaborating and cooperating in totaly harmony from first application to final fade out hours later.

while I had hoped to like this, I didn't expect it fall for it as hard as I do. I enjoy wearing it. calming yet energizing. classy and confident. neither specifically masculine nor feminine but rather perfectly complimentary to whatever vibe the wearer needs it to be.

i looooooooove this one. it feels like an Indian-style musky rose attar. I'm a big fan of the lab's roses and ambrette notes, and this scent flaunts them wonderfully. the throw is enough to reach out and invite neighbors in closer. it's lasts and lasts. with some rose perfumes, the rose element fades after a few hours, but the queen of love's roses never quit, never falter. gorgeous!

i love the lab's ambergris, and this scent shows it off more purely than any other scent I've had the privilege to try (missed out on the SN alas)

beautiful sparkly ambergris with a touch of herbal carrot seed. I like powdery orris, and while I'm sure that the orris does temper some of the watery/syrupy/liquid qualities of the other two notes, this blend isn't dusty or dry or powdery at all. it's very pretty and I love it. also appreciate the heartbreak of the winning story. thank you, beth and mel c! nice throw and last for hours and hours. just what greed-mongers appreciate.

I just have soooo many evergreen forest scents already, that I really don't need another...ha! what I am saying?

I DO have a lost of forest scents, but this one is just so big and bright and pretty, the sap so bright and potent and gleaming. i kept coming back to this imp and wearing it always brightens my heart and makes me smile. the waft is moderate and it fades after a few hours. the forest sap scent stays true for the duration that it lasts, and doesn't morph into anything other than magical forest.

compared to other evergreen scents in my collection, this one is all about that virile fresh sticky sap. brighter and truer and cleaner than the juice in my other bottles. I adore this.

the official cologne for metrosexual lumberjacks? this is indeed a lovely sexy thing.

beautiful deep pine with a surprisingly subdued vetiver (more syrupy and less smoky than the vetiver in midnight reunion with his lost wife) over a spiced shadow of leather. I love love love the opening, when the pine is strong and rich and proud and beautiful. it's still nice when it dries down to a dark, grassy* clove-stained leather, but that opening! I'd wear the wet scent always and forever, but the drydown is something I'd prefer to snuggle up to on someone else.

*vetiver-style grassy, not lawn grass

oh man, this is such a little beauty!

wet it is a gentle yet complex blend mostly focused on the dry vanilla, given warm depth from the cypress, herbal richness from the fennel and brightened just-the-perfect-amount by the orange. everything is boosted by juniper, making this feel clean but not (to me) pushing it anywhere near the realm of bath product.

as it dries down some of the complexity recedes and what remains is the *perfect* dry vanilla-anise goth juice. ugh it's light and simple in a way that suggests youthfulness of spirit, the fluttery gentleness of a butterfly's wings. good for layering but also perfect on its own. I adore anise-y smells when they are strong and in your face, but this isn't that at all. the anise here is very light and lends support to the vanilla, which is dry and not foodie. it reminds me of the vanilla from mummies of mexico city, sans incense and death.

*perfect* vanilla-anise goth juice!!!! huzzah and thank you, beth!

this has a candy-like sweetness when first applied, dries down to something that smells like a department-store-esque kind of blend. verbena-focused, with a swirl of frankincense and a twist of angelica. the rose is so meshed in that it's hard from me to single it out. I tried this on a random whim for the theme and the angelica, and upgraded to a full bottle. good throw and lasts over twelve hours on me.

there is something very happy and carefree about this scent. wearing it brightens my mood! bpal: the best medicine

very beautiful dark liquid purple smooooooooothness. although I don't work with this aspect of the fool in my actual tarot card readings, this scent jumped up and down at me as I read the release. it's a total winner of a blind bottle and my favorite fool scent that I tried. I wouldn't classify it as feminine, masculine, unisex...it's honestly kind of like the tao, in that it evokes many things but yet cannot be boxed in or labeled. I put this beauty on when I get home from work, and the scent washes the day clear away and brings me into my own dark, magical, beautiful space. the throw is good and it lasts until I go to sleep; fittingly, all traces of it are gone the next morning.

a smooth rich blend of resins and woods. cedar always amps on me, and I can easily suss it out here, but it's so nicely swaddled in frank, cypress and myrrh that I feel like this was the role cedar was born to play: to fill out this masterpiece and anchor all of the magic. I can't not huff myself when I wear this. I also love layering it with the lighter crescent moon.

spicy musky deliciousness with my favorite bpal frankincense at the base. love this. the first time I tested my magician decants, this scent kept wafting out at me and making me mash my nose in my wrist and huff like it was the air i needed to keep on living. fits me like the perfect little black dress. a 2018 favorite. gracias, beth!

The Magician's Garden is rose of sharon and lily of the valley and despite that simplicity of notes, it's an elegant stunner. chionophobia is another lily of the valley/muguet fave, as is the snow queen hair gloss, shards of looking-glass.

a sweet plump creamy vanillic base under a fleeting hint of rose. the rose quickly recedes and I have something close to carnaval diabolique's hope or frau bei der selbstbefriedigung bath oil. I felt a tinge of disappointment due entirely to my hopes and expectations that this would be a stronger and darker rose blend. shoving aside said expectations, this is a nice and accessible vanilla scent for those who only want to flirt with the rose note and not spend the night together. very pretty and feminine.

a sleek and lanky amber anointed and washed with juniper. some ambers feel like syrupy labdanum, but this feels closer to frankincense tears to me. very light touch of non-smokey sage. this is a bright and happy resin blend. light and bright, not at all heavy. it's pretty on its own, but I wear it layered with the pillars as the combo sets me in a magical space.

this is a very bright and cheerful honey. youthful and comforting. easy to wear in that it doesn't morph or go raunchy on me (please note that I do adore morphing and raunch, but the straightforwardness of this means I can wear it with ease in different public situations aka workplaces and on the town alike)

I like to put this on when I get home from work. just like it's name, it honestly is soothing. true to the card it represents, mixed in with the calm is the soft joy of anticipation, much like the freedom one feels when starting a nice long road trip or vacation. light-to-moderate throw and it's gone completely the next morning.

I'm going to add Advice of the Dead, Witch's Tea Party and the Magician's Garden as scent suggestions to this thread.

smokey marigold floral scent. smells like fancy department store perfume for the occult scholar. there's the barest hit of soil only at the beginning, which is the most resin-heavy stage. elegant yet slightly musty (like a fortune teller's unwashed heavy brocade curtains). if dia de los muertos is the jubilant scent of the maiden, this is the waft of the crone's wisdom, having replaced the bright creamy sweetness with dusty flowers and a memory of myrrh smoke. the sophisticated scent of a secret-keeper.

This to me is the classic bpal amber with the oooomphy deliciousness amped up to eleven. The spice is subtle and adds complexity. This is rounded and big and gawgeous. I feel almost guilty getting so much happiness from a perfume formulated in dire times, in response to federal government atrocities. May the ugly reality we're fighting against also end so beautifully. This has a low throw, but it's warm and strong in the tiny perfume aura. Lasted a few hours only but I gotta confess, the review is based upon testing it immediately after the post office handed it to me. It's a beauty that fans of bpal amber will adore and slather.

Free the individuals and families locked up in cages! Abolish ICE! No human is illegal! Seeking asylum is not a crime! All power to the people!

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