DiesMali

Almond milk, sarsaparilla, tobacco smoke, High John the Conqueror root, coconut hull, black patchouli and white pine bark. In the bottle: Oddly, it smells like cake. Sweet, almost vanillic, but not quite. Wet on my skin: It's a little faint while wet, but there's definitely almond, sarsaparilla, and coconut hull here. Dry: It retains that almost spice cake-like scent if I breathe deeply, but that is not at all unpleasant. It's a rather foody scent to me, with the almond milk, coconut hull, sarsaparilla, and spicy High John the Conqueror root taking center stage and combining to give this nutty, spicy, slightly-sweet aroma. Quite nice, actually. It's not at all root beery on me, despite the presence of sarsaparilla. The pine bark, tobacco smoke, and patchouli are more of a base to the scent, strengthening the other notes and taking it from what could maybe be too sweet/sharp to a more dry and earthy sort of spicy-sweet. After it's completely dry and has been wearing and warming for a good half hour, the cake fades a bit and it now smells more like a box of expensive herbs and spices. All in all, an unusual scent, but a good one.

Sheer musk, cedar smoke, fir needle, chaparral, black amber and leather. In the bottle: Musky, woody cologne. Wet on my skin: Musky, woody, herbal cologne. Dry: This is a rather masculine scent, but I'm A-Okay with that! It's very well-blended overall, but I can pick out the individual notes as well. It's primarily musk and smoky evergreen, with a slightly herbal tinge, over a base of earthy leather. It's a little bit rugged and cowboy-like to my mind. This is not an in-your-face scent, though it's decidedly a bit seductive. Like what you'd smell if you got up close and personal with a handsome and charming Old West snake oil salesman, except he's actually taken a bath in recent memory. And then, as he winks slyly at you over his hand-rolled cigarette, you realise you wouldn't mind joining him for his next one. Ahem.

As when the Sun, new risen, Looks through the horizontal misty air, Shorn of his beams, or from behind the Moon, In dim eclipse, disastrous twilight sheds On half the nations and with fear of change Perplexes monarchs. – John Milton, Paradise Lost Star-touched blue amber, gurjum balsam, pale orris, Somalian myrrh, benzoin, red sandalwood, and ylang ylang. In the bottle: Misty blue. I dunno, that's what it is. Wet on my skin: I have no idea what this is that I'm smelling. It's REALLY STRANGE but I also can't stop sniffing the crook of my elbow. It goes on smelling a bit like a nice herbal shampoo, but quickly loses that and settles into something I can honestly only describe as "misty blue" as it dries. Dry: This is a very, very unusual, atmospheric, and honestly just WEIRD scent. It's definitely in the Oriental family, with soft woods and resins lending a lightly golden backdrop to the rest of the notes. The blue amber, orris, and ylang ylang just do this THING, though, and I'm having a hard time describing it in terms of actual notes, because it's exceptionally well-blended and one of those scents that is more than the sum of its parts. It's the colour of the blue-grey mist that rolls over the Midwest in the early morning, as the sun just begins to rise. Cool, soft, a little bit powdery, and very, very smooth. I haven't ever smelled anything even remotely like this before, but I already know that I like it.

Traditionally, Beaver Moon is named thus for a very obvious reason: during this time of year, beavers are hard at work building their dams and preparing for the onset of winter. Not here at BPAL, though! Its our semi-annual opportunity for absurdity and campiness. This years cheesecake is a werebeavers indulgence: chocolate espresso bean cheesecake with a chipotle caramel cocoa drizzle. In the bottle: Rich, creamy espresso and chocolate. Wet on my skin: This goes on with a wave of rich, thick, warm espresso and gooey chocolate. The caramel comes out to join it after a few moments, and my mouth is actually watering because it already smells SO DELICIOUS. No cheesecake yet, but it might be part of the warm creaminess. Dry: Foodie heaven. Seriously. This smells exactly like the description, and right now, I'm REALLY regretting being on a mostly-liquid diet for the next few weeks. It's espresso and chocolate, primarily, but more of a darker baking cocoa than milk chocolate. There's a dry, bitter edge to the coffee/cocoa if you inhale deeply, and the caramel and what I think must be the cheesecake itself give it all a sweet (but not TOO sweet), gooey, warm, creamy feel of burnt-sugary caramelized goodness. I am not getting much, if any, of the chipotle on the backs of my hands, but there's definitely a bit of a spicy kick in the crooks of my arms, so I suspect this is one that will smell better on warmer/less-dry body parts. If it smells THIS good less than two hours out of the mailbox, I can only imagine how good it will be with a few months' aging.

Shortly before his death, as he was told, the herds of horses which he had dedicated to the river Rubico when he crossed it, and had let loose without a keeper, stubbornly refused to graze and wept copiously. Again, when he was offering sacrifice, the soothsayer Spurinna warned him to beware of danger, which would come not later than the ides of March. On the day before the ides of that month a little bird called the king-bird flew into the Hall of Pompey with a sprig of laurel, pursued by others of various kinds from the grove hard by, which tore it to pieces in the hall. In fact the very night before his murder he dreamt now that he was flying above the clouds, and now that he was clasping the hand of Jupiter; and his wife Calpurnia thought that the pediment of their house fell, and that her husband was stabbed in her arms; and on a sudden the door of the room flew open of its own accord. Suetonius Dark portents writhing in a cloud of incense and a tangle of entrails: blood, red musk, black frankincense, and wet ropes of gleaming labdanum. In the bottle: Strong frankincense and labdanum. Wet on my skin: This is sharp in the bottle, but it goes on smooooooth. I know that word is going to be used a lot in this review, sorry. Dry: First impressions are that this is dark, dark, smooth, and almost sexy. I thought it was a close to the skin scent at first, but then I realised that there's a wonderful cloud of DEEP RED floating about me. Smooth red musk and black frankincense are on the surface, but this is a smooth and dark frankincense rather than the brighter, almost citrusy sort found in the more ecclesiastical blends. I have limited experience with the BPAL blood musk, but I think this is that - it's definitely not dragon's blood, if anyone was concerned about that particular note. It's a slightly coppery, almost earthy/salty musk. Labdanum is thankfully behaving itself, giving everything an almost leathery incensed feeling. This is a scent you almost FEEL more than you smell, if that makes sense. Dark, deep, smooth, like blood-soaked leather drying in incensed night air. Well worth the bottle purchase even fresh out of the mailbox.

Favorite pastime: peeping in yer windows. What a creeper! Spiced rum leather, frankincense, black cedar, sweet tobacco, and honey-gold sandalwood. In the bottle: Thick, strong rum with tobacco. Wet on my skin: Spicy, boozy rum with tobacco and frankincense. Dry: This is a win on my skin! The primary notes on me are spiced rum, frankincense, and tobacco, in that order. Under those are cedar and sandalwood, and a hint of brown leather. It's on the sweet side of spicy and incensed, and a bit on the masculine side of things as well. The throw is medium, though the frankincense is detectable much further away than the rest of the notes. My skin tends to amp that note, however, and I'm fine with that since I love the Lab's frankincense note. After it has been on several hours, the leather starts to come out more, but it's a beautifully sweet and soft brown leather similar to that in Blood & Judgement So Well Commedled. This is definitely one for the tobacco/incense/rum lovers! In my mind, it's a bright, shimmery gold (almost golden-brown) in colour.

In the bottle: Doughy fruit. Wet on my skin: Unffff. Black currant jam with golden doughnut. Dry: This makes my mouth water and is giving me a hankerin' for a jelly doughnut. The pastry note, if you're not familiar with what a sufganiyot is, is like the delicious fried and sugar-dusted golden doughnuts you can get in many Chinese restaurants. Those are so delicious, and discovering that I can PUT IT ON MY SKIN??? was just fantastic. The blackcurrant note was a bit worrisome, as some berry/fruit notes smell rather fake/plasticky on me, but I need not have worried. This is very realistic and not at all Jolly Rancher, and it blends perfectly with the dough note. So good. So. Gooooood. Now I understand why there was so much hype over the ______ Sufganiyot scents!

This is for the 2017 version. I haven't tried the 2014 release! In the bottle: Omg. You know how really rich chocolate (like Ghirardelli) brownies smell after you mix the batter but before you bake it? It's that, exactly. Wet on my skin: The same as in the bottle. With chocolate buttercream icing. Dry: I'd tried unsuccessfully to get my hands on a bottle of this before, but unsurprisingly, they're pricey and last for about 5 seconds when listed for sale. I CAN SEE WHY. OH. My. Dog. It is dark, slightly-boozy chocolate cupcake with chocolate buttercream icing, except it's on my skin. I smell edible. I want to gnaw on my own arm. It literally smells like the chocolate stout cupcakes/brownies I have made in the past. Like, I don't even know HOW Beth does this, cramming a freakin' cupcake in a bottle, but okay. This is amazing. As a foodie-lover, I'm in chocolate stout heaven.

In the bottle: Hot, wet, black leather and asphalt. Wet on my skin: I swear to dog, this smells like a black leather-clad '80s punk rocker smoking a cigarette in an alley during a rainstorm. Extremely evocative of that exact kind of scene. Dry: Leather, vetiver, and coconut-sweetened musk with patchouli are the main players in this, at least on my skin, and while it's not at all what I was expecting, I REALLY like it. The vetiver is definitely burnt ash vetiver, the leather is black and worn, but well cared-for, and the musk and patchouli give a very 'organic' sense to the grit and ash. Rose and cinnamon aren't really obvious, but I can tell they're in there because of the cool tinge of spice they add to the dark, gritty, dirty leather and vetiver. I get no ginger at all, which is fine. YMMV, but on my skin, this is a darker, edgier cousin of Highwayman (if the gardenia in that one disappears on your skin, as it does on mine, you may get a similar feeling from Psychodynamic Discharge). It quiets down a little as it wears, allowing a hint more rose to come out and letting the sweetness of the coconut and red musk tame the gritty leather/vetiver...but only slightly. This scent starts as that black leather-clad '80s punk rocker smoking a cigarette in a rainy alley, ends with The Crow teaching you how to unfasten all those buckles on his pants. /fans self

In the imp - Mmm, realistic pine. Wet on my skin - Beautiful, realistic, herbal pine and cool night air. Dry - I really like this, and I think I'd buy a bottle of it if I could. I love realistic foresty scents, and this is one of the nicer ones I've tried so far. The pine is smooth and cool, like sticking your face in a snowy Christmas tree under a still, cold, starlit sky. The herbs brighten the pine a little after a bit, with the chamomile most prominent (like a mug of chamomile tea after you've come indoors to warm up, maybe), and the patchouli keeps the whole blend from verging into cleaning solution or air freshener territory. So pretty. Can we have this as a bottle someday? Please?

In the imp - A big, fat, fluffy gardenia with a lavender crown. Wet on my skin - Gardenia! With a wisp of lavender. Dry - I knew this probably wasn't going to work on me, due to the gardenia, but I wanted to try it anyway. IF I was a white-floral person, I would probably love this, as it's actually quite pretty. It's a big poofy gardenia, but a somewhat melancholy one with silvery-grey wisps of lavender and almost smoky cedar. Alas, even though I actually kinda like it, the gardenia is doing its thing and giving me a headache, so I will be passing this on to someone who will be able to appreciate it more, sans headache.

FOR EACH ECSTATIC INSTANT For each ecstatic instant We must an anguish pay In keen and quivering ratio To the ecstasy. For each beloved hour Sharp pittances of years, Bitter contested farthings And coffers heaped with tears. – Emily Dickinson Equal parts joy and grief, lust and regret, pain and pleasure: velvet-red roses and sensual aged patchouli with night-blooming jasmine, caramelized bourbon vanilla, labdanum, black amber, and oudh. In the imp: Wet, slightly incensed rose petals. Wet on my skin: Much the same as in the imp, but more incense and less rose. It's slightly boozy, as well. Dry: This is the first scent I've tried that has called to mind the word "sexy." This scent is lush, deep red, and velvety. It's the deepest red rose, darkened further by resins and incense, and topped off by a hint of rummy vanilla. The patchouli and oudh combine to soften it in an almost musky sort of manner. The rose is not overpowering at all as rose can sometimes be, instead blending beautifully with the rest of the notes. The jasmine is also starting to come out as my skin warms the scent, which rounds the scent from lush red into deep burgundy. It may sound odd to describe a scent in terms of colour, but in my mind, it looks like this:

13 is significant, whether you consider it lucky, unlucky or just plain odd. Many believe it to be unfortunate… …because there were 13 present at the Last Supper. …Loki crashed a party of 12 at Valhalla, which ended in Baldur’s death. …Oinomaos killed 13 of Hippodamia’s suitors before Pelops finally, in his own shady way, defeated the jealous king. …In ancient Rome, Hecate’s witches gathered in groups of 12, the Goddess herself being the 13th in the coven. Concern over the number thirteen echoes back beyond the Christian era. Line 13 was omitted from the Code of Hammurabi. The shivers over Friday the 13th also have some interesting origins: …Christ was allegedly crucified on Friday the 13th. …On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrests of Jaques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and sixty of his senior knights. …In British custom, hangings were held on Fridays, and there were 13 steps on the gallows leading to the noose. To combat the superstition, Robert Ingersoll and the Thirteen Club held thirteen-men dinners during the 19th Century. Successful? Hardly. The number still invokes trepidation to this day. A recent whimsical little serial killer study showed that the following murderers all have names that total thirteen letters: Theodore Bundy Jeffrey Dahmer Albert De Salvo John Wayne Gacy And, with a little stretch of the imagination, you can also fit “Jack the Ripper” and “Charles Manson” into that equation. More current-era paranoia: modern schoolchildren stop their memorization of the multiplication tables at 12. There were 13 Plutonium slugs in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Apollo 13 wasn’t exactly the most successful space mission. All of these are things that modern triskaidekaphobes point to when justifying their fears. For some, 13 is an extremely fortuitous and auspicious number… …In Jewish tradition, God has 13 Attributes of Mercy. Also, there were 13 tribes of Israel, 13 principles of Jewish faith, and 13 is considered the age of maturity. …The ancient Egyptians believed that there were 12 stages of spiritual achievement in this lifetime, and a 13th beyond death. …The word for thirteen, in Chinese, sounds much like the word which means “must be alive”. Thirteen, whether you love it or loathe it, is a pretty cool number all around. …In some theories of relativity, there are 13 dimensions. …It is a prime number, lucky number, star number, Wilson Prime, and Fibonacci number. …There are 13 Archimedean solids. AND… …There were 13 original colonies when the United States were founded. Says a lot about the US, doesn’t it? This 13 is a blend of blackened cacao and thirteen sacred oils: Siamese red benzoin, olibanum, black copal, fossilized amber oil, sweet myrrh, Coptic rose resin, guggul gum, dragon’s blood resin, Palo Santo, bdellium, dammar gum, and attar of onycha. In the bottle: UH. Popcorn? Buttered popcorn? Wet on my skin: While wet, and also while dry on the first 2 days after it arrived, this smells exactly like the contents of a gift popcorn tin on me. You know, the ones divided into 3 or 4 parts, and they've got butter, cheese, caramel, and sometimes chocolate-covered popcorn? This smells like that while wet. Dry: I waited a few days to try this again, in hopes that it would calm down a bit. Thankfully, the popcorn tin fades after it's been on about 10 minutes. It's cocoa and then a whole lot of dry, almost salty/sharp resins. It's lighter and sharper than I would have expected - I was hoping for/expecting a deep cocoa-incense-resin, and while this has the distinct possibility of aging into something like that, it isn't there yet. Benzoin and sharp, smoky cacao are at the front of this scent, and aside from a bit of myrrh, the rest of the resins are all sort of blended together to form an indistinct mass of sharp, smoky, almost buttery incense. It really does smell salty/buttery, even after the popcorn fades. This is one of the strangest blends I've tried thus far from BPAL, that's for sure. It isn't *bad*, but I think I'm going to put it away and age it in a box for a while to see if that deepens and un-salts the resins a little.

In the bottle: Plummy, musky, dark floral. Wet on my skin: Beautiful wildflowers over dark, smooth, lovely musky plum and patchouli. I REALLY like this from the moment it goes on. Dry: I think this has dethroned The Night-Raven and Black Moths as my favourite dark floral + plum/patchouli scent. It's a slightly lighter cousin to Black Moths, in particular. It could easily be placed in the Crimson Peak lineup, I think. There is an almost fabric-like, smooth, silky note that comes out as this dries, and it honestly smells like the exact kind of black silk/lace a vampire princess might wear. The plum oudh, blood musk, and patchouli are the main players closer to the skin, giving the whole perfume a deep, dark, lush "purple" quality, the vanilla I think helps to smooth it all out, and then over the top (particularly in the throw, not so much on the skin) are these beautiful, lightly-sweet wildflowers. I think there might be gypsy rose and cornflower in the floral notes, and not sure what else. Possibly crocus or tulip. It's all so well-blended that it is difficult to pick out any particular floral note. The lavender doesn't really show up at all as its own note, but rather joins the rest of the flowers in the wonderful cloud of purple now surrounding me at my desk. I love this. I really think it may be in my top BPAL florals ever.

In the bottle: Smells just like an apple pie, heavy on cinnamon. Wet on my skin: CINNAMON. With a little bit of baked tart green apple, and after a minute, sugary dough. Dry: Okay, so I don't normally react to cinnamon, but this one burns my skin if I put it in the crooks of my elbows or the base of my neck. Not badly enough to avoid wearing it, and it goes away within 10-15 minutes or so, but those with a cinnamon sensitivity will definitely want to avoid it. That out of the way...this is soooo nice now that it's had a week to settle! It's definitely cinnamon and apple-forward at first. The apple is tart cooking apple, maybe even Granny Smith or the like, but it's a very foody apple whatever colour it is. The funnel cake dough doesn't have much presence until it's been on my skin for 10-15 minutes, at which point the whiff of raw dough from the wet stage becomes something very like pie crust. It's now dough and apples, sprinkled with cinnamon sugar, and with just a bit of creamy strawberry on the top. The strawberry isn't really a note in and of itself, but I can tell there's a hint of fruity, creamy sweetness helping to restrain the cinnamon bully. This is a foodie scent through and through, and I hope the pastry/dough note comes out even more as it ages, because it's making my mouth water. Yum!

In the imp: Eye-watering fruit. Wet on my skin: SWEET. Almost sickly-sweet fruit and gardenia at first. I fear I have made a grave mistake. I KNOW what gardenia does, and I know what anything in the orange family does about 3/4 of the time. Dry: This...dries into something that's actually rather nice, even if it's not quite to my personal scent tastes. The gardenia poofs, probably because of the musky-woody base, which also keeps the fruits from totally spiraling out of control. It ends up smelling like a delicious fruity dessert pie for about an hour, then fades to tart, juicy blackberry jam over spicy musk. I'm gonna keep the imp, because this is SO far out of my usual scent profile and yet somehow works anyway.

In the bottle: RED. Spicy, red, bloody musk and amber. Wet on my skin: This goes on very similar to The Deluge of Blood. The musky, earthy, spicy blood has an almost cave-air like quality at first, and the dragon's blood is definitely not the sweet, floral sort. Dry: I bought this because of the previous review comparing it to The Deluge of Blood, and I am not at all disappointed. It's in the same scent family as that, Ketkrokur, and Ill Omen. Dark, spicy, resinous, earthy, and bloody-musky sweetness that is at once sensual and just a little bit disturbing, in the same sort of way that a vampire sucking on a freshly-bitten, utterly-willing neck is both sexy and taboo in polite society. If you like DARK resins and spice, this is a blend for you. The dragon's blood is neither overwhelming, nor of the floral sort, and it plays quite nicely with the other notes tempering it. It softens after some time (2-3 hours), with all the notes still present and in play, but now they're like like the fuzzy, waning red of a late sunset instead of THE WALLS ARE BLEEDING. I am so glad to have a bottle of this. It's SO good.

Evil from the GC is more complicated than When Nothing Was, but at least on me, the opium note in Evil is the predominant note, and it's that same sweet, smooth, little bit smoky one from WNW.

In the bottle: Sweet, fruity red wine and a dab o' sweet, fruity red musk. Wet on my skin: Starts out a bit grapey, but then...it smells like The Top and Chinoiserie from Luper 2015 had a love child. WINNING. Dry: This is definitely a sibling scent to Chinoiserie, cousin to The Top, Obsidian Widow, and Lilith. I am absolutely ecstatic that it smells like the former in particular, because that is one of my top 5-ish scents and I was gutted that I missed getting a backup bottle! Now I can wear them both more often without being terrified of never finding another bottle! The prominent notes on my skin, as this dries, are the opium wine, myrrh, and musk (it's more like indigo musk than red, on my skin) then all the spices in the background. Again, it's very like Chinoiserie in top notes, with the sweetness coming from wine and honey instead of wine and roses. The spices give it an incensed quality, like temple incense, and oh that musk and myrrh just make the wine so velvety-burgundy-smooth and sexy. My skin tempers most spices a bit, so they remain supporting notes instead of running wild (sorry to all the cinnamon-ampers). I'm in a happy cloud of sexy wine, resiny-spicy incense, and velvety-smooth musk. I'll probably get a second bottle at some point, because it is SO GOOD.

In the bottle: Lots of honeysuckle and jasmine! Wet on my skin: Oh, this is niiiice. Realistic, greenery-tinged honeysuckle and jasmine. Definitely a green edge to it. Dry: This is a scent for sitting in a pretty white gazebo in a pretty green garden, with honeysuckle and jasmine growing up the lattice/columns around the gazebo and a lush, green, dewy lawn wherever there aren't flowers and trees. It's a scent for the pretty ladies who are drinking tea and having a merry time as they wear their flower-adorned hats and lace-trimmed Easter clothes as the children run around finding brightly-coloured eggs hidden amongst the pastel garden. These aren't innocent young maidens, though--they're curvy moms who are probably waiting for the kids to tire themselves out so they can break out a few bottles of wine and let their hair down, so to speak. Springlike, fresh, clean, womanly. The ripe honeysuckle and jasmine get smoothed over by a gentle skin musk and a hint of fresh, sweet milk, and the overall effect is that of a youthful yet mature, womanly, slightly sexy-naughty perfume. I really enjoy this, especially for it being a floral-forward blend.

In the bottle: Thick, rich, sugared black musk and coffee. Wet on my skin: Same as in the bottle, but my skin almost immediately starts playing nicely with the musk and toning the coffee down a bit. Dry: This. Is. GORGEOUS. Unf, it's so good, and I can't wait to see what a bit of aging does to it if it's this good a week or two after arriving. The coffee is somewhat short-lived as a foreground note, fading after half an hour or so and then providing a sexy, dark-roast coffee undertone to that thick, sugar-sweetened black musk. This is entirely unique in my BPAL collection, and I might have to get a second bottle before the Carnival goes dark. I might also have to see how it smells on my friend, who looks exactly like the guy on the bottle...

In the bottle: Smells a bit like sweetened condensed milk with a hint of fresh blood. Wet on my skin: It's a soft, delicate, gently-sweet and rather youthful scent. Milky, bit of honey, still that hint of blood. No oil while it's wet. Dry: This is a tiny bit similar to Alice on my skin, at least the milk and honey part of the scent. It's like...smelling sweet offerings from afar, rather than being at the altar where they're given, if that makes any sense. Sweet, creamy milk and a drop of honey, a drop of olive oil, and a drop of blood. It's a very soft, delicate, surprisingly nuanced scent. Sticks very close to the skin. There is a powderiness to this, kept in check by that slight bit of underlying tangy-sweetness from the blood, but I can see how some people might amp "baby powder" if their skin doesn't work with this one. I think the oil is olive oil, and only just a hint until it's been on an hour or two, at which point the oil overtakes the honey and blood to become the second-most prominent note. At this point it becomes a slightly less delicate scent, on my skin, and while it's not quite masculine, it's definitely no longer as 'youthful' as it was when I first put it on.

Caesar caught Cascas arm and ran it through with his stylus, but as he tried to leap to his feet, he was stopped by another wound. When he saw that he was beset on every side by drawn daggers, he muffled his head in his robe, and at the same time drew down its lap to his feet with his left hand, in order to fall more decently, with the lower part of his body also covered. And in this wise he was stabbed with three and twenty wounds, uttering not a word, but merely a groan at the first stroke, though some have written that when Marcus Brutus rushed at him, he said in Greek, You too, my child? All the conspirators made off, and he lay there lifeless for some time, until finally three common slaves put him on a litter and carried him home, with one arm hanging down. Suetonius Faithlessness and treachery; resignation in the face of the betrayals of those we hold most dear: smoky vetiver, myrrh, and labdanum with bleak agarwood and tobacco. In the bottle: MYRRH and some tobacco. Wet on my skin: Woodsy, dark vetiver-tobacco-spice...and something a little sour. Dry: Okay, so I ordered this because my bottle of A Grievous Swarm is slowly getting lower and lower, and it's one of my favourite scents when I'm in the mood for something very unusual and dark. Some of the notes in this, and something about the description, reminded me of that and so I took a chance on it. I'd probably have ordered it anyway, but I just had a hunch that it would be a scent cousin to my beloved swarm of black flies. IT IS. This is a little more biting and sharp, with a slightly sour edge, but that gritty vetiver and tobacco is similar enough that there's a stupid grin on my face. The labdanum is stronger than the black pepper in AGS, and there's no vanilla here to smooth anything out - this is dark, woodsy, and gritty. I'm hoping the sour (turpentine-like) edge on that labdanum and/or agarwood goes away after it has aged and had time to settle, but otherwise it's a scent cousin, but not at all identical, to A Grievous Swarm. Vetiver and tobacco forward, then myrrh and labdanum, then chips of drying, aged agarwood.

How is it that I've not reviewed Nasty Woman, seeing as it's become one of my favourites? My bottle's aged a few months now, and it's absolutely GLORIOUS. I'm going to have to pick up a backup at some point, because I never want to run out of this. In the bottle: Thick, rich, chewy-sweet patchouli and fig. Wet on my skin: I, too, am one of the people who gets chewy, fruity, rich tobacco from this blend, and I LOVE IT. It's like sweet tobacco and fig with a bit of vanilla when wet. Dry: This dries into a gloriously spicy, rich, maroon/brown and warm gold cloud, and I wear it when I want to make a statement in more than one manner. Patchouli is one of the best notes for my skin, so this just takes it and runs with it. It does the tobacco thing throughout most of the wear, and it's very well blended in that there's no one note that's totally dominant on my skin. I can pick out the patch, Turkish delight, honey, amber oudh, and fig if I inhale deeply, but this is a perfume that is more than the sum of its parts. For those who are iffy about rosewater in the loukhoum: it's hardly noticeable on my rose-loving skin - I get the sweet chewiness, and I can tell there's a teeny bit of rosewater in there, but it's such that this isn't at all a rose blend on me. Warm, rich, resinous, sweet, and a little spicy.

In the bottle: Rich, thick, creamy chocolate. Mmmmmm. Wet on my skin: Rich, thick, creamy chocolate with a dash of cinnamon. Dry, spicy cinnamon. Dry: This, like the other chocolates, is gorgeous and I love it so much. It's thick, rich, creamy chocolate front and center, with a kick of spicy cinnamon and a little bit of coffee that comes out and darkens the scent a little as it dries. I feel it important to note that the cinnamon in this is like a fresh cinnamon stick, dry and spicy and not like sweet red-hots cinnamon. If you made the best, richest, creamiest Ghirardelli hot chocolate with whole milk and a half-shot of espresso, and stirred it with a cinnamon stick, that's how this tastes. It's amazing and delicious, and I would eat an entire box of chocolates in one sitting if they tasted how this smelled.