starbrow

Whoa, this is VERY different than Smut. In fact...it smells disturbingly similar to my beloved Pumpkin Musk and Black Oudh, just with a touch more booziness. This is that same dark, almost blackened pumpkin that shows up in some of the Weenie blends from 2018 and later. It's dripping with corruption. It's given a smokiness that's like a very smoky whisky, not like a bonfire. And it's imbued with a muskiness that is part red, part black, but very thick (thicc) and vegetal. I mean, obviously, Smut has all those swarthy musks, but they translate here like the Pumpkin Musk did, rather than in that specific sugary-fruity-musk-party that Smut throws. I would almost guess Pumpkin Spiked Latte, if I was smelling this blindly. That's how thick, dark, and smoky it is. The spices are blanketed by that heavy layer of darkness. It's not excessively pumpkin-spicy to my nose. (And no coffee notes of course, but this smells well *brewed*, and the denseness of it is like black coffee for me.) I'd recommend Pumpkin Smut for Smut fans, yes! Especially if you go into it knowing and hoping that it won't just be a layer of pumpkin added to your regular Smut. Pumpkin Smut is special occasion, deliberately brewed to be some dark Weenie magic, and that's why I love it. Backup bottled this beauty! I would wear this while: plotting my Haunted House visitations this season.

How have I never reviewed this? I have more bottles of it than I'd care to admit /o\ It's been hovering around/in my Top Five of all time for years. This takes the darker pumpkin note that the Lab likes to play with occasionally - The Empty House, The Shadowed Veil, and Pumpkin Smut - and thoroughly corrupts it with thick black musk, a strong and sensual oudh, and some prickly spices. This is the darkest pumpkin to date. It is indeed gothic, smoky, shrouded in dread but also a dark beauty. One of its closest cousins to my nose, in fact, is Dark Lace, which has no pumpkin in it whatsoever. Both bring the impression of nag champa incense/headshop/strong and potent witchcraft going on. There's a slight kinship to Pumpkin Spice Snake Oil too, in its lasting sweet spices layered over something patchouli-esque and thickly musky, or Streets of Detroit, with its dense resins (same/similar black musk?) and corrupted aura. A little of this goes a long way. Pumpkin Musk and Black Oudh seems to have gotten stronger over 4 years; either that, or I've grown more sensitive! (Very possible too.) Either way, when I first got this, I imagined I would want to smell like this every single day of fall. Now, having lived with it and its black magic, I feel like I have to be in a specific ~mood to wear this one. It's excellent for wearing out, because it lasts forever, and you will continue to smell it on yourself even through the many smells of the club or haunted house. But for home use, this is like getting dressed up in FULL goth witch queen regalia, just to swan about at home. Which is sometimes what I want to do! But most days, it just feels very Extra. All this to say, I still adore it, but I don't know that I'll end up using ALL my bottles in my lifetime. I would wear this while: gothing it up to go out on the town for a bone-chilling evening

2005 bottle: This one has survived multiple blind-bottle-sniffing purges of my collection to finally find a permanent place in it. The reports through the years are all true - buttery pumpkin and some roasted apples are melded with hot spices for a Pumpkin Apple classic. I'll confess, the Lab's quintessential "warm buttery pumpkin" note is not my alltime favorite. What is this note, you may ask? It's a cooked-mashed-and-buttered puree that's gourdy, gently sweet, and in that whole sweet potato/pumpkin/yam/squash family. It brings the root vegetables to the table. This butter is salted too, which is delicious but also a little beyond-gourmand in this setting. Fortunately, the buttery pumpkin is heavily corrupted by roasted and mashed apples, which are quietly fermenting in an oak barrel full of spices and seasonings. A bit like Lambs Wool, but a bit more boozy too. Or like a stripped-down Prairie Witch (oh my) without all the other stuff, just the pumpkin, bourbon-soaked apples, and spices. Fruity and fall-flavored, Pumpkin Patch I lives up to its name. It's not pretending it's anything more complicated than Pumpkin Apple, and we love it for it. Sometimes we just need the fall classics, and this one is here for us. I would wear this while: watching one of my favorite falltime/Halloween movies.

2010 bottle: Dense, thick, and sweet. This year of Pumpkin Latte boldly speaks to me every time I wear it. I am struck by a whiff of fuzzy coffee, like the Lab's hazelnut note. The coffee bean itself has been corrupted into a syrupy drink for the masses. Now, this is not maple syrup at all; this is a spicy pumpkin syrup, liberally swirled into hazelnut espresso and steamed over a creamy base. (Not a dairy note, thank goodness!). It all plays surprisingly nicely on my skin. The pumpkin's pulp doesn't go buttery, the syrup doesn't turn into caramel hell, no curdling milk, and the hazelnut doesn't rub me the wrong way for long. It's good to note that there's quite a bit of a dusty cinnamon in here. While it's not a HOT cinnamon, it is bold and earthy. (Thanks, nutmeg?) Without any clove and ginger, this won't smell like your traditional Pumpkin Spice, but I still get hella fall vibes from this bottle and would only wear it in the latter half of the year! It's one of the few scents I've gotten comments on at work, where someone walking down the hall commented that the air smelled like fall. Why, thank you! So, big throw on me, and it lasts quite a few hours too. The last note is that, despite the similar names, this scent is VERY different from 2021's PSL Pumpkin Snake Latte! 2010 Pumpkin Latte is thiccc and hazy and sweet and not musky at all. PSL grows more Snake Oily by the day, with just a whiff of black coffee and a ton of musky vanilla. The two occupy vastly different spaces in my collection, but both are amazing. Highly recommend Pumpkin Latte if you like gourmands, hazelnut, and cinnamon. YUM. I would wear this while: making a hall smell like fall.

A year later, this is absolutely the love child of Morocco and Jack. If you love the buttery pumpkin that Jack puts in the window display, and the Egyptian-sands-and-spices Morocco peddles, you will be pleased with this Weenie. However, you could also get a pretty good approximation of it just by layering those two GCs. Up close on the skin, it does offer something a bit different, like that sweet potato wink from Adventuresome Encounters! It's pleasant and a bit savoury-fall, not too sweet, so for anyone who usually finds the pumpkin offerings too sugary, this might be another good option. I ended up only needing a half bottle, but I'm glad I have it, and I'm curious to see how it ages.

Most of the time, I like a scent the best in that initial drydown stage, when it's strongest and most present on me. Inside the Golden Amber of Her Eyeballs is an exception to this rule. Out of the gate, the furry musk and ti leaf feel like they've got claws out and are battling for dominance. The animalic smell of fur is rather at odds with the dark tropical green of the ti leaf when they're both fresh and new. I almost decided to let my bottle go during this stage. It's hours later when the amber emerges that this turns hauntingly beautiful. It's a sweet and cuddly golden color, like the softest honey, gently warmed from within. The fur is still brushing up against it, but homey rather than feral, and the ti leaf has settled down into a dark inky-herbal tinge. I don't get much myrrh at all; it is here to ground rather than to shine. The throw of the blend has subsided, but what I can smell is much more wearable and appealing to me. This bottle is staying in my collection another year, and we will reassess next fall to see how many times I reach for it!

"Brittle smoked vanilla lace" is such a good description of this scent. The vanilla is sweet and a little earthy, given a soft and melancholy layer of smoke over it, and knitted into a pretty pattern that hugs the skin. Brittle in the sense that it has more history and sadness in the vanilla that something like Antique Lace; there is a bone-china, porcelain quality (like an old and possibly haunted doll) in Flickering Lights, Fluttering Curtains that makes it a Weenie for me rather than an all-year layering piece. Of the listed notes, the pale cognac is the only one that stands out to me, with perhaps a light and cozy chamomile, and a powderiness like the skin of a porcelain doll that I am ascribing to the white amber. The overall scent impression is sweet and nostalgic, very old-fashioned in the best of ways, and with an air of sadness (davana?) that keeps me coming back for more sniffs. This is not just a basic vanilla! A quiet scent, but one that does warm on the skin to be present enough for me to smell it on myself. Lovely and delicate. I would wear this while: enjoying any fall day where I wanted a whiff of sweet sad vanilla

2009 Bottle: Mm this is exactly what it says on the tin. A home altar, full of simple and beautiful pleasures. A similar incense to All Souls, but far less churchy; this one is homey, friendly, dry and sweet. The cakes seem to have some kind of earthy spice to them - nutmeg? - that accompanies a baked-honey or baked-syrup sweetener. Delicious and again, very home-baked, nothing processed or fake. The beer doesn't smell really like beer to me, but rather like a yeasty, bready ferment; think sweet soft pretzel in liquid form. This is not going to get you in trouble at work for drinking on the job. I think this gives a far different vibe than All Souls, even though they are both cakes and incense. Feeding the Dead is very down-to-earth, unpretentious, and comforting. It reminds me of the feeling I get from the smell of a dessert bread baking. It's also a quiet scent on me, so it's very wearable all day for a foodie scent. I would wear this almost any time of year. Very glad I have a bottle! I would wear this while: rereading a favorite book.

Whoa! Two years of aging has changed this baby like crazy! When I first got it, this was a sharp and piercing beeswax, smoky to the point of headachey. I wanted to love but couldn't, and I sold my bottle. Well, regret set in, and I reacquired a bottle. I am so so glad I did. Now, it starts with the smokiest of vetivers, not bbq but a very dense and chewy vetiver, the kind that will keep aging in that direction, I feel like. On skin, the beeswax starts to bloom into a creamy honeyed wax. Aging has smoothed its edges out, although it will always probably have some of the needley effect that beeswax has for me. But this one is gorgeous now, very wearable, quite strong yet also livable. Over the hours, the vetiver becomes the subtle earthy resin that I find intoxicating. It lasts a long time on my skin, and I catch beautiful whiffs of it throughout the day. The smokiness continues too, the beeswax there to remind you of the visuals of candles. But I'm so happy that the years of aging are tipping the scales towards the vetiver side for this bottle. That is the most wearable note of these three for me, and the one I adore the most. A spooky atmospheric of a scent, one I wish was in Atmo form of course, but which I am now very pleased to wear on the skin now that vetiver is taking over. SO happy I reacquired Endless Corridors, and highly recommend that vetiver lovers do so as well. I'd wear this while: looking to bring the spooky candle-lit dungeon vibes to my life.

Midnight Mass fans, take note. Ecclesiastical Excesses takes that sweet incense and turns it myrrhish and almost bitter with clove and corrupted rose, dripping with old resins and crumbling wood. When it goes on the skin, it has the dark reddish-brown of dried blood. Woof. This is very gothic in the same way that Divinities Doom-Laden is gothic, but also there's an element of decay here that is appealing to me. There is no sweetness, and the roses here are dead and rotting. I didn't smell the dragon's blood or vetiver from a blind sniff without reading the notes, but rather thought this was a heavy, thick myrrh. This is quite different than Bloodlust, which also contains dragon's blood and vetiver but which runs in a pulsing vetiver direction; here, the resins dry down like an oppressive blanket of ancient cathedral smells. Frankincense surely, and if this doesn't have myrrh, then the dragon's blood/vetiver/rose is doing a very fine imitation of it. The mate (a bitterish tea note) and clove contribute to the dark oppression. Later, this turns a little powdery the way myrrh does on me. I'd recommend this to anyone who's drawn to the BPAL church incenses (Cathedral, Midnight Mass, Penitence) but wants one without sweetness and with some sinister undertones to it. I'd wear this while: designing my Halloween cemetery display.

2019 "half" bottle: Okay this is definitely not half...more like 2ML at most...but moving on to the smells. A generous serving of honey, mulled down into a thick and medium-boozy brew spiced with all the complements you'd expect from a Dark Pumpkin Mead. This starts out quite drink-adjacent (as opposed to food-adjacent) and morphs into something perfumey to me, pleasantly so. It is really, really mild to my nose, like almost no throw, but my other half did comment on it from across the table, so maybe not NO throw? This is quite nice, a little gourdy, a little spicy, a little boozy, and actually quite a lot of honey. But I'm not convinced I couldn't get this from layering, say, O or This White Wan Humming Hive with another pumpkin BPAL. If you have the opportunity to acquire and this is a scent in your wheelhouse, I wouldn't hesitate. But also I'm not desperate for more. There are others with a bigger bang on me.

This is one of my absolute favorite gourmands. It's insanely perfect. Take that really beautiful chocolate-cinnamon combination from El Dia De Los Reyes, darken up the chocolate, and add pumpkin pie spice and a cheesecakey filling, all on top of a graham cracker crust. It is so delicious, decadently blended, not over-the-top sweet, perfect for wearing for hours. This treat just screams fall to me with its spices and pie crust, but also feels really midnight-naughty with the dark chocolate and the pumpkiny goodness. There's nothing quite like Dark Chocolate Pumpkin Pie in the BPAL array of gourmands. It makes me want to eat my arm. I always save it for fall because it is just That Good and it instantly brings the fall vibes. I know that cold weather and bonfires and sweaters are coming (if not actually here yet). If you like any of the spiced chocolate scents from BPAL, or the custardy pies/cheesecakes, I feel like this is a slam-dunk hit. I have moved away from a lot of the chocolate scents, but this one is never leaving my collection. I want a hair gloss of this blend so badly. It would be exquisite! So even if you're not a chocolate fan, still give this one a try. I would wear this while: crafting fall projects with the AC cranked down and a cozy blanket.

2011 bottle: This is amazingly boozy! Apple and orange are both equally present, kicking it with a red-hot cinnamon and some other mulling spices. I don't get specifically caramel from this, and it doesn't do the caramel-bomb of sweetness that usually happens on my skin, so I'm guessing the liquor is nicely taming the butterscotch. It's a mulled booze, so it's buzzy and spicy rather than a strong burn. I mean, it's strong, but pleasantly so. Compared with other ciders in the BPAL universe, Autumn Cider has a bright red smell to me. It's punchy, in every sense of the word. You get the fruits, and you get tons of cinnamon along with a nice dash of the other spices. The sweetness of brown sugar and butterscotch is very tempered by all the whiz-bang spice and the high pitch of the fermented fruits. This is exactly what it says on the tin, and if you enjoy, say, a cinnamon broom, there is everything to love about Autumn Cider. Those who don't enjoy apple or cinnamon should stay far away, but you probably already know that I would wear this while: watching the Hallmark channel Fall lineup

"The greens of summer collapsing into Fall" makes perfect sense when you sniff this blend. I am recognizing a vibrant green from other BPALs - Zombie Green? - and now I need to know what mandrake root smells like, because I get some of the herbal snap of basil but also something else that's more like ti leaf, tropical-crispy-green. However, most of those other green scents are accompanied by heavy oakmoss, cologney bergamot, and other elements that make it a headache recipe for me. Anthocyanin is different. It truly collapses the green notes in their most authentic form into the red and burning elements of autumn. Sweet-spicy red musk, an inferno of bright red pimento and saffron, a burst of big bold burgandies and coppers and scarlets. There are woody elements anchoring the spices - clearly, oudh and patchouli are doing their job - but they stay grounded beneath the array of top notes for a very long time. This is so very autumnal colors. Still plenty of green, some pops yellows and oranges, and a dazzling explosion of red right before you. I think it's important to note that I don't smell Dead Leaves here at all. If that's not a component that works for you, Anthocyanin might still be up your alley. What I get instead is an almost motor-oil, sooty quality that has come out in such blends as Song of Autumn II and Wasteland World, a whiff in Amaxophobia, a nod to Woman as Dragon. The burning and soot together always gives me post-apocalyptic atmosphere, and that is a really strong element of Anthocyanin too. I love it! It's not everybody's cup of tea, but for those of us who do like that rougher Mad Max motor oil grit, this might be one to consider. This is burning leaves for those of us who can't wear Dead Leaves. I've rediscovered my love for my bottle, and plan to wear a lot this fall! I would wear this while: contemplating which pile of leaves to set fire to.

2006 bottle: This has my favorite BPAL incense, front and center. A dry, woody, crumbly incense that instantly brings to mind dusty books and old wooden bookshelves and ancient incense burners. A little churchy, but not full-on churchy. More monastery as far as scent painting goes, because of its bookish quality. I believe the base resin is frankincense, with perhaps a very relaxed and woody labdanum. For me, the currant cakes are quieter, certainly a clandestine treat! They bring a charming wink of sweetness to the serious dusty scholarship, a little crumble of gourmand without going over the top into foodie territory. I can tell it's currant, that unique astringent-berry quality that currant has to me, but it's mellow and cozy in this setting. I picture crumbs of cakes around a rough-hewn desk with dust-layered manuscripts piled high, and candles. (No beeswax, it's just a mood.) This is one of my favorite book-adjacent blends, and I have two bottles of 2006, because it's just that dang good. I would wear this while: reading any book in fall or winter, preferably in bed with a candle burning by the bedside.

In the bottle, I smell a really nicely spiced cherry wine, bright with some orange and cinnamon, not aged, but not sour either. The moment it hits my skin, the cherry wine fades and a very clean (VERY clean) sweater takes its place. It's fortunately not a laundry soap smell, like I don't think there is white musk here, but it is a cottony/woolly fiber that has just been washed and still smells like fresh detergent. For me, this is a different wool than either the "A Cozy Sweater and Apple Cider" Weenie (very laundry) or "Cafe Au Lait and a Wool Blanket" (cozy and cashmeran). I don't go in much for cottony scents, so I don't know what else to compare it to from the BPAL catalogue, but if you've smelled traditional cotton-scented candles or wax melts, it is similar to this. The mulled wine becomes a distant memory, and it's all clean sweater all the time. However, if your skin tends to amp a wine note, you're in luck! The mulled wine here is indeed so pretty, and the cotton/wool blend is very cozy. Be advised, this is quite strong, a little dab was perfect for me. I think I will be letting my bottle go, only because it dries down on me to the kind of scent I don't really wear, but I can see many being a fan of it!

Here's a comparison of both years so far! 2020: Clove is really standing out in the blend, along with a sexy supple black leather. The combination is reading masculine, just short of cologne, but in a good way. There's some smokiness from the tobacco too, and I might be imagining it but if I was blindly sniffing, I would guess there was patchouli in here too. The least prominent note is actually the gingerbread! This is barely foodie at all, and it's not sweet either. It's aged into something quite different than what I remembered when it was fresh. I will definitely keep this in my collection, but I think I prefer some of the other iterations of similar notes that maintain more of a gingerbready presence. 2021: I was advised that this year's was more spicy, and that is indeed true! It leads this time with gingerbread, a sweet and thickly spiced gingerbread dough that to me smells like raw batter. It's all the good parts of Deep Fried Gingerbread without the fryer grease note. I can still smell the clove and black leather from 2020, but they are secondary players this time. Now, there's a poppier ginger and a sweeter gourmand playing off of the crackle of the tobacco. This is goooood. I hope it stays as is or ages even better, because right now, this is near perfection. I don't really have anything else that is this much like raw dough. It's really cool! And the tobacco is really singing against the sweet-and-spicy top notes. I'm so happy I got this year too, I think it's even better than 2020!

Smut 2022! This is my first Smut oil, and I am PUMPED PUMPED PUMPED. The hair glosses are beautiful, but wow the oil is ALIVE with a beautiful fruit-buzzed musk the moment it touches my skin, and I am entranced. It says hello, all sweet and coy-like, as if it is so well-behaved. But then it's snogging me up against a wall, like we're two teenagers and it's just visited Victoria's Secret and it KNOWS this is sexy, and damn I know it too, and we're all a tangle of brown musk and soft sweetness and fruity ecstasy. Have you emerged? I have too. Okay, I am willing to say this was a FAIRLY BOOZY RIDE. But the brown musk cannot be denied! The buzz is the red musk, a vibrant fruity hello; the settle-in is brown and cozy and so welcoming. You want a brown fuzzy blanket? Here it is. The snuggle is all commercial, and I am unapologetically here for it. Smut 2022 is so damn charming. Stop it. STOP IT. This drydown is killing me. Snake Oil, aged and snuggly. Not even kidding. Vanilla with sexy heels and goth as fuck. You wanted sex? Here's sex. You thought Snake Oil was sexy. Um, Smut? Smut. Sorry, y'all. Smut 2022 is the GOAT. Y'all just wannabe her.

This is absolutely Vetiver Cider, which I wasn't expecting (I just got excited and didn't study all the former reviews before buying!), so when I plopped this on my skin and smelled my beloved vetiver amidst a buzzy punchy cider, I was THRILLED! I think your enjoyment of this will entirely depend on your opinion of vetiver. I love it, and not surprisingly, Goblin Cider absolutely sings for me. This vetiver is smudgy and smoky but not harsh or gritty. Smoked is the perfect description for how this cider turns out. I can smell a smoked apple, a smoked ginger, smoked cinnamon and mulling spices. But the earthiness is 100% thanks to the vetiver. The blend has a beautiful medium throw to it. It is bringing autumnal vibes hardcore, and is way different than my other cider blends (Autumn Cider, Spiced Autumn Cider, Fearful Pleasure, and Lambs-Wool). The vetiver and the ginger seem to corrupt the apple really thoroughly until it is hardly recognizable. So if you're not typically an apple fan, don't rule out Goblin Cider. However, this is for the spice fans and the vetiver fans. It's not too fizzy, but there is a zing high in the nose that reminds me of ginger beer. So if you love ginger beer, here's your scent. I had high hopes, but wow this exceeded them all! I wish I had tried this way sooner, just like Hoggle. Permanent place in my fall collection, and another squee for a permanent blend available for purchase on the site. Slather away! I would wear this while: eating apple cider donuts in front of a bonfire. Have I ever done that? I have not. Has this scent inspired me to do so? Yes.

How have I only JUST NOW tried Hoggle? Swoon! The easiest way to describe this is Pumpkin & Leather, the Weenie counterpart to the recent Yule release Gingerbread & Leather (Ho ho ho: black leather, gingerbread, clove, and tobacco). And while I dearly hope that ACTUAL scent is released this Weenie season, Hoggle is damn near perfect already. It is a dirt-streaked, lived-in sueded leather, accompanied by a pumpkin that is fermented to the point of smelling like mushrooms to me. If you were wondering what the heck fermented pumpkin smelled like, my impressions are not beer or fizz but mushrooms and gourds in a field! Those are the dominating notes here, and I don't have anything else quite like it in my collection. Escape from the Autumn Carnival would be the closest thing, and that one is more grassy/sweet. There is a touch of hidden sweetness to Hoggle too, just like the character. The tobacco brings the spice, but I think it also may be French tobacco because of the slight (slight) caramel sweetness here. Usually that can sabotage a scent on my skin but here I think the rougher elements keep that one in check. A slight suggestion of incense is probably the dust + dark woods, and I'm here for it! Dark woods sounds a little scary (teak and mahogany are both no-gos for me) but just like Hoggle, they are all bark in the name and no bite in the blend. They are a subdued atmosphere, no identifiable single wood for me, and definitely neither of my death note woods. It could be oud, just a much softer and muted oud compared with the Pumpkin Musk & Black Oud that I love. Hoggle is the perfect unisex option for fall or winter days where you want something cozy and pumpkinish but also a little roguish and devious. It's easy to love and easy to wear, especially when you're not in the mood for anything too foodie but still want to bring all the autumn vibes. I really love my bottle and am so happy to slip it into my fall box of scents. I'm also thrilled that it's a permanent blend so I can slather at will! I would wear this while: doing any and all fall/spooky activity

You know when you get a trio that leads with Apple Pulp that this is going to be an Apple Ride and we're just keeping arms and legs inside the doombuggy at all time. The other notes sounded gorgeous with it, so I jumped on this ride. Ohhh this is what Astarte was like when fresh! A beautiful golden apple incense, elegant and elevated. There is some juiciness to the apple, but it's not green or red, to me it's golden. The amber is no doubt responsible for some of the gilding, giving it a softly glowing resinous quality. Frankincense can be harder to isolate, but it is the elegance and the nod to incense that infuses this trio. There's even that slight woodiness that incense sticks give off. Even though this trio is relatively simple, I feel like it has a good place in my collection, filling the hole that Astarte has left when she aged into something too floral for my taste. If you loved the amber and frankincense in In Splendoribus Sanctorum, and you get along with apple, give this trio a try. It is so not Country Apple; it's Little Gold Dress apple. (And if you loved OR missed the Vetiver Patchouli Apple Peel trio, you need to check out her more ~classic cousin here.) I would wear this while: planning my next trip to an apple orchard on a sunny-crisp fall day.

The order of the listed notes in this trio are spot-on. This is scorched clove coming out hot and heavy, truly intimidating in the bottle, with a very dark-maroon cinnamon as a just-as-intimidating sidekick. A tobacco that I believe is Bulgarian, a dry and not too smoky or chewy kind, plays third fiddle. Plop this on the skin, and a visceral enactment of crackling clove and sinuous cinnamon plays out. This is fiery darkness. This is not for the faint of heart. As you might expect, the drydown brings the heat down to a low simmer, staying dark and spiced but also a little dusty and a little skin-sweetened for me, since I have skin that naturally leans towards sweetness. There is really good throw still, and this is almost crying out to be layered with other oils or hair glosses that need some dark spice in the mix. But more on that later Meanwhile, the tobacco peeks out with a smoky, almost cedar-esque touch, but I wouldn't have blindly guessed there was tobacco in this blend, the cinnamon and clove remain so strongly present, and there is no giveaway of chewy caramel French tobacco to clue me in. I also have the Cinnamon and Clove Duet from 2021 Yules for comparison. Do you need both? I mean, they are definitely very similar. Smelling the duet, the spices read a smidge sweeter, a bit more in that baking-spices direction. The trio brings the fire and brimstone; these are not kitchen spices, but elements set ablaze and blended down into a wrathful perfume. Side by side, the tobacco is more present (not surprisingly) and lends a nice grounding depth. I am keeping both bottles, but I love both spices a LOT so I think it comes down to if you want a more mellow version (duet) or the Hulksmash version (trio). Finally, LAYERING. This goes really beautifully with the new Apple Pulp Amber Frankincense trio, or Lambswool or Prairie Witch, for apple pie spice vibes. Not quite pie, because none of those have the pie crust or intense sweetness, but the pie filling. Start with just a drop of the Scorched Clove trio and add as needed, because this one is STRONG. I recommend if you are a hardcore lover of the notes and either missed the Duet or like me, you can't ever get enough. I would wear this while: feeling spicy 🔥

This is fresh from the mail, so when things have settled a lot more, I will report back with any changes with aging! Just wanted to give some quick first impressions. Leather, Tonka, and Vetiver are three of my current favorite notes, so I instantly blind-bought a bottle. What is interesting is that I don't detect any of them so far in this blend! I will tell you what I do get: a gentleman's library, somewhat debauched, with heavy oak furniture and mahogany desk and metallic fixtures and a heavy layer of dust all around. The gentleman who owns the library favors an old-fashioned cologne, dark and mysterious, oakmossy. He is the brooding type, surly, all rough edges and mannerisms. Do not expect any sweetness from him. He belongs to the Hellfire club for sure (Hellfire and Dee are two GCs that this would get along fairly well with). So clearly, I'm picking up on the masculine vibes and also the Weenie vibes from this one! It reminds me a whole lot of Bookcase Passage and Rickety Staircase from 2020 Weenies, a bit of Scientific Occult and Inexplicable from 2021 Yules. That same kind of atmospheric blending, the emphasis on dense oak and gleaming polish, but the trio is even darker and heavier than those ones. The leather in it is a dusty kind, yet somehow strong at the same time. I can't pick up any of the vanillic nature of the tonka in this anti-sweet blend. And my beloved vetiver is absolutely MIA. I hope it peeks its lovely head out over the next few weeks to play. I recommend Leather, Tonka, and Vetiver to anyone looking to get a jump start on Weenies and who likes any of the blends or atmospheres mentioned above.

This is so interesting! You never know what will come out in a blend like this with so many potentially loud players. The sage certainly speaks above all the other notes, especially at the beginning, but it's not a cologney sage. I would call this a true herbal sage, a snappy desert green with a hint of dust to it. If sage usually reads as soap to you, you may find that to be true here, because it's such a sage-dominant blend. For the other notes, I'll tell you my impressions rather than trying to isolate each note. This smells to me like the child of Sin (yessss) and Black Tower, plus some fizzy other blend that I can't recall at the moment. I get Sin's deep cinnamon spiciness, Black Tower's decaying stone note, and a dry fizzy seltzer. It reminds me a bit of how labdanum can be really fizzy sometimes. I wasn't expecting that at all in this blend, so I'm really thrown off by it. The other note that stands out a lot to me during drydown is champaca. A white and powdery toastiness begins invading the sagefest, and lingers with the fizz after the sage has mostly left the building. Of course, orris is almost certainly helping to make champaca MORE white and powdery, and the tonka and vanilla contribute to the feathery incense. Champaca is tricky for me to wear, and it proves so here. If you really loved Eve w. Sage, you might love this one! Fans of fizzy blends that aren't specifically foody should also give I Am As Lyght a whirl. Overall, this is a unisex, lightly herbal option with a small but focused throw that would be very wearable at work. It's not quite my cup of tea, but I appreciate the use of sage here!

This reminds me a LOT of The Bindle, a gorgeous Tarot blend from 2018 that featured Jasmine petals tumbled with a panoply of spices, suffused with incense smoke. All of that is true in Like Ghosts. Jasmine is undoubtedly the star. Heady and rich, she is supported by woody notes that only serve to accentuate just how luxuriously florid she is in comparison. This is a jasmine for hedonistic jasmine lovers. Big throw, big mood. I don't believe it's jasmine sambac, but Over time, the spices and incense come out. The oud is well-behaved but rich as well, and spicy! The amber incense is reminding me a lot of the Leather, Indigo Incense, and Red Amber trio. What kind of incense, you say? Headshoppy, to my nose. This leans a bit nag champa, especially when combined with the jasmine, for a decidedly Eastern atmosphere. I don't smell any vetiver (sads) but the patchouli lingers once the jasmine has finished singing its loudest notes and is only singing at a moderate range . Do you need this? If you love indolent and extravagant jasmine incense. It's stunningly beautiful and too much for me at the same time. I would never wear a whole bottle of this, but I'm thinking I want to keep my decant!