brettashley

This is a glorious scent - I'm so glad I blind-bought a bottle! It's golden, luminous soft amber, musky and sweet. This is something cozy you can live in. So happy to bathe in this scent this fall.

This is leather, not creamy, but sharpened with a bit of bourbon. The rose lends elegance to the blend. I'm not getting much by way of vanilla, but I think that's what keeps the whole scent from going too sharp. It's an elegant, beautiful scent that makes me reach for my red lipstick.

Lab frimp. Ah, I get the Snake Oil comparison, but this is somehow less cuddly, a little more lemony, but still definitely that rounded, velvety musk that is reminiscent of Snake Oil. I'm not sure I'd take Czernobog over Snake Oil, but perhaps if you'd like SO but less powdery, a little fresher, Czernobog might be your thing.

Lab frimp. Pine nut Vicks. I have no idea what my nose reads the lab's "pine" as "pine nut" but it always makes my mouth water. As it dries down, the Vicks goes away but then I get a sharp, almost sour green herb. It smells like I'm trying to cook myself.

Lab frimp. Lemony woods. The incense comes through as it dries down. I'm not getting any ozone, but that might be good for me, as ozone tends to read as "soap" in my nose. This smells like Lemonheads to me, actually.

Lab frimp. Rose and red hots, which is not an awful combination. Cute enough to wear again and proclaim, "I'm a harlot!" but probably not a bottle buy for me.

Lab frimp. Awww yiss, gimme that cedar. I smell like I'm in a wooded grove somewhere, overhung with a drooping flower canopy. I'm mostly getting woods and flower though, there's nothing really green about this scent. I think the lemon and the green tea really lend an airiness. This is something I might want as the weather warms up.

Lab frimp. I think I tried this one before. I love the inspiration, but all I'm getting is aquatic aftershave. One day, I'll have the deep, fathomless depths of the ocean bottled up for me - today is not the day. (No but seriously, all the BPAL ocean notes turn into soap on me, sadly.)

Lab frimp. Ocean water in that bathroom soap/floral kind of way. It's fresh and airy around the nose. But I can't shake the memory of fancy bathrooms with shell-shaped soaps whenever I get a whiff of this.

Lab frimp. This isn't dirty, dirty civet - it's there, but it's subtle and clean and sweetened with opium. As it dries down though, it gets less interesting, and more smooth, more perfumey. Don't be afraid of the civet in this. It's almost tame.

Lab frimp. Myrrh and roses. Powdery floral over a deeper musk. This one's not a stand out to me.

Lab frimp. Not my thing. Laundry musk florals.

Lab frimp. Weirdly, I'm getting pine NUTS and eucalyptus. And then something like honeyed anise. As it dries down, the weird, almost visceral nuttiness goes away and the scent gets cooler and more honeyed, almost creamy. I think I'll come back to this. It smells beautiful, but I never quite get away from that eucalyptus sharpness.

Lab frimp. I actually wanted to love this because I love, love, love grassy scents. I don't need my grass to be sweet though - I prefer the earthiness of fresh, green grass. The sweet cucumber here reminds me of something from bath & body (everyone used to be obsessed with cucumber melon), which makes this a little less interesting for me. Alas, the hunt for the perfect grass scent continues!

Lab frimp. I get that chilled rose, almost no jasmine at all. This is beautiful - I can almost smell the fleshy crush of the petals. It can get a little bit soapy though. Definitely a rose scent worth revisiting for me - it's all the gorgeousness of a rose, none of the headache.

Lab frimp. Strangely, I started off getting menthol. That goes away quickly, and I get the dragon's blood and jasmine, blended smoothly, but that minty edge never quite goes away. I actually do like it though; I can see how it's comforting. There is something incense-y in here, which makes it smell like beautifully scented bookstore. I think I'll have to pick it up and try it again for a day, but this is something that might grow on me...

Lab frimp.

Straight up - MELON. Interestingly enough though, the sea moss and flowers come through enough to keep this melon from turning strangely fleshy. (I've definitely had weird, fleshy, almost salty melon in a scent before. Not bad - just strange.) Over time, the melon starts to fade a little and the sea moss and flowers take the edge off. I can actually see myself getting more of this for the summer.

Edit: The melon seems to have receded behind the florals, which makes it a little bit more generic. Perhaps not for me.

Lab frimp. Initially, I'm hit with a blast of a kind of sharp funk (I think that's the wet floral) - calms down quickly to a powdery lotion. I'm getting the "adult baby lotion" that a lot of other people are getting, but I think it's just a smooth, blended, powdery floral. There's something a little old fashioned about this, which reminds me of a blend I'd pick up in an old perfume shop in New Orleans. I like it well enough, but I don't absolutely need to have more.

Lab frimp! Crisp apples and floral perfume - there's actually something almost laundry musk-ish about it. I think I'd have liked it better with more woods, less clean. Nice, but not a bottle purchase for me.

Aquatic cologne. No spiced rum, but I am getting cinnamon. The strongest thing coming through is the wood of the ship's deck. I actually quite like this, but perhaps more as a room spray and not so much a perfume. It's smelling a little candle-ish for me.

Got this as a frimp. It does smell really cake-y, and a little fruity - but it's also got a little bit of that popcorn-salty-sweetness that I also get with Mouse Circus, strangely enough. I like the slight jamminess of the red and black currants. But if I'd gotten it for the cake and fruits, I wouldn't necessarily want that buttered popcorn at the back of it.

Lovely frimp though, I'll probably use it up.

Finally got around to testing this today. I've been kinda afraid to, because of the patchouli, but I figured everyone else had to love it for a reason.

Wet, in-vial: When I open the imp, I immediately think of Snake Oil, which is a decent enough scent on me, but not the most amazing thing ever, the way it is for some people. There's something fruitier about Mme, however, and sweeter.

On skin: This smells a lot like Snake Oil to me, except I'm getting more vanilla and pomegranate. It's actually quite delicious. I think I'm liking this more than Snake Oil. SO, to me, turned a bit powdery at the end and was just pleasant enough. Mme Moriarty, on the other hand, is much sweeter (but not sickening) and seems like it'll stay sharp.

Drydown: I'm getting more of the patchouli now, and I'm starting to feel a bit wary. Patchouli is generally not my friend. It gives the scent a sharper, almost dirtier edge. I've also dabbed a bit of SO on a patch of skin further away, to compare the two. SO stays its sweet self, though it wanders into powder-y territory, but Mme Moriarty is starting to turn quite sharp. I'm also starting to get what some of the other reviews referred to as "patchouli cola." Hmm...

Overall, I don't think I'll be getting a bottle of this. It started off fantastically - a sweeter, fruitier version of SO that I actually liked better than SO. It was intoxicating and perfume-y in a good way. If it'd stayed like this, I probably would've put a bottle in my next order. However, it began to morph into something quite bitter, and while it stayed more complex than SO, I'm not sure I want to reek quite so much of patchouli.

Sadly, not a winner (in terms of bottle-purchasing) for me, but I will hang on to my imp and see if it gets better a second time around!

EDIT: After wearing the scent a while longer, it actually grew on me! As long as I wasn't directly sniffing my wrists, but rather just letting the smell waft around me, it was actually the sweet, vanilla and plummy SO that I'd gotten at first - and I liked it a lot better that way! Definitely retrying and will consider picking up a bottle before the Carnaval leaves town.

Oh dear, I'm afraid I'll have to be in the minority about this one. I was so looking forward to trying Dee, too.

Wet, in-vial: cologne-y and pleasant, a bit spicy, mostly a mellow, polished wood and leather smell. I think I'll like this one.

On skin: The leather has come out strongly, along with something that smells rather like pipe tobacco. It's pretty realistic, actually, how much this smells like sitting in the old, broken-in armchair of a man who smokes and collects old books.

Drydown: The tobacco has come out much too strongly for my liking. I get whiffs of something like cigarette smoke every time my wrist comes near my nose.

Hours after: All I get now is cigarette smoke. I feel like an intelligent smoker (or at least one who reads a lot). The scent of cigarettes is a bit too much for me though, and I'm starting to get a headache (especially when I'm in an enclosed space with this scent, like the car). I don't think I'll be able to wear this at all. It's a pity though, because the scent was so very evocative.

I actually ended up with a bottle of Liberty through a (very fortuitous) mistake - the lab sent it to me instead of the Tiki Princess I ordered! They let me keep the bottle, while they sent Tiki Princess later on, so I ended up getting it for free. (The lab is )

But anyway, as I don't have much money to spend on BPAL, I probably would never have chosen this scent for myself. Nothing about it called out to me at all - I'm not a fan of florals, and I had little hope that the beeswax and smoke would overtake the scent. After dismissing it out of hand, I basically paid no attention to reviews, etc, so when I opened the bottle, I had no clue what to expect.

In bottle: Very floral; reminds me of something I would pick up at a commercial perfume counter in the '50s - an older lady atomiser of perfume or something. (I wasn't too excited to try it, at this point.)

Wet, on skin: Burst of flowers! I guess it's the chamomile and apple blossom and magnolia and whatnot all kinda coming on at once. (I can't tell florals apart too distinctly beside, say, jasmine.) Definitely getting the older woman floral perfume vibe.

Drydown: The scent is getting much sweeter, much creamier now. The beeswax is actually tamping down the florals! Ah, it's actually really lovely at this stage. It's still floral, but it's grounded by something much creamier, and that gives the scent more... substance. I couldn't stop sniffing my wrists at this stage.

Hours after application: Here, it's pretty much frankincense and smoke dominating the blend. There's a hint of something floral, but it's almost gone by now.

Overall: 8.5/10 This blend was a surprising winner for me! I loved it most in its drying down floral-beeswaxy stage, but the smoky finish is pretty nice too. Every now and then, I'll catch a whiff of it and be like "What smells so good? Oh! It's me. "

Basically, Liberty fulfills a gap in my perfume collection I wasn't even aware I had! It's a bit more conservative, out of the bottle, in its resemblance to a conventional floral perfume, but the beeswax and the smoke actually subvert the florals and turn it into something altogether quite different. I can wear this scent in more formal settings (when I don't want to wafting Antikythera or something similarly distinct), but it's got a lot more depth than other floral perfumes one could pick up at a cosmetics counter. It's a more toned down way to stand out, and I like it.

Plus, I like how the scent reflects the painting it's based on so accurately. We begin with a burst of crisp flowers, giddy and light, and then there's the grounding of the beeswax (and olive blossom?) - and we end with the smoky finish of gunpowder, like the first shot of a gun. The scent works for me thematically, and would be wonderful for certain occasions. I won't be needing a backup, but I'm so glad to have the bottle, and am seriously entertaining the possibility that the labbies may, in fact, by psychic.

My Tiki Princess finally arrived!! And boy is she lovely. I just want to say that I have and love Snow White, and while I may have seen where some people might find them pretty similar, they smelled pretty different to me.

Wet: a sharp blast of cold, wet coconut. Perfect for muggy summer days.

Drydown: dries down to something warmer and sweeter. It smells like a creamy, cool coconut drink. The florals also come out more. It's a beautiful, inviting, snuggle-y scent.

Overall, I love it! Am definitely keeping it, and I can tell it'll probably rocket up to my top 10 (or even 5)!