malcibiades

I was anxious about buying this one sight-unsmelled because BPAL's vanilla note hasn't clicked with me, but the loukhoum note was impossible to resist. Fresh out of the bottle, I definitely got the bourbon side of bourbon vanilla plus the patchouli, but there's a richness that I suspect comes from the fig note -- it's definitely musky and dark but not too close to my other patchouli-heavy faves and counterbalanced enough not to smell like a shaggy-hippie patchouli. (Which I love -- I need to compare and contrast this with OLLA Ian! -- but it's nice to have something more.) After a little time to wear, I'm getting that rising food-y note from loukhoum too, sweet but not sticky/childish, and I adore it. Verdict overall: this turned out really nice on me, complex right out of the bottle and not cloying. (And my mom liked it, which has to count for something! Immediately after I put it on she told me I smelled terrific, what's the perfume, etc... which made for a fun conversation.)

I don't normally work out with perfume on (a lot of my favorite scents are dark murky smoky scents or resin-heavy and they just make me want to lie around and be arty!) but Yule 2015's Rose Red is really fresh and clear and makes me want to run around outside.

Seconding Imperfect Enjoyment, Port Au Prince, and Old Demons Of The First Class! La Ronde Du Sabbat (Halloween 2015) and All That I Possess (OLLA) are two more recent clovey scents that might be worth checking out. This thread has given me so many new things for my wishlist.

Right out of the bottle, this definitely had a herbal/medicinal note on me -- the honey was still immediately present, but it was paired to something leafy and bitter. But pretty soon (within ~5 min) that acrid note had dimmed down into something really warm and golden. It stayed a really dark and witchy scent from start to finish, but not outrageously feminine or dusty like the beeswax notes in the Young Edith's Bedroom atmo spray. (I wish I had a better frame of reference, but that spray is my gold standard for delicate feminine waxy notes, and Hemlock Honey couldn't be more different.) It's very warm and sensual, but not delicate, if that makes any sense -- definitely wild and earthy.

I love this one -- my first impression right out of the bottle was all clove. I can't pick out a specifically tobacco-y note, but it has a wonderful dark smoke note that gives way to lingering frankincense as time goes on. (The clove sticks around on me, though, and I'm not complaining.) For some reason it reminded my mom of Constant Comment tea -- I'm assuming that's on the spice front, but she swore up and down she got black tea and orange notes out of there too. If they're there, they're totally lost on me, but this one is a fave for me. I got this in the same timeframe as Conjuring An Armed Skeleton, and I keep almost mixing them up, but it's not at all dusty or powdery, even as it starts to taper off.