Tal Shachar

My favourite lavender blend used to be Yvaine, may she rest in peace, but this is an extremely strong contender for Best Lavender. It's floral while still having the strength and structure of a good herbal lavender; at the same time, I feel like someone who doesn't like medicinal lavenders would still appreciate this. (That is mere speculation, because I happen to love the stuff when it smells like a medieval doctor's cabinet.) I'd been expecting the amber and ambergris to dominate the blend, since the description only said "threads", but they're in a supporting role and it works amazingly well. The amber adds depth and dimension to the lavender and also gives it some great lasting power–still smelling this faintly on my wrists after fourteen hours.

 

Can't afford more bottles but that's the only thing holding me back.

Yvaine but with cedar! Perhaps a slightly less flowery lavender than in the dearly departed Yvaine (miss u every day, friend), and I think the gardenia's slightly stronger, but the cedar balances out the florals. The drydown exposes more of the pillowy white softness of the gardenia, with the cedar lingering last like the smell of a nice linen closet. I would love this so much as a permanent part of the Somnus collection or a TAL, but alas.

This didn't hit my nose as foresty, just woody with a cool, herbal lavender base. I might have guessed that some type of white musk was in here, based on the way it wafts and sticks around on my skin, but nope. The individual notes don't poke out too much, though--it's just something calm, refined, elegant, and simple. I agree that it smells expensive, somehow, like being in a luxurious place. It's seriously beautiful and I'm a little heartbroken that I can only have an imp of it.

The tobacco note here is the same as the one in Gaueko, because in the bottle they both read to me as a slightly chemical caramel flavour. That doesn't happen on my skin, thankfully, just a weirdness in vitro (love me a Gaueko). The leather is soft and not at all shiny or "new-smelling", receding into the background as the tobacco and bay rum form the foreground. Amber bridges the two and I can't tell where exactly the vetiver is lurking, but it's not prominent.

It could be my skin doing strange things, but on me this was very sweet, and not as masculine as you'd think from the notes. I loved the image of 19th century Mulder types in a gentlemen's club talking about ghosts and such, so I was actually hoping for a bit more dudeliness, but I'd say this is just a spicy, warm unisex scent.

The sage dominates in this muted, close-wearing blend. I expected the leather and ambergris to be prominent, but even after several days of testing I can't pick it up on my skin. The patchouli has the very faintest hint of fruity purpleness to it, and stays in the background. I love this because the sage note is truly beautiful, soft-edged and grey-green, cozy rather than harshly herbal. Sage is one of my favourite notes and there aren't enough BPALs that bust it out. But I wish there was more throw or lasting power, and in fact I'm puzzled that there isn't, given the notes. Aging might bring out some more depth.

Almost a dead ringer for Ivanushka for me, the same "furry musk" note that I've also found in Coyote, Faunalia, and Hunter Moon. Sometimes on me this musk keeps amping and doesn't stop, but it stays mild in Unicorn and Ram. I can't easily pick up the cardamom and oudh, but that may happen later as it ages.

 

But yeah, if you missed Ivanushka and want something like that, go for this one.

Looking at the other reviews, the scent of this one must vary wildly with people's skin chemistry. I get no honey, brown sugar, heliotrope, or even hops -- I do get amber and some weird note that's kinda like burning rubber and definitely not pleasant. I layered it with some aged Mme Moriarty to try to mask the smell from myself.

 

But it does work. I'm shy and have a lot of trouble with small talk, mind going blank, awkward stumbling, occasionally a mild stutter for colour. Today everyone I ran into wanted to chitchat more than normal, and I was...able to do it? I was able to volunteer details and not just act like I was being interrogated, and I didn't obsess over how I was coming across, and people seemed more animated with me. Maybe that doesn't seem like much, but I usually have to have a couple of drinks in me before I get to that level. This saves my liver!

 

I'm not sure if I'd want to wear this all the time because I feel like it makes me more visible (yeah, obviously, self), but this will be a lifesaver for parties and other social events where I need to smooth the conversations along and boost my confidence.

Is there possibly civet (accord) in this? Something like that? This is almost a dead ringer for the old BPAL Saturn, with the same pungent, animalic note under the (very powerful) vetiver. I'd have to smell them both at once to pin down differences, but it wouldn't surprise me if a lot of the notes were the same, since Saturn is all about nose to the grindstone.

 

As others have said, this is not a blend to make you happy and inspired about what you're doing -- it just kicks out the procrastination. I used it to force myself to meet a deadline...and then immediately scrubbed it off once I was finished, because that animalic note was grossing me out. Next time I might get my work done even quicker just so I don't have to smell that note while wearing Determination. So...yeah, pretty effective.

I had no real idea what this one was going to smell like, and right out of the mailbox this one was reeeally rough sharp geranium. That note isn't so great on my skin, but trying it a couple of days later this smells sophisticated and pretty. It's well-blended, in that I can tell apple and honey are in there but otherwise it all plays like a single chord of scent. Sweet, fresh, clean, not at all a sloppy honey or a sugary apple scent. Nothing dominates. Conveys the concept well: it's a nice scent to represent goodness while still being unique and interesting, without cliche. I'm glad I gave this one a second testing and didn't put it in swaps right away because I'm really digging this.

In the bottle I pick up a faint top-note of something sharp and medicinal, which I actually like, but it vanishes quickly. To me, the orangeyness doesn't dominate; I get a bit of sunny citrus sweetness, very soft resins, carnation and spice. Things that smell like pomanders aren't usually my favourite, but I kinda love the smell of this.

 

Effects: obviously with healing stuff, it's pretty hard to say what made how much difference. I'm not sure I want to go into a whole story of how I used this and what the effects were, but they were dramatic and the energy around the working felt golden and beautiful. Good power. I was mainly interested in this one for healing, but I also got some "blowback" in general sunny-type blessings, as a relationship grew more loving and someone I care about began to come out of a long funk.

 

Basically, I now want a bottle of practically every TAL there is.

This is a bracing scent that was predominantly allspice and patchouli to my nose (apparently cinnamon and honeysuckle are in there too). I wouldn't wear it just for the smell, but it smells like a money oil should. I used it on a white candle (because my major concern was keeping my current gig safe, while also attracting new opportunities and clients), and dotted it here and there around my workspace. I'd been worried about team changes and my relationship with my boss, but once the candle work was done everyone at work was cheerful around me again and appreciative of my contributions. My hours were supposed to be cut, but mysteriously people kept finding extra work for me to do, letting me bill for more. I also felt a huge push to work on another project, with a lot of synchronicity-type signs nudging me towards it. Very heady, palpable sense of power to this oil.

I've been thinking for awhile that I just can't wear anything with orange or neroli in it unless I want to smell like 100% citrus with no other notes. Orpheus proves me wrong: green mandarin, neroli, and citrus peel, but they don't take over the scent and turn it into Tropicana. I'm not even sure I'd recognise them as "orange" if I didn't know the list of notes--the lavender and grassy notes are far more prominent. I can even make out the slight salicylic bitterness of the willow. I love green scents and every time I pick one up I think, "Why don't I wear these every single morning?"

 

No sign of cedar or benzoin, but my skin doesn't really amp those, and I think they're still present in the sense of making the scent last; it goes a lot longer than something with so many sharp, clean top notes ordinarily would. It's not musky or masculine at all on me, just a clean unisex scent.

My skin eats vanilla a lot of the time, so the most popular blends often aren't that special on me--vanilla notes seem to be the biggest crowd-pleaser in BPAL land. But this one works! Smooth, fluffy, happy-cloud vanilla with jasmine. It doesn't specifically smell like the jasmine tea in my cupboard (which is a bit greener), but it's a lovely warm jasmine note, heady and beautiful. This is a nice one for wearing to bed, and maybe I want another bottle.

2015 version:

Oh boy. I like sharp, medicinal, herbal notes, but the geranium in this is way too much for me. It hangs around for a long time, and what's underneath is a respectable woody patch scent but to be honest, I have others that fill that niche for me. I wish I got some benzoin but I don't, unfortunately. The bourbon geranium (probably combining with the cedar) smells like Deep Woods bug spray on me. Sic Erit and I just can't be friends.

2015 version: Okay, I feel like there's something wrong with my nose/body/brain/universe because in the bottle I get horse. A happy horse in the sunshine, munching on some violets. I cannot account for the happy horsey in any way from the notes.

 

On skin, the horse immediately gallops away and I get Ivory soap. At no time do I get the smallest whiff of any vanilla at all, and I'm trying. I love orris and violet, narcissus is not my favourite but can that really be responsible for what's happening here? Like it doesn't smell actively bad (even the horse doesn't smell like a dirty horse or anything) but the vanilla should be the star player here and it's missing in action.

 

So this isn't going to work for me the way it is. I have to decide whether to try aging it or to just swap and make room in my BPAL box.

Joyful Romp is amazing on me. The plum reminds me of the same note in La Notte, a deep purple sweetness that lingers. I was curious about the indigo note, since my mom used to spin and dye her own wool, and there is something here that reminds me of home-dyed wool...I may be just imagining things and picking up on the earthiness of the vetiver, but it evokes that to me. For me the tuberose remains cloaked in plum, so while the scent opens up and gets that pillowy floral softness of tuberose, I had kind of forgotten there was tuberose in it. Just "ooh, this plum blossom is going to town." Purple-and-white chiffon is exactly the image, beautiful to wear.

The weird opening "rubber" phase that people have mentioned reminds me eerily of État Libre d'Orange's Fat Electrician. Maybe they both have a similar vetiver note. I love Fat Electrician and the rubbery thing is neat in this one too: gritty, dark, like a fresh new tire in the mechanic's shop, very black and strangely artificial, giving off bright sparks from the ginger note. This stage fades quickly, and the apricot and honey take over on me from there. It does feel like it has vanilla in it, but that's probably just the honey's sweetness on me.

 

It's a real morpher, and I absolutely love it.

Defututa should work on me! Jasmine, honey, and olive blossom are always strong notes on my skin, even though vanilla tends to disappear. Instead I get perfumey sandalwood, sliiight champaca, and nothing else, ever, not even when I'm sniffing in the imp. I am baffled. I keep trying because it makes me feel insane, and also because I love the name. But it never works. I would probably be heartbroken if it were an LE, but luckily since it's GC I can just shrug and go on with my life.

A Lab frimp that I would never have chosen for myself, because I stay away from chocolate, mint, and (as much as I can) orange. Surprisingly the tangerine was blown out of the water by the grapefruit, which is a note I do love. I looked it up and zdravetz is just a kind of geranium. Okay, no problem there. This stayed light, feminine, pretty, and not really very weird at all. It reminds me of Arcana's Soft-Hearted, which also has a dominant pink grapefruit note.

 

I can't eat grapefruit anymore because it interacts with a med that I take (for real) so I like having it in perfume--both delicate and energetic, and surprisingly long-lasting. After 7 hours I can still pick it up on my sleeve. I get zero chocolate mint, yay! So I like this? Maybe that's weird after all.

I get wood and...flowers and wood? Usually leather is a note that positively screams on me, so I don't know where it is this time. I know that when I smelled this the other day I could get the plastic and leather, but testing it today on skin, not so much. It's still lovely--something here is behaving like vanilla, possibly the wool making things softer and warmer. I love the fougere element too, a delicate green underlying the other notes. The rosin blends with the sandalwood at first and isn't easy for me to pick out, but then it gradually emerges and evolves. It's a beautiful dark, dusty scent...reminds me of German Expressionism but not nearly as nose-tickling as that one gets for me.

Oh man, I am in trouble.

 

Something in this (and I couldn't guess what) seems vaguely plastic or rubbery on me, not unlike the plastic notes in Adam...but it's in a good way? We have an old antique washstand at my house that my grandfather built, and the drawer is full of miscellaneous weird junk along with old plastic packets of pipe tobacco. When I was a kid I would open that drawer and come out with something somewhere between junk and a toy (an old watch, a tiny horn for a tricycle, army medals, a miniature Bible, any damn thing) and it would have this intense smell of wood, tobacco, and creaky old plastic.

 

Of course there's no tobacco in this, and there shouldn't be plastic, but it smells dark, old, and intensely evocative. On me, the jasmine isn't excessive, but my skin tends to play pretty well with that note. The vanilla, as usual, is barely there for me. (Sometimes vanilla will come back after three hours or so to say hello again before disappearing. My skin is ridiculous.) The hay and ambrette are probably contributing to the memory-overload factor, since those smells are so subtle, earthy, and human.

 

I really love this, in all its strangeness, and I'm getting to be stressed about the OLLA collection in general. I already missed Eve and just barely nabbed Adam in time! What beautiful stuff.

Frimp from the Lab, and I like this a lot more than I expected! The wine note is not shy, but maybe my skin chemistry is changing as I become ancient and withered, because the wine only takes a few minutes to calm down--anything with wine used to be instant Welch's Grape Juice on me. Instead this turns into dark sexy jasmine and myrrh with rose. I could see myself with a bottle of this, as if I need more bottles.

Whoa, yup, lemongrass. Something somehow sugary here too. (Why am I reviewing an herbal scent with no listed notes, I have no hope of cracking this case.) It doesn't really develop anywhere from lemon onward. Like most of the Conjure scents, it smells nice but not so nice that you'd wear it just for the scent, you know? If I'm going to wear a lemon-candy smell it had better be a great segulah for parnossah, as the Orthodox say.

I usually stay away from cinnamon/cassia/anything that sounds like it has cinnamon in it. Not allergic, just find it a boring note that takes over. It doesn't do that here--there's an ash note that I think I recognise from Hellfire, and pine and/or mint giving that effervescent thing, cinnamon for sure, a fresh ginger (I think that's responsible for the lemony bit), and something smoky. I like it, although it's quite odd, mainly because the first blast of heat is so striking when I open the imp. Mission accomplished, that's the smell of a djinn, all right. I don't know how often I'll reach for it, but it's wearable.

Frimp from the Lab. Without looking at the notes, my thought was "wow, single note leather", but I can smell the metal now that I know it's there. No blood, or at least none of the blood notes that often give me pause--this isn't dragon's blood, or wine, or tomato leaf, or the odd barbecue-sauce note I got from scents like Valentine of Rome. So I suppose it smells like actual blood, which is to say like metal and a bit of skin musk.

 

It's a really great leather note, and like SweetEpiphanies just said above, "shoe store" really hits the nail on the head. I love that leather smell. Maybe this warrior just got himself a fresh new jerkin and gauntlets and he's ready to hit the town.