MamaMoth

rose is just about my #1 danger note, but i'm so slavishly devoted to all things snake oil, i felt honor-bound to at least try this. i do periodically try some rose variants, hoping to find one that agrees with me. it can be so pretty in the bottle sometimes, but i've had very little luck on my actual skin. blackened rose though? with snake oil and amber?? surely if this doesn't work for me, i will just have give up. this starts quite rosey, and i think i know how this is gonna go. but i'm wrong. the amber surges up very quickly, and the rose gets kind of dusky, almost ashy-soft. i don't track snake oil exactly, but there is oodles of smooth, delicious red musk, and i also get a healthy dose of that luscious '22 snake oil vanilla. the rose fades into the background, and it locks in. no soap! no stale cloying flowers! it's not super snekky, but it's a lovely dark, incensey rose enfolded in ambery vanilla musk i wanted a snakey, gothy rose that stayed true to itself, and now i have one, so i'm thrilled! this definitely deserves a place in my snake pit.

i was hoping for creamy amber, and possibly a pear-ish note, but this is mostly blossoms and white tea on me. crisp and floral. there's more going on, but i amp the floral component so much that it drowns everything else out. bummer.

oh, this one is special. that wonderful vanilla husk note. happy sigh. i'm here for it. you're probably here for it. it shines in this one, and it's absolutely gorgeous. don't let the smoke scare you, there's no harshness to it. this is so smooth. i've been trying (and failing) all day to think of how to describe this, so let's keep it straightforward(ish): dry, woodsy, vanillic incense draped in a light gauze of sweet tobacco. deceptively simple, devastatingly beautiful. familiar enough to be comforting, unique enough to be utterly compelling. my inner hoardy dragon is rearing its head for this one. it'll be fun to see how many bottles i end up with.

the saffron in this strikes me as particularly hot and red at first, uniquely spicy at a low simmer but still recognizably saffron. as it mingles with that deeply rich, sweet fig it throws me a bit of a christmas vibe, like an eccentrically spiced figgy pudding. right now it's like something your crazy aunt might bring for the holiday meal that sounds weird but is actually delicious. (it's me. i'm the crazy aunt bringing the weird/delicious.) as it settles in, the fig pudding recedes a bit and the amber comes out. i'd never smell this and say "hey, there's amber!" but it's a dryish lovely perfume background that shifts this firmly out of edible territory as it blooms. the saffron is less hot, but still spicier than i usually find saffron to be. it's rich, earthy-sweet and chewy, a little spicy, a little perfumey. it's a very interesting blend!

sweet, spicy marzipan when first applied, the nuts blushing cherry-ish just briefly before settling into warm creamy nuttiness that tempers the prickly spice. for a while, it's a very yummy spiced nutmilk custard. i would eat such a giant bowl of this, just saying! (it reminded me of something in this stage, and it took me a while to pinpoint it: pickled imp! without the pine of course, but with the same delicious vanilla/cinnamon/clove action going on.) after a while, it unfortunately falls a bit flat on my skin, with the nuttiness going a bit stale and spices that seem to have sailed past their best-by date ages ago. but that is 100% a skin chemistry thing for me. i would definitely still recommend this to anyone looking for a creamy, spicy, gourmet treat.

i like this! it starts with a blast of sweet mint and a little red wine. the mint starts to burn off pretty quickly (as is usual on me) and i find some sweet honey and a bit of pink strawberry. it's not a fakey strawberry bomb, just like a bit of pink fruity sweetness that i probably wouldn't peg as strawberry without the notes handy. while everything is coalescing, i feel like i detect a slight floral component, which is not something i can always appreciate. but it is well-blended here and i can find no fault with it. when everything's settled into place, this is a sweet, lightly honeyed, PINK wine. there's no mint that i can find on a detectable register, but i feel quite certain that it's working unseen to keep this bright and fresh, because this feels cool in a way, and seems to float above the skin. it takes on a bit of muskiness in the later stages, and the red wine breaks through a little more. i'd still call it pink wine overall, but more vibrant. let's say fuchsia. i love wine scents, but i have a lot of them and sometimes they run together. this is a very unique and enjoyable take on wine, and i think i would be a lovely choice for a hot summer night. this feels romantic, like a first date ending in a very long, very satisfyingly sparky kiss. there's a promise of something hot and heavy down the road maybe, but we're taking it slow for now and just enjoying the moment.

i'm not always an almond fan, and that's a lotta bitter almond to start with. i almost tapped out in the first 5 minutes. but there's something about how it blends with oud that is simultaneous both appealing and off-putting. which, i'm just now realizing, is ideally suited to the artwork. ha! as the almond and oud dial back a little, the warm smooth spices (with a tickly prickle of pepper) come out, and yeah... that's pretty nice. the almond is less bitter, and almost a little... bready (??) now. the oud settles in beautifully too. the end product is surprisingly gentle and warm, considering where we started. probably not unlike the gentleman in the pic, i end up basking in the afterglow of a somewhat unsettling, but ultimately satisfying encounter. like @WoolyBee, i think i need to ruminate on this one a while.

oakmoss you asshole. yep, that's a lot of oakmoss. i endured it for a while to see where it went. eventually i got some dry cologney cedar and some dry cologney patchouli. there's some sharpness that is probably the frankincense. it's cologne all the way down. i peered into the cologne, and the cologne peered back at me. black currant? beeswax? nope and nope. woodsy, mossy, dry, and sharp. throws like an absolute beast. not for me.

sorry, i'm about to get wordy. this is just so ridiculously good, i'm kinda gobsmacked. this right here is what i think of as a benchmark scent. like, sometimes i'm so indecisive about whether i need a bottle of something... i may really like a scent, even love it... but am i really just appreciating the artistry? do i actually connect with it? then something like this one comes along, and it's suddenly very clear. this is how i should feel about a perfume. this is my benchmark. ok, that's all very interesting but can i describe it? i can try. it opens with some particularly pungent honey and lots of pink labdanum, which i was wary of. labdanum is one of my very favorite notes, but red lab has been recently giving me pause. it has such a harsh, almost medicinal tone... right on the cusp of being something i could love but never quite getting there. but this pink lab, this is the goods. this delivers. it is absolutely the little sister of red labdanum, but it's toned down and softened in such a way that suddenly it just clicks with me. i'm in love. gimme ALL the pink labdanum plx. bushman’s candle? i still couldn't tell you exactly. there is a creamy, candley tenor to this. but it's different, not one of your standard candlewax/beeswax notes. it's so softly waxy that it has fingerprint-whorled indentations where you handled it. it has a hint of glowing warmth to it: the candle is lit, but smokeless. this bourbon vanilla deserves a special shout out too, as it is has a lot of presence here. it's so very creamy and perfumey and not the slightest bit gourmand. pink pepper? just a little dryish rasp, a cat-tongued swipe that helps to temper all that lushness. as everything settles into place, it's like this: resinous chunks of pink amber incense and a malleable, creamy candle burning on a shrine dedicated to some plush, voluptuous, dewy-cheeked love goddess. it's absolutely gorgeous.

2 hour trajectory as follows : cherry lemon cake (yum! ) > cherry buttercream cake with a dab of lemon > cakey buttercream with a dab of cherry > vaguely fruity buttercream > indeterminate foody sweetness this kind of purely foody blend just doesn't generally last long on me without some kind of non-foody anchor, but this is a fun and delicious confection. if these notes appeal to you you'll probably love it!

sweet, smoky booze. starts with more rum, then the rum settles into a dry rasp underneath the brandy. i get a scorchy note, which seems to make the whole blend a little ashy and dry. it's sweeter at first, less so as it dries down. but not sugary exactly. i never detected lemon at all. i like the sweet scorched rum, but the rum is a minor player in this and the sweetness diminishes significantly as it wears. i'm ambivalent about the brandy, which is a dominant note, and i'm not connecting with the ashy dryness of it at all. i wish there were more sugary lemon, i feel like it needs that pop.

this goes on super duper powdery. it made me sneeze a couple of times! is that orris? i'm not familiar enough with it to say for certain, but powdery + "pearl" makes me think orris. i do smell the skin musk in there. it's highly musky in an oddly bone-dry way, with that edge of good funk to it that my favorite skin musks have. this is like you took skin musk and clean cottony florals, completely dehydrated them, ground them into dust, and used that as a base to make some kind of vintage style face powder.

welp. i was hoping i wouldn't love this. but of course i do. the bad news: it's wonderful, and i have only a small amount. the good news: it reminds me a lot of gooped familiar, so maybe i won't waste away from longing. perhaps. when first applied is when it bears the strongest resemblance to gooped familiar. i get a dry hay-type note, (black?) musk, spices, a touch of dried green herbs. as it dries down, it diverges from gf as a warm resinous presence emerges. like a resiny amber maybe? the hay and herbs shift to the back, and the spice deepens. i think i catch traces of a dark floral, maybe opium? it's very faint, and as a floral-averse-type person in general i don't mind it one bit. i think i might be able to get pretty close by layering gooped familiar with sin! she's a beauty, though. i'm so grateful to the bpal-er who released this into the world without requiring me to hawk a kidney for the opportunity to try it. 💙

opens with strong unsweetened black tea. like, peel the enamel off your teacups and stain your teeth strong. i find black tea notes to sometimes hint of an anise-type component, and that's especially true here. there's a bit of lemon to the tea, and i love what the lemon peel is doing, bringing that pithy bitter-ish brightness that is absolutely essential here. that's some stout vetiver too, smoky and earthy. beware to the vetiver-averse! actually, beware if any of these notes give you pause. the oudh is oudhy. the patchouli is dank af. i agree with @elissamay, this is 100% unapologetically what it is. she's angsty! angsty-er than a 16-year old mamamoth scribbling bad poetry on stolen swigs of southern comfort in a black-draped bedroom. i only wish i could reach into this and pluck out the almond. it's the one note in this i'm not really enjoying, and it's not shy, especially at first. eventually it does settle into a middling region of the note hierarchy, and i think i can hang with it. and maybe aging this will do some magic, who knows. and who cares, because i'm buying a bottle of this anyway. it's unique and bold and pretty damn badass.

it's cherry, it's wine, and it's delicious! the sour red cherry starts out aggressively dominant as usual, then it settles down into the familiar wine note (which always leans more sangria than wine on me.) it's very nicely balanced: the keen, higher-pitched cherry really tarts up those deep, fermented wine-fruits. and that deeply fruity, boozy, almost-musky wine helps tame the strident, sour cherry. if you enjoy cherry and wine notes, this is a no-brainer. i imagined this perfume in my head before i tried it, and the reality aligns almost exactly!

strong bitter coffee to start, that softens and sweetens as it settles in. the final product is a sweet, soft vanilla coffee; exactly what it advertises to be. i love coffee and vanilla, so this is undeniably nice. but also a little one-dimensional, leaving me craving for a bit more complexity.

what a delicate beauty, unfolding in layers as it settles into the skin, each strata building atop the last until the final smell is a sum of all parts, completely entangled. it opens with the tea leaf, like a strong cup of tannin-rich tea, hinting at a little anise. behind that comes an incensey, powdery-dry light patchouli. then the amber uncurls, with a slightly vegetal tone like the amber in v'al hanissim. the cashmere and coconut husk arrive together, soft and wooly with a suggestion of vetiver and a little dry scratch of coconut husk. it blankets everything that came before, so that i can see the outlines of the other notes like shapes under a blanket, but without fine detail. this is where everything starts meshing together, the notes harmonizing in a way that makes them impossible to separate. when it stabilizes, what i find is something incensey, ambery, and wooly... unique and compelling while also being soft and and comfortable. wearing close to the skin, it's one of those scents that seems to soak in then gently exude from the pores. it's really beautiful, but doesn't announce itself too stridently. i will definitely hang onto this with my small stash of scents that i reach for when i'm looking for something beautiful and distinctive, but non-agressive. "work-safe" so to speak, but with plenty of flair and distinction.

whoa, guava! ok...i mean, to be completely honest, i have no idea what guava smells like, as a real fruit or a perfume note. but when first applying this, i'm blasted with a tart fruit note. it's a bit like a hybrid of grapefruit and tart wild plum. as that dies back a bit, some light musk comes out, but it still smells tart and clean. it's not a heavy musk. and there's something showing up behind all that... methinks there's something interesting in those "digestive juices" lol. it's doesn't have a huge presence, but there's something dark and bass-y, grounding the higher-pitched fruit aspects. i can't identify it, and it's driving me a little bit crazy because it's so familiar! hopefully someone more adept than i at sussing out notes will shed some light on it because... i like it? it's not an OMGLOVE, but i'm kinda fascinated. it reminds me a little of Heksenbijeenkomst when it's first applied, before the opium and myrrh take over in that one. the notes on this one didn't snatch my initial interest, but i'm really glad i got to try it. it's not a "me" perfume, but it's quite nicely done.

oh, this is fantastic, the sandalwood here is just lovely! it's like woody, sweet, and perfumey, with an aspect almost like a skin musk. so good! the white chocolate in this makes the sandalwood so creamy and sweet. it's rich and delicious, but perfumey too... not for to be eating! not chocolatey to me but ymmv etc etc. the lemon peel gives it some bright lift, i think it's keeping this from being overly rich. it's not lemony either, though. when everything settles in together, it's just creamy, sweet, bright, woodsy, perfumey sandalwood. but not cloying! i think i will really get some mileage out of this one in the spring/early summer. it's really wonderful!

mmmm, pitchy! lots of (pine?) pitch in the opening, which does smell rather viscous. but it dries out super quick, with the pitch making way for a bone dry hay-like note to take the lead for a while. then the hay dies down and a soft clothy note emerges, which may have just a smidge of vanilla to it. for a while, it's all soft and dry from the cloth, with a little musky/mustiness that reads as somewhat brown musk adjacent. there's some dry hay/straw hanging out in the middle, and just a whisper of pine pitch left now bringing up the rear. ok, this ends up smelling surprisingly papery and bookish on me! unexpected! like hiding up in the hayloft to read an old book, with the barn cat curled up beside you.

the patch in this is a dreamboat, earthy and sweet and delicious. my eyes rolled back when i first sniffed it, and it demanded to be the first luper decant i sampled! freshly applied, the clove and green cardamom come on strong. i can't really break them apart, there's just a sharp, almost metallic spiciness. don't expect that dry, kitchen spice rack cardamom, because this ain't that! sharp spices like that are not often something i enjoy, but it's sufficiently tempered here by that gorg patchouli and a nice velvety, earthy cacao. i don't hate it, but i'm giving it the side-eye to see where it goes. before long the cacao does that thing it does on me, where it doesn't really smell like chocolate anymore and just adds to the earthy richness of the patch. the clove and cardamom also settle in behind the patch, and from here on out it's smoooooth sailin'. as a patchouli fiend, i hereby endorse this product and/or service!

roasted chestnuts, pure and simple! lightly scorchy, but not aggressively so. not really smoky. nutty, but not foody. it starts off almost too nutty for my personal tastes, but settles in more gentle and a little bit woody. low throw. a very cool scent!

kitties, but make it fancy. the amber musk, cedarwood, and cardamom are giving me warm, furry cat vibes in that bpal way. possibly with the cacao adding to this impression as well, though it is a minor player on me despite the dark globules suspended in the oil. that amber musk is nice... it's nothing so gauche as a brown musk, but it is still velvety and soft and kind of earthy in a sleek-furred way. i'd say the musk is the most prominent note in the blend, but i do tend to amp musks in general so ymmv. the dry cardamom is a light touch that mostly melts into the blend as it settles down. separate from all that, the agarwood, tobacco, and black pepper sort of independently group together for me to represent the courtiers. it's like a luxe but edgy high-end perfume that reminds me very much of the desolate, deserted trees. (which i loved, but found very difficult to describe, so samesies here.) i can easily imagine this as the scent of a privileged royal attendant, wearing all the right clothes and saying all the right things and stabbing you in the back as soon as it becomes beneficial. once my brain made the courtiers/cats distinctions in this blend, i can't unsmell it... but the aspects mesh quite nicely. over the course of wear, the kitties edged out the courtiers just slightly in prominence, so it ends up more soft, dry, a little woodsy, and fairly musky. the courtiers are still hanging out though, so this keeps a thread of sophistication running through it. i really enjoy this one, and can see myself reaching for it as a going-out-for-the-evening perfume, when i'm dressed to the nines but still want to feel warm and approachable.

yes, there is a cologne quality to this (especially when first applied,) in the way the cedar is mingling with those dusty resins and some unsweet black vanilla. cologney is not always my jam, but there's something compelling about this one that i keep coming back to. i have a bottle, but i've really been monitoring a decant i also have, since they tend to mature faster. over the last couple of months i've grown more and more enamored as the vanilla tar has gained more presence. it's not the tarry sticky vanilla i originally imagined, but a pitch-black, dry, raspy vanilla with zero creaminess and very little sweetness. i am picking up what this vanilla tar is throwing down though, and i will likely be all up on that when it crops up elsewhere. deep, dusty incense resins, dry woodsy cedar, a prickle of pepper, and some spooky ass vanilla. i was unsure about it at first, but i'm glad i have a bottle now!

i got this one because i'm a patchouli addict who's very curious about what a grey variety might be, and i love tobacco and anise. i also have good history with "shadow" named things. this one has a VERY thick (cacao?) separation layer. for all that, the cacao isn't swinging too heavy. it goes on with a muddled tobacco/cacao/patchouli base layer, and a surprisingly fresh pop of mandarin riding on top. there's a little sharp cypress hanging out there in the middle somewhere. as it settles down i get brief whiffs of anise, but nothing substantial. then it's gone back into the muddle. eventually what i'm left with is a somewhat dry, powdery patchouli +. there's some sharpness backing it up that i think is cypress. there's some earthy heft to it that is probably the cacao and tobacco. i can actually still find a little mandarin if i go looking for it, and i'm surprised it's holding up as citrus notes can be so ephemeral on me. it's not a huge mandarin presence, but i have a feeling this would feel drab and flat without it. but it's mostly patchouli, and grey is a good descriptor for the patchouli and the scent in general... i find the tone a bit dour. i love patchouli, so i don't dislike it. but i can't see myself reaching for it over beloved patchouli blends. it reads a bit masculine for my general preferences, the cypress is a little sharp, and the powdery patchouli isn't a favorite. it might have some maturing to do, so i'll be monitoring this bottle for a while before i make a final verdict.