puellacaerulea

This one had a rough start on me, with the white tea and narcissus going very screechy and astringent. After drydown, the high-pitched elements of the scent calm down a bit and the white tobacco and vetiver come out, giving a headier and more earthy impression. Agree that this scent has vintage, old-fashioned floral perfume vibes. I don't think I need a bottle, but will keep my decant.

Finally, a peach note that behaves on me! The vanilla and marshmallow notes are most dominant on me, while the peach is a background player, adding a little extra fruity sweetness. It could be the combination of notes, but there's something warm about this peach note (like baked fresh peaches), in contrast to other peach blends that have gone syrupy and cloying on me. Overall impression is a pleasant, warm peaches-and-cream scent.

In the decant, this is Snake Oil with a deep, intense, boozy peach. On my skin, the peach gets extremely loud and syrupy-sweet, almost overpowering the SO and, to my nose, clashing a bit with the SO notes. Going to pass this one on to someone whose skin chemistry likes peach better than mine does.

In the bottle, this is a promising blend of sage and oakmoss -- deep, herbaceous greens, with a whiff of peach in the background. Unfortunately, once on my skin, the peach does what peach notes tend to do on me and gets overpoweringly, cloyingly sweet. Where the peach note complemented the greens in the bottle, on my skin the intensely sweet peach is an unpleasant contrast with the green notes. Tl;dr: Peach might be a death note for me.

Both in the bottle and on my skin, the cardamom, mate, and orange peel are working together in a way that makes me think of orange marmalade -- sweet and citrusy, but with a bitter, rind-y undertone. It softens and gets more tea-forward as it wears. Pleasant, but not the kind of thing I'd reach for often.

In the bottle: Greenery and a hint of the Lab's snow note. There's something almost damp and aquatic about this greenery -- to me it's evocative of damp late-winter nights when it's too warm for snow, but there's chilly rain falling. On my skin, the cedar and elderberry notes amp up -- the end result is slightly spicy woods and berries. Overall, I like this better in the bottle than I do on my skin.

2009 version: In the bottle, honey and honeysuckle are the most prominent notes, with hints of darker herbals in the background. On my skin, the honey and floral notes get shoved aside in favor of the moss and herbals. However, these aren't bright, fresh herbs -- there's something murky, mossy, and almost mineralic about this blend as it dries down. There's still a hint of the honey and brighter florals in the background, but overall, this is much darker and earthier than I expected.

In the decant and on application: all blackberries, all the time. Unfortunately, on my skin something intensely bittersweet and medicinal is coming out under the berry notes. As it wears, the scent softens and the patch and fig notes start to get more prominent. It's pleasant at this stage, but the early bitter and syrupy stages aren't quite working for me.

The lilac note is the most dominant in this scent, and it's a fresh, springy, true lilac note. The muguet, vanilla, and amber are very much background players, but they add a subtle smoothness to the scent and bump it into something just beyond a lilac single note. If you like lilac, you're going to want this one. Fairly low throw, medium wear time.

In the bottle and on the skin, this is a rich, buttery vanilla -- not full-on gourmand and doesn't run the risk of going plasticky, but it's noticeably rounder and sweeter than the dry, husky vanilla of scents like Cognac-Stained Sheet Ghost. The sandalwood is soft, dry, and helps moderate the richness of the vanilla note. This is bringing up scent memories of vanilla perfumes I wore in the '90s -- this is like a grown-up, more sophisticated version of those. Sticks close to the skin. Might be backup-worthy.

Fresh, beachy sea salt, with the cucumber note adding an unobtrusive cool, green freshness. Worn in my hair, the cucumber is a bit more prominent; when I use it as a light body moisturizer, it's more of a salt-and-driftwood scent on my skin. This will be in my regular rotation this summer.

I'm generally kind of meh about original Snake Oil because I tend to find it too heavy and incense-y. On the other hand, I've been avoiding gourmands lately since they tend to go sickeningly sweet on me. Snake Milk manages to find a perfect happy medium between these two things. The SO spices go a little sharp on me as the scent dries down, but once it's dried down, I get a rich, caramelized creme brulee with SO muskiness in the background, keeping the sweetness in "just right" territory. If you liked Please Scream Inside Your Snake Oil, you'll probably also like this.

So BPAL honey notes can be hit-or-miss on me. Some work great, while others are simultaneously cloyingly sweet and strangely sharp. Unfortunately, this honey note is the latter. After drydown, the honey settles and lets a rich milk note and sweet, musky ambrette come out...but only temporarily, as later in wear the honey comes back. The milk and ambrette are lovely, but the way this honey note goes on my skin is making this blend a miss for me.

Skipped this one during its original run and later, after learning that I really like palo santo as a note, grabbed a secondhand bottle. In the bottle and once applied, it's soft, dry palo santo with distinctly lemony and anise-y undertones, along with smooth frankincense. I was worried about the palo and frankincense combo being too heavy, but the frankincense mostly adds a resinous depth without getting too dark or heavy for everyday wear. I'd probably find this too resinous if the frankincense ended up becoming the dominant note, but on my skin it's a background player to the palo santo. Overall, soft, dry, cool palo santo, subtly deepened with frankincense. Glad to have tracked some down to add to my growing palo santo collection.

This one starts with a fresh-laundry cotton note -- fresh, but borderline screechy and astringent. The marshmallow (which initially almost put me off this scent) shows up after application and adds some sweetness, but it doesn't get cloying -- instead it helps tone down the sharpness of the cotton note. The frankincense is very subtle, but it adds a smoothness at the base of the scent that helps the whole blend hold together. Overall, a fresh cotton blend that could work in both spring and fall.

This starts off a balance of herbaceous lavender and green notes. As it dries down, the lichen note amps up and becomes dominant -- it's clean, fresh, green, and kind of soapy in combination with the lavender, but not in an unpleasant way.

Took a chance on a decant of this despite BPAL's white tea note often going too astringent on me. White tea and neroli are the most obvious notes at the outset. While I do get a brief astringent phase with the white tea, it fades on the drydown, leaving a very pale, light neroli with a little extra white floral punch from the champaca petals. Overall, a pale, bright, low-key white floral that sticks very close to the skin. On the fence about whether I need a 5ml of this, but I'll definitely keep my decant for warm-weather wear.

So I went for a decant of this one because TAL Isychia taught me that I do in fact really love blue tansy as a note. This scent is complex and morphs several times during its wear time. It starts out with deep, resinous, slightly sweet frankincense, with the blue tansy adding a bright, herbaceous floral note. As it dries down, a dry, soft sandalwood note amps up and calms down the resins. Eventually, after drydown, the frankincense becomes dominant again, but there's a faint breath of fuzzy sandalwood behind it, while the tansy is still there adding brightness. It's beautiful and complex, but the resin notes are dominant enough that I'm not sure I'd reach for it often enough for a full bottle.

This blend is a cozy, warm, hazelnut-forward scent. The hazelnut cream and wool notes are at the forefront, but the cedar and vetiver are definite background presences, taking this blend beyond "cozy semi-gourmand" territory. The vetiver isn't loud or smoky, but blends with the cedar in a way that adds a deep, smooth woodsiness in the background. Still primarily a warm, cozy scent, but with a backbone that sets it apart.

Cool, clean sage and bright, slightly tart lime. The sage starts off a little sharp, but calms down as it dries down. Simple and fresh.

This blend starts out gardenia-forward, with the labdanum giving it a heavily resinous edge that reads almost medicinal alongside the gardenia. As it wears, the labdanum overtakes the gardenia -- more dark resin with a hint of white floral than the other way around. I'm not loving the medicinal quality I'm getting from the labdanum, so this one may go to swaps.

This blend is warm but dry, non-foodie vanilla, with a bit of added warmth and sweet earthiness from the hay absolute. The nutmeg slowly amps up on me as it dries down, adding extra sweetness to the vanilla, but not going into full-blown gourmand territory. Overall, a warm, approachable vanilla blend. Haven't tried Antique Lace, so can't make comparisons there, but lovers of Hay Moon or Cedarwood & Smoked Vanilla will probably also enjoy this.

In the decant and on my skin, the bourbon tobacco is the more prominent note -- dark, sweet, chewy, just a little astringent. The bergamot is a background player but is definitely there, adding a slight but distinct citrus brightness and astringency that plays well with the tobacco. Tobacco lovers shouldn't miss this one. Considering a full bottle for my fall/winter rotation.

Pretty much exactly what it says on the tin -- soft, slightly powdery orris and gentle white musk. This is a pale, low-key, very understated scent. Sticks close to the skin, but has great staying power. It's very pretty in its simplicity. Might be a bottle purchase for me.

2021 version: I don't know if it's something with my skin chemistry, but this was much, much different than what I expected. I pictured something lavender-forward (and lavender is more prominent in the decant), but once it's on, the pale amber and ambergris amp up in a way that is -- surprisingly -- like a kind of vanillic, old-books smell. It took me straight back to rooting through the small under-the-stairs closet where my aunt stored all the old board games at her beach house. While I love the scent memory, it's not necessarily what I want to smell like day-to-day, so just going to stick with my decant.