Lucchesa

I have just a tester of The Book. I have tried several BPAL library scents because of all the time I've spent in libraries and archives, plus I love soft leather and beeswax as notes. And I think they are all beautiful (the other Book, Scholar's Tower, Buggre All This Bible, etc.) and my skin eats them right up. I tried The Book about an hour before bed last night. I can still smell it this morning. Not strong, but there, unlike La Petite Mort which was on the other wrist. This is shocking. My middle-aged skin rarely allows me such staying power. The throw is low, even when wet, making this a very appropriate work scent. On me, at first it is all warm dusty paper, and then the worn leather emerges as it dries. It is very soothing, as LizziesLuck mentions. I definitely need more than a tester!

Oh, I'm so glad I snagged a decant of this before Yules went down! Chocolate Stout Cupcake is delectable. I totally agree with the previous reviewer: dark chocolate brownie batter. The stout doesn't read boozy on me so much as deepening the scent and adding a less-sweet edge. But basically it's deep dark chocolate, and if that's your BPAL groove, don't miss this one!!! ETA 2017 version

It's funny, there are many unisex scents I love to wear, but this one read as too masculine on my skin. It had that cologne vibe zanzoku_zen mentions that always puts me off. Not a lot of spices, primarily leather-tobacco-sandalwood with a faint hint of rum. I don't have a scent-wearing man in my life, but this would be marvelous on a guy. Elegant, sexy, with a dry wit. It sweetens on drydown and I'm quite enjoying it now, but I don't need a bottle.

I'm trying Wolf's Heart because courage has never been my strong suit, and I could use a boost. It's a nice dragon's blood fragrance on me. I'm not sure about the jasmine, which can go tragically wrong on my skin, but there is definitely some floral, so maybe it's star jasmine or one of the variants that work ok. Definitely more floral and less earthy than I would have expected from the concept. I'll give it a few hours and see if I feel any braver.

Wet, Masquerade is orange blossom-ambergris-patchouli, with maybe a little spiciness from the carnation. The fruitiness of the orange blossom fades quickly on me, though, along with any hint of carnation, and the patch gets stronger and stronger. It's one of the drier patchoulis that work less well with my skin chemistry. I can see this being a favorite of die-hard patch lovers, but it's not really my thing.

I was fortunate enough to swap for a bottle of this and LOVE!!! It's not really morphing much on me at all; it's just big spicy dark sexy smoky wicked gingerbread goodness. Vetiver is not always my friend, but this is the deep molassesy vetiver, not the dirty barbecue pit vetiver. If that's the vetiver you groove on, this is gorgeous. This checks a lot of boxes for me -- warming winter scent, comfort scent, confidence scent, sex goddess scent. I'm thrilled to have it and will wear it often until mild weather arrives.

This morning my husband decided to make coffee in the stovetop espresso maker. He forgot to put any water in. He didn't notice this until there was a fairly strong aroma of burnt coffee and rubber wafting through the kitchen. Malediction basically smells like that. I have been learning to love both vetiver and patchouli. This morning I was joyfully wearing Gingerbread, Vetiver and Black Clove. But this is a dry smoky vetiver and a dry dirty patchouli, no sweetness whatsoever, and this is a no.

Goats are awesome! Another beautiful goat milk scent is Maiko with Hair Unbound from last year's Lupers. Goats milk, coconut, rice milk, honey carnation, and sugar.

I have a head cold for the first time since I acquired OOF and fortunately remembered to give it a try. I don't particularly like the smell of this. I would never wear it as a perfume. But it seems to be clearing my sinuses quite nicely!!

This is bright and fruity and upbeat. I initially thought summer scent, but mandarins and dried figs are things I eat in winter, so I think it would be good for brightening up a dreary day as well. I only had a sniffie with just barely enough for a skin test, so either it doesn't last long on my skin or I just need to apply more generously than I was able to.

I can almost never do red musk as it turns nearly every blend it contains into SN Red Musk but I have gotten away with blood musk and decided to try "infernal musk" as Crowley is my favorite character in Good Omens. And it works! Yes, it's very red musk-forward, but I also get lilac cologne and soft leather and something sweet which must be the vanilla husk. The woods stay in the background, and I don't get the lemonrind at all, but for red musk it's a surprisingly ensemble scent. I always get good throw with red musk and this is no exception. I may need a bottle of this one. ETA I forgot to mention, as most everyone else has, that it's sexy as hell.

I had a liquidambar tree growing outside my bedroom window as a child, so I had to try this one. I'm so glad I did. It's outstanding. I see a lot of comparisons to Midnight Mass in the reviews, but where Midnight Mass 2017 (only one I've tried) does not last long on my middle-aged skin, I put In Templum Dei on yesterday around noon and could still smell it at 9;30 at night. It was a skin scent, but that's normal on me; such a long wear length is not. Wet, it was all glorious resins, but as it dried down the sandalwood made itself felt. I'm not sure I could really parse out the contribution of the liquidambar, but after about an hour I was looking up the ingredients to see what the whisper of spice was, so I think the gum was adding that hint of warm, slightly sweet spiciness. Some franks are too dry for my taste, but this is gentle and absolutely gorgeous.

I really don't know what black iris smells like. For me, this went on in a blast of lavender, like so many lavender blends. Then it settled in to be a wonderful resiny herbal. From this mixture, I would say black iris smells green? The lavender-frank combination was what I was really interested in, and it is lovely, dry, a little sharp, herbal from the chamomile, but like so many lavender blends, my skin eats it up in short order.

Cardamom is my favorite spice note, and this is exactly as advertised. In a word, yum! The cake note in Eat Me is awful on me, but pumpkin cake is quite lovely, and I want to bathe in vats of cardamom cream. For me the cinnamon definitely took a back seat to the other notes. Average wear length on my skin.

2017 version, and the only one I've tried Calavera Catrina was surprisingly bright on me. The dead leaves were in the background, and I did not get the harsh, weird marigold smell that ruined Biwa for me. Instead, it's an unusual (in a good way) herbal floral, with light roses and mums and chamomile. I don't get a lot of bourbon vanilla; I wonder if that will become more prominent with aging. Whereas October and Samhaim conjure up an autumn day in the northern latitudes, this is a sunny October afternoon and reminds me that people have picnics and parties on the Day of the Dead.

Aluminum Phoenix is not for me. The opening is juicy with berry and mandarin, but the white musk, which tends to be high pitched on me, quickly begins to go soapy, as it did on VetchVesper. I was really hoping the smoky myrrh infused oudh would deepen and darken the fruit, but no go. Good wear length, though. How about a smoky myrrh-infused oudh scent, Lab?

2014 version Samhain is a mysterious and wonderful scent. It doesn't smell like any one thing to me. It is not at all foody on me, nor aquatic (I worried about that "damp" bit. It is smoky and dark and sweet and spicy, but not like a pumpkin pie or an autumn-spice candle. It lasts a long time, and although I rarely get throw with oils, Samhain gives me variable wafts of gorgeousness -- sometimes cider, sometimes evergreen, sometimes bonfire smoke. It's incredibly evocative and I love it. I had been given a tester of 2012 Samhain, just enough for one wear, and it was very similar in its effects. I think I will need to get some every year!

Zorya Vechernyaya is a red musk blend I can wear. (Happy dance!) I generally amp red musk to the exclusion of everything else, which means it has great throw on me, but with the plum, the incense, and the one-two punch of vetiver sandalwood, there are enough other strong notes here to keep it in check. I frankly do not perceive any orange blossom or jasmine at all. Sexy, dark, a little smoky, a little jaundiced about human nature in general -- I had almost written this one off because of the primary note, and I'm so glad I didn't!

Pride goeth before me, announceth my presence: overweening rose.

Lime aftershave, steel and the oil my father used for cleaning his shotgun. If that sounds repellent, it's actually quite wonderful. After a while the softness of the tweed emerges, and it already has a clean feel that may be the linen, but it's not soapy on me at all. I like this much more than I expected to. It's unisex and would probably be fantastic on the right gent (mine is utterly uninterested in wearing scent, more's the pity), but on my skin it's sexy in a clean, strong way. It makes me feel competent, in control. Adding this to the already overlong GC bottle list.

I really wanted to love this, but my skin is amping the oudh to the point where I cannot smell anything else. No incense, no bourbon vanilla, no myrrh. I gave it a second test last night after letting it rest a couple weeks, and the result is unchanged. Good throw and wear length, as is always true when I'm amping something I don't want to, but I just don't think I can wear this one. Damn you, skin chemistry!

In the imp and wet, Athens is a honey-forward scent, with myrrh in the background and just a hint of red wine which is all the red wine I can usually take in a blend. As it dries, the myrrh becomes more assertive, and after an hour or so they switch places, so it becomes primarily a myrrh scent with honey backing it up. Resiny, drily sweet but not sickly in the least, not floral or alcoholic on me. I quite like this! ETA I spilled most of that first imp, and a second imp I was frimped, which seems a bit darker in color, is much more about the red wine on my skin, and I like it less.

London is all venerable tea rose on me, and I'm beginning to understand that tea rose is the rose note that doesn't work on my skin. "Venerable" translates to old lady, apparently. I think I smell some myrrh -- could that be the black twisted part? At any rate, this one is not me. If you like tea rose, give it a whirl!

2017 Dorian, kindly decanted me in a swap (thanks, Cinnabar!!!): A musky cloud of sweet vanilla tea, all day. Do believe the hype.

This may be my favorite GC leather scent (and maybe I should buy a bottle before the price goes up!). Wet it is a little cologney. I like a lot of unisex scents, but some (Vicomte de Valmont, Villain) strike me as "too cologney," which may just mean they smell too much like Brut or whatever my dad wore in the 70s. So, Black Rider starts out like it might go in that direction, but it dries down into this dark, chewy, resinous deliciousness. It made me feel badass. Like that cartoon, Rose Is Rose, where her alter ego wears biker's leathers? Like that.