bheansidhe

All of Their Heads Fell Off: sometimes Beth releases a humdinger of a blend with such an off-putting name that I want to go around grabbing people by the collar and earnestly explaining that no, really, Wererat-Infested Sewer is an amaaaaazing room spray and not a fetid stench. All Of Their Heads Fell Off is not a slasher flick or a campy horror poster; it's a true Space Oddity of a desert poem. I literally keep getting wafts from my desk and wondering what the hell smells SO good and unfamiliar, and realizing it's AOTHFO. If you've never walked in the Mojave or Chihuahua deserts, you might not know the smell of creosote bush. It's dry, like a cross between fresh pine terpenes, brimstone, and white sage, but lighter and more eerie than any of those. This is not a creosote-soaked railroad tie in the sun; not a gasoline smell (hello, Pumpkin Gas Can) but a dry, faintly alien wind. AOTHFO is sweeter than I was expecting. It starts off at least fifty percent "cactus flesh," which smells like, well, edible cacti, like prickly pear and dragonfruit: green, sweet, watery melon notes. The creosote/dust notes are a distinctly separate waft that never marries the cactus pulp, but layers it like a sandwich. The "blood musk" makes the perfume the exact shade of a delicate rose. I'm not sure what it adds except an incense vibe? I don't get dragon's blood, but I'm not always good at finding that. It's startling how desiccating and yet liquid this blend is, like a gush of clear water through a concrete channel; it smells like slaking your thirst at a playground water fountain in summer. And a touch of desert smoke. I can't think of another BPAL that smells like this.

Both sniffed and skin-tested: the richest, milkiest milk-chocolate chocolate note. You, literally, arising from a vat of churning, freshly made milk chocolate in a chocolate factory like Aphrodite born of the waves, except you're being born aloft on a fresh-baked honey graham cracker. You can smell it down to the crispy snap of the perforations, note-perfect. I normally have to avoid "honey" notes due to skin fuckery, but not here. The russet fur component is just enough to drag it into gourmand perfume territory. Drydown: tray of freshly baked brownies drowned in maple sap. Run, don't walk, to acquire this if any of those notes appeal.

Dry, spicy Mexican hot chocolate without any sugar or milk notes to hide the glorious cacao/cardamom - if Mexican hot chocolate were incense, it'd smell like this. I get almost no hay, though it may be softening the background. If you want to smell like fall without the pumpkin spice, get this blend. ETA: the cardamom, while glorious, is short-lived on my skin. The far drydown has a sweet, incense-y dried hay vibe, with the earthy cacao grounding the blend throughout the day.

Absolutely charming, and a blend that could settle down seamlessly with the Mad Tea Party. It conjures billowy white muslin dresses, ridiculous straw sunhats, and high tea set out on the patio table on a lace tablecloth. This is a very green-toned honey - obviously, given the notes - with a salty tinge that reminds me of pulling haygrass stems and splitting them with my thumbnail and sucking the juice out. There's a vinegary waft of cucumber tea sandwich and a thin, clear, sweet honey note that floats on top. Sweet, but not foody.

Rose musk, peach blossom, and vanilla cream. Emphasis on the cream and the musk (like a soft skin musk), not the rose. This smells like plush fur feels, all creamy to the nose. It is shockingly lovely and understated, and if rose in all forms did not abhor my skin, I would buy it.

Bourbon vanilla, aged patchouli, honey, and Ceylon cinnamon. It's got a base akin to the thick aged-patchouli-and-vanilla of Banshee Beat (there, I said it, let the stampede begin), but liberally cut with syrupy honey. I get almost no cinnamon. The vanilla, which is slight, smells like the woodsy, resinous vanilla from Hope and Fear Set Free. Overall this is a complex, earthy, honey-and-patchouli on me. Soft as worn leather, floats low on the skin. If these are your notes, then rundon'twalk.

I spoke to Ted at the event. He said that Beth didn't write down any notes for this blend because it essentially consists of every peach in her arsenal. All of them. It's 1000% peach juice. I don't use hair glosses as a rule, but I bought a bottle just to use as a body oil and a bath oil. It is absolutely delicious. Peaches all the way down.

Hel-LO, Mr. Sexy Man-Cookie! Is the oven door open or is it just warm in here? Slide closer and drip some more of that sweet, rich molasses on me. I love how close you sit on my skin. This blend is so mellow and soft; chewy like a dessert bar, warm like fur. I normally shy away from bay rum blends - I like it from a distance, but I don't like anything to read as cologne on my skin - but here it just sweetens the molasses and balances the patchouli. I really didn't expect to love this blend as much as I do.

Sour orange and fiery pink pepper with mandarin, neroli, and rum absolute. This opened with a rainbow parade of sour-sweet, fizzy citrus notes, and then settled into something intensely familiar that I couldn't place. It wasn't until I re-reviewed the notes and spotted the rum that I realized it's a dead ringer, scent-wise, for one of my favorite cocktails, the Boulevardier. The bitter orange and sharp neroli really mimic the rhubarb-and-citrus-pith astringency of Campari liqueur. Links that better describe what I'm talking about (TW FOR SUBSTANCE ABUSE): https://drinkstraightup.com/2012/12/14/boulevardier/ https://drinkstraightup.com/2013/05/07/side-by-side-bitter-orange-spirits/ I don't specifically get "rum" from the blend until it starts to wear down, but honestly it winds up smelling like a pretty close cousin of Swank on my wrist. Definitely a classy cocktail, not a pirate-rum boozefest.

Sniffed wet: vetiver, something like gin or juniper, metal, ?sour pickles, minty cologne? This one baffles me. I smell A LOT OF THINGS but none code as something specific to my nose. Tested on a second day: grass, mud, kerosene or fuel oil, heavy muslin curtains, billows of ozone-y smoke machine smoke, brass.

WHAT are you people on about, I'm so confused, it's cucumber water-infused dryer sheets and melon hand soap. WHUT.

Soft loam, dewy "mist" or "grass" notes, and a citrusy mirror-glass note. It's also reminiscent of the metallic note from Needle in a Haystack.

Smells like greasepaint and theatrical makeup in the vial - I'm definitely getting the steampunk-y "gear oil" and maybe the sweet fire note from The Lights of Men's Lives. A tiny, tiny background of burning leaves or scorched wood, but it's not a smoky blend. I have such an aged tester that I'm sure it's not accurate; it's mostly sweetened gear oil to me, really.

This is one weird morpher. I have an (obviously) aged sample to test, and I'm getting mainly wintergreen wet on the skin. I'm going to guess one of the published notes will be "lacquered wood floors" because that often reads as wintergreen on my skin - ... which now it does not, even a little. It's now unfolding into something like a grapefruit-tinged skin musk, a powdery white floral, and something that smells REALLY familiar (like a very familiar GC BPAL) that I can't put my finger on - I think maybe Alice? Yep. It's not an Alice dupe, but it has an Alice vibe, if cherry blossom substituted for the carnation note. Welp!

The weed note dominates during application, so I get cannabis car freshener out of the gate. However, it rapidly becomes something more bitter-pithy and sophisticated, dominated by the grapefruit (which I love), lavender, and tobacco, cushioned by gentle fruits. (No pot stank at this point.) The bittering agents keep this from veering into fruit cocktail or fruit loops, which is the sad fate of most fruit-based perfumes on my skin. I utterly love it at this stage and would drink gallons of any cocktail or mocktail that tasted like this blend. The perfect spring or summer perfume.

I'm getting a touch of cinnamon red hots without the cinnamon, if that makes sense; flaming myrrh in the vein of Wrath or Priala the Human Phoenix, with billows of hot sweet incense, lightly spiced with pepper, and rooted into the patch/opoponax. This should be a huge hit with incense lovers. Sweet, dry, resinous, and spicy, with a hint of flame.

What's that? I can't hear you over the sound of immediately buying two full bottles as backups to my partial. This is the only marshmallow blend that has ever really worked on my skin from first slather to final poofy drydown, and that gloriously warm, nutty, chewy-sweet patchouli rolls over that oily benzoin like caramel over midnight-black chocolate. Can't hear you, too busy huffing my arm.

Like almost everyone else, I'm getting lemon verbena and a sweet, lightly camphorous mint off the top. There's bunchteen other ingredients, none of which I can pick out; they're having like a rave back there in the lemon-mint warehouse? Ooh, I smell something like sharp, freshly snapped marigold stems, and maybe hyssop or bee balm (monarda). And, to round out my barrage of guesses, myrtle leaves. I'm sure there must be a resin binding all of this together, but it's a minty melange of wild herbs to me.

A sweet, powerful, smooth floral and musk blend. According to my online snooping, Sesen (or Seshen) was supposed to be "a combination of Frankincense, Blue lotus absolute, Cinnamon." I would definitely believe this contained a lotus and a blue Egyptian musk or skin musk. It has a sweet, watery green quality as well, like cucumber or melon pulp. Sweet, soporific, mellow, languid; has the feel of water lilies in a pool at dusk.

This is an odd one. Right off the bat there's a smoky, sour-tangy note that smells SO familiar, if I could only put my finger on it - it's not quite vinegar, pickle brine, gunpowder, wood ash, or pine terpenes. Maybe I'm smelling a very raw, gnarly galbanum, with hints of cedar woodsmoke and vetiver? And now it's got some sweet sandalwood rounding it out; possibly cardamom as well. I'm not mad about any of this, mind; it's an olfactory roller coaster to be sure, but I like the funky, herby blends. It's definitely mellowing on the skin. I get zero florals. This is ... a slightly smoky, slightly spicy resin blend. And hints of annatto seed on the far drydown.

The clearest description I can give is "amped-up peaches." Very juicy, very strong peach brings out the fruity herbal note of bay rum. It's bright and brash and gender-neutral.

So very soft and warm and creamy. The coconut cream is so realistic that I'm reminded of my favorite desert, Thai mango sticky rice. The peach blends in, present but not overwhelming. It's hard to form a strong impression in the convention hall, but so far I'm happy with my blind buy. Edit: now that I'm home and can properly sniff. Wet: definite peach and sweet coconut cream. It rapidly develops hints of vanilla, honey, and almond (true almond, not Amaretto extract), and then some warm, nutty pistachio. I could swear there's the tiniest sprinkle of dry pie spice in there, like a faint dusting of mace or nutmeg, and sea salt. The blend stays sweet and fluffy, but never goes cloying. It stays low to my skin in a warm, peachy cloud.

Ridiculously sexy indeed! It has a peach-drenched Smut vibe. I originally thought it reminded me of Snake Oil, but when I got home and smelled them side by side, I realized there's none of SO's tooth or drag or silt in this blend. It's sweet, musky, and clear. I can't pick out individual notes, but it's a very well-fitting little red dress indeed.

Very sweet, realistic peach and what smells like the scorched milk note from Snake Milk (caramelized, not powdery). I would snatch it up if either of those appeal to you.

Obviously this has aged for twelve years since the prior reviews, but it's largely the same. Wet, it's herbal lavender and clary sage, a perfumer's note like orris root or iris root, and a horsey note like sweet oats. I always interpret orris root as astringent, but the scent mellows fast into lavender and sweet oats floating over that slightly bitter herbal-green base (orris? a touch of violet?). Oh, wait - I think the bitter tinge is Beth's carrot seed note, which does dry down to an earthy sweetness to me. Overall, this is like a lavender-based Gunpowder. I love lavender, and may try this one in a diffuser for sleep.