Elspethdixon
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Posts posted by Elspethdixon
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Hello, leather lovers! I am new to BPAL. I just tested my sample of The Black Rider and I love it! It's so good. But I find myself wishing it were a little spicier (or something?), and I'm considering a blind buy of Snake Skin and/or Pleasures of the Imagination III. Is this crazy? I haven't tried Snake Oil, and that's one of my biggest hesitations. Any guidance, wise ones?
Pleasures III is very heavy on the tobacco and light on the leather when I tested it (and I amp leather notes to the skies). Snake Skin is getting rave reviews, and will probably be easy to re-sell if you don't like it. The Carnival Diabolique collection that's up right now includes a Snake Oil +Leather scent called Western Diamondback that's like a less-sweet/more outdoorsy Snake Skin (like someone took the snake skin and turned it into a pair of cowboy boots) that you might also like.
Other leather-dominant GC you might want to try: Red Rider (very strong brown leather, like a nice leather goods shop), Dragon's Hide (dragon's blood and leather), Iago (leather with black musk and vetiver, like a less-sweet, manlier black rider), and Perversion (leather, rum, and tonka -it was pretty leather-heavy on me).
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Wet/in the imp - perfume-y lilac and a hint of something creamy
Freshly applied - sour/funky mustiness similar to the unpleasant wet stage of Skuld, because indolic flowers hate me, and they hate me extra when combined with honey. (on my hair, however, it's honeyed lilac with creamy amber and a hint of spice and smells lovely - even if it stays awful on my skin I'm keeping this imp as a hair scent)
Fifteen minutes in - The sour mustiness has mostly faded, and now my arm smells like slightly powdery/slightly creamy floralness that's pleasant but doesn't shout "lilac" at me the way it did in the decant. My skin flattens all the glorious heady lilac down to a generically pleasant powdery floral with only a hint of lilac in it (meanwhile, having run the little wand through my hair a few times, I'm surrounded by a faint but just noticeable scent of lilac, like being outdoors in warm weather next to a blooming lilac bush. I want to wear this in my hair always. You will pry this imp from my cold, dead hands. I'm going to the sales forum to track down other decants of it as I type because decants work better than bottles for hair application)
Two hours in - After an hour or so of wear, the powdery generic floral blooms on my skin into a creamy honeyed floral (not like the heavy-thick honey note in O, but you know how lilac blossoms and honeysuckle smell almost honey-nectar sweet? Like that) that is sweet and delicious, and stays like that for at least the next hour. Scents don't really morph much in my hair, so that's still keeping on with the fresh outdoor lilac bush smell. I haven't really gotten any noticeable cardamom from either application, except for a few moments at the very beginning (and only in my hair).
By three hours the scent in my hair is starting to fade a little, and on my skin, Cave has mellowed from a creamy floral to a creamy amber with a hint of that honey-like floral . I'm reconsidering whether or not an additional decant will do, or whether I need a bottle after all.
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Wet/in the imp - I can smell the similarity to Lights of Men's Lives (creamy beeswax) before I even crack open the imp (am I the only one who sniffs at imps/decants before opening them? Like shaking a present). Once opened, it's all rose and beeswax.
Freshly applied - creamy beeswax with a hint of fresh/light rose (don't be the bad!rose, don't be the bad!rose) it doesn't smell particularly purple to me, but it does smell nice. I'm not getting any incense/smoke or tobacco leaf that I can single out but they may be what's making the beeswax feel warm/melted like LoML's (though it's not as hyper-realistic burning candle as that scent, which really is an amazing dead-ringer for just-blown-out candle).
Fifteen minutes in - the beeswax remains lovely and the rose keeps flirting with whether it wants to go sour or not, but seems to have settled down to a thick, syrupy scent like rose candy. It's slightly powdery/soft rather than a heady rose-splosion. The throw (a couple of inches) has more rose and when I put my nose close by my skin I get more beeswax.
Several hours in - this just gets softer and better melded (and slightly more beeswax-dominant) over time. And it lasts - I'm at five hours now and the scent has only just begun to fade. Now it is starting to smell kind of mauve-colored, but I think that may just be power of suggestion.
In conclusion: I don't know/can't tell what the difference between purple rose and pink or white rose is, but it goes very nicely with beeswax and if you like Light of Men's Lives, you should like this, because it's essentially Light of Men's Lives plus a subtle rose note. The opening stages are equal parts rose and beeswax, and the late drydown is all soft/creamy beeswax candle time. Warm, glowing, velvety/creamy, and sweet/vanillic without being overtly foody.
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In the imp/wet - Fresh/sweet, creamy, doesn't smell much like pear to me but maybe asian pear is different from the pear I'm used to.
Freshly Applied - white musk and light, fruity-floralness (still not the amazing Bartlett pear type scent from The Vine that i was hoping for). This smells very clean, like a scented hand soap
Fifteen minutes in - tingly/fizzy white musk and Dial "fresh pear" foaming hand soap (I think there's a hint of something creamy underneath, but I may just be imagining it because of the "rice milk" in the description). This doesn't sound like an endorsement, but it's a very fresh, clean, almost effervescent smell that's nice, but not very me.
Two Hours in - still clean/fresh, slightly fizzy pear handsoap, but now with a noticeable creamy element to it. By the late drydown (6 or so hours in), the white musk and asian pear have faded entirely and only the rice milk is left as a deliciously creamy-yet-light/soft base note. I'd buy this for sure if it was like that the entire time, but as it is I think I'll pass on getting a bottle.
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In the imp/wet - Honeyed cream
Freshly Applied - honeyed cream, rich and similar to the goats milk/honey/white chocolate scent, almost reminiscent of Caramel Apple Cookie without the apple. It wants to edge into cloying territory but hopefully won't.
Fifteen minutes in - soft, warm goats milk and a hint of honey (but a sweet/slightly powdery honey rather than the sticky, sexy kind). I think I may need to do a side-by-side of this and White chocolate, Marshmallow, Honey, and Goats milk.
Two Hours in - still warm/soft goat's milk and honey, with maaaaybe a hint of carnation. Maiko doesn't morph much, if at all, and stays basically the same throughout the rest of the wear time (at least 6-7 hours)
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So many of my BPAL loves are dripping with dark and red musks!
I love the white musk drydown of Fae and wish there were other BPAL blends that had the same feel: it's so creamy and really hangs around; the other notes fade into it seamlessly. Antique Lace did it, too... :cry2:Any other white musk recs that don't screech?
I cannot for the life of me wear anything at all with a white musk in it. No matter how good the rest sounds, if 'white musk' appears it's going to turn into a screaming cheap soap. Same goes for florals. The only 'whites' I can wear are patchouli and sandalwood. Sob. That said, basically every other musk is beautiful on me. Skin musk can end up smelling like, um, clean sex, if that makes any sense? You might have better luck with warm color musks (red, brown, black, and furry). I haven't tried green musk, so I can't speak to that. But give those warmer, darker colors a try. Coyote is a great furry musk, and I'm 90% sure our beloved Snake Oil has red musk in it. Raven Moon is a good black musk that isn't too difficult to find even though it's an LE. I know I've tried something with brown musk that had a similar kind of fuzzy/furry scent to it, but I don't remember off the top of my head.
Have you tried Fae?
I haven't worn Fae, but De Vos's Unicorn is a creamy pastel-tinted rose-lavender-apricot + white musk that never turns into dryer sheets on me (always a risk with white musk). It might be in the same creamy fruit/floral white musk family as Fae.
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I literally swapped my winter scents out for my spring/summer ones yesterday after a week+ worth of 45-55 degree (Fahrenheit) weather only to have to reverse the process this morning because now it's suddenly snowing again.
My current spring scents (up until today's five inches of snow):
On me:
Adrastea
Bensiabel
Mouse's Long and Sad Tale
First Cry of the Warbler on the Plum layered with Bensiabel
De Vos's Unicorn
King Pursued by a Unicorn
Allegory of Chastity
Volcano in Springtime/Blossoming Vulva (basically scent twins)
Love's Philosophy
The Bride layered with Skuld
The Bride layered with Volcano in Springtime/Blossoming Vulva
Poor Monkey
Palmyra
Black Pearl/Hidden Pearls
Obatala
Lovers and a Fan
Tenochtitlan
On my hair:
Jezebel (when I wear Adrastea)
Black Pearl (when I wear anything coconut-containing)
Boo HG
Sharing of the Cake between the Lion and the Unicorn HG
First Cry of the Warbler on the Plum (I'm gonna cry louder than the warbler when my single decant of this runs out - on skin it's a burst of quickly-fading florals followed by honeyed green tea but worn on hair this is a cloud of wisteria blossom that lasts for 48 hours straight)
Love's Philosophy
The Bride
Libra 2016 (when I wear De Vos or Allegory)
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Oh! Oh! Do mine, please!
1. Obatala
2. Hell's Belle
3. Blueberry Picking
4. Poisoned Apple
5. Avunculus
If you like both Obatala and Avunculus, you'll probably like Lovers and a Fan from the 2015 Lupers ("White coconut, thick wildflower honey, and threads of saffron"). It's a hard-to-find LE like most Luper stand-outs, but it's a lovely fresh honeyed coconut with a tiny hint of saffron.
I second Black Pearl, which is a more ethereal scent-sibling to Obatala, and you may also want to check out Hidden Pearl from last year's Lupers, which is basically Black Pearl with the addition of a bit of pear stem (slightly less sweet than Black Pearl and with hints of fresh pear note in the early stages).
I'm well into my second bottle of Black Pearl and nearly ready for another bottle of Obatala because I wear them both so much in the summer.
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Chocolate Espresso Gingerbread bath oil and Gingerbread, Vetiver and Black Clove perfume from this year's Yules complement one another so perfectly that they could have been made for each other.
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In Imp - wood and pine
Freshly applied - sharp pine, cool and menthol-y. Here's hoping it doesn't go sour or turn into air freshener and soap.Fifteen/twenty minutes in - the pine has calmed down/gotten much less menthol-y, and has indeed gone slightly sour, but not in an unpleasant way. It's almost a savory scent. If I were trying to pick what this was out of the scent line-up by name alone, rather than by notes, I'd say it was Sweat of the Rime Giants, because it has a salty/almost cumin-y edge to it as well as something dry and earthy. (Which would be the tobacco and ambergris, and possibly the muguet. I'm never smelled muguet before and am not sure what it is. Edit: Apparently it's Lily of the Valley? )Three hours in - salty/slightly-soapy ambergris.Shortish lifespan, with lots of morphing; this isn't one of those scents that lasts all day without changing until you're sick of it. I liked/didn't dislike any of the stages, but also didn't love any of them. It's definitely interesting, though. All the Song of Creation scents I've tried to far have had a kitchen-y/edible aspect to them, without being outright gourmands. Like kitchen-witch scents. -
So, here's a bit of a puzzle--my skin chemistry and amber. For the most part I've just started avoiding it because when it's bad it's really overpowering and makes me feel ill. I think I must amp it but not in a good way.
However, several of my favorites/almost favorites have a prominent amber note. There doesn't seem to be much pattern to it, either; excluding grey amber(/ambergris, which isn't real amber) there's not a color of amber that I can consistently wear. Four Seasons: Winter and Mouse's Long and Sad Tale are both delightful, and O isn't bad, but Road to Versailles at Louveciennes, Black Rider, and Coyote are all awful on me (Anubis is also on this list, but amber isn't listed as a note so I'm not sure).
Does anyone have advice/suggestions for what I should try or avoid, or is it going to continue to be hit and miss?
IIRC "amber" is more of a scent category than a specific note/accord, so golden amber, black amber, etc. could all be made from totally different components, and one kind of amber note working well or amping/going funky/turning into powder doesn't guarantee that another kind will. Four Season: Winter is "gilded amber," Mouse's Long and Sad Tale is "two ambers," Black Rider is "black amber," O and Coyote are just "amber" with no further description, and Road to Versailles doesn't actually list amber as a note, though vanilla + labdanum is a common amber base, so vanilla + frank & sandalwood might be pretty amber-ish (and ditto on the balsam in Anubis).
Do the blends that work on you (or the blends that fail) share other notes in common? I know O and Mouse's Long and Sad Tale both have vanilla notes, but so does Road to Versailles, so that's probably not it. Anubis, Coyote, and Road to Versailles all share herbal/aromatic notes ("embalming herbs," "sage and sweetgrass," and "coriander, pettigrain, and thyme"), so maybe that has something to do with it.
Do the blends that work on you (or the blends that fail) share other notes in common? I know O and Mouse's Long and Sad Tale both have vanilla notes, but so does Road to Versailles, so that's probably not it.
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Wet/in the imp - a milky/cream sweetness that reminds me a little of Giljagaur without the coconut
Freshly applied - clean, powdery baby-milky smell, fresher and 'cleaner' than it was in the imp, and less sweet. So far, Audumla is like the best milk-and-honey scented baby wash/baby shampoo/baby lotion ever.
Fifteen minutes in - now that it's settle a little/started to dry down, it's gone right back to the soft, milky sweetness from the imp. This really is similar to Giljagaur, except where Giljagaur is coconut cream with a hint of cinnamon, Audumla is just plain sweetened milky cream.
1 Hour in - No change. This isn't a morpher; it's still milk-and-honey/BPAL cream SN. If you like Beth's 'cream' note and can wear honey well, you'll probably like this scent. If I didn't already have two bottles of Giljagaur stashed away, this would be bottle-worthy for sure.
The scent stays basically the same for the entire rest of the drydown, and though looking upthread I can see that it apparently faded quickly on some other reviewers, Audumla lasted for ages on me. I got at least five-six more hours of wear out of this before it faded, pretty much a full work day.
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Wet/in the imp - bright/sweet, fruity
Freshly applied - something in this is stale-musty-smelling when it first touches my skin (possibly the honey?) but the throw still has that fruity-sweet quality so I suspect the stale note will fade.Fifteen minutes in - soft and gently sweet, with fruity notes. There's still a hint of something stale/musty, but not the "first few minutes of honey badness" effect from earlier. It's reminding me a little of one of the Apiary scents now, like the way Chokecherry Honey could have smelled if my skin didn't hate cherry. I'm not getting much in the way of herbs, mostly powdery-sweet fruity honey.(btw, my fingertips that I used to opened both this imp and the one of Audumla that I'm testing on my other arm now smell amazing. Try layering these, guys)1 Hour in - The scent is fading into something softer and less fruity. I assumed at this point that it wasn't going to last much longer, but it remained as a faint skin scent for pretty much the rest of the day. -
I wore The Bride (layered with Skuld) for my wedding last spring (I actually bought the bottle as soon as the 2015 Lupers went live specifically for the occasion because of the name).
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Thirding My Little Grotesque (which is practically cardamom SN on me when wet but gets more cake-y as it dries), though I have high hopes for a couple of the Lupers.
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Wet/In the Imp - musk & pine
Freshly applied - cool, menthol-y hint from the juniper, slightly sour pine, hint of clean/laundry/haze from the musk (don't turn into soap/dryer sheets, don't turn into soap/dryer sheets)I'm testing this side-by-side with Przezcucie (sp?) and they actually blend really well - with both arms combined I'm surrounded by nose-tingling winter forest. One of the two makes the inside of my nose feel cold/tingly for several moments even after I've stopped smelling it, but I can't tell which. Neither of them is what I think of as "Christmas Tree" fir/pine, but both are nice. I think the Prz has practically burned out my nose so that all I get from Thanatopsis is musk. I'll have to retest it alone.30 minutes in - my nose still feels weird tingly-cool on the inside from those first sniffs. Some kind of sensitivity? Anyway, the strong pine/fir scent has faded and Thanatopsis is now warm and masculine outdoorsy-tinged musk with a little soap with hints of cool juniper when I put my nose right to my skin. -
Wet/In the Imp - cool/cold, wintery fir
Freshly applied - sharp, almost anise-like fir needle & terebinth (as opposed to what I think of as "Christmas Tree" fir/pine). No smoke at all. I'm testing Thanatopsis on my other arm, and one of the two makes the inside of my nose feel cold/tingly for several moments even after I've stopped smelling it, but I can't tell which.As it starts to dry, something in Przeczucie also strikes me as soapy - I think maybe this is via association because things like Old Spice shower gel contain pine notes?30 minutes in - my nose still feels weird tingly-cool on the inside from those first sniffs. Some kind of sensitivity? Anyway, the strong pine/fir scent has faded and Prz. is now soapy pine (still no smoke) with hints of sweet fir right next to my skin, but mostly it's soap. This is the soapiest anything that isn't an aquatic has gone on me in a while. I have no idea what's turned it into straight-up soap on my skin but soap it is.From this point onwards, there's very little morphing, just several hours of soap, soap, hints of pine if I put my nose right to my skin, and more soap. -
In the Imp- slightly acrid cologne-y-ness with a hint of lighter fluid.Freshly Applied - Once on my skin, Djinn smells like charcoal doused in lighter fluid, but, like, in a good way. It doesn't smell scorched/burnt so much as it does flammable. My father has a big, old cast-iron charcoal grill that used to belong to my grandfather, and the wet stage of Djinn reminds me of that metal barbecue grill just waiting to be set alight. Something in this tingles in my nose slightly, like of combination of something acrid/something medicinal (maybe menthol?) which I think is what's giving my the lighter fluid impression. As it dries on my skin it goes from charcoal to slightly-medicinal without losing the flammable aspect, and there's a note of something almost fruity beneath it, and maybe a bit soapy (ozone?). This is not the face-full of gritty-smokey vetiver I was expecting, unless it's one of the more barbecue-like vetivers.Five-Ten Minutes In - Barbecue-type vetiver, hint of something fruity, wood? (the lighter fluid aspect is now just the faintest hint). Something about it makes me think of mesquite-applewood smoke. I could eat something cooked with/cooked over this. If Smokestack is a lumberjack's campfire smoke, Djinn is the fruity charcoal you're getting ready to smoke meat over. This is actually a really good scent for a cold, drizzle-y winter day, like a whiff of Fourth of July barbecues in the middle of January. Djinn is prepared to handle all your summer cookout needs.A Hour+ In - As the drydown progresses, the acrid/smokey notes fade and the fruity aspect gets stronger. It reminds me a lot of the fruity note that dominated Christougenniatiko Dentrophobia on me (opoponax?), except I like Djinn better, probably because of the vetiver. I'm a fiend for vetiver.
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Poor Monkey
in Yules
Wet/in imp – Crisp, ripe fruit in the imp, but then a stale note appears on skin (like Skuld but nowhere near as bad)
Five-ten minutes in – The stale note is gone and crisp, juicy lotus/fig reigns. Clean and fresh rather than rich/cloying/lush. Smells more like a Luper than a Yule; a really nice Luper. Several inches of throw (more than Jacob's Ladder, which I'm testing on my other arm).
30 minutes in – the crisp juiciness is starting to fade, but it’s still a light, sweet, not-quite tropical scent. I can’t distinguish either the coconut or the fig; I think they’re blending in smoothly with the lotus, making it creamier and less floral.
1 Hour in - creamier now; the coconut has come forward a little as the crisp/juicy fruit note from the lotus fades. So far, my favorite of the two I'm testing. Throw is about half what it was initially, but still there.
2 hours in – becomes creamier (more fig & coconut, less lotus), then by two hours has begun to fade.
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Wet/in imp – Perfumey amber
Five-ten minutes in – light/sweet perfume-y amber, (reports that this is a really nice amber are not exaggerated)
1 Hour in – this morphs very little; still a perfume-y amber, rich and sweet. Not strong, but a couple inches of throw.
2 hours in – no change
(and it's faded entirely by four/four-and-a-half hours in)
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Wet/in imp - sharp/thin, herbal, tangy-sour (almost like pickles?)Freshly applied - sharp kitchen herbs and something cool and minty. There's definitely a strong mint note in this - my skin even feels cool where I applied it.Five minutes in - sharp and at the same time slightly musty. Something in it tingles in my nose. Like Grandfather Frost's slightly-musty but pine-scented robes after he comes in from the cold outside, maybe? I don't know that I want to wear it, or if I even like it, but it's definitely interestingTwenty-thirty minutes in - it's gotten softer (I can detect the amber and fuzzy snow note now) and a little sweeter/less sour, but the tangy herbal note is still there, as is the nose-chilling bit. Like a crisp, cold outdoors day with a hint of just-about-to-snow in the air.It doesn't morph much past this point, though I get several hours worth of wear out of it. I have no idea what caused the pickle-like effect early on - maybe the bois de rose going sour bad!rose on me or some combination of the tree moss and snow notes?
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Pediophobia
in Yules
Wet/in imp - perfumey vanilla. I don't get much tobacco.
Freshly applied - cool, creamy vanilla with a hint of alcohol - the cognac almost makes this smell like a commercial perfume because of the alcohol note, but I like it. Something abut this is cool and pale, but a different cool than the dry coolness of Winter: My Secret. It makes me think of porcelain and smooth, pale plastic, possibly via the power of suggestion due to the name. A good two/three inches of throw.
Twenty-thirty minutes in - musky vanilla (with a hint of tobacco?) and cool, aromatic/rich cognac. This has a sophisticated air to it despite its sweetness, maybe because the cognac adds that hint of fancy-perfume-alcohol to it. This is one of those big dolls with sausage curls and a fancy Victorian dress that sits in a white-painted child-sized chair and stares at you with dead china/glass eyes. Its eyes are pale blue-green, and there are ghostly white dust-clothes over the larger pieces of bedroom furniture, including the mirror of the small, white painted vanity. The dry-rotted fabric tears when you try to pull it back to see the age-spotted silver mirror behind it. The glass perfume bottle on the vanity are empty except for some dried residue and the ghost of the sweet, girlish vanilla scents they used to hold. No one's been in this slightly-musty wing of the house in years, and when you ask about it, everyone pretends they don't know what you're talking about.
I don't think I need a bottle because I have half-a-dozen vanilla scents already, but if I didn't, I'd consider it.
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2016 version
Wet/in the imp – sweet rum, maybe a hint of nutmeg, but primarily the same sweetened rum note I love in Kill-DevilFreshly applied – once on skin, the vanilla comes out and it becomes warmer and less boozeyFive-ten minutes in – after a few minutes, the rum note re-emerges, but it’s a foody/desert-sauce rum rather than a boozey one. This is reading as less custardy eggnog to me and more as the rum sauce that goes on bananas foster. Something about it reminds me of burnt sugar.This is reassuring me that the plasticky note in SN French Vanilla was a one-off, though, because Egg Nog isn’t plasticky at all.30-40 minutes in – now it's custardy, like vanilla custard with burned sugar (I’m going to have to try this in my hair to see if the Kill-Devil-like rum note lasts longer there)Two hours in– by two hours, Egg Nog has faded almost entirely to a warm, sugary-vanilla skin scent. It was nice while it lasted, though, possibly one of my top three from this year's Yules. -
Wet/in the imp – slightly sweet resin, with labdanum as the strongest note
Freshly applied - still sweet resin, but once it touches my skin, the myrrh starts to emerge
Five-ten minutes in – very little vanilla (I get a hint of cool, dry vanilla right by my wrist, but the rest of my forearm is all resin), mostly incense, not quite as sweet as it was at first. But something about it is indeed cold and wintery. This is a cool incense somehow, rather than a warm, smokey one. The sweetness of the Eggnog I'm testing on my other wrist could be causing me to read this as cooler/less sweet though. It gets sweeter and softer and less cool/dry as it dries down/wears.
30-40 minutes in – soft, hazy incense. Maybe a hint of cool/dry vanilla? I have to say, this is not living up to my gritty/rich/warm vanilla-myrrh dreams. I was hoping it would be like Funary Papyrus after the weird green note has burned off.
Two hours in– And now that I’m well into the drydown… it has in fact morphed into a pleasant/warm vanilliac incense. Just as it’s starting to fade
Why couldn’t it have smelled like this all along?Turns out my impression that it was fading was wrong: Winter: My Secret lasts as a pleasant incense-y skin scent for about 4-5 more hours, because of course it does. So now I’m like “Is two hours of “meh” worth three-four hours worth of smelling good?” If forty minutes of "weird green note" kept me from buying Funerary Papyrus (A choice I only slightly regret), then I suspect those initial two hours of generic cool incense will keep me from getting Winter: My Secret.
The Poem of the Pillow Bath Oil
in Thermae
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Applied to skin as a moisturizer, this smells like a classy/more sophisticated version of a dreamsicle, with the bergamot providing the citrus and the creamy coconut substituting for the vanilla. It's a gentle, soft scent, not the giant cloud of scent around me that bath oil applied straight to the skin can sometimes be.