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BPAL Madness!

lookingglass

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Everything posted by lookingglass

  1. lookingglass

    Cacao and Patchouli Root Hair Gloss

    This is just eye rolling gloriousness and my greatest Luper wish come true this year as I was craving a pure chocolate patchouli. In the bottle it seems nearly edible, like a decadent dark chocolate ganache. As it dries down it smells more like cocoa powder, losing some sweetness, and the patchouli really hums, deep and rooty. A tempting, witchy confection!
  2. lookingglass

    Women Copulating

    Big. Heady. Indolic. JASMINE. I put on a turn of this oil and my partner, smelling it from across the room, exclaimed how amazing it was. This is the scent of a humid summer night, when you've showered, left the windows open, and you've accepted you will not get cool... nothing left to do but go to bed. The supporting notes to this jasmine don't really come into play for me until the drydown, where the sweet cream is there just enough to meld it into my skin, and the sandalwood and cognac add just a touch of a bookended earthy lift and sepia tinged base. This is not the jasmine ice cream of La Prostitution et la Folie Dominent le Monde. This is much, much more...it is jasmine personified as women.
  3. lookingglass

    Death’s Head Moth

    Ooooh...yes. This smells so good! Out of the bottle it's nice an clove-y like not many scent are. It quickly dries down to a soft, creamy, slightly dusty, goth skin scent. I have to get really close to my wrist to smell it but it's cozy, fuzzy, and warm. The sandalwood sweetens the oudh in a beautiful way with just a touch of anaimalic flair. The cumin and vetiver are not dominant to my nose. Overall it reminds me of wrapping myself in a blanket I wore wrapped around a night of hanging by a sacred fire. Nuzzle worthy.
  4. lookingglass

    Black Pumpkin Floss

    Pumpkin candyfloss spiked with black licorice, black currant, and smoked maple. Straight out of the bottle, this is all spicy pumpkin. Drying down, the licorice and currant and both subtly tone down the line between bright spice and fluffy candyfloss. It dries out with delicious maple candy's subtle sweetness, but fiery and dry. It's just as delightful as I hoped: a brilliantly sultry take on a foody scent.
  5. lookingglass

    Thirteen (13): July 2012

    This 13 was created by Brian Constantine. Voluptuous and somber: a Thirteen created as a reflection on the capricious nature of Tyche - bittersweet cacao and dragon's blood resin sweetened by honey and vanilla bean, brightened by saffron, and touched by the contemplative depths of oak leaf, solemn opoponax, frankincense, myrrh, black amber, hiba wood, aged patchouli, burgundy pitch, and Balm of Gilead. It's here! DARK PINK CHOCOLATE, from the dragon's blood/cacao combo, like artisan made raspberry cremes, or cherry cordials...and INCENSE! I'm getting a buttery smell, too...not sure what that's about, but it fades on the drydown. I smell hardly any pitch or woods; I wouldn't know they were there unless I was looking for them. The honey and saffron glide through with their golden dust. The honey grabs the dragon's blood and frankincense and they get delightfully zingy. The fuzzy amber and bit of soft patchouli round out the whole thing, and add a lot of depth. It gets quieter...sweet, creamy, and slightly powdery from the resins, while keeping a red juiciness about it. I love it.
  6. lookingglass

    Let’s talk about Oudh...

    I love oudh in its many incantations: oud, aquilaria agallocha, agarwood...there are differences, for sure. Tricksy is my holy grail! I also love Gingerbread Oud, Nasty Woman, & Deuteronomy 10:18. I haven't tried the ones you've mentioned but I know Snake's Shadow's black oude, which may be in Pumpkin Musk and Black Oude, too, was stronger and funkier on me. First Morning in Paris has burgandy oude, which I don't see listed in anything else. It may also have to do with quantity and the other notes it's playing with.
  7. lookingglass

    Recommendations for a single man

    Blood Kiss (has cherry but it adds a round red sweetness to the sexy darkness) Old Demons of the First Class
  8. lookingglass

    Gingerbread Oudh

    Such a wearable, sophisticated gingerbread! It's not too foody or funky. I find it to be like Shub light: kind of lemony with fresh ginger, incensey with dried ginger and other spices, and a little bit of woody depth that also kind of smells...human...in a cozy way. Medium sillage and wear length. Definately a keeper.
  9. lookingglass

    Dix

    So delicate and lovely, like a faded white rose, the tips browning and curling in...the fresh green notes fading, growing earthier and softer. I love the plush hum of the oudh and moss supporting the fading flowers. Springlike and delicate without being girly. A keeper for me.
  10. lookingglass

    Huit

    I'm digging the bitterness of the black rose juxtiposed with the fruits that are more milky sweet than tart and juicy. It reminds me a bit of the Burt's Bees Baby lotion but with a brooding rose note...like the Woman in Black or a ghost nanny.
  11. lookingglass

    Caramel Patchouli Hair Gloss

    Why in the world does this scent not have more reviews?! Banshee Beat and Tricksy lovers, we got ourselves a GC to help us meet our sweet patchouli needs!!! Round, sound, sexy patch, not too gritty or camphorous, just the way we like it. The caramel isn't too much...just a creamy, dark, sugary addition. So much YES!!!! Spray it all ovah and layer with everything.
  12. lookingglass

    Svarta Fönix Bókaflóð

    In the bottle I smell a light, sweet ambery-ness. Fresh out of the bottle it's as if I've been handed a large stack of leather bound books of various ages, next to a fireplace. Drying out, the blend becomes rounder and more cohesive: smoother, sweeter, and cozy...an ever so slightly musky floral, resinous perfume faded on my wrists, mixed with the scent of leather books left on my hands, chai foam in the empty cup by my side, a silky cat on my lap. I'm delighted that it reminds me of a more distinguished Picture Books in Winter which is one of my all time favorite Yules, now quite hard to find. It has a light throw and medium wear length, perfect for a weekend afternoon at home. I also received a copy of Game of Thrones. So much yes!
  13. lookingglass

    Yule Cat

    Ruddy Christmas treeeeeee!!!! BAM! with the evergreen! BAM! with the civit! I'm awake and alive with the muthafuckin Christmas spirit! Wet, it's fresh everygreens with hot animalic notes, no joke. Drying down blend softens onto a cozy bed of moss...so earthy...still evergreen and wild. I LOVE it!
  14. lookingglass

    Gingerbread, Vetiver, and Black Clove

    I missed this one in 2016 but 2018 has been the year of vetiver for me. I got some of this precious and it is my new seasonal love. It smells like the Krampus haunted house we went to this year-totally possessed gingerbread man! Thick, chewy gingerbread with a clove incense vibe. Spooky holiday time!!!
  15. I'm always on the hunt for sillage monsters! Snake Oil, Death Adder, the Other Miss Forcible, and Crimson always deliver.
  16. lookingglass

    Actual Lump of Coal

    [No additional description given.] Yeah. It's uuuuugh...an actual lump of coal! You know that sooty, dry, slightly sulfuric note from La Befana? Or Brimstone? Take all the prettiness off of those and turn it up to 11. No joke.
  17. lookingglass

    Smells like a basement or cellar

    Hmmm...maybe a comination of Streats of Detroit, No 93 Engine, and the Norns' Farmhouse...
  18. lookingglass

    Snaky-Hair’d Moirai Many-Form’d

    Absolutely STUNNING. I'm ashamed I waited this long to try it. Initally nag champa-ey, with the lift of airy floriential incense, the blend is immediately thickened with the richness of expensive, moist, vanilla tobacco, like you'd pack into a pipe. The benzoin and labdanum are almost indistiguishable together, adding a sticky, dark red, resiny sweetness with a slight tang. It reminds me a bit of how 80's powerhouse orientals vibed on the drydown, but SHMMF is more incensey...more raw...more real. I love the way this scent makes me FEEL when it's all warmed up: unappologetic and at ease with myself, even knowing that some might raise an eyebrow. I could wear this anywhere, anytime and hold my own. Thank you, Beth...for your brilliance, strength, and humanity. What a beautifully powerful perfume to contribute to RAINN's mission.
  19. lookingglass

    Aquatics

    I love Lurid...
  20. lookingglass

    Two Sheep and Two Goats Resting Together in a Field

    Smokey, earthy vetiver softened with vanilla that is not too sweet or creamy. It's soft but also kind of scratchy, due to the earthiness; with the warmth of the vetiver, it does have a woolen quality. I love it and am glad I sprang for a whole bottle unsniffed. Grounding, unisex, warm, and fall like.
  21. lookingglass

    Dead Leaves and Warm Sugar Cookies

    Oh, yes. This is my Dead Leaves scent! Fresh, it's like I'm baking sugar cookies on a windy, overcast fall day, screen door open. It's just perfect: homey, comforting, and fresh. The leaves keep this from being straight up foody, putting it squarely into the "eccentric gourmond" category, as I like to refer to the style of scent I prefer. The Lab's sugar cookie note is near and dear to my heart; it's kind of cinnimoney (but dosn't irritate my sensitive skin), and the perfect balance of creamy, sweet, and dry; even as a single note, I find it to be a fine stand alone perfume with it's complexity and depth (Holding my breath for Yule...). The leaves combine with that bit of spice in the cookie, that gives the scent a muted but colorful lift, like all the variations in a pile of dead leaves: burgandy spice and red veins, deep brown, both of cooked sugar and cracked, dry, leaves, a bit of the biting green of a stem just let go & soft edges curling and releasing the last of their plyability. There's some dustiness and some chewy, warm sweetness coming through. Drying down, it reminds me a bit of The Other Miss Forcible, which I also adore, but Dead Leaves and Warm Sugar Cookie is less thick and menacing-more playful but still mature. It has medium sillage and wearlength on me. People close to me can smell it, but I want to reaply often. When the kids came in they said, "I know that smell! It's so good! What is it?". It smells like happy fall memories... Thank you, Beth.
  22. lookingglass

    Deuteronomy 10:18

    This is just what I needed to hold me over till the Weens drop! A dark, brooding, woodsy, fall invoking blend. I'm reminded of bakoor incense. I find it deeply grounding and not overly harsh. The patchouli, vetiver, and agarwood equally emerge, with the hay note adding softness. It wears close to the skin and melds into it. A smooth, warm, round, earthy blend that's creamy without being overly sweet. I love, love, love it!!
  23. lookingglass

    The Ghost Children

    In the perfume, I also tried to capture the blue-violet-white of an afterimage and the silence of a snuffed candle. The scent is dry with age, taut with loss, grief, and heartbreak, and sorrowful in the unspeakable desolation of simply being forgotten. This is breathtakingly beautiful, and so how I would expect The Ghost Children to smell. Out of the bottle, it's green and herbal, almost citrusy, quite like the Apothecary. It quickly dries down, though, to a Ouija like scent, white roses, with bits of tart green stems, Victorian and natural. It's floaty and fresh, very innocent smelling...just tiny flowers for a while...nothing heavy or too dusty to weigh it down. It never goes sour like some florals can, and is not soapy. Dried out, it reminds me of White Light in how soft, and glowy, while still being creamy (maybe a bit of wood?) it is. There's a bit more knowing in the end, a depth, and richness. It is a very fresh but full perfume, delicate yet not so innocent... like a posy, wrapped in a fading blue ribbon, carefully tucked away in a box. It does smell faded quite quickly after application. It's brilliant, really, how that concept becomes captured. I was not so secretly hoping that this would be a close second of our beloved, departed, Antique Lace, but alas, it is not; her characteristic vanilla musk is absent. I do adore the Ghost Children, but they are closer kin to Ouija (without the wintergreen note that can sometimes be present-I am therefore, actually preferring it over Ouija!). These babies have found a home in my BPAL box. Now, to hunt for their eyes...
  24. lookingglass

    Dragon-Smooched Snake Oil

    OMG. This is a patchouli wearin' Snake Oil, who has Womb Furie and Dragon's Milk as godparents! I kind of laughed when I put it on because I imagined Snake Oil sipping a Coke and getting a kiss on each cheek at the same time. Dragon Smooched Snake Oil is mostly our beloved Snake Oil, amped with knarly patchouli, sweet honey, and drippy, red dragon's blood. I find it less vanilla-y and spicy that regular SO, and way more red and kind of fruity, like dragon's blood can be. It reminds me quite a bit of Mme Moriarty in feel. I also wear and love Mme Moriarty quite a bit, but I'll wear Dragon Smooched SO when I wanna feel a bit sillier and embrace happy accidents.
  25. lookingglass

    Fortuna Praecantatrix

    YAAAAS! THIS is how I like green scents. It reminds me a bit of GC Medea; it has a similar herbs/leaves/dark fruit/incense vibe. Wet on the skin it's fresh green leaves and pomegranate juice, but slightly bitter, too, like pomegranate seeds. The honey is slightly sticky, sweet, and green as well. The cognac, oude, and vetiver dry down is sweet, dark, woody, brooding amazingness. I'm reminded of the way the Hex store smells. Mmmm, hmmmm!
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