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In the bottle this is lightly floral and sweet. When I first put it on it went to a lightly floral baby powder, not unpleasant but not something I usually like. After an hour or so it is now more musky amber with a hint of spice and I quite like it. I will have to try them layered next.
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Boozy white wine mixed with glowy musk and jammy peach. The peach here is warm but not stewed or grilled. Instead, it's a gently oven-toasted peach half with a golden glowy amber syrup drizzled across it to amp up that sultriness. A gorgeous GORGEOUS peachy amber with a winey bite to it. This is one of my favorite BPAL peaches AND BPAL ambers. Every time I smell it I smile 🥰💕 Sexy, inviting, and fun 10/10 no further notes (;
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I love Fae! It's juicy and bright and fun. While wet, this reminds me Amos 4D peach gummies. The white musk keeps this feeling fresh and flirty. As it dries and the “peach gummy” features die back, the herbs bloom on my skin and make it feel like a totally different fragrance for somewhere between 10-30 minutes. But then the peach and white musk appear again, shimmery-sweet and oh so darling. It quickly becomes super fun and summery and fresh. Fae does warm up and become more complex throughout the final drydown phase, too, which is quite nice 🥰 This is one that I believe requires at least a few hours of wear before one can fully judge it, the morphing it does early on is pretty dramatic on my skin, and maybe it will be on yours too~
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Lives up to its name! Very fun and morphs a ton throughout wear. Upon application, a red musk thunders forward, incensey and glorious, hand-in-hand with a nose-clearing fresh note I at first suspected was some sort of Strange Mint From Another Planet. Not really mint, but cold-ish and makes my nose feel OPEN and CLEAR like mint does. I bet you can guess what that is from the notes (; A floaty floral lazily rolls out as this scent blooms on skin, joining the chaos with a smug lil smile on its face. Floaty and floofy, it plays such a fun foil to that W A S A B I I I I. Some resinous warm sweetness glows underneath, not overwhelming. I believe there's also my favorite BPAL black musk in here, with its incense dancing delightedly in the fray. Chaotic does not stay all-caps CHAOTIC for the entirety of wear, though. Warm, somewhat sweet, cozy notes are this cutie's base. I associate the base notes in this one with warm fuzzy brown coat, comfortably worn in, nice quality. The warm notes are the majority of the wear experience! That mélange of musks be mélangin' and I do be enjoyin. This one is definitely worth trying, even if it doesn't seem like your type of fragrance because it really is unexpected in how it smells, but in a fun way!
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This is nice. Dry, subtle, lightened up by the blueberry which isn't really super BLOOB for fellow fruit scent-eschewers. Unsure if I will upgrade to a bottle but it's very nice.
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Record of Women’s Treasures of the Way of Elegance Day and Night
bheansidhe replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Lupercalia
This becomes a kissin' cousin to Snake Oil on my skin: nutty, a little peppery, pleasantly dusty, ending in a faint waft of incense smoke. I'd say the balsam and labdanum dominate overall. The coffee note is perceptible at first, but only for a few minutes. -
PUMPKIN SPICE. CINNAMON AND CLOVE. A little hint of milk. After about a half hour the PUMPKIN SPICE mellows down a little and lets the milk and cocoa shine through. I think I'll like this a lot in the fall but it's not a very spring/summer scent.
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Wowwww. I’m gobsmacked. I love it. Back in 2018, I was very low on funds and missed out on this release. Lucky me, I came upon a forumite selling all of the ones I had wanted and I was able to secure the 3 that had escaped me! In this blend, all of the notes are generally a win on my skin and I am happy to report this is a big win of a blend. Wet on the skin, all night blooming flowers sans no spice. Once it warms up, the clove takes front and center (spice amper) for a while. I love the whole journey so far. What a beautiful blend!
- Yesterday
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I was hoping this would be the hair gloss version of 2019’s Honey Marshmallow bath oil. Sadly for me, while it’s similar (I’m pretty sure it’s the same honey note), it’s a much lighter, softer marshmallow than the bath oil’s thick, creamy goodness. It’s similar to Marshmallow and Candyfloss hair gloss, except warmer and not quite as sweet. I still like it, if not as much as Honey Marshmallow bath oil (although, to be fair, that’s like saying “this author is not quite as good as Shakespeare”). I just wish it were stronger.
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Sweet, a bit fruity, featuring many complex florals I’m not familiar with. At least one is reminiscent of tuberose. Definitely an air of lush, expensive soap or shampoo. #22!
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Dark, with a bitter edge, mysterious while remaining fresh. Classic lily, sweet and powdery and beautiful, a bittersweet, multifaceted blossom. Deep and indolic, a spooky beauty reminiscent of jasmine tea. This one hits all the deep notes and is at once simple and complex, soft and subtle while powerful and expansive, as elegant, elegiac, chthonic, and vampiric as 20 years of reviews have faithfully chronicled. Very long-lasting on fabric. My third BPAL starring lily; I knew I had to have her after loving The Hourglass and June 23, 1868. BPAL #21!
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I ordered a sample of this one expecting a sticky-sweet gourmand (given the caramel and praline + cacao). Instead, the amber and oud give it a cool, sophisticated vibe that reminds me of a sweeter, lighter cousin of Courtiers and Cats. There’s a fuzzy quality to it, and I also get the hint of something leathery geminirubyshoes mentioned. This one is the rare caramel scent that might still appeal to gourmand-haters.
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The copal and frankincense are clean and lemony (to the point that I misremembered the copal note as palo santo when I first applied this - during the wet stage it has the same clean, fresh, slightly sharp/resinous quality palo santo does to me) and somehow they combine with the beeswax to smell like… furniture polish? Like, I cannot stress enough how much the freshly applied/wet stage and early drydown smells like fancy furniture polish. Tangy, sweet, beeswax-based polish that gives me nostalgic memories of dusting and polishing the antique chairs in the parlor when I was a kid (Weirdly, I think I like it - I’m sad that it appears to be pretty short-lived on me and is gone after only an hour or so) ETA: I definitely like it. If it lasted a full day I’d be buying a bottle. I want to smell like Beth’s luxurious antique furniture polish for hours, not a mere sixty minutes.
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Nexthobbyplease joined the community
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Strawberry Moon: Wild Strawberries and Inky Musk
nikaida replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Ohhh, yummy~ sun-warmed juicy ripe strawberries, fresh and soft and bordering on jammy. Think fresh strawberries macerating with granulated sugar and you've got a solid vision of the strawberries here 🥰🍓. The inky musk was quite present when wet but on my skin w/ my nose the heart is strawberry-forward. I swear for a moment early on I got something that reminded me of a lightened-up Siberian Musk (BPAL), but then the strawberries took center stage snd I'm struggling to pick out the musk(s?) in play here. Around hour 3 of my wear test the strawberry started to die back, and by hour 5 it is mostly the musk(s???) that is being used. I don't really slather perfume so it is pretty faint by this point, but what I do smell is very lovely--a refined, dry musk that isn't terribly sweet and has low projection. I compared near a wrist dab from my bottle of Siberian Musk and it does bear a resemblance to the lighter, husk-like notes in Siberian Musk but not the deeper or more amber-like qualities. Somewhat paper note qualities in there. I love strawberry fragrances, they feel so summery and fun, and BPAL has so many FUN FUN FUN strawberry accords 🍓 I can see the connection that others are making to the wild strawberries and amber hair gloss. This and ws&a are going to be fun to layer together! I love the full wear experience 🥰 -
Coziness in a bottle - the sweet bread pudding studded with dark cherries, a touch of whisky or cherry liquor blended into the butter- and confectioner's sugar-laden bread pudding glaze (just a touch) balanced by the gently steaming herbal tea. The tea note is distinct and the blue chamomile reads almost like an Earl Grey bergamot, but milder, snuggly like a sweater. I'd say the blend was dominated by blue chamomile tea, then cherry, and then bread pudding as a note in the background, making it more of a sweet afternoon pause than a sugary gourmand.
- Last week
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Sparkling punchy grapefruit in the vial and wet. I can even get a hint of rose. But on me, it dries down to a pink powder. Just a big powder bomb. I want any of the listed notes 😭
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Workman Displaying His Sexual Prowess and Gigantic Size of His Member in a Variety of Situations
Frills replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Lupercalia
It's vanilla sandalwood with a little hint of apricot on me. Very soft and warm, I like it a lot! -
Immediately dark pine and red wine set the scene, full of shadows. Glimmers of red rose in the dark as powdered sweetened resins emerge towards the dry down, with detours to rest among pleasingly cool damp stones and the warming fruity depth of red musk. Sometimes BPAL red musk is super bossy, but it's well balanced with the other notes. Unfortunately, I feel like the "silver chalice" accord might be a bit too realistic? Or maybe it's the sea salt in combination with the other notes. I don't know exactly, but it almost reminds me of the harsh smell of metal warmed on salty skin. With the right skin chemistry this might be a really beautiful atmospheric blend, but as dramatic and moody as this perfume is, there's some sharp chord that takes this out of my personal comfort zone.
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Le sigh. I wanted this to work so badly. I can't get through the saffron rubber opening. I tried twice, scrubbed both. But! I did like the residual creamy vanilla left over. I just can't risk a migraine on the opening and waiting.
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I'm fascinated by all of these reviews getting really different impressions. The power of scent! Wet, I get equal parts cacao and humid tea. Not tea in the bag, the wet cuppa. Wild! It mainly keeps a fairly even balance throughout wear, alternating what notes I pick up. Really surprising amount of projection. I agree it's an easy one to like if this sounds like your thing.
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I didn't even know a prototype of Candy Butcher existed until a dear forumite showed me the light, and I am over the moon that she did! At first sniff the proto and the OG Butcher seem more or less the same. But when I compared the two side by side, even in the bottle, I, too, noticed that the prototype has the same notes but is somehow...MORE. This continued to prove true, both upon application, through drydown and a solid ten hours later. In each part of the process, the scent was quite recognizable to the original, but as if it was concentrated or distilled, into a denser version of itself. And I am SMITTEN. I rediscovered the original CB last summer during a heat wave when it melded with my skin to make me a sultry, dry-cocoa'ed poof of myself. This summer, with the help of this here prototype? I can only hypothesize the dead-sexy poof-of-it-all that awaits me. In all: I applied the smallest drop possible and though the scent has a lower-medium throw, this one stays PUT. Everything I adore about the original, concentrated and dispensed to 11.
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This is also for the original unreleased version which I was able to procure with the help of the very lovely @sunshinedaisybliss (a million, billion thanks!!!) In the bottle I get a rich, deep, plummy orchid. It's vaguely reminiscent of the note as it shows up in the recent Black Orchid and Crushed Berries hair gloss release, but this is definitely rich and deeper. (The notes could be cousins, or it literally could be the same note but one has aged for two decades and one has note. Who knows? 🤷♀️ Wet on skin, and for a while after application it gets very strong, almost overwhelming (I put a small drop on, which is worth noting, given how intense it became.) I agree with the assessments that this is floral...but also NOT a floral. That "plummy" aspect stays the course, and it definitely is an element that stops this from being anything that could be read as a single note. I don't get anything approaching a dirt or earth note in here, nor do I get any patchouli that others picked up on. Although I love those notes, I'm not mad about their absence here, because this scent has all it needs, all on its own. Dry down: After coming on like gangbusters, this Orchid finally hunkers down, and settles in for the long haul. It travels in an arc, fading with incredible slowness over the course of many hours, and it stays the course the whole time. A deep, sultry noir-ish (both in a "Femme Fatale" sense and also in that the vibe reminds me of that other precious, long-discontinued Lab creation of the same name) floral that reads initially as an ancient perfume-y sort of scent, only to reveal later the depths of that sultriness. This is -and I say this as a person who is often verrrrrry floral averse- a sexy, dark, floral dream. In All: Medium to high throw (*definitely* test sparingly until you see how this will interact with your personal chemistry). A dark plum-and-deepest-orchid with a dusting of powder at the finish, this is a "white whale" scent for me that took years to obtain and was so. so. SOOOOO worth the wait. I die!
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This faded on me after a minute or two, but what I got was some generic floral soap. So sad!
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Second live online discussion section added for The Hunger Games!
eldritchhobbit posted a blog entry in Eldritchhobbit's Blog
Our Hunger Games series went so well the first time, we’re doing it again! And it’s perfect timing, too, given that the film adaptation of Sunrise on the Reaping will be coming this autumn. You’re invited to join me in SPACE (Signum Portals for Adult Continuing Education) online via Signum University to talk about all five books in The Hunger Games series! The first module has been confirmed to run in June 2026. The first live online discussion section is full, but we’ve added a second. If you enroll now, you can be a part of the scheduling to make sure it’s convenient for you! What lessons do the Capitol and Districts have to teach us? What warnings should we heed? What road leads from here to Panem? Over the course of five months, participants in these SPACE modules will read and discuss a modern classic of dystopian storytelling, The Hunger Games series by Suzanne Collins. In this hybrid series, each week will include one lecture and one live discussion. The lectures will examine the inspirations behind, allusions in, and questions posed by that month’s novel. In live discussions, participants will share their insights on, interpretations of, and reactions to the story. Together we will consider why this series has spoken to so many readers and explore how its messages remain relevant today. Here is more information. View the full post. -
I wish I had frizzlechicken's skin chemistry! I get an almost single note of aldehyde. Fizzy champagne, bubbly indeed, though I'm not getting an alcohol scent. The bubbly is dry enough to have a bit of a parchment note. My skin always does me wrong with aldehyde but I was hopeful on this one because all the other notes are wins. Glad I got to try it, now it's off to a more fortunate home.
