Ashmedai

 

I can definitely smell the apple peel, but it's not that meekly-fruity apple note that I disliked in many BPALs - this is red, blood-red, juicy-blood-red apple that's almost aggressive in its boldness. Man, finally an apple scent I like! It settles back after a while, letting the geranium and mahogany have a chance, and what a perfect combination of notes this is! I smell almost no rose and vanilla is hiding back there somewhere, apparent but subtle. The main notes remain red apple, mahogany and geranium, and it's a brilliant blend. Polished, red and mouth-wateringly juicy. Very glad I got a bottle!

It starts out with a scent that's oddly like strong red carnations, that mildly clove-y scent that isn't clove. But I think that's the redwood and black tea interacting. That settles down almost immediately and the rosewood (bois de rose) comes forward. Then it shifts again and the black tea scented with dried rose petals moves to the front. I can smell lilac beside it all, but very faintly at this stage. It gets stronger the more it dries, but it's never overpowering. Rosewood and redwood take center stage here alongside discreet florals and a tannic, slightly spicy note of black tea. It smells mysterious and almost (appropriately) Victorian-era spooky, and there's something that leaves an odd dusty impression, the way an old parlor would, or a cake of expensive soap manufactured 100 years ago that still carries a dusty trace of scent. I wasn't sure I'd like this one, but I'm really digging this!

Oh wow! Strong benzoin and labdanum, with a hint of angelica - this is stunning on application! Something slightly peppery comes out as it dries, I'm assuming this is the betel leaf (I have no clue what that smells like, so I'm guessing here), and it complements the sweet resins beautifully. Olibanum is very faint, I can barely tell it's there, but it gives this a smoky undertone. I don't smell any galbanum or mastic at this stage, but it's a great blend, especially for lovers of sweet incense resins, which I am. Near final dry-down I can detect a little more olibanum, a touch of mastic and now definitely some galbanum with its green-woody-rooty notes. Star players remain the benzoin and labdanum, making the blend sweet, dark-vanillic and rich, with the rooty, herbacious and deep green note of galbanum right alongside. I'm loving this already, and it's going to age spectacularly - very glad I got a bottle!

I can smell every single note in this right on application. The eucalyptus and mint are both indeed "white", i.e., mild and sweet, not like an ice pick to the brain via the sinuses. The grapefruit is a bit bitter, like the peel more than the fruit, but it's very pleasant and off-sets the eucalyptus and mint perfectly. The frankincense fades quickly, and I smell almost no iris or wormwood at this stage, but there is a rich, sweet background of davana. The key players are mint, eucalyptus and grapefruit with darker, grounding undertones. There is a short phase where I think, "Huh? Wrigley's Doublemint gum?", but that settles as it dries. It smells more like a therapeutic or spa scent than a perfume, which I like. Not sure I'll keep this, since I have other blends that fit that slot, but it sure is nice!

A bit smoky on application, and I can smell sandalwood, oudh and labdanum most clearly. Vanilla is also apparent, but not the foody vanilla that turns to plastic on me, but a dark and still sweet vanilla. Damn, this is intriguing! I do smell some pink pepper and saffron as it dries, but it's never in-your-face spicy, and they enhance the woods and resin beautifully. Finaly dry-down is mainly labdanum, a gorgeous oudh, and sandalwood with dark vanilla. Holy hell, this is gorgeous! I may need a back-up bottle, and it's going to age into something unbelievably stunning. I do agree with the previous reviewer that there's something vaguely "pink" here, but I wouldn't compare it to High Strung Daisies at all, it's much too dark and resiny, and yet... there's a little pink dancing around in the darkness, which is a sweet and comforting darkness. Indeed some strangeness in the proportion, but a brilliant one.

There's tuberose in Stardust, and I'm placing a bet it's that. Tuberose is a very heady, almost narcotic "white" floral that smells very strong (and yes, old-timey), along the lines of a more intense, deeper and sweeter gardenia.

My daughter loves the smell of coffee with cream. Misk U was proclaimed "not coffee" and I don't think Mata Hari will do it. Any other ideas?

 

I second Mornings in New Orleans. Or IXHV4, or maybe The Turkish Village would work too.

Wet on skin, I smell ivy - still greenish, but dried and not so "wet-green", which I never liked in BPAL's ivy note. This is excellent, though! Alongside that, the scent of rich, black loamy earth, a note that's really started to grow on me since I fell in love with "Garden of Death" in a previous year's Halloween update, but I only like a little of that note, and here it's blended in perfectly. Next to come forward is that fantastic "dried leaves" note I love so much - clearly maple, and clearly my favorite - sweetened just a bit by the fig. There's also something slightly vegetal and peppery, like bell pepper and tomato leaf, but far underneath the main notes (love it!). I don't smell much, if any, cypress, and would have missed it if I hadn't known it was there, same with the honey (and I normally amp honey like nobody's business). It doesn't morph much to the final dry down - slightly smoky dried ivy and leaves, rich vegetal earth, and a very light touch of fig. This just shot up to my #1 favorite from the Halloween update and is the fall scent of my dreams. I need a back-up...or twenty.

Bumping this thread because it is Spring and I'm craving green but I'm being a picky brat! I'm obsessing over Hemlock Honey, but I'm looking for something else complex, bright green on top, with a creamy, musky drydown. Not too appley, sour, teaish, airy, dank (I have plenty of those!), or identifiably herbally. Recommendations are always appreciated.

 

A Blade of Grass comes to mind, so does Garden Path With Chickens, or Hagsgate and The Norn's Farmhouse from the GC. I'm craving "green" scents too right now, so I'll watch this thread to see what others recommend.

Curiously, Hothrun Dath, even though it doesn't have tobacco listed. The first time I sniffed French Tobacco SN, I could have sworn I was sniffing Hothrun Dath, which I'm familiar with since I wear it often. The resemblance was really marked and even the dry-down was like...two slightly varying shades of the same fragrance on my skin, if that makes sense.

That scent family is one of my favorites. What I like best from the GC are Apothecary, Absinthe, Magus, Elf, Water of Notre Dame, Nostrum Remedium, Leanan Sidhe, Yggdrasil and Quietude. Favorite LEs are Silver Phoenix, Season of Ghosts, Dream, Sleep, The Cold Hour of Dawn, Silver Phoenix and Bat of Health. Also great are Silence and Garden Path With Chickens from the (discontinued) Salon, maybe Cleopatra Testing Poisons on Those Condemned to Death (I amp the herbal notes in that one, though).

Sleepy Moon definitely, and another lunar blend that helps me a lot is Black Moon (either year - there was one in 2011 and one in 2006 I believe), which isn't as hard to find as Sleepy Moon. I think it's the mugwort, it does wonders to help me sleep. Also there were two LE's not long ago I'd rec, "Sleep" and "Dream". But I'll definitely third the rec for TAL "Nocturne" - it knocks me out so reliably I'm even willing (as a guy) to smell a little "rosy" for the night.

In the bottle and wet on skin: drools-worthy vanilla and cinnamon. The "real" sort of cinnamon you find in your spice rack, not the red-hots kind. If it stayed like this, I'd be one happy camper. However, ten minutes in, the spiced pumpkin pie note I recognize from other pumpkin blends really comes out. It's tempered a little by the vanillas, but it's that scratchy, rough note that never works on my skin, albeit not as strong as in some blends. There's something that reminds me of nuts too, either fresh hazelnuts or walnuts, and it seems to stick around for a while, as does quite a bit of the vanilla. But woah - that pumpkin and spice, it clobbers everything eventually. I might try this in an oil burner and I'll keep my bottle for now, but that pumpkin/spice thing is screeching itself hoarse on my skin. Too bad, it sounded so promising.

Thank you again, Herb Girl, for sending me such a generous amount of this oil!

Sweeter than I expected, and I can clearly smell the fennel, olibanum, and bergamot, a moment later the lemongrass and geranium. Usually these notes smell very sharp on me, but here they're mild, smooth and sweetened by something else. Davana and zdravetz maybe? The overall impression I have is a sweet, clean, resiny-herbal scent. And wow - is it strong! I used it to dress candles with, and not wanting to waste even a bit, annointed myself with the tiny bit of residue that was left on my fingers. The next day my whole bed smelled of Libertas and I was amazed how far an amount that didn't even equal one drop went.

Effective for the purpose I used it for? I don't want to go into detail, but yes - a thousand times yes. I'm quite surprised actually, since I wasn't expecting such a profound effect, but there you go.

Wow, no reviews on this yet? Thanks, Honey, for the generous tester of this beautiful scent! This is unexpectedly sweet and light, not nearly as sharply lavender as I was expecting (I normally amp lavender like nobody's business). The sandalwood and vanilla do a lot to tone down the lavender, and so this is more similar to TKO than to anything in the Somnus line, which is what I was actually expecting. I do smell a bit of geranium, chamomile and mugwort, but more as a backdrop for the lavender-vanilla notes, which remain the star players for a while. Dried down, the herbal notes fade, the oudh and opium tar are most prominent, and now I can smell the styrax and frankincense too (at this point it almost reminds me of a lighter, fluffier version of Midnight Mass, more an incense blend than the typical lavender-heavy "sleep" blends I'm familiar with. This is also the best oudh note I've ever smelled in a blend). The vanilla-lavender comes back on final dry-down and joins the incense and light wood notes - this is great! I'd describe it as a much more complex, multi-layered, very incensy version of TKO. The only down-side is that it's extremely light and doesn't have much lasting power. Really beautiful while it lasts, though, and I'm all mellowed out after a stressy day at work, sniffing this - wish I had a bottle. Or six dozen bottles. Nah, make that a vat.

My mother always raised Devil's Trumpet in pots that lined her terrace, and I remember the tall plants with their beautiful blooms, but I especially remember the sweet, tropical, heady and intoxicating scent they released when the sun started to go down. I think it's one of my favorite blossoms scent-wise, and so I snapped up a bottle of this to use in the oil burner.

 

I get a lot of greenery too, and while I remember I could smell the greenery of the plants when the sun had warmed them, it wasn't very prominent. There's also something going on that smells like what musk does on my skin, going pungent for a while and then receeding. There's a vague floral that reminds me of lily of the valley or gardenia or something...very kind of wishy-washy, not at all like the bold, seductive sweetness of real Devil's Trumpet, and I'd never identify it as such if I smelled this on someone. It's not bad , mind you. But it's not Devil's Trumpet, at least not to my nose.

Wet on skin, this is a virtual wallop'o'red musk and honey (which smells more like mead than actual honey - I think I remember this note from Mead Moon, it's a little more boozy or like hard candy than most honey notes). As it dries a bit, I can just barely discern elemi, ho wood and something slightly astringent and "dark green" which I'm guessing is the hemlock accord, but the notes sort of flit in and out, there and then gone because the red musk sweetened by honey is so strong. A little while later, cedar makes an appearance, and a pretty strong one. For a while it's a neck-on-neck race with the red musk and honey, but cedar eventually loses out and drops behind several paces. Final dry-down is basically a heady, thick and syrupy red musk and honey, with a curious green-ish undertone (hemlock accord?). I didn't get any patchouli, and barely any champaca flower.

 

I think comparisons to Snake Oil and Womb Furie are pretty accurate. It has a little more complexity than either, but I really had to dig around for the more subtle notes. I do like it a lot, but I have a couple similar blends and I'm not a huge fan of red musk, so this will probably go to a better home. I have to say the honey note is one of the best I've ever smelled in a blend - usually honey is a death note for me, but here it worked beautifully.

The Apothecary - it doesn't have much soil to it - but it's the closest thing to a thriving herb garden besides actually going outside and taking a big sniff of mine. It has the scent of fresh growing things and also dried herbs.

 

It's also GC so you can get an imp.

 

 

You're right, The Apothecary is great, it was one of my first bottle purchases and I use it a lot.

 

Hagsgate.

 

I can't even tell you how much I love this one. It is close to witch's garden, but the finish is nicer on me .less floral than garden path with chickens too.

 

Hagsgate is definitely going on my next order. I was lucky to get a tester of it and loved it immediately.

Wet on skin: I smell mild white sandalwood and definitely carrot seed - however, it's less like carrot seed and more like sweet, fresh-grated carrots at this stage. I'm very much a fan of any carrot and wood notes, so I'm really digging this. Something else develops rather rapidly, and this is hard to describe (I'm assuming it's the fragonia, which I'm not familiar with at all). It smells almost medicinal, but in a very pleasant way, like light amber blended with very, very faint hints of eucalyptus, lemon and a warm spice, alongside a balsam that reminds me of labdanum or balsam of Peru...but probably is neither. All I know is that it's extremely pleasant but hard to narrow down (this is one of those scents where I hope nobody from the Lab reads my review, because they'll probably break out in giggle-fits. Anyway...). The carrot seed joins it again after a while, and now it does smell like the carrot seed I remember (and love) from "Breathless Horror" or "Solitary and Abhorred", but it's much more subtle here. The sandalwood seems to have cloaked itself in the rest of the notes, because I can't pick it out anymore at this stage.

There's a very faint soapy note on final dry-down, but so faint it's barely detectable, and it soon disappears. Otherwise, this smells sweet, balsamic and very slightly vanillic with a woodsy undertone that reminds me of both paper or parchment and that unique scent a pile of dried firewood has. I think this is one of the more complex scents I've ever smelled, despite its having only three notes listed. While it keeps a vaguely (pleasant) medicinal vibe, it reminds me most of BPAL's "book" or "paper" scents (mostly "Old Moon 2012" without the wallop of vanilla or "The Lurid Library" with a bit more complexity and less sweetness). It's not a typical perfume scent, but I find it extremely beautiful and intriguing, evoking a cozy sense of peace and comfort - not at all the soul-less cold the description would indicate. I think this will be my go-to scent on rainy, cold afternoons. It brings back memories of my great-grandmother's old farmhouse with its wood-burning stoves, the ancient root cellar, bundles of drying herbs, old books and the medley of scents that wove themselves into a blanket of comfort for me as a small child. Absolutely love this!

I second Al-Azif. You might also like King Cobra, and if you can find it, the original Hellfire is pure sweet incense on my skin.

Some people get a strong zucchini note out of the "courgette musk" in Orc. It has leather and vetiver as well, but no florals. And it's impable GC!

 

Thanks! Leather and vetiver aren't usually good on me, but in a few blends I've been surprised that they work really well.

 

How about Envy? It's all quite herbal, mint, lime, lavender, with something that smells a tad like dill, too.

 

I think I even have an imp somewhere - sounds like I need to re-test that. Thanks!

 

if you can track down an imp of karme, it's straight-up vegetable garden in the sun.

 

edit- duh, everybody else said that too:) i second the witch's garden, it's one of the more unique scents i've smelled from the gc.

 

I was lucky to find an imp of Karme in swaps, and I'm definitely looking forward to it. I also ordered The Witch's Garden along with my Halloweenies last night. Unsniffed, but it sounds like exactly what I'm looking for. Thanks!

That really does sound intriguing - I need to find that. Thanks!

 

 

Another LE, but Pumpkin Patch III from 2009 had tomato leaf. The description is: Pumpkin, fir needle, pitch, rosemary, and tomato.

I love it. It's one of my favorite pumpkins because of the tomato leaf.

Just read some reviews, and this sounds incredibly awesome. Thanks for the rec!

 

 

Virgo 2007 smells like a vegetable patch on me.

 

Virgo 2007

Mutable earth: the essence of analysis.

Fennel, valerian, maidenhair fern, carrot seed, honeysuckle, and myrtle.

That really does sound great - and fortunately still available. Thanks!

 

 

What about AE Albopictus? Tomato leaf, very good...

Is that Worm Moon 2008? Sounds intriguing - thanks!

 

 

I think Planting Moon just may be perfect for you. The notes are -Budding summer squashes and pole beans, tomato leaves, upturned earth, May's wildflowers, and sun-warmed herbs. I don't get much soil or floral from it, mostly warm green herbs.

 

That is my favorite garden scent. Mmmmm... tomato leaf

 

The original worm moon was very fresh planting.