Lucchesa
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I will retest The Dream is Big Enough for Everyone in a couple more days because today my skin just ate up the patchouli. I got honeyed fig and creamy redcurrant with a base of warm feminine oudh. I'm hoping a little more age will allow the patchouli to come forward; right now it's a little sweet for me, though very lovely.
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I'm very particular about foodies, and the operative word that attracted me here for me was "scorched." So when I first applied Scorched Marshmallow and all I got was milk chocolate, graham cracker and warm marshmallow, I didn't think it would work for me. Too sticky sweet. But within minutes, the smoky note emerged on my skin, and the combination with the s'mores scent was glorious. I got better throw from this scent than I usually get and good wear length too. It's not heavy; the sweetness and smokiness stay in a nice balance on me, and it's a wonderful sweet campfire scent. Win!
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I'm unfamiliar with palo santo -- a quick search of my database shows I've never tried it in any scent -- but I know that labdanum can have an almost cola-like sweetness. That being said, this was so different from what I expected that I wondered if I'd received a mislabeled decant of Absurd Origin Story. So take this review with a big grain of salt. On me, this smells very reminiscent of cola Willy Wonka Bottlecaps candy from my childhood. Low throw and average wear length.
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What BPAL would this fictional character wear?
Lucchesa replied to Flowermouth's topic in Recommendations
Embalming Fluid? -
I was worried about the shadow oudh here as I've been burned a couple times by black oudh recently. I should have realized that, being a Lilith, it would be a soft, pretty oudh, nothing to fear. I get very little patchouli in Euterpe's Ukulele. It is mostly sweet plum, soft dark oudh, and a gentle floral that must be osmanthus. My skin eats this up fairly quickly, but I suspect age will help the wear length. Maybe the patchouli will emerge with aging as well.
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Count me in on the She-Goat lovefest here, from another native Californian. The evergreen notes (juniper and cypress) are most prominent when wet, along with the sagebrush. As always, they soften as it dries, and then I get a warm, dry, sunny outdoor scent that evokes the California foothills in summer, with bees bumbling all around, maybe some dragonflies buzzing, and it doesn't morph much from here. Though I think I can smell the California lilac, this is not a floral on me by any means. I get a little throw from this (more than is usual for me) and good wear length. The She-Goat is a beauty!
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Wet, Phantom Queen smells very clean on me. Clean and springtimey, like what Irish Spring soap ought to smell like but doesn't. I didn't get a discrete apple note; this was definitely floral and herbal, not fruity on me. Though I like clover scents, this one has too much dew along for the ride. Try Phantom Queen if you like The Fairies, The Passionate Shepherd to His Love, or Glasgow.
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A carnivorous enchantress: diverse, lovely and graceful, emitting a sticky, glowing golden, sweet and terminally inviting scent. Its dew is believed to grant eternal beauty and longevity, and restore vitality and vigor to the magician. I couldn't really identify any of the notes when testing, then I checked and saw that was because there were no notes. If I had to guess (and obviously I do), I would say some kind of jungle greenery, honeysuckle or sweet tropical floral, amber and a sweet orange or mandarin, something like Xiuhtecuhtli without the incense. Green and gold in tone. The drydown was lovely and long-lasting, sweet amber and growing things.
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I agree with a couple of other reviewers that the combination of black musk (which almost always works on me) and white musk (which rarely works on me) with the golden amber settles into something like fruity red musk -- maybe there's some red musk in a rusty iron note? Actually, the drydown is a little like Smut on me, almost with a cola sweetness. This is not nearly as masculine as Czernobog from the GC -- We Cared is definitely unisex. No throw (normal for my skin) but good wear length.
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The Mournful Influence of the Unperceived Shadow
Lucchesa replied to themerrybaker's topic in Halloweenie
I wasn't sure The Mournful Influence was going to work on me at first. It was nice, but not outstanding. But the longer it has stayed on my wrist, the deeper and more beautiful it has gotten. The patchouli comes more and more to the forefront, and the resins get warmer and sweeter. I don't find this melancholy at all, and it is more hippie than ecclesiastical on me, but it's gorgeous and I will get a lot of wear out of it this winter. -
Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. The Great Sword of War doesn't seem to know what it wants to be. Foody or sultry? Right off the bat it's mandarin-red musk-tobacco, with a little chocolate. I never get the tea, but my skin often swallows up tea notes, so that's not surprising; the saffron is quiet, too. The last time I tested this I was certain I knew at least one of the classical herbs of conflict, but now I can't remember what I thought it was. The red musk takes over a bit, as red musk tends to do on me. The result is kind of strange, and I'm not sure where I would wear it, though I love the name and the concept.
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Megaera was in the first batch of BPAL imps I ever tried. I liked it a lot at the time, less so now that my tastes have matured. Retesting blind, I thought citrus, plum and maybe amber, which is better guessing than I usually do. It’s a flowery fruit blend, candy sweet on my skin. I like my plums deep and dark, with tobacco and resins; this seems more like one of those golden plums. The grapefruit ought to be a foil for the sweetness, but it doesn’t last long on me. It’s nice, just not really my thing.
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I was hoping Black Swallowtail would be really licorice forward, but instead it's all tropical flowers on me, mainly freesia and orchid. The jasmine is well-behaved enough not to ruin this for me if the licorice had been more prominent, but it's not. I'm never able to differentiate any rose. The late drydown is beautiful, with a vanilla tinge and a floaty breath of tropical florals, but I just don't wear tropical florals or white florals or unadulterated florals of any kind, and since the licorice is practically MIA on me, that's what this is.
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I was excited to try Allegory of Winter in a swap. Wet on my skin, it was orange and vetiver -- I reread the ingredients and decided the coal dust must be mainly composed of black, smoky vetiver. Fortunately, I like smoky vetiver, because I got a lot of it in this scent. As it dried down, the leather and red musk came out to play with the vetiver, but what do you know? The vetiver was bullying the red musk rather than the other way around. Funny, red musk has worked for me as often as not lately. I honestly did not get a lot of amber in this scent for the first two or three hours; it was really citrus, leather and vetiver on me, though I'm sure the amber was there as a warming base. It lasts a long time, manages to be both sexy and cozy, and the late drydown is really beautiful; the vetiver dies away and leaves a sunset of orange, leather, amber and red musk. I'm delighted I got to try this -- it's unusual and very satisfying. And it would be gorgeous on a guy if I had one who would wear scent. ETA the visual:
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I was waiting for the white musk to ruin Elegy No. 1 for me. It never happened. It's more of a pale musk with none of the screechiness of the white variety on me. The bergamot-sandalwood combination is lovely, and the ambergris is more evident in drydown. There is a pale, ethereal quality to this scent, and in fact the wear length on me is not great, but it is a beautifully evocative blend.