bheansidhe
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Everything posted by bheansidhe
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Beaver Moon: Blackcurrant and Iced Lemon
bheansidhe replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
The feel of swallowing a long cold draft of an Arnold Palmer after three hours of gardening in the hot sun: slaking heat and thirst at once. This smells so light and refreshing that I want to actually drink it (but please don't). It's an absolutely true iced lemon and tart purple-black fruit from application to drydown. Blackcurrant doesn't play well on my skin, but this has been delightful in my oil warmer. Strongly reminiscent of a good lemon-drenched iced tea, even though there's no tea note. -
Cold Moon: Moss and River Silt
bheansidhe replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
I'm a longtime fan of Halloween in New Orleans, and to my surprise, this is a VERY wearable blend that throws a definite HiNO vibe while being distinctly its own creation. I love its grit and saltiness, and how unexpectedly earthy and grounding it is to wear. The moss reads like Spanish Moss single note, not oakmoss, and not like cologne. It's loamy, not aquatic. If this blend had a color, it would be the weathered silver-grey patina of hundred-year-old bald cypress planks milled with hand saws from the heart of a Louisiana bayou. There's a faint woodsy sweetness in its wake. -
Cold Moon: Osmanthus and Sweet Frankincense
bheansidhe replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Wet, this is primarily frankincense sweetened by osmanthus, which to me always smells like young green leaf with hints of apricot or peach, and not like a white floral at all. It's surprisingly subtle and low, like the trailing waft of the New Age shop you visited earlier in the day. Resiny, not smoky. Layered with Moss & River Silt, it's a solid nod to my beloved favorite, Halloween in New Orleans. ETA: at the end of drydown it's a faint drift of incense smoke and no florals. It smells at this stage more like a nag champa note. -
This smells like a gorgeous Victorian's gentleman's cologne that's both villainous and seductive, and one that belongs in the Crimson Peak lineup.
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Sexy lichen indeed! This starts as a soft and nymph-like oakmoss draped in ylang-ylang and a very foody vanilla. Something about that combo plus the orris and ambergris gives it that distinctive "BPAL Lace" quality. It stays sheer, delicate, and low on the skin. Forest fairy face-powder is spot on - thanks, @gentle-twig!
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Sniffed, I get all coconut and a darkly astringent lavender, which plays oddly on my skin when first applied, but then morphs into a citrusy, lavender-tinged musk. Now the coconut reads like husk, like the color of dirt, like a brown vase holding the other notes, which lean heavily into the amber musk with just a hint of mandarin freshness. If lilac is here, it's just a supporting note, and the lavender fades quickly. It ends as a dry, husky coconut rind and and really resonant amber, plus a musk that resembles the base of Smut, all leavened with a bit of spray from the orange rind as the peel is cracked open. It also has the wet-tropical-woods feel of the discontinued Wanderlust blend Manila. Coconut husk, Smut musk, and amber with an orange twist on the rim. I love how dry the, well, drydown reads on my skin. I didn't expect to like this nearly as much as I do.
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This has such a sweet, bright tang that pairs beautifully with the Valencia Orange Hair Gloss. Where the HG is a more realistic orange, Fire Poppy is unquestionably a sweetened tangerine base that avoids all pith and pucker, blurring seamlessly into the other notes like a glorious scarlet-and-orange watercolor wash.
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Between the sappy, realistic chrysanthemum and the dead leaves note, this has a very La Offrenda vibe. It's bright, light, and crisp, like a dry champagne (no, it does not have alcohol notes). The maple is syrupy and sappy, but not gourmand, perhaps because it's so well balanced by the herbal chamomile and the light woods notes. Frankincense twines through the other components, lending a gooey resinous warmth. It dries to a light, unisex fougere overlaid with a powdery, woodsy sweetness. As someone who can't wear Samhain, I'm pleased to have this blend to fill the Samhain-shaped hole in my perfume collection.
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Tea roses, honeysuckle, heliotrope, olive blossom, milk, and honey. I splurged at Dragon*Con on the set of four (the labels are GORGEOUS, by the way). Maiden was actually a pickup for someone else because I am not a fan of rose in any incarnation, and honey is typically awful on me. Typically, floral honey blends go one of three ways: -cloying, -musty, or -sour. But I've learned my lesson and I always skin-test even the most unlikely suspects. Sure enough, this was the one that appealed least on paper and worked the best on skin. Maiden stays sweet, but never cloying; light, but with hours of stay and persistent throw. It has the milky smoothness of chalcedony or opal. It's just so.. so darn...pretty. Not frilly or bubbly or girly; just clean and serene. Even drydown was graceful; it didn't change, just gradually faded away. The top note is tea rose - definitely tea rose and not damask or any other type. Tea rose always smells "rosiest" to me; it's clarion, not unbearably heavy. The heliotrope and honeysuckle stay light and delicate, and the olive blossom (which is a favorite note) lends a beautiful round fullness. The milk-and-honey background is similar to that of Dana O'Shee, but somehow never goes feral on me the way that blend does. How does Beth do it? No clue. But I am abashedly fond of this beautiful blend and I predict it will be a real favorite.
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I can't decide if Lavender Lussekatter or Lavender Avocado Toast is my favorite successor to Lavender Rosemary Baguette (which I loved). The saffron is indeed distinct here, along with the herbal lavender and the yeasty dough. It's all steaming lavender-infused butter on first slather, which wears down to such a soft poppyseed bun scent. I'd say it's overall softer and more butter-forward than Lavender Rosemary Baguette, and a touch sweeter than Lavender Avocado Toast.
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Extremely gentle rose and lily notes, framed by ? white sandalwood or a similarly low-key resin.
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The bright clear honey note reminds me of The White Bees Swarming hair gloss from many Yules ago. It's surprisingly soft on the skin, morphing from an initial flourish of orange creamsicle to a sweetened (but not foody) freesia and honey, as noted by the previous reviewer. I can't pick out the pink peppercorn at all. For all that it pops brightly out of the bottle it does, in fact, fade to a ghostly phantom sweetness in your wake.
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Satan Presiding at the Infernal Council
bheansidhe replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Limited Editions
Dang, that's sexy - part Hell's Angel (clean) leather jacket, part gleaming, ebonized wood-and-steel showroom for Lucifer's new motorcycle line. I'm not sure why I'm getting a motor oil vibe - possibly the bitterness of angelica root - but it's nicely overlaid with warm organic notes of pepper and sweet frankincense, and a hint (just a hint) of nag champa. It's not something I'd wear myself, but I'd certainly want to get close to an attractive someone wearing it. Beth has certainly excelled at nailing "sexy engine" with some recent blends! -
This is a CRAZY sexy forest floor drenched in fresh pine sap. It's snappy, fresh, and acidic; like biocarbons, I get a hint of lime peel. I would not mind snuggling up to someone who was wearing this (and maybe a cabled fisherman's sweater, while I'm dreaming).
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2024 version! it opens as a very realistic brown sugar, lightly dusted with pumpkin pie spice (mostly ginger and nutmeg, with just a ghost of cinnamon in the back), but with an underlying fizzy effervescence that reminds me of the champagne note. As it wears, it darkens into ALL THE RAW SUGARS -- molasses, dark cane syrup, demerara -- grounded by sweet, earthy pumpkin gourd and ever-deepening baking spices. There's no hint of pastry, making this blend distinct from the other "pumpkin pie" variants. It is, truly, pumpkin, spice, and sugars. It reminds me of a happy Mexican bakery at Halloween!
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Sniffed: this smells like an incredibly conceptual, high-end ice cream from a James Beard award-winning pastry chef, the kind that incorporates unexpected savory-leaning notes like olive oil or pepper. Touchstone is noticeably creamy, with vanilla and pear on top, but with a tempered sweetness and a nutty base of grain streusel. The pear is realistic but simmered-down, not juicy and fresh. I smell whiffs of honey and sweet musk, but no noticeable clove or wood. Skin-tested: creamy, sweet but not sugary. The fig, honey cake, and bourbon sandalwood dominate here, with a pear creme anglais poured over. Again, it smells like an elevated dessert concept. The vibe is still warm and "nutty" (with no nut notes), with a hint of toasty spices and sweet woods. Drydown continues to center the bready cake note (like a stone fruit-based bread pudding). Overall, foody but a left-of-center foody, just a touch sweetened. Very snuggly on the skin. The sandalwood blooms out beautifully at the end. I do not get white cedar in any noticeable way, but I wouldn't mind if I did, and it might be contributing a little jammy warmth to the background. ETA: 30 minutes after applying Touchstone, I stuck my head out of my office and yelled, "Is someone burning something?" down the hall, only to realize the fantastic whiffs of sandalwood incense were coming from my arm.
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An unreleased American Gods blend (AG IV). Patchouli and ink/paper notes, plus maybe rosewater from greasepaint? Perhaps some stale tobacco or pipe smoke? The longer it's on, the more certain I am it's patchouli that's blackened and sharpened by something like ink or labdanum, plus a hint of something cold, like stone or old smoke. In the far drydown I definitely smell paper/ink. It has a similar note to the "inky-black myrrh" of Lydia. Almost an older male Lydia, but with the bitterness of old cigarette smoke instead of patchouli sweetness. It has more staying power than Lydia, but where she has a dark, treacley sweetness from the patch, A Man's Fortune has grit and cigarette ash. Wet cigar end accord, maybe? Honestly, the bitterness makes it interesting. This isn't quite like anything else I've smelled.
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What ... does this even smell like? It's the perfect goth new-car scent, if the new car in question were a lovingly restored 1956 Miller Landau hot-rod hearse with hand-stitched leather seats and burl wood paneling, fresh from the restorer's showroom and ready to cruise some country backroads. There's a hint of bonfire smoke in the sweet ozonic gusts of fresh air, and I think the gas tank was filled from a vat of Pumpkin Gas Can, because the vibe has a similar sharp-sweet chemical note. It smells like fresh air and fumes and it's better than I can describe. I plan to regularly spray my car with CH.
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SO GOOD, full stop. No hint of the hearse here. You didn't pull over for a chain breakfast. You stopped at a secret artisinal foodie's breakfast cafe where they stone-grind their own buckwheat and distill cauldrons of tree sap for house-made syrup. The boiling sweet steam perfuses the French roast. I actually sweeten my coffee with sorghum molasses instead of sugar. It brings a caramelized, smoky sweetness that I swear I smell in (i)HoP. I also smell the earthy, mineralic buckwheat, a generous pour of syrup, a pinch of pie spice, and a hint of buttery fried dough. It's rich and nutty and nuanced, and I've drenched my bathroom in it. It's not like any of the other "foodie" blends I can recall - it fits with the medieval vibes of Labors of the Months.
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This has an unexpectedly cool, jammy fir, Christmas tree vibe to it when freshly applied, which is probably the white moss. This quickly settles into a damp, woodsy, mossy sweetness. It has fairly low throw but great sillage. I'm not wild about it as a perfume, but I tried some in an oil burner, and it turned my living room into a cozy, moss-grown clearing in the deep fir woods.
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Where are the reviews...?? Is this thing even on? Superstition is good! It's SO good! I'm not by nature a huge leather fan; I'm not opposed to it, but it's not a "sink into my background aura" smell for me the way amber and other resins are. For me, wearing a leather blend is An Event that will constantly tap me on the shoulder, reminding me that I Smell Like Leather Right now. For that reason, I don't need a variety of leather perfumes; I really just need one or two reliable standbys. Of the lab's various leathers, "well-worn" is always going to be my preference, but other well-worn leather blends like The Black Rider and Rogue fail due to other notes that always go wrong on me. Paladin and Gingerbread Jolly Roger are my two standby leathers... to which rank I add Superstition. Don't get me wrong; it's definitely, unmistakably leather in there, soft and supple but distinct, like standing in a room of vintage riding tack in an old but clean barn. This is a sweet leather, sweetened further in the marriage with roots and wild grasses (I believe I get some mandrake accord, dried hay, sweetgrass, and a touch of the dewy grass note). Frankincense rounds it out deliciously, and there's a dusty woodsiness as well that could be the blackthorn. I'm never good at picking out balsam, but I'm sure it's contributing to the herbalness. The herbishness (let's just continue to make up words, shall we?) is in no way culinary or spicy; you have gone into the fields and pastures and harvested the summer-fresh plants, then dried them all season in your creaking wooden attic. Honestly, I know all of the herbals and woods are modifying it, but this smells like the perfect Single Note Soft Leather on me. Buy it, buy it.
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Imagine that you are sitting at a New Orleans hotel with the waiter preparing Bananas Foster tableside. To begin, they drop a whole-ass stick of butter in the sizzling pan, dump in cupfuls of sugar, toss in the banana, drench it with rum, and light it all on fire. Once the caramels are scorched and the butter is browned, they plate it and serve it piping hot topped with ice-cold vanilla bean ice-cream -- and, buddy, MINUS the bananas, that experience is THIS perfume. It's rummy but not rum-forward; it's butter-and-caramelized-sugars with some powdered ginger and cardamom in the background, fresh scraped vanilla bean, and - wait a minute, yes - the moist, yeasty heart of a cinnamon roll drenched in buttercream icing. Booziness: 2/5. Spiciness: 5/5. Foodiness: off the charts. Bottle: bought. I'd say it was distinctly different from Bonfire Toffee, which is dark caramalized sugar notes and a touch of smokiness. PS HBR is giving me more cinnamon and clove on this application. It starts out all the sweet butter and rum (sweet, but not too boozy), but the drydown is distinctly layered with PS. PS HBR doesn't dry down to resemble Pumpkin Spice Everything, either. I'm sorry, but you're just going to have to skin-test them all.
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1. Unscrew the bottle lid. 2. ....... wait for the FIREBALL BLAST OF ALCOHOL to roll up and past your nostrils. Snort out the singed nose hairs. 3. Sit back and sip the COFFEE. This is black and bitter espresso with black and bitter chocolate notes that gradually modulate with the addition of a buttery caramel syrup. This is the thick, chewy Turkish coffee with extra grinds and Eastern European spices. It reminds me of the coffee notes from The Turkish Village (minus the roses). Once on the skin, the entire experience mellows out. The alcohol notes clearly got overcaffeinated and jittered out the door. My wearing experience is blackened espresso silt and cardamom, followed by caramel drizzle. This would be amazing layered with Pumpkin Latte (to boost the coffee element) or PS Hot Buttered Rum (to amp the butter and caramel) or, imagine the three together! Booziness: 8/5. Pumpkin Pie Spiciness: 1/5 (it reads Eastern European spicy, not American Thanksgiving.) Experience: extra demitasse.
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Across the board I found that the boozy Pumpkin Patch blends have a lot of volatile alcohol top notes that boil out when you uncap, but the blend will smell almost completely different after some gentle oxidation. Based on my experience, I suggest you let the bottles sit uncapped and breathe for a good 15 minutes before testing - or hey, just shoot it straight! Pumpkin Spice Dark n' Stormy comes out of the bottle swinging mad, so let him cool off. Sniffed: treacley black rum as advertised, plus fizzy ginger beer and lime rind. Pumpkin pie married to a dark syrup pecan pie, boozier than a Christmas fruitcake and twice as drunk as your uncle. BIG booze mood here. BIG mad, BIG throw...blimey, this is LIMEY. To paraphrase Douglas Adams, PS D&S is like having a pirate smash your brains out with a slice of lime wrapped around a solid gold brick. ...hold on, this trip is WILD. Now I smell butter in the vial, so add key lime pie to the scent profile (but there's no butter on my skin). In fact, the longer I leave the bottle open, the more I'm smelling a buttery richness down in the depths. It's like peering through the seas of dark rum to the shipwrecked pie ten fathoms down. Otherwise, this BIG GINGER BIG SPICES KEY LIME ARRRR. Drydown: The most ... realistic .. grapefruit I've ever smelled. Grapefruit? Yes. Ruby Red grapefruit, to be exact, plus the aforementioned ginger beer and nutmeg. Booziness: 5/5. Pumpkin Pie Spiciness: 5/5. Trippiness: 3.5 hits.
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2023 version! (If there's another review thread that I missed, please point me at it.) I was nervous to skin-test the boozy Pumpkin Patch blends because I don't, as a rule, play well with alcohol notes. Well, the joke's on me, because this was the one I was most afraid of, and now I want a bottle. Sniffed: spicy and pleasant, with top notes of cardamom, nutmeg, and something that smells like a warm, woodsy cologne. There's some round pumpkin pulp in the center married to the anise, sweet fennel, and black licorice notes of the absinthe itself. Wormwood itself is bitter and green, and I get a tiny bit of herbal greenery, but not bitterness. At one point I'm thinking I smell palo santo? Sandalwood? Bay leaf? The overall effect has the warm burn of fine liquor in your gullet. I love, actually this blend. "Would you like to smell like a nutmeg and licorice cologne?" "Yes, yes, I -- I had no IDEA how much I wanted to smell like a nutmeg and licorice cologne!" Booziness: 3/5. Pumpkin Pie Spiciness: 4/5. Balls: pure brass.