patina

This comes on as a lot of powdery cacao, like sticking my nose in a box of unsweetened cocoa. Sweet resins appear around the edge. Somehow this does make me think of thunderstorms. Maybe it's partly the violets giving a clean shower feel against the dark resins and patchouli. The throw is quite sweet but not overwhelming and I'm interested to see how this will age. Similar to Scattered Gloom.

I didn't find the resins here as stompy and headshoppy as those in Blood Rose. Also this one is more balanced during the drydown, while Blood Rose turns to soft rose powder. But the comparison between the two is pretty fair. This is well blended to me, with the resins turning this into something sweet with my skin chemistry. This reminds me there's a violently pink summertime drink made of rose syrup. The scent also really reminds me of those old Rose Petal Place scented dolls from the 80's. I can't pick out clove.

In the bottle I get leather, with a waft that's not exactly skunky but I'm not going to mistake it for white sage or mugwort either. Caveat: this bottle is aged and sat in a 101F/38C degree mailbox for an hour. On my skin the leather is the note that stands out the most. The herb is well behaved, settling into a soft green that could be mugwort. It's reminding me of the smell of dollar bills. It's mingled with lime and that lime is pretty faint actually, probably due to aging. Verdict: Mostly a medium leather with green. Pleasant, actually.

I get Coke like resins (myrrh and ambrette) and orange peel maybe? Though now that it's pointed out I can find bay leaf.

The words read clearly "Black Silk Orchid." Yet I picked it up hoping for fresh floral and black musk. There is black musk, but it's far more of a black silk than the normal musk. It's sort of sleek and very nice. I don't know why I'd expect something different.

Bottle: The lemony scent I get from tobacco sometimes. Clean. I was looking forward to being able to describe the type of fougere here. Was it especially green or oakmossy? Was there geranium possibly? Sadly all I can report is that yes, that is certainly a fougere. It's clean. There's greenery. Perhaps lavender. Luckily it's not the powdery death that Vicomte de Valmont was on me. I know tobacco's there. I get clove mostly through a sense of sharpness. Unless my nose is broken the fougere is strong enough to camouflage it for now. Also my nose is very confused by the cool fougere and warm tobacco and spice. Oh, this reminds me a bit of the Halloweenie Carlin, if I'm remembering correctly. Not an exact match, because Lil Mister is a cologne but they share greenery and some clove. Edit: My allergies have kicked in and it's probably not smart to test this one further.

I keep trying this one. Mostly it smells like a very waxy basil scented candle on me. There's a smudge of smoke from the vetiver. There's something that might be pine. It's a little spicy but in a maddeningly faint way. It's slightly sweet and entirely unsatisfying on my skin. On the right person it has the potential to be a nice green men's/ unisex cologne, so there's that.

This is a powdery violet, but the lilac and tuberose round it out to some extent. It smells, well, lilac. Pale purple. Sweet, floral, soft but perfumy.

Thanks, I see. Opium Poppy isn't there. Though two now-availables are so maybe it has been dc'ed and just hasn't been announced yet.

This is more about GCs, but how do you tell the difference between simply out of stock GCs and permanently discontinued ones?

I'm lucky that this comes off as a realistic dewy white floral on me. I missed that this had moss in it and for once the moss isn't smothering. In fact, it might be balancing out the white floral elements. The scent's faintly powdery, but in a cool limestone way. The honey myrtle is lovely. I assume that's the faintly lemony element. This is one of my favorite summer scents. it's low key, appropriate for most settings, and makes me feel I'm somewhere less sweltering hot. EDIT: Just now, reading the poem behind one of my favorite scents was...weird. It made sense, though. This scent might be seen as a little creepy and wistful. (Probably the faint trace of menthol other reviewers noted.) Not at all a "black cats and little black dresses and darkness and Halloween" creepy but in a "come away o human child" sort of thing.

I got a hint of pink marshmallow under layers and layers of grainy burnt sugar grapey myrrh. Now, I absolutely love myrrh and amber. I love sweet scents. But this is ultimately just too much for me. Way too sweet with nothing to balance it out.

Blood Rose was probably the first BPAL I tried. The dragon's blood (powdery incense) gives it a dirty hippie feel to my mind. It may be dark and sensual but this feels like a carefree summertime scent as well. Maybe that's why other reviewers have used the phrase "days of wine and roses." The juicy rose wine below is lovely, but sadly all of that vanishes and eventually all that gets left behind is pink rose.

Opium generally has a sort of latex/bandaid quality to it. This opium is lighter and sweeter than some. The comparison to tobacco flower is apt too. I can understand why it might be perceived as a white floral but also as dark. Narcotic, hypnotic, but soft around the edges. This is reminiscent of some old fashioned perfume while being less formal than most. This has been one of my favorites for a while now. It's a summer goth scent, even better when layered with Black Lily.

GCs might be best at first since they're easier to find. Snake Oil is great, though very strong. I'd call it more overpowering than dark. I'd recommend Velvet, Haunted, Black Lily (though lily goes to soap on some people the scent feels like black silk), and Event Horizon. Maybe Bastet. You might want to try some lighter but haunting scents that catch your eye as well like Nocturne or The Ghost (if you like florals).