puellacaerulea
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Everything posted by puellacaerulea
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This one is primarily myrrh, with a faint hint of floral sweetness from the rosewater in the background. As a bonus, this rose note doesn't go powdery. Simple, pretty, and resinous without being too heavy -- sort of like a lighter, pared-down version of Wander Darkling in the Eternal Space. It has moderate wear time; I applied it in the morning and it was mostly gone by late afternoon. One to try if you like myrrh and/or have bad luck with rose scents.
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Tonka Bean, Black Tea & Vetiver
puellacaerulea replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This starts out with the vetiver and black tea vying to be the dominant note. It's dark, bittersweet, and a little smoky (if this a black tea, it might be a lapsang souchong), but the tonka is adding a subtle warmth and sweetness. The tonka eventually takes a back seat and I'm left with a dark, smoky black tea. -
The narcissus in this shows up as a white floral with slightly bitter, slightly green undertones, while the snow note is coming across as a powdery, sort of chilly sidekick. It's pretty, but it's low-throw and fades quickly -- more of a faint breath of a white floral than an in-your-face one. Going to pass on a full bottle due to the short wear time, but it's pretty enough that I'll hang onto my decant.
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So my point of reference here is BPAL's Absinthe blend, which is bright, lemony, and green, but also with a boozy undercurrent. I recognize those notes in this blend, and they're an interesting point of contrast with the dead leaves. The leaves here do seem more green than some of the other DL blends I've tried, but maybe that's how it's playing with the absinthe notes. Think newly fallen leaves, not dry and crunchy ones. Lemony, herbal, but with the leaves giving it a deep green foundation.
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Dead Leaves, Bourbon, and Bitter Almond
puellacaerulea replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Halloweenie
I've struggled to describe this one after multiple tests, hence taking so long to finally review it. It's mostly peppery dry leaves and strong almond, but there is a sweetness to the almond that I'm guessing is the bourbon -- it's otherwise not noticeably boozy. There's a weirdly powdery-sweet quality to the dead leaf accord that I've noticed in some of the other 2020 DL blends -- not sure if it's the other notes in the blend making that happen, or something specific about the DL accord this year. So: green, peppery, sweet almond, and a little powdery. It's nice, but it doesn't quite wow me like some of the other dead leaves in my stash. -
I came so close to getting this last winter, but my budget could only stretch so far and other Yules ended up winning the blind-bottle contest. I got a sniffie recently and am finally getting around to it. This one's a slow morpher, but definitely a morpher. It started out a chilly, pretty blend of eucalyptus-y/minty snow notes with sandalwood in the background. Then the sandalwood slowly comes out and switches places with the snow notes, at which point I was like "oh no I'm gonna need to find a bottle of this." But then the snow notes (slowly) went in another direction, and I'm left with sandalwood with something vaguely fruity/perfumey in the background. It's not unpleasant, but I really preferred the earlier stages of this scent. There's this to be said: it has serious staying power (on hour 11 and it's still going strong).
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2020 version; haven't tried previous versions. I finally decided to give this a shot out of curiosity, to see if it would evoke memories of church incense as a kid (count me under the Lapsed Catholic audience for this scent). It's surprisingly sweet in the decant -- lots of resins, as expected, but also something that I swear smells like cherry. The sweetness calms down once on, and I get lots of dry resins and maybe a little bit of cedar. Solemn and peaceful. I think I was hoping for it to be a little smokier than it is, but I do like it for what it is. Not sure I'll use this enough to justify a full bottle, but I'll keep my decant.
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In the bottle, this is all anise. Fortunately, once on, the strong anise note from the palo santo softens, and a dry sandalwood comes out to balance it out. So, slightly minty, anise-y palo santo with a dry, soft sandalwood. Agreed with the above reviewers that there's something very mellow and soothing about it.
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Orris Root, Carnation & Tobacco
puellacaerulea replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Carnation isn't a note I'm super into, but I love both orris and tobacco, so I wanted to give a decant a try. I think I'm having the opposite experience as groovyrooby -- the carnation mostly stays in the background for me, adding a little spiciness and a subtle floral back note to the scent. I'm mainly getting soft orris and caramelly, chewy tobacco. A few hours after drydown, I'm getting just tobacco. I tend to amp tobacco, so other people might have a more carnation-forward experience with this. It's definitely an intriguing take on my usual tobacco blends, but I'm good with just a decant. -
Dead Leaves, Bourbon, Black Cherry, and an Orange Twist
puellacaerulea posted a topic in Halloweenie
[No additional description provided.] In the bottle, this is intense black cherry and bourbon. Super sweet, super boozy; can't make out the dead leaves at all. After applying, the dead leaf note amps up a lot and balances out the sweetness/booziness nicely. The orange note also comes out more, but it stays mostly in the background. After a couple hours the cherry and bourbon notes are still there, but they're much more subtle and blend well with the dead leaf note. Overall, I'd say the black cherry is the strongest note here, but the dead leaves keep it from getting into sickly sweet territory. The notes balance out in such a way that the end result is a warmer, sweeter take on the Lab's dead leaf note. -
This one starts out lilac- and snowdrop-forward -- light, springlike florals, but the pairing of these florals with the ambergris seems to soften them and give them a more wintry, soft, snowy feel (sort of like the floral/ambergris combo in To a Wreath of Snow in that respect). The florals fade super fast on me, though, and while there's still some of the scent detectable on my skin, it's veeerrrry subtle and close to the skin -- it's more faint ambergris and white musk with a fainter breath of florals beneath it. It's pretty for sure, but the fast fade means I'm probably just going to stick with my decant of this.
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This one starts out all fir -- fresh, full-on Christmas tree fir. As it dries down, the smoke starts to come out and balance out the fir. It's a subtle, slightly sweet smoke, not at all overpowering. It's a really lovely, atmospheric winter scent, but it fades fast on my skin. I think I'd love this as an atmo.
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This starts out with dark green notes paired with the sweet blackberry -- the addition of the blackberry takes this from a dark green scent to something you might expect from a holiday-themed scent. Once I put it on, though, the candied blackberry overtakes everything. It ended up being too fruity/sweet for my liking, but might appeal if blackberry is a note you enjoy!
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Scent-wise, this is primarily ginger and galangal to me, backed up with red sandalwood and dragon's blood and a breath of herbs. Spicy, rooty, but also a little smooth and resinous. As this pandemic winter wears on and finding the motivation to get going and get my day-to-day work done gets tougher, I've been using this oil for the intention and "get shit done" energy behind it.
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This is strange (but also very evocative of the name/description) in that it seems both blurry and sharp at the same time. After a brief period of amping the muguet like whoa, giving me sharp, white floral, the sandalwood and orris creep back in, blunting the white florals and giving the scent a soft, hazy quality. Blurry, silvery white floral and orris, with some soft sandalwood in the background.
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Echoing the love this one's getting. Tobacco flower stays the dominant note on me throughout -- white floral with a bit of pipe tobacco undertone. It's backed beautifully by the lavender and ambergris, which give it a chilly and fuzzy quality that take it into extra-wintry territory. The oud's hard to detect. The only thing holding me back from a full bottle is that my skin eats up the lavender, leaving me with primarily tobacco flower when the interplay between the lavender and tobacco flower is what really takes this scent over the top. Still, it's such a good tobacco flower scent that I might get a full bottle anyway.
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Was kind of hoping someone else would get to this first, because I'm going to struggle to accurately depict this one. I absolutely love it -- it's a very fresh, clean, greenish scent -- but the notes blend in such a way that it's hard to pick them out individually. There's no corn-chip salt to be found here -- the salt note in this is more like fresh, cold salt air, adding a chilly cleanness to the teakwood and moss. The teakwood itself is strong-ish and is a little "polished wood" for a bit as it dries down, but it eventually settles to a distinct but not overpowering wood note. Overall, it's clean, fresh, greenish, and bracing. It reads gender neutral to me, but I can see how this would read more conventionally masculine depending on one's tastes.
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Pink Pepper, Orange Blossom & Lemon Peel
puellacaerulea replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This was another case of "I love all three of these notes individually but I'm not sure how they'll work together, so let's try a decant." This starts out with bright, greenish orange blossom and lemon (not a full-on Lemon Pledge situation, fortunately). The pink pepper emerges, but the way it interacts with the other notes makes the scent go a little powdery. It does settle to bright citrus with a hint of pepper in the background. A very bright, sweet-ish, citrus scent, all pinks and oranges. -
This is very much a warm, brown, cozy scent. Chestnut is definitely the dominant note here. I recognize the brown musk from Year of the Ox, but where that scent is heavy on the woods and tobacco, this is nutty and a little creamy. There are hints of woods and balsam that keep this from going into full gourmand territory, though.
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Beeswax, Cedarwood & Bourbon Vanilla
puellacaerulea replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
I don't know if it's just the specific beeswax note in this scent or how it's playing with the bourbon vanilla, but this definitely smells honeyed to me. I'm getting beeswax and honey, with a whiff of vanilla and cedarwood. The cedar gets more pronounced on me as it dries down, adding a backbone of dry woodiness to the scent and toning down the sweetness a bit. It fades again after drydown, though, leaving me with sweet, honeyed beeswax and vanilla with a faint breath of cedar. (It might just be the vanilla and honey, but this reminds me a little bit of O.) Agreed that it has fairly strong throw. I can probably hold off on a full bottle, but I'll keep using my decant. -
On me, this is mostly pumpkin spice, with a hint of musk. It's a pleasant enough gourmand scent, but it doesn't wow me like the other two scents in this series.
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This one seems very well-blended, such that the notes that stand out the most are a soft, slightly smoky leather and rose, with a mix of balsams and resins underneath. The rose goes through a brief powdery phase on me, but otherwise behaves, and works surprisingly well with the leather note -- the overall post-drydown effect is almost like a skin musk. It stays fairly close to the skin and is weirdly cozy. Not 100% sure if I need a bottle yet, but I'll definitely be using my decant.
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I'm also in the "more oud than pecan" camp. Throughout its wear time, this is a deep, woody, spicy oud, with a hint of nutty sweetness in the background. Fortunately, the oud behaves -- there are moments where I think I'm picking up something indolic, but this oud doesn't go stanky on me. This might be my favorite of the pie series.
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This one starts out with light, sunny amber and citrus, with a hint of fresh ginger root in the background. The ginger amps up along with the lime blossom and neroli as it dries down, adding a fresh, slightly floral zinginess to the scent. Overall impression is a bright and sunny citrus floral grounded with a bit of amber and fresh ginger giving it a little effervescence. I'll probably be breaking this one out more during warm weather, but it would be great whenever you want something cheerful and fresh. No blind bottle regrets here.
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Cherry Cream Pie Chypre
puellacaerulea replied to zankoku_zen's topic in Gifts with Donation or Purchase
In the imp: maraschino cherries. Once it's on, creamy vanilla notes come out and balance out the sweet cherry. As it dries down, slightly buttery notes come out as well. It's like angel food cake topped with cherry pie filling. Given that's one of my favorite desserts, I'm not mad.