ralenth

Wet: Warm spices and freshly crushed sage.

 

Drydown: As it dries, Vespillo goes really green on my skin. It's sweet and almost grassy.

 

Dry: Warm and musky, but rather subdued after an hour has passed. It still has tinges of sweetness, but at this point I can't pick out notes.

 

Overall: Dry stage is very nice, but I wish it had retained more of the delicious spicy sage of the initial application.

Wet: Sharp, sweet tobacco with a woodsy background. Mmm, cigar shop.

 

Drydown: Super sweet for the drydown, eventually it mellows to a nice honeyed tobacco.

 

Dry: Warm, soft tobacco. Slightly smoky as well.

 

Overall: Very nice feel. Reminiscent of Fledgling Raptor Moon, but less fluffy.

Wet: Hot bitter herbal, with dark overtones.

Drydown: Spicy, earthiness following into the drydown, then a blast of something akin to sweat. Then, it shifts again to sweet, but bitter sweat.

Dry: Sweet, sour and hot all at the same time. I suppose I should have expected that this blend might be a bit jarring, but it does not work on me at all.

 

Overall: A little goes a long way here. I'm sad this one smells so off on my skin as it really appealed to the Classicist in me.

Sharp, herbal lavender, but it seems sweeter than my bottles of the released version. TKO v.3 also knocked me out, much like I would expect, but I didn't sleep as hard or as long as I do when I use the released TKO.

Bright, brassy mandarin, Carnal smells like I stuck my face in a freshly peeled orange. As it dries, there's a bit of depth to it, but it never really gets too figgy. It would make an interesting room scent, but I don't think I would get much wear out of this blend.

Sweet, creamy beeswax with a hint of vanilla. As it dries, it cans a subtle soft skin musk, reminscent of Tamamo-no-mae, but creamy instead of fruity. I will need a bottle of this for sure.

Soft blackberry, dripping beeswax candles over a soft backdrop of snow. As it dries, it gains a bit of a sour sweet milky note on my skin. I had such high hopes for this.

Source: Lab bottle.

 

Wet: Dark stone, slight damp with deep resinous notes. Midnight Bell is ominous and foreboding and just a wee bit sexy.

 

Drydown: MB takes on a smoldering twigs aspect over the stone note.

 

Dry: Smoky-sweet woods - MB has completely morphed out of the original aspect on my skin.

 

Overall: If it had remained like it did in the wet stage, I would have been all over this one.

Source: Lab bottle.

 

Sharp, aggressive green tendrils. It sweetens up a bit on the drydown, but it is still mostly greenery. I catch traces of violet in the background. It doesn't really smell like most other BPAL violet blends that I have experienced. It's far too sharp for my tastes, though.

Source: Lab bottle.

 

In Bottle: Warm, crumbling sandalwood, slightly sweetened.

 

Wet: Hot and gritty, woodsy musk.

 

Drydown: Powdery overtones begin to emerge and a strange sourness that I had not anticipated.

 

Dry: Baby powder laced vomit. I have never encountered this sort of reaction to a skin test before. Wow.

 

Overall: Definitely a skin chemistry failure for me.

Source: Lab bottle of 2009 Resurrection.

 

In Bottle: Hawaiian Tropic like whoa.

 

Wet: Coconut with a hefty dose of peppermint.

 

Drydown: The peppermint recedes, but the coconutty sunblock remains, though slightly sweeter than I would expect.

 

Dry: Super sweet coconut - just not meshing right with my skin chemistry.

 

Overall: Coconut blends are hit and miss with me. Unfortunately, this one fails on my skin.

 

Warm, smoky and sweet - it's the scent of a spice market built on scorched sand.

Source: Lab bottle.

Wet: Almost sweet pea single note. Light, delicate and airy.

 

Drydown: Berry infused lemonade, for the most part. The sweet pea has receded into the background. It's a very realistic, juicy berry note, not the weird plasticky sort that I get out of most perfumes.

 

Dry: Soft, powdery, feminine.

 

Overall: Not my speed, but very pretty.

Source: Secondhand bottle.

 

Wet: Sharp, salty aquatic. I can taste the warm sea water with a single sniff.

 

Drydown: Burgeoning green floral, tempered by the saltiness, with bright flashes of ozone chasing across the top.

 

Dry: Sweet, salty aquatic floral with tinges of powderiness as the day wears on.

 

Overall: A little goes a long way here. City in the Sea is a nice aquatic, but I have similar enough ones already in my collection.

Source: Secondhand bottle.

 

Wet: Sweetened cinnamon with an underlying earthy musk.

 

Drydown: Still warm and spicy - reminiscent of Saw-Scaled Viper without the cassia bite or the Snake Oil.

 

Dry: Dark, a little dusty, with a warm softness menacing underneath. Killer teddy bears waiting to grab your ankles from beneath the bed, perhaps?

 

Overall: It certainly isn't the haunting, macabre perfume I was expecting, but it seems nice enough to linger in the "retest later" pile.

Age: Brand new lab imp arrived last week.

 

Preconceptions: Dark, sexy, but probably will fail due to rose.

 

Wet: Super fruity, wine note!

Drydown: Sultry myrrh takes the reins, with swirls of deep muskiness. Lilith certainly isn't for the faint of heart. The wine note lingers in the background.

 

Dry:Sharp, green roses take over everything. I was really hoping I would finally escape, but alas.

 

Overall: Dratted roses ruin everything.

At first, the Curator was sharp and medicinally herbal. After a few minutes, it settled into a spicy resiny yumminess. It isn't particularly dusty on my skin, but smells like a spicier version of Ü.The throw is decent. I may need a bottle of this.

Wet: Softly effervescent white wine with tropical fruit undertones.

Drydown: As it dries, it smells a bit like fizzy satsumas. It's light and bright, and not at all boozy.

 

Dry: sweet, with little bits of bubble, but a tinge powdery.

Overall: Lovely and summery in the initial stages, but unfortunately, it isn't quite me once it's dry.

In the bottle, Baghdad is a warm, sensual incensy night in a hot desert. Unfortunately, on my skin it smells much like in the bottle except with a sharp green tinge. I didn't realize there were roses in this! As it dries, it's a muddled spicy green mess. Sadness.

At first, Epistrophia is like a fruitier version of the GC Belle Epoque. Unfortunately, after thirty minutes it morphs into candied violets crushed into baby powder. It's definitely not for me.

My bottle is about a year and a half old at this point.It's a lovely snowy floral with soft musky undertones. As the day wears on, somehow it melds into something even more glorious. Definitely a go-to on a hot, scorching desert day.

In Soviet Russia, apple bites you. SGA is tart, green apples frozen by winter's chill. There's a soft, sinister muskiness underneath, but predominantly I get the lovely BPAL snow note that I adore.

For the first hour, I could have sworn Jerusalem Cherry Infused Honey was Planting Moon without the dirt component. Crisp and green, it's like a stroll through a well-tended vegetable garden. After an hour on my skin, it faded to a soft powdery honey on my skin. it's not for me, but I know just who my partial bottle is going to.

Dark, slinky champaca and musk tempered with sweetened resins. Panther Moon smells like trouble in a bottle. I'm going to need more.

Spicy plum pudding with flecks of brown sugar - far less jammy than Alice's Evidence. A bit of buttery smokiness from the suet rounds it out nicely. Definitely a tolerable foodiness.