Casablanca

I tried a bunch of decants from a friend this weekend. I can resist bottling them all, even the ones I liked, but I can't resist this.

It was just enchanting, the sort of naturalistic scent I've been loving lately. It also took me back to some of my kid years living in the Southern Cal valley.

"Kid." Goats. Hehe.

California lilacs wafted over woodsy sage, grasses, and other summery vegetation, all well-blended and sun-warmed. I agree with earlier comments on the lilac; it seemed to add some floral tone without going super floral at any stage. It felt like a floral with maybe some herbal/grassy tone, if that makes sense, and that tone merged into the other notes. It also seemed a bit like honey.

All notes felt like they could be growing together on the same arid slope in the backyard, a treat for California bees. The blend lasted longer than most do on my skin.

Oof! A sort of red fruity-floral-metallic musk. With a side of ashy smoke.

Yup. Pretty much that. A musk with red fruits and flowers and coppery metal is how I experience "blood musk."

This went muted on me quickly, which is OK. Fun to test, but not my thing.

So much fruit!

This was all currants and strawberries on me at first.

In drydown, it developed a bit of woody coconut and sandalwood, and the fruit became a less fruit-specific, general fruitiness.

Not my kind of blend, but I enjoyed trying it.

Psalm (numbers) was mostly faint and powdery benzoin on my skin. Hints of musk and vanilla. It seemed a little floral, barely, in the way that some baby powders can be.

There was a little strangeness to it, too, which I'm guessing was the crystal. Usually the concept notes smell to me like what they should represent, which I enjoy, but this one just didn't seem to resolve as it should have.

I think this wasn't a match for my skin.

Honeyed champaca incense.

The champaca was strongest on me, followed by the honey, with incense hints. But this was well-blended overall, and only became more so the longer it sat on my skin, until the three became one.

This was sultry and calm. I loved testing it and am only able to resist a bottle because of having many champaca blends.

Wet: Mm, lots of handsome patchouli, with a bare hint of tobacco. There was cologne, too, which I was not loving as much, but the patch was sure attractive.

Dry: The cologne calmed down, except to just barely nuance the patchouli. From then on, I just got the patchouli, with its adult nuance.

After a while, the blend turned a bit powdery on me, so it was a powdery patchouli.

Loved the patch.

Wet: Tart blackberries and aquatic ozone.

I'm going to guess this was the same blackberry as in Echo Azure, because that went quite tart on my skin also, but not on my friend's skin. Something about my skin makes this fruit a bit sassy.

Dry: A bit of ozone-tinted, vaguely fruity powder. This faded quick.

I never pick up violet.

This was a fun, quirky blend, but unusually short-lived on my skin.

Pater Populi was a well-balanced Mediterranean blend.

Bay and lavender were strongest on my skin, but still smoothly blended into the other notes. I also caught olive blossom and cedar, somewhat, but the background was just very nuanced and complex. I didn't notice it changing much through its stages.

Recommended for a Mediterranean mood, especially for bay.

Wet: I can smell each listed note, and they smell great together. The pine and clove seem to be the stronger two of the four notes, but they're all there. This pine, which I'm really liking, is especially short-lived on me, though. And then most of the rest fades...

Dry: Sadly, this turns to a sweet clove SN on me.

I wanted to pounce on a bottle when this was wet, but it unfortunately lost its nuance once it dried.

I think this is the strongest-throw BPAL I've tried. One dot on one wrist turns me into a sweet citrus sillage storm.

Sugary lemon icing. After a minute, it grows a hint of lemon fizz.

It's always wild when a constructed note smells so close to the reals. The lemon icing smells just like lemon icing, like the sort of white dribble that has hardened over pastry.

First impressions on skin: Amber incense, ambergris, and a soft musk. I anticipated an immediate flower fusillade, but this is playing differently at first. The ambergris is adding a fair dose of salt.

Drying: There they are. Queenly gardenia and tuberose sweep in and take over, throwing a pale, floral curtain over the earlier notes.

Dried: Tuberose dominates, with gardenia in its shadow, on a background of the other notes.

Tuberose, the grand salon blowout of florals.

Unfortunately, the amped tuberose makes this a bit too big and heady for me.

Wet: Lots of red ginger, and some well-blended clove. I never pick out birch tar, only an indistinct background at this point.

Dry: A quieter gingery clove blend. A soft frankincense emerges to join them.

If I hunt for it, I can find a little dark smokiness from the birch tar, but it's barely showing. I have a bottle of birch tar and it's intense, but in this blend, it's almost not there.

This settles into a mild, spiced frankincense blend.

I wore Blue Blankie as a sleep scent once and then lost the decant (sigh).

However, I recall a potent French lavender first up. I also kept smelling hops right alongside it. I couldn’t lose the hops impression with the lavender. It reminded me of the lavender-hops pairing of Lilith’s HG and Fuck This Heat.

Blended in was a pretty musk, light but without most of the powder I get from white musk. Yay, skin musk.

The rose appeared in drydown and was quite potent on me. It had aquatic hints, but wasn’t at all like a few rose water notes that haven’t worked on me in other blends.

I’m glad I got to test this before it wandered off, but I hope to try it later when I’m awake. :-)

The freshly applied Woodnymph carries tonka and cacao with a side of dry but greenish grass, the grass of late summer into autumn.

The tonka is fairly prominent. The cacao is softer than chocolate notes often are on me, which is a relief because I have more choco-scents than I wear. It's not especially sweet and is mostly having a drying and browning effect on the blend, pushing it toward autumn.

I love the sense of drying grasses to the blend. I may need to bottle this one.

It's nice to pair with Harvest of the Empress, with its hay and wheat.

A mingling of sweet hay, dry grassy-grain, and light clove.

There's more sweetness and weight in this than I expected, to where I wonder if there's a little lurking sweet labdanum, or something.

This is not long-lived on me, but it's an appealing hay-clove combination for the fall.

Realistic Honeycrisp apples in sugary, creamy milk.

I even seem to smell the skin of the apples.

This blend is so autumnal, it might change color and fall to the ground by November. Lovely.

Sweet honey sticks on a background of cinnamon and a lovely sugar-dusted, mellow patchouli.

Wet: The honey sticks have a candy-ish tone that makes them honey stick-y, instead of just honey. That part brings this blend well into foodie territory for me. I love every part of this mix that is not the stick part of the honey.

Dry: The candy stick vibe has drifted, and this is now simply sweet, cozy, and soft, like a russet, sugary sweater. Great fall scent.

This is quite soft on me; from even a short distance it just smells vaguely musky and a bit powdery.

Close to the skin, though, I find lots of grainy sugar over some fig, patchouli, and vanilla cream, and smidges of each other listed note. It's an immediately likable and pretty combination.

The Dream has lots of potential, but I think it may need some time to age and fill out more. If it does, it'll be a bottle for me... at least one.

Meditation Buddy reminds me of Flickering Lantern (beeswax, tobacco leaf, a whiff of smoke, purple rose petals) without any of the purple, and with ... I want to call it vanilla swamp. There is a vanilla-tinged, slightly swampy aquatic note.

I get a beeswax-incense rose on a background of vanilla swamp-water.

I can see reasons for love here. As with Flickering Lantern, though, there's a sort of cloying quality in this rose, or perhaps in this combination, that isn't quite working for me. I love the beeswax-incense-vanilla portion, though.

Suffragium is the lovely palo santo and sandalwood-dominant blend I hoped for. All the hearts.

I was introduced to palo santo as a room diffuser at a retreat this summer and ordered the essential oil when I got home. The EO smells lightly citrusy, herbal, and woody, serene and cleanly spiritual.

A prominent sandalwood in the blend adds lots of incense, and I get some well-blended spice, also. There's a sweetness and a little cedar warmth (but nothing strong on me). Sometimes I get hints of sage-like dry grass, though sometimes palo santo puts that in my mind.

This smells like a serenely spiced sandalwood fan. This would be a beautiful meditation scent. [hands clasped, hearts flying out of my eyeballs]

If you ever wanted to add just the Lucky Charms marshmallows to a bowl of Fruity Pebbles in sugary milk and suck it all down, but some sane adult stopped you, this one's for you.

A rustic and woodsy patchouli, warmed by a little cedar and dusted with smoke.

This dragon was vapor-thin and not at all sweet when it first arrived, but after several days to settle, it has filled out and developed a little sweetness.

I'm especially interested in aging this one more, although I like it at this point, too.

First up, I get lots of dragon's blood and strawberry-candy lolly. Quite red.

As this dries, I also get some creaminess and a little vanilla. And the dragon's blood note turns floral.

It is what it says it is, but a little prettier than I anticipated for the listed notes alone.

Fair Maiden Side-Eye is a peach skin musk filled out, roundly and beautifully, with an amber-ambergris base.

I worry about the saltiness of ambergris, but it's restrained and pleasant here. I like how the amber and ambergris play together; between them and the slight vanilla, this smells full in a way that some blends have to age into.

The cream is present, and smooths the other notes, but it is not heavy on me. It reminds me of the way some flowers are creamy.

A delight.

James and the Giant Peach!

When my friend tried this on, she got more of the musk, but on my skin it's intensely pulpy.

Great, pulpy masses of white and golden peaches smear a silken screen of skin musk and tropically floral vanilla tea.

Yeah, basically that.