ravenfeathers

in the bottle golden, spicy, very unguent-y

wet on skin this is so deep and fantastic. it's still so golden, but shot with red now. heavy, heavy on the smoothest sandalwood known to mankind with a deep base of oily spiciness

dry on skin it flattens out a bit on dry-down and becomes primarily a sun-kissed sandalwood, much drier. it smells hot, scorchingly hot, but not spicy, just the smell of hot sun on dry, clean skin that has been liberally rubbed with precious oils, a scent that evokes a seraglio

2006

 

in the bottle boozy sugar and something just a little bit spicy, sort of a gingersnappish breath of spice

wet on skin soooo sweet and lovely! still gingersnappy, which is perplexing me, but dark, devil gingersnappies. also mussssssssk!!

dry on skin oakmoss? okay, we'll go with that. something a little drying and earthy pops up and cuts through the sweetness, giving the musk more room to stretch.

 

i sniffed this at a meet 'n' sniff and discounted it out of hand as "flat cola and musk", but then tossed a bottle in with a recent sale purchase, just for the heck. i'm fairly glad i did, as this is in the same family as many of my most favourite comfort blends, which tend to be dark, a little spicy, a little musky, and very sweet. perfect autumn blend, but i might just break this out at other times, too.

in the bottle mmm! fantastic blending here. i'm getting little whiffs of the notes as i look for them, but this stirs up into a fairly seamless scent with a very red vibe.

on skin the red cherry is sweet and being groped heavily by the red musk and myrrh. i think it's the pomegranate that's sweeting up the tart cherry and it's really nice, although the throw is a little bit like grape kool-aid spiked with vodka. and i don't say that like it's a bad thing!

in the bottle amber and orris

wet on skin amber and a weird, dry, plasticky vanilla-type scent??

dry on skin sort of rooty and that plasticky thing is still going on, although the phantom vanilla has left. it smells a little like a carrier oil that has gone "off" on me.

 

zenobia is a lose/lose for me.

 

eta i put my finger on what's bothering me about this oil: it's almost, but not quite, hellhound on my trail, as though a commercial perfumer tried to dupe hellhound. it's almost a little bit foody. it's heckhound on my stovetop.

in the squirt subtle; primarily amber and beeswax; really beautiful

in the air there's bloom of something green and vegetal here, perhaps the olive leaf? soft and pretty and generally inoffensive, perfect for a quiet atmospheric spray that doesn't scream SOMEONE SPRITZED IN HERE.

in the bottle a dusty, resinous clove, very sweet and a little cloying

wet on skin clove and orris are punching each other in the face repeatedly, looking for dominance. there's a greasiness here that i associate with amber, but it might be a reaction between the orris and the frankincense.

dry on skin a cloying, floral-y clove with a dusty, stale-ish throw. the balsam is the culprit here, i think, and doesn't seem to be playing well with the other notes. to me, this is a kissing cousin to pickled imp and the illustrated woman without having the downright appeal of either.

 

i think i need to finally accept that, much as i love the idea of clove, it has yet to work for me in a perfume and maybe i should just give it up.

since i had some in-transit leakage and am covered with this, it seems like a good time to review!

 

in the bottle/on the bottle the tartness of currant and the swarthy sweetness of honey with a... a sort of pleasant prickliness in the nose. sort of a... spiciness? as though the bath oil had a shot of the pink pepper in it as well as the perfume.

all over my hands/office for a two note scent, this is marvelously complex, reminiscent of two of my favourite GCs in the way two notes can meld so perfectly together: carnal and march hare. it's very fresh and vibrant and has a bright sparkle while simultaneously having a dark underbelly. really reminds me of carnal a lot. spectacular.

in the bottle bright and tartly fruity with a sticky undercurrent of honey

wet on skin this is soooo good! the currant and blackberry are fruity without being instantly recognizable. they make a high plateau of scent notes that is perfectly and achingly balanced by the honey and amber.

dry on skin a tiny bit more amber now, but not a lot of morphing here. this just kills me with its fantasticity.

in the bottle red mussssssssssssssk!

wet on skin red mussssssssssssssk!

dry on skin sweet, heavy, dusky, just beautiful. the orange blossom here, one of my NO! notes, is combining with the pomegranate and is beautiful. it smells a little bit like an orange pez... but, you know, not powdery and gross. against the red musk, it's stunning. one of my first BPAL loves was ravenous and this is a sweeter, prettier ravenous. it also has the same musk note as scherezade. the melon, which was scaring me as a concept, is nowhere to be found.

 

this is far prettier than i thought it would be. i have to admit that i got this one for the bath oil and planned to pass on the perfume, but this is highly wearable and will be staying with me! candy sweet and sexy, this is better and more nuanced than both of its GC scent cousins.

this smells almost exactly like wood phoenix to me in all its stages and i have no idea why, since they share none of the same notes. the only difference was the almost hair-raisingly medicinal smell in the bottle that evened out nicely on the skin.

 

as a minor fan of wood phoenix, giallo isn't a disappointment to me at all, but it's very much not what i was expecting.

 

eta on extreme drydown, this goes very, very funky on me, a sour combination of grandma florals and earthiness. the scourge of buying two bottles at a whack continues!

in the bottle holy hunter moon 07 clone! very musky, very elegantly feral

wet on skin where HM07 is wine-y and red, this is very chartreuse in feeling, but still very similar. it's a bit like buck moon, actually, only softer and more feminine.

dry on skin there's a green, lime-y citrus in the background which is playing off the fuzzy musk really nicely, giving an overall creaminess.

 

this is very close to buck moon, hunter moon 07, and ivanushka as far as the musk goes and shares some of the softness of fae, too. the bright lime really sets this apart from those others.

 

eta on extreme drydown i get the lovely dark "greasiness" of amber. it's slightly powdery, but just makes the musk fuzzier, so i like it. the green note burns off entirely and the result is something very, very much like ivanushka.

in the bottle very sweet strawberry and nicely realistic. every time there's a new strawberry blend, everyone starts raving about how it REALLY SMELLS LIKE ACTUAL STRAWBERRY!!11!!, but it never really does to me. this has a little bit of tart bite over a sweet fruitiness that is quite genuine. more than a fresh berry, this is like a fine strawberry sorbet with frozen crushed berries in the mix.

wet on skin i'm not sure what i'm whiffing here, but this suddenly went from very foody to very grown-up perfume with a strawberry twist. perhaps it's the strawberry flower note.

dry on skin sugary, sugary candied strawberry. it doesn't have the plastic smell that happens all-too-often with bright BPAL fruits, which is nice, but this goes right back over to foody once dry.

 

this is one of the most wearable bright fruit blends i've tried yet from the lab. very nice.

in the bottle lemony! that's odd. it's sweet and syrupy lemon, quite spicy, too. this is really gorgeous!

wet on skin LEMON. that spiciness is still there, but quite overwhelmed by this dark, sweet lemon.

dry on skin oh, crap. jasmine. let me say that jasmine is one of my few absolute NO notes, but i trusted in all the YES notes in this and did it anyway. the jasmine is easily the prettiest, spiciest, sexiest (that's inappropriate in this blend, okay, now i feel soiled) jasmines that i've ever smelled, but it's still jasmine.

 

the dry sweetness of dorian is peeking through and there's definitely a sweet citrus vibe and some soft, dry herbal notes. it's all very sweet and soothing. blast jasmine.

 

if you can't get enough of jasmine, i'd say this is the best jasmine blend from the lab to date and a must-have.

in the bottle berry, but dark and a little bit resinous, very sticky smelling

wet on skin this smells like blackberry to me, not like BPAL's blackberry leaf note, but actual blackberry jam. i don't even get a whiff or hint of strawberry here, in contrast to other reviewers.

dry on skin now i'm getting some complexity through the sweet, syrupy berry, which is stubbornly staying blackberry on me. there's a hint of sourness from the rose that works really well with the sweetness of the berry. i should mention that rose and i can absolutely not coexist, but it's very faint here; i really have to sniff and sniff and wrap my olfactory tendrils around that thread of sourness in the way background to find it.

 

this is actually what i expected glasgow to smell like, years ago when i first smelled glasgow, but was disappointed. there's also something about this that is suggesting grape bubblegum over a breath of incense. i think the berry, violet, and anise are melding in a way that's prodding my brain in the grape bubblegum region.

 

very sweet, quite dark, and undeniably fun, a little girly.

in the bottle dark and fruity, like schwarzer mond on a tropical vacation and just a hint of dark powdery-ness

wet on skin very smooth, none of the notes are really fighting it out for dominance here. it's a more masculine version of sugar moon on me with a still slightly tropical feel. not campy tropical, not like the tikis, say, but the breath of fruit over the dark resins is slightly exotic.

dry on skin still very smooth, but loses the fruitiness. the musk, resins, and vanilla (in that order) are what sticks around. throw is slightly lower than average.

 

extremely wearable, smooth, and fuzzy and very much unisex. this is a summer scent for those of us who don't care for bright summery scents.

i'm going to come completely clean here and say that i was mostly hoping this was a kissing cousin to pinched, which i don't drool over and covet endlessly like so many do, but do like a lot and find infinitely wearable only, you know, you can't actually buy enough to wear. i thought i was pretty clever getting two bottles right off the bat, which never works for me. if i get one bottle, it's awesome and i scramble to get a second bottle. if i go for two, it's completely unwearable!

 

in the bottle boozy, sweet, bodes well!

wet on skin EW. i can't decide if this smells most like wet dog or corn chips. there's coffee and a burned sugar smell that's really gaggy on me.

dry on skin this evens out to a sweet, perfume-y wood which is very nice, but definitely not what i was expecting at all. the irish coffee and pipe smoke are really bit players here and fade to leave wood (not a glossy wood, but a sticky, dirty wood) and tonka in control. rats.

 

this is not only pinched, but also not really me. i'm going to cellar this and revisit it in a few months.

 

like Teggy both of my bottles smell different. the one i didn't skin test is sweeter and less woody in the bottle, but a dab on my skin is going wet dog/corn chips only with more smoke. different, but not markedly so.

i like vetiver and i'm afraid to try this.

 

in the bottle huge, smoky damp blast of black-green vetiver from hell

 

*takes a deep breath*

 

wet on skin it's... gluhwein and silas ruthyn, on tour, one night only. i don't know what it is with the vetiver in this, but it kills small children and sucks their bones out of their skin. manky!!

dry on skin OKAY! this? is impossibly awesome once its dry. i'm getting a nice slow burn with the cinnamon, a high but still sweet citrus from the tangerine/satsuma, just a breath of black smoothness from the licorice, a golden layer of amber, and something tobacco-y which must be the teak up to funny business. the vetiver is unequivocally king here, but it's not stompy despot of doom like it was wet.

 

let this be a lesson to always try the BPAL on the skin, kids.

in the bottle hm. HM! wow! love this. dry sandalwood, spicy cinnamon bark, syrupy amber, and dark, gooey patchouli. WOW!
wet on skin all the notes are here but also blend seamlessly. no morphing here.
dry on skin no morphing at all, but i was smitten right out of the imp! another one that will be coming home with me in my next order!

in the bottle a little sharpish and sweet with a rootbeery breath
wet on skin REEEDDDD MUSSSSSSKKK! which smells a little bit like dragon's blood here, kind of sweet and syrupy. not a fan of this phase.
dry on skin smooth, slinky, magical, absolutely gorgeous. how have i never tried this before? i'm tossing a bottle of this in my next order!

this is a really weird blend!

 

in the bottle the faintest breath of cocoa and... rootbeer. yes, it is. it's rootbeer.

wet on skin more cocoa then poof! no cocoa ever again. herbal, a little ginger-y and a dash of cinnamon. with a side of plastic band-aid.

dry on skin it's this bizarre layering of flesh-eating reindeer (more butch than gingerbread poppet), schwarzer mond (flat rootbeeriness), and wintergreen??? what's even weirder is that i really like it. it's very sweet, oddly invigorating, and keeps giving me whiffs of the completely unexpected. i have a sneaking suspicion that this will age nicely.

later: everything fades except for a tiny bit of the herbal note and a whole lot of the brown sugar. it's a lot like sugar skull in this phase, only darker.

LXI

 

in the bottle smells a little bit floral, which terrifies me.

wet on skin wowowowowowow! i'm going to call this "snake in the grass" because, holy cats, it's green, sappy, and dandelion-y with just a breath of snake oil!

test #2: still grassy and dandelion-y with a bright, dry floral; the overwhelming vibe here is... grass shampoo

dry on skin like a cousin to hexennacht, this is green and fresh while being dark and mysterious all at once. the grassy, dandelion-y note remains the main player here with a slither of dark, amber-y snake oil. WIN! incredibly, massive, wonderful WIN!

later: soap.

test #2: the shampoo-ness fades although this never really comes down off its high, spring green thang. it's a fabulous blend for someone who's hardcore into the grass scents, but a bit too bright for me.

 

X

 

in the bottle there's apple in here! whee! i love apple! *nods*

wet on skin no more apple? there's still a fruitiness that i enjoy, but it's a sweeter fruit, date or fig

dry on skin this smells a little bit like gunpowder, which i didn't like very much. apple, oats, and just a hint of something darker.

test #2: okay, the gunpowder vibe is missing completely from this test (yay!) and instead i'm getting the dark, mushy apple with something a bit amber-y, kind of a golden, powdery resin, over the black vanilla base of snake oil. and, may i also say, that i LOVE this one. love. magnificent.

 

in the bottle kind of medicinal and meh, which is a shock, as this is so popular

wet on skin red musk, yum. something like amber going on here. heady, musky, womanly, sweet without being particularly strong.

dry on skin verdict? i like it, but i'm going to let it age a few months and try again.

later: incense? odd. i'm getting some dragon's blood here and something drier and more resinous. it's very warm, but faint. definitely retest.

 

in the bottle fruity and boozy, but incredibly heavy like ripe fig and cocoa

wet on skin i can smell all the individual notes here, but they blend incredibly well; exotically sweet and lush

dry on skin close to the skin, it's gone pretty standardly fruity, but the throw is where the real magic is happening. it's like those tatters of scent in cartoons that lift up the characters and pull them around by their noses. i'm not in love with the scent, but i can't stop sniffing around to figure out what it is and where it's coming from.

later: very grape-y and purple; strong. crazy, crazy strong throw. i had to stop testing other oils because there's an invisible purple cloud all around me. up very close, it smells a little like apples and cinnamon. O_o

really, really fun! this is tempting me greatly to get a bottle!

in the bottle fruity and almost powdery like bazooka gum with a sharp note reminiscent of ozone
wet on skin wet and fruity, almost tropical, like punch, hm.
dry on skin ah, the drydown is nice! maybe it's just me today, i seem to be making everything go really sweet. there is a hardcore honey note here that's dancing over the top of the fruitiness and bringing the whole thing down a notch. pleasant and inoffensive and undeniably feminine.
later: about the same but has the teeniest whiff of baby shampoo (?!)... which gets stronger as it dries down more. sweet and soporific, yup! LOL! definitely makes me think of bedtime when the spawn were wee. i kind of sort of want a bottle of this.

wearlength is very short.

test 2: something like honeysuckle going on this time? very sweet, soft, and girly, possibly too much for my general tastes.

in the bottle apple, dry and almost spicy, but not quite

wet on skin tart, very faint....

dry on skin soft, getting sweeter, whoa! lots sweeter! crazy! smells incredibly pretty up close, but has almost no throw whatsoever. really having to sniff hard to get anything here. it's really bizarrely bubble-gummy!

later: ah, there's the ash. it's: ash over BUBBLEGUM.

 

for a scent with a name like "apple of sodom", this is a cheerfully innocent and pretty little sweet scent!