invisible iris

In the bottle: Intensely hot cassia and red ginger. It’s a very red- and dry-smelling heat. On skin: Still hot cassia and red ginger, but now cinnamon joins the fray and a hint of SO emerges. I feel a faint burn where I applied this, on my inner elbow, but it doesn’t last. Dry: The spices have mellowed some, but not much. Saw-Scaled Viper is for serious spice lovers only. I get a very dry almost woody spice, you can sense the ground bark texture of the cassia and cinnamon. Cassia and red ginger are most prominent, with cinnamon in close third. It's a very heated and heating blend--it seems even to have an ayurvedic-like heating effect. (I’m testing this on my left arm, and Green Tree Viper on my right, and going between the two is like going between red hot fire and green leafy ice). Snake Oil fits right in as a base to these spicy top notes, as would be expected, but its vanillic sweetness is only barely detectable under the bitterly hot spices. Much later in the drydown (6 hours), it’s still going strong but the SO comes out more, and the effect is ground cinnamon/ginger spiced SO. Impressive throw, long lasting. Verdict: Saw-Scaled Viper isn’t messing around. This is the spice blend I’ve been looking for. It’s spicier, hotter, and longer-lasting than the other cinnamon/ginger blends I’ve tested in the GC, and doesn't have any foody sweetness. It's amazing and I love it.

Spoiler for possible TMI. In the vial: Hay, treesap, hemp, almond blossom, rice milk… this smells really good. On skin: It smells like a summertime romp in the hay. It’s hay and rice milk, grainy and sweet. Dry: I don’t find Brood XIX foody. Even so, a part of it does recall cereal, oatmeal, or creamy grains. I’m guessing that’s the acorn and rice milk. The rice milkyness is much nicer than regular milk/cream blends I’ve tried. It seems less artificial, less blatantly gourmand, and less prone to unpleasant (powdery/rancid) shifts. The creamy grain scent is prominent and delicious, but it’s reined in from edibility by other players. The hemp note, for one, is stunning. I don’t know how to describe it but I recognize it from BB and Rogue, its sort of grassy/woody/fibrous and it pulls the blend back from being edible so that instead it’s earthy and warm. There’s a green note detectable too, which must be corn stalks or tree sap. As a result there’s just enough plant matter, living and dried, to evoke a lazy day on a farm. And the amber gives it a hypnotically fuzzy haloe, which is conceptually apropos, given that Brood XIX was unyieldingly hypnotic to the point of ecstasy or distraction. There’s something idyllic and pleasure-promising about the blend that echoes the feel of surrendering to the intense sound and atmosphere of the cicada brood. Verdict: It’s hazy and lazy with farm-sweet notes that are comforting and absorbing while being earthy and nature-y. This is a definite 5ml purchase for me, and backups are possibly in the works.. although I might want to respect the natural rarity of the cicada emergence by letting Brood XIX be a single beloved bottle. ETA Revised Verdict: I've worn Brood XIX solo now a couple of times, and both times I'm sad to say I've found it less appealing than it was when I was just testing it. I can't say that it smells any different, but my reaction to it has been different I think, I've found it not comforting but weird, cloying, and slightly sickening. Maybe it's a scent that I enjoyed sniffing, but not one that I want to smell like. So I actually don't think I'll be getting a bottle. Which makes me sad, but it's okay because there are other bottles on my list...

In the vial: Ridiculously fruity, mango pomegranate bubblegum with red musk in the background. On skin: Mango pomegranate bubblegum with a hint of blackberry, the red musk has disappeared for now. Dry: Gummy bear fruit salad with red musk sweetness. Like a bag of Haribo Goldbären. The main fruit for me is the mango note, which dominates on my skin and becomes candy-like whenever it's present. If I get any herbs, they're faint, not interfering for a second with the comical fruity blast of the overall scent. The candy sweetness burns off after about an hour, leaving red musky mango, but the whole scent doesn’t last much longer than 2.. I agree that this is reminiscent of Ushi, for people who enjoyed that blend. Verdict: So not for me! But fun and sweet nonetheless. I’m glad I got a chance to try it.

In the vial: Mild vetiver, coffee, wood, and a hint of not-quite-vanillic sweetness, On skin: The same as in the imp, basically. Mostly a mild vetiver with hints of coffee, wood, and a faint sweetness. Dry: Atlas doesn’t morph very much. Khus and gorgeous warm woods underneath, with coffee bean as a mild burnt woodsy midnote, and sweet mallow (like a soft vanilla, but not quite as cushiony on me as TKO's) on top. The longer it sits on my skin, the more the khus mellows and the sweetness of the blend drifts around me in an increasingly intoxicating haze of woodsy mallowy warmth. I almost wish I didn't know there was vetiver in this. Although it lacks the offensive smell of the true vetiver blends, the overall scent of Atlas does possess that insistent quality of vetiver, where the odor sits there like a brick, casting throw like nobody's business, stubborn and unwavering and long-lasting. Something about it makes me uneasy. But its pleasant softness, the way the woods and the soft sweetness soothe the vetiver rage, is enough to overcome my prejudice against the blend, if not my suspicion toward the vetiver. Verdict: It all boils down to one thing, which is that I liked Atlas on. I kept getting whiffs of its throw, which were undeniably pleasing and, as others have said, comforting. So despite my conflicted feelings about the one particular note, I'll probably be getting a bottle.

In the vial: Honeysuckle, violet leaf, not-overwhelming pikake, pink geranium, and white amber. This smells pretty in the vial. On skin: Similar to in the vial, I get honeysuckle, pink geranium, cala lilly, a hint of pikake, white amber, and a sweetness that must be the agave. Dry: A perfect balance between pink geranium, honeysuckle, and wild orchid. Pikake and cala lilly are both really tame here, and there is a mere hint of watery violet leaf. The agave adds a tiny refreshing sweetness, and the white amber casts a cool translucent mist over the whole scent. I do not love florals. But this is not heady in the least, and I find it surprisingly nice. Blue Morpho comes across as the scent of a delicate, magical nectar. It evokes flowers in the way that a flower-drinker would scent them, sweet and refreshing and antennae-tinglingly tasty. Wear this to a butterfly house and I bet you’d be the center of attention. Verdict: This is very pretty, even knowing that I would never wear it. Highly recommended for lovers of light florals, even jasminephobes, especially if you enjoy e.g. The Lilac Wood, I find the vibe to be quite similar. I’ll be keeping my imp.

In the vial: Mostly orange blossom, with a bit of brown sugar and saffron. Plus some tonka. It’s a little tart, orangey citrus tart, in the vial. On skin: A sugary, floral orange blossomy honey. For a while Pussy is more floral than I expected it to be. But as it dries the tobacco begins to emerge in a major way, and the floral quality mellows... Dry: A deep orange honey tobacco. The main note on me is rich tobacco, sweetened by sultry orange blossom honey, a little bit of saffron, and a hint of tonka. It's surprisingly unisex with tobacco as the dominant note, not as cloyingly sweet as the notes would suggest. The closest blend I can think of to it is Red Lace, which on me is a red-stained tobacco scent. Pussy smells like it could be Orange Lace, a sumptuous, orange honeyed tobacco. Verdict: It's deep and sweet without being cloying, sexy without being heavy or too complicated. Pussy is eminently wearable and a definite bottle purchase. I LOVE PUSSY.

In the vial: Ginger, pepper, and caraway. A hit of powerful spice. On skin: Hot and dry black pepper, ginger, and orange peel dominate this from the beginning… I keep waiting for rose to take over. But it doesn’t. Dry: Black peppercorn, caraway, ginger and orange peel are still the most dominant notes for me here. It's not a foody kind of spice, at most it's a dried spice cabinet, a woodsy and unsweet sort of spice. Myrrh is present as the body of the scent, although it's not very strong. I detect a faint sweetness from vanilla and maybe a hint of green from the mandarin leaf. I never get any rose at all, which makes me happy but at the same time confused. As time goes by I can sense the myrrh sweetening and that enhances the slight creamy effect of the vanilla, making the blend as a whole more complex, warm, and pleasing. Brahmin smells similar to The Great Sword of War, which I really like. But it's not as dark or foreboding as TGSoW. Verdict: I like bitter spice/orange blends like this, and I might try doing a side-by-side test with TGSoW because they seem so similar. I like Brahmin. I can see myself wearing it, so it may find its way onto my bottle list.

In the vial: Intense lime, with sweet opium and opoponax in the background. On skin: Still a lot of sour lime, but with darker notes emerging from underneath the tartness (opium, black plum, clove) and a distinctly animalistic castoreum lurking in the depths of the scent. Dry: The lime almost completely burns off after half an hour. It leaves a rich but dry perfumey opium-dominant blend, stained dark purple with shades of plum and dried berries, dusted over by clove, and enveloped in a haze of black amber and castoreum. Sometimes opium and black amber can dry down to a cloying resiny sweetness, but here the sweetness is balanced out by the bitter opopanax, the dusty clove, a shadow of musky castoreum, and the remaining sour twinge of lime peel. Like most opium blends (at least on me), the late drydown leaves only the opium. Verdict: Purple Spotted Swallowtail is a sophisticated and dark opium blend with a bittersweet buzz. I am not a crazy admirer of opium, and this is a little dressy for my usual tastes, so my decant will probably be enough. But opium lovers should definitely check it out.

Another complimentary imp from the Lab. In the imp: I smell electric honeydew, guava, freesia that makes it smell like something from a dept. store, a bit of “salt”, and a hint of tart, green mandarin. On skin: The salt picks up first and brings out the aquatic aspect of this blend. I get the woods now, and something really does register as “desert scrub”--don’t know what, maybe a bit of dry grass with the wood or something. But the green, unripe mandarin holds this back from being in any way warm. It’s zingy cold, I agree neon is a good description. As it continues to dry, the freesia begins to come back with a vengeance… Dry: The freesia came back, never left, and it’s a note I can’t help but associate with mall perfumes. However, I don’t want to sell this blend short. 51 is a complex and interesting take on the somewhat plebeian notes of freesia and melon. The “desert scrub, smashed wood, and dry, biting scent of air over the salt flats” take the blend to a completely different level. The airy salty wood meets the neon fruit halfway, and contribute this haunting, desolate, hollow sense to the overall effect. This almost tips it over into a light cologney territory, but in the best way possible. Verdict: 51 is not for me, but that is probably more my fault than 51’s fault. If I had any interest at all in light fruit, white musk, or aquatic blends, then I would promptly become obsessed with 51 and wear it, and only it, all the time. Highly recommended to all the light musk lovers out there.

A complimentary imp from the generous Lab. (I have stopped seeking out rose blends for myself, so I don't really expect to like this one.) In the imp this has a tart smell. I detect bergamot, violet, and rose. Freshly applied, rosewood immediately appears to dry out the primrose somewhat. Bergamot and chamomile add an herbal twinge, and violet is still a player. Red sandalwood and Arabian musk emerge as it begins to dry. Oh, there goes the primrose, beginning to amp... Dry, this is Rose, mostly. Rosewood is there too, dominating the red sandalwood and Arabian musk in the fight for biggest base note. Bergamot is gone, chamomile is really faint, and violet has altogether fallen to the indomitable rose. The whole thing reminds me of an old-fashioned powder room soap. Verdict: On my skin it’s obviously a rose-dominant blend, so Libertine is not for me. However, it is not the most horrid rose blend ever. It would be good for a person who likes rose and is looking for a more warm and somewhat dry, unisex-verging Victorian rose.

In the imp: I get an almost piney or citrussy frankincense and bitter myrrh. Freshly applied: Wow, frankincense… and myrrh. There’s still almost a balsamy scent to this. Dry: As it dries the sharpness goes away and it just gets mellower and more warm. The slight bitterness of the myrrh tempers the almost brown-sugary sweetness of the frankincense. It makes me feel holy or sacred, like I’ve been anointed. Only something as simple as frankincense and myrrh could be this elegant and at the same time so comforting. A beautiful, basic blend.

A complimentary imp from the ever-generous Lab. In the imp, I get apple with a blast of opaque oak, and something that smells strangely like spearmint toothpaste? Freshly applied, I get apple and mint. The phantom mint burns off after ten minutes and is replaced by a hint of oak. I love oak. And then slowly, oak begins to take control from the apple... For a short time, this is apple-y oak, and I really think it’s going to work on me. But then the apple note goes the tiniest bit plasticky. It reminds me of the smell of a My Little Pony from the old days (Applejack pony, ha!). The overall scent is quite light, and the oak keeps it from being too fruity or sweet. But this apple note seems to go fakey on my skin. Verdict: Even without the plastic, this wouldn’t be a scent I’d go to often, not being a huge fan of apple-smell (other than the real thing). But the plastic is a deal-breaker.

A complimentary imp from the ever-generous Lab. In the imp, it smells spicy sweet with a hint of floral musk. Freshly applied, I get warm spices (cinnamon and ginger?), musk, a hint of mandarin, and one of the flowers showing up is rich and almost creamy. The spices (cinnamon, ginger, and definitely clove) and musk dominate this blend, and the musk here smells to me like red musk, which always becomes addictively sweet on me. The next most prominent note is the mandarin, but it is not overwhelmingly sweet or fruity, it just gives a slight flavor to the spicy red musk. It’s a spicy red musk with a hint of orange and flowers. The overall effect is surprisingly light when it completely dries. This reminds me of a couple CD blends.. like a less sugary, slightly more spiced version of The Grindhouse. Verdict: If I were looking for a spicy red musk floral, Hell's Belle would definitely be a contender. But I'm not a huge fan of florals, so... I'm not sure.

A complimentary imp from the nice folks at the Lab. In the imp, I get a slightly tart, almost citrussy aquatic note (not unpleasant, not soapy at all), and a hint of muguet. Freshly applied, I get gardenia, muguet, and the aforementioned aquatic, with a bit of white ginger fizzing in the crystaline musk. Once dry, it's gardenia, muguet, what I assume are water blossoms (which smell on the verge of creamy to my nose), with a faintly gingery white musk. After a half hour or so the ginger picks up a little, and the overall scent gains a little more sweetness. Light, faintly sweet floral with a gingery aquatic misty vibe. Verdict: This is pleasant, but it’s not my kind of scent at all. A person who appreciates airy white florals and light musks would enjoy it.

In the imp, I smell candy roses. Freshly applied, I get sweet rose. Once dry, it’s fresh, sweet rose. A possible hint of grass. But mostly wet, juicy, green, fresh, cool, living rose petal. After a bit it turns to a fruity sort of rose. This lasts a long time for such a light scent (over 5 hours) and has a generous, lively throw. Verdict: I got this in my first BPAL order, and since then have discovered that I alas do not care for rose. At least not on me. But this would be just right for somebody who loves rose and wants a daytime, gardeny sort of one.

In the Imp, I smell coconut and orris. Freshly applied, it immediately goes to suntan oil and BO. It must be the "creeping musk" that registers as BO.. As it dries, a bit of sandalwood & incense come out and tame the suntan oil/BO, but it's too little too late. The musk here is still creepy, kinda weird and maybe a little foul smelling. The coconut and orris seem slimy and slithery, sweet in an unpleasant way, with a tiny hint of rotten sickly. The combination of musky animal odor plus the sweet oily feel of the coconut is genuinely unnerving. Verdict: I'm exaggerating the badness of Brown Jenkin. It really is only slightly off. But the offness is so difficult to articulate and categorize that it distracts me from the overall ok-ness of the scent (DH thinks the smell is fine). In any case, Brown Jenkin is annoyingly uncanny and obviously not for me.

In the imp, it smells quite spicy. Freshly applied, the sweetness hits me. Sweet ginger spice. The ginger is effervescent and sugary (like candied ginger), hot (dusty hot like powdered ginger is hot), and tangy-bitter-sour (like raw ginger). I can actually distinguish the different kinds of ginger. I really enjoy this phase of Shub-Niggurath, because I love the different textures of intense, nose-tickling spicy. After about an hour though, most of the intense spicy has burned off. Shub becomes more of a warm ginger snap cookie, I think smoothed by vanilla (maybe tonka), and some frankincense. Warming and delicious, kitcheny and homey. Not as Satanic as I was hoping. I like this phase OK, but not as much as that initial blast of sparkling ginger heat. Verdict: While I find the wet phase to be interesting and fun, the dry stage is a bit boring. I've tried several blends now that dry down to spicy-cookie so it's hard to be as excited about this one.

In the imp, shriekingly sharp floral. Mostly rose. Applied to my skin, the resins begin to show. Mostly frankincense. In combination with the florals (both rose and Lily of the Valley now), it's a sharp and slightly funky scent. By the time it dries, the rose has amped to high heaven! And taken over the whole thing, except for something musty is lurking in the base of the scent. It doesn't even come across as incensey (I usually like incense notes). The florals seem to have blocked all but the worst qualities of the olibanum & frankincense, and this is just a high-pitched musty rose. And then, to add insult to injury, it starts to smell rank and like cat pee. Verdict: Skin chemistry disaster.

A complimentary imp from the ever-generous Lab. In the vial and freshly applied, Envy is bright lime and mint. It begins to dry and the lavender appears. The mint burns off in fifteen minutes or so, leaving mostly lime and lavender, and a hint of possibly basil? Or something like basil, green and grassy and ever so slightly watery sweet. Over about two hours, it mellows and fades down to the barest cool skin scent. Though short-lived, I find it exceedingly pleasant throughout. The effect of Envy is to be clean and clarifying (a bit ironic, considering the concept, which is anything but). I tend to use my imp in the early mornings, when cleaning the house, or when my sinuses feel like they need some light, soothing refreshment. Something that couldn't possibly be irritating. I think Envy would be amazing made into a light spritzer or spray. Although it does smell very good to me, given the short skin life, it seems more like an aromatherapeutic blend than a perfume blend.

In the imp I get lemon with a hint of honey and something that reminds me of anise, strangely. Freshly applied, it's tannic tea and lemon and what seemed like anise has shifted into white pepper and ginger. Oh, here comes “clean linen,” which esp. in conjunction with the sorta sneezy pepper, my nose reads as dryer sheets... That phantom lemon fades and merges into a very faint tea note. As it dries, the sweeter notes come out, honey, milk, and vanilla from most to least prominent on me. The pepper and ginger lose their kick, the tea mostly disappears leaving but a faint astringence, and the dryer sheet becomes not quite so… dry. Ultimately, it's buttery honey with sweet milk and a hint of dryer sheet. Verdict: Alas, the dryer sheet note doesn’t work for me. I’m just not that kind of person. But I can see someone else really loving this, as it’s sweet, and clean, and very light.

In the bottle, I get a sort of boozy (what is that? weird, reminds me of Perversion) tobacco, red fruit and a faint cotton scent. Applied fresh, it becomes sort of faint. Then it does that disappearing thing. Gone. It stays like that until the oil absorbs into my skin. First to return is the tobacco note. It must be the tobacco plus raspberry that reminds me of Perversion, but sandalwood and a hint of frankincense soon show up and pull it back from boozy fruit in a slightly dryer, more velvety direction. The end result is neither fruity nor dry, but hits a good midpoint at soft, glowing, and warm. Vanilla cream cotton emerges and rounds everything out into a luscious and soft tobacco, sweetened by a touch of vanilla, and deepened by seductive red musk. This is a beautiful, sensual tobacco. I keep getting wafts of lavishly-scented air from the tiny dab that disappeared into my wrist hours ago. The sillage and length of wear is impressive. Verdict: I’m not sure how "me" it is, but Red Lace is definitely a gorgeous blend, and I'm glad I have a bottle. Bold and lush, ripe red tobacco.

The imp hits me with tart and sharp mandarin, white musk, and pale pepper. The flowers (mostly lily) burst forth as soon as it touches my skin, but they’re soon outdone by splintered woods (can’t tell what kind of wood). An enduring sour herbal scent confuses me until I reread the notes and see laurel. As it dries, the lily and woods make their amends and settle down next to each other, lily being dominant but the woods reining in any headiness. In the end, I get lilly with a small kick from white pepper, a bit of piney laurel, a verrrry slight hint of mandarin, and a bottom note of sharp wood. White musk, as usual, makes the whole blend opaque, slightly astringent, and fuzzy around the edges. Verdict: The balance works for me here, but the notes aren’t my favorite. Lily almost always strikes me as antiquely old-fashioned and just not my style. The feel of the scent is definitely high-pitched though, each note contributing its own small screech to the overall vibe. So I think it successfully captures the concept.

In the imp, I smell sweet floral fruit. Freshly applied, I get sweet, simple, girlish, blackberry and heather. Once it dries, this smells light and clean, juicy and ripe blackberry with a hint of opaque floral sweetness from the heather. It is really simple, verges on boring for me, and definitely strikes me as the scent for a person young in years. The blackberry and heather amplify each other’s worst qualities, becoming sweeter and headier, and after a while I find Glasgow way too cloying to wear.

In the imp, I mostly smell spicy carnation. Freshly applied, I can tell there are a lot of different warm spices here, but I don't know exactly what they are. Mostly saffron? I am definitely still getting carnation, too. At first, my nose interprets and tells me I smell like a spice cookie. Something in here I’m reading as creamy, vanilla? As it dries further the sandalwood tones down the foody sweetness, and carnation amps, adding a whopping hit of floral to the spice. The warm musk makes it feel fuzzy and like… powerfully spicy swarthy skin. There’s a raisiny hint to the spice that gives it this booming, almost overwhelming sensuality. Verdict: I like the scent of Morocco, but it doesn’t feel like “me.” It feels bigger, more brunette, and more buxom. The more I sniff it the more it feels like I had an elementary school teacher or someone who smelled like this in my past, because it triggers a strong but vague scent memory (so YMMV), making me feel small in comparison to it--and as though it is wearing me, not the other way around.

In the imp I smelled plasticky vanilla/sassafras/cedar, and freshly applied it was basically the same. As it dried, it went through a long rootbeer Dum Dums phase that wasn't pleasant. Really sweet and kinda fakey. It took a while, maybe an hour, but the plastic eventually receded into cedar and balsam. Then this got really good. I love cedar combined with something edible & sweet, and this is cedar with the caramel/herbal sweetness of vanilla sassafras. The throw of this smells so nice, even better than when I stick my nose up into it. It wafts a wonderful woodsy caramel sassafras. Verdict: Warm woodsy comfort, sweet vanilla sassafrass, just this side of foody. A great scent for a low-key, color brown, autumnal kind of day, if I can make it through the cloying and plasticky wet phase.