Elspethdixon

The Deep Ones starts out a sharp aquatic, with something almost rotting/faintly-urine-like lurking underneath. Five to ten minutes into the drydown the rotting seaweed note vanishes as the expected clean "sea beeze/spring breeze/etc." dryer sheets note all aquatics become on me appears. Forty minutes in, my left wrist is soapy dryer sheets. My right is clean laundry/dryer sheets with a hint of dry incense. After about three hours, the dry incense came forward a lot more, giving me a mix of sharp aquatic and dry incense-y-ness that lasted at least four hours before starting to fade. I like this second stage of the drydown a lot more than I expected to. Yes! A Lovecraft-themed aquatic I can wear.

Smokestack from the GC is also pretty smoky.

You've probably already tried Tombstone, but just in case you haven't... (Outlaw reminded me a lot of Tombstone with extra rootbeer)

In the imp/wet - Leather and sage - a fresh, soft outdoorsy leather rather than harsh/chemical-y or leather-goods-store leather. Five-ten minutes in - Once Hunter has dried on my skin, the leather actually fades into the overall scent rather than dominating (in fact, it reminds me a lot of the leather in Bow and Crown of Conquest, another sage and leather scent where the leather's wll-behaved on me.) The scent is very well blended; the leather, amber, and sage sort of merge into a warm, cosy smell that reminds me of dry grasses and warm sunlight. Like a cat lying in the sun on a hot, dry day. But not a panther or a lion - a soft, furry domestic cat. This really is like a less-sweet/no-vanilla/more-outdoors-y version of Bow and Crown of Conquest (which is one of my favorite GC scents). Unfortunately, it's relatively low-throw I suspect will be short lived. Two hours in - As anticipated, Hunter has faded down to a close/faint skin scent that I have to put my nose directly to my wrist to smell. It's also morphed and now smells not like sage and leather and warm, dry grass, but like amber combined with something that's sort of like spiced chai tea. (ETA: when I came here to post this review and rechecked the notes, I realized I'd forgotten that this has clove in it - hence the spicy smell). At this point, it's reminding me less of Bow and Crown and more of The Lion. The very late drydown (like, 6-7 hours in) is just a hint of amber skin scent. I may have to test this against Bow and Crown of Conquest and The Lion to see if the resemblance is really as strong as I think it is. If not, I may need a bottle of this.

King Pursued was more oak and amber than pine on me, but YMMV.

This is a light, gauze-y sort of scent that's reminiscent of De Vos on me - maybe it's the combination of rose, fruit, vanilla, and white musk. The strawberry is detectable when wet, but as it dries the white musk becomes the dominant note on my skin (in my hair, the fruity/floral aspect dominated and lasted longer). Unlike previous strawberry scents I've tried, it doesn't turn into "vintage 1980s Strawberry Shortcake doll" on me, and the white musk never went high-pitched or turned into dryer sheets. Throw is light, and so is the staying power - it was completely gone from my skin within two hours, and from my hair within three. Since I already have a couple light fruity/floral scents, I don't think I'll need a bottle of Libra, but I'll keep the imp to wear in my hair when I wear De Vos.

Delicious, sweet, almost fruity-smelling lavender. It's very soft and gentle, rather than sharp/herbal/astringent, and reminds me strongly of LUSH's Twilight (lavender/tonka) bath bombs. I can't pick out the hops, which I've never smelled in perfume before, or even the white musk, though it might be what makes the lavender softer and more gentle than usual. I put about four sprays worth in my hair last night, usually enough for my wife to smell the HG from the other end of the apartment, and instead the scent just clung in a soothing lavender cloud around my head. I actually like this better than TKO, which goes weird and slightly plasticky on me, and even better than aged Paris, my former favorite BPAL lavender. If you like lavender, this is a must have.

I think Bow and Crown also has cedar which I cannot wear...and it's a shame too because there are so many beautiful blends out there with it I probably should have mentioned my aversion to herbal notes too, haha thanks for reminding me! I just remembered - one vanilla + leather that doesn't work as well on me but might on you is Western Diamondback (Snake Oil with leather, tonka, and sage). The sage isn't very noticeable, and while Snake Oil does bad/medicinal/patchouli-ruins-everything things on my skin, I'm a rare Snake-Oil-hating exception and most people adore it and smell awesome in it.

Favorite fall scents: Beanman & Beanwoman Climb Genital Mountains Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookie Pumpkin II (2014) layered with Drink Me & Chimera Priala the Human Phoenix The Avenue Dark Chocolate, Black Tobacco & Vetiver Smokestack Krampus' Chains El Dia de los Reyes Antikythera Mechanism + Light of Men's Lives Pumpkin V (2012) Wooden Bullet Lawful Halfling Cockaigne Red Rider layered with White Sage & White Juniper SNs And on my hair: Honeyed Apple Lilith & the Four Son of Horus Jack Bunraku Theater Mars Ultor Antikythera Mechanism + Light of Men's Lives

Orpheus Charming Animals was more unisex than masculine on me, but my perspective might be skewed by the fact that my skin can sometimes turn both teak and myrrh into soft amber-y powder. The three aquatics from this year's Weenies, Water Ghost, Haunted Beach, and The Drowned Man's Ghost, all struck me as unisex when I tried them at NYCC, as did A Kneeling Child (anise, amber, and wood) and Outlaw (like Tombstone with extra rootbeer and less vanilla). Przeczucie, on the other hand, is very masculine - it smells like pine needles and dirt, like a pine forest a very manly lumberjack might walk around in.

2016 version. In the bottle: hints of crisp/dead leaves and apple cider, drowned out by disgusting patchouli. But everyone adores this scent, so I decided to give it a try anyway. Wet - Patchouli: how does it smell like stale filth and like medicine at the same time? The world may never know. As it starts to dry, the patchouli, true to its inherently evil, scent-destroying nature, drowns out the other notes beneath a layer of BO-tinged dirt. Alas, unlike the funky sour/musty smell some honey blends have that goes away quickly, this lingers. Well away from my arm I catch brief wafts of a pleasant apple-cider-y fall scent, but any time I bring my wrist near my nose, bam, dirty unwashed stale-sweat-and-dirt smell. This stage lasts from between one to two hours. Late drydown - by somewhere between two and three hours in, the patchouli finally starts to fade, and what's left is a lovely autumnal crisp leaves/amber/apple cider/mulled wine fall scent that lasts and lasts. If this is what it smells like on some people (those lucky enough to have skin that eats patch, I guess), then I understand the hype for this scent. It's like a walk in the woods with a cup of mulled cider. With, alas, a dirt-encrusted unwashed stoner following you around to harass you for the first couple hours, until someone finally calls the cops on him and gets him thrown out. Basically, Samhain is proof of concept for patchouli's ability to ruin everything, because I can tell this would be the most gloriously perfect autumn scent ever without it. (Despite my ranting about how awful the patchouli element is, I did actually buy a bottle because the late drydown is so good. Maybe the patch will fade with time and the "BO and dirt" stage will get shorter. I'd like to have my walk in the autumn woods without unwashed druggie stalkers eventually)

This seemed like an appropriate scent to test on Yom Kippur, so I broke up my 'weenie-testing regimen to make room for it. In the imp/wet - fresh, plant-like but not quite "green" - more like plant sap than stems/leaves. Freshly applied - Once on my skin, it's more complex than in the imp, and I can smell hints of resin, but the dominant notes are the fresh/plant-sap-like scent along with something herbal and spicy (kitchen herbs spicy rather than cinnamon/cloves/fall craft store spice). It's a really unique scent, somehow outdoorsy as well as solemn/religious-feeling. Half-hour in - Alas, the herbal/spicy notes fade quickly, and by a half-hour in it's mostly frankincense, though a lighter frankincense than most of the incense/resin blends I wear, possibly because in those it's usually paired with myrrh. (ETA: and it stays a light frankincense for the next several hours. I'll have to try it in my hair to see if the olive and hyssop are stronger that way, since I'm assuming those and the galangal are what I was smelling during the wet stage)

Bow and Crown of Conquest is a snuggly vanilla-leather on me, but the sage and lavender notes might make it more herbal/masculine than you're looking for.

Resurrecting this thread to sing the praises of Marquis de Carabas - my skin amps leather to the point where it often drowns out other notes, but the leather in the Marquis is soft and worn and broken in (just like his coat) enough and the spicy-sweet bay-rum-and-opium strong enough that I get a lovely, snuggly blend of the two.

The Mouse's Long and Sad Tale is a really lovely vanilla sandalwood.

I haven't smelled Autumnalis, so I don't really have a basis of comparison, but The Lion is a warm, slightly spicy amber, and Coyote is amber with soft leather and sweet grass. Both of those might be autumn-like.

The May 2016 Thirteen doesn't have patchouli - it's "blackened cacao" with "Siamese red benzoin, olibanum, black copal, fossilized amber oil, sweet myrrh, Coptic rose resin, guggul gum, dragon’s blood resin, Palo Santo, bdellium, dammar gum, and attar of onycha." I remember because I wikipedia'd some of those notes when it was released, since I'd never heard of bdellium and onycha before El Dia de los Reyes may re-occur this December if we're lucky (I hope so, anyway, since it's my wife's favorite and I like to keep a back-up bottle on-hand). One of the other recurring Yules, Gelt, is also chocolate, but I've never tried that one because it always seemed excessive to buy two chocolate perfumes at once and there's usually another Yule LE I want more to accompany ELdlR. My bet is that it's a milk chocolate note, though, because those gold-foil covered Hanukkah coins are usually made out of cheap milk chocolate. ETA: Somebody upthread mentioned The Malignant Dreams of Cthulhu in Love, which is hard to find, but worth trying if you can track down a decant. It's a salty aquatic with chocolate, and despite chocolate and aquatics/salt both being iffy notes on me (one can disappear and the other usually turns into soap), the combination is weirdly sexy.

Boomslang vanished in under five minutes on me, so I can't help you there. But if it doesn't work for you, you may want to try Velvet from the GC for another spin on chocolate + vanilla incense. It's cocoa with vanilla, sandalwood, and myrrh and is church-incense dominant rather than foodie. My favorite cocoa/chocolate scents are El Dia de los Reyes, one of the recurring Yules, which is a dead ringer for the scent of baking brownies (super foodie), and Dark Chocolate, Black Tobacco, and Vetiver (non-foodie, mostly tobacco & vetiver), but close behind them is this May's Friday the 13th LE. It starts out a really weird and not at all harmonious mix of chocolate and resins, which I suspect is why it doesn't seem to have been a big hit, but after a half-hour or so it eventually settles into a soft cocoa skin-scent that lasts all day, even on my chocolate-note-eating skin.

Both white tea and sage and fig and white sandalwood HG go well with Amicitia, depending on whether you want to emphasize Amicitia's sweet/smokey fig element, or amp up the sage, and The Sharing of the Cake Between the Lion and the Unicorn + Mouse Circus is also good. Recollection bath oil (used as a moisturizer) + De Vos overtop of it doubles-down on the creamy marshmallow note (but isn't as sweet or in-your-face marshmallow-y as layering De Vos with Stekkjarstaur or the Marshmallow Chick single note is), and wearing Marshmallow Cookie Pie bath oil underneath BPALs with cocoa/chocolate notes like The Avenue or Dark Chocolate, Black Tobacco, and Vetiver adds extra and more long-lasting chocolate that presumably mimics the way those blends smell on other people whose skin doesn't eat chocolate notes like mine does.

I blind-bottled this because the description reminded me of my cat (who has a pink nose and white fur, and who for some unknown reason thinks unpopped 'old maid' kernels from the bottom of the popcorn bowl are god's most perfect cat toys). I was expecting more of a sugary-vanilla-wood scent, like a sweeter Antikythera Mechanism without the tobacco, but instead this is pure popcorn. Opening the bottle, it honest-to-God smells like Beth somehow liquified hot butter popcorn and then bottled it. Incredibly realistic - it even smells salty, and even oils with salt as a listed note rarely do that on me. Once it dries, the buttered popcorn gets sweeter, closer to the smell of fresh kettle corn being made. After the first few minutes, it becomes softer and more gentle and the wood note starts to emerge (I think the 'polished wood' might be teak?), making it less of a pure popcorn smell and more of a gentle-gourmand-with -a-hint-of-popcorn. I don't actually know how long the wear length is because I usually apply it in the evening before bed. It's wonderful. Cuddly and salty-sweet and actually a pretty good perfume for evoking my goofy little orange-and-white kitty. And unlike some of my other favorite BPALs, my wife likes it, too.

In the imp/wet - Foodie-adjacent apricot musk Five-fifteen minutes in - fluffy/velvety apricot and peony, with the white musk making it softer/hazier. I get a bit of vanilla from this, but not the sugary/creamy/marshmallow-y sweetness some people seem to be getting, and very little rose. Very low throw, but if I put my nose next to my wrists, I get soft clouds of a gentle pillowy-soft my-skin-but-better scent (I think another reviewer described it as being what a white unicorn's fur would smell like, and it totally is). Drydown/Hour-and-a-half in - The apricot has receded, and now I get primarily a gentle, barely-there vanilla musk with a slight fruity cast to it. The wearlength is slightly longer than I expected considering how faint it is - I keep thinking it's gone, only to sniff again ten/fifteen minutes later and still catch faint traces of it. De Vos has extremely low throw on me, which is a shame, because I'd really like it if only it were stronger. Like I said, pillowy-soft velvet clouds of the palest apricot-pink unicorn fur. Like white fur with the softest pink/apricot sheen. Wait, no, you know what it's like? A few nights ago I put on Recollection bath oil and LUSH rose jam massage bar before bed, presumably got traces of both on the sheets, and then came home from work to discover that my cat had spent all day snuggled in a nest of LUSH&BPAL-scented sheets and lightly perfumed his soft, soft fur with marshmallow-vanilla-rose. That's what De Vos smells like. That plus apricot.

In the imp/wet - Rose with something cool and sharp Five-fifteen minutes in - Strong rose note, with the bergamot adding a cool/sharp/fresh note and the jasmine probably contributing to the strength of the floral character. No detectable vanilla. Unlike most pf the other unicorns so far, Allegory has a couple inches worth of throw - probably the jasmine amping up the floral notes. Drydown/Hour-and-a-half in - Still a fresh, floral rose, but it's gotten softer and more gentle as it begins to fade. Any sharpness from the bergamot is gone now, and I get a sort of rose-dominant floral haze surrounding my forearm (but with about half the throw it had when freshly applied). Allegory of Chastity is more complex than a single note rose, but it's definitely rose-dominant, with no noticeable vanilla and with the jasmine largely a background/supporting player for the rose rather than the white floral blast I'd feared (and I say this as a jasmine hater for whom almost any jasmine is too much jasmine). Overall, it's a fresh, creamy rose with a hint of white floral, similar to sweet sugared/creamy rose blends like Love and Hope and very different from De Vos on my skin. I'm going to need to test it against my other rose BPALS to see if I need can justify a bottle.

St. Clare is a very soft, cuddly scent on me - I've been wearing my decant at bedtime a lot this week.

Aging must do something amazing to this blend, because I got relatively little licorice or metal/rust from it. On me, it was primarily a cozy/snuggly tobacco/myrrh, with the myrrh doing that soft, powdery thing myrrh sometimes does on me. A hint of licorice/anise was there at the beginning, and I could detect some metallic notes trying to peek through occasionally, but for the most part, Krampus' Chains were the softest brown-velvet-lined padded leather cuffs. Apparently, bad children really just need a nap, and Krampus is going to gently cuddle them to sleep.

Wet/in the imp - pale florals - smells both slightly ethereal and very like the kind of traditional pale/white floral my mother would wear. On first application, it's pale florals with an element of something acrid/musty. Then the lilac comes forward and from about the fifteen minute to the forty-five minute mark, I'm surrounded by a glorious cloud of delicious lilac. If I put my nose right up to my wrist, it's all pale florals accompanied the soap/dryer sheets effect aquatics often give me (that must be the mist) plus a hint of powdery orris, but the throw and silage are all lilac. It's wonderful. I love it. If only this stage lasted, it would be bottle worthy for the lilac silage alone. Alas, after about a half an hour of gently wafting lilac beauty, something goes very wrong with my skin chemistry, and my wrists start to smell like floral diaper poop. Baffled because I knew this didn't contain jasmine, I check wikipedia, and sure enough, lilac has indole in it. Crap (literally). I've never gotten this effect from white florals before - my avoidance of jasmine is because I just don't like it not because it goes bad on me - but apparently there's a first time for everything. After several hours of pale/musty/powdery/soapy floral with hint of dirty diaper, the awful notes finally subside and I'm left with faint traces of a much more pleasant dry/powdery orris along with a hint of soapy aquatic. I can tell this is a really beautiful blend, but my skin chemistry does something horrible with it. Off to the swap pile it goes.