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Old Buddhist Monk Penetrating a Rapturous Skeleton
DiZZysTARdust replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Lupercalia
the orris is very strong in this initially. when i first received it in the mail it was all i could smell in the bottle. after some resting i still get a strong bloom of fresh orris upon application, which fades to a powdery, soft, gentle orris base backed by the other woods. i agree with other reviews that the sandalwood is probs the most prominent. it's a very golden and powdery sandalwood, with no real piney or balsamy-ness from the balsam and no headshop champa for me in the freshly applied drydown stage. light throw, but it makes it a very snuggly up-close skin scent. - Yesterday
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I don't feel like I know amber very well as a scent note - any the various forms of it, so I was happy to receive a sample of this. I do know I've had some amber scents go a bit powdery on my skin in the past, but this is not one of those. It's warm toned and very gently sweet, and I agree that there seems to be a bit of spice at the outset, but it dries down into more of a golden glow. Wears quite well but stays close to the skin.
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For me i don't get any floral or spice or cinnamon. It is sickly sweet like apricot or quince ends up on me. Maybe a slight floral background. This is not for me.
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chaychay7 started following JUGENDSTIL: SPRING 1896
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In the bottle and wet, this is all cardamom to me. On the skin, it blossoms into a really nice, earthy, warm scent. I’m not familiar enough with most of the notes to identify them, but I would describe the blend as “classy”. After a few hours, it settles into sandalwood, mostly. I like this stage most of all.
- 4 replies
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- Halloween 2023
- Monster Milk
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This scent reminds me of coastal wetlands, the water more fresh than salt, but there is a touch of biting salinity there, some of it coming in on the air. Rich sweetgrass and florals, reminding me of all the blooming things in the coastal wetlands in spring, blur together to a pleasant, aquatic floral with some distinct greenness to it. The basalm is a quiet background note that helps balance out the sharpness on me and give a light woodiness to the scent. This does evoke something lovely and melancholy and just a touch sinister. It's a beautiful aquatic, and more on the freshwater side than many of my favorites which gives me some nice variety. I'm definitely glad to have my half of the bottle I split with a friend.
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I’m honestly surprised by how much I like this one. It is definitely sweet- my first thought was the filling of an Oreo cookie. But there’s also something light and clean about it, like a vanilla or marshmallow-scented laundry detergent. Fitting for it’s name, it evokes the scent lingering in a room after the perfume-wearer has left (or maybe they never did ~👻~). Long lasting and good throw.
- 2 replies
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- Monster Milk
- Halloween 2023
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- Last week
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We've done it again! The Century Guild's latest Kickstarter book project is now live, and one of the options for backing it includes a perfume that will be impossible to obtain any other way: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/centuryguild/jugendstil-vol-2-art-book-psychedelic-art-nouveau-from-1896 JUGENDSTIL: FALL 1896 "A billowing gown of sandalwood chiffon, pale grass notes, green chypre, ti leaf, sweet oakmoss, shimmering white musk, moss, bourbon vanilla, and green amber." JUGENDSTIL is a book series compiling early German Art Nouveau illustrations that directly inspired psychedelic art of the 1960s. We consider it highly possible that someone in your sphere will appreciate the book, the perfume, or both! 💚
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As with most oils, this behaves a bit differently depending on whether I wear it on exposed skin or not. On my wrist the punchy cedar and sassafras recede more quickly leaving a creamy vanillic experience, tinted warmly with the aforementioned notes. In the crook of an elbow or under the shirt, the sharper cedar lingers for an extended period. I like the combined effect and the "just right" throw on this (a personal scent cloud) in addition to the holiday sweet treat vibes.
- 11 replies
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- Yule 2022
- Carved Wooden Holiday Village
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This is a perfect dupe for Chanel No. 5 on me when applied, and I'm actually pretty confused! It's uncanny. The jasmine and amber take their sweet, sweet time showing up to move this out of powdery, Chanel territory. (Territory I have previously explored, but that is very much not my vibe.) I very emphatically do not like this at all until it's completely dried down. Once it gets there, it's a spicy, sexy, musky, jasmine-y bombshell with a perfect cupid's bow and pinstripes. She just arrives fashionably late.
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I love a lot of Picnic in Arkham scents, and I was curious about this one for a long time, but too nervous to get my hands on it because vetiver and I usually don't get along, and black amber can be iffy on my skin. I was able to do a quick test of it on my skin at a sniff things party with local friends recently, and the vetiver didn't immediately hate me, so I was able to take home a spare imp from a friend to give it a more thorough test. On my skin, the tangerine and saffron dominate. The tangerine is sharp and bright, and a little sour, with both the oils of the skin and the juice playing roles. The saffron is a delightful light spice that wafts over the tangerine. The other three notes create a backing that is dominated by the cedarwood, my favorite of the three. The amber is present in this being a more resinous note, but not distinct. The vetiver brings a smokiness to the cedar, but is itself subsumed into the cedar. Overall, I'm glad to have the imp, and I'm going to be less reluctant to at least skin test vetiver in the future even if I know it often doesn't work for me. I'm not going to reach for Azathoth often, but the tangerine and saffron combo is awesome!
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Sweet and Smoky indeed! There's nothing acrid about this. It's a very smooth, spicy-sweet woody scent. I cannot pick out individual notes- they swirl and meld together in a very autumnal scent. It really does smell like a very high-end fragrance. I've been using my decant in the car. It is long-lasting... A couple of spritzes in the car and I can still smell it when I get back in a couple of hours later. I'm not only upgrading my decant to a full bottle, but getting a backup as well. This is one that I will want to keep on hand for a very long time and will regret when mine is gone and it's no longer available. I've learned my lesson the hard way on this.
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Adam13 joined the community
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This is definitely crunchy leaves on my skin, with the freshness of a scooped out pumpkin. I haven't caught the orange yet, but I don't honestly mind - for me this is the fall version of grassy "freshness", that dead plant matter smell, and I love it.
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Almond scent recs (inc. cherry almond; marzipan)
Supertrooper Omni replied to comebackqueen's topic in Recommendations
Black Phoenix, Hecate, 7 word story wrath, I also think the recent batty releases are very almond centered but that might just be something I'm sensitive to -
Oh the bpal pumpkin spice is always pretty so specific and recognizable! Hi! I get a minute of the petrol-y motor grease kerosene smell, which is delightful but fleeting, then it starkly shifts to intense celery salt and strong pumpkin spice candle. This could be an issue with my dry ass skin and 60ish degree weather though. The remnants smell good on my sheets, but it's really distinctive and too distracting for me to wear.
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Almond extract + extra vanilla + classic og snake oil. I might could retest this, but I wasn't having the leather musty experience that seems to dominate the previous reviews. Definitely more of a please scream in your snake oil type experience for me. Floofy and pleasant.
- 13 replies
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- Halloween 2023
- 2023
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Soft white floral. The sandalwood, liquidambar round out the floral with a really soft pleasant warmth. The jasmine is not stinky nor centerstage. The rosewater and coconut aren't super loud or recognizable, but add to the overall white floral creamy dry palette. The scent isn't sweet, but a lightly dry vague white floral. I tend not to wear this sort of scent but it's really well done. Agree with the above comment about luper release vibes. Regal, graceful, elegant are appropriate descriptors. I find it a bit like something a platinum blonde femme fatale in a noir film would wear.
- 4 replies
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- 2023
- Halloween 2023
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Almond scent recs (inc. cherry almond; marzipan)
roseus replied to comebackqueen's topic in Recommendations
Eclipse is my fave almond scent! -
comebackqueen started following Almond scent recs (inc. cherry almond; marzipan)
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This is so good! I always amp clove, which is fine because it's a note I love. This clove doesn't stomp out all the other notes, although it is the most prominent note on my skin. The champaca and plum notes meld into the clove in a way that makes this a perfect scent on me. Also, no hairspray detected, which is fine. Dark, incensy, sweetened from the plum, but not as strong as Thorns Clove Cigarettes. It lasts a very long time, and several times I wondered what that lovely scent was that I was catching whiffs of. Then I remembered: It's me!!
- 10 replies
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- Nightmare Novellas
- Halloween 2023
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Anyone have any recommendations for almond scents? I also like the cherry scents that have that almond vibe. Thank you! This should go in the recommendations section could a mod please move it? This should go in the recommendations section could a mod please move it?
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This reminds me of the sandalwood in my 2021 Every Day Is Halloween! It's very pretty, kind of sweetened with a bit of oak on the drydown. Very lovely.
- 4 replies
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- Nightmare Novellas
- Halloween 2023
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I used this and Sealing Sanctuary along with other items for a massive over due clean today. I used it as I was taught cleaning oils should be, which means this went into my cleaning water not my skin. It's a fresh citrus scent that brightened the home. Although it was followed soon after drying by my final mop I felt that this was an oil I'd keep in my cleaning rotation it did exactly what it said it would.
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Jacquesroach started following Almond and Amaretto
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With those notes as something that he likes, I do suspect that Azathoth would have potential to be a good fit! There's some overlap tangerine & orange zest (bright citrus) and both have cedarwood. Doing a bit of research, it looks like Ambroxan is a compound used to give ambergris as a note. Obviously, BPAL doesn't do top/middle/base notes, but I've found that ambergris tends to be a sort of aquatic creamy resinous note that other things build nicely on. A few other GC scents that seem like they'd be in the same genre as the scent you know he likes: - Vicomte de Valmont (Ars Amatoria) if he likes mint - A Countenance Foreboding Evil (Diabolus) - Caterpillar (Mad Tea Party) I hope you are able to find some scents he really likes!
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Loomoo joined the community
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Amber Tears changed their profile photo
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Those we're really good suggestions about Arkham and the beard oil scents. From those I think Aziraphale and The Antikythera Mechanism would be options, and Azathoth. As far as what general scent notes he likes we're really not sure! The cologne he liked best at Ulta was one of those that adapts to your own skin chemistry. It has these notes: Key Notes Top - anjou pear, orange zest essential oil Middle - jasmine petals, pink sugar Base - cashmere woods, skin musks, ambroxan, cedarwood Thank you for your help!
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There's quite a few threads on this over in Recommendations, some of which are fairly new. I'm a guy, but I'm not sure I'm great at answering this question because I'm very much lost on the idea of scents being gendered. Couple of questions to help narrow down what might be a good fit for your boyfriend: - What genres of scent has he liked in more mainstream colognes? - What are some scents he seems to like in daily life? The impression that I get is that a lot of "classically masculine scents" fall into aquatic, resinous, woody, and more musky/less sweet ranges. But again, I'm not sure that I know what someone means when they say something smells masculine or feminine (there are many scents that both my sister and I love and wear). If he likes aquatics, might be worth checking out some of the Picnic in Arkham aquatics, and honestly that collection in general for some scents that at least probably won't intimidate someone who does care about the idea of masculinity in scents. They're GC, so easy to get as imps. My favorite Picnic in Arkham scents that might be worth a look (there are others in the collection that might suit but aren't for me, and others I like but seem like they might not suit here): - Cthulhu - Y'ha-nthlei - Ry'leh - Nyarlathotep - Azathoth (not aquatic, but I think maybe people read this one masculine) Also, check out the Beard Oils section for scent profile ideas! Those in general are going to read more masculine probably, and could give you an idea of notes to look for. A lot of them also come as GCs that you could get as imps (there are a few GCs that come as beard oils that don't show up there like Cthulhu, where you can find the Beard Oil listing in the main listing drop down). https://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/body-beauty/beard-oil/
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