Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Lupercalia 2018'.
Found 97 results
-
Tea roses, pink sandalwood, hay absolute, and vanilla orchid. Late spring day in a rose garden. This scent is a pretty straightforward traditional pink rose with green leaf accord and a slight sweet powdery touch that becomes stronger once the perfume warms up on the skin. To me it's a pink spring-summer scent that would be good on a hot day. It's pretty and feminine. On a windy winter day it faded really fast on my skin, leaving no trace of a scent after just couple of hours. I think it will stay longer and open more beautifully in a warmer more humid weather.
-
Himalayan cedarwood, tonka bean, cherry blossom, white tea, and clove husk. This does smell like a breeze! The cedar and white tea play together to create the illusion of a breeze. The clove husk adds a bit of a lemony flair? This is a nice outdoorsy scent.
-
Leather, black pepper, cassis, khus, and black amber. My first review! And the first review of this scent! Im truly honored. The leather comes through first, then dies back a little while still acting as backdrop. Its an older kind of leather, well worn - it reminds me of baseball gloves or saddles. The amber fills that feeling out, as well as what I think is the khus (which is apparently vetiver? But a different part of the plant?); it rounds the leather note out and puts me in mind of more masculine cologne, though it stops short of being too in your face manly. At the very end I get something peppery and slightly acidic - the latter of which I think is the cassis. Its got a subtle throw on my skin that oscillates between being close and unobtrusive but when I turn it suddenly makes itself very apparent. I feel very mature wearing it as well, though its a kind of mature that starts in a blazer and ends in a leather corset, if you catch my meaning.
-
Star jasmine, oppoponax, sweet oudh, tuberose absolute, ambrette seed, and oakmoss. If you like heady florals and funk this is the scent for you. I happen to like both so all's good. Jasmine and Tuberose combine for a nose full of flower. There's quite a bit of funk I think because there's both Tuberose and Oudh adding to this dimension of the scent. This one's pretty sweet too - It's almost too much for me but it manages to stay just shy of being off-putting. I'm very happy with this scent but I'd be happier if there was more Oakmoss to ground it. I think some aging should do the trick.
-
Black rose, dried apricot, and black fig. I bought both the perfume and the hair gloss, because I love Black Rose best of all the roses. And apricot! And fig! That will be sweet and powerful and spicy, I thought. I was wrong; it went really bitter on me. It had moments of greatness at the beginning but there was a good hour of unpleasantness before it went back to a simple and lovely Black Rose. I can not tell you how much of a fail this was for me, because I was so sure it would be divine. And BPAL has too many perfect from the get-go scents on me for me to suffer through an hour of nasty. I am looking forward to reading other reviews, because my skin can be really funky.
-
Mushroom musk, oakmoss, and rooibos leaf. Smells like a musk version of the lab's drier earth note. If you like the way they do dirt - I know some people go crazy for it - you really should get this one.
-
Black fig and orange blossom with tonka, black vanilla, and a gust of spiced sandalwood incense. This is a gorgeous, light sandalwood blend. I'm hoping next use I pick up more of the fig and vanilla...but for now, upon first application, it's very light with just a hint of sandalwood. Perfect for work or when you'd like a lighter scent. So good!! <3
-
The All-Consuming Flames of Passion Red musk, carnation, myrrh, and honey. All the notes play lovely together, for me the myrrh is just a background note that's barely there. It almost reminds me of a less tart, slightly syrupy from the honey, holiday hg. The honey doesn't go funky like it usually does for me. A winner in my book and happy I blind bought a full size.
-
Rice milk, white ginger, oakmoss, ti leaf, and cardamom pod. My label says vivid enjoyment of the memory of rapture which is a different thing entirely and slightly disappointing considering the art. But no matter, on to the scent. This is very chai tea on my skin, heavy on the green juicy ginger and cardamom. But it doesnt feel terribly edible to me. More like this is a morning shower scented by someone inspired by their ginger heavy chai tea with rice milk. Its incredibly bright and energizing but there are no citrus notes so doesnt do that bitter pithy thing that bright energizing scents usually do on my skin. Back in the day I had a ginger-heavy tea scented body spray that I loved, and this is definitely the closest Ive come to matching it. Delighted to have a bottle.
-
White sandalwood, peach, and dried red fruits with benzoin, red ginger, and amber. This is nice! When I first tried it, fresh from the mail, the ginger & sandalwood were prominent with little fruit appearing but it has developed more with a little aging. Now I notice the peach & red fruits, too and with the amber & sandalwood, it has the feel of some oriental perfumes. It reminds me slightly of Portrait of a Young Woman With Unicorn though it doesn't have the vanilla or red musk.
-
Caramelized white sandalwood, tonka bean, and cassis liqueur. In The Bottle: The caramelized sandalwood is the first thing- and it's quite a surprise! I expected there to be, well, a caramel note in here. But instead it's this gloriously smoky sandalwood, and I AM INTO IT. Wet On Skin: The sandalwood is still the dominant note, but there's something a bit...unsettling...under it. I can't put my finger on it, though. At least not yet. Because I'm well acquainted with tonic and it's not that. Perhaps it is the cassis, which I had to look up to find out is a liquor made from black currants! Dry Down: This is BEAUTIFUL. And also really original! The cassis settled down upon drying and the fragrance has become one of mystery and sweet sexiness. It's not quite a resin, and it's not quite wood, but it's lovely and has a dry sweetness and a sophistication that I suspect, as often happens with resin and wood components, that this will only get better with age. I *might* require a backup bottle
-
The Radiant Glory of Love: Devotion, Understanding, and Unity Centifolia rose absolute, tea rose, bourbon vanilla, bittersweet chocolate, champaca resinoid, myrrh, nutmeg, pomegranate, and benzoin. Date: April 2018 In the vial: I'm getting the champaca almost immediately. There's a resin-like scent, the benzoin probably, and a full, not acrid rose under it all, with a touch of myrrh. A very 'skin' scent here. During application: On my hands, I get nothing but a gentle chocolate. As I apply the champaca comes out and gives me that creamy resin scent I always get with it. After applying, I can smell a slight sweetness to the air, maybe from the pomegranate or rose. Dry 30+ mins: I'm walking in a cloud of champaca, I get hints of chocolate and a deep, dark, mature rose (like Black Rose or Peacock Queen dark) Just walking around, this is a skin, softer, gentler La Roue de Malheur. I'm not getting any spice, or vanilla, and I'm not picking up any sweet/fruitiness. Very nice. Worn 3+ hours: It is a champaca incense, with a chocolate heart and deep rose underscore. This is lovely! Still no heavy spice. Very nice. Update: as my decant has aged, the rose and pomegranate has sweetened the blend. It's sweeter than the first application. I will be saving up for a bottle of this one.
-
Bamboo reeds and white chypre against a background of potted blossoms. Light floral blossoms, white tea chypre, and fresh bamboo. It's a very clean floral smell, very gender neutral. It actually would make a fantastic scent for any type of bath product. Medium throw and wear length.
-
Golden rose, frankincense, and vanilla bean. First sniff in the sample - light, sunny scent, not overly rosy, but hard to define exactly what anything smells like Freshly spritzed: The golden rose is a nice note, it's floral and soft, but kind of sunny and gentle. The frankincense is really coming to the top and taking the lead, though. The vanilla bean, I honestly didn't even notice when I was applying it, mostly frankincense with a little sunny rose backdrop. A few hours later: Not a lot of throw to this one as it calms down. It's very soft, bordering on powdery-soft, but not baby powder. The lingering scent is hard to define, like when it was first in the bottle, I don't really smell "rose" or "frankincense" or "vanilla bean" at this point. It's just a kind of light melange of something soft and slightly "sunny" smelling. I will say, it's only been 2-3 hours, and I don't get much scent off my hair unless I pull it around and huff the ends, this one is a lot quieter than the rest of the rose HG's I've tried so far.
-
Kukui nut, dried mango, hay absolute, and brown sandalwood. This is absolutely lovely. Right away, I pick out the dried mango and get hit with a wave of nostalgia for eating dried mango slices when I was younger. I can't really pick out any of the other notes as they all seem to blend and take away the tartness that can sometimes overpower the nose with dried mango. I'm guessing that the hay and sandalwood temper everything with sweetness and the kukui nut grounds it. The scent is light and not remotely overpowering, so it shouldn't compete with any oils one might be wearing. Light throw, lasts a few hours. I'm really glad I got a bottle of this!
-
Demonic black musk, inky myrrh, black coconut, champaca blossom, and smoky clove bud. Whoaheee! This is demonic for sure. Smoky, black, inky. Yup. Its all of that. Wet phase is a huge black musk and myrrh burn off. Like tire smoke. Whoa. Drydown is sweeter, more earthy, with the coconut finally appearing. Fans of Streets of Detroit and Black Temple Burlesque Troupe, Brown Jenkin..or anything black musk, should try this.
-
Black rose, dried apricot, and black fig. Because I ran a decant circle, I had the chance to sniff (most) of the perfumes and compare them with (most) of the matching hair glosses. (I don't wear most rose notes or hair gloss myself, so my reviews will be more nose-test and less wear-test.) Huit-the-hair-gloss opens with the black rose in front and a woodsy-green fig note behind. It smells like a rose-toned black Gothic funeral veil. It smells like the shadows in the beautiful but evil queen's formal robe. The secondary notes stay woodsy rather than fruity. Huit-the-perfume needed time to rest after the mailbox, or maybe after the stress of its creation. On first decant it was a black and severe rose with bitter, woodsy-green fig behind and no juice at all. After the dregs sat for a week in the bottle and breathed, the fruit came to the foreground and Huit overall became more rounded, balanced between sweet, but not too sweet, apricot in the front, and black-rose-green-figwood in the back. The rose component stays a flat ROSE throughout - kind of a matte rose scent? - but definitely black and straight rose with no fruit or tea. If you love the notes but the wearing experience isn't what you wanted, you should definitely try layering the two.
-
A vibrant green chypre with orange blossom, pine needles, and violet leaf. Oh, my. This is 'sweet green' wet to my nose, and goes on with a jade-green smoothness, like a bunch of mosses, kissed with orange blossom. It's even a little cooling on the skin. Then, sitting present on the skin, pine needles emerge! It's a touch of fir. Dangerously close to a Yule moment for a bit, but instead of going full christmas tree mode, the pine needles remain present, under the glowy haze of orange blossom. I don't get any violet petals (it's all just violet leaf, I take it), which keeps this more 'noonday mountain fir' as opposed to 'Santa's Here!' Pretty gender neutral although I take it the pine does make it a bit more masculine. Straddles the line as the chypre and pine move it more 'masculine' but the orange blossom still flirts about to blur the strength of the green.
-
Sweet amber and rosewood, wet oak beams, smoky vanilla husk, ambrette seed, and hinoki wood. I'm in heaven....this is (so far) simply a lovely rosewood amber with a slight bit of complex backdrop of the other notes. In the first few seconds it smells very much like baby-oil but that is very short. After that it just kind of smolders sweetly on my skin for hours. I'm not getting a lot of wood which is surprising. Nothing more to say, this just works for me!
-
Polished tortoiseshell, ivory, and mahogany gleaming with amber cream. The notes in this one sold me instantly, it sounded expensive and definitely poked at my curiosity with notes like Tortoiseshell and Ivory. Fresh from the mail today, it does not disappoint! Its stunning and beautiful and definitely has that expensive polished mahogany ballroom vibe. It's more "feminine" than I had anticipated which was a pleasant surprise. There's a lovely creamy sweetness bursting from it that I would attribute to both a beautiful Amber Cream note and what I'm guessing to be the Ivory. The Ivory immediately reminds me of Signiour Dildo, this may be Narcissus? It has a sweet light floral quality that sings over a rich polished wood base. It's so goooood. Signiour Dildo's older richer finer aristocratic cousin at a Ball. Heaven.
-
Red rose, Siamese benzoin, and blood orange. I wore this to work today and got compliments from two people. It's pretty and smells mostly as expected for the listed notes. The Siamese benzoin surprised me a bit -- before I looked back at the notes, I thought I was smelling some sort of resinous-leaning sandalwood. But maybe it's a sandalwood-leaning resin? The benzoin (or something else in this that's not listed) actually has a sandalwood-like texture to me. It grounds the scent, while being a touch exotic, and I quite like it.
-
Wisteria and white clove, green tea leaf, and frankincense. So... unexpected. Wet, I get a bit of the clove, but only like the top part of it - medicinal, sharp. I also get a smell that reminds me of the inside of a dried ume plum, and also maybe... camphor? What? As this sits on my skin and dries down... It's still very clovey... oh, wait, what? White Necco wafer? This smells like a clove cigarette. There's maybe some kind of more non-sweet, crumbly and sticky frankincense, a little sharp-sweet smoke. I don't get much of the classic 'green tea' note. I'm also struggling to find any lush wisteria. The color I see is... browns/ochre, gray-white or even bone-white wisteria, thin, sharp, not like purple unfurled blossoms. If there is a bit of that note, it's only a faint accent over the clovey-resin nature of this scent. I'm so very confused. But if you like clove...
-
It’ll rattle your teeth more than it rattles your junk: fizzy champagne, orange blossom absolute, Italian bergamot, and dry vanilla. I haven't done a full day's test on this yet, but the first sniff and spritz are lovely! First in the bottle, it's the classic Black Phoenix champagne note that I love! There's a little something citrusy around the edges. Tiny spritz: the champange is all fizzy and bubbly, but now there's this soft orange carried along with it, it's not powdery or overly floral like I'd expect from the orange blossom, I'm thinking maybe the bergamot and the orange blosssom blend together to create a new kind of soft, but not exactly floral, but not juicy orange scent, it's really nice! And right there, popping up to wave hi and then dance back into the background is this light, soft, very dry vanilla. Have you ever had a dry vanilla soda? One of those sodas where they barely put any sweetener in it at all, and it's mostly like a scented seltzer water? It's a bit like that. It's not sweet, not foodie, not rich, creamy, or any of those things. Maybe it's closest too vanilla orchid, but that's probably the orange blossom lending to that, but it's lovely! It's vanilla, but if you're generally not a vanilla fan, this might be the one for you! I think this is absolutely gorgeous!
-
Mushroom, tomato leaf, brown oakmoss, and pink pepper. If anyone was wondering, this does not smell like matsutake at all, (I am very familiar with the smell, as I mushroom pick them), or even anything resembling a fungus. I'm getting something like a green, vegetal herbal smell, with maybe a touch of dirt. It smells airy and clean. Great for spring. BUT IT DOES NOT SMELL LIKE MATSUTAKE!
-
Honeyed amber, teakwood, almond, and coconut. Sweet coconut-speckled amaretto! Lab almonds tend to turn to amaretto on me: not boozy, but the almond syrup sense of an amaretto. This becomes a buttery amaretto swirled with freshly shredded coconut. The honeyed amber is also a player, adding a lot of smooth, almost creamy warmth. Even in the top phase I get a hint -- a grounding influence -- of the teak I love. This is a tropical beach vacation scent: a novel almondy drink served in a coconut shell under a frond-thatched, teakwood bar.
