starbrow

I am drawn to all the steampunk-sounding scents so I had to blind-bottle this one! Scientific, Occult and Inexplicable is very true from bottle to skin. It is fantastically weird, a wild dance of lab smells from a forgotten era. There are definitely sketchy things going on in this lab. There is, perhaps, a handsome figure in a lab coat muddling about, wearing cologne....but any traditional fragrance is eclipsed by the wildness of the experiments around it. So I smell primarily the polished wood - mahogany - and varnish, along with an unsettling note that is very appropriately creepy. Beneath it is a sparkly glass that I love. I get a metallic tinge of bronze/brass/iron, and as it warms, more than a hint; that metallic note really ramps up and makes its presence known. It's not necessarily a *pretty* note but it is fascinating. I am reminded of a creepier Elle Est Heureuse from the Lilith Travelogues, with its Wrought iron lattice and sparkling amber lights. Ultimately that one didn't quite do it for me, and Scientific, Occult, and Inexplicable will also be rehomed I think, because while it isn't the scent for me, I think somebody will absolutely be dazzled by this steampunk lab, and deservedly so.

Very fresh, this is 100% grapey candied plum to me. The Bordello comparison is spot-on, minus the mustiness that Bordello in all its advanced age had to me (which made it smell past its prime). Sugar Plum Snake Oil definitely doesn't have that problem, it is fresh and bright-eyed and sweet sweet sweet. The plum is not at all the 2021 plum, except for the Marshmallow and Black Plum duet which had the same sweet youthfulness as its Snake Oil cousin here; there is no sourness, no bitterness, no 2021 jadedness, it's all joy and childlike wonder and Nutcracker Sugar Plum Fairy. Even on the drydown, I don't get much Snake Oil except for a bit of patchiness that helps the sweet sugar plum linger for hours. I am thinking it will take some time for those classic spices and vanillas to emerge past the candy-bright twinkles of the plum. However, layering this with a darker patch scent (Lajos), it turned out MAGNIFICENT. Sugar Plum Snake Oil would make a beautiful fruity-sweet counterpoint to a dark brooding snarly scent that needs a bit of joy in its life. I am definitely keeping my bottle and OH SO HAPPY that this is a 2021 plum that I can love. I think anyone who goes into this knowing that there's going to be a lot of sweetness in the early stages of this bottle's life will be happy, and the aging process should be exquisite.

One of my favorite 2022 Yules so far! Dusty gingerbread spices sprinkle a warm, lightly icing-drizzled pan of cinnamon buns for a gourmand that is intrinsically Christmasy in spirit. I get a lot of cozy cinnamon and nutmeg, with not a lot of sugar and in fact very little maple or syrupy sweetness that many gourmands tend to have. This one is spicy, and my skin loves it. I amp any syrup note unpleasantly over time, whereas spices mellow in a really beautiful way to my nose when I wear them long-term. I do well with most cinnamons, and I would recommend this blend to those like me who are friends with that particular spice. The more this dries down, the more I am reminded of almost a Snake Oil kind of melange of spices and vanillas, with just a hint of gluten. It veers away from gourmand into a resinous, spicy not-quite-musk place that I am loving. Very very surprising for what you would think was just another foodie blend. Far from it, Gingerbread Sticky Buns has staying power for hours and loses its gourmandness at just the right time, when you no longer want to smell like dessert and instead want to smell like the delicious sex goddess that you are, boom, these sticky buns are here for you. Conclusion: get your Delicious Sex Goddess Sticky Buns on!

OMG Hildegard! My idol! The recipe that inspired this perfume was taken from Hildegard von Bingen's Physica, in which she extols the virtues of nutmeg (opens the heart, brings both great heat and good moderation, improves judgment and disposition) and spelt (rectifies the flesh and puts joy in the human disposition). I want both of these in 2022! I think that knowing these two ingredients as the primary grounding factors of Cakes of Joy helps make this scent understandable. It is almost completely devoid of sweetness, rather a sturdy, savory, nourishing "cake" of bread from the nuttier spelt wheat and with a gently earthy spice at its heart. If you are expecting either a sweet gourmand cake or a rich gluteny bread, you will not find it here. Rather, expect an ancient grain in a simple, wholesome context of baked goods, warmed from within by the "Christmasy" earthy nutmeg. There is little clove to be found here, no cinnamon (which was in the recipe, but which would have probably overwhelmed the nutmeg and ruled this out for a lot of people), and the faintest trace of whisper-light honey. I do really love this and will keep my bottle joyfully. I hope that the spices deepen with age, and will experiment with layering a few spicy duets and other blends with it to really bring out that quality, since at the moment it's the spelt that is singing loudest. Hildegard's Cakes of Joy represents the spirit of our mystical abbess very well and is for those who would like to experience the ecstatic joy and open heart of a simpler time.

The poem that accompanies this scent is what captured me and led me to buy a bottle the night it was released. Pablo Neruda's Horses sets the tone with imagery of ten horses surging through the winter mist like waves of fire. I have forgotten that dark Berlin winter. I will not forget the light of the horses. The scent - which does not smell like horses, by the way - arrives whisper-soft, like the mist itself, so much so that I almost couldn't smell it in the bottle after all the other loud top-notey scents in my Yule haul. I can already tell there's a beautiful amber in there, though. It needs a skin-testing. Here is where it shines. It begins to warm the way Amber Incense & Honey Cakes does, as if glowing from within. There is a holy moment here, the sight of a hundred candles slowly lit in a sanctuary while singing Silent Night. The honey is gentle and creamy, like the softest beeswax. The fire it brings is a cozy, candle's-flame fire, not the scrapings of a firepit or hearth. These horses gallop in dreamland waves of fire, gentled, beautiful. At the heart of this scent, illuminated in the glow, is the lovely amber from The Grey Columns. It is an elegant resin, poised, amiable rather than sweet. She knows her beauty and doesn't have to flaunt it. Horses projects more than The Grey Columns did for me, but it is still a quiet and subtle blend. A perfect scent for the new year, for moments of reflection, for reading under thick covers with a well-worn, well-loved book.

I haven't been able to get my paws on Midway, but Lust is a sensual favorite, and Darkness I'm familiar with as a floral with some bubblegummy myrrh. I wasn't sure how the mashup would come out, but WOW! This is Big Candy Mood, like a blue raspberry cotton candy, sexed up with lots of red musk, given a little herbal/floral quality thanks to the ylang ylang and Darkness's florals. It's, frankly, delicious, walking a perfect line between fruity-sweet gourmand, sexy musk, and something a little peppery and herby. In a lot of ways, I am reminded of She Sauntered Vaguely Downward and Vampire Tween from the 2019 Liliths. She Sauntered's pink pepper note reminds me of the zing that's in Midwarkust, while the cotton candy over the red musk is a no brainer. Midwarkust leans towards a more floral note beneath to give it a twist, whereas Sauntered's twist is brimstone, but they both are terribly pleasing. Likewise, the foody sweetness of Vampire Teen with its blood musk, herbal lavender, and buttercreamed cotton candy reminds me a lot of Midwarkust's entire vibe. They are not dupes by any means, but I feel like someone who likes either of those might like Midwarkust! I am definitely full sizing this one and wearing the heck out of it. Yum yum yum!

Alice: Milk and honey with rose, carnation and bergamot. Rakshasa: Sandalwood with rose and patchouli. Scherezade: Saffron and Middle Eastern spices swirled through sensual red musk. You can bet that this one will be a rosy devil! But I'm excited to say that aged Scherezade with its beautiful saffroned red musk is the predominant star of Alischereshasa. Right away, she's a swoony beauty and stays that way for a good long while. If you love Scherezade, this is a gorgeous variant, but if you don't enjoy her, walk with caution! The rose is not a punch of rose as it often is. Instead, it translates to my nose as kind of a rose in lotion form, probably thanks to Alice's milk and honey and Rakshasa's sandalwood. There is a pale, creamy effect that is quite comforting but also startlingly Jergensy. Where straight up Scherezade is an excellent sexy scent, Alischereshasa could even be a sleep scent (and what happens in the middle of the night stays in the middle of the night). I don't get a ton of patchouli or bergamot, but I think the carnation is dancing with the saffron and other middle eastern spices in a beautifully fragrant way. They were a match made in the East! I am seriously considering bottling this blend because I love Scherezade so, and I don't mind the rose here at all.

This is quite a sweet, browned sugar/maple syrup kind of scent. Miskatonic University has a note in it that straddles syrup and popcorn for me, and that is very much what Sugar Cookies and a Popcorn Garland does for me. If you were expecting a true salty movie popcorn type of distinguishable note, this one might not do it for you, but if you like the caramel corn family of scents, this ends up being an excellent sweet gourmand in that category. Syrup notes are a disaster on my skin, so alas this won't be a full bottle for me, which is to be expected. I think this will be a big win with others.

I have many of the BPAL tobacco flower blends already in my collection, and they can become a little redundant. I was thinking, hmm maybe To a Wreath of Snow can go? Well, I wore it again today, and no, no it cannot go. It must stay. It is a gorgeous dreamy lavender that starts out just a bit edgy when combined with the tobacco flower and white oud (which is very pleasant and creamy and lovely, by the way), but all of which softens as it sits upon the skin and creates a true wreath of pillowy, snowy comfort. The ambergris lends a kind of glowing warmth that gives me the feeling of candlelight on a bedside table, with a snowy scene illuminated through the window, and a warm fuzzy blanket bundling you in bed with a lavender sachet and a cup of tea. Tobacco flower doesn't smell like tea, per se, it's more the feeling that the scent evokes, very comforting and cozy. I love this as a sleep scent for Christmastime. I could also see myself wrapping presents and listening to my favorite Christmas albums while slathered in it. I think if you love Zorya P or any of the tobacco flowers and you get along with lavender okay, this is a no-brainer. Woof yes.

I recognize the indigo musk, an inky version of white musk, but here it goes very, very soapy. This leans towards a masculine soap kind of situation, not unpleasantly so, but it is a very rugged bar-soap kind of scent to me. I don't get black plum at all - not the sour 2021 unripened plum, nor the beautiful rich purply plum of yesteryear - it's neither one and so I don't love it or hate it, it's just this vaguely plum-scented soap to me. For reference, I have Crack of Thunder Hair Gloss, and that one is a delicious plum shampoo, very lovely and clean, good for work. To A Dead Friend is so covered up with suds, I can barely smell the plum. Not too much rose, no mentholy eucalyptus here either, and honey doesn't intrude. I'm trying to pick up on amber and it's just...buried in soap. As a plum lover, this one is a disappointment, but I know that I have pre-2021 plums to go back to and love, so it's fine!

A realistic garden kind of scent, star jasmine to my nose but in fact that is the tulips being their soft little floral selves rather than the blast that is usually jasmine. This is quite a lovely floral. Beneath it is a soapy quality that I want to say is the sandalwood. I love beeswax, but it doesn't come out for a long long time, it's more in the warm quality that this perfume takes on late in the drydown. The leather really doesn't make an appearance at all, either. Very interesting, because leather isn't usually a shy note. As a musician, I was hoping this would be a bottle upgrade, was in truth hoping for a bookish scent, but instead this is a soft, sweet floral without much of the other supporting notes to temper it. I think if I wore more florals, this would be an easy bottle choice. It's very beautiful, just not quite for me.

Oh, this is such a FUN, playful, spicy scent! I feel like most of these notes could go really scary, and when I tried Troll by itself, they really do go scary! But once they are tempered by some fluffy lavender and the comfort of Dorian, each and every note of Troll goes to a wonderful place. The vetiver is gloriously woozy, and the clove is sweet and comforting, with a brush of pine pitch that is woodsy and woolly. I am feeling the herbs down to my roots. The musk is adjacent to black musk, which I adore. A fortuitous intersection of cozy blankets (the vetiver/clove/lavender??) and musky spices brings me instantly to a feeling of snuggling down into bed on a cold rainy day with a cup of tea at my bedside table and a good book to read under the covers. Smoky, spiced, and yet with a wonderful sense of humor and fun, I feel like this is absolutely what it's like to have Puddin as a dad. If you've ever tried Troll, Dorian, and a Lilith lavender, somehow Bridge Trolls is even more than the sum of its parts. It's so, so dreamy and delightful. I keep sniffing and sniffing and just want to sniff more. I've worn my decant more times than I can count, since I've gotten. At LEAST one bottle will make its way into my possession, so I can just revel in the good vibes. The throw already is scrumptious, so I can't imagine what aging will do to this treasure. GET IT.

The cutest bottle artwork and the cutest 2021 Lilith blend, absolutely! This is such a cuddly, cozy scent that starts out with friendly smoke (as Doomsday_Disco put it, the Yule smoke from recent years) tinged with some woodiness (STICK) and sweetness from the marshmallow, and morphs into a skin-hugging puppy musk that is so fuzzy and warm. I am sure there is some amber in here, it is so sweetly resinous and pretty. The chai spices don't overwhelm the blend, just subtly lending a hint of fall to the air, and the buttercream is not of the dairy variety on the skin, so it stays nicely creamy for me. This is such Happy Place for me. I'm so pleased that the smoke is kindly rather than acrid, the stick is a very friendly stick, the honey is a light little drizzle and not floral in the slightest, and everything goes into a perfectly smoky-woody-yummy-puppy direction that makes me very happy. I would like it to have a BIT more throw, because it turns into a very close-to-the-skin scent and it's so delicious, it needs to be stronger! I hope that aging will accomplish that, but otherwise, I will happily slather every hour from my future full size bottle!

This went to the same strawberry cereal-milk place that Dies Patribus and Buck Moon 2021 went; less cute than Dies, which was to die-for gourmand breakfast crunchies, but more cute than Buck Moon, which was spit-up strawberry baby cereal. Thirteen lands in a meh place for me, where it's kind of just...there? Leaning towards the dairy milk side of things, which isn't great on my skin, whereas Dies Patribus had some kind of magical milk-cream note situation that wasn't strictly dairy and thus didn't sour on the skin. I don't really get anything else besides strawberry cereal-milk (of the dairy variety) from Thirteen LVB. For all the wild notes listed, this is a surprisingly one-note perfume to me. No full size for me.

Ow, this one is not for me. A biting, nose-singing burn of oakmoss and whatever else has crept into 2021 Liliths that makes me want to rip off my sinuses and trade them in for new ones. I am a huge motor oil fan, and it barely ever shows up for me here. The lavender also never makes an appearance, and scarcely a dance of dust and leather; instead, it's the oak show, with lots of jabby aromachemicals supporting it that make this a real headache fest. I really regret skin-testing Empress and Chariot every time I put it on. Alas!

If you love BPAL's white tea note, crisp and cool and sweet, then this is already in your wheelhouse. That is the dominating presence in Graveyard Guessing Game, along with something a little grassy and lemony (that's the hay) and a drop of lavender. As it settles on the skin, the true hay begins to emerge, this golden sun-warmed dreamy haze of a scent that is so gorgeous when it shows up in BPAL. It reminds me of a Shunga, and especially of A Vision of the Courtesan, but heavier of course on the white tea. I'm enjoying it a lot and could picture myself wearing it in several different seasons. I do love this one but fear I wouldn't use a whole bottle of it, because of how similar it is to other white tea scents. I think I'd like more than a decant though.

There is something very classic about this blend and I don't know if it's all the sophisticated florals, the purplyness of it all, or the way the notes come together to make Good Perfume. This is giving me Old Hollywood siren, very feminine and elegant, smoky and with kohl-rimmed eyes. In that sense, Philopannyx absoutely hits its mark: it is a shadowed black-and-white beauty, playing with shades of purple and flowery touches to bring out even more of its depths. I think the violets are being a little aggressive for my taste, so I don't know if I need a full bottle, but I really love the black musk and aged patchouli grounding it all, and the roses for once are in excellent harmony with everything else. I don't smell much lavender here, but I do get the, erm, unfortunate red benzoin band-aid effect emerging on my skin after some time. The champaca and myrrh are playing nicely, but the violets and benzoin are not, and in the end, those sabotage Philopannyx for me and my skin. Maybe you'll have better luck!

This sounds like a duet from the notes, but My Wise Beauty ends up being more complicated than the duets usually are. I do get a strong perfume-like quality from it that I didn't get from The Grey Columns (which was so quiet it almost doesn't show up to my nose). The sandalwood is sharp, a little funky, and there is something else in here that is rubbing against my sinuses unpleasantly, as many of the 2021 Liliths are doing. The amber beneath it is sweet and fuzzy, and I'd like it in a different context. Something about this blend isn't sitting well with me, and it's a damn shame. I think it could be beautiful to the right person. I agree that it lands in a similar vein as Kimi, but veers off into the weird white sandalwood land that can sometimes happen with BPAL and became too abrasive for my taste.

When it first arrived, my decant of A Winter's Walk was all lilies (boo hisssss) and roses and grass. Now that it's settled down, it begins with a hint of floral amidst a ton of green squishy grass (just like Wolf Moon 2021) and morphs down into a gothy fog machine and memories of clove cigarettes kind of grass (again, just like Wolf Moon 2021!). I find that latter stage utterly GORGEOUS and rather surprising, but quite familiar from the 2021 grass note. What I don't get in the slightest? Dorian, lavender, cypress, or maple. Those worried about leaves need not be; dead leaves are nowhere to be found here. I'm actually not really getting any lily now that this thing has calmed down, and not really any rose either! Maybe some dried petals? The florals are quite soft and gothic, just the way I like them. I would love more Dorian, and I hope that pops more with aging. I...am kind of shocked, I want a bottle now? Maybe? I will put my decant on the watch list and see how it emerges over the next couple of months! I think if you loved Wolf Moon 2021, this is in the same vein but a little less spring, a little more nostalgic and shadowed. Currently enjoying it a lot but will need to deathmatch the two to see if they are really that different. Stay tuned UPDATE FEB 2022: the florals are winning. Nevermind. I don't even want to keep this decant. Wolf Moon 2021 is oodles better!

This one breaks my heart. The sugared opium is GORGEOUS, that hypnotic gothy elegant vibe that is quite typical of opium blends, and the lavender plays just the lightest of touches behind it. Originally, this was in my "decants to upgrade to full size" pile, but the more I wore it, the more I realized it turned into an unfortunate situation of nose-singe on my skin. The phenomenon where certain chemicals interact with my skin and nose in a way that burns the sinuses, just like snorting water up your nose. Other "wine" notes have done this to me too. It's a buzzy, tingly, burny feeling in the nose and it's not pleasant. Component issues strike again for me in this Lilith release. See Thyself Devil will unfortunately not be getting a full bottle or even staying in my decant stash.

I don't get any of the listed notes. Instead, what I smell is 1980s department store perfume counters. Strong, perfumey, and with that certain range of aromachemicals that were well used in the 80s and 90s commercial perfumes. So if you're looking for nostalgia for such things, Lilitu might be a good choice. I really, really do not want to smell like any of that, and so this blend is a big nope from me. I just find it strange that out of all these notes that I love (except for oakmoss), I can't smell any individual notes, just one big commercial, nose-punchy perfume that has a dated but not vintage quality. I do find that disappointing and also surprising. But clearly, this will find other fans besides me!

Now that this one has settled, I actually get a big ol hit of bubble gum. The whiff of that powdery Double Bubble crunchy coating is dead on! I don't get anything else This is not the gourmand for me.

I am shocked, SHOCKED, that I like this. Jasmine and I almost never see eye-to-eye. The only one I have kept of my jasmine blends is Aristocratic Prostitutes, a beautiful plum jasmine opium smoke. The Bindle had a similar effect but without the plum and with a stronger jasmine. From the GCs, Bathsheba is another jasmine plum but with jasmine sambac, which is a stinky kind. 8th Grade, however, is a really beautiful night-blooming jasmine with a very neutral purple plum, not too deep, but also not sour. This is reminding me of Aristocratic Prostitutes (a very good thing!) and the plum of Drow Yoga Instructor, with a hint of The Perfumed Garden in the heady florals. The peru balsam starts out as a spiky hedge around the jasmine but does mellow. I smell a hint of lavender and cocoa but I think the lavender is just enhancing the purple florals for me, and the cocoa is only there if I picture it; they are not big players in the blend. I don't know what tuberose smells like by itself so who knows where it is! I am going to let my decant mellow and see where it goes. I definitely don't need a full size bottle of this one personally, since I never ever wear jasmine, but it's surprisingly lovely to me. I think you have to enjoy the journey of night-blooming jasmine on the skin to enjoy 8th Grade. If any of the ones I mentioned here were your jam, I think 8th Grade is worth a shot.

This is 2021 plum. That's all you need to know, really. If you love 2021 plum - Asleep in the Deep, Raucous Games Inside a Bathhouse, Velvet Void, Elderberry Flower and Sandhill Plum, and Drider Crossing Guard - you will love Painted Scars. If, like me, you find 2021 plum heartbreakingly sour, unripened, and unpleasantly pungent, like a plum picked far, far too early, well then, Painted Scars is same old same old. I would like to throw this one against a wall and just call it a day. I get a good hunk of blackberry wine, no lavender, a fair wave of white musk, and the sandalwood doesn't really stand out for me. The tragic plum does. Plum is my favorite note, and it is doing me dirty this year. Do not want.

If the words vanilla powder scare you, take heed. This is a powdery vanilla with lots of cinnamon and an artificial splash of pumpkin. A whiff of coffee in the background, but it's not the star of the show. This is nowhere near as thick and rich as Pumpkin Latte (of which I have a 2010 perfume oil and a 2017 hair gloss). Where Pumpkin Latte is syrupy and strooongly spiced, Rite of Passage is heavy on the cinnamon and cardamom and a definite powdered quality, which makes it good if syrups read poorly on your skin, but not as good if you're not into that dusty kind of effect. I would know that this was Pumpkin Spice something but I would probably actually guess something like Pumpkin Spice Cardamom Cookie if I were blind guessing the name. It doesn't smell like a PSL to me, personally, but there's a decent amount of pumpkin here (albeit in "candle"-y form!) to make it a good fall choice. Pumpkin Snake Latte is a zzzzzzillion times better than Rite of Passage, so it is getting the bottle and I'm keeping my Rite decant just to see how it ages!