MamaMoth

Luperci 2010 All of the components are meshed really well here, so it's hard to pick anything out. The patchouli is very subtle but it's there as a base. Juniper scares me at times, but it's well behaved here (although it and the oakmoss are what is giving this a bit of a masculine edge.) Honey sweetens everything up a bit but it's not a prominent note. I can't detect any beeswax. Overlaying everything is a vague muskiness. Overall I'd call this woodsy and fresh-green tinted, slightly sweet and musky. It's unisex but leaning toward masculine.

In the bottle: delicious patchouli, astringent herbs and resins Wet on, the resins and juniper leap forward and almost overtake the patchouli. Sharp frankincense and juniper are the stars of the show here. Aggressively masculine and fierce. It gentles a bit as it dries, but overall this scent is sharp like a sword. I never detected any of the cocoa, which is really a shame.... it could have softened and sweetened things a bit. I'm a girl who likes a lot of guy scents, but I'm afraid this is too masculine for me. The juniper is insanely prominent, and it gives the resins a high-pitched kind of tone. I'm going to cellar it for a while. Hopefully, the patchouli and cocoa can gain a little ground, and the resins can mature a little.

(09 decant) Tart red fruit with a base of.. something chemically and harsh. Well at least it lets me pinpoint an off note I detected in Mme. Moriarty. That chemicalness ages out of Mme, but there's really nothing here that makes me want to wait it out in this one.

In the vial, I smell red musk and bananas. o.O' How odd. Wet on, I smell some various fruits, (pineapple, banana, apple are the only ones I can single out) that dusty-sourish smell I associate with sugar cane, all atop a base of Scherezade. Seriously. Lots and lots of red musk with spice (the spice is probably the chili pepper.) It has that weird kind of fakey-incense thing going on which is what too much red musk smells like to me, and with the addition of the fruit, it kinda smells like gas station incense. :\ Dried, I smell nondescript dusty incense fruitiness.

My favorite of the 09 Phoenixes! Bottle: Astringently green. Something herbal, poisonous, and sticky green. Wet on skin: More of the same, but sweeter. A little bit of resin is creeping out from behind. Drying: Mmmm, sweet plum and poisonous greens. This is such a fascinating blend. The tobacco gives it a little bit of woody sweetness, and it's grounded by a resinous base. Fully dry: It's tangy and green and bitter on top, and sweet and resiny on the bottom. There's a slight pleasant mustiness to it, kind of like some fresh greens from the gardens have. Every so often I think I get a whiff of the tobacco. Love it. One of the most unusual BPALs I've smelled.

Oh how I wish this was what I got from Copper Phoenix. I really love orange/resin blends, so I had high hopes for this one. In the bottle and wet on: this is juicy sweet orange, amber, patchouli LOVE. As it dries, the amber gets a little powdery and the apricot and rose start to bloom out. Not so much love, but still very good. Then my skin chemistry does its (evil) magic, and the rose (and to a lesser degree, apricot) just keeps amplifying. It ends up being a rosy apricot backed by powdery amber and a little bit of spicy citrus. Why is it that I always seem to amp my least favorite notes in a blend? Very sad about this one. It came SO CLOSE to being a holy grail blend for me.

Of all the notes in this, verbena was the only one that I hoped would take a backseat. (Everything else was <3) So of course, lemony verbena is all I can smell. After it's had plenty of time to dry down, I think I can smell the barest whiff of powdery resin behind it, but unfortunately by this time the verbena has taken a soapy tinge.

I cannot wait to slather on some Hypothermia when the weather gets all yucky hot. It almost makes me look forward to summer, but not really.

Wet, this smells really aggressively of black musk and scary chocolate. Really sharp and maybe a little citrussy. I was hesitant to put it on, but thankfully it tempers the longer it stays on. 10 minutes or so after application, this is a soft dry cocoa and sweet smoky tobacco backed by lovely aura of dark musk. Basically, this smells like really rich chocolate pipe tobacco. It's lovely.

This is almost all Ylang-Ylang to me. I can kinda detect the patchouli and myrrh, a little. No clove that I can find. There are some really strong notes in this blend, but they're all utterly whupped by the Ylang-Ylang. I feel a floral headache coming on. :|

Wet, this is dirt and cakey ginger; like buried cookies. How odd, but compelling! As it dries the ginger gets less and less cookie-like, and eventually just fades to a faint sweet spiciness in the dirt. A generic florally smell comes out of NOWHERE to take it's place. Meanwhile the dirt note has backed off greatly. This ends up earthy and rich, sweet and gently floral, and just the tiniest bit spicy. Not my thing. But oils like this are why I <3 BPAL.

I LOVE the honeyed-dark-wine vibe of this. BPAL's grapey and honey notes always work rather beautifully on me. There's a lot of resiny goodness coming out here too. I *almost* really like this scent... BUT It has a strong floral headiness to it that is a little headache-inducing and oppressive to me. I adore plum and tobacco, but I guess I'm not too terribly fond of their flowers. Tis making me headachey, will have to wash off. Very sad about this one.

In bottle: slightly bitter. clove and bay, a little bit of scorchy sandalwood wet on skin: Clove and bay are vying for attention at first, but then the tobacco starts to bloom out and sweeten it almost immediately. The blackened sandalwood is there, but it softens up up to become gently woody and smoky, and it mingles with the tobacco beautifully. Patchouli is hanging out in the background there doin it's earthy/woody thing, but not really hogging the show. dry: Clove and bay are still at the forefront, but they're not too domineering. I can smell the sandalwood behind them, with a very light "burnt" vibe to it. The patch is there but it's not obvious to me. Take that with a grain of salt: I love patchouli and always yearn for more presence. The tobacco kind of hovers in a thin haze over everything. This is so rich! It has depth and darkness, but it's not oppressive in the slightest. I can't ever really smell the lemon verbena or lime, which was a disappointment at first. But I think that's part of the reason why this doesn't feel too heavy; they're in there keeping things fresh. The amber doesn't really let itself be known until extended drydown, after an hour or so. It takes on a softly resinous-powdery edge then, but I mean that in a good way. All the notes really do blend in the best possible way here. Clove can be so domineering on my skin, but it really shines here! Black Death is dark but not heavy, spicy but not too spicy, woody, a little bit earthy, a little sweet and a little bitter. I think I'm in love with this. eta: After a full day of wear, it reminds me a little of Mr. Jacquel. I debated adding Mr. Jacquel to my last order, and now I'm glad I didn't as I prefer Black Death.

Educational toys for tots! Learn non-Euclidean calculus, catoptric theory, quantum physics, and the mysteries of Elder magic the fun way! An ancient baetylus floating within an array of bizarre trapezoidal figures, glimmering tubes, rusting spheres, and whirling gogs formed from peculiar metals, glowing tektites, strangely suspended lead mirrors, and eerie driftings of meteoric dust. In the bottle and fresh on, this smells really interesting. Sharp spikes of metal and rust and glittering fragments of machinery. Fascinating and evocative. As it dries, it gets more mundane. Citrus, some kind of astringent greenery, maybe a pale musk. That "dust" note is still in there too. Overall, too piercing and soapy and cologney for me. But interesting. I didn't really think it'd be for me, but the description made it a must-try.

Elegba is one of my favorite BPALs... I think that's the first bottle I bought. It's so great, like butter-rum lifesavers and coconut pipe tobacco.

I've been wanting to try Obatala forever, so an unsniffed bottle will definitely be on my next order.

The world will love its darkness: cistus labdanum, ginger, East Indian patchouli, pimento berry, oakmoss, saffron, smoky vanilla, sage, myrrh, and bitter clove. I had some expectations about this scent that didn't match the reality at all. So I was a bit disappointed and unable to judge my decant accurately when I first tested it. Upon trying it a couple of weeks later, I can approach it with a fresh perspective and I realize that I quite like it after all. First and foremost it is a spicy resiny scent. The clove, pimento berry, and labdanum are up front, giving it a mulled kinda holiday kind of feeling. There's a smokiness behind that, and a woodsiness propping it up. It's sweet, but not overly so. The likening to Raven Moon is spot on, even thought the two don't really smell terribly alike. But they both have the same kind of complex smoky-resin thing going on. As a side note, it has the same kind of slight chemical undertone that Raven Moon had when it was fresh, that is especially apparent if you accidentally put too much on like I did. But that is going away already in my Raven Moon so I feel pretty confident that it'll smooth out in Men Loved Darkness as well. I wish I'd had this for the holidays, it would have been absolutely perfect to wear for seasonal gatherings. As it is, I've ordered a bottle. I'll probably cellar it until the next holiday season for the most part, and I cannot WAIT to see how it ages in that time.

When I was going through all of my Yule decants, I somehow advanced The Shivering Boy to my discard pile. All I can say is, I'm glad I decided to retest everything before I finalized my Yule order, because WTF did I put this out for? o.O' It's beautifully fruity, sweet with deep resins, and chilly without being minty. It also has an character of... I don't know quite how to describe it. Sweet spiciness, like spiced fruit. It's wonderful! And it actually *lasts* on me, unlike most of the Yules.

Resurrected 09 - decant Creamy gentle spices that I vaguely relate to Morocco, ginger, and lots of carnation. I don't always enjoy floral-driven scents, but this is good. Spicy enough to tingle the nose a bit when huffed up close, but still soft and comforting. With all that cream and spice, there's something besides carnation in there that keeps it from being a foody blend, but I can't put my finger on it.

Resurrected 09 - decant I don't always like foody blends, but sometimes when I'm snuggling around at home for the day I like to give them a whirl. And this sounded too yummy not to try... In the imp, it smells absolutely delicious! Rum, coconut, and peppermint. Maybe a little vanilla, but no cocoa to speak of. Wow, I want to drink it! When I put it on, it keeps that sugary pepperminty rummy coconutty deliciousness for about 10 minutes, then my skin devours the peppermint and I'm left with a rum/coconut that reminds me of Elegba, only not as good because it's lacking the lovely tobacco to keep it from being too foody. Ah well, I tried it on a lark anyway.

This is sweet light wintergreen gum when first applied, with a base of some kind of white floral maybe with some greenness to it... If you're like me, gum/floral doesn't sound very appealing. But it's actually quite nice! As it dries, the wintergreen backs off and it turns into a non-obnoxious cool floral with a minted sweetness. I like this ok. Even thought it's not really "me," I might occasionally wear this when it's hot outside.... if not for the fact that it's completely gone about 30 minutes after I apply it. :\

I'm not getting mint from this, either. I have Hypothermia on one hand and Snow-Flakes on the other. While Snow-Flakes has a clear hit of sweet mint to me, Hypothermia is more soapy ozoney herbal aquatic. It strikes me as kind of generic to be perfectly honest. :\ edit: haha, I ended up buying a bottle of this. It may not be as sweet as some others to start with, but after a while it just leaves a lingering cold smell that's quite nice.

As others have noted, the caramel is the dominant note here. Caramel and sugar usually go kind of sharp on me, but it stays pretty true here. Unfortunately, combined with the honey it's just very sticky and heavy to me, and it hangs around like nobody's business. (This is one of those that lasts through several scrubbings. :|) Behind the caramel and honey I get the most wonderful spiced-vanilla-red musk, but it never outpaces the sticky sweets. This could be teh secks on the right person, but it just gives me a headache. :\

Ded Moroz is one of the stand-outs from my Yule decants. It's so very distinctive and unusual. Herbal and cool up front, with a warm ambery base. I'm not even sure how to classify it. I think it's a cool herbal that I might be able to wear, because of that warmth. The mint is so sweet and light, it really only registers as a sweet freshness in my nose after it's dry. The amber, too, is really subtle.... I'm sure I'd never have pegged it without the notes list. The stand out notes here are the mint and the sage, but you can tell they're being held in check by something. Completely dry, it reminds me a little of a sage incense I once had. I think I'm going to have to grab a bottle of this, for when it's hot and sticky outside. I just wish it had a bit more throw.

With all those musks and peppers, I thought it might be kind of heavy... but it's actually quite fresh and clean and a little sweet. The musks give me the same kind of impression as the musk from Dorian, that sort of soapy freshness. The pepper recedes pretty quickly on me, and leaves just a trace of sweet zing. I get a slightly aquatic-floral kind of vibe at first, which picks up speed as it dries and eventually takes over. Smells like nice guest soaps to me.