doomsday_disco

Coconut Cream & Guava.

Iridescent rainbow flakies and pink galaxy glitter floating in a bubblegum pink jelly.

We’re all desperate for something light and uplifting here at BPAL, so this year’s Beev is a zingy key lime cheesecake with a whisper of lime sugar.

War of the Roses? Not anymore! After years of fragrant hostilities, BPAL’s Reigning Yule Queens, Snow White and Rose Red, lay down their arms.

Two beloved Yule blends are bound together at last: frost-bright petals and deep, blood-warm rose, entwined with winter air and the green snap of freshly cut stems. A hard-won peace, sealed in perfume: cold beauty and velvet warmth.

I’m honestly not sure if this is actually a New Year’s card, but for the sake of this project, let’s say it is. Your ancient ones are welcome? I misunderstood the card when I first saw it, and my brain translated it to an invocation to the Great Old Ones, Outer Gods, Elder Gods, or Dreamlands’ Great Ones, so let’s run with that, too.

This scent is no mere nut of hearth and harvest, but a squamous chestnut, born of ancient groves whose roots knot through strata older than memory, necrophagous and ravenous, sucking nutrients from long-buried carrion. A whiff of roasted shell, scorched coffee bean, and smoldering husk billowing in tenebrous clouds of nutty, cacodaemonical incense. Beneath this lies a resinous sweetness, dry and fungal, as though the chestnut had ripened not beneath familiar suns but under a swollen, unwholesome moon.

A paean to the dad jokes that the King in Yellow tells his kids, this chestnut’s warmth carries the faint echo of a pun told too many times and the comforting dread of knowing the punchline before it lands.

Boldog ujevet! Bubblegum musk, fermented plum, and strawberry brandy in a white candyfloss-dusted fairy ring of ruby-capped mushrooms and marshmallow cream.

Golden hay and sun-warmed straw, soft brown fur musk, ripe banana peel and green fig, steamed rice and almond milk, mimosa blossom, and pale yellow chrysanthemum.

A scandalous affair between silk-furred conspirators: tails entwined beneath tables, furrrrtive glances stolen and held too long, stolen hours, arched backs, and the scent of unfamiliar catnip rubbed on jeweled collars. 

An indolent purr of cream-soaked shortbread biscuits, cracked cardamom, pink pepper, smoked vanilla bean, and cocoa powder.

May you skillfully dodge all of life’s chamberpots while the blessings of the new year splash upon ya. Clean snowmelt touched with lemon peel, clover leaves, sugared almonds, and glimmering amber coins.

Wishing you and your cocks a happy new year.

Red peppercorns and gingersnaps.

Here’s hoping 2026 is less an endless replay of spectacular wipeouts and fail videos and more a year that finally sticks the landing.

Leather tack, saddle soap, bay rum, carmine wool, black silk, crushed winter grass, a billowing cascade of pipe tobacco, and a shot of adrenaline.

Once in a while, I am truly at a loss for words.

Oat porridge and cream, smoky treacle, clove bud, crushed sugar cookies, and pink currants.

“O father, see yonder! see yonder!” he says;

“My boy, upon what doest thou fearfully gaze?” —

“O, ’tis the Erl-King with his crown and his shroud.”

“No, my son, it is but a dark wreath of the cloud.”

A dread shape forms in the mist: chilled white musk, rain-soaked earth, and a gleam of blackened steel.

Yipe! Atmo is similar to the perfume oil -- bold black cherry at first that gives way to the cream and dried (non-juicy!) blackberry note. Of course, the cherry sticks around longer with the atmo than it does in the perfume, but the end result is the same with that dried blackberry-infused cream with just a hint of cherry by the end of the day.

As a cherry ho that used up all of her decant of the perfume oil years ago, I'm really glad I have a bottle of this, and I am kicking myself for missing out on the Yipe! Hair Gloss that was a happy accident that sold on Etsy.

If you're a fan of the Lab's black cherry note, you need this one in your life!

I thought maybe I hit a book scent saturation point, especially when it comes to leathery book scents, but this is the best one of those I've smelled in a really long time.

I get strong, yet smooth, well-worn leather, the warmth of the macadamia nuts, and the teak, which isn't too sharp on me in this and which makes the scent more sophisticated. I think it may be the same teak found in Carved Wooden Bawdy House. I am not getting a ton of smoke from this, and for that, I am glad, as I don't always jive with the Lab's smoke notes. I also am not getting much beeswax from this, even though I love that note, although I wouldn't be surprised if it were helping to further smooth things over and sweeten things up in the background. 

I mostly just got a decant of this because of its popularity at Dragon Con, but this is right up there with Picture Books in Winter and Jólabókaflóð as far as warm, sweet leathery book scents go. I'm going to have to spend some more time with my decant, but I'm definitely debating a bottle. This is one of the standouts from this year's Weenie collection.

Disclaimer: this perfume oil is not blue, it is not combustible, and it is not caffeinated.

A burst of summer sun to treasure during the icy months ahead.

A velvety, sophisticated concoction for the ages!

We're that relative who tries to make everyone try a green pie! This one dances lightly on the palate.

Vintage Kitty Blow Molds is primarily a mango scent on me, although it reminds me of something more like a mango curd than a mango sorbet. The clove in this is pretty tame on me, which is weird since I feel like I tend to amp that note (but it would be fine if I had, as I love the note). So it's mostly a tangy mango scent on me, with a dash of clove, until the end of the day, when it's morphed to the plastic-y bright amber that's the blow mold part of the scent, made a little fruity by what remains of the mango.

I think I'm going to keep the decant, as I think this would be fun to wear while it's still too hot to wear my autumnal scents, but everyone's stalking Weenies. I'll have to retest it to see if I need more of it before it goes away.

This smells like cheap chocolate on buttered pumpkin bread. I say cheap chocolate because of the waxiness of the sprinkles, although Dutch hagelslag sprinkles are completely unlike American sprinkles, aren't hard or waxy, and taste way better (and there's also a vlokfeest version that's like chocolate flakes instead of sprinkle shapes). I totally get the choice to use a note more akin to American sprinkles, though, as most people wouldn't be familiar with the Dutch stuff. Eventually, the chocolate fades away, and I'm left with a syrupy sweet pumpkin scent by the end of the day.

I thought I was going to prefer this to Pumpkin Zucchini Bread, but I actually think that I like that one better! Still, if you want a pumpkin and chocolate combo that isn't heavily spiced, give this one a try.

Treat this as more of an impression than a review since I'm reviewing the scent and not the intent.

The Burning Light is mostly about the orange, apricot, and ginger on me, backed by the incense. The ginger with the other notes is making this veer medicinal on me, sadly. 

I'm going to stick with Holiday Survival Juice for a joyful, uplifting TAL blend.

I received a tester of this in a decant order.

This is mostly about the leather on me, and it's a strong black leather. I also get some rubberiness from it, which I agree is probably from the leather combining with the ink. The dusty pages are present, but I'm not getting any beeswax or any sweetness from this whatsoever. And that strong leather really could have used some beeswax goodness along with it! Maybe it's just my skin running away with the leather?

I'm glad that I was able to try it, but I wouldn't reach for this over sweet book scents like Jólabókaflóð or Picture Books in Winter.

I'm also getting An Evening With the Spirits vibe from this one. It has the same sort of eerie coolness as some of those scents.

I decided to try it because I wanted to try at least one scent from The Yellow Wallpaper collection, and this one seemed like it would be the most accessible (plus, y'know, it contains lavender  ). This is indeed accessible, with the plaster dust being pretty tame and kind of lending a powdery make-up or classic perfume vibe in the background. However, the standout notes to me are the iris (which is somehow not as sharp and screechy as usual) and the musky ambergris. I've tried this a few times now, and the lavender and vanilla husk aren't really distinct on me, and I'm not getting anything rose-y from this, either.

While this isn't something I need a bottle of, I'm glad the iris wasn't extremely rude to me (despite being a main player), and that this wasn't heavy on the plaster. If you like iris and are looking for a scent with An Evening With the Spirits sort of feel, though, this might be up your alley.

A 2023 Halloween concoction which maybe should’ve been a Yule all along! Wooly and witchy, fuzzy and scuzzy, long green fingers tipped with ruby-red nails: raw wool, sweet oakmoss, and cranberry brandy.