annemathematics

This smells like a classic perfume, lavender-focused with brightness from the berg. My nose is reminded of violet, prob misinterpreting the lavender+angelica. It's slightly sweet, the vetiver is mellow. Very pretty with big silage.

Tested this out during the roller coaster this past week of the chauvin verdict followed immediately by the heartbreaking execution of Ma'khia Bryant. I don't know what I expected(would i wallow in sadness?), but the experience was surprisingly gentle and grounding, comforting, calming. It's been weirdly helpful for me in the mornings kicking away grogginess and being present going about my day.

I love the scent, which is bright and pretty, and I love the act of anointing candles with this on the new moon. A simple basic ritual when I'm overwhelmed with other demands, or made more elaborate as needed/desired. Afterwards everything not only feels cleaner, but also brighter, happier, sweeter. Gentle in nature but with profound effect. 💖

I haven't performed rituals with this yet, but energetically I find it to be rich and deep and unexpectedly cozy for an underworld ancestral tool.
 

Scent wise, it's predominantly deep musky patchouli and powdery myrrh. Dark and powerful and kinda sexy. I really like it and look forward to working with it. 

love love love the lab's aldehyde blends.  this is a classic champaca-focused parfum accessed via time machine from an old department store. yes it's glam but projects as quite proper (society gal with a lot of breeding and a lot of virgo in her chart?)   good throw for about three hours, then lowering it's sillage to be a barely-there skin scent for another two.   this might be my favorite bpal champa blend.

This is lovely. A light, watery vanilla-floral that feels both innocent and sophisticated.  Feels like a floral lilith blend, cousin in spirit to venustas. 

I've got crazy kinky snarly hair that I bleach and manicpanic so it's always a little thirsty.  I use the hair gloss in it but the bath oil is what it really adores.  I snagged a few beard oil decants to try on the ends, including this one!

Scent-wise, I get a soft patchouli that I think might be the one people refer to as "peanut butter patch." The scene of this is nice, but not quite as beloved to me as that of the amber patchouli hair gloss (best slept-on bpal maybe ever???) Minimal barn from the oud. It's really about the patchouli.

While the beard oil doesn't penetrate/moisturize as deeply as the bath oil (which is amazing in my hair, adding moisture, shine, scent and just the perfect amount of weight), it does nicely coat the surface adding a bare trace of moisture. It tames the frizzies and makes my hair crazy smooth. Crazy. Smooth.  

The scent of this is on the lighter side, which I think would be a huge bonus considering its intended to be worn under ones nose and one wouldn't want to have it impede eating or smelling other smells, would one?

initial tests of this were wet rose over dusty powdery myrrh that I knew would smell akin to baby powder to the untrained nose. I liked it, but was wary of wearing it out b/c baby powder/baby soft is so not my thing.  although I liked it, I considered rehoming it as I have enough stunning rose blends to wear out already. 

however, the other night I put some on before going out..and for the next few hours, I kept getting these magical wafts of dreamy velvet rose over whispers of incense.  so glorious! it was MMEEEEE. er, well, actually, it was exquisite lorraine cross!  so good.  keeping this around to anoint on cool evenings. 

if you'd asked me what sort of magic OOMPH oil i've been needing this past year, it'd be a GYST oil.  like beth made this for me, only i didn't have my sh!t together enough to write her and ask for it. but she's magic and she knew and thanks to her I have this oil.  honestly, i have mostly forgotten to take it out and use it more like I need to (sh!t is not together, y'all!)

scent-wise it's a spicy resin blend that's heavy on the ginger (spiked with clove) over anise-y patch.  some orange-y brightness?  

I put some on this morning because I had a growing pile of things I was avoiding.  adding to the accomplishment obstacle course was a stuffy seasons-changing-headcold and a migraine. ew!!!  well, twenty minutes after anointing myself with this, my migraine vanished and my sinuses cleared. my head cleared of distracting thoughts and my spirit felt renewed despite great weariness. 

and yes, today I've gotten most (but not yet all/night's not over yet) of the things done that I needed to tackle.  huzzah! 

energetically it feels like a firm but non-judgey nudge.  it's supportive but also grounding. it's there for me but it's also entirely up to me.  echoing z-z above, I feel good enough about my place in my process to proceed in said process.

opens with a blast of herbal lavender and a touch of juniper.  then the benzoin and hops step up and lend a dry sophistication. the lavender instantly smoooooooths out. I think I get a hint of carnation's spice, but that note--which can easily amp on me--stays in the back, a nuanced supporting player. likewise, the honey adds just a bare touch of sweetness. ultimately this is a dry and regal blend.  I can see this going easily from mettings in your corner office to a formal cocktail event, but it'd be too proper (stuffy if it weren't so pretty) to wear to that weekend rager.  I've been dabbing this on when i get home from work. i like it, but can't vouch for how long it lasts as i fall asleep and it's gone when I wake.  

i've been reaching for this beauty quite a bit over the past few days. opens with a juicy burst of grapefruit against the thrummmm of mimosa, grounded by a light, resin-veined cedar.  seriously i can amp cedar for daayyyyys but in this blend the note is sublimely light, contributing to the blend without taking over.  this is one of those scents that is about "the blend," with the notes all working in harmony, not a one trying to hog the attention. this feels refreshing and so easy to wear, more like a classy aromatherapy blend than fancy perfume.   just a hint of sweetness, just under moderate throw, and fades to barely a skin scent after four-to-five hours.  

I do like snake oil and i do love nettles [although this is my first time with nettles as a bpal perfume note].

however, the way the two clash up against each other isn't very endearing to my nose.  the dark swampy green of the nettles is causing the sweetness of the snek oil to amp louder than in any other snake blend i've tried in a way that felt almost grating.  didn't get a hit of "dandelion sap" but that may also be contributing to the sweetness overkill.  I wore this for an hour and then let it wash away while doing housekeeping.  it was weirdly too much for me. sorry garden snek!!! 

funky oud and smoky vetiver a first out of the gate, causing the snake oil/labdanum that follows to play like weird dr pepper soda.  drinking spiced cola near a smoldering barn fire?  honestly a little too sweet for me to test fully and properly. sorry! 

I'm mostly getting a swirl of leather and ambergris that reminds me  of olla adam.  snake oil is super subtle in this.  agree that this is clean and smooooooth gorgeous leather blend. 

eta to state that the leather in this has receded a bit, and now it's a lot of snake oil fuzzy musk coming forward and slapping the leather around. this will be great on some but it's a little too sweet for me. 

3 hours ago, notonboats said:

Bumping this thread to ask: are there some good citrusy blends that also lean masculine? GC or not impossible to find LE would be great.

 

Maybe with some sort of woody note, or just fresh without being overly sweet or floral? I'm trying to find something that might be nice to wear over the hot summer without being too cloying.

so much of this depends upon one's chemistry.  if you have any scent twins on the forum, I recommend seeing if they review these scents to get a sense of how they might play on your skin. 

in addition to the above suggestions, maybe try or check reviews for baobhan sith, aelopile, countenance forboding evil, khubla khan, knucklebones, search engine, take the moon, only a sip and spider from the lab's gc range

currently available le's balmy 26degrees, beware pickpockets, right ventricle, left atrium, dreadful snowglobe and blood and the lemon. 

you might enjoy absinthe  blends. they are a little bit lemony and refreshing.  happy huffing/hunting!

eta hedonism bath oil from the post is lovely resins and citrus. makes a great after-shower/bath lotion if you have dry skin.

when this first landed, it was a lovely rose/oakmoss combo that was soft and a little powdery. since then, however, she's morphed into a sophisticated velvet parfume that flaunts a juicy haughty red rose that swirls over inky shadows.  yes, it really does feel like wet, dark ink. can't describe it better than that.  i wore this to the theater to watch the Favourite, and it felt like the perfect scent to compliment that movie: regal and full of secrets.  good through and lasts all day and night, with the rose holding strong and not fading on me as lovely roses scents often do.  brilliant!

the opening to this is a rich vanilla sandalwood reminding me of reapers gonna reap. however, within about an hour or so this morphs into a creamy spicy soft carnation. it's a nice femme carnation blend that is big in personality yet soft in sillage.

mmmm, this little one is so my current jam, that i've been ignoring other decants to keep wearing it. this is mostly smooooth brown patchouli, with a li'l bit of the sweetness that oakmoss can bring, although oakmoss's fuzzy dusty texture isn't currently happening. the overall feel of this baby is like smooth, worn, unpolished patch-heavy woods washed with incense resins. not getting any barn from the agar, for those who fear such things.  as a lover of the lab's patchouli notes, I'm enjoying the heck out of this cozy blend.  

I snagged a decant of this because ambrette! has been my jam of late and I couldn't resist it in a simple(-ish) blend.  I agree with the above folks who say that this is a beauty. it is! lightly musky, slightly sweet not-cleaner-lemon candy indeed. if I'd read the reviews vs going for a decant, the notion of lemon candy in my hair wouldn't have caught my eye/nose/wallet etc. but I'm super glad to have this. i'm not into wearing foodie or sweet smells lately, but this one doesn't really feel like either of those things. bright, happy (fancy-free indeed!), with depth added by the ambrette. as I fidget with my hair throughout the day, what it really reminds me of are the lab's absinthe blends, which I adore.

 throw and wear-length wise, this is kind of a...sleeper agent? meaning that if I leave my hair up and untussled, this is unobtrusive.  but even after ten+ hours, I shake or adjust my hair and I get lovely, generous wafts of this. it brings a smile to my face, so it's nice to have on-demand access to a mood brightener.

drinking a delicious coffee beverage while reading this.  mmmm!

adding the scents Dusky Shroud (Black coffee and smoked vanilla bean with deep indigo opium petals) and Jiaolong (Sugared coffee bean, black musk, and sugar cane) to the discussion, because they are gorgeous. more perfumey than foodie, and the latter is a CD "gc!"

maybe it's the constant seasonal rain or the fact that I've just finally read the umbrella academy comic (haven't caught the show), but i was drawn to this scent just by reading the name.  add to that an adorable origin story. then top it all off by it being a fantastic scent. I've neglected testing about half of my decants because I love wearing this beauty so much.  fancy schmancy rich perfume with a polished leather note at the base. i'm bad at identifying floral notes, so while i think I smell some lily, i could be wrong.  if you enjoy bpals that evoke classic perfumes, this is a nice dark potion that smells fabulous in rainy spring weather. (it's always overcast in spy dramas, no?)

good throw still going strong after a twelve hour work day.  this is one of my favorites from this series of lilith adventures.  it's also one of my top two bpal leather blends, up there with olla adam.

I knew I was going to love this, but I admit I was expecting a smouldering dark beast of a scent.  Nope!

While lightly smoky (much much less so than recent yules first lash or hearthflame and incense), it's actually more of a beautiful, delicate, cheerful vanilla spring floral. The kid sister of Hellboy's Liz, sans leather and a little less smoky than that. 

This has just the right hint of smoke, hint of sweet, hint of floral to enable it to layer wonderfully with so many of my perfumes.  It's such a great compliment that I'll def get another bottle before it comes down, and an gonna bug puddin to make this baby gc if the components will allow. I think this scent will make a lot of bpallers squee.

this is pale and ephemeral and elusive in the imp. freshly applied it's powdery orris root with an edge of youthful innocence.  about an hour later, while looking for source of the beautiful incense I was smelling, I brought my wrist to my nose and realized it was a late-blooming subtle frankincense,.  light enough on the violet note that it might not satisfy people craving that specific note.  I love powdery iris scents, and this is a nice, simple blend.  feels like a childhood favorite despite me only trying it now in adulthood.   

Eta just a touch of aging has brought the violet note out. This now wears like a powdery violet, the violet is soft and not candy-sweet. 

2018 version

when the lab released the yule lads a few years ago, I felt a tiny greedy pang that their yule cat didn't join them. so i was thrilled when the scent was included in this year's lineup. 

first try was with about ten other decants, straight out of the mail...and i got nothing! no scent! none at all!... besides something a little bit sour and oily. oh well. can't win them all. no throw. not a winner.

went back about a week later and did a second round of testing with a smaller group of scents...and this magical aroma kept wafting to my nose and pulling it to the wrist where this was slathered.  turns out, kitty just needed time to adjust and declare me worthy of wearing it. prob one of my favorites from this year's scents, it's a feral, magical, musky, piney and yes a little bit sour. this is a blend that just smells like "classic bpal" to me.  youthful gothypunk spirit in effect.  my real life kitties ADORE this blend. their eyes kinda bug out and they start purring and burrowing to get to my wrists.  like my real life kitties, this is a total love that i'm happy to have in my life. 

when I first put this on, the mint and lavender bring an immediate smile to my face. this is an uplifting scent! gentle and very pretty, lightly feminine in feel.  there's a sweetness from the vanilla but it doesn't go too foody for me.  there's something kind of innocent about this. It'd make a brilliant bath bomb. 

Eta wearing this reminds me of the last unicorn perfume. It doesn't contain white chocolate, but there's a creamy gentle sweetness to this that makes it feel like a scent cousin.

wow. what a gorgeous sophisticated snow perfume. haughty ice queen signature scent. a cool floral blend with the only note standing out being the touch of snow.  I really like it, but it's so different in personality that it feels like I'm an impostor in costume aka this will never be my "signature scent." at least on its own. I learned from my initial "test all of the decants at once because I have no patience" test that this layers well with other yules, most notably schoenperchten and one of the musky lashes. classy and slightly out of my league.