MamaMoth

Yeah, the batch difference between the first and the second stocking of Black Death are HUGE. The second one is so much fruitier. It was different enough that I thought perhaps I got the wrong scent as well.

Wow! This smells like a honey lemon cough drop! (The ones that are more like candy than medicine.) Very tart/bitter lemon and sweet honey, with a little of cardamom's spice. As it dries, the lemony twang backs off and allows the cardamom a little more throw. The tartness really cuts through the sticky honey. Softly spicy, citrussy, and sweet. I really like this after about 30 or 45 minutes. Wearlength is pretty short, though. :\ Not sure I'd use a bottle of this, but it's a fun scent and I'll enjoy my decant during the summer, I think.

I received a fabulously aged imp of this. It is seriously thick and dark and just gorgeous. Lust has three things I love (red musk, patchouli, myrrh) and one thing I detest (ylang-ylang). I was interested to see if my loves could whip my nemesis into shape. The verdict? No. Gorgeous aged red musk, earthy patchouli, and sweet resiny myrrh. When I first applied it, I thought I had a winner. The ylang-ylang is a bottom note and was behaving itself fairly well. then my skin chemistry took over and amped it beyond all comprehension. Ended up cloyingly floral. And the sickening, opressive ylang-ylang brought out the worst aspects of the red musk, making it overwhelming and heavy and thick. I had to wash it off.

In the imp, I smell sweet candied floral, vanilla. Yummy, slightly foody, girly, sweet. Wet on: I agree that this reminds me of Dorian, and that I would have sworn there was tea and white musk in here. A little bit of lemony vanilla, sugary sweet pea, white musk. I cannot smell sandalwood at any stage. I think that's the amber grounding it with a slightly resiny powdery base. (VERY slight. As in, I wouldn't have been able to put a name to it if it weren't in the note list.) As it dries, it goes the route of Dorian. Soapy. :\ I can see why this one is popular, but it wasn't really a "me" scent even before it turned to soap.

First on, this is a beautiful pine/vanilla, with maybe a touch of juniper behind it. I love love BPAL pine, but I've never tried "white" pine and this is gorgeous. It's almost like a mentholated pine? I don't know how to describe it, but it's all the zing of pine without the greenness. It gets so soft and beautiful as it dries. The pine, vanilla, and the amber mesh to create this golden resiny softness. Amber can sometimes be really powdery on my skin, but I feel like the pine and juniper are keeping it in check here. And juniper in too great a presence is always too sharp and masculine on me, but there really is just a breath of it here. Underlying everything here is this lovely soft woodsiness. I've tried "rosewood" blends that smelled of rose, but I can't detect that here. I really adore this! Softly woodsy, just a little creamy and sweet, with tangy pine. It could definitely be worn by a guy, but it's also that kind of masculine that is dead sexy on a woman.

In the vial, this smells like sweet, flat cola with lime and cherry. Wet on, the vetiver flares for a few minutes, but then settles back down into just a little dirty smokiness. The cherry smell settles into a nutty sweet almond. Fully dried, nothing really pops out here, it's a good blend. Sweet but not oversweet. It has that powdery resin kind of feel, overlaying an almost baked-goods kind of base. Just a little bit of smokiness and earthiness. I really like this!

I got a bottle of Black Death from the first batch, and it was super heavy on the clove and bay, kind of dry and spicy, with heavier patchouli. I picked up a backup from the second batch (I think 2nd. After a reorder at DD.) And this bottle is insanely different. It's so much fruitier... the lemon peel and the lime are much more prominent. The bay has taken a definite back seat, as has the patch. The clove is stronger, too. At first I thought I didn't like it, but now I'm thinking I'd like a balance between the two. I'm tempted to mix a half-and-half imp of the two.

This was totally worth the wait and the hassle to get my grubby little hands on it. The vanilla is syrupy, heavy, and sweet. There is none of the plasticky whang that fresh vanilla sometimes has, this is rich, golden, and deep like aged vanilla. The patchouli is black and rooty and earthy. The hemp is kind of dry and herby. It goes on super sweet and syrupy, and just a touch medicinal. The comparison to Goblin was apt, as it does remind me of that a lot when it's wet. It dries less sweet (but still pretty sweet) and warm and earthy and just... YUM. So good.

Fresh smelling, a little herbal and a little tart. But above all: soap. Probably the soapiest-smelling BPAL I've ever put my nose to.

Perfumey, sharp, floral, and sour. Blech

Frankincense and ginger are the top notes. Sharp, resin-sweet, and a little citrussy. I don't smell the cream exactly, but there's something there tempering the sharpness of those two top notes that could be called "creamy." (But it doesn't do what a straight-up cream note does on my skin.) I can tell there's more behind it, but I can't distinguish anything in particular. It's reminding me a bit of what I remember Sudha Segara to smell like, but I don't have any SS on hand to compare side by side. As it dries, I can detect a sharpish-smelling woodsy component. Asuhi is likened to cedarwood, so that works. The ginger bite fades to just a nippy citrus note. The frankincense is still out front. Orris and leather have yet to put in a solid appearance.

Tobacco and clean leather and a little bit of dark smooth wood. Those sound like warm kind of fuzzy notes, but this actually strikes me as very clean and almost watery. The tobacco here has a different kind of characteristic than I'm used to with BPAL tobacco. It is golden and slight and very lovely. I want to search out blonde tobacco in other blends now. Leather can go very bad and a little cloying on me, but whatever kind of leather this is I could actually appreciate and wear it. I really can't note any cognac at all. This blend is not rich... it has a sparse feel to it. Like a modern chair carved in sleek wooden curves with a leather seat. It's a pleasant scent, but not really me.

Goes on VERY winey with a superfruity sweetness, backed by dark smokiness, and almost a tinge of rot or decay. Very aggressive. It starts morphing almost immediately after touching my skin, The fruit wine backing off and a heavy smoky rose-ish incense gaining strength. Dried, this is really hard to describe. Very well blended. Smoky and red-fruity and a little sweet. The fermented winey vibe is gone. I can maybe pick out a little bit of cherry, but the fruitiness is mostly indistinct red sweetness. There's a little aura of dark woodsiness about it. I think I can detect a little bit of rose, but it's very well meshed and non-offensive to my floral-hating nose. This blend ends up surprisingly soft and gentle, considering how it came out of the gate swinging. I think I might come to love this. Very compelling.

Goes on very green and planty, with a bit of that "mildew" note familiar from other BPALs. It's very cologney right now. The cologneyness of it eases off as it dries, and the dusty fungus aspect gets a little more prominent. The super-greenness of it morphs into a more woods-and-plants kind of smell. It's ok. Not offensive, but not outstanding to me. It definitely falls into the category of stuff that I like, but it lacks that something that would make it a standout.

Wet, it's very strongly quince. I must confess I wasn't familiar with quince, but here it reminds me a bit of apricot. It settles as it dries, but quince is still the predominant note. It makes me think of a quince liqueur because it's boozy and very sweet. The mandarin is very clear now, but as a supporting note to the quince. The honey and vanilla are pretty meshed here, and they are gorgeous and golden and sweet. The tobacco is subtle to me, but I love tobacco and can't get enough of it as a note. It really starts to get good after about an hour, when the quince/mandarin liqueur has backed off into a supporting role of the honeyed vanilla tobacco. But at that point, the whole blend is very faint on my skin. But MAN is it good then. I have my nose glued to my wrist. I would be very interested in seeing how this one ages. Quite possibly, it could go the direction that it does on my skin after a while. EDIT sliding up in here THIRTEEN years later (bonkers) to report that, yes, it has aged MAGNIFICENTLY. the quince, which i was afraid might age out, has gotten incredibly smooth and mellow, it just infuses the whole blend instead of poking out anywhere. since i first reviewed this, i have learned the depths of my love for cognac and tobacco notes. in this one they have aged into a creature of sublime beauty. i wouldn't say honeyed vanilla tobacco anymore. velvety, sweet, quince-infused cognac and tobacco. unbelievably smooth. dare i say, a little lace-like? i'm dipping well into my 3rd and final bottle now. so very sad.

Goes on very citrussy, but in a perfumey way rather than, say a fresh-fruit kind of way. As it dries, though... this lovely smokey muskiness starts to come out behind the citrus. I know that khus=vetiver, but I never smell even a trace of it... just this lovely soft smoke. The citrus is always the top note, but it changes to very much the 'rind', with just a touch of bitterness. Lovely! In extended drydown, that "perfumey" ness reasserts itself lightly. I don't smell the gardenia or white musk exactly, but I would almost guarantee they are the culprits. Nary a blackberry could be detected. I liked the burnt mandarin rind, Indian musk, and khus very much. But the other elements turned this into something that, while pretty, isn't for me. It's just as well, because my skin ate it up and it was almost undetectable within an hour.

What an interesting blend! In the imp, the vetiver is very off-putting. (As is its wont.) On the skin it immediately calms. Vetiver and patchouli mingle to be earthy and a little bit scorchy, sweetened and freshened up by this lovely grapefruit note. I'm not crazy about the smell of grapefruit, and vetiver can be pretty scary sometimes. But it feels like their bitterness couples here to bolster the good aspects. After about 30 minutes most of the scorchiness has burned off, and it's just lovely and earthy. The grapefruit is tangy and a little sweet, but it doesn't actually smell like grapefruit at this point. I would have guessed some other kind of fruit. Rhinotoros is earthy and rich, a little scorchy, bitter, a little sweet, a little tangy. If you're a vetiver-hater, I'd avoid it. But if you're like me, and on the fence about vetiver... give this one a try! I'm not sure if I'll get a bottle, but I bet I'll enjoy my decant.

2010 decant Red musk like whoa. Sweetened and slightly boozy red musk. It smells good, but I think it needs to sit in the dark and do its thing for a good long while before it reaches its peak. It's a intensely sharp and perfumey (and a little plasticy) right now.

Disclaimer: I'm not a foodie person, but every note in this is one that I love in other blends, so I couldn't resist a decant. Nutty, gloopy chocolate and spices. This goes on heavy and nauseatingly rich. Dries down much lighter as a cardamom chocolate. It also still smells quite nutty to me. If this was swirled in a jar, I'd spread it on toast and I'm sure it'd be delicious. No ginger, no coconut, no rum. Disappointed. I wanted boozy coconutty spicy chocolate. I just got it in the mail today, so I'll let it settle a while and try it again in a couple of weeks.

2010 decant I can only describe this as "perfumey." Smells like the endless floral/perfumey-musk blends that you find on a perfume counter, and it's not doing anything for me.

An itch that needs to be scratched: Snake Oil and three types of honey. Exactly as advertised. The honey is a little more dominant than I'd hoped, but I think the Snake Oil will gain some muscle as it ages. No-brainer bottle purchase.

Going through my Luper decants, this is the first one to be granted a skin test. It smelled that intriguing in the vial. I looooove this. Seriously. It is primarily honeyed sandalwood on me. BPAL sandalwood can sometimes be too dry-smelling on my skin, and honey can sometimes be to sticky-sweet. But here, they complement each other gorgeously. Not too cedary/woodsy, not too icky sticky sweet. I can't detect a floral note at all, but there is almost a creamy fullness to it, so perhaps that could be the rice flower? The pepper is fairly imperceptible. Since I know it's there, I can sense a gentle little pepper bite, almost like a slight note that leads it to the nose. Oakmoss can make an oil smell to masculine to me sometimes, but here it just meshes with the sandalwood to contribute to the soft woodsiness. Throw leaves a little bit to be desired, this is definitely a skin scent. Four hours after application, I can only smell it if I press my nose to my wrist. But where it rubbed off my neck onto my shirt, it's still wafting about nicely. So this may be the blend that prompts me to invest in a scent locket. ETA: After letting this settle for a few days, the pepper becomes more prominent. I'd describe this as a honeyed peppery sandalwood. SO freakin good.

In the imp, this is a little scary. Heavy and scorched and fairly masculine/cologney. It lightens up considerably when it touches my skin, though. Faintly sour and bitterish, but in an interesting and compelling way. Dark and smoky, with a bit of a spicy-resin quality. It seems so heavy and thick at first, but my skin just eats it up until it has very little throw. It's not nearly as demony as I would have expected. Hastur is sexy and dangerous... a beautiful arsonist. I wish it lasted a bit longer. After an hour or so, it's just a vague smoky trace on my skin. :\

Black Heart is fruity, and a touch floral. Delicious plum and grape, a little dusty. Sweet and pretty. Picks up a bit of a woodsy incense vibe as it dries. Reminds me of Dionysia a bit.

2010 decant Sugar notes are a little sour on me sometimes, and this starts off the same way. But luckily it fades back here. This is the same musk that's in Dorian, but instead of the intense soapiness I get there, here it's sweet and creamy. A little bit boozy when wet, that fades away fairly quickly. It dries a little powdery, creamy and sweet, musky and incensey. Very rich. I like this, because it's pretty and feminine without being floral.