Lycanthrope

This is like a less piney version of Snow Bunny with a decidedly asian floral bent. That being said I agree with the above, the wisteria is subtle. I would say, most of the wisteria this 2018 Lupercalia season has been very subtle! I do like the piney snow note, and this is kissed with a little plum-fruit / blossom and is snow fused with the cherry blossom note. Over a bit of time, the cherry blossom 'fleshiness' becomes a bit more apparent. I think there's a tiny bit of the sour-ish wisteria peeking around but it's quiet and mostly covered up by the snow accord.

 

Gonna have to give this one a few wears.

I am reminded of how the air around a Strawberry Pocky frosted stick smells. Or that kiss of vanilla-cream-strawberry flavor that you smell/taste when you're chomping on them.

 

Oh bother.

 

Now I'm hungry. This is really good. Subdued, like strawberry puree folded into buttery frosting.

This is a whole bunch of bright, smooth and sweet white/golden waxy flowers planted in a bower made of carved, blonde-colored woods. It is extremely elegant and smooth. The florals blend together wonderfully without becoming too 'old-fashioned' or excessively lush. It's restrained, complicated, and very, very coherent. It just smells ... grand, and good.

Yes, wow, this is rose. A bit of a lemony, bright rose. I definitely see the Rose Jam LUSH comparisons. The vanilla is present as a touch of foody sweetness at the base of the scent but I am getting very little in the way of cotton candy. A bit sad.

This is mostly dark, dark oudh on me. Chew with your teeth and fangs smoky oudh. Perhaps a bit of the carnation petal in the background, but it's also a deep russet red, and not particularly flashy. The wood is the star here.

Yes, I can immediately smell everything on the skin when wet - orange, amber, cocoa powder, and honey, but a thin, sweet, idea of honey, not too gloopy. It starts off very chewy, almost toffee-rich and very gourmand. As it sits on my skin, battling it out, it seems to lighten, and veers on me towards sweet orange honey cocoa. The lilies and orchids are in the background, but I mostly get a yellow day-lily kind of floral sitting lightly upon a slightly dry, almost 'reedy' orange that's been rolled in dry cocoa and honey powder. Very much like what I'd imaging the pollen from cock stamens to smell like.

Oh my.

 

I'll have to give this one a few more wears, it's a bit of a chameleon.

 

It kind of reminds me of 'Love-Lies-Bleeding,' one of my favorite chocolate-y-velvet-florals, although where that one gave me the color brownish-burgundy, this is a bit of a yellow-orange gilded with brown and gold accents.

Oh, my.

 

This is 'sweet green' wet to my nose, and goes on with a jade-green smoothness, like a bunch of mosses, kissed with orange blossom. It's even a little cooling on the skin. Then, sitting present on the skin, pine needles emerge! It's a touch of fir. Dangerously close to a Yule moment for a bit, but instead of going full christmas tree mode, the pine needles remain present, under the glowy haze of orange blossom. I don't get any violet petals (it's all just violet leaf, I take it), which keeps this more 'noonday mountain fir' as opposed to 'Santa's Here!'

Pretty gender neutral although I take it the pine does make it a bit more masculine. Straddles the line as the chypre and pine move it more 'masculine' but the orange blossom still flirts about to blur the strength of the green.

So... unexpected.

Wet, I get a bit of the clove, but only like the top part of it - medicinal, sharp. I also get a smell that reminds me of the inside of a dried ume plum, and also maybe... camphor? What? As this sits on my skin and dries down... It's still very clovey... oh, wait, what? White Necco wafer? This smells like a clove cigarette. There's maybe some kind of more non-sweet, crumbly and sticky frankincense, a little sharp-sweet smoke. I don't get much of the classic 'green tea' note. I'm also struggling to find any lush wisteria. The color I see is... browns/ochre, gray-white or even bone-white wisteria, thin, sharp, not like purple unfurled blossoms. If there is a bit of that note, it's only a faint accent over the clovey-resin nature of this scent.

I'm so very confused. But if you like clove...

Was super interested in this melange of scents all together. I have no idea what to expect.

Wet and in bottle, it's a weird mix of orange blossom and... maybe the sweetness of blue musk?

Applied to the skin, it's a very strong thrwoosh of something very similar to fabric softener? Maybe it's the orange blossom. As it has a bit more time to settle down on the skin... I'm getting the two florals mixing together - orange blossom and water lily. Definitely getting a very beachy aquatic floral vibe. The jasmine is adding a little bit of ferocity in the background, a bit of depth, however the floral stays a... um, Mediterranean floral? Crisp/clear, and high. The blue musk kind of evens everything out and it's a little sugary.

Hinoki and cedar really aren't too apparent. There may be a little 'sandiness' or 'woodsiness' at the base, but it's definitely not cedar-shavings/pencil cedar. Very subtle. It keeps this from being purely a floral scent.

I'd say this is one of the more surprisingly 'beachy' scents. Light, airy, and somehow a little 'salty' without having the salt note (which on me turns into tortillas). I like this one a lot!

Wet, this is both tuberose and honeysuckle swirling together in a higher pitched sworl, with a hint of wet greenery.

On, whoa, whoa, HONEYSUCKLE'D. And a bit of leafy greens. And then it gets a little waxiness from the tuberose. In a way, it's like the high, clarion honeysuckle dips into the thrummy medium tones of tuberose. And then... back towards elevation with waxy gardenia. It's vacillating between a very interesting Southern floral with a hint of exotic Asiatic florals. As I keep smelling it, the floral trills between gold-yellow and wax-white. This is exquisitely tropical as it calms down, and on me at least it heads towards tuberose... but however still with glittering honeysuckle plorps on occasion.

It calms into a slightly citric-high tropical floral that's like a fusion tuberose-honeysuckle. Not much residual grassiness or leafiness.

Opening the bottle, greeted immediately with a splorty wet blade of grass, and definitely a little bit of that milkiness of dandelion sap. I love Beth's grassy scents, so I'm very excited that there's so much GREEN in the description.

Applied to the skin, it's definitely like wow, like more mushed crushed grass leaves, and as it continues to dry down, it gets rounder. I really like the Blade of Grass Halloweenie that appears on occasion, but that is more of a 'cold wet grass,' whereas as this sits on the skin, I can get a tiny prickle of heat, the vegetable note is more than just 'park grass,' I think it gets a bit more fullness from the addition of the lettuce. I kind of smells like when you chew on an unseasoned leaf of lettuce. Wet, cool, crisp. With more time, this doesn't evaporate as fast as Blade of Grass does on me. That's a very brief-lived, environmental scent. Tennis Match seems to have a bit more staying power, and a bit more 'dirtiness' (oakmoss?)

My verdict: slightly different, more wet/full-leafy Blade of Grass, without dried leaf note, and with a little spicy mossy base, but still reads forward as grassy.

Yes. YES.

This is amazing, and definitely NOT methanous!

Wet, it smells like a sparkling, crystalline translucent yellow-orange, really bright orange blossom, definitely hazy, gauzy. On the skin, it's a real mix of ice, clouds, marine, lightning... like all of Beth's fun storms swirled together over a crystalline ocean and is whipping it into a frothy frenzy. There's definitely an ice note in here, I think the one from like Monastery in the Mountains - definitely a high clarity, non-slushy ice note, mixed together with a bit of Lightning's bright ozone. There's also a little bit of orange rind jumping in and out here, adding a bit of weirdly citrus warmth (spark?) to the melange of atmospherics. I don't get much iris, but if there is some powderiness holding everything together it is thrumming in the background. Over all this, I can definitely pull out that clarion call of neroli - the smooth glow of that note ascends and orbits all the rest of the scent. It truly is a core of ice, rain, wind, ocean, resonating with a bright, high-pitched sweet citrus-floral haze.

I got two on impulse, will love them to death!

Oooh! Smells like Brom Bones (cold, musky leather) right on cold sniff. I'm excited. I kind of had a bit of a 'Firefly?' moment when I read the description, so, of course, in it went to the cart.

Wet, on me, it's like you can see the leather note kind of... separate... like there's a distinct cold thread spiraling away while this warmer, spicier leather (with lambs-wool, warm, fluffy, worn, loved) emerges, with a hint of incense and spice. But the incense and spice is not overwhelming, and it veers back towards a leather scent just touched with a throb of warmth. I can get a bit of the chrome note (think Katiniya, Torture Queen) underneath everything all, just kind of little neck studs glinting through the leather. There's a bit of smoke in the background, which has a bit of mossiness to it.
Overall very well blended. A sexy, kind of edgy western leather scent. Stays close to the skin. It's fabulous!

This is a predominantly soft, slightly spearmint-y snow blend. A bit like the top note of Snow Bunny. There's a touch of slightly dry greenery - and maybe moss? It's definitely on the more environmental of snow notes. While pleasant, it has pretty low staying power - although this may just be my nose getting used to it really quick, and it being remarkably smoothly composed so that I'm not getting struck by any powerful recurrent scent theme.

I like this a lot. It's not super 'minty' but has that sweet, slushy snow note with a kiss of powder, and then the outdoors.

Violets are always my jam. So this definitely found its way into my cart.

Wet, it smells definitely a little high pitched from the lilac and plum, reminds me a bit of purple wine, for some reason. On the skin, wet, oh, it's a cacophony of smells! I get the sharp citrus snap and bite of lime pretty strong, and then it goes a bit more fruity because of the plum. Over all this is the pale gray-purple of lilac. Blue musk is always hard for me to pin down, but it's binding these high pitched notes down, only a bit. It's still very sharp while newly applied.

As it mellows, what is interesting is the oil/citrus/lime bite remains, even if it's not as uniformly LIME as previously. It adds a chewy bitterness to the blend, always a bit of an edge. Over time there's a thrum of violet. Not candy like, but more like melding with the blue musk to create a smooth shadow flower underneath the fangy lime.

This reminds me of a much less candy-like Purple Phoenix in some ways, but definitely not grapey or winey. It's got that same dusky purple fruits/floral as Morgause but sharply present, and definitely lime forward. Cold, iridescent white-green-gray-purple with shadows of blue-violet.

I think I may have stocked up real fast on this. It's a very bright lilac-violet-lime, once settled.

So... super weird.

Wet, it's a very brash, green, leaf-y grassy scent with a touch of an airy, daisy-like floral.

 

On me at least, once I keep snorfling it, that recedes and I just get a ... fresh petal with loamy muddy dirt twang. Huh. Is it just me? Sappy muddy dirt with clear white petals. And pollen. What?

 

It's realistic... that's for sure!

In the hospital while I was doing clinicals, I wore my locket (clocket) scent locket. When I didn't want to stink up a storm I'd either put it in my workdesk, or even just above most of my clothing, since then it wouldn't warm and exude a touch of scent. Then when I did want to enjoy such as when I was at the computer stations and away from patients and other staff, I'd just put it against my chest and I'd get a little bit of scent. It's like a detachable way to enjoy, and worst come to worst (and it didn't while I was working) you can just completely take the locket off.

Wet, this is very dry, rooty, kind of airy wet petals. Very much true iris. I can swear I smell a bit of vegetal root, and a hint of the earth. That fades, and it lingers as a straightforward, kind of cool-clay light violet-gray floral. Definitely fades towards quiet an subdued, regal floral.

As one of the Lab's resident Violet Groupies, this was the one scent other than Dead Leaves, Violet Candy and Sugar Crystals that caught my eye during the Halloweenie update. Followed by a oh, hell. My budget.

 

This year I'm supposed to be a bit more restrained, due to situations of my own doing, so I was perusing the Halloween list, thankful that I could actually pass on most of the offerings for 2017, but, whoa. I read this note list, gave myself a big hefty 'heave-ho' and resigned myself to the fact I was going to blind bottle this one. I eagerly awaited its arrival, and then once it was here, gave it a good wear to one of my meetings. The entire drive there I was huffing my arm, trying to find some reason why I would be spared Violetapocalypse.

 

Wellllllll I just ordered a whole bunch of bottles, and I rationalize that because I didn't buy anything else in backups from this year's Weenies. (Yay, rationalization!...)

 

Stealthily, Stealthily, is a very quiet, unassuming scent with many layers. It is a medium strength blend which from the bottle reminds me a bit of a Farewell to False Love - very lavender forward. I thought that would be my saving grace. On the skin, it sparkles again initially with a slightly dry powdery (iris?) lavender, but there's a hint of a smoky background, like in Tristesses de la Lune (another of my favorite iris-y smoky lunacies). The smoke unveils a very dark, velvety violet. An embrace of that sweet petal, but still elusive. It would like most mysterious violet notes disappear into almost nothing, willing me to snorfle and snuff just to get some tantalizing hint of the floofy purple petals. The more I tried to search for the violet, the more elusive it became. I would get a mix of dusty iris root, or occasionally the top herbaceous glow of the lavender. But, then, without warning, a random hint of violet petals blooms, like a hidden florf of violet. Not a candy-powder violet, but that rich deep purple, regal violet that wows me with its strangely sweet, cool, familiar yet space-y otherworldy floral kiss. And then when I try harder, it skirts away, only to return again, as only ionone fragrances can.

 

I love how this flirts and changes. Throw is both elusive, medium, but sporadically pops! It mostly stays close to the skin. The color I see is definitely a rich purple with smoky gray-blue-gray-violet tendrils.

 

I'm so glad to add this to my violet and purple florals collection. Thanks, Beth, for surprising me with another subtle, artistic flavor of violet for me to experience and treasure! (like a hoarding dragon. RAWR)

Wet, it smells like a sweet, summery, slightly dewy floral.

 

On me, the jasmine rushes up to greet me like the Aunt I wish didn't Hug so hard, accompanied by her more reasonable wife, Osmanthus, which is providing a little bit of tea. I'm a person who takes jasmine and amps it to high heaven, so I fear a bit this may be all I can get out of this blend. I think I'm getting a whiff of dandelion leaf around the corners, and sap, trying to temper the brashness of the jasmine floral. Oh. With some time, I get a bit more of that rounded golden honey-sweet osmanthus, and jasmine may be settling down. Certainly I can still get its white-hot-frisky floral cascade as I smell, but I think there's at least some complexity rising to the surface. There's a bit of that (as said above) Bayou-moss note bringing it down a notch.

 

I'm only getting florals, but Southern florals for sure, and with a bit of temperance by the moss and dandelion to add a herbal green speckle. I don't get a big whiff of either of the parent blends.

 

It is pleasant, but quite floral on my skin.

Wow!

 

This at first whiff brings me immediately to Talvikuu (I think I started the BPAL craziness back in 2006 or so). The snow note is not too mint-forward, but it's that slushy note that includes, somehow, the ozonic whiff of any remaining pine greenery, mixed somehow with how the cold air feels and smells as it chills your nose and numbs your ability to smell a bit... definitely there's vanilla in the background, and it warms the last bit of the ozone snap.

 

The snowiness dies down pretty quick to leave a tasty smear of vanilla whisper behind.

 

I'd get more of this just to experience the first few moments of slather!

 

I have one of those things with iris and violet, where I have to try any blend that has it. I also am feeling the same melancholy and strangeness this past year, for reasons in my country that I'm not sure I understand anymore, as well as my own personal catastrophe and rebuilding.

Wet in bottle: Strong iris, powdery, rooty, dusty purple ash color that I associate with that smell.

On skin: When it gets a chance to settle, it starts off powdery iris, and then I get a strong, but solid rose petal. This has dewiness, wetness. It's like the more heavy, non-tea-rose BPAL rose. Iris and violet are hard for me to pull apart since they activate the same ionone button for me, but I do swear I get a little bit of that dark, sweet, powdery background. With more time I am getting a bit of that mum-green-stemmy, slightly sour but radiant herbal. It's not overpowering. It elevates the blend above a floral and gives it a bit of bittersweet. I will be honest, I have no idea what oleanders smell like.

With time: Oh, this is nice. I'm a rose amper, which tends to make most roses a no go. Somehow, this remains tempered and is a bit of a powdery iris predominantly with a restrained bouquet of roses nearby. It's a beautiful and elegant, non-trumpeting floral blend. Strangely, even with the flowers, it's austere, and feels like it has a good depth and strength to it.

Huh.

I have very little else to add except that this is a perfect melange of something like Pop! and Cake Smash.

 

I love both.

 

The back of my hand smells like an amazingly awesome dessert that I would like to find and decimate.

 

It starts off higher on the bubblegum-ness, and vacillates between trying to be UBER-FROOT while the creamy cheese cream cheese cheese frosting (...?) ... cheese wallows up from below, all blurbly and like chortle chortle. Behind it all remains the perfect cake with a kiss of cocoa.

 

On me, the bubblegum does burn off first and it remains a delicious red velvet cupcake, where if you stop huffing for a moment, glimmers of tutti-frutti sparkle at the edges if you catch a repeat whiff of yourself.

 

So my past few years' worth of experience with oceanic and coastal BPAL has not always ended well, since the sea salt note = tortilla chip on me. Apparently I'm made of GMOs, and become quite snackable when that specific ocean-themed accord strikes my fur.

I am a sucker for anything marine and ocean themed, though, so, well, of course this ended up with me.

Wet in bottle: A bit more on the cologne/sweet marine musk in the bottle. Not too much of the slight corn-chip that I get from some sea salt blends. Maybe a hint of green snap at end, Ogygia-kelp-style.

On skin: Whoa, 180! Swish and swirl and KELP me, baby. There's a swift whoosh of neroli, and the marine/cooler musk I initially detected gets uplifted by a slightly citrus-blossom whisper, and then I get that rising golden neroli hum and yellow-gold aura. The kelp asserts itself briefly, but doesn't overwhelm, although it does give me a bit of a Beaver Moon (non cheesecake) and Sturgeon Moon vibe.

Drying: Once it's had a bit more time to settle, I can get salt, but amazingly it's not making me into a bag of Paqui chips, it's a little bit of spikeyness overlying the scent, which is segueing quite nicely into a bit of a dry-ish but subtle wood. It's definitely a quiet wood in the background, maybe a gentle soft cedar or even sandalwood-type whisper. It's still wrapped in kelp, draped just so.

It's fading pretty fast on me at this point, but after longer wear, it sits close to my (man) skin, mostly salt and a quiet seaweed, supported by a swoosh of aquatic musk and neroli. Since neroli is sometimes recruited in modern colognes, I do get more of a 'mainstream' vibe from this but it is eminently wearable and I'd recommend this to anyone who likes a good BPAL aquatic. No corn chips here! It's like a softer A Fit of Artistic Enthusiasm, which is one of my all time faves.

Wet, in bottle: A swirly melange of slightly brackish leafy notes. I get a strong, reedy dry grassiness.

Shortly after application: A little bit of mud? Or is that my bias due to the copy? I'm getting more of that sappy green, perhaps the honeysuckle and white sage together. I'm also getting a distinctly fleshy lily note, but unlike others I've experienced before, there's an interesting... cold waxiness to it?

On for a bit: Oh, there's a kiss of honey. I guess that sort of chewy sweetness is what I was detecting changing my usual experience of lily, which is strong, brash, and not at all demure. I think the leafiness is transitioning more and more to sage, as opposed to pure grass. I'm enjoying it.

As time passes, this stays more of a grassy herbal floral, with a little incensy/southwestern smokiness or haziness (more haze!) from the sage. There is an undercurrent of warm honey lurking in the background, and I can detect the honeysuckle as soaring backdrop to the herbal. I think the lilies are rounding out the purely sweet honeysuckle and giving a bit of round waxiness and 'substance' to the scent. This is certainly, to me at least, not an aquatic. I can see it as a warm afternoon spent in a sun-dappled park where daylilies and honeysuckle grow by the side of a stream, with wild sage adding a haze to the air while little bumblebees doddle around, attacking flowers.

Not sure what I have in my collection that resembles this... it's very unique!