Lucchesa

I got less of the dead leaves note in Dead Leaves, Apricot, Ambergris and Tobacco than in any other DL scent I tried this year. And I love the dead leaves note. Here I get mainly ripe apricot and ambergris. The tobacco (and this fall's tobacco note is a beauty too!) and leaves are faint on me. It's possible, even probable, that these notes will strengthen with aging and balance this out to work better on me, but there were so many wins in these Weenies that I'm not sad to have one I can pass by.

OK, I give up. I adore blackberries. Blackberry pie may be my favorite food on the planet. So I keep trying to find a blackberry scent to revel in, and I keep failing. But When All Colors to Black Are Cast looks like it was designed for me. Dried blackberry -- that might work better. Inky black musk, my beloved opoponax -- I don't have as much experience with sweet labdanum, but sweet resins are my jam. Mmm, blackberry jam... In the imp, When All Colors is darkly purple. I get a lot of black musk and dark resins with a sweet dark blackberry swirling around it all. But on my skin, I get berry candy. Just generic berry, and it swallows up all the other lovely notes. An hour later, I still have berry candy on my wrist. Five hours later, it's faint but starting to smell more like it does in the imp, and if this could be amped up to normal strength through the life of the perfume, I would be buying at least one bottle. But my skin mutates blackberry into a fake, overly sweet note that crowds out everything else. I need to accept that I love many many BPAL components and that blackberry just isn't going to be one of them.

My husband said this one smelled like honeysuckle and hay. I told him it was called Pumpkin Tobacco, which he didn't take to because he basically hates pumpkin (winter squash, sweet potatoes, everything in that vein). He's anti-tobacco, too. So when I buy a bottle I will have to tell him it's Honeysuckle Hay. No pumpkin spice to this, just pumpkin, and while I'm not exactly familiar with dried pumpkin as a thing, imagine a slice of sugar pie pumpkin roasted until the edges are brown and caramelized. Not from added sugar, just the sugars in the pumpkin itself. Imagine that blended with bourbon and toothsome tobacco. This is mainly a gorgeous sweet tobacco with the pumpkin and bourbon making it even richer and warmer. Heaven.

Sadly, I don't get the smokiness everyone else is talking about. Zoe and the Goat is beautiful, though. It's mainly patchouli and honey with a creamy edge. This is a much gentler patchouli than Tricksy. A warm golden bearhug of a scent, with good staying power and throw.

I really like the goat's milk note, and Jupiter Nourished by the Goat Amalthea has a strong goat's milk component on me, earthy, just a little funky. I would have loved to have gotten the goat's milk, hazelnut and coconut that some reviewers reported, but instead I got a lot of fruit. (When I was growing up, ambrosia was the term for a dessert with Kool-Whip and canned fruit cocktail, and this was indeed reminiscent of that to me. If you're not familiar with canned fruit cocktail, I think it was pear, peach, grapes and maraschino cherry.) And later in drydown, after an hour or so, I began to perceive baked goods, which is rarely a good note on me. So I'm torn -- it's a really good goat's milk, but the other ingredients are less wonderful on me. Good wear length and a little throw, more than I usually get with my skin chemistry.

Sweet smoky vetiver, vanilla with a boozy edge, cuddly wool. This is definitely in the queue for bottle purchase. I totally agree with marared that people who are on the fence about vetiver should try this one, as it may make believers out of them. It's smoky but not charred-charcoal vetiver, and while it dominates the opening, it mellows down pretty quickly and partners beautifully with the vanilla and wool. Two Sheep and Two Goats is like a warm woolen wrap that a ruggedly attractive, bourbon-drinking guy was wearing by a roaring fire. It's going to keep me warm this winter!

2018 version. The Hag hit my skin sharp and frankly a little unpleasant, all bay leaf and galangal. This is the hag yelling at the neighborhood kids to get the hell out of her yard. But I wasn't worried; I knew they would soften and that I'd get some sweetness from the currant and rum. And sure enough, within minutes, this was the hag rescuing you from a winter storm and handing you a well-spiked warm drink as you huddle in her kitchen surrounded by drying herbs and bubbling pots. I like this phase a lot. But it ghosted on me in less than a hour. When I applied it, I had the feeling I wasn't putting enough on, even though it was my normal testing amount. So I'm going to let it rest a couple of weeks and slather and see how it goes because this had promise.

I was frimped Urd and put some on without checking notes. If I had, I might not even have skin tested. Grape is usually Dimetapp on me, and nag champa can turn my stomach. It wasn't as bad as all that -- in fact, the blend that it reminded me of was Dia de los Muertos, and sure enough they both have cereus. But despite the presence of both black and red patchouli, the patch is drowned out by the fruit, cereus and nag champa -- my least favorite incense note. Not my cup of tea.

Sri Lanka has the feeling of fresh woods on me. Usually sandalwood smells like it was harvested years ago and has been well cured until it is bone dry, but Sri Lanka smells like walking through a sandalwood and cedar clearcut just after the incense-burning lumberjacks have departed, stomping on patchouli bushes as they did so. Green woods and warm, dry incense, really lovely, and I got a little more throw from this than my skin chemistry usually allows.

Shroud struck me as a classic GC kind of scent. It reminded me of Rakshasa -- I think there may be some white roses in those white flowers. Or like The Ghost with sandalwood. It's very pretty and quite evocative of a spectral mood but too floral for my tastes. No throw (which is normal with my skin chemistry) and wear length a little under average.

Amicitia goes on almost buttery on me -- I think this is the caramelized honey and fig. The carnation (my fave floral note) is very present with the warm dry outdoorsy notes wafting in the background. Over the first hour of wear the balance shifts and the sage and chaparral become the dominant notes, with the cedar, honey and fig taking the supporting roles. It doesn't morph much after that, and while the throw is low (which is usual for my skin), it lasts a good long time. Amicitia is dry, warm, and comforting, and while it is in no way girlish, I think it would be a lovely blend for introducing a young person to scent.

I enjoyed But Men Loved Darkness enough to swap for a partial, but apparently never reviewed it. Wearing it today, I was trying to figure out what was in it. I would have guessed opoponax (dark syrupy resin - I guess that's how I'm reading the cistus labdanum), myrrh, blackened vanilla, and other stuff. I would not have identified patchouli or ginger. Nor did I come up with saffron, sage or bitter clove, though now that I know they're there I can kind of make them out - there's a dry earthiness that tempers the dark sweetness. And I have no idea what pimento berry might smell like. Despite the presence of ginger and clove, this is not a pumpkin pie spice kind of blend on me, nor foody in the least. It's a dark sweet resin kind of blend, which is one of my favorite kinds. Obviously my bottle is well-aged, which may mean the spices have become exquisitely subtle. I get no throw from this (which is typical for my skin chemistry) but good wear length. It's really beautiful, unisex, the kind of dark sweet blend I love in cold weather, and I feel beautiful wearing it.

First off, the dead leaves have been glorious this year! But Dead Leaves and Scotch did not start out promising on me. The leaves plus scotch was musty and oddly a little sour when wet. But I waited it out and an hour later it had sweetened and softened into something lovely. It isn’t “just stumbled out of the bar” on me, and it wears close to the skin, so this is work appropriate. My husband describes this one as sweet and gentle and likes it a lot, which given his usual indifference is high praise.

Sadly, the Crescent Moon is not working well with my chemistry. It’s quite high-pitched and a little soapy on me, as if some white musk and aquatic notes had wandered into the mix. I need to go through my spreadsheet to see if my skin has reacted this way to copal in the past. I’m not getting identifiable amber, which would usually dominate drydown on me, and only the faintest hint of sage and juniper. Strange because these notes should have been gorgeous.

All Ruinous Disorders has had a year to age now, and when I first apply it to my skin, I get Coca Cola. All those gorgeous complex notes, and my skin gives me coke. It mellows into something richer, dark and sweet, in which I have trouble picking out any of the individual notes. I'm not getting the strongly green scent other reviews mention, which may be my skin and may be the aging process. It's totally unisex, more comforting than sex bomb, and I get a little throw with it which I don't often get from my chemistry. Don't be put off by the "smoked" or "blackened" descriptions; this isn't a vetiver blast. It's cola. But better.