Lucchesa

Mercurian Phoenix is really lovely on me. It's definitely a lemongrass scent, but there's a good amount of lavender and bergamot at first as well, and the sandalwood emerges in the drydown. I'm not as familiar with the gum notes, and I never get anise. After two or three hours it's a skin scent, warm and sunny and kind of snuggly, but also rich and herbal. I'm not describing this very well, but I like it.

Lace Phoenix goes tragically wrong on my skin. Tears. I think VetchVesper is right and there's some champaca in there -- nag champa? -- and champaca and my skin are often at odds. The drydown is actually quite pretty; I just have this horrible emotional response to the wet phase and it's going straight to swaps.

The Curtain of the Temple on me is warm and spicy, dry and evocative -- this could be the desert of the Holy Land. I get no skin reaction from the cinnamon or cassia though I did not try it anywhere too soft and sensitive. The first time I tested this I was absolutely blown away by it, but today it's still really good but not one I need to chase down a bottle of. Like myth, I find its lovely, cinnamony incense is drier overall than I prefer. I death-matched it with Chimera, a GC favorite with cinnamon and myrrh, and the sweeter strains of Chimera hit closer to my heart.

Black oudh is not my friend. It's running roughshod all over Fortuna Obsequens, even an hour after application. Terrific throw, of course. If I get close to my wrist, I can smell a wanton red rose and a little leather and patch partying behind oudh's back (amazingly, the oudh has shut the blood musk down). But the oudh just dominates the throw. Not for my skin chemistry.

I had an imp of this once and swapped it away as too faint but wanted to try it again. I think I just didn't put enough on. Brisingamen is a lovely, classic amber scent, very sophisticated and feminine. I don't get apple per se, just blossom and only a hint of carnation. I think this would be lovely at a spring or summer wedding with a sky blue dress.

Carnation necrobump for some newer, wonderful carnation scents: A Thousand Thoughs and Hopes and Joys (Yule 2016): joyful sugared carnation and vanilla freesia Delightful Visitor among the Haystacks (Luper 2017): Chrysanthemum incense and red carnation Die Begierde (Luper 2017): Pink rose petals, rose water, sugared carnation, and white cognac Maiko with Hair Unbound (Luper 2017): Goats milk, coconut, rice milk, honey carnation, and sugar Eclipses Be (Great American Eclipse 2017): Rose amber, carnation, and clove Cherophobia Yule 2017: bubbling white ginger gurgling through hot red carnations, shreds of orange peel, and globs of honey Nes Gadol Haya Shem (Yule 2017): opoponax and lemon verbena, patchouli, heliotrope, pomegranate, and almond, frankincense, myrtle, and hyssop, carnation, myrrh, red poppy, and hibiscus Zarita the Doll Girl (CD new release): white carnation, iris, orange blossom, poisonous pale white berries, and sugared cream Yay, carnation!

Lindworm is intriguing. I think there may be some green musk in here, which is an oddball note on me. Lightly musky greenery at first, and then the leather note emerges and a little smoke, but this is not a vetiver-heavy smoke like Smokestack, it's much lighter. In drydown, it's well balanced between grass and leather with just a hint of smoke. A big playful dragon rolling around in the countryside.

Pontarlier is absolutely lovely on me. It's green, green grass, green foliage, herbal lavender, a hint of one of my favorite florals, lilac, and a breath reminiscent of mint and lime that I think is the absinthe note. I'm not getting rose or blackcurrant, and the absinthe isn't taking it into dark Bohemian nightclub territory; it's more Maria spinning wildly in the glorious Alps singing "the hills are alive..." Sadly, my skin devours this within an hour.

Only a Sip feels more like aromatherapy to me than perfume, which is appropriate given the inspiration: it's an instant pick-me-up. It's also the longest-lasting BPAL orange note I have encountered on my skin. I'm not getting any clove, and the mint and rosemary are present but subdued. I might need a bottle of this to sniff when I need a little power or courage or when I just can't.

I tried Mr. Croup out of curiosity and liked it much more than I expected to. I didn't look at the notes for about an hour and I too thought it had a leathery feel, but I really couldn't identify any of the individual notes. A kind of slightly sharp or herbal men's cologne, definitely kind of reddish brown in tone. When I checked the notes I laughed because you can really imagine the smashed porcelain being in there. Anyway, I have plenty of masculine trending scents that aren't named for despicable characters, and one of my swap partners is interested in trying this, so I will be passing it on, but I am really glad I got to try it.

Black patchouli, tonka bean, mahogany bark, gurjum balsam, and decadent cacao absolute surrounded by two dark, feral musks and sweet sarsaparilla. Mmm, dark chocolate cologne. Now there is a man I need in my life. This trends masculine and is very sexy. The cocoa doesn't dominate for long, but that wet phase is killer. An hour later, it's a rich blend of sweet dark patch and musk and woods with just a hint of chocolate and sarsparilla. It's down to a skin scent now, but I keep sniffing my wrist and fantasizing about meeting someone who smells like this. At a lecture, or a bookstore coffeeshop, but you know he goes hiking at night to look at the stars. So, anyway, I like.

Dawn: Maiden is super duper pretty. Olive blossom goes soapy on me sometimes, and that is the case here as well, though it's not a deal-breaker because it also gives this maiden great throw. The milk and honey keep the tea rose from going sour on me. Soft, feminine, not particularly me. Super pretty, though!

I wanted to love this because Rapunzel was my favorite fairy tale growing up. I don't know why, in retrospect; Rapunzel is such a colossal idiot. But I really liked the illustrations in the book we had. Anyway, Rapunzel is a lovely aquatic white floral, light and pretty, springtime and innocence, hovering on the edge of French-milled soap for me. I'm not getting a lot of either orris or rosewood. It's very pretty, but I don't wear aquatics or pure florals, so I'm guessing I won't reach for this imp very often.

This was really lovely -- warm amber and saffron and honey and coconut. I didn't really get any leather, though there is definitely a bit of the olive blossom note, though it didn't go soapy on me as it sometimes does. Then it disappeared. Sadness! Bad greedy skin ETA: Actually, this lasts quite a long time on me, but it is very faint.

I was frimped a tester of Aegir; I would never have tried it otherwise. Lavender tends to be really sharp on me, and I don't do aquatics. But I try the things that come my way, and this is surprisingly lovely. It's not a sharp, screechy lavender at all; it really is a languid lavender (Lab, if you're reading this, more languid lavender, please!!). I'm not familiar with guiac, but the cedar is toned down as well, so it's like opening a cedar chest to find old sprigs of lavender inside, not like pencil shavings. I think I prefer saltwater to freshwater notes; this does not do the laundry detergent thing most aquatics do on my skin. The saltwater is kind of grounding and works beautifully with the lavender and wood notes. And I dig the description of this as piratical lavender! I kind of love this and think it would make a great sleep scent. I wish I had more of it!

Oh I wish I had tried this before Yules went down! Instead, I tested it last night, a couple of hours before bedtime, and the Language of Crows is marvelous. Caramel, tobacco, dark woody resins, and a hint of cardamom, check! Warm, comforting, an excellent end-of-day scent, like a warm blanket and a crackling fire. Love!

I wasn't sure this would work on me. Overly fruity scents don't, in general, but the supporting notes sounded wonderful -- I will try anything with mallow. Sure enough, wet on my skin Texare was all juicyfruit, but the drydown is lovely -- sweet and sexy. I'm not getting a lot of frankincense, but the oudh is a deep earthy but not stinky note, and the mallow and vanilla husk blend together into the roasted marshmallow goodness lizabelle mentions. Colorful, comforting, sweet and fuzzy. Joy!

Sharp lavender, screechy white musk, and ozone? A clean, soapy aquatic note. All together, it gives me a headache. So sad!

Feed Me and Fill Me ought to have been a slam dunk on me, based on the notes. But it turns out there's still patchouli I find unsettling: the big black variety. Dark and earthy and a little bitter wet, and the honey and vanilla amber were fighting a losing battle at first. I wasn't sure. Eventually it settled into something very wearable, but I still wasn't sure. It wasn't until I tested my decant of East African black patchouli SN then retested Feed Me that I really got this scent. After experiencing the patchouli raw and unadulterated, and learning to love it, it kind of unlocked this scent for me. It's deep, rich, sweet, and beautiful, and it doesn't last nearly as long as I would like it to (which would be all day and then some...)

Blood Countess was sweeter and fruitier than I expected from the name. In the imp the plum is almost sour, but on my skin it's overwhelmed by sweet opium and berry and flowers. Over time the opium and plum did get more prominent, but not as dark and smoky as I would have enjoyed. And then I got busy and forgot to pay attention to the later drydown, so I'm going to have to retest this one at some point. But I'm not certain I should keep it when so many people crave this one.

"You smell fruity," my husband commented when I put on Lady Macbeth. So, good throw and decent wear length, but the sweet wine note is all grape on me, so this is fruit, fruit, fruit and a little thyme. If grape and berry and currant notes are your jam (pun kind of intended), you will like this one a lot.

Thanks to the kind generosity of a fellow swapper, I have Sumatran red on one wrist and East African black on the other wrist. Sumatran red is a dark reddish-brown oil. And it's patchouli all right, but it's the more urbane of the two. Earthy but not gritty or dirty, smooth and woody and comforting whereas the black is almost unsettling to me, at least wet. Sumatran red knows every Grateful Dead song but can also get dressed up and go to work in an office. They are both beautiful in their own way. I can't believe I've learned to love patchouli this much!

When I started out with BPAL, patchouli was a note I rigorously avoided. Now I've come to love it. And thanks to hugely generous frimpage from a forumite who will remain nameless but is right above me in this thread, I get to try out both East African black and Sumatran red patch, straight up. This is the one that scares me more. It's deep, dark, primal, earthy. Not for the faint of heart. If you're patchouli-avoidant, this is not going to be your gateway patch. There's a bitterness on initial application, but after an hour or so it softens into something rich and almost, but not quite, sweet. It's amazing, and I am so glad, and grateful, to have my decant.

Mr. Nancy is delicious -- a foodie that trends slightly masculine, with the tobacco and bay rum suggesting a hint of cologne. The lime note is not particularly long-lasting on me, but the rum sugar cookies last a really long time as a skin scent. Sweet, warm and cozy.

Daybreak from 2017 Liliths. Lavender-vanilla-coconut.