Elspethdixon

In the imp, this is a sweet, honied scent (but a warm, sticky/glowing sweetness, not a sugary vanilla one) with hints of something green and growing- it makes me think of a white daisy with a yellow center, growing in the sunshine. This is what I wanted Marc Jacob’s Daisy to smell like (sadly it was nothing like this). Once on my skin, it goes herbal and almost minty. There’s a brief minute or so of fustiness in the wet stage that’s probably the chamomile since floral scents often go musty on me when initially applied. The honey never comes back as strongly as it does in the imp, and overall this is a fresh, slightly sweet scent that’s not quite floral and not quite herbal. It’s soft and close to the skin and makes me think of the milky white sap that comes out when you snap dandelion stems.

I love this one. The amber and balsam (doomsday_disco is right, it does remind me of NAVA's wonderful limestone amber, except the addition of the balsam makes this a little sharper and tangier) blends beautifully with the beeswax. The whole effect reminds me a little of the beeswax/olive oil/candle smoke combo in Hanerot Halalu, except richer and without Hanerot Halalu's fresh/clean feel. I'm tempted to upgrade my sample vial to a full bottle just so I can wear this during Hanukkah.

If you loved Stekk or Stale Sugar-crusted Marshmallow Chick, run, don't walk to get a bottle of this one. The marshmallow note is obvious, but instead of Stekk's soft, clean wooliness, this is a sweeter, richer scent. It didn't occur to me until I read kaileycatface's review above, but the vanilla is indeed similar to/reminiscent of the vanilla in Antique Lace, like you opened up a bag of Kraft marshmallows and poured an imp full of Antique Lace all over them.

I got a partial bottle of this back in 2015 when it was newly re-issued and it didn’t wow me, possibly because I was expecting a sweeter and more candy-bar-like chocolate. Either my nose/taste has improved, my skin chemistry has changed, or six years worth of aging have worked magic, because now it’s the perfect rich, slightly bitter dark chocolate base scent to layer literally any chocolate or cacao blend with. My chocolate-eating skin chemistry zaps the dark chocolate notes after a couple of hours, but the very late drydown at the end of the day (we’re talking the 8-12 hour mark) is this amazing sweet/rich vanilla-like scent that will last on my hair until the next morning.

You may want to check out the Sugar Plum Tree perfumes in this year’s Yules. One of them, The Shore of the Lollipop Sea, has blueberry lollipop as a prominent note. Rope Pulley from the 2020 Shungas is pure strawberry marshmallow. It ended up turning into the scent of a 1980s Strawberry Shortcake Doll on me, but I have bad luck with strawberry notes. As a fellow lavender marshmallow lover, both A Place of Seeing (rosebud, lavender, amber, sandalwood, marshmallow, and bergamot) and Lights, Camera, Something (lavender, vanilla, and cardamom) from this year’s Liliths and TKO from the general collection all give me a sweet/soft lavender vibe similar to Capax Infiniti.

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.