lilacea

Ian is outstandingly beautiful, primarily deep black leather and rich smooth patchouli, which reminds me a lot of the Banshee Beat patch. It’s almost like the leather has a touch of ozone, not really polished, but well worn and well kept. Medium to close throw. It’s like snuggling up to a beloved person, clean but with their subtle sweet cologne. It’s giving me major oxytocin vibes from this association. I could swear there’s the tiniest touch of vanilla husk here, or a grounding resin with the slightest sweet edge.

This is a funny little morpher, in the bottle it smells like pimento, then on the skin it starts with a high cedar and soft spearmint, which then starts to throw a lot of vetiver on me. It dries down to a teak like scent with a leather cologne background. The dry down is quite nice, more masculine than the initial application, taking on a creamier leather wood scent.

This bat is just delightful. Rich suede brushed black leather with sweetness behind it, to my nose I immediately thought of benzoin. As it dries the leather dissipates just a little until it’s left suede brush with sugared patchouli. I’m not getting a tonne of clove, unless it’s sweet clove, which is different to my nose, if I didn’t know any better from the description I’d call it pimento. All in all a gorgeous sweetened, warm leather which is wonderfully unisex (not that there’s any constraints on who wears whatever scents they wish, I’m just talking in terms of “traditional” perfume descriptions). Snooty is a perfect descriptor for this!

Probably my favourite of the Yules. Deep, luscious ruby pomegranate and the lab’s floral tinged inky metallic note. It’s sweet, but not gourmand. The ink is subtle at first, the pomegranate has throw. It reminds me of the pomegranate in Mme Moriarty. Just lovely.

Wet , I get soft wafts of leather that sits close to the skin, which I can only smell if I get my nose right up to my skin, and fresh pipe tobacco (like opening a new pouch of fine tobacco back when I used to smoke rolling tobacco). It’s very smoky initially, almost too smoky for my liking. From feedback from others, there’s a spiciness. My mother commented I “smelled like curry powder” then my chiropractor asked what I was wearing, he smelled something spicy. Now I can’t shake the association. I feel like it’s coming from the smoke element, perhaps the wood. I’m not getting a whole lot of cherry initially. Although once it starts to dry down, I detect a hint of cherry wood if I smell closely. Ultimately the dry down is skin hugging lovely cherry tobacco. It just takes a twisting journey to get there. I can’t find my decant of Hearth 05 to save my life (to compare). I think aging this will either subdue the spicy smoke or amp it.

This is the strong French lavender, tonka, ylang ylang of good old TKO with a vaguely cold almond-ish scent. Perfect for deep breathing when I apply it to my pillow. Comfort and serenity in a bottle.

Wet, this starts off with a blast of Virginian cedar, patchouli and a subtle papyrus-like sweetness. As it dries down, musk peaks in, but I can’t quite put my finger on it, it’s like a black and red musk hybrid. The further it dries I’m getting a dark sweetness, maybe molasses. Possibly it’s just the vanilla from SO, that mingled with the other notes, gives it this a dry sweetness. It’s a lovely Snake Oil variant, I think this is one that will age very nicely.

A mellow patchouli, not the rough haughty kind, this patchouli reminds me of mellow leafy incense. I swear some of the sweetness comes from olibanum or benzoin, it has a grounded quality to it along with the subtle sweetness. I have just the tiniest amount left, and if this ever gets a re-release, I will jump. I find the hair gloss scents last for days in my hair, especially if they get warmed up from body heat or being in the sun.

I'm experimenting with scent application since my skin has begun to eat up fragrance at an alarming rate. I slather (which I've been doing for many moons), upturning the bottle onto my wrist, inner elbow, then onto the tip of my ring finger to apply to neck and decolletage. But now... I have a spray bottle filled with vodka I spritz over the top to give some more throw. I've experimented with mixing oils into alcohol in the past, making my own Snake Oil extrait using a 98% ethanol and 2% chamomile product (my ex used to use it for plant resin extractions, and I can't get my hands on that anymore). But the vodka, sprayed on top of the oils on the skin doesn't require pre-mixing and brings out the scent that little bit more. Thought I'd share in case anyone else has tried this and has thoughts.

I'm on a kick to review scents from the past I've not gotten around to doing reviews for, and Clarimonde happened to be one I selected at random today. It's a clean white musk, dusty tea rose petals and the faintest of skin blushing incense. There's a sharpness to the rose if I smell very closely, despite the overall duskiness, hard to describe. I'm not usually drawn to rose as a rule, some are just too bombastic for my liking. But having said that, there are blends where it plays nice and doesn't whelm with its rosiness. This is one of those rose scents. Interestingly, I think it smells more like an earlier GC than some of the more complex LEs the lab puts out (I have theories about the evolution of the GC and that with the passage of time, newer LE blends came out quite differently than older ones).

Sweet polished mahogany, how I love it so. There’s little decrepit about this, autumnal leaves and softly warming patchouli and oakmoss. None of the dankness I was expecting, but I love it so. Comforting, swirling, with a delightful sweetness to it.

Wet, this has a slightly acrid smoke upon leather-bound paper, but on dry down my skin just loves the paper notes, sweet papyrus and ink, while the smoke trails off into the ether. Medium throw. A very light suede-like leather keeps it all bound together. Edit: I take it back about the smoke dissipating, its lingered longer that I initially thought. Still a gorgeous scorched old paper scent.

Initially there’s strong honeyed frankincense and myrrh, tempered with musky incense and slightly soapy sandalwood (it reminds me of a mysore sandalwood soap I used in my younger years). I can swear I smelll a touch of patchouli. It has intensity. From the scent notes, I’m not at all familiar with what Irish moss, yarrow or hawthorn smell like as individual scents, so I can’t comment on those aspects. Initially I thought there was rose otto, however scent description points that to rosewater and damask rose. There’s very little throw at all, it’s an intimately close to the skin experience. It’s seamlessly blended, the sum of its parts are hard to exactly pin down. Midway through I find an amping or rose on top of everything. Dry down- soft honey skin, a honey reminiscent of O, and the most subtle of rose and resinous incense. This lasts on my skin where other scents fall short. This is intoxicating, delectable, exotic.

I’m not at all familiar with BPALs snow notes. I’ve read many reviews where people describe it as soft flurries of snow, heavy snowfall etc. but I’ve never experienced real snow in my life, I come from a country quite bereft of it. Could anyone please give somewhat of a comparison of what BPALs snow notes might be akin to? I’m grabbing a TKSnow from the Yules (I do love the OG TKO) but I’m on the fence about other snow scents. Thanking you all in advance.

I like to make a simple body scrub using sugar or salt and a skin loving oil (like almond or sometimes a light olive oil). Usually four tablespoons of sugar/salt to one tablespoon of oil. Then I add in whichever fragrance I want to use up. It’s a nice way to get good use out of imps that seem to accumulate. Edit: this can be a quite oily scrub so try a little on your hands before your shower and add more sugar/salt if it’s too oily to your liking. I have super dry skin that just soaks it all up.