Lucchesa

Thanks to the kind generosity of a fellow swapper, I have Sumatran red on one wrist and East African black on the other wrist. Sumatran red is a dark reddish-brown oil. And it's patchouli all right, but it's the more urbane of the two. Earthy but not gritty or dirty, smooth and woody and comforting whereas the black is almost unsettling to me, at least wet. Sumatran red knows every Grateful Dead song but can also get dressed up and go to work in an office. They are both beautiful in their own way. I can't believe I've learned to love patchouli this much!

When I started out with BPAL, patchouli was a note I rigorously avoided. Now I've come to love it. And thanks to hugely generous frimpage from a forumite who will remain nameless but is right above me in this thread, I get to try out both East African black and Sumatran red patch, straight up. This is the one that scares me more. It's deep, dark, primal, earthy. Not for the faint of heart. If you're patchouli-avoidant, this is not going to be your gateway patch. There's a bitterness on initial application, but after an hour or so it softens into something rich and almost, but not quite, sweet. It's amazing, and I am so glad, and grateful, to have my decant.

Mr. Nancy is delicious -- a foodie that trends slightly masculine, with the tobacco and bay rum suggesting a hint of cologne. The lime note is not particularly long-lasting on me, but the rum sugar cookies last a really long time as a skin scent. Sweet, warm and cozy.

Daybreak from 2017 Liliths. Lavender-vanilla-coconut.

If she wants to go with something very simple (but utterly lovely), The Rose from the Marchen series is beautiful, or I love Hope from the Carnaval Diabolique which is sugared rose but which you can only buy from the lab in a pair with Faith, sugared violet. In addition to all the great suggestions already floated, some other possibilities you could get imps of: Aelopile (Glowing amber and citrus, labdanum, verbena, cedar, and oud) has some notes she already wears Alice - a personal fave of mine (Milk and honey with rose, carnation and bergamot) - innocent but not little girl Delight - Frangipani, with rose, tuberose, and jasmine Delirium - apple, rose and lemon Eos - softly glowing skin, jasmine, buttercup and honeysuckle Eternal - Stephanotis, cyclamen, heliotrope, white rose and gardenia Follow Me Boy (I got lilies) Les Bijoux - Skin musk and honey, blood-red rose, orange blossom, white peach, red apple, frankincense and myrrh Mouse's Long and Sad Tale - Vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood Pride - Moroccan rose and narcissus (huge throw on me) Queen of Hearts - Lily of the Valley, Calla Lily, stephanotis and a drop of cherry Seraphim - calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense Two, Five and Seven - Bulgarian rose, Somalian rose, Turkish rose, Damascus rose, red and white rose, tea rose, wine rose, shrub roses, rose, rose, rose, and just an itty bitty bit of green grass Veil - White sandalwood, lilac, gardenia, violet, orris, lavender and ylang ylang Viola - Gentle tea rose, lilac, Calla Lily, and Somalian Rose layered over golden Peruvian amber, Spanish moss, red sandalwood, rosewood, and myrrh, with the lightest touch of Mandarin Unless your sister has a dark sense of humor, I would stay away from anything with an unlucky name, like Grief or even Desdemona. Good luck!

I've been wearing Eusapia (2014) quite a bit lately because the lilacs are in bloom, lilac is one of my favorite notes, and Eusapia is one of my two favorite lilac blends (Cave of Treasures being the other). The opening of Eusapia is seriously beautiful: realistic lilacs and bright lemony white tea and sweet beeswax. Some blends need time on the skin to develop their full potential, but Eusapia is gorgeous right out of the starting blocks. I'm halfway surprised I don't have bumblebees buzzing around my wrists, looking for nectar. My skin tends to drink up tea notes quickly, so the drydown on me is lilac and creamy beeswax, and it lasts a really long time. It's very pretty, very feminine, very spring-like, a guaranteed lifter of moods.

I tried this Novel Ideas out of curiosity (and because roseus was offering a screaming deal on it - thanks, roseus!). I wasn't sure quite what to expect. It isn't something I would turn to every day, but it has an understated elegance to it. I don't have the kind of job that involves meetings in boardrooms, but I think it would play very well in such a setting, with a beautifully cut suit. There's a faint sweetness to the amber cream, a hint of polished woods but nothing forest-like whatsoever, and I might have guessed a fruit or a flower. No throw on me (which is normal) and average wear life.

Even wet, Cytherea is faint on me. I get pale sandalwood and pale patchouli and pale florals (champaca usually amps weirdly on me, but here I barely make it out). Dusty orris. Pale and dry is the overall feeling of this one -- I love how another reviewer likened it to an old sepia photograph, and I would agree, but it's kind of a half-tone of a scent for me. Pleasant, but not the blockbuster most of the grindhouse is on me.

I wanted to try Kypris because of the Rainier cherry note, which I've not seen anywhere else. I'm not sure how common they are outside the Pacific NW, but Rainier cherries are a local breed, sort of pale yellow tipped with red and with a more delicate flavor than the dark red types. I have no desire to furnish pregnancy of any sort. So, Kypris is gorgeous on me. The opening is vanilla almond cherry lemon, so lovely. I have a cherry almond bath scrub from a circular swap made by another forumite, and I love it, and this is very similar. There's a delicate hint of rosewater; the honey is also delicate, and as it dries down it all melds together into pure delight. The benzoin and rose keep it from being overly foodie, and it's not overly sweet either. Kypris is a joyful scent, perfect for the May sunshine we're enjoying in Seattle these days.

I wasn't sure Lady in Speckled Pink Kimono would work on me. I usually don't wear pure florals, and while I love the smell of peonies IRL, they're awfully heady. Vanilla is good, orchid is iffy. But this is perfectly lovely. It is more subdued than I imagined it would be, and not overly sweet. So while it's feminine as hell, it's sophisticated enough for professional wear and not at all girly. Low throw but good wear length.

Catherine was a wishlist frimp from a generous forumite, and I'm so delighted to get to try it. Wet, Catherine is bracing, and I like it quite a bit. There's rose and orange blossom lingering in the background, but the astringent rosemary is the main player. It reminds me a lot of Bess without the Dimetapp grape interfering. Having been a Renaissance scholar, I have a soft spot for these Renaissance blends. My skin eats up the rosemary within 90 minutes or so, though, after which it is a soft orange blossom and rose blend which is far less interesting on me.

Wet, Eyes Skyward is a lovely lemony frankincense on me. Mellow, sunshiny, and never veering close to lemon Pledge territory. As it dries down, the coconut and sandalwood emerge, and a hint of vanilla. A skin scent on me, and not a long-lasting one. I like it, but I may swap it to someone whose skin chemistry might allow it better throw and wear length.

Oops, realized I reviewed Sign of Sekkusu at the Post but not here. These are all favorite notes of mine, and I love it! I worried that it might smell a bit like I’d just come from clubbing and might not go down well at work, but it’s not too boozy, and the tobacco is smooth and urbane. It smells classy – warm and elegant but a little removed, like a woman who knows she’s way out of the league of anyone in the room but who is too kind to be snooty about it. It doesn’t have the ridiculous throw and wear length of some hair glosses I’ve tried, but I do continue to get whiffs of it for several hours.

I like Gothic Horror a LOT better than Psychological Horror! It's a lovely mysterious incense with lots of myrrh. I'm not getting much in the way of rose, which is fine. My initial impression was of a crumbling monastery, ancient penitential rites, a desperate heroine. No throw at all on me, but it lasts a long time. Lovely!

It doesn't happen often, but I developed a strong dislike for this from the get-go. It was strongly musky on my skin with a burnt or industrial undertone. And violets, I think, which are nearly always a disaster on me. It does improve somewhat as it dries down, but not enough to salvage it from the negative initial reaction. Swaps.

The Cross of Snow is lots of moss and cypress on me, and some sharp tobacco flower especially when wet. Then a cologne-style bergamot makes an appearance, though the clove never does on me. Definitely earthy and mossy and unisex, trending masculine. My skin eats this one up fairly quickly.

My Moon Rose imp looks like it's been around the block a few times. Wet, it's all rose, a soft realistic rose that does not go sour on me. Gradually gentle aquatic notes and what must be the moonflower emerge to create an almost silvery rose scent, lovely and evanescent. Not at all my style, though, so I will pass this one on to someone else who's curious to try it.

I just got this out of the mailbox and sprayed it on dry hair, though I'm sure it will treat my wet hair as excellently as all BPTP hair gloss does (I have coarse, dry, curly hair that seems to be exactly what hair gloss is made for; combed through damp hair as my only styling product, it produces soft non-frizzy and certainly non-greasy curls that last a couple of days). The Love Swing smells marvelous but not like what I expected. Like Little Bird, I would swear this was sassafras and even wondered if it were mislabeled. I too get the impression of rootbeer float. But I like it a lot! It's going to be perfect to wear with Sissy, Outlaw, etc. And it's lasted a good four hours already. It's not the cardamom-patchouli of my dreams, but it's delicious nonetheless. ETA: The Love Swing has terrific staying power -- I put it on yesterday around noon and am still getting faint wafts the following morning.

Blind testing Enyalios, I did pretty well. I thought pine, frank and opoponax because it had that cola kind of vibe. After checking the notes, I think it was olibanum plus cocoa that gave me that impression. I don't mean to imply that it's sweet; it isn't particularly sweet on my skin. It's sharp at first and very woodsy, but it softens considerably in drydown. The patch is not headshoppy at all but melds perfectly with the juniper and dry frankincense. Unisex, a confidence-building scent, with a little throw and average wear length. I like this a lot!

This is quite nice. I used it as a bedtime scent last night -- I knew I liked it from some brief, positive but non-specific notes from first testing -- and am testing again now. Tezcatlipoca is a dry scent. Dry patch, dry cacao, not at all foodie or sweet. I find it pleasantly grounding. A hint of leather and incense emerge as it dries down, and some dry flowers (not dried, just dry. I consider marigolds and chrysanthemums dry, as opposed to lush moist flowers like tuberose). Gender neutral, work appropriate and would make a good confidence scent.

Blind testing Heroine, my first thought on application was "apples and oranges." Gradually that became "musky apples and oranges with something else." Then I peeked at the notes and realized that what I was reading as bright, tart citrus was in fact rhubarb, which made a lot of sense. I never really got any leather from this, or any patchouli; essentially it was a sunshiny fruit and musk blend on me. Pretty, but I was hoping for something a little darker.

I understand the comparisons with Ebisu, but on my skin Alcie is quite a different animal. Ebisu on me is a skin scent, soft and sweet and sexy but understated. Alcie is bright and has more throw than I usually get. Bright sweet-tart nectarine, bright clean aquatic notes. I haven't quite mastered the subtleties of green musk but it is definitely louder on me than skin musk. Alcie is almost aggressively cheerful, like a camp counselor who is absolutely determined that everyone is going to have the time of their life. I'm very fond of Ebisu, but Alcie may be just too chipper for me. I'm not sure I could wear this unironically.

Andreiphontes is good but not great on my skin. It's an intriguing combination of warm, buttery tonka and dry sandalwood and just the barest hint of nutmeg -- this does not smell like a spice drawer or a pumpkin pie, it's very subtle. There's some sweetness from the benzoin and tonka. It's funny given that this is supposed to be the destroyer of men, but one of the words I would use to describe this is gentle. Unisex, no throw (normal on me). Nice, but there are other blends in this vein that work better on me.

I was enthusiastic about all of these notes except for jasmine, so of course Peitho is practically a single-note jasmine on me. It's a nice jasmine, not indolic, and with the vanilla in the background reminds me rather of La Prostitution et la Folie, which I tested a couple of days ago. Actually, it's a surprisingly beautiful jasmine; it's just not something I'm going to wear.

I was a little sloppy with the imp, so I got a bit more Dead Leaves, Bourbon etc. onto my wrist than I had planned, but I am digging it. Like LiberAmoris says, it's a dead leaves old fashioned -- my dad's drink, though I'm not finding it too masculine at all. The dead leaves note on my skin always morphs into a beautiful, sophisticated, old-fashioned (no pun intended) and to my mind quite feminine perfume note. I was afraid the bourbon would be overly boozy for work or school, but it's just right, and the cherry and orange peel subtly flavor the whole. A little black dress of a scent, I can see this transitioning effortlessly from a sophisticated work scent to dinner, drinks, dancing...