Elspethdixon

Black Phoenix Trading Post bath oils are amazing! They're my all-time favorite bath oils from any company, and I'm not just saying that because we're posting on the BPAL board. Their base bath oil mix is wonderful on my super-dry skin - I use it all over as a body oil in the winter. While not as great as BPAL's, Haus of Gloi's hair oils also make pretty good bath oils.

This one has become my new sleep scent. The lavender and juniper make it similar to Mitral Valve from last year’s Lupers, but the bergamot and white incense make it a fresher, lighter scent (whereas Mitral Valve is cool and dark). It layers beautifully with No Coward Soul is Mine, which feels like an especially apt combo for a Lilith scent.

This is a strong, long-lasting leather scent, almost a leather single note. It's definitely a cowboy/tack-room leather rather than a leather-jacket/motorcycle leathers or leather-seats-car-interior leather. I expected a smokey vetiver note thanks to the mentions of gunpowder, but nope - it's all leather here and no guns. In the Imp - Fresh leather-goods shop/suede with a hint of clean, dry grass? Wet/freshly applied - A pleasant combination of suede-type leather and grass, like a tackroom or maybe like horseback riding out in the sunshine. It's a very dry, clean, soft leather, like fresh suede. On my hair there's a hint of smokiness and dry grass accompanying the leather, but on my skin the leather dominates. Half-hour in - Clean, dry leather, with an almost grey quality to it, and maaaybe a bit of drying grass accompanying it. It combines really nicely with the Song of Autumn I and II grass scents I'm testing on my other arm. Late dry-down - Hours later (and by hours I mean a complete work day) the leather note is still going strong on my skin. I cannot stress enough how much staying power this has. I applied it to my hair as well as my skin and 48 hours and one hair-washing/shampoo later I could still catch faint whiffs of tack shop leather from my hair.

In the Imp - Sweet grass/plant scent, slightly fruity. Wet/freshly applied - PLAANNTS. Then a more perfumey note starts to come forward as it dries on my wrist. By several minutes in, it's notably a lighter, drier scent than the freshly-cut green grass of Autumn I. At the 10-minute mark it smells like summer. Perfume-y drying grass. Half-hour in - Dusty, slightly-sweet skin scent, like dry desert warmth with a hint of sunblock. I never really got any smoke from this, and sadly it's fading pretty quickly.

The description said wet grass, and it meant it. Green, freshly-cut, lushly growing grass. This is a very summer-time smell. In the Imp - Grass. Sweet, green, freshly-mowed grass with a hint of perfume-y fruitiness (and without the lawn mower exhaust scent that always accompanies mowing grass IRL). Wet/freshly applied - Freshly cut wet grass, which gains a slightly drier tint from the sage as it starts to dry on my skin Half-hour in - Cut grass, just beginning to dry in the sun, along with a bit of perfume-yness and a hint of something that does remind me of lawnmower exhaust now (but not in an unpleasant way at all - plus I suspect my brain might be subconsciously adding that note in because I am so strongly reminded of mowing the lawn by this scent). At this point it's less like mowing the lawn and more like raking the grass cutting up afterward.

I was anticipating something similar to Jezebel's honey-orange blossom-rose with an added spice note, but instead it's a sexy combo of red musk, tangy honey, and sharp rose with the clove adding a hint of something almost metallic. These are definitely bloody kisses from Dracula's vampire brides. In the imp/while wet I get a sharp, vegetal rose, with a hint of green stem (the sort of fresh/sharp rose that has an almost minty quality) alongside a sexy/tangy honey that reminds me of the honey note in Elegant Vulva. Definitely not the orange juice/velvety rose opening of Jezebel at all. As it starts to dry on my skin the red musk comes forward along with a metallic hint of warm/sharp clove and it turns into a sexy scent that's neither overtly floral nor spicy but instead a sort of sensual crimson/deep blush pink skin musk with an underlying sharp tang that makes me think of blood (but thankfully without the rotting-blood note from Whitechapel or Mischief HG).

Goes on all soft teak, with the coffee coming forward as it dries. It smells like a restful/peaceful hotel room morning and I love it. I only put it on my hair, but sadly even that made my scalp tingle/burn in places. Whhyyy must I be allergic to oakmoss?

In the imp - Sunblock-y coconut splashed over rich vanilla (a foody creme brûlée vanilla like B&BW's Vanilla Bean Noel) Freshly applied - Vanilla bean coconut water sunblock. Part coconut - a cool coconut that makes me think of swimming pool water and sunblock - and part rich/warm/sweet/musky vanilla. When it first hits my skin there’s a burst of vanilla, and then the cool, summery sunblock gradually comes out over the course of the first minute. Great summer scent. Like the innocent pool visits of my youth. Drydown - More of the same - cool, watery coconut and warm/sweet/musky VBN-esque vanilla. I expected the coconut-water element to fade and late drydown to be all vanilla/sandalwood, but the further into the drydown I get, the more prominent the coconut sunblock aspect is. If you liked Obatala but wanted it to be sweeter (or if the milk note in it didn't work on you), this scent is the answer. Probably one of my top three faves from this collection.

In the imp - Apple and white musk, perfume-y and tart/fruity and unfortunately slightly reminiscent of cleaning products to me. Freshly applied - Once on my skin the amber comes out and it’s less cleaning product-y and more perfume-y. It's not so much a realistic apple and pear as it is fruit-tinged feminine perfume. Light and summery, like I hoped it would be from the notes, like a fluffy, sweet cloud around my wrist. Clean in a glade plug-in kind of way but less artificial. Awful on my hair, though - there, it keeps the cleaning product edge, similar to zankoku zen and joyfulgirl's pool cleaner description. Drydown - Sadly, after the first five minutes of so, "glade plug-in" starts to bully "youthful feminine perfume" out of the way, and by the twenty-minute mark, I'm wearing apple-scented swiffer wet wipes. Curse you, skin chemistry. Those brief few moments of innocent, light-and-fruity summer girliness were so tantalizing.

Coffee doesn't disappear on me, but it sometimes turns into a bitter stale-truck-stop-coffee note when ti hits my skin, so I avoid scents that are primarily coffee in favor of ones where it's a supporting note. My favorite coffee scent from Lilith's Travelogue was Gordian Hairmop, which is coffee and teak with vetiver, styrax, tobacco, and oakmoss. It starts out coffee-dominant and slowly morphs into a dark, cozy teak, and smells like a cozy morning in a nice hotel room to me. If I didn't have a skin allergy to oakmoss it would be bottle-worthy - as it is I bought two decants so I could wear it in my hair.

In the imp - cola-like labdanum and trees. Freshly applied - tingly-spicy-effervescent labdanum with hints of winter pine tree. A warm/leathery/smokey note from the birch tar comes in after a few moments or so as it starts to dry. The birch tar is stronger on my hair, the labdanum-cola on my skin. Masculine, like a very gently spiced aftershave. Half hour in - labdanum-cola, mostly. Very little morphing. Despite normally amping leather to the skies, I get basically none from this after the first few minutes - I was expecting a wintery forest/leather scent, and instead got tingly-effervescent coke (winter edition), like the cold weather fraternal twin of The Scroll's sweet summer coca-cola. If The Scroll is regular coke (sweeter and warmer because of the cinnamon/honey), Seventh Lash is Diet Coke (crisper and more refreshing). I like it, but I really only need one coca-cola scent and The Scroll already fills that slot in my collection.

Wet, it goes on a cool, woody cedar, and then a blast of salty/smoky/metallic gunpowder hits me. After a minute or so a hint of warm spices emerge and it becomes less like a wintery version of wooden bullet and more like a warm hunter's cabin full of woodsmoke. It reminds me a little bit of Haus of Gloi's Plotter's Beakfast, except richer and deeper. This, this I might need. It's a great gunpowder scent, not as harsh as Agnes Nutter or as skanky-sexy as Mommy Fortuna. Warmer and cozier/less polished than Wooden Bullet. I think this could be my "sexy rifleman" scent, for when I want to envision Richard Sharpe and Patrick Harper snuggling (my presence sandwiched in the middle optional) around a campfire.

This scent is primarily a delicious gourmand tobacco with only a hint of gingerbread, mostly a whisper of gingerbread spices rather than the sticky, molasses-y scent I associate with gingerbread itself. The tobacco (dry/sweet/warm) is stronger in my hair, and the gingerbread more prominent on my skin (but even there, it's a full-bodied tobacco backed-up by gingerbread instead of the other way round). It's nice and cozy, but I have a lot of tobacco-heavy scents already so I don't know if I need a full bottle of this one.

In the imp/wet - fruity (but not too sweet), slightly-musky, with a hint of gingerbread - no sharp/strong spice On the drydown - mild, non-foodie gingerbread and fruity musk. The gingerbread and vetiver form a warm, humid base to ground the currant. Light and subtle. Like a piece of very lightly-flavored, only mildly spiced gingerbread topped with jam. The current is the strongest note here - this is definitely a fruity scent rather than a baked-goods scent.

I have no ideas myself, but I'd love to hear some. That and Bulletproof are/were two of my sister's favorites.

In the imp - sweet, cozy clove/ginger. The birch tar makes it lean closer to a masculine spice scent than a fall kitchen gourmand. I can already tell this is going to go "Halloween/fall section at Michaels" on me, though. Wet/freshly applied - clove-heavy masculine spice (birch tar is the best cozy manly skin note, hands down). In my hair, the birch tar and frankincense are stronger and it's less of a clove-fest. So far, my skin is not reacting to the spice notes. Half-hour in - cozy clove SN (and still no skin reactions to the spice). This is probably great on people who don't amp clove, but I do, so yeah. That said, it's a subdued, cozy clove rather than "Hi, I dumped the entire spice rack on my arm." I suspect this would be really nice on a guy.

For Rose Jam suggestions, you might want to check out the Rose Apologist Thread and this thread of rose recommendations. I've seen multiple people compare Hope from the Carnival Diabolique to Rose Jam (though you'd have to try and find a bottle via the sales/swap pages if you want just Hope on its own, because the Lab only sells it as part of a set with Faith), and The Best Lies from the American Gods line also struck me as similar. My favorite regular GC rose is Jezebel, but it's heavy on the orange blossom and sandalwood and not much like Rose Jam.

In the imp - sweet hay and strong clove. For a moment on first sniff I get all sweet/warm golden hay note, and then the clove hits. This is going to be a clove SN on me, I can already tell. Wet - all sweet clove, kept from being pure harsh spice by the sweetness from the hay note. (On my hair, it's clove and hay, on my skin it's all clove, all the time, but a sweeter, cuddlier clove than the clove-with-an-undertone-of-poison-smoke in Loki Lyesmith.) Dry - SN clove on my skin, fading hay-and-clove in my hair. Good throw - I can smell a cloud of it all around me without having to lift my wrist (or hair) to my nose. There's a hint of something almost rubbery when I put my nose directly to the skin of my wrist, but only a hint. Overall, this is basically a nice warm/slightly sweet clove single note for me. I don't think I need a bottle, but I'll keep the imp to layer with fall/winter scents that could use a shot of spice.

In the imp - a smooth, cozy base of cocoa-leather (more cocoa than leather) and a pool of clean/bracing gin. Gin always smells clean and sharp to me rather than boozy, I suppose because of the combo of the juniper + the fact that no one in my family drinks it. Wet/freshly applied - GIIIIIIN with a hint of cocoa. Bizarrely, this smells like a hot summer day by the pool to me. You know, that sharp, chemically chlorine smell (provided by the sharp/fizzy gin), combined with sun-warmed humid leather and cocoa-butter sun lotion. Ten-twenty minutes in - This has a ton of throw, especially the gin top note, which I'm basically surrounded by a cloud of. Close to my wrist I get a hint of cocoa/leather-ish skin scent (leaning more towards cocoa than leather, which is surprising considering that my skin usually eats chocolate and amps leather to the skies), but mostly it's all cool-sharp gin. If you want to smell like a chocolate martini (light on the chocolate) being drunk poolside on a hot summer night, this is your scent. Too bad the cocoa-leather base is so overwhelmed by the gin, because it's actually really sexy. 1-2 hours in - Now that the cloud of gin fumes has faded back a little, the cocoa-leather skin scent is easier to detect, reminiscent of the cocoa-leather in Joy of My Spirit but with gin instead of pine and without the hazelnut. I would wear the snuggly warm/humid cocoa with a bit of leather base scent forever if the top note weren't a nuclear mushroom cloud of spilled gin. but I'm not completely sure if the enormous puddle of spilled gin has actually faded back at all, or if I've just gone nose-blind to it. It's actually started to give me a bit of a headache, and I'm contemplating scrubbing this off even though objectively it smells pretty good.

I second Donkehpoo's rec for The Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, which is a cozy, sweet floral-tinged vanilla. Other faves of mine include: Antikythera Mechanism - wonderful dry, warm, tobacco-wood scent with a hint of vanilla. It's a fan favorite for a reason, and I've gone through two bottles of it. Jezebel - my hands-down favorite rose scent, a rich, velvety, lush orange blossom/rose/honey/sandalwood combo. It goes on smelling an awful lot like orange juice, but don't be put off by that; once it's been on your skin for a few minutes the rose and sandalwood start coming forward beautifully. I'm picky about rose scents because rose can sometimes smell soapy on my, but Jezebel is perfection. (Example: This spring, when the Lupercalia Dozen Roses LEs came out, I tested decants of eight of them... and bought more Jezebel instead.) Black Pearl - A light, sheer coconut/hazelnut/orris scent that's cool and feminine (despite being non-floral) and perfect for summer. I'm on my second bottle of this one, too (partly because I wear it a lot during the summer, and partly because it's a very light scent I have to slather on). Tombstone - Another longtime fave I've gone through multiple bottles of. I second pretty much everything GlassKoala said about it.

In the imp - soft, sweet/light, sweet pea with a hint of sage giving it a slight green/vegetal quality. Very girly and fresh/innocent.. This isn't a fairy queen; it's one of Cicely Mary Barker's Flower Fairies. Pictured: Aeval in the bottle. Wet/freshly applied - sweet pea dominant, like Mouse's Long & sad Tale without the vanilla & sandalwood. After a moment or so it starts to go soapy. Nooo, you were so good on the little imp wand. On my hair, it basically disappears. Five-ten minutes in - Freshly scrubbed skin musk/hint of soap. We started out flower fairies. We are now a vintage soap ad. This is an extremely light scent, with very little throw. The drydown has only just started and it's already in nose-to-wrist territory. Pictured: Aeval on my skin. Half hour in - Soap, maybe nice sunblock, clean skin musk. Freshly-scrubbed skin if you were naturally sweet-smelling. Totally gone from my hair. By the time an hour and a half have gone by, all traces of Aeval have completely disappeared. This is a short-lived, ethereal fairy.

In the imp - Sakura & a hint of neroli over a cedar base. Almost syrupy without being cloying. Wet/freshly applied - Gentle cedar with wisps of soft florals floating above it. Shunga-like, as I expected. Five-ten minutes in - The cedar has receded, blended seamlessly in to the florals, and the syrupy-sweet aspect is gone, too, leaving a soft/powdery floral that edges close to soapiness (don't turn into soap, please don't). Light, with low throw (only about an inch or so). I'm getting much more sakura & peach blossom than neroli (there's not even a hint of citrus bite - smelling this blind I'd never guess neroli was in it, and after the first few minutes I'd struggle to pinpoint cedar). I ran the wand from the imp through my hair as well, and on said hair, with skin chemistry removed from the equation, it's a completely different scent, cedar dominant with a hint of syrupy peach and some very faint hazy frankincense incense, maybe a slight touch of floral. Is there such a thing as girly cedar? If so, this is it. Half hour in - Soft peach blossom & clean skin musk, maybe with a hint of cedar, but only if I'm looking for it. On my hair, it's a faint cedar-peach combo that smells almost like baked goods.

Volcano in Springtime was entirely vanilla cream and sandalwood on me, no floral notes, but I enthusiastically second Cave of Treasures and The Bride. This is a lab discussion thread, not a post thread, but I'll add that Three Couples HG from this year's Lupers is an amazing gently-spiced fig & orange blossom that pairs beautifully with spicy florientals and that I'd kill to have in perfume oil form.

In imp - Warm, almost candy-sweet vanilla-cedar. Wet/freshly applied - Creamy, almost musky haze of vanilla-cedar/wood. The cedar is more of a creamy warmth than any distinctive cedar scent. This is amazing! A glorious your-skin-but-better scent. Five-ten minutes in - A soft haze of sheer, creamy vanilla-myrrh-wood, cozy and delicious (it's the soft, powdery kind of myrrh rather than the gritty, resinous kind). I need to death-match this with Small Brown Cat. One hour in - Inez is a non-morpher. Still creamy, warm vanilla-cedar, so well blended that I can't pick out the separate notes. Late drydown - goddamn glorious. Best Grindhouse lady ever, hands-down. Like the late drydown of Tombstone with it's glowing vanilla-cedar only better. Earlier in the drydown I could get a hint of spiced incense (the myrrh + cinnamon-clove-y carnation) when I put my nose right to the skin of my wrist. Now it's just a soft, powdery, vanilliac cedar-myrrh.

Retesting my decant of Aeronwen now that it's got some age on it. Originally, it was a tangy herbal-citrus, but let's see what a year on the shelf has done with it. In imp - rich, velvety brown scent from the fig and black musk/myth Wet/freshly applied - Predominantly fig and cedar, but then a sort of bronze-colored herbal tang comes forward. This is really well blended; I can't really pick out individual notes (letting your decants age for a year clearly benefits them). I get a hint of freshness and just a bit of citrus from the orange, but unlike the usual amped-up dishwashing liquid/Citraclean orange often turns into on my skin, it's just a subtle breath. This is a rich, slightly-earthy herb garden scent, but with that velvety undertone from the fig/musk/amber. Five-ten minutes in - rich, bright, fruity fig, velvety and slightly humid, slightly earthy/woody and slightly herbal and not like any of my other fig or amber/musk perfumes. If A Measurement of the Soul is my cold-weather fig and Amacitia is my nostalgic California desert/spa fig, this is a summer fig. Fifteen minutes in - the amber/orange has started to go creamy, like the slight creamsicle undertone in Titus Andronicus. (On my hair, it's a rich, sweet cedar incense that's almost Christmas-y, possibly from the fig&orange + myrrh& amber, but on the other hand also like the wooden/uninsulated attic of the old house I grew up in in the summer, thanks to the cedar and warm, humid fruit) One hour in - cedar and bronze musk with a hint/edge of something tangy. It makes me think of a sheet of iridescent bronze silk with green or orange highlights depending on which way the light hits it. Late drydown (like, 4 hours in) - faint cedar skin scent, and now that the top/middle notes are gone, I can pick up a powdery skin-musk-like hint of myrrh, as well. I'm definitely a fan. Aeronwen was nice but not bottle-worthy when I cracked open a brand-new decant back in 2017. Now it's smoothed out into a beautifully blended velvety bronze amber/musk with just a hint of fresh herbs and rich, earthy fruit (from the sweet orange and fig). I think I'm in love. This may be my second/third-favorite out of the Grindhouse Ladies so far, surpassed only by Inez.