ND¢

Can't believe I've never reviewed this. 

For those who love this, I bet you also love Pinched With Four Pumpkins and Arcana's Two Finger Ballet. 

This is a delicious, strong, boozy caramel that mixes so uniquely with the iris and, later, carnation. The sandalwood and patchouli play second fiddle but add great depth of field. 

The tobacco blends so harmoniously with the champaca, which itself so nicely compliments the vanilla... This honestly smells so good I'm surprised it's legal. Words like 'delicate' don't do it justice! And I feel like a classier person when I'm wearing it. Love. 

Funny thing is, dry on my arm it's a light, cute version of Hod. Just minus the somewhat strident Carnation but... *shrugs* it's really nice. 

For me the vanilla is a dead ringer for the fancy baking vanilla and the sandalwood is very subtle, initially smoky and with a very organic twinge to it on the drydown. I can't stop smelling it. 

I think this might smell great on someone who can deal with the really vigorous drydown stage but it is murder on my skin chemistry. Very interesting, close, subtle scent once the PHWOOOOOO wears off. 

It's beautiful and it didn't smell like I was expecting it to smell. For me it is firmly in the (beloved) camp of original Hungry Ghost Moon, FFSZ1, Tamamo-no-Mae. I suppose I expected the cocoa and cashmere wood to ground it,  round it out a bit more. 

Adding this review before this scent goes down: if you feel the Snake Oil variants during the Great Snake Oil Scare Ongoing have not been hitting the mark, I recommend you get a bottle of this at the minimum. It's by far the closest to Snake Oil As We Know It, with the guttery dark-pumpkin and coffee smell others have mentioned (which amps the Snake Oilness of the blend.) I would have sworn that this was made with Snake Oil™ and after getting this upon its release and sitting with it, I've decided to get some more. 

This blend is not overhyped. The hype is absolutely deserved. I blind-double-bottled this and I am absolutely coming back for another serving to give as courting gifts to my hypothetical future soulmate. So smooth that no one note stands over the others. Got a faintly Old West vibe, like Al Swearingen would be sporting it during an episode of Deadwood. This perfume is a SOUND. I love it.

This is a cool, sweet scent. I feel like the blossom is a touch indolic? or maybe the lotus root has a bit of a bite? Not smelling any tea rose from this, but it's fresh from the mail. The almond blossom and lotus root are the most notable for me, from the get go. I can tell the amber will come into play. 

ETA: There's the tea rose, a little, on the drydown. And the vanilla lending some depth... yes... yes... so elegant. so gorgeous. 

The high note ('frozen' or fuzziness of the labdanum?) is a little sharp for me, but this is still a pretty, unique scent. 

Got an unknown # bottle... I'd say this is resinous and sweet, with some labdanum and a gentle almost dried flower note. It's a soft, gentle, fuzzy and sweet skin scent, like Antique Lace if it was utterly without vanilla. 

Honey with a strong, high top note that's aggressive and unusual but not unpleasant. 

Perfect authentic sweet, fresh strong coffee. 

Corn chips? Dog feet? Skin chemistry can be brutal. 

Had to search high and low before I was able to get a partial of this. What a dolt I am for not having snapped it up when it was live. You know what this reminds me of? Part of the gorgeous appeal of Snake Charmer. Nowhere near as complex and doesn't contain many of the needed elements but it's a whiff in common and I love it. 

Something sent me off to The Land Of One Million Sneezes (guessing it's a combination of factors, but not something present in Blood Moon 2005, which does not trouble me) but I was able to note this is a very brash, bitter patch/spice scent. Menacing, almost. And then, the sneezes. 

This is the one Yule I blind-bottled after having realized that maybe sometimes I do like SOME vetiver. And boy, am I glad. I will say this is not my typical BPAL, I would not normally smell like smoky black tea but this to me is just a letter-perfect loose black tea, smoked and waiting at the bottom of a cup. So good. 

Little marshmallow, LOTTA TEA WHOO TEA tea tea hmm, that's pretty... lavender? Marsh... Hmmm, definitely a little musky in there. But a cute musk. Mmm. Sweet and cute and light. 

This one is a sleeper that came back and made me think I'd better get it before it comes down. Anyone who loves the deep, elegant drydown of Alkemia’s Silken Tent will probably love this-- there's a well-blended deepness, probably the ambery sandalwood, that is very reminiscent to me. I get the bergamot, lavender and possibly a faint rose at the beginning, before drydown, and hints of vanilla and marshmallow here and there, with the vanilla coming out a bit more as it wears on. 

My first first review! 

In bottle: the characteristic bergamot, but a little cuter, and tempered with the sweet bourbon tobacco bringing up the tail end of what I smell. 

On wet: the bergamot is BIG! But it's like.... a really fresh bergamot? If that makes sense? Not a flat tea ghost in the house! And there's a certain sophisticated cologne aspect to the scent, but that's fair because bergamot is a staple. We all know it. A WAYYYY more bergamot....ty scent than soft, pretty Severin, my bergamot benchmark, and even more than Paper Phoenix, but this is not the same bergamot as in either of those. The bourbon tobacco does a great job keeping the bergamot anchored and the blend is much more complex than some might give two notes credit for. (Edited to add: primarily bourbon tobacco in the drydown.) The blend is intriguing and I'm compelled to keep smelling it, especially once the bourbon tobacco gets some space. Y'all, buy it! 

Hard agree on the vanilla being reminiscent of Antique Lace. Hay Absolute note is a little more lemony right on top than I was hoping but this is literally right out of the mail. The overall scent combo is dynamite. Definitely a soft spoken cousin to Vision of the Courtesan to me. Maybe her wallflower cousin. Like. 

A dry, almost gritty cocoa opens only to be borne up by the smoothly blended other elements of this. The smoky vetiver, the toasted overtone... Yum. 

This is Womb Furie-adjacent. It's not just me, right? The honey with that particular spicy deepening reminds me of 2010 Womb Furie, anyway, and this is a lovely scent I'll be getting a couple of bottles of as the aged product will be incredible. It's great right now; warm and sweet and personal without trying to make a too-complicated statement about anything. 

Edited to add: two weeks of settling brings the merest hint of fresh wood being fed to the fire.... Mmmm. 

It's a light, sweet leather scent with threads of a lighter perfume wafting throughout. Very evocative somehow, although I'm not sure what it's evoking. 

There's an almost brashness to the drydown of this that overwhelms my skin's ability to carry it. It is a strong baked goods scent, reminds me a bit of my first experience of Shub but I'd say a bit more overtly sugary/bakey.