puellacaerulea
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Everything posted by puellacaerulea
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I almost decided to pass on my bottle of this because of some of the weird stuff it does on my skin as it dries down, but ultimately I'm glad I held onto this and kept testing it. In the bottle, the Australian sandalwood (which to me is greener and a little more astringent than other BPAL sandalwood notes I've tried) and cotton blossom are evident -- light, airy, just a little floral. Immediately upon application, the scent takes on this weirdly fizzy/effervescent quality. And then something goes wrong as it starts to dry down, getting unpleasantly perfumey, almost like potpourri. I'm not sure what notes are the culprit here, but based on prior experiences with the white leather accord, I'm prepared to blame that alongside the white amber and cotton blossom. I thought this was going to be a dealbreaker, but after drydown, the potpourriness of it all fades and I'm left with the sandalwood and cotton blossom, with a little bit of amber glow in the background. It's cool, airy, approachable -- not exactly sterile, but clean in a way that does evoke an upscale airline cabin or a bougie department store. While I have to power through the potpourri phase with this one, I like the end stage enough that I'll probably stick with it.
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A bit of context here: I grew up in Northwest Philadelphia, and one of my earliest and most sentimental scent memories is the smell of rain on the pavement outside my grandparents' house in the summer. Specifically, the smell of big, heavy raindrops just starting to fall on hot pavement, with the grass and weeds of the postage-stamp front yard and humid Philly summer air in the backdrop. So when I saw that the Lab was capturing the smell of a Philly summer rainstorm, I was sold. I wasn't sure about the coconut and lavender, but they're relatively minor players -- this is mostly an impressively close approximation of that rain-just-starting-to-fall-on-hot-pavement smell from my childhood, with a touch of greenery.
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I think I was hoping for a citrus similar to Nightlife HG with this one -- a true citrus, with a bit of rindy, bittersweet bite to it. I do get a bit of that realistic orange in the decant, but the musk blooms quite a lot on my skin and overpowers the citrus. A little too musky and heavy for me.
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For a scent that only has neroli listed as a floral note, this scent feels surprisingly floral, in a bright, sunny way. The combination of the amber, neroli, and citrus notes evokes cheerful and sunny florals. The cedar and frankincense start to peek out more as the scent wears on my skin, adding some more backbone to the scent without losing its golden and light quality. Definitely evocative of the idea of sunflowers.
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Mallow Flower, Honeysuckle, and Vanilla Bean
puellacaerulea replied to Silvertree's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
In the decant, the honeysuckle is there, but the mallow flower and vanilla are giving it a floofy sweetness that makes it almost gourmand-adjacent rather than floral. On my skin, the mallow flower and vanilla mostly overtake the honeysuckle -- there's a little bit of white floral in the background, but this is mostly airily sweet mallow. -
There's a little bit of salty aquatic and mineralic notes here (in the vein of Hagstone, The Blue Door, and A Summer Night), but the linen and rosewater are the most prominent notes on me. While I can get the salt notes, this is more of a somewhat high-pitched linen and floral scent than an aquatic on my skin. It's not unpleasant or full-on dryer sheets, but I think I prefer A Summer Night for a linen/aquatic blend that puts more emphasis on the aquatic.
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In the decant, this is a toasty almond with a creamy undertone. Unfortunately, it's less toasted almond and more almond extract with something plasticky on my skin. Too bad this one doesn't get along with my skin, because it smells great in the decant.
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This is one of those complex, well-blended scents where the whole is more than the sum of its parts. The vanilla (with a hint of cacao), cedar, and cardamom are the notes that stand out the most on me, while the orris adds a certain softness without going powdery. It's dry, soft woods, vanilla, and orris, but the ambergris is also a presence, adding some subtle muskiness. Pale, soft, and atmospheric. I'm glad I snagged a bottle of this.
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Vanilla Cream, Pistachio, and Macadamia
puellacaerulea replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
In the bottle and once on, this is a big, creamy gourmand, with the vanilla cream out front. At this stage, it's sharp (more like nut extract than nuts), more than a little plasticky, and generally Too Much. It does calm down a lot as it dries down, and the scent gets more realistically nutty, with a slightly creamy backdrop. Not quite pistachio ice cream, but adjacent. I can see myself reaching for this when I'm in a gourmand mood (and have the time/inclination to let it calm down after application), but I don't need more than a decant. -
Angelica Root, Ambergris, and Bois de Rose
puellacaerulea replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Disclaimer: I'm not familiar with angelica root as a note. That said: This is a smooth, gently musky and woody blend with a slight floral tinge to it. I associate ambergris with aquatics, but there are no aquatic elements here, just a gentle muskiness. There's something classic, mature, and sophisticated about this blend. -
This is a really lovely, more floral and musky take on BPAL's salty aquatics. In the decant and in its early application stages, the salt air is there, but the linen and rose notes add a bit of dryer-sheet sharpness and perfuminess to the scent. As it dries down, the sharpness fades and the ambergris, sandalwood, and driftwood (similar to the Orange Blossom & Driftwood Duet note, but softer) start to come out more. The driftwood note and something musky (the ambergris? blue musk?) temper the linen, rose, and salt notes in such a way that the scent is recognizably aquatic and beachy, but with a floral twist. It also has great staying power -- 12 hours later, I'm still getting whiffs of smooth ambergris and driftwood on my wrists. Very happy to add this one to my slate of aquatics.
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In the decant and on application, this one leads with fresh, stemmy florals and polished black leather. The combination of the two is a little too sharp for my liking at first, but as it dries down, the florals and leather soften and the salty air note comes to the fore. I wasn't a fan of the wet stages, but the end result is clean and atmospheric.
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I think, in contrast to the above reviews, I was hoping for more bergamot! In the decant, it's pale, bright bergamot with a slight musky whiff of ambergris in the background. On my skin, though, the incense smoke takes over and drowns out the bergamot, leaving me with a thin haze of church incense for most of the wear time.
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This blend starts off with noticeable ozone, but accompanied by a beeswax note that keeps the ozone from getting harsh or high-pitched. This scent is a weird but lovely interplay between cool and warm notes, with fresh, cool ozone contrasting the sweet beeswax and slightly vanillic old-paper notes. This one's a likely bottle purchase for me.
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This is one of those blends where all the notes just mesh together incredibly well. My first impression is evergreen notes and creamy magnolia. On application, the bergamot and white musk amp up a bit more, brightening the scent and amplifying the creaminess of the magnolia. I can pick out the orris, but it's not noticeably powdery; rather, it just softens the edges of all the other notes. This almost reads vintage floral perfume to me thanks to the magnolia and orris, but the evergreen notes and white musk take it into a cooler, airier territory.
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This one starts off with an aggressively sweet and nutty praline note that goes a bit plasticky on my skin, with the more wet, cologne-like DL accord intensifying it. Fortunately, it calms down quite a bit on drydown, shifting to a not-too-sweet nutty vanilla blend, with a faint hint of dry leaves in the background.
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Dead Leaves, Boot Leather, and Sweet Grass
puellacaerulea replied to Seajewel's topic in Halloweenie
The most prominent note here is soft, well-worn leather, with wet leaves in the background. The sweetgrass amps up on application, adding a pleasantly sweet and green backing, but as it wears, the main impression is soft leather and wet leaves. This isn't one for the leather-averse, but if you enjoy leather notes, this is an atmospheric and evocative blend. -
On my skin, this is primarily creamy rice milk and soft cinnamon (more ground cinnamon than aggressive fall candle cinnamon.) I'm having trouble picking out the dead leaves specifically, but there's an oddly bright note that's somewhere between vegetal and lemony under the rice milk that might be the DL accord blending with the rest of the notes in an odd way? Overall, a creamy, spiced blend with something sneakily vegetal hanging out in the background. Definitely not unpleasant, but a departure from the DL blends I'm used to.
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This blend is pale amber and black tea first and foremost. I can't pick out the other notes specifically, but there is a woody, earthy spine to the scent that grounds it. It's subtle, though -- no intense dead leaf note or dirt note here, just a faint earthiness grounding the scent. This is in the same vein as October 32, without the wool and cream notes. Overall, a pretty, wan-in-an-appropriately-autumnal-sort-of-way amber blend. This might be a bottle upgrade for me.
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The rice milk in this blend starts out surprisingly strong and creamy, with an almost sour edge not unlike BPAL's goat milk accord. It settles quickly, blending into the bergamot and palo santo. The palo santo and sandalwood are there, but the bergamot and rice milk make this much more of a sweet and creamy than a woody scent. This leans more gourmand on me, but the wood notes keep it from being Too Much. Unfortunately, my skin eats this up fast, with maybe two hours or so of staying power.
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Yep, that's leather. This is well-worn leather first and foremost -- I can't quite pick out the tobacco and smoked vanilla, but there's a resinous, cool undertone to the leather notes that makes me think of soft, well-worn leather that's been sitting out in the cold for some time. It is a bit reminiscent of Ü, but the balsams and vanillic notes are more pronounced in that scent. This is sort of like Ü's more rugged cousin.
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She Loves the Bare, the Withered Tree
puellacaerulea replied to Silvertree's topic in Limited Editions
This is rooty, slightly spicy patchouli first and foremost, but the carrot seed gives it this vegetal, cool, and sort of airy quality that makes it intriguing and wearable for a generally non-patch person like myself (I'm here for the carrot seed, really). Reminds me a bit of Lush's Blue Skies bubble bar, another exception to my general no-patch rule. Overall, a blend that's earthy, cool, and atmospheric at the same time, definitely evocative of late autumn. -
The white mint is the most dominant note here, with the ti leaf adding more of a fresh, green edge. As it dries down, I'm able to pick out the lilac more, and it blends surprisingly seamlessly with the mint. I never pick out the amber, but this scent has much more staying power on me than other green/minty BPAL blends, so maybe it's in there helping somehow. Overall, cool, clean mint and lilac. Fans of scents like Ghost Music, The Listeners, and Fuck This Heat might also like this one.
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Based on the notes, I expected a warm, brown, woody scent in the vein of Judgmental Longhorn or Partridges in the Snow. That impression is there thanks to the tonka and sandalwood, but the almond and beeswax are the dominant notes in this blend. I get a warm, woody base, with the beeswax and almond adding a light, almost honeyed sweetness on top that adds a sort of creamy, fuzzy, vanillic quality to the blend. Over many hours of wear, the beeswax and almond fade a bit and the tonka and sandalwood come out more. Overall, a warm, floofy, pleasant scent. Low-ish throw and long wear time.
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Fern, Red Clover, and Wild Lettuce
puellacaerulea replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
In the bottle and on the skin, this is fresh, vegetal green notes and a light, slightly spicy floral. There's a slightly bitter undertone to the green notes as this dries down (possibly the lettuce note?), but it doesn't spoil the blend -- if anything, it keeps the greenery realistic and helps keep any soapy impressions at bay. Otherwise, there's very little morphing on me. Just fresh, light, springlike greens. This'll definitely be going into my warm-weather rotation.