Lucchesa

Voluptuous magnolias strewn over orchid, star jasmine, black amber and smoky rose. I got Black Dahlia early in my BPAL journey and have since realized I rarely enjoy wearing pure florals. And the amber here is definitely in the background. I do love the Lab's magnolia note, and star jasmine is far, far better on me than regular jasmine, and the idea of smoky rose appeals to me a lot. They blend pretty seamlessly; if the star jasmine in Vasilissa works on you, you'll probably have good luck with this one, too. It's not jasmine with all caps. Black Dahlia is a really lovely, heady floral blend; it's just not me.

Wow, I have the privilege of following two new forumites who are already writing stunning reviews. Welcome to the community, DryFrogPills and conflagrantThief! Black Forest was one of the earlier imps I purchased, and I realized today that A. I felt like wearing it and B. I'd never reviewed it, so here goes. Wet, it is sharp, realistic evergreens, broken boughs, trailing sap. I'm not going to pretend I can prise apart pine, juniper and cypress; it is just dark forest to me, and it stays this way for an hour or so. Gradually, the evergreens soften and the ambergris sweetens so that the drydown resembles a favorite GC of mine, Golden Priapus, but with black musk instead of vanilla, making Black Forest darker and dreamier. This is absolutely unisex: outdoorsy and vital at first, soft and cozy with longer wear. Lovely.

Hail Mary, full of jasmine. It's practically the last listed note, and it's night-blooming, which tends to be better behaved on me, but in Ave Maria Gratia Plena the jasmine squelches all the notes I was hoping to hear from: the rosewood and sandalwood, the lemon and sage. It dries down into a somewhat musky, powdery floral with good wear length. Not for me. A rosewood, lemon peel, sage and sandalwood blend would be lovely, though, if anybody's listening...

I continue to be impressed by how well the Pretty Deadly blends have worked for me. I was worried about the rose in Beauty taking over or going sour, but it did neither. Instead, it was a lovely backdrop for the tobacco and resins. Despite the presence of the vanilla, there is not a lot of sweetness in this blend. It's like the toughest possible rose, with outdoorsy woody notes (both frankincense and sandalwood in their drier incarnations often read as cedar to me) and tobacco. A capable, six-shooting woman, whose modern incarnation might be wearing a business suit or prospering in a male-dominated profession.

TKO is quite strong on me, with good throw (which I rarely get) for the first couple of hours. And it's beautiful -- a creamy sugared herbal lavender. The late drydown is a lovely vanilla, as with many of the sweet creamy floral blends. I don't need it for sleep, and I just don't wear lavender blends, so this is out of my wheelhouse, but I'm finding it oddly addicting. I may need to get a bottle of this one...

Somebody frimped me Tyrannophobia a while back and while I liked it enough to keep the imp, it didn't get into my notes at all. I decided to retest it when I saw a sales listing for it at a bargain price. It's a strong raspberry note and really a nice one -- it doesn't go fake, it doesn't go candy, it's tangy and realistic -- overlaying the tea and tar and metal notes, which are faint. Tea never lasts long on my skin. Fruity scents are not my jam, but this is such an enjoyable raspberry that I would think about buying that bottle if the tar and metal were stronger and this were a grittier, darker blend. It's just too upbeat for me, particularly given what this particular tyrant has done to our country. I'm really glad I got to try it, though. Thank you, frimper, whoever you are!

Highwayman on me is all about the vetiver. It's gorgeous if you like vetiver, with great throw. I was worried about the jasmine, but the night blooming kind seems better behaved on my skin, and it's not at all able to stand its ground against the vetiver. After half an hour or so, the vetiver softens and the leather and florals begin to emerge. (I get no cinnamon from this, nor do I miss it.) I get mainly gardenia, just hints of rose and jasmine, but they mysteriously twine in and out of the vetiver and leather. A dashing, dangerous outlaw with a gardenia in his buttonhole. I love this one!

The only shocking thing about Lurid is how much nicer it is than I was expecting. There are some problem notes here for me: white musk and ozone. And black currant can go overly fruity and sweet on me. But Lurid works surprisingly well as a light summery scent, fruity but not cloying. I'm not really getting much white musk; it's almost a sweet-tart candy, like what a black currant Jolly Rancher might taste like, with lavender and a little kick of ozone. This isn't a me kind of scent, but I'm surprised by how exceptionally pleasant it is.

I was so excited to try another marzipan scent that I didn't bother to think that mulled wine was unlikely to be a success on my skin. Wine tends to turn into sickly sweet grape on me, and on initial application, A Game Called Yes and No was all candy-sweet grapey fruit, no marzipan in sight. But it didn't last! Within minutes, the grapes had resolved into warmly spiced wine over a grounding of marzipan, and it has stayed true for a couple of hours now. The drydown brings it into the same scent family for me as my beloved Ooky. Festive, fun, and not ridiculously foodie, and it will pair magnificently with my Gluhwein hair gloss. Delightful!

Something in Giallo goes soapy on my skin. Reading the list of ingredients, I'm not able to identify the culprit, which is kind of frustrating. I was wary of the jasmine, though it is night-blooming, and the violet leaf; both are notes I tend to avoid, so they may be at fault. I love the inspiration for this, and black plum and opoponax ought to be a killer combination, but it's just not working with my skin chemistry. Sigh.

For the first two hours, Hunter is a clove scent on me. The beautiful clary sage, warm leather and amber are very much in the background while the clove has free rein on my wrist. After a couple of hours, the clove starts to fade away but so does everything else. I wish my skin allowed me a better balance of notes, because the notes are lovely. At any rate, Hunter has not replaced Coyote or the Lion in my affections.

Slay may be a bit too much for me. In the bottle I can smell the cacao -- all the notes, really, and it's so beautiful in the bottle -- but when it hits my skin it is all oudh and red musk. There are two notes that amp in such a way as to make me self-conscious about wearing perfume: yep, oudh and red musk. Blood musk is usually good on me, though, and I was hoping blood-red vegetal musk might behave itself. No such luck. But the oudh is a bigger problem for me here. It's that skanky oudh. And it blocks out everything but the red musk for the first half hour or so. By an hour or so in, I was able to appreciate the other notes, the patch and tobacco, a hint of amber and bittersweet cacao. But the oudh was still note 1, and the red musk note 2. When I compare Slay worn to Slay in the bottle, I just don't think my skin chemistry is doing this blend any favors. If I were to wear this, I would have to apply it at least 30 minutes before leaving the house. And I'm still not sure I have the chutzpah to carry it off. I'm going to let it cellar for a while and try again, because I suspect aging is going to improve this one a lot.

Hoiru is really lovely, but it's rather faint on me from the get-go, as if the cashmere has laid a woolly blanket over all the notes and is muting them. I get no tea and no patchouli, just mellow leather, coconut and bourbon vanilla. It actually lasts a long time -- I put some on last night before bed and a trace was still hanging on in the morning -- but with volume tuned way down. I wish my skin let this one shine a little more.

I tested Grappling Octopus a couple of days ago, and Source of Sexual Knowledge is a very similar scent (I'll have to death match them one of these days). Both feature green tea and honey, and in both cases, the green tea sticks around a lot longer than it usually does on me. Here, it's the wasabi that seems to complement the green tea perfectly and pin it to my skin. I think it's a great hot-weather scent, bright and refreshing.

Odin is strangely foody on me -- the amaranth? I was hoping for woods and herbs, trending masculine, and instead I got something closer to bran muffins. I have no idea what my skin is doing to this one, but I don't think it's honoring Beth's original intentions. Sadly, not for me.

Silas Ruthyn is lovely, dark and deep, with smoky vetiver and smoky opium blending seamlessly. I only get the darker notes, not the citrus or tonka, though they may be contributing a rich sweetness. But unfortunately, my skin drinks it up in 45 minutes. After that it is a faint, lovely ghost of what might have been. If this is your note family, though, you should definitely try this -- it's beautiful, and you might get Mymymai's 16 hours instead of my one.

When I first applied Nanny Ashtoreth, I could barely smell it. Another of the Good Omens scent did this to me -- Buggre All This Bible barely bothered to show up on my skin -- so I was worried. But in a moment or two Nanny started to bloom, and I got leather and classy, woody men's cologne. No berries or florals (which is fine with me on both counts), no recognizable amber or honey; they all combined with the woods to create the impression of cologne. This trends to the masculine side of unisex, which is also fine. It stayed close to the skin and had average wear length. It's nice, but I have other leather-cologne blends that are stronger on me, so I won't need more than my decant.

I was generously sent a tester of Banshee Beat by a swap partner who adores this scent and was still kind enough to share it. I put on just a dab tonight after dinner, before watching a movie with my family. And I immediately understood what the fuss is all about. It went on gorgeous and has stayed that way for several hours now. Just the sweetest, chewiest, sexiest patchouli and the smoothest vanilla and a little bittersweet, earthy hemp and together they are flipping magical. I couldn't stop sniffing my wrist all through the movie. Maybe this one could be resurrected, too? Please???

If I had known vitis was a grape, I probably wouldn't have bothered with this one. Grape is almost always tragic on me. But Aveya's review was so compelling! Wet, Black Heart was a mess on my skin, sickly sweet dimetapp grape, backed by sickly sweet pom. But after about 15 minutes, it gets much more interesting. I begin to get plum instead of grape and pom, the sweetness backed off, and I could smell the carnation and a darker vanilla. I do enjoy a dark plum scent, and that's the territory this ended up in -- I can't say I ever made out any sweet pea at all. I just wish the grape didn't ruin the opening for me.

Green tea scents always seem to fade really quickly on me, but I tend to get great wear length from honey blends. Grappling Octopus lies somewhere in the middle. Wet, I get bright citrus and green tea, a fun, lightweight summer scent with just a hint of evergreen. The honey and hay emerge in drydown, and the citrus and tea fade a bit. On me, after about an hour it becomes primarily a honey blend -- warm honey and hay with hints of citrus and tea. I pretty much lose the cypress altogether. I'm not always in the mood for such a sunny, sweet, optimistic scent as this (and I live in gray Seattle), but it is a lovely summer number.

The Phoenix, Having Burst Her Shell has been on my wishlist for a long time and I'm finally getting a chance to try it. The only problematic note here for me is white musk, and it seems to be very subdued in this blend. I'm getting primarily amber, bittersweet citrus and patchouli. It's not a big hippie patch; more of a structural patchouli, a scaffold for the amber and oranges. (This not a sweet, juicy blend if that's what you look for in citrus.) I'm not really getting any tobacco to speak of, but it might be contributing to the overall dry warmth of this blend. Very lovely.

Immersed in his (eternal) life’s work, holding on to his memories, suffused with a love of life and literature, Kit’s scent is soft and dry as bone: Mysore sandalwood, a tattered and patched 16th century waistcoat, inkstained, still scented with the marjoram and benzoin dry perfumes of his youth. My imp of Kit 2014, generously decanted for me by another forumite, is quite stratified, with brown stuff at the bottom. I turned it upside down for a minute then rolled it gently until the brown globs got smaller and smaller and the overall color more uniform. Then I put it on my wrist. In the opening, there's something about the sandalwood and benzoin combination that almost reads as marzipan to my nose. Looking at the above reviews, I see it compared to Al Azif, and that is exactly my impression as well, though Kit is more complex on my skin. The nuttiness burns off within about half an hour, and the drydown has a warmth and sweetness but also the tiniest hint of something bittersweet -- the marjoram? -- that makes it infinitely more interesting to me. Kit has a little throw (which is a lot for me) and good staying power but still feels airy -- not in the sense of faint, but in the sense of not feeling grounded; it evokes air and fire, not earth or water. The life of the mind. Beautiful.

I put on Molly without remembering what was in her, and my initial impression was that it smelled like lemon and cocoa. Like I wanted Delight and Consternation to smell, actually. I was pretty sure there wasn't any kind of chocolate note involved, just a dark rich sweetness, beautifully balanced by the zingy citrus. I caved and looked at the notes, and of course the lemon was lime, and I guess tobacco and saffron and honey and amber were reading as dark chocolate to me. I have no idea what nagarmotha smells like, so I can't comment there. The oud is not indolic, and the lily of the valley is not flowery; it all blends into this gorgeous mix. AND I was smelling it without lifting my wrist to my nose! I so rarely get throw unless it's stinky oud, or red musk in black latex thigh-high boots stomping all over everything or champaca doing its bizarre amping thing. Excellent wear length too. There may be a bit of a lime cologne feel, like in John Watson or Whitechapel, but not enough to make this feel masculine; I think anyone could wear it. It works really well on me and is like nothing else I own. Immediate bottle purchase.

I was pretty sure Ginny wasn't going to work on me. Tobacco flower almost never does; it's way too sharp, even if the word isn't right there in the description. I applied, thought, "Yep, sharp tobacco flower, damn," and put Molly on my other wrist, And by the time I resniffed Ginny -- so, maybe, 20 seconds later -- the sharp edge was dissipating in a soft haze of cognac and smoke. This is a tobacco flower I can wear, with pleasure. And it's not so boozy and smoky that you can't wear it to work because you smell like you slept in your clothes after hitting the bars the night before. No, everything is gentle and well-blended; the white cognac is less heavy than regular cognac, and the amber classes it up. Average wear length on me, and no throw, which is also average on me. Lovely!

More love here for The Storyteller. I tested it side by side with Hearth 2017, and on my skin Storyteller won hands down. They both are smoky, but the Storyteller's smoke is wilder and sweeter. And if the word "smoke" makes you think "vetiver" and head for the hills, don't. This isn't vetiver, it's the aroma of a roaring fire that's blazed down enough in places to roast marshmallows over the glowing embers. I didn't get overt beeswax or leather at first; both began to emerge with drydown. This is super lovely and evocative, and I agree that it's going to be perfection come autumn.