Atrous

This is going to be a short review:

On me this is artificial fruit, rancid butter, and meat.

Tried to scrub it off three times and I can still smell it.

So gross.

 

Wet: Starts out unpleasant. Strong camphor scent and sharp lemon.

Dry down: This ones a real morpher. Camphor goes away almost immediately and the sharpness of the lemon starts to subside. Musk makes its appearance and I swear I smell vanilla.

Dry: Okay, this is not what I was expecting but its actually very nice. Sweet lemony tea, vanilla, and musk with a wood smell underneath. I never would have said that it was specifically Teakwood.

I love this in the wet stage. It's juicy, purple fruit with hints of something bright coming through.

But dry, its a hint of fruit with generic perfume.

Its just okay. Glad I got to try it.

The bitterness of the orange and the sweetness of the tangerine strike a nice balance.

As this is drying down I can smell patch, amber, tobacco individually but once it dries they all swirl together with those lovely citrus notes dancing on top.

I never do get any white musk but that's okay because this is beautiful just the way it is.

I'm expecting this to age wonderfully.

With frank and myrrh in this I expected it to be a lot stronger.

It stays surprisingly close to the skin.

I'm going to echo other reviews in saying this smells like sweet incense ash and snuffed out candles. But, it doesn't smell like a church.

I'm in love with Relics and will have to purchase a bottle.

Wet: This smells like green, unripe banana peel. Not what I was expecting.

 

Drydown: The banana peel scent fades and turns to a juicy, green scent with a bit of sweetness. Sandalwood comes out but stays low key the whole time.

 

Dry: Lotus has taken on a well balanced sweetness and remains green while orris has come out to lend its powderiness to the mix. Sandalwood is barely noticeable but its there. I don't get any vanilla. The longer this stays on my skin the more the musk comes out and the more beautiful this scent gets.

 

I didn't have much hope when I first applied it but it morphs into something special. Love it

Right away I get a blast of chilly, sparkling snow.

It morphs quiet a bit during the dry down. For awhile there's a strong juniper berry scent to this and as it starts to recede there a short time where this smells exactly like Skadi.

The frosty note continues to dominate this blend but isn't quite as chilly and there is a hint of greenery. slowly vanilla and then sandalwood make their appearance but stay low key.

A truly lovely blend.

Snow White is one of my most beloved scents so I just had to get the hair gloss.

There isn't much to say except that it smells exactly like the SW perfume oil: An ethereal scent. Soft snow, light florals, and a faint almond/coconut something in the distant background.

This smells like dirty snow, as in snow and dirt co-mingled, with a dusting of vanilla on top.

That may not sound great but it is. I'm not getting any of the lemon other reviewers are getting. And that's a good thing!

 

I anticipated that this hair gloss wouldn't be too complex so I could layer it with a variety of perfume oils.

This fits the bill quite nicely.

All win notes so I had to have this.
I could smell this even before I ripped open the parcel. Its that strong and stays strong.
Wet, I got a big whiff of Patch and a musk that smells more black than red.
As it dries down the Musk and Patch stay strong but a charred wood note starts to make its way through. Since birch tar is the only other note I'm guessing that what is causing the charred wood scent.
It pretty much stays that way after its completely dried.
The notes are perfectly balanced, no one of them takes center stage, but they all have attitude.
Krampus' Shadow is what I thought it would be: dark, brooding, and gritty.
A great blend for Patch and Musk lovers.

I'm retesting this from an imp that's been aging for 1.5 years.

 

From my meager notes when I tested it fresh:

Woodsy, minty, sweet, spicy with a bit of floral. Sooty on top with something cool and clean underneath.

 

Retested aged imp:

Wow, like others have commented this is an incredibly complex scent. Aging has certainly improved it. I was kinda' blah about it when I first tested and now I'm really intrigued.

The sweetness in this blend smells like the lab's honey note even though that note is not listed. I don't get any mint this time.

The whole blend seems to be dusted with that honey sweetness and a creaminess that I attribute to vanilla.

I get Opium infused Leather underpinned by Peru Balsam. A bit of fruitiness, floral, smoke play along the edges.

 

This is crazy good after aging. I think I need to get a bottle of this and squirrel it away for awhile.

With these notes I thought this blend was gonna be a win for me.

I get no white musk, no cocoa, no incense, no leaves.

I have hay scented soap on my skin. That's it for about 10 minutes and gone.

A melange of sweet resins, beeswax, and dark incense.

For me, this is so well blended I don't detect any individual notes except for beeswax.

I don't have a resin/incense blend quite like this. It's sweet without being foody.

Incense often has a 'hollow' feel to its scent. But this one smells 'full-bodied'. Not sure that makes much sense but its the closest description I can come up with.

Oh, and like some other reviewers I don't get any Vetiver.

Wet: Nutty oatmeal cookies. Not too sweet and warm.

 

Dry: Turns to play doh and disappears in less than half an hour.

 

Had promise in the wet stage but, like many of the RPGs, the final result just doesn't work.

When I started wearing BPAL I thought I was a floral hater. More and more I'm finding that there are florals I really love and others that smell great if they're tempered with the right notes.

I adore Sweet Pea, Tuberose, Fruit Blossoms and just about any night-blooming flowers.

Roses, violets, carnations can smell great or they can go terribly wrong.

Some of the scents that have made me look differently at blends with floral notes:

 

Wanda - the roses and violets behave themselves

Morocco - I hate fresh Morocco. The carnation is biting. But after giving it some time to age and the carnation to mellow out its really beautiful.

June 23, 1868 - Night blooming flowers that smell antique

Rosy Maple & Reflected Vulva - both have a fruit blossom note and sweet pea. The florals are sweet and not in your face. RV might be a challenge to find though

Snow White - soft, innocent florals

Playing Tag in a Garden Full of Gods - Tuberose and a white rose that behaves.

Peacock Queen - It amazes me how much like a fresh red rose this smells.

At first I get hit with a oily chemical/medicinal smell which I'm guessing is the Laudanum & Mercury.

During the dry down Absinthe and Opium start to come out and temper the chemical aspect.

And finally, Rose and Carnation come and round SB&K out. Once dry, the chemical/medicine translates as herbal to my nose.

All the notes are present but muted. I don't think I've smelled anything quite like this. Its a comfortable and restive scent and I'm liking it a lot.

Its taken me a while to review BP because we've had a love/hate relationship.

This was the first OLLA I tested right out of the shipping box.

In the bottle I could smell salt, berries, a bit of floral, and dragon's blood. I thought, "Oh, this is going to be interesting".

But, it wasn't. On my skin it turned into slushy, salt water.

 

I've learned to wait and retest after aging a scent. For a while I was getting pretty mixed results and it smelled different every time I tried it. Sometimes I loved it; other times I hated it.

I would say that for about a month now I've been getting consistent results so I think its aged sufficiently to render a verdict.

 

I get fruit, maybe berries or pomegranate, with a salty, metallic edge. Dragon's blood, ozone, and florals alternately pop out from time to time to say hello. I would call this a red scent, but diluted red, if that makes sense. Its a cold scent with shots of warmth. Such an odd little scent but one that I'm really enjoying now.

My daughter loves the smell of coffee with cream. Misk U was proclaimed "not coffee" and I don't think Mata Hari will do it. Any other ideas?

How does she feel about cocoa with her coffee?

El Dia de los Reyes smells like that. The coffee note actually smells like coffee to me (which is not always the case with the Lab's coffee)

I can't afford to have a BPAL habit all the time, so I tune in and out of the update situation for months on end. I must have missed something, but what became of all the Panacea oils? Only TKO seems to have survived, presumably because it's a "beloved favorite" and a heavy seller. Are all the rest discontinued for good? (Oof, Ugh, Grr, etc.)

Sorry, yes they have been Discontinued.

you can find all the Disc. GCs under In Memorium section of their website here:

http://blackphoenixalchemylab.com/product-category/in-memoriam/general-catalogue/

Heavy ritual incense + citronella. As this dries down the citronella aspect becomes more and more prominent and I'm not liking it.

I don't want to smell like a bug repelling candle plus it doesn't resonate all that well with the incense.

Its just not for me.

This is a very dry, soft scent. Sandalwood and Coconut are dominant. Coconut usually goes creamy/tropical/foodie on me but not this coconut. This one is really dry. Same with the Sandalwood. I get incense but the kind where you walk into a room hours after the incense burned out and you can still smell it in the air. There are also hints of Orris that make this blend powdery. I'm not getting any musk but there are brown, fuzzy underpinnings that perhaps can be attributed to the musk.

I absolutely love Jenkin. Its the most beautiful dry/powdery scent I own.

The wood in this is too faint and the brass is too loud.

I was hoping for a deep, rich wood with a bit of something metallic along the edges but the wood note seems kinda flat to me.

I can smell it but it really has no character. If that makes sense.

When this dries it smells like super masculine cologne.

Just not for me.

Floral, herbal, aquatic. I do detect something like a cement note in the background.

This is a pretty scent but it's so not me. Too heavy on the aquatic for me to ever reach for it.

My Mom, on the other hand, loves aquatic scents so I gave my decant to her.

She loves it which is what I expected.

I discovered Tombeur about 2 years ago and wear it often but I've been wary of doing a review because this is one of two scents (the other is Blood Popsicle) that are really sensitive to my skin chemistry. I never know quite what it will smell like until I put it on.

It never smells bad but I just never know.

For example:

Today its really strong on the Blood Musk (which comes off smelling a bit like a deep, rich wine) and Patch with occasional whiffs of Snake Oil.

 

Sometimes its Snake Oil and warm, creamy amber surrounding it.

 

Sometimes its Vanilla Sandalwood + Musk + a bit of Snake Oil.

 

Other times I can smell all the notes in this blend.

 

Anyway, you get the idea. The notes seem to play hide and seek with me.

2014 Version:

 

I've never tried any older versions of Devil's Night but I bought a bottle blind based on reviews of prior years.

This is a bit of a let down. I wanted booze, sugar, and musk with some smokiness.

What I got was an artificial fruit candy smell + a wee bit of smoke.

I'm not sayin' it smells bad. It smells fine but its really not me. Plus, it fades from my skin in about 10 minutes.

I will hide this away and age it for awhile before giving up on it entirely.