Teamama

Different than I had expected. The notes are all winners for me, so I imagined this might be a blend I'd end up buying more than one bottle of. In the bottle, the resins are forward, in a medicinal, linament kind of way. That was also the case when wet. That passed, & it became a complex amber skin scent. The amber in this blend is a lot more sap/vegetal than I usually experience from BPAL. The vanilla, musk & patch are all subordinate to that amber. Think of the siberian fir needles in Fae Forest atmo spray, & imagine amber from that tree's sap. Dry, the blend is warm, dry, balanced, & wearable by people of any gender expression. It's gorgeous, but more to my daughter's taste than mine. I'm glad I bought it. I think this will be a favorite for a lot of people.

My partial is getting a workout this week. The sweet orange is a mood lifter for me. I feel supported & calmed wearing this in a scent locket or dabbed on my face mask. Total win, & now I wish I'd sprung for a full bottle.

Honey on fresh bread, with spices. Very light & wholesome, as befits Hildegard. Total win, bought 2 bottles, wearing regularly.

Fresh out of the mailbox, & it's exactly what I'd hoped. Smooth vanilla & delicate sandalwood in balance. It's kind of perfect . The vanilla in AND THOUGH is not gourmand on my skin. It harmonizes beautifully with the light spiciness of the sandalwood. I agree that this is a serene blend. It's early days, but I'm pretty sure I'll want a backup bottle. Edited to add: Yeah, it's perfect. Backup bottle on the way. Low throw, simple yet sophisticated.

Re-testing my 2016 decant, which separated a little: cinnamon-brown globes at the bottom of a light gold base. The blend reintegrated easily with some rolling & gentle shaking, but the base of the vial is still a little dark, so the proportions may not be 100% true. Patchouli is tricky for my skin. There are 3 main ways it can go: dark & rooty, light & woody, or, for lack of better words, rough & sharp. In 2016, To His Mistress was patchouli forward, with rough & sharp dominant. Today, the forward note is the fig (hooray!) with patchouli second. Benzoin & vanilla are very quiet. I'm glad I tried it, but it's not my favorite BPAL fig, or patch & vanilla blend.

Late to the review game, as I start wearing bottle #2, scored from a forum sale. All the notes in Atsui-Mono except black tea & hay are reliably great for me. Fig is the star player on my skin, with the honey adding a floral flourish. Cream, vanilla, black tea & hay are definitely background notes, although in a locket, the tea & hay are more discernable. Sweet, gentle, floral-adjacent without being floral. I love it. It also carries on the Shunga tradition of the last 6 years or so: blends with label images showing P in V ejaculation usually work for Teamama.

Decant. Wet: A teeny weenie bit of spice, & buttercream. Dry: The spice is almost undetectable, so now it's just a general gourmand-y sweetness. I think my skin obliterated the honey, smoke & stick, because I never noticed those notes. Late dry-down: sugar & white musk? Not for me, darn it.

While they have zero listed notes in common, Chibi Skull smells a LOT like Disastrous Twilight on my skin. I didn't get the Banshee Beat / Revenant Rhythm patch. The patchouli seems to be held in check by whatever notes are mimicking the star-touched blue amber from D.Twilight. I like the decant, & will use it up, but won't need a bottle.

Decant. BIG Sense Memory from this. The pine & carrot seed combine to bring me back to being a kid on crodd-country skis in Eastern WA, pulling a bright green new needle growth tassels off pine trees to chew on. I'm not sure why I did that, but I did. They're sour & taste of forest & snow. There's a hint of vanilla, but the vetiver seems to have gotten rolled up into the pine/carrot seed whammy. A fun ride down memory lane, but not a blend that calls for regular wear. Glad I got to try it!

Forum purchase. My love of wood made me jump at the chance when this bottle came up for sale, & I am not disappointed. I don't know how old this bottle is, but it's old enough to be SMOOOOOOTH. The sandalwood & cedar are the dominant notes. The olibanum, gum mastic, patchouli & myrrh have melded together into a sweet, resinous & spicy background. This is one of the blends, like Wulric, that seems to vary with changes to my skin chemistry & the environment. Some days it's fantastic, & others it's kind of flat. It works better on cold, dry days than warm humid ones.

Decant. Wet: Salty popcorn vanilla. Like kettle corn. Cute, foodie, mousie. I can see why this is so well-loved. Dried: it's a long-lasting, salty vanilla. I didn't think I'd need a bottle, but this is really fine, & I love vanilla. Wishlist, maybe a bottle purchase. 2023 update: Bottle obtained. It's one of those blends that I don't wear often, but sometimes I crave it.

Frimp from the lab.I never thought about trying this blend, because aquatics, pomegranate & myrtle are notes that my skin usually wrecks. As usual, my skin threw this blend out of whack as it dried, but it stayed true long enough for me to confirm that it's really lovely. The sweet clover was the standout note, smelling very true in the early drydown. Peach blossom & pomegranate provided added sweetness, while tempering the myrtle. The aquatic note was just a whisper. As I wore it, my skin chemistry slowly wore away at the balance, turning pomegranate to Red Vines, aquatic to soap, & myrtle to a bitter green leaf. Stupid skin. I may try this frimp out in a locket sometime, but definitely don't need a full bottle.

Decant. Mmmm, benzoin & sandalwood. I don't get much marjoram, alas. Wet, the initial blend seems almost like black musk, but that's only at the very first. I like Kit, but haven't yet been moved to buy a bottle.

The popcorn note is strong in the decant and on initial application. After about 20 minutes, popcorn recedes, & mostly a salty butter cookie. This is a blend that hits the same cookie pleasure center in my brain as Cinq. I'm not sure I need a bottle, but that could change as the decant gets more wear.

Benzoin, resins & musk. The notes have melded with age, so it's difficult to pick out an individual resin, except for my good friend, benzoin. Happily, I really like the result. This blend needs to be applied in advance, because WOW it has BIG throw when wet! This was a fabulous surprise from a 2021 blind bottle swap.

Peach & sweet black tea & soap. This is a little sharp for me, so I'm supplementing by layering it with vanilla blends. Not my most favorite peach blend, but I'm glad I got a bottle to try.

This is my standout blend for this year's Liliths. It's the very best cardamom ever, and it's also somehow related to Paper Phoenix. How that works, I don't know. I definitely need a bottle.

Delicate, nutty & sweet. The lavender disappeared on my skin fairly quickly. I don't need a bottle, but I'll use up the decant.

Divine peach marshmallow vanilla that my skin wrecks. It's so lovely in my locket, but alas, my skin throws the balance out of whack. I'll swap it to a better home.

So gooooood! Sweet, with complex aromatic interactions between the figs, almond, & orange peel. It seems spicy, even though no spices are listed. The spiciness dies down after about 2 hours on my skin, but lasts & lasts in a locket. Dry on my skin, it's closely related to Sugar Skull.

Aged decant. This blend highlights aspects of cinnamon & tobacco that I didn't know existed. The notes are super-subtle, so it's hard to describe. In the decant: When I open up my decant, it has a brief moment of banana accord, which is very surprising. Sugary, "bright," and clean is the best description I can come up with. In my locket (because it turns to dryer sheets and then vanishes on my skin): The memory of cinnamon and sugar, sprinkled across some extremely fresh white blossoms that don't have a strong scent. "Flowers." Glad I got to try it; not for me.

The BEST holo in the world, bar none. I just bought my 3rd bottle. This is the holo shimmer that goes with everything, & wears forever. I can't praise it highly enough.

Wet: Marzipan almond is the dominant note while wet, but it quickly dissipates. Something between the roses & fig produces a surprisingly lemony note. Dry: A dry, sweet rose & almond blend. The fig, oudh, & cardamom are very subtle. Like, "hold my nose up to my arm to convince myself I can detect them" subtle. I got a partial bottle when it was released, & it was just ok on me. I had hoped for this to be "my" perfect rose oudh, since Elizabeth of Bohemia doesn't love me. With age, I like it more, & might need a bottle.

Belatedly reviewing my decant. No change with ageing. I agree with Torikitty & Artisjok that the bell-pepper-esqe note in Dead Leaves is part of this blend. Unfortunately, my skin amps that note, so the balance of the blend is thrown off. It's a lot greener than I was expecting. I get hints of how it might be awesome on somebody else, but I can only enjoy this blend in a locket. Glad I got to try it, don't need a bottle.

I got a frimp of what must have been original Schmendrick from the Lab a couple of years back & liked it, but didn't take notes. This review is for a decant of 2021 Schmendrick. Wet: Soap. My son describes cologne-ish blends as smelling like "fancy soap." That's what I have here--high-end masculine soap. If I huff, I can smell tobacco & dried fruit. Dry: Still soap, darn it. Most of these individual notes are winners on me, but not in this blend. I suspect my skin's unpredictable response to green notes like sage + clary sage may be what's wrecking it. Glad I got to try it, & I'll hang on to the decant for a while to see if age (either mine or the decant's,) changes things for the better.