rhonorv

I used to spend a lot of time with my grandmother. I’d go to her apartment and hang out, we’d read Redwall books and play cards and have a sleepover. She had a rotating cast of perfumes — me being a child to preteen I didn’t really investigate them too closely. This perfume is like a memory of her, and I am so happy whenever I wear it: it’s how I remember her perfume smelling, wrapped up in warmth and tea and paperbacks. I don’t get any lavender (and I do love lavender); I imagine without the lovely nostalgia this would smell like a classic perfume plus a little spice. I love it so much.

Oh, thank goodness: I love the smell of roses, and I haven't quite been able to find a rosy BPAL that works, but this works. When this is on my arm it feels like there's a bouquet of roses in the house somewhere. It's the scent of roses that are just about to wilt and sweeten with rot. There's no powderiness or sharpness that come with some rose notes. I don't get the scent of earth or moss or loam; perhaps they're well blended, so they're making this a perfect rose in the background but I'm not able to pick them out (magic?).

Wet and in the bottle: Very very fruity, lush peach nectar, and not much else. Dry: Has lightened up a smidge; there's a faint hint of honeysuckle in here now. After an hour: A very vaguely floral peach, but it's still mainly sparkly peach. Reminds me a little of how a Bellini smells. Definitely not a morpher! If you love peach, I bet you'll love this -- it's a fun, bubbly scent.

Wet: 100% agree on Dancing Raven's cough drop appraisal. It's a medicinal fig when wet. Drying: This is morphing so much, and it's wonderfully interesting! I get little licks of pomegranate over the fig, and within a few more minutes it gets quite smoky-rosey. I've had bad luck with the lab's rose scents so far, but this is lovely -- nothing thorny or sharp here Dry: There's a greener edge (tobacco leaf) to this now that it's been on for about an hour. Still lovely, but almost completely different from when I put it on. It gets quite light and close to the skin, but it sticks around. It's a very elegant scent.

Wet and in the imp: I must drink really astringent motor oil coffee! This smells like caramel to me. Dry: Something I'm having trouble placing has come up... it almost smells like rice? Must be the book note! It's still mostly caramel, though. Much later: Ooh! This is so interesting: it's giving off a throw of caramel, but when I stick my nose up to it it's really papery. Like caramel hot cocoa was wafting out of a mug on your desk but you have your nose in a book. Pretty neat, especially if you like foodie scents!

Beauty beauty beauty. A light, wearable, turquoise aquatic. Wet it's mildly soapy, but it settles into a fresh, mildly cologney, very clean-sea-watery scent. I get the references to glass and iridescence in the description for sure. This doesn't have a heavy salt note on me. Also, I do not possess a nose that's friendly to oudhs, but this was absolutely fine! Hooray!

I unfortunately share the experience of the last three reviewers (and chuckled as I read them). I ordered a decant of this before I knew that oudh and I do not see eye to eye. Wet it smells, in an unnervingly accurate way, like a public restroom on me -- specifically, very much like the restrooms in Penn Station, with all its wafting odors of cleaners and unmentionable other things. For a split second it made me miss my old commute 😂 When it dries it does get much better: more a woodsy incense. But I just can't get through the oudh stage, unfortunately; if you can, your mileage may vary!

Holy Christmas! Or maybe more accurately, Holy Yule! This is what a pagan Christmas shop would smell like, if such a wonderful place existed (does it? If it does, do tell!). It's like the moment you come inside from a walk in a wintry forest. The pine is the strongest note for me, but it isn't harsh or nose-dulling as pine can sometimes be. I smell fig and fruits behind it. I also learned about a new note today: I had no idea what cassia was! Turns out it's a cinnamon-spice type of scent. I can catch a whiff of incensey-spice in the bottle, but it goes away quickly when it's on, and it doesn't read especially cinnamony to me.

Iago smells like the 'new car smell' dealers spray in, well, new cars. Heavy duty new leather. It was unfortunately pretty headachey for me, and I had to wash it off after testing. Definitely very cologney, and a little goes a long way!

This is really beautiful! Oddly enough, this scent really reminds me of Snake Oil -- a toned down, less sugary Snake Oil, like if you removed 75% of the sugar and replaced it with leather. I get no heavy florals or lavender; the vanilla and cedar dominate. It's a little spicier wet and in the imp -- when it dries down, it turns into a comforting, sheer, close to the skin scent. Going on that ever-lengthening big bottle list.

I got an imp of this from a forum sale (ty bheansidhe!), and it immediately became one of my favorites. The cedar (almost like cedar-chip cedar, in a pleasant way!) and cherry blossoms definitely dominate, and there's a beautiful complexity from the frankincense that ties everything together. It's also super clean smelling without being soapy or sharp. I'm so happy to have a bottle of this (ty ty torikitty!!). If I had to put one word to it: elegant!

Wet: Wet whiskey pumpkin. Dry: I like it better now! I get this really lovely pumpkin-foodie note when this is dry. It's homey and very autumnal. It smells so much like a dish my family makes for holidays: sweet potatoes, marshmallows, and apricot nectar (I bet that's the champaca talking!). It's a pretty quiet, close-to-the-skin scent.

She was warned. She was given an explanation. Nevertheless, she persisted.... to try and smell this again and again even though all she was getting was a butt gland/fecal smell 😢 What I have learned from this thread is the indolic kind of golden oudh makes this untenable for me, unfortunately. I am one of those people who only smells the bad parts of it -- the whiff I got from the decant made my eyes water, and I didn't want it on me until I smelled it dry. I put it on a paper towel and tried again several minute and then hours later, and still, nopenopenope. Then I let it sit quietly and settle in a cabinet for a couple of weeks and ventured to dab it on my skin and nooope. Either the pleasant stage won't come for me or is too far past my threshold. Oh well! I was excited to try the lab's steel note, and will just have to attempt something else

Caveat: this is my first contact with Snow White! How is this made?? I don't know how they've gone and made a (non-menthol) scent that actually makes my nose and airways feel chilled but here we are. I don't smell coconut or vanilla, but I get something like ylang-ylang and evergreen and sugar. The scent is pretty stable from wet to dry and sticks around for hours.Truly lovely and light; I could wear this every day and not get tired of it.

This is really pretty and warm -- it smells like a very specific blend of caramel hot cocoa powder that Land o'Lakes makes to me. I use it when my hair is wet, and by the time it dries it's faint to gone, so it's definitely not too cloying or heavy as a foodie/chocolate scent!

Wet: Post-rain forest and incense. Dry: This reminds me very much of an incense my dad used to burn (I guess he liked burgundy pitch!). There's no smoke or heaviness to it, though; it's a really fresh, lively scent. This is really fabulous layered with woody scents (I've tried it with Lawful, the Stream and the Waterfall, and El Nuevo Puritano). Eventually this gets to sugar-and-incense for me. Lots of BPAL scents go really sweet on me once they dry, and I'm not sure why, but I'm not mad about it!

Quite woody and spicy when wet (from this and Lawful I've learned how much I love BPAL's 'rigid oak' note!). This gets smoky and sweet on me when it's dry -- I don't sense the sourness that some others noted, but spiced vanilla, sprinkled over the smoking remains of that oak tree.

Super duper floral! I don't get lavender; I get a fresh hyacinthy/honeysuckle smell, and something like freshly cut stems alongside the flowers themselves. This doesn't morph much, it stays heavy and has a pretty big throw.

This is such an interesting, full scent! It reminds me of a visit to Puerto Rico, where there was a mosquito-haunted mangrove stand in a very picturesque bay. It is not ocean-aquatic, but verdant-aquatic, like wet plant matter in the summer time: leaves and flowers and especially fruits at the peak of ripeness. I thankfully do not sniff any volcanic gases but I do smell smoke wisping through when this is dry. Pretty low throw. It's really on the perfect line of cologne and perfume for me. Big bottle list!

Wet Doeskin rubbed with sweetgrass. Dry Dusty paws. It gets sweet powdery, but not flat-powdery. I'm not really getting amber, but it smells evocative of a wild animal; I suppose that's the musk! ETA: This reminds me so much of Mummies of Mexico City! Guess I love that dust note -- on me after about an hour this is a slightly muskier version of MoMC.

(2008 version) This is strong! I know scent and taste are closely wrapped up with one another, but when this is in the bottle and wet I get a weird sense memory of chocolate melting in my mouth. It's really sweet and heavy milk chocolate. After it dries, the amber comes up in a vaguely musky way, though the chocolate is still the main thing. This is a little much for me on its own, but I'm excited to see how it layers.

I like the individual notes that go into this very much and was excited for it, but all I get from the bottle on is the smell of the hair salon that my aunt used to work at when I was a kid. Makes for a nice scent memory, but I don't think this will be in heavy rotation. I wonder if it's the inky musk doing it... I don't get any sweetness or tonka in here, just a vaguely chemical floral scent. Could also be because it's aged too long (it's a 2013 bottle, from a forum sale). Oh well!

I am in love. I've been wearing it to sleep ever since I got it and am picking up a bottle or two ASAP. It is indeed a beautiful lavender slap in the face (in a good way!!) as soon as you open the bottle and put it on. After about 10 minutes it fills out into this sweet, dreamy scent. I didn't know what rockrose was before I picked this up, and I couldn't figure out A. why it was so sweet and B. why I didn't smell rose! And then I learned about the connection between rockrose and labdanum and it all made sense: there is indeed a sweet amber that appears when this is dry that ties it all together into a beautiful, comforting scent. When I wake up the lavender has disappeared completely, and there's just the faintest sweet amber left.

This is a beautiful, clear floral scent. Some people have noted that bluebonnets don't really have a strong smell per se, which is interesting, because this scent is so cohesive and real. Someone above mentioned hydrangeas, and it's close to that for me, too. I can imagine a heretofore undiscovered fresh-cut flower smelling like this for sure. I'd love to know how this was made! It is a teeny bit astringent right out of the gate; to me it has the same sort of sharpness and acidity that some tea rose scents do when wet. But once it's dry it sweetens up and calms down, and is a lovely floral. Very layerable, too -- I tried this with Arkham, which was a smidge to green for me, and it was quite nice.

Anyone know of scents or combos similar to Paper Phoenix? I got a bottle from a forum sale, and have had my nose deeply buried in my arm all day. But given that it's discontinued I think I am setting myself up for eventual heartbreak! It's described as a combo of Dorian + Antique Lace + Formula 54, but I only have Antique Lace, and the other two are also kinda hard to come by What I love about Paper Phoenix on me is the pink-lemonadeyness and the perfect vanilla it dries down to... I might see what White Rabbit + Antique Lace do if I layer them tomorrow, but if anyone has suggestions, let me know!