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- Past hour
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This is lovely. When I smelled it in the decant, I wasn't sure how it would go on my skin because something in it made me think it might clash -- maybe it was the herbal quality of the chamomile? But I needn't have worried. I get some lots of lightly spiced cherry accompanied by a cup of chamomile tea. I don't really get a bread pudding scent from this, but that's fine with me. There is a bit of a syrupy quality to the scent after it has been on the skin for a while that I think is supposed to be evocative of a baked good, though. I really love the cherry in this and was pleasantly surprised by how well the chamomile complements it. I've tested it a few times already and am pretty sure I'm going to need a bottle. Of the two cherry scents in the Puppy Love collection, this one is my favorite.
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2026 version. I blind bottled this because I'm running low on my decant of the 2017 vintage. The only reason I didn't get a bottle back then was because I was studying in Germany at the time, so I hoarded by decant I was gifted in a swap and was thrilled at its return this year. Since I didn't ever smell this when it was fresh, it's really not fair of me to compare the two. My decant was already aged when I first tried it. At the moment, my fresh bottle does not smell like the decant, but I think that's really due to age and that it will eventually smell more like it. The lavender, apple, and vanilla are all main players on my skin when I wear the decant, but the fresh bottle is more about the lavender, apple, and patchouli, with less vanilla. I was caught off guard by how much patchouli was in the throw! At one point, I got a lot of the cream part of the vanilla cream in the crook of my elbows that smelled a little funky like cream notes sometimes do, but fortunately, it was overtaken by the apple note, which smells more green to me than red like in my original review. I'll be hanging onto my bottle and am looking forward to seeing how this ages. I'm hoping that the vanilla will gain some strength with age, as it does in most scents.
- Today
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I had a similar experience, it's cool cream and cardamon on me. I'm getting the sense that the blueberry might be a lot more in the throw, which is hard to confirm myself at home.
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This one smells like a sweet, sharp pinch. Like this love bite definitely came from teeth! A great balance of sweet from the boozy fruit and spicy/resinous. The light layer of juicy rose and vanillic tonka round it out nicely. I found this lasted well on me.
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For some reason both fresh and now months later, this smells like nag champa incense and clove to me. I have no idea where the spicy note is coming from but it reminds me very much of the clove cigarette smoke in Black Lipstick. So, yea. Spicy nag champa. 🤷♀️ No idea why lol
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I just found my Weenie 'maybe' pile to retest before they come down! So here we go. I... also get lime? I remember this reminding me of *something* when I tested it originally so maybe it was Mr Nancy? I don't really recall getting lime before but maybe??? Otherwise, I get a lot of dirt so I'm assuming I didn't get a Lime Green mixup. Maybe some weird combo of the moss and Dorian is resulting in a pithy lime vibe? 🤔 Regardless, I actually like this a lot now. It's dirt but like...✨suave dirt.✨ A little snake oil vanilla sweetness peaking through, a little airy Dorian clawing out of the grave. The dirt note is milder now than I recall, less petrichory. I think I shall toss a bottle in my order. It's got a kind of 'nice bog witch' energy that I strive for.
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Dark Chocolate, Coffee Bean, and Cheese Danish Hair Gloss
Numanoid replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Hair
I WISH this was an actual thing to eat! This is soooo yummy! I get the bittersweet chocolate and coffee sniffing in the bottle. On, the flaky cheese Danish comes out. I got a decant but going to get be a big bottle. Love love love this! -
Black Honey, Black Cherry, and Kyphi Smoke Hair Gloss
Numanoid replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Hair
This is gorgeous! As I was hoping, it smells like a cousin to Red Apple,. Blackened Honey & Opoponax HG. But with cherry and incense! I am not a honey fan, but this is so good. Sniffing in the decant I got, I get an incensed honey with a dash of the cherry. I don't know what kyphi is, but I tried this on dry hair and I did get a slight smoky scent along with the other notes. It is actually a softer scent than I thought it would be, but this is still dead sexy! -
This is decadent! Sniffing in the decant, the raspberry and dark chocolate is soooo rich! Like a GOOD European raspberry liquor filled chocolate! On the skin, the chocolate fades a bit and I get more raspberry liquor. This is very good and rich. Medium throw on me. Might have to get a bottle of this!
- Yesterday
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my first blind test of this I wrote "plum peony grapefruit?" but of course it's a happy little salted yuzu sitting on top! and the wine note blends in very nicely with this palette. it's almost like a posh sangria with flowers in it, and I don't get a whole lot from the cedarwood/patchouli end of things. brilliant blend.
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this is absolutely stunning. it's pretty darn close to Glowing Vulva but it has gorgeous dollop of LILAC! the spiced honey is only very delicately spiced, and the tolu balsam sort of snugs up to the teak, and do not fear the polished amber! it doesn't smell fume-y or lacquer-y to me at all. I could do with a bit more lilac cream, but it does bloom out nicely on the skin. the scent overall is rather subtle: not quite as soft as a "your skin but better," but like a pair of fancy knickers, you might be the only one to enjoy it unless you plan to get up close and personal.
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Record of Women’s Treasures of the Way of Elegance Day and Night
doomsday_disco replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Lupercalia
I decided to grab a decant of this because it shares some notes with Destructive Vagina of the Fox Spirit (vanilla orchid, black amber, coffee bean, labdanum, champaca, and oudh), of which there's probably less than a milliliter left in my bottle. I think that scent being discovered in my early BPAL days really helped cement it as one of my most beloved Shungas, but what I really appreciate about it is that a lot of the notes in it are not really in my wheelhouse at all, but they somehow all come together to create this really pretty scent that I imagine is like... the best indie coffee shop/bookstore. So I deathmatched the two. Record of Women’s Treasures of the Way of Elegance Day and Night does indeed share some similarities with Destructive Vagina, but oddly enough, Destructive Vagina is less destructive. While that scent has a bit of an airy quality to it thanks to the vanilla orchid, Record of Women's Treasures doesn't contain any notes that lift the scent. This is mostly resins, incense, patchouli, and spices on me, with the black pepper being one of the most prominent spices (it made me sneeze at one point). The patchouli, champaca, and spices are very noticeable, especially during the first few hours of wear, and the coffee bean and resins lurk in the background during this time. Once those notes calm down, it settles into a soft resin scent that does smell like a cousin to Destructive Vagina of the Fox Spirit -- I'm guessing because of the labdanum (which is not cola-like in either blend). But Destructive Vagina ends up being the stronger scent by the end of the day. I still prefer Destructive Vagina between the two, but I do enjoy this, and I plan on giving it a full-day slather to see if I need more of it. It's definitely a possibility, since it does share some similarities with that scent (and I doubt I'd be able to find more of that one). -
I thought I was going overboard ordering two scents with raspberry and honey, but this could not be more completely different than the Honey Pot trio with raspberry. it's got an overall coolness and elegance, an evening sort of come hither vibe, whereas the honey trio is a fun/sunshine/jump for joy sort of scent. if you enjoyed the honeyed cream from Slug (Yule 2023) this is the roseberry version of that. probably a good way to get yourself a little Malinka if you know what I mean.
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Honey, Raspberry Jam, and Buttercream
LavenderCoffee replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Lupercalia
this is golden and gorgeous and perfect. a bright, warm honey with bold ruby facets of raspberry and a whisk of sugary buttercream. honestly the buttercream is not super prominent for me but it adds a lovely bakeshop vibe. I already love honey so I didn't really need to be sold on this, and I'm also glad it's not crushingly sweet. a gourmand I can endorse! and slather copiously! -
This starts off with a powerhouse of a lily note that lasts for a few hours and hardly lets anything else through, but then it morphs into a dragon's blood-centric scent that lasts for many hours and hardly let's anything else through , and the dragon's blood in this is the incense-y one and not the spicy floral one (huzzah)!. It ends up settling into mostly dragon's blood on a bed of Snake Oil's musk by the end of the night AND it's so strong that that is also what I smelled on my skin upon waking the next morning. So yeah, it's not very Snake Oil-y right now, but perhaps that will change as it has more time to settle and age. It does have plenty of throw and lasting power, though! I am going to hang onto my decant and test this before the Lupers go down to see if the Snake Oil in it is more prominent.
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Poppies! Sometimes I struggle with the way they can dominate the scent. Poppy sits on top of this pretty prominently for the first couple hours of wear, but doesn't drown out the other notes, so I'm still on board. I am not mad about the guava either, it works nicely with the plum to provide a pleasant fruity pulse between the poppy, musk, and the darker notes in the lower range. I really like how this all comes together, but I am always hoping for more patchouli, like a little patchouli gremlin.
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Wet this was big bright juicy honeydew melon with vanilla cake in the background. As it dries, the melon backs off a little bit and the cake and whipped cream come forward to create a really nice balance between the two. I was surprised at how truly pretty this is aside from being foody-delicious. I really love this one, it's going to be a full bottle for sure.
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I’m working my way through the entire original run of the Peach Pit DragonCon oils for the first time since collecting them. This first perfume is such a cool scent. The vibe, to me, is very midcentury modern; think of a late summer/early autumn 1950s cocktail party. There’s an overly ripe, caramelized peach note deliciously enveloped in a cloud of cigar smoke and booze. The initial application was sharp, but the dry down is soft, luxurious, and GORGEOUS. 🍑
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My first impression of this was sexy paper, and later “a perfect peony scented envelope” and I’m not sure I have much to add to that. It’s an unsweet amber, and the peony throws a good bit. almost feels too fancy for me even though it's quite simple and sniffable!
- Last week
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It started out heavy on the sweet jammy blueberries and a dry earthy chocolate. On the dry down I lost the chocolate almost completely but the tea and spices started to come out. Overall on me this was sugary blueberries and tea with a teeny tiny bit of spice. For some reason I didn't really get any spices until that was all that remained of the scent after it faded. I don't totally dislike this, but it's not for me. Something about the blueberry goes kind of plasticky on me.
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This is, unsurprisingly, extremely similar to the Matthew 18:6 perfume oil, which is also honey and champaca (in that case also with sandalwood). As I love Matthew 18:6, which is my favorite champaca scent, this is good news for me! The honey note in this hair gloss has slightly more astringency than in Matthew 18:6, and as a scent the hair gloss feels overall a little less balanced, but it's still beautiful; luxurious and sensual. If you like BPAL's take on these two notes, go for it! I'm not sure I'll end up going for a full bottle of this - I already have Hair Loosened for a honey-focused hair gloss, and that one is just so wonderful and complex that I don't know how often I'll want to choose honey champaca over it. But I'm glad to have my decant, and look forward to pairing it with Matthew 18:6 for a full champaca experience.
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Wet it was a easier to pick out the individual notes, I think I was able to pick out everything besides the cassia. Dry, it all blends together and I lost all of the earthly loamy-ness that I liked when it was wet. On my skin, this is honey and clean laundry with just a touch of incense. Overall it smells nice, but I think my skin chemistry made it go a little too soapy for my taste.
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For some reason, this is primarily a creamy floral on me - not jasmine tea, but jasmine with some tea in the background. I can't really make out the resin notes, though the jasmine is well-grounded and not shrill or soapy. I also don't get any lemon. Chemistry is weird.
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2026 version. I see why many people have loved this; there's something very special and particular about it, and I think it's a beautiful showcase for the saffron. There's something almost uncanny when wet, the way the earthy-body heat quality of the saffron almost tips medicinal to my nose (I can see people have a lot of different comparisons to describe this quality, it seems a little ineffable) and is faintly unsettling in combination with the creamy vanilla. But on drydown the whole melds together into something truly beautiful. It's the fantasy version of making saffron ras malai over the stove, but all the complex facets of the saffron take it firmly and decisively out of the realm of the simple gourmand. Confident without being overpowering, with solid longevity. I love bpal's saffron note, and adore it particularly in A Robe All Red with Dripping Gore, but I think Love's Philosophy brings out different elements of it. I want to spend more with it, and with the rest of my Lupercalia decants, but I think this is likely to be a bottle purchase for me.
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Like a delicious cucumber lemonade on a hot day. I was worried the lemon would go too sharp on my but the sugar cane keeps it mellow. Really beautiful scent
