Lucchesa

Trevor Bruttenholm belongs to a category of scents (Hellfire, The Buggre All This Bible, etc.) that my chemistry just obliterates. The old books and incense of the decant disappear immediately on my skin. Practically everything disappears, actually -- I have to hold my wrist almost touching my nose to make out anything. It settles into a very faint bay rum cologne. I want to love these scents so badly, but my skin just doesn't let them be appreciated.

2019 Smut, and apparently I never reviewed my other Smut decant either, which I think is 2013. 2019 is lighter, less voluptuous, but I suspect in six years it may smell quite like my older decant. Sweet, boozy, almost fruity musk -- one of those musks is definitely of the red persuasion, but it doesn't take over completely. Whereas the above reviewer gets root beer, I get something suggestive of rum and coke (that sounds kind of disgusting, but it's very pleasant). However, it's not so boozy or so smutty that it can't be worn to the office, especially the 2019 version which wears very close to my skin. I find Smut a fun, sexy, I-feel-and-smell-great blend to wear, not an I-will-bring-you-to-your-knees-and-you-will-worship-me kind of blend. The older one is definitely deeper with more staying power but again, that may come with age.

2019 Bright Red Dildo is all honey on me for at least the first hour, and predominantly honey on me throughout. It's a warm, dry honey under which I can eventually make out a touch of mildly musky leather. Not much throw, which is normal for me, but like most BPAL honey blends it lasts a long time. I was hoping for more leather, but this is really very nice.

I must share a skin chemistry quirk with Milo, because on me A Masked Ball of the Most Unusual Magnificence also has an unpleasant chemical smell, and I too am usually a fan of almond scents. The plastic tinge is not disappearing fast enough for my liking. Not for me.

I don't love dragon's blood, but everything else here is luscious, so I was hoping as one of thirteen ingredients it would be quiet. The dragon's blood merges with the honey and vanilla to create the fruitiness others have spoken of, but I like this better than I would have liked a 13 filled with actual fruit notes. This is definitely a deep dark fudgy chocolate, but the darkness of the cacao and the woods and incense notes keep this one dark and deep and out of the pure foodie category. Very very nice. Not a lot of throw (normal for me) but it lasts a good long time.

This was gifted to me or I would never have tried it; jasmine in particular never works on me. But I skin test it all, and sure enough, this one was all indolic jasmine at first, with some indolic oudh playing backup. I was running out the door and didn't scrub; it got progressively nicer over the afternoon and the late drydown is quite beautiful. So if jasmine, rose and oudh work on you, this might just be gorgeous.

For the first hour or so, They Shut Me Up In Prose is pretty much a bourbon vanilla single note on me, which is no bad thing. No, that's not true -- it's bourbon vanilla and mallow. Not marshmallow, but mallow flower, the same note that's in DeVos' Unicorn and other ethereal sugared florals I usually associate with Lupers. Sweet but not cloying. It's innocent enough to be worn by a girl about the age of Emily Dickinson when she was confined to the closet, but it's rich enough to be worn by a woman of any age. After an hour I'm able to appreciate the sandalwood as well, though I never get any frankincense. I wonder if it will come out with age. I hope so. This is conspicuously beautiful and I'm psyched to have a bottle, but I'm also curious to see how it would smell with frankincense giving it a bit more edge.

I bought this intending it to be a gift for my daughter who's nearly out of Daybreak, but of course I had to skin test it -- it might be the rare lavender I can wear. It starts off, as most BPAL lavenders do on my skin, with a fierce blast of lavender, strong, a little sharp. This never lasts, but with No Coward Soul Is Mine, my skin doesn't eat it up completely; instead the lavender chills down to share the floor with soft aromatic woods. I wouldn't know a rockrose if it hit me over the head, but I'm sure it's adding its own loveliness to this blend as well. OK, now I've been wearing it nearly an hour and the lavender is growing fainter and fainter. I think this is really beautiful and if my skin chemistry didn't obliterate lavender I would keep it for myself; my daughter is going to love it.

A King Pursued by a Unicorn is magnificent. Golden Priapus is one of my fave GCs, so I thought it might work well on me. In the imp it's mostly evergreen and oak and a little sharp, but as always the pine softens and sweetens on my skin, and then the amber joins in and it's like a warm beam of sunlight in a forest glade. I get more throw from this than I usually do (in fact, I got a compliment on it today) and wear length seems good so far.

Body, Remember - raw black coconut, ambergris accord, ambrette seed, champaca flower, and sugar cane

Wet, Old-Fashioned Satanists is predominantly chamomile tea on me, more bright and lemony than soporific. I don’t have many chamomile blends, so I wasn’t aware I amped it. After about 45 minutes the chamomile settles down enough for the leather and cashmere to emerge, and then I get the coziness I expected, but my skin chemistry is still making too much of the chamomile for me to fall in love with this one.

Lovely old-fashioned powdery amber and sandalwood are the dominant notes. I thought from the context (17th century bible scholarship) that it might be dusty and dry, but the oakmoss means that it’s beautifully balanced between ethereal and earthly. This was a second tier choice for me as some of the decants I wanted were sold out, but I’m enjoying it a lot.

Ghost of a Ghost's Ghost is lovely and unusual, a light, fresh lavender that becomes more masculine on my skin against a backdrop of oakmoss and patchouli. I'm not really appreciating any oudh, which is fine, as agarwood occasionally ruins a scent for me. Unfortunately, as with nearly every BPAL that has the word "Ghost" in the title, my skin eats this up in a couple of hours.

El Amor y la Muerte is nice but not outstanding on me. This decant is by now 12 years old, and any sharp edges it might once have had have worn smooth with age as its component parts have melded together. Warm woods and sweet resins with mellow clove and a little bit of rose that flirts with soap but doesn't quite go there. It stays very close to the skin.

Hi, ShleepySnorlax! Teamama's recs are great. I also thought of the Mad Tea Party for you -- the first scent that resonated for me personally was Alice. It's got the innocence you sometimes project, and it's very comforting. If carnation works well for you, Maiden is another innocent-projecting scent to try. The foodier Mad Tea Party scents (Eat Me, Drink Me, Knave of Tarts) don't work on me but might be comforting if they work on your skin. The Lion belongs right in Teamama's list of gender neutral comfort scents like Coyote. It fits with love of animals, too. Also, if you like The Lion, Bengal and Bastet (appropriate for your ancient Egypt tattoo!) would be good blends to try, and Bast from American Gods - they all have that warm amber feel. An animal and fantasy lover is probably fond of dragons, so you might like the Ars Draconis scents, many of which are gender fluid. Since you enjoy fall and winter, do you like pumpkin as a note? Jack comes to mind (same category in my head as Dwarven Ale, and Hoggle from the Labyrinth, the only other GC pumpkin blends I can think of.). And Chimera and Sin and other warm spicy blends. I would have said Miskatonic U as a warm winter scent but I looked on your profile and that showed up as a fail. Weenies and Yules are probably your best updates. Oh -- have you tried Lights of Men's Lives? It's candles, so slightly smoky beeswax. I find it warming and wonderful.

Female Nude, Three-Quarter Length is really surprisingly beautiful, besides having one of the all-time great BPAL names. I don't generally do apple scents; they tend to go fake on me. I was the beneficiary of the above reviewer's tester imp, just enough to skin test, and dabbed a bit on about 90 minutes ago. Morning plans went awry and just now I was sniffing my wrist thinking, wait, wow, what did I put on? In the imp I didn't smell apple much at all but mainly rosewood, and now the apple has bloomed but is perfectly entwined with the woods. Looking at the above reviews, I don't find this girlish at all -- of course, it's 8 years older than it was back then, and it has aged into something quite elegant. Not fruity and not rosy -- the apple has become understated, and the rosewood and mahogany are polished woods, and a lovely and grown-up combination. (Mahogany on my skin always strikes me as classy.) This is perfectly boardroom appropriate but in my opinion could go out for an intimate dinner and drinks afterwards.

Lawn Gnome is a little sweeter and a lot fruitier than what I usually wear. (Switch the patch and the red currant in the description, and that's more me.) But it sounded like a fun combination of notes. It behaves really well on my skin -- the cream doesn't go off, I get more throw than usual for my skin chemistry, and it sticks around all day. It really is red currant out in front, sweetened by the vanilla cream and molasses; I could barely detect the patchouli at all. The moss is what makes it wearable for me though, just that little bit of grounded earthiness that keeps the other notes from being girlishly candy sweet. I'm really glad I got to try this one.

I thought I'd tested all my spring snakes. How did this one slither by me? It's fantastic! (No surprise -- my favorite SO blends are Snake Skin and Western Diamondback.) In the imp it's mostly Snake Oil, then once it hits my skin it's SO and leather in lockstep, sweet, sexy, with great throw for the first hour or so. There's something almost chewy about the amber and musks that are backing up the two main components; I'm not sure I can distinguish the sandalwood at all. Basically this is a beautifully balanced Snake Oil and leather blend. To my chagrin I didn't get great longevity from this, so I'll just have to slather and reapply.

Oops, I guess I never hit Submit to post this review. I love Startled Toad and always am on the lookout for coconut Shungas. This is a beauty. Twenty-Four Paragons is slightly sharp fir and cypress at first and reminded me of the bright green tips that grow on fir trees in spring. Not hoary old pines but young, growing, tender needles. Before long the foremost note on me is green coconut. It's different from the coconut note in Startled Toad and most of the other coconut blends I've tried -- it really is a young, green coconut, and the interaction with the evergreen notes adds to the green feeling. This is a unique scent -- if you like coconut at all, I highly recommend trying it.

Pleasures of the Imagination III is so very very sexy and delicious. I get only the tiniest hint of cinnamon; it's really all sweet smoky tobacco/leather, but a warmer leather than the usual "black leather" note. It's totally unisex; if a man smelled like this, I would fall at his feet and beg. I love this, and it lasts really well on me.

Tissue is such a shunga, and such a beauty. Heady gardenia (one of the only white florals that works on me) floats over pale honey and what smells to me like rice milk. This is one of those creamy sweet florals Beth does so magnificently. It's not my usual sort of scent at all -- it's the kind I bust out on rare spring days when I'm feeling really femme -- but it's gorgeous, even if it only lasts a couple of hours on my skin.

Couple Enjoying a Summer Breeze was not on my radar at all last year. I'm not sure I realized then how much I like labdanum. Testing blind, I got cedar and sparkling labdanum with its cola-like sweetness, which the brown sugar (once I looked at the notes) melds with seamlessly. I never really perceive the patchouli, and while sage can be a problematic note on me, it behaves perfectly here, dry and herbal but warm, a perfect balance for the sweet notes. Anyway, it's fantastic on me, outdoorsy, cozy, deeply satisfying. This goes on my list of things I'd be delighted to have more of.

I really wanted to love Joyous Middle-Aged Couple, but it doesn't work on me. In the imp it's gorgeous, rich mandarin and white tea with a backdrop of woods, but once it hits my skin it's higher pitched than I usually enjoy and quickly goes to soap. Really elegant, fancy, triple-milled French clementine soap maybe, but still soap. I'm not sure which component or combination of components is at fault, but I'm jealous of the skin chemistry of the other reviewers.

The only other Honey Pot I've tried is Sweet Labdanum, which was primarily about the labdanum. Honey, Italian Bergamot and Frankincense is more of a honey-forward scent on me. At first I can mainly pick out warm honey grounded with frankincense, but as it dries down the bergamot becomes more perceptible, adding some brightness. After eight hours or so, the citrus has receded again and left me with a skin scent of honey and frankincense -- this is a sweeter frank, not the super dry one. I don't get much throw (rarely do with my chemistry), but this is really good wear length for me. A beautifully balanced daytime scent I can see wearing all year round.

I am just loving labdanum lately, and it really shines here. It's that sweet, syrupy, cola-like labdanum with a little honey, and it's lovely. I don't get a lot of throw, but I rarely do with my skin chemistry, and as is true for many of the Lab's honey blends, this last a long time. Sweet but not gourmand, sunny, and work-appropriate.