feyofthefellwood

The sultry, spiced red musk of Scherezade blends surprisingly well with the sweet, creamy florals of Alice. I am not getting much patchouli, but I'm sure it's there in the background, adding to the incensy vibe. If a creamy, honeyed red musk with roses sounds good to you, definitely check this out.

This smells like a dark carnival; the sugary Midway notes blend beautifully with the musk and incense. This is kind of what I had hoped Midnight on the Midway would smell like; this is much sweeter and more bold. It's also a complex scent; sometimes I get a whiff of candied apple, or opium, or red musk, all shifting and melding together.

I didn't expect to get much marshmallow from this, but it's actually quite balanced! Tart black plum and sweet, lightly toasted, fluffy marshmallow is a great combination here. It's sweeter and more gourmand than I expected, although the plum comes out more as it wears.

When I first got this, the lavender and cardamom combo was a bit astringent to me, but after aging a month, the vanilla has come out and softened all the edges. So lovely and comforting! I'm glad I gave this time to rest instead of writing it off. It's like the scent equivalent of a soft blanket. There's also a similarity to You Are Not Alone (but maybe that's just the wonderful Lilith lavender).

I haven't compared them side by side yet, but this reminds me a lot of Flickering Lantern (of which I only have a paltry decant, so I'm glad this fills a similar niche!). Softly smoky beeswax with light purple florals and some lovely, wispy incense smoke. The agarwood is not indolic, and the champaca is not sharp (it's more like the champaca in the Ti Leaf & Champaca Petals duet, soft and golden). I almost passed on this one but had enough shipping refund money to add this, and I'm glad I did. One of my faves so far from my order! It's very sheer and ghostly, which is fitting for the theme.

This is probably one of my favorite purely gourmand scents I've tried from BPAL, honestly. It's floofy creamy vanilla and coconut cream with an almost fizzy or citrusy edge. Weirdly addictive.

The mallow and cream combination reminds me a lot of the Poinsettia Gown, except this trades rose and jasmine for chewy red patchouli. Wet, this is a big cream/vanilla/mallow floof, very rich, buttery, then the patch emerges as it dries down and becomes more akin to other sweet patch scents like Banshee Beat/Revenant Rhythm and Silky Bat. This is definitely the most gourmand of the three. I really like it, but I love heady vanilla cream notes, so it doesn't surprise me.

The floaty, non-gourmand vanilla and cognac in this reminds me a lot of Flickering Lights, Fluttering Curtains, which is one of my favorites. It's backed by some dry, woody notes and a hint of smokiness, though in a smoked vanilla or tobacco leaf way rather than a woodsmoke or incense way. Really lovely, with a simple elegance; I definitely recommend that fans of Flickering Lights and Zorya P check it out if they want more scents in that vein.

I like this one, but don't love it. It mostly smells like a really pretty, fancy artisanal root beer to me. It reminds me a bit of Tombstone, except without the woody notes. I would also have liked stronger honey, coconut, and/or licorice as well. I'll have to see if aging changes it up at all.

Wow, I really like this one! The pumpkin spice seems sweeter and more gentle than in most PS blends (more similar to that in Jack maybe? Although I don't have that one nearby for comparison at the moment). I haven't tried the old Pumpkin Spice Absinthe, so I can't compare to say if this one is different. There's a kind of baked-goods vibe that makes me think there's a hint of pumpkin note in here, not just spice. The sweet pumpkin-and-spice opening dries down to reveal the Lab's lovely absinthe note, the sour lemon tempered by sugary PS and light anise. I wasn't planning on a bottle of this, but after trying my decant, a bottle is definitely in my future!

Fresh out of the mail, I was a bit confused by this scent; I mostly smelled a sort of red musk, burnt spice with an indolic background. Resting has done this wonders, however! There's something sweet underlying the red musk, like black vanilla maybe; the red musk is recognizable but different to my nose than most other red musk blends, where the red musk takes over and that's all I can smell. Here, the red musk is very deep rather than high pitched, and balanced with glowing spice and a hint of creamy pumpkin, and I definitely think the indole is jasmine now that I can smell it better. It's the kind of jasmine I like---a little stanky but also sweet, a bit ethereal---reminding me of the tender jasmine in Defututa and La Prostitution et la Folie. I've never tried the OG Storyville, but am really glad I took a chance on this. I don't have anything else quite like it, and can only imagine that it will age like a dream.

This turned out to be one of my favorites from the scents I decanted! Sometimes the simple blends really shine. It's mostly floofy sugared opium, but with a whiff of sweet, light lavender water. It has great throw and smells elegant.

This is probably redundant to say about a Snake Oil blend, but this is really gorgeous. It's coffee Snake Oil with a sultry hint of pumpkin spice. A sugared vanilla incense PSL. It all blends together beautifully into the perfect autumn witch scent, cozy yet alluring.

This is so good! It reminds me of a spookier Lady Una, with a similar honey and vanilla thing going on in the background, but it's much more tart from the plum and berry notes. I am not detecting the opium very strongly, but I'm sure it adds to the venomous vibe of the scent and will likely deepen with age.

This is so beautiful; if you enjoyed Rose Quartz Bedroom or other rose/marshmallow scents with a twist, I definitely recommend this. I smell the lavender, rose, and bergamot the most at first, with the bergamot lending that almost-citrusy tea quality. The marshmallow and vanilla bean really shine in the dry down, though, elegantly sweet and soft, with the sandalwood/amber keeping the vanilla marshmallow from veering gourmand. This will be wonderful for everyday wear.

This has started to blossom now that it has rested a bit. It starts out with an almost lemony, somewhat perfumey tone. As it dries, it mellows and the sandalwood comes out, warm and dry. The combined scents remind me of a steaming cup of oolong tea, lightly sweetened (in other words, it smells really good to me!). This is a really pleasant, focused scent. It's also nice to have a better idea of what the Lab's sweet amber note smells like.

This is such a soft, delicate floral, floating and gentle. An ethereal beauty. There's a really nostalgic quality to it for me; I didn't grow up in the south, but it reminds me of being outside in the summer as a child and enjoying the scent of flowers and trees on a cooling breeze.

I smell soft clean sheets and bright peach bergamot tea. Cozy and comforting.

Oops, I had no idea Coyote was out of stock; my apologies for saying it would be easy to sample! Thank goodness for generous decanters; hope OP gets to try it. ❤️ (And hope it comes back in stock soon! It's a good one).

I am weirdly obsessed with this. It's lighter than I expected and well blended; I detect the black pomegranate (so good!) and champaca and hints of the rest, but the scent overall is kind of mysterious. It reminds me of older BPAL floral blends I've tried like Beatrice; it's kind of delicate and ghostly. The black musk is definitely there but so dark that my nose only detects it on a deep sniff. It's like one of those low frequencies in the universe beyond human hearing. My only downside is that it goes a bit soapy after a while (maybe that's the lily?) and I don't detect much patch to balance the floral with more earthy notes. However, I have faith that this will deepen and get richer with rest and age (since my bottle is brand new). I am excited to see how it smells after a few weeks or months.

I really like Coyote for a fuzzy, cozy scent! (The warmth of doeskin, dry plains grasses and soft, dusty woods warmed by amber and a downy, gentle coat of deep musk). And since it's general catalog, it's easy to sample.

I (perhaps foolishly) never tried the original Butterfly, but I love this version of it a lot. ❤️ It's tonka, but effervescent and sparkling; the bergamot adds a citrusy note and the nutmeg a golden spice. I am not sure what petitgrain smells like really, so I can't comment on that. To me, this almost smells like champagne at first (champagne and orange juice?) before becoming more fuzzy and cozy on the dry down. Like other Last Unicorn scents, this has an ethereal quality, but in a cheerful, uplifting way. I think it will be a good work scent too because while it has some staying power, it doesn't have a lot of throw and seems generally pleasant. Glad to have a bottle.

Unf, I think I've found my champaca flower holy grail scent (well, this and Defututa! But this one focuses more on the champaca, and it's glorious). This isn't an incensy champaca (although of course there's some similarity with nag champa notes); it's less sharp and smoky, and more of a dewy floral that opens slightly green and then melds into a nectared sweetness with the honey. I like champaca with other florals too, but it doesn't have to compete here, so it's definitely a good one to try if you just want a gorgeous champaca flower scent. The sandalwood and honey are very gentle. This is an underrated hidden gem in my opinion, and I'd definitely recommend it to folks who liked the Vanilla/Champaca/Gardenia trio or Honeyed Champaca Blossom & Basmati Rice (which are also awesome, but harder to find).

I was looking forward to trying my decant because of the polarizing response to this, and . . . I actually kinda like it? It does start out with a toasty popcorn quality, but the musk and foresty notes are underneath and come out as the scent wears. Maybe this is more like a Baby Buck Moon? Fawn Moon? Jenjin's gif is a good visual for it, but I'm here for it and it's nice to have a different variation on my older Buck Moon partial. ?

This is so pretty! I was a little worried sniffing from the bottle that I was anosmic to it; it starts out very very light, even on the skin. But the scent blooms as it warms up; it's stealthy and subtle, but gains power as it wears instead of fading. I wore it to bed last night and woke up to the beautiful scent enveloping me this morning. This isn't a typical white amber type scent, IMO (it lacks that almost melon-y quality white amber can have), and the grey amber isn't as musky as ambergris (I've always been curious about the difference, so now I have a frame of reference!). This is going to sound weird, but to me this smells like if someone took vanilla soft serve and magically turned it into a moonstone amber, then burned it slowly over time so it produced only the faintest, wispiest smoke. I do detect the smoke if I really look for it, but it's sooo delicate. It's in the same vein as the smoke note in Fir Needle & Smoke and Shadows and Light (which according to people more well-versed than I is from a type of champaca), but even lighter than in those. Blink and you might miss it. I'm really excited about this one (I wonder how it will age?) and will likely be getting a backup if I can afford it. ❤️