PrinceofcatS

This first goes on with an almost buttery, glorious vanilla and a lot of sour-lemony (but in a good way!) frankincense and sour-rosy rose. I think sour makes it sound like it's gone off, but I can't think of a better word - tart isn't quite right. It quickly dries and becomes a soft, gilded rose-frankincense blend with heavenly non-gourmand vanilla to uplift it. I almost didn't get this because I didn't know what to expect from "golden" roses and thought for sure vanilla bean would be a strong note. It's more like a general warm, sweet vibe it gives everything. This makes me think of a cream-colored white rose - it's similar to the Lab's white rose note, and this blend reminds me a little of Parlement of Foules, but it's more vibrant and less polite - and the vanilla bean plus the dry and gorgeous resins together remind me of old books. The rose note doesn't stand out above the other two; it's very well-blended. But I detect it distinctly.

 

I got this on a whim, but so far it's my favorite Luper. I highly recommend this one to anyone who likes a very elegant, sophisticated rose scent, or anyone who adores frankincense.

I got a delightful pink tea rose from this and a lot of sandalwood - I struggle with sandalwood amping on me so i generally avoid all sandalwood blends as a rule, but I had been craving a roses-and-sandalwood perfume so I bought this at once, but here the sandalwood stays a pretty side note and blends gorgeously with the pink, bright tea rose. I do get a bit of vanilla flower and hay - the hay came out for me a couple of hours in - but i think they mostly bolster the other notes. Unfortunately this faded to something very light, though it was still there for hours. I hope it's because of the weather or because it's not fully settled yet. I really love this one and i'm glad i got it.

I expected this to be a soft white rose, haunted by the other notes. It's a soft and well-blended perfume, but it's more like the rose and carnation bring a distinctly floral edging to the dominant oudh and oakmoss notes, with a bit of a clove-y undertone from the carnation. I like both of these base notes and don't view them as masculine, but I could see them going that way on a lot of people (how you gender perfume is kind of a personal distinction, anyway). I like the earthy deep green of oakmoss and the dark sophisticated headiness of oudh, but together they are quite a lot, and definitely take over from the rose. That said, the floral note is very strong - and very perfume-y. I agree with the statement that this feels vintage. It has a very 20th century vibe to it.

 

Staying power going pretty strong so far. I've been wearing it for just over 5 hours without any change to its strength or its scent. It's nice, but I don't think I would have gotten it if i had tried it first.

This scent is alarmingly beautiful. I knew I liked all three of these notes, but worried the scent wouldn't really hold its own. But it is much greater than the sum of its parts. A ghostly, gossamer lavender - a perfect mixture of herbal and floral - with a strange, translucent body to it from the other notes. This is a must for lavender lovers.

Maybe this is a good scent, but all I get out of it is "This is The Haunted Beach and a slightly soapy note that doesn't register as a floral". I adore The Haunted Beach, so maybe if I had never tried that one, I'd adore this too. However, it just smells like The Haunted Beach but having gone off slightly. I'm going to keep it, because I've found rose generally ages to become much stronger, but so far I don't get any rose out of it, and the slightly soapy note is probably the mist, since I've had that experience from a mist note before (and I get it from champagnes as well).

 

Get this if you missed The Haunted Beach, but skip it if you have that.

A really pretty, honeysuckle-dominant scent, with sweet slightly-herbal slightly-floral edges to it. This reminds me a lot of Do the Dancing Maidens Sleep Or Are They Dead (enough that I wonder if i should have them both, and I have SN Wild Honeysuckle too...), but that one had a touch of the Snow White-esque snow note and a pale, pale honey note; this one is just other flowers. It feels really bright and fresh for early spring and is a beautiful late-winter scent, hopeful and gentle.

I thought I would love this, but there's something almost artificial - almost vapo-rub? - about this. I love myrrh and oudh (well, oudh reasonably - i love oudh but occasionally i get a blend where it doesn't seem to show up or do me any favors) and adore rose, but this one only seems to smell nice on me after it's settled down and i can hardly smell it. This was my first hair gloss and while I think hair glosses in general are probably a win for me, this wasn't a nice one to start with.

 

general hair gloss impression: I have really long hair (well, maybe midback so not really long, but it represents a lot of hard work on my part!) and wouldn't dream of spraying oil on the roots and find spraying any kind of oil on even the middle or the ends to be a risky prospect, but this doesn't make my hair super oily unless I spray on a lot. Unfortunately, with this one, I do end up doing that as I try to get some rose out of it instead of what the above reviewer called the "barnyard note" of oudh and the memory of having just lit some incense.

 

That's safe to say not a bad smell, but it's not at all a smell I want to wear.

I need to try them side by side, but from memory, this scent is nearly identical to June 23, 1868 from the OLLA collection. June 23 has a strong, narcotic lily note and that slight ~sepia tone~, whereas this is a touch cooler and the florals are white but not lilies... but otherwise they smell basically the same in the bottle and on the skin.

 

The sweet cereus and the white flowers are the strongest notes on me. I need to test this some more for the specific flowers and hoping I notice mint.

 

I love June 23, so this isn't an insult in any way, and I'm glad to have another scent like it, but the resemblance seems strong.

This lives up to its reputation and its description. It goes on with a bright and almost sparkling something in which I can definitely detect both something citrus and coconut, but it's musky and warm, with an embrace of woodsy notes that prevents it from being remotely foody. The pine in this is similar to Przeczucie from last year's Halloween scents, which was a surprising favorite for me and was the note that caught my eye in this blend. But I can also distinctly detect something minty, which makes this feel like more of a summer scent. I think this would be beautiful year-round, but it's perfect for the time when the Buck Moon hangs in the sky.

 

Where I used to live (a more wooded area, slightly out of town; bad for walking to work, beautiful otherwise) there was a stream with wild mint growing in it and this scent reminds me of that a little. Even though there is no aquatic note to this, nor is there a soil note, the way everything comes together reminds me of someplace wet, like that stream, or the air after a thunderstorm. It stormed yesterday when I wore this for the first time and i definitely felt there was a similarity. Maybe "warm evening air" means some touch of ozone, though my mind might also be playing tricks on me.

 

This scent is similar to Black Forest and Bestiaire du Moyen Âge in execution, I think; there's a combination of authentic woodland smells and scents that are evocative of the idea of a woodland. Altogether, it smells like an atmosphere, not a literal interpretation.

 

I really love this scent and it's quickly become a new favorite even though I just got it yesterday. I can tell I'll be deeply smitten with it for a long time to come.

At some point I plan on comparing this side by side with Edith Cushing, and will edit my review to reflect that. But, as of now, this is exactly like a soft, lilac-blue version of Edith: a white, fluffy vanilla with a delicate floral feel to it, gently haloed with a very soft ambergris.

 

Edith is not very nice to me because of the patchouli note in it; to be generous, I would call it earthy, and to be less generous, a little funky. I also find its vanilla note leans a tad buttery; sometimes Edith reminds me of a thickly cut slice of yellow cake, with a thick patchouli in the background. Zorya P, however, is genuinely ethereal. Its vanilla-and-floral combo doesn't really remind me of flowers (contrasting Antique Lace, which is thick vanilla with linen and clear background flowers, or Victoria, which is a similarly "clean" and elegant musky vanilla but has very distinct rose and lily notes, or any of the Lupers I've gotten that were a vanilla-and-flowers scent) so much as it reminds me a little of the lab's vanilla orchid note - a vanilla that smells like flowers. Which i guess is a complicated way of saying it's very well-blended, this one. Moonflower is a little soapy but the vanilla note tends to cancel out soapy sharpness on me; I would say the result is like, a clean clothes kind of feel, without actually smelling like linen.

 

This has low throw but I keep getting a bit of it and going "wow, is that my perfume?"; this is my favorite kind of throw, so I'm double pleased. I first wore it last night and it has an outstanding wear time. I could swear I still had a very pretty sweetened musk or something on when I got ready this morning and even though I didn't reapply it, some vanilla note wore off on the collar of my coat.

 

Scents this reminds me of:

Edith - Sweeter, "whiter" vanilla, no patchouli (or oudh) or general earthiness.

Lyonesse - Lyonesse and Edith are basically the same scent on me, an earthy vanilla, but Lyonesse has an aquatic vibe and no funk. So of course it's similar to this.

A Specific Aberration - That one has a heavier white floral and additional frankincense but they have similar vibes. That one is foreboding, this is wistful.

Victoria - These are definitely in the same scent 'family' to me. Victoria is a daytime scent with sun-dappled grass and Zorya P is distinctly moonlit.

The Haunted Beach - These both have a similar ghostly, ethereal ambergris-and-musk vibe, but Haunted Beach genuinely smells like salt air and sea to me; this has no salt or aquatic vibes.

Antique Lace - The recent AL that the lab sold is similar to Victoria to me, but with more, almost cake-y vanilla, and actual linen, as opposed to smelling really clean. I think of all the scents I can compare it to, AL, plus the hazy ambergris of Haunted Beach, would be the closest comparison. So if you were bummed out to not purchase the lab's recent Antique Lace, I would recommend this as a substitute!

I want to love this, but it smells in the bottle and on the skin like this past Halloween's The Haunted Beach gone way off. A bready salt note that in this case gives way to a cacophany of strange scents that might be like fungi but not in a great way. I only get a little floral from this, and it's not a good one, or even very strong - strange to me since wisteria, at least, tends to beat other notes into submission on me. I really hope this changes, but it hasn't so far.

This smelled like soapy death in the bottle, which boded ill. I tried it on and soap it was indeed, though a little honey crept out. I don't know which of the florals is soapy on me, as i've never tried tulip or freesia, but it eventually receded in strength until it was gone. It has good wear time; it's still very strong more than six hours later. I mainly get lavender, soft blond woods and a very pale honey; if the other florals are here i'm not detecting them specifically. This does smell evocative of springtime (it reminds me a little of the smell of haystacks), but it doesn't feel like a "springtime floral" like other reviews made it sound.

This is a very earthy, herbal cologne - surprisingly unpretentious but still sophisticated and lovely. This is absolutely not my jam, at all, and it actually reminds me of Dead Leaves and Lavender (which i had to actually wash off - but this heightens my perception of the dead leaf note as being cologne-y), but it's gorgeous, i think anyone who likes that sort of thing will adore it. So like, i don't personally like this (and suspected i would not, though I love Oscar) but it's objectively gorgeous. It's got an urbanity but its heart is in the woods.

My five favorites, in no particular order, are probably

 

Snake Oil

Baobhan Sith

Alice

Dorian

Fluers du Mal

 

What should I try next?

 

well who is this beautiful lady???

 

You've heard my recs before but here's a few thoughts.

 

Sed non Satiata: A pounding heartbeat coalesced into scent: demonic passion and brutal sexuality manifested through myrrh, red patchouli, cognac, honey, and tuberose and geranium in a breathy, panting veil over the darkest body musk. This is very similar to Snake Oil on me, with more tuberose and a hint of cognac, and lots of honey. I wear this one to work a lot in the bakery because it overpowers the gross notes but doesn't clash with the food notes. It's not "me", yet I'm addicted to its sexy honey smells.

 

Euphrosyne: Gardenia, tea rose, vanilla and jasmine. I meant to ask if you had this one already because i got a second frimp of it and was going to send it to you if you didn't have it, but I don't currently have anything else I'm sending you so I'm not sure when. This is very flowery but also very laced with vanilla. Something about it reminds me of lemon cupcakes, and I have absolutely no idea why, but I think you'd like it if you haven't tried it yet.

 

Tweedledee: Kumquat, white pepper, white tea and orange blossom. I don't have this anymore, but it was a crisp orange blossom. I really liked it.

 

You might also like Fae, which was way too sweet/edible for my tastes but still a sparkly faery scent (I'd have liked it if the oakmoss was stronger, but alas), Dragon's Milk if you're willing to risk the dragonsblood (I think this scent is absolutely gorgeous and super, super edible but in a fairy food kind of way; i also think clove might be what note you were objecting to before, so you might want to give dragonsblood another shot?), La Belle Au Bois Dormant (i don't think i like plumeria but the rest of this was lovely), Titania (ethereal fruits!), and if you're willing to spend the money, I think you'd love Lady Una.

I don't generally dig "sexy" scents and i hate patchouli, but tuberose scents are rare so when I got this as a frimp I decided I'd try it on before writing it off. But I love this one! The tuberose is pretty faint - this actually reminds me of last year's The Bride from Fleurette's Purple Snails, in the white flower + honey dominance, but where that one was all those things, this has a bit of a darker, more mature edge to it. I'd say a sophistication. I can't quite detect any of the other notes, maybe yes on the cognac, but I know they're there tempering the honey and white florals.

 

I don't know how to better describe it but it's lovely.

I just got this out of the mail so the bottle is freezing but I had to try it instantly. I have had mixed results from violets so this wasn't the wisest decision, but as I'm a heathen i had to nab at least a couple from this collection. I was hoping this would be more like Morgause than other, candy-smelling violet scents and at least right now, I was right! But where Morgause is deep and sorceress-y on me, this one is pale (still sorceress-y though). There's something slightly unsettled about the way the resins and violet mix, but that, I'll assume optimistically, is due to it being fresh out of the mailbox. I think this is one of the only times violet has ever smelled like a flower on me and not like violet-scented candy.

 

I'll edit this with a more thorough review later, but i had to get that out there for other violet-worriers.

I'm not a fan of foodie scents in general but this one has a mixture of the two that does seem really faery in origin. It's really just milk and honey and sweet-leaning dragonsblood resin, but the latter keeps leaning, not quite incense-y but definitely Other. Like a smoke or something (though i do get a bit of cherry, and someone earlier pinpointed almond so i know it's not just me!). This smells like a faery banquet and reminds me of the old Halloweenie Goblin Market, which also had honey and dragonsblood as base notes to a bunch of sweet fruits, and which also felt supernatural.

 

I don't think I'd reach for this often so i'll probably pass the imp to a friend or something, but I love it and it's really atmospheric, much more so than most foodie blends.

Several people called the white petals in this tuberose, so I got it out of excitement because I love tuberose and it's a rare note from BPAL. This might have tuberose, but it most definitely has jasmine, which I know because the BPAL jasmine note gets a musty, weird scent on my skin (and only BPAL's; I can wear jasmine in other perfumes and oils and have it smell like jasmine just fine). I think the ambergris and frankincense would have been promisingly pretty without the musty weird note taking the fore, but alas.

I admit I tried this one on fresh from the mail, so it might change as it settles.

 

Very pretty pink rose. Initially goes on like Rose Red, and i was worried because that one sadly doesn't work for me (one of the reasons I got this), but it develops in a slightly spiced direction that doesn't compromise on the dew-touched notes of it. Like Rose Red, this does smell, to me, like a real rose on the bush, but as other reviewers have noted it lacks green and sappy notes.

 

Reminds me a little of the tea rose in London but also of the pale rose in Lucy's Kiss, but this one smells the most like putting your face in a rose head.

This is the richest, thickest, most golden amber to ever amber, with a few notes of mossiness that give it some depth and extra sweetness.

This is me shopping for a friend's birthday! She doesn't like many scents that aren't foodie, but I think she'd branch out a little bit in some cases. I got her three scents and a bunch of imps for Christmas and she now wears perfume every day and gets mad if she forgot to put some on, and is interested in more stuff from BPAL.

 

The scents she likes are:

 

Frumious Bandersnatch (discontinued, but she had tried it years ago when she was living with me): Bandersnatch musk, redolent of spicy carnations, wild plums and chrysanthemum.

Rose Red: The perfected winter rose, dew covered and freshly cut.

Miskatonic University: The scent of Irish coffee, dusty tomes and polished oakwood halls.

El Dia de Los Reyes: Hot cocoa with cinnamon, coffee, and brown sugar.

Raspberry Sufganiyot: Sugar-sprinkled sufganiyot filled with sweet raspberry jelly.

Strawberry Moon: Wild strawberries, strawberry flower, vanilla-infused sugar, early summer grasses, and milky dandelion sap.

 

I gave her imps of Bordello and Bathsheba so that might cover the plum category. I also already gave her an imp of Eat Me. But I'd love recommendations from anyone who has more similar taste to hers than I do.

This is a strong, heavy perfume and has bombastic throw, so the second time I wore it i dabbed it on only very lightly, and it's more wearable this way.

 

The comment that it's like a Southern plantation is spot-on. This opens with that sweet, fresh narcissus note but quickly becomes more of an oriental floral. I don't think this is quite a generic department store perfume, but it wouldn't be out of place there. It's witchy and poisonous, but ladylike and sweet.

 

I was hoping for light flowers over dark herbs and dry, warm resins, and all of those things are technically here, it's just lacking a fresh quality I expected or hoped for. This is a really gorgeous scent, though, for someone who likes that sort of thing (which I do, but not all the time).

 

Darkness is not entirely dissimilar, but that one is much more fresh and spring-y on me than this one.

Is the dead leaves note supposed to be like a big burst of old-fashioned dude cologne? I have almost never had to wash something off me in my life, and no perfume has ever made me as miserable as this one did. I think maybe there was lavender in this, but mostly that guy cologne scent. I feel like if you haven't tried a dead leaves scent before try a decant first and do not do what I did! This doesn't smell like real dead leaves or nature or whatever at all. I have so much regret.

 

edit 10/25: I realize i should clarify that this doesn't smell *masculine* so much as it smells exactly like a very old-fashioned cologne to me (and reminded me strongly of one a middle-aged college professor used to wear which was absolutely unbearable). I would agree that it's unisex. I actually like some masculine-leaning things (though I don't tend to keep them; I'll enjoy them but then pass them on to someone who will appreciate them in their collection). This, however, was really unpleasant on me, in part because it's also got ENORMOUS throw. I didn't get any nature notes like moss or dirt (or leaf...) out of this.

 

I also should make it clear that I did wash it off before even the hour mark was past. I had put it on before heading to work and shortly after I arrived I was so deeply unhappy standing in my own scent cloud that I washed it off with water, soap, and hand sanitizer. So this might actually chill out after a few hours (and other notes might come out, like the lavender I got absolutely none of), but for me, it's not worth every suffering the beginning of it ever again. I sent it to a friend literally that week.

 

My hyperbolic review still stands though: if you haven't tried the dead leaves note please don't buy a full bottle, please get a decant. I love nature smells and this was one of the first things I knew i had to blind buy. I was so wrong!

This goes on strong "frozen" note, which is weird for me because I've never smelled that without pine before, but it's the same as I find in my ice blends - just no pine. It does have a cold, chilly feel to it - I get more mint as it dries - and some creamy gardenia starts to come out too.

 

The initial ten minutes of this were really pleasant, all cold florals and the vanilla orchid rearing its head - I love BPAL's vanilla orchid, but it's not in much stuff. Then it started to be soapy. It took me a moment to pinpoint what the only unpleasant smell was - but then it became clear it was soap.

 

I'm torn about keeping this, because the soapy stage didn't last the entire rest of the wear time, and unlike other soapy blends i've worn (Somewhere or Other comes to mind), I did get other notes in this one, especially if I wasn't trying to sniff my wrist. And all the rest of the notes are really lovely, and the sandalwood barely showed up (I tend to amp BPAL's sandalwood, so that was a fear). I also think the frankincense might get stronger with age (I didn't get much of it this time) and abate the soapiness even more.

 

The strengths of this scent for me are that none of its notes bullies the others, even though sometimes gardenia and sandalwood do that; there's a ghostly hint of mintiness, a creamy touch of gardenia, and a flawless resinous base that's just gentle and grounding for the other notes. The vanilla orchid is unique as a note so you can detect it easily, but it doesn't dominate either. I think it's possible that the rose note in this might be what went soapy on me, just because Somewhere or Other did, unless one of the cold notes (used as a mist in that?) did it, but I've never had problems with rose notes from any perfume by those two.

 

I recommend this, especially to orchid fans, but people who have trouble with soapiness in any of these notes or florals in general may want to give it a pass.

Lovers of the dirt and moss notes are going to love this. It's atmospheric and spooky and really feels like being outside. The vanilla-esque beeswax (which really is equal parts honey vanilla and wax) adds such a pretty touch to it.