doomsday_disco

Democracy will not come Today, this year Nor ever Through compromise and fear. I have as much right As the other fellow has To stand On my two feet And own the land. I tire so of hearing people say, Let things take their course. Tomorrow is another day. I do not need my freedom when I’m dead. I cannot live on tomorrow’s bread. Freedom Is a strong seed Planted In a great need. I live here, too. I want freedom Just as you. – Langston Hughes A scent for community, for communal power, for collective justice; a fragrance of sustenance, comfort, resilience, justice, and the stubborn belief that sweetness belongs to the living, here and now. Crusty brown bread still warm from the oven, golden wheat, clover honey, sweet butter, oat milk, chamomile, and a soft breath of vanilla.

Spanish A playful bite, sweetness bruised by desire. Black cherry liqueur, red amber, and crushed strawberries crushed with clove and cinnamon sugar.

A smoky, windswept gust of tobacco flower, vetiver, olibanum, black oud, and a blotch of red orchid. Léon Spilliaert

An oil to draw harmony and calm wherever it is applied. Infused with soothing herbs and resins, this oil works to keep your home, workplace, or sacred space free from conflict. Anoint doorways, windows, or your pulse points to settle arguments, ease frayed nerves, and encourage understanding between people. Perfect for moments when tempers run high, Peacekeeper helps restore balance, calm emotions, and foster an atmosphere of respect and mutual cooperation. Contains: frankincense, lilac, lemon, rose absolute, vervain, lavender, and orris.

Zante Currants and Lime.

Wild Strawberries and Inky Musk.

Pink Strawberry and Black Champaca.

Icelandic A cool breeze over flushed skin: cloudberries, ambergris, and lemon zest gliding over warm amber musk.

Kyphi and Sweet Cream.

Dried Strawberries and Dragon’s Blood Resin.

Blackberries and Coconut Cream.

Petal pink jelly that shifts to spring green and explodes with holographic micro glitter.

A sinister harvest, a bowl of freshly picked berries left as an offering beneath unsettling lime-tinged moonbeams, their juice staining pale hands red: crushed wild strawberries, night-blooming datura, goblin’s gold moss, dried berry incense, sticky honey, and a slow bleed of blackcurrant sap over cold white musk.

Italian The slow warmth of a lover’s lingering bite: candied fig syrup melting through mascarpone, cacao, and smoky vanilla.

Since 2026 contains a whopping THREE Friday-the-13ths (Fridays-the-13th?) we’ve decided to call in some misfortune-warding reinforcements. Each version of this year’s 13 perfume oil will be accompanied by its own bonus luck charm: a free 1/32oz imp of an original perfume oil inspired by lucky finds from our seasonal crossroads wanderings. Those who collect all three will end up with a veritable bracelet’s worth of lucky charms to treasure and wear as needed! March’s charm: FORSAKEN ELEPHANT PUPPET. A little gray elephant puppet discovered on a Minneapolis sidewalk, carried forward as a guardian of small miracles. Well-loved gray cotton, clover honey, kettle corn, and soft white amber. (The review thread for the 13 that belongs with this scent can be found here.)

This month, I experimented with a new sub-concept for 13: Friday the 13th in a forgotten library, with 13 notes that evoke the search for lost stories and the desperate drive to preserve knowledge before it fades into oblivion. Cacao threaded through yellowed paper, cracked leather bindings, spilled ink, black tea, tobacco leaf, cedar shelves, black mahogany, violin bow resin, clove bud, incense smoke, coffee bean, papyrus, and myrrh. 13 is significant, whether you consider it lucky, unlucky or just plain odd. Many believe it to be unfortunate… … because there were 13 present at the Last Supper. … Loki crashed a party of 12 at Valhalla, which ended in Baldur’s death. … Oinomaos killed 13 of Hippodamia’s suitors before Pelops finally, in his own shady way, defeated the jealous king. … In ancient Rome, Hecate’s witches gathered in groups of 12, the Goddess herself being the 13th in the coven. Concern over the number thirteen echoes back beyond the Christian era. Line 13 was omitted form the Code of Hammurabi. The shivers over Friday the 13th also have some interesting origins: … Christ was allegedly crucified on Friday the 13th. … On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrests of Jaques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and sixty of his senior knights. … In British custom, hangings were held on Fridays, and there were 13 steps on the gallows leading to the noose. To combat the superstition, Robert Ingersoll and the Thirteen Club held thirteen-men dinners during the 19th Century. Successful? Hardly. The number still invokes trepidation to this day. A recent whimsical little serial killer study showed that the following murderers all have names that total thirteen letters: Theodore Bundy Jeffrey Dahmer Albert De Salvo John Wayne Gacy And, with a little stretch of the imagination, you can also fit ”˜Jack the Ripper’ and ”˜Charles Manson’ into that equation. More current-era paranoia: modern schoolchildren stop their memorization of the multiplication tables at 12. There were 13 Plutonium slugs in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Apollo 13 wasn’t exactly the most successful space mission. All of these are things that modern triskaidekaphobes point to when justifying their fears. For some, 13 is an extremely fortuitous and auspicious number… … In Jewish tradition, God has 13 Attributes of Mercy. Also, there were 13 tribes of Israel, 13 principles of Jewish faith, and 13 is considered the age of maturity. … The ancient Egyptians believed that there were 12 stages of spiritual achievement in this lifetime, and a 13th beyond death. … The word for thirteen, in Chinese, sounds much like the word which means “must be alive”. Thirteen, whether you love it or loathe it, is a pretty cool number all around. … In some theories of relativity, there are 13 dimensions. … It is a prime number, lucky number, star number, Wilson Prime, and Fibonacci number. … There are 13 Archimedean solids. AND… … There were 13 original colonies when the United States were founded. Says a lot about the US, doesn’t it? _ _ _ Since 2026 contains a whopping THREE Friday-the-13ths (Fridays-the-13th?) we’ve decided to call in some misfortune-warding reinforcements. Each version of this year’s 13 perfume oil will be accompanied by its own bonus luck charm: a free 1/32oz imp of an original perfume oil inspired by lucky finds from our seasonal crossroads wanderings. Those who collect all three will end up with a veritable bracelet’s worth of lucky charms to treasure and wear as needed! March’s charm: FORSAKEN ELEPHANT PUPPET (review thread located here).

Curiouser and curiouser. Milk and honey with rose, carnation and bergamot. I'm a huge fan of the Mad Tea Party collection. It was inspired by my favorite book, and I have more wins from that line than any other category of the general catalog. I'm also a huge fan of sugary floral scents. That said, I did not vote for Alice hair gloss in the Lunacy Poll, but only because it was up against TKO, which I love even more. So I was delighted when the goblins decided to make Alice hair gloss a thing as well. In the bottle, it is the spicy, creamy floral that I know and love. Once applied to the hair, it differs from the perfume oil in that there is a brief blast of rose before I get CARNATION LIKE WHOA. This is some seriously spicy carnation. I wonder if there is some cinnamon in that note that contributes to the spiciness, because when I applied it to my wet hair on Sunday, it felt really spicy and hot (especially when I would rest my head against my hand), and when I applied it to my dry hair on Monday and held my hair up to my nose, my lips burned a little when they encountered my hair. I find it interesting that the carnation note is so strong in hair gloss form. I guess I thought I would get less carnation in my hair than on my skin (since my skin has turned some scents featuring that note into what might as well be a carnation single note), but that wasn't the case. After several hours, the milk and honey note started to emerge more. The carnation has softened, allowing the rose to peek out once again, but it is still quite prominent. I prefer this stage of the scent, and it is so lovely to get a waft of that milk and honey note paired with the spicy carnation when walking in the wind. I plan on pairing this hair gloss with Alice, Alice in the Pumpkin Patch, and Queen Alice. But since I don't really wear two of those scents until autumn rolls around, and I already own a ridiculous amount of hair gloss, I think one bottle of this will suffice.

Since 2026 contains a whopping THREE Friday-the-13ths (Fridays-the-13th?) we’ve decided to call in some misfortune-warding reinforcements. Each version of this year’s 13 perfume oil will be accompanied by its own bonus luck charm: a free 1/32oz imp of an original perfume oil inspired by lucky finds from our seasonal crossroads wanderings. Those who collect all three will end up with a veritable bracelet’s worth of lucky charms to treasure and wear as needed! First up, for February: SNOWY CIRCUS PEANUT. Found on a trek through Minneapolis this winter, this boon of odd fortune is a bit of frozen banana-adjacent marshmallow’ish sweetness snuggled in a pillow of freshly-fallen snow. (The review thread for the 13 that this belongs with can be found here.)

It has been such a long day/month/year, so I wanted to distract myself by making something absurdly sweet and shockingly gourmand. This is a sticky, gloopy, joyful plop of marshmallow fluff, cotton candy, vanilla froth, condensed milk, taro root, honeycomb, macadamia cream, sugared champaca, caramelized tobacco, campfire toffee, black dates, coconut, and ambered benzoin swirled into dark, smoky cacao. 13 is significant, whether you consider it lucky, unlucky or just plain odd. Many believe it to be unfortunate… … because there were 13 present at the Last Supper. … Loki crashed a party of 12 at Valhalla, which ended in Baldur’s death. … Oinomaos killed 13 of Hippodamia’s suitors before Pelops finally, in his own shady way, defeated the jealous king. … In ancient Rome, Hecate’s witches gathered in groups of 12, the Goddess herself being the 13th in the coven. Concern over the number thirteen echoes back beyond the Christian era. Line 13 was omitted form the Code of Hammurabi. The shivers over Friday the 13th also have some interesting origins: … Christ was allegedly crucified on Friday the 13th. … On Friday, October 13, 1307, King Philip IV of France ordered the arrests of Jaques de Molay, Grand Master of the Knights Templar, and sixty of his senior knights. … In British custom, hangings were held on Fridays, and there were 13 steps on the gallows leading to the noose. To combat the superstition, Robert Ingersoll and the Thirteen Club held thirteen-men dinners during the 19th Century. Successful? Hardly. The number still invokes trepidation to this day. A recent whimsical little serial killer study showed that the following murderers all have names that total thirteen letters: Theodore Bundy Jeffrey Dahmer Albert De Salvo John Wayne Gacy And, with a little stretch of the imagination, you can also fit ”˜Jack the Ripper’ and ”˜Charles Manson’ into that equation. More current-era paranoia: modern schoolchildren stop their memorization of the multiplication tables at 12. There were 13 Plutonium slugs in the atomic bomb that was dropped on Nagasaki. Apollo 13 wasn’t exactly the most successful space mission. All of these are things that modern triskaidekaphobes point to when justifying their fears. For some, 13 is an extremely fortuitous and auspicious number… … In Jewish tradition, God has 13 Attributes of Mercy. Also, there were 13 tribes of Israel, 13 principles of Jewish faith, and 13 is considered the age of maturity. … The ancient Egyptians believed that there were 12 stages of spiritual achievement in this lifetime, and a 13th beyond death. … The word for thirteen, in Chinese, sounds much like the word which means “must be alive”. Thirteen, whether you love it or loathe it, is a pretty cool number all around. … In some theories of relativity, there are 13 dimensions. … It is a prime number, lucky number, star number, Wilson Prime, and Fibonacci number. … There are 13 Archimedean solids. AND… … There were 13 original colonies when the United States were founded. Says a lot about the US, doesn’t it? – – – Since 2026 contains a whopping THREE Friday-the-13ths (Fridays-the-13th?) we’ve decided to call in some misfortune-warding reinforcements. Each version of this year’s 13 perfume oil will be accompanied by its own bonus luck charm: a free 1/32oz imp of an original perfume oil inspired by lucky finds from our seasonal crossroads wanderings. Those who collect all three will end up with a veritable bracelet’s worth of lucky charms to treasure and wear as needed! First up, for February: SNOWY CIRCUS PEANUT (review thread located here).

You may shoot me with your words, You may cut me with your eyes, You may kill me with your hatefulness, But still, like air, I’ll rise. – Maya Angelou Under a terrible moon, tides still answer the pull. Roots still find water. Breath still moves from body to body, unseen and unstoppable. To keep breathing together is to refuse erasure and deny despair. Authoritarianism thrives on isolation and fascism feeds on hopelessness. We are living through a terrible moon, indeed, but we are not alone. You are not alone. Every breath you take is an act of defiance. Every hand you reach for refutes the lie that you stand by yourself. We will get through this together. A protective, communal scent to call one another closer and stand united against the darkness. A scent to remind us that even now, especially now, we rise. Smoldering beeswax illuminated by honeyed amber, an embrace of skin musk, body-warmed wool, cacao-dusted sandalwood, and cardamom milk.

This lunacy scent is mostly about the honeyed amber on me. I get touches of the wool, beeswax, and sandalwood, but none of the other notes can compete with the force of that honeyed amber. However, when layered with some of its duets, I found that all of the duets always remained on top of Terrible Moon's honeyed amber base. So even though I layered a drop of Terrible Moon with a drop of each of the following duets, the duet was always the stronger blend: Cardamom and Black Amber Pistachio and Vanilla Buttercream Steamed Milk and Marzipan I prefer it layered with the two gourmand duets since it takes it more out of cozy resin territory and adds that extra sweetness that I enjoy. This moon isn't a scent I need more of, but it was fun to get to try it and layer it with some of its duets.

Pistachio and Vanilla Buttercream.

This duet features an almond-y sort of pistachio note, backed by the sweet vanilla buttercream. Unlike almond notes, which tend to be fleeting, though, the pistachio sticks around and hovers above the buttercream base. I like this, but I think just my decant will be enough.

Cherimoya, green tea, lemon blossom, sweet crimson berries, and creamy white sandalwood.

Silken indigo musk, tatami straw, black tea, golden amber, yuzu peel, and black plum.