Seajewel

I think Zorya Polunochnaya is one to try for the perfect vanilla that isn't sugary sweet. I've found my tastes have changed a lot and vanilla musk scents along the lines of Antique Lace etc. are no longer really my thing, but I was surprised by Zorya P. That said, I think the tobacco leaf is fairly prominent there and that might account for my liking of it. 

I just put it on again and I think that's how my brain interprets the combo. When I first put it on it goes on with a blast of patchouli but very quickly quiets down. It's not as loud of a patchouli as, say, the Sumatran Red Patchouli SN that I have. My tolerance for patch has really gone down but this is ok. Now that I try really hard to pick out stuff I can sort of sort out that there's a very smooth patch with whatever other stuff mixing in making it kind of read earth for me, but that may not be what others get. I have a very unsophisticated nose, haha. Learning a lot about my tastes this year working through the menage a trois! For example.. turns out I *hate* orange blossom but had no idea until the Lemon Peel Marshmallow Orange Blossom trio went cloyingly medicinally sweet to me and someone told me it was prob OB. I checked the vetiver, ylang ylang, orange blossom trio that I did not like previously and yep, same bad note in there too and that's what makes it go wrong. 

So I felt ready to tackle the Liliths with my newfound knowledge and then the Lab created like 32 scents that all sound kind of good and only like 4 with notes I wanted to avoid. Thanks.... sort of.

6 minutes ago, VetchVesper said:

Huh. I wouldn't have expected it to be earthy. You've peaked my interest. I'll have to check it out!

No cola either!! Maybe it's just me.. but that's what I get. like a much less sweet Death Cap (but i've only tried death cap a couple times so don't put too much stock in that comparison). 

1 minute ago, VetchVesper said:

I actually find dirt notes very grounding and good for sleep. (Nah. Definitely no pun intended there.  ) Since my previous post, I've also found I really enjoy Deep in Earth (which smells to me like a rainsoaked garden) and The Rat Speakers.  The violet and green notes in Nephlim are also soothing. Baba Yaga and the Chicken Legged Hut are also strangely comforting, though I don't often sleep in them. 

 

Speaking of dirt notes, I think I might grab a bottle of the Patchouli, Labdanum, and Ylang Ylang before it goes to wear at night. It's such a mild, soft scent. None of the parts of patchouli that I don't like. Just earth and a little sweetness. 

My bedtime BPALs currently are Cotton Phoenix (and it leaves remnants of this deep sexy sweet incense the next day) as well as The Mystery of Giant Testicles on a Brothel Visitor. Creamy, salty nuts.. somehow deeply comforting. *shrug*

I can't follow up such a beautiful, perfect review in any proper way, but I wanted to add my thoughts as I have tested this menage three times since I got it last Friday. The Lab's chocolate/cacao notes often go wrong on me--there's just something that reminds me of funky dirty feet, especially in the wet stage. This one, unfortunately, suffers from that issue too, and a slight funk lingers for quite some time after applying. And yet there is something deeply alluring about the scent. I really do see the cacao beans drying in the hot sun image that @lookingglass described in their review. It's a dry, earthy gourmand and I want to love it so very much even though I can't quite get there. After several hours pass, the funk is entirely gone and a beautiful dry hint of sophisticated vetiver with a tiny edge of sweetness remains. It's mesmerizing. But it's not really in my wheelhouse and I'm struggling to resist the urge to upgrade just to keep trying it until my nose disassociates chocolate with funk, it's that good. If you get along better than I do with the Lab's chocolate note, and you are not afraid of vetiver, this is a must-try! 

This is a very lovely, mildly sweet earth scent to me. Reminds me of Death Cap but less sweet. It's very soft and close to the skin. I quite like it, could go into my bucket of comfort scents. May grab a partial or upgrade to a full at some point. 

ETA: also lasts a really long time despite how quiet it is. I could still smell it all day the next day after applying at night. 

Here's a review fresh out of the mailbox, I love this so much and need to sing its praises. This was a surprise hit and I only threw it in my decant order out of curiosity, as the original hay moon wasn't something I loved. This goes on all cardamom honey cakes on me at first, very delicious. I generally avoid foodie scents but this is good because there isn't a hint of butter and the cardamom isn't overpowering either, it's just very lovely but not at all boring. I've been searching for a good cardamom scent after the Blueberries trio went a lovely but somewhat one-dimensional creamy cardamom on me, and this one could fit the bill. As it dries, a citrus-y note comes out that I think is the hay. It's not sharp and blends well. Overall it remains a sweet, dry, golden honey cakes scent. I have the original Hay Moon and don't love it (though, to be fair, I probably could give it another thorough test), but this I loved immediately. I think the main addition is the oat cakes note and that note definitely shines here - it makes this blend a much sweeter one than the original. I highly recommend this, and am going to buy two bottles in my next order 😍

I *love* Beeswax, Lavender, and Acacia Honey, so I had to hunt for this. A lot of BPAL honeys in the past didn't work for me, but whatever is being used in the Beeswax trio, On Imagination, etc. is a delight. Honey just seems to be one of those notes that can be very different on everyone, as some complain the Beeswax trio is acrid or screeching. A lot of popular BPAL honeys go very dusty and dry on me (Bright Red Dildo / Krampus Lace / O to some extent). But that's beside the point, because it's not honey that I'm objecting to here.

Ah Storge. I get a blast of lavender at the start and then it becomes this one note that I do not like at all. I think it's rosewater. I don't like roses in most blends, but this isn't quite the piercing rose, it's more bland but very distantly resembles what I dislike about roses. But that's really all I get. No honey. No lavender. No Snake Oil. No cotton candy. Just that unpleasant note. Tested twice now and it's been the same in both instances. 

The first time I tested this recently (no idea what I thought when I first purchased it years ago thanks to a lovely fairy), I wrote it off as "not interesting" and "too sweet." How odd. Today, it's all husky smoky vetiver with a hint of carnation. The sweetness grows over time and almost, but thankfully not quite, peers into the bubble gum territory, but the sexy smokiness remains. Not interesting? Au contraire! This is gorgeous, and I'm glad I retested it and learned to appreciate it. Oddly, I don't get lavender at all and the carnation is pretty subdued as well. I'm used to carnation being spicy gorgeousness as in Spanish Red Carnation SN or Inez, but here, there's not much character to the carnation. The sweetness may be mostly the vanilla or the musk. 

Edited to add: lasting power is great too. It's not a loud scent, it's fairly close to my skin, but the next morning, it was still there without having changed much. Still deliciously smoky. 

This is delicious, but extremely masculine. It's a deep, rich, dark woodsy vanilla scent. Thankfully, it doesn't really go root beer on me, though I can see that it could. The cedar also doesn't go pencil shavings and instead remains pleasantly woody. But it's SO manly. I like a lot of unisex/masculine-leaning scents, but this one is too much for me. It's not so much masculine-leaning as straight up smelling like dude. A delicious dude, sure, but on me, it's not working. And of course the throw and lasting power are both strong. 

I second Okupsidedown's review. This is a lovely blend. The champaca behaves--it's nothing like the screeching incense I did not like in the Darjeeling Tea trio. This is a fuzzy soft gardenia. Not overly sweet. Not as high-pitched and bright as the Gardenia, Tobacco Leaf, and Oakmoss trio - which I also loved. This one is a comforting cloud of prettiness. Turns out I do love Gardenia, even though I normally avoid florals. I want a partial but not sure if I need a full bottle. Debating.. 

This blend sounded perfect for me, but on me it's a green scent with a lot of cardamom. I'm not getting honey, milk, or much carnation, except maybe a very green kind of carnation. A testament to how much skin chemistry and "nose" matters--feyofthefellwood, who reviewed above, sent me the tester and it looks like we are getting very different scents. I really wanted to love this but it just isn't working on me. The hunt for the perfect cardamom scent continues. 

Yay the mods helped me fix an issue with not being able to respond to this thread.. would love to resume a discussion on allergies if anyone else has them. 

I've previously had issues with contact dermatitis with some BPAL blends - possibly Chimera's cinnamon, but it was so long ago and I just realized something in the past week that puts everything into doubt. Throughout the lockdown I've been buying and testing BPAL like mad (it's been a lovely distraction), and that means putting on 3+ scents a day on various parts of my arms. I also started keeping a detailed journal of each scent and my impressions of it, and when allergies reared their head I started keeping track of where on my arms I was putting each scent so I could do, ahem, "contact tracing" (highly recommend to our Government during this time of COVID). There were a few things that seemed to trigger itchy white bumps that would last for days that I set aside as being allergic to, when I had a huge realization in the past week - Dark Rosaleen (which I love) seemed to be causing allergies, because two different spots I put it on, one of which I hadn't put anything else on, came up with hives. But not for 3 days after I applied. So I went back and tested Dark Rosaleen on my left arm, near the shoulder, where I haven't tested ANY BPAL at all, ever. And approximately two days later, small bumps appeared. So then I had to go back through all my notes.. all the stuff I thought I was allergic to - No Man is an island, Colemanite Phoenix, Kommt Mit.. all of those were blends I had put on the DAY the hives appeared. But going through my notes, it seems it was actually something else.. potentially Aradia, Buck Moon ' 19 (this has pine pitch in common with Dark Rosaleen.. but the pine pitch in Illustrated Woman, for instance, I'm not allergic to), and The Instinct of Hope. I won't know for sure until I retest those. The instinct of hope is almost definitely one that I'm allergic to based on the areas I tested and the reaction a few days later, so I might have some kind of wood allergy. I won't retest that one though as I didn't like it on either prior occasion. Also the odd thing about Dark Rosaleen is the first time I applied it I had no reaction whatsoever in that area, it wasn't until the second+ times that I had a reaction.

Anyways, would love to hear from others who have pinpointed their allergic reactions, and also hope this helps other who might have reacted to something.. knowing that actually hives can take several days to appear (maybe that's obvious to others..) rather than just minutes or hours, at least in some cases. 

Also, heartbroken about Dark Rosaleen which made it to my Top Ten list. But I'll try it in a scent locket once my locket ships! 

I had a bottle of original Midway once upon a time and swapped it away but just received a decant as a freebie and I'm quite taken by it.

Part of my brain did interpret it as teetering on the edge of plastic at first, but that went away. It is a very very quiet scent on me, I am not getting buttered popcorn, thankfully (some people have reported a greasy smell), but I'm getting a mildly sweet scent with an edge of salt that just gives it enough character to get by me (not a foodie). Based on the notes, I'm guessing I'm getting funnel cake and salt water taffy. It's not cloyingly sweet as cotton candy can be on me and thankfully not getting any apple (not one of my favorite notes). My 4 year old likes it and when asked what it smells like, declared "pancakes!" Although I generally shy away from BPAL's foodie scents (wary of the spices on my skin, for one, and my preferences are really towards non-foodie for the most part), I am quite entranced by this today. 

I like coconut in small amounts, but this is too much coconut for me. It's more suntan lotion than food on my skin. 

Initial blast of tart lime. Love that. It dries down to mostly cotton candy though, which is more sweetness than I prefer. I can see why foodies love this! 

Sugared honey! Lavender shows up but it doesn't take over, thankfully. I love this so much I want to marry it. Or buy multiple bottles. Which I'm no longer allowed to do, because I have never in my life finished a bottle or even gotten it down below label. (Truly a dabber).  This is indeed orgasmic. It's the type of blend that keeps me wondering how the Lab can create such magical scents, that don't smell like perfume so much as they evoke an experience, time after time and year after year. 

Unfortunately, I get little to no blueberry on my skin after two skin tests. It's all cardamom with some cream. Which smells yummy, but extremely simple. I wouldn't mind trying more scents with cardamom as I like it well enough here (though I'm wary of whether it might cause a skin reaction), but it doesn't justify a bottle. It does have great longevity. I could still smell it on my skin the next day. 

This is beautiful, smooth and golden. So very sophisticated--much more perfume-y than my usual loves from BPAL. Longevity is a bit lacking on me though, and it's not the type of scent I fall hard for. So I am both in awe of this scent and yet not too sad that I have only a decant. 

Wet, this is all herbs --- kitchen herbs. Then it dries down to a sweet, mildly pleasant golden scent. The very deep drydown reminds me vaguely of So Below (which i did not love either though many do). It's more kitchen herb gold than forest gold on me, sadly. I don't get animalistic musk nor the glory that is Buck Moon, which I am forever trying to recreate. Low throw, decent longevity. 

This is beautiful, and my runaway hit from this batch of trios. Love at first sniff. It is a high-pitched scent and I often go for more unisex scents, but I love it. I wish I could describe why, but I can't (this is why I don't post reviews, but I've made it my resolution to post reviews anyways because I wait with baited breath for other's reviews).  I tested it against A Vision of the Courtesan, which is much sweeter and somehow "lighter" (more girly, less sophisticated) but I like this better, actually, and Vision was my favorite of the Lupers I tested (not that many). I'm not even sure why I tested this one first out of all my trios, maybe because I had recently been reminded of how much I love both French and Bulgarian Tobacco single notes, but this isn't really like those notes.. it's not chewy or dry and sweet. It is, like all of Beth's scents when they work on me, pure magic. It is more of a sophisticated, perhaps almost perfume-y scent than I normally go for, but it's one I'd like to keep around. If these notes speak to you, don't sleep on this one! 

This is more fig-centric on me in the wet phase. I actually like the Coconut, Smoked Vanilla, and Fig trio better for a sweet fig scent, as this one is not very interesting on my skin. This dries down to something a little reminiscent of Chaste Moon, one of my favorites, but I like Chaste Moon better--the creamy scent without the fig note here. Also started having a skin reaction (bumps) on the wrist I applied this today (but not yesterday), but I have a history of allergic reactions to certain BPALs (Chimera famously sensitized me so badly that I couldn't use most BPAL for a long time) and it could have been building up from other oils, it's so hard to say, but something to keep in mind. I don't see an obvious trigger like cinnamon here. 

What oils jump out at you at being both a) amazing, and b) containing Bulgarian Tobacco? I love both French and Bulgarian Tobacco scents, but the latter a bit more. LE or GC. Thank you!