LavenderCoffee
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I am very excited for Pumpkin Tobacco to return with the 2026 weenies so I can stop being so precious about this decant. My review is basically the same as roseus, but I'll dress it up a bit: the pumpkin is gloriously but subtly sweetened by bourbon, just a bit buttery, and blessedly unspiced. the tobacco is dark and rich with an ever-so-slightly sharp vegetal kick to it. it's not boozy to me at all, but this is also an 8yo sample vial so there might be more zing in a new bottle. It's perfect on it's own but also feels like a perfectly autumnal layering option. I love it!
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Why Do I Have to Feel
LavenderCoffee replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat
the aged oak note was still really grumpy and wild two days post delivery, so I've let it calm down a good bit longer and it's quite lovely now. there's a vegetal freshness to the scent when first applied, then an ethereal vibe from cognac and iris, and finally osmanthus and paper emerge in tandem to hit you in the feels. for once black musk isn't taking over everything, which is a surprise because that's how it usually plays out for me. it feels soft, nostalgic, and dreamy. -
you can't clove smoke away the loneliness, but you can try with this gloriously moody rock and roll cousin to snooty bat. while the wispy crimson amber and clove of it all is truly stunning and super wearable, I have to admit I wanted more glitter and bisexual lighting from this scent, a bit more oppositional defiance, because the song is such a triumphant howl into the void: make art and music in the face of loneliness! face the muses who haunt you! levitate during your guitar solo! but that's just my 2 cents. plus this will also layer nicely with some of the vamps in the collection.
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La Fontaine de Sang
LavenderCoffee replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat
that big BPAL cherry note is always first out of the gate but then first to calm down, and it's no different here. I alllmost got a FS of Resembling the Passion of Love from the Carmilla line, which also had vampy cherry patchouli, and here it comes again, but with moody rose, wine, pom, and mahogany! I pounced. the drydown is more somber and complex than you might expect from a cherry-tinted fountain of blood, and I'm enjoying it immensely. the cherry + mahogany ends up smelling similar to cherrywood, if you have any of the carved wooden village yule scents with that note. and it's not a smoky perfume at all, the smoked labdanum just adds a nice moody base. really lovely and glad to have this one. -
a caveat, with the weather being so hellish lately, this one in particular really needed an extra day or two to settle after delivery. I had to try this even though I am not a huge fan of lilies. don't hate them or love them. but I was super intrigued by gunpowder, and ultimately I enjoy how both notes are deployed in this scent! it's lovely lily and plummy rose up front, and primarily a worn in leather scent with nice kick of gunpowder and a wisp of smoke on drydown. like someone threw a bouquet on the stage and someone else drew a gun, but the show must go on, bruises and all! modest throw, not too heavy on floral or leather or smoke - it's a leather jacket anyone can slip into.
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apologies, but I cannot resist being the first to say: Lestat Lestat Lestat Lestat Lestat! this is an intoxicatingly magnetic musk. like eyes-rolling-back levels of deliciousness. I wonder if Beth was already thinking of Lestat when she blended the 2024 Wolf Moon, bc I'm picking up some of that dna in this glorious composition. it really opens up on my skin after 30 mins or so, and reads quite warm to me, leaving no doubt about the leonine inspiration. the leather and liquor notes don't draw as much as focus as they have for me in other scents, but they are absolutely present in the blend. I also want to say the church wood might be oak? but I could be entirely wrong on that. everything threads together beautifully, and OF COURSE there's a generous amount of sillage. I just love everything about it.
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Nicki's scent is so terribly charming, even/especially with the melancholy thread of chilled silver amber running through it. there is sweetness from the beeswax and wine, gently rounded out with wood and purple florals. I almost want to say there's a dampness to the violet and/or iris, a gentle aquatic quality of tears. he brings a perfect balance of beauty and sorrow that smells gorgeous on its own, but is also appropriately devastating when worn with Lestat.
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as soon as I saw espresso and wool in this I knew I needed it. it's an incredibly comforting blend for such an acerbic character! and of course we love to love grumpy Daniel, and of course I was going to get this perfume anyway! the paperback note sits perfectly on top of the scent. I'll caveat that did not get to sniff Old Books and a Flat White from the most recent Yule release, but this may be the best coffee and book scent I've ever smelled. plus the wool really is like a coat wrapped all around it, keeping everything together. it calls back to Cafe au Lait & a Wool Blanket from 2019, but of course Daniel has a more lived-in quality that makes it suuuper wearable. gonna get tons of mileage out of this in general but especially in the fall and winter.
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slightly feral and gloriously (perfectly) genderless. soft leather, sage, and a hint of perfume in the cool woods, all in impeccable balance. a blur of silvery hair through the silvery air. I was nervous about this one bc I have a tough time with sage sometimes, but it wears beautifully and I'm so glad to have it.
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this is not a scent I would have picked out for myself had it not been associated to Armand, but it beautifully captures his contradictions, and now that I have it I will definitely be wearing it. an elegant and slightly ominous blend that creates a gradient on the skin from pale iris to blackened clove, like "oops! all grey area" but make it art, and it's arresting. I wanna say there's an elusive dark heart of woody oud to this, but it's the shifting swirl of soft clove and incense that draw focus.
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Louis is a stunner! but we all knew that. it just so happens that this fragrance is also perfect and gorgeous like Geminirubyshoes said above - the perfect notes for him, in the perfect balance. I may be biased of course, because I will always love a vetiver patchouli base, but the artistry!! of everything else layered over it takes my breath away. the interplay of the florals and the bay rum with the sandalwood and the coffee is to die for. I always wear a little bit of perfume oil under my shirt and some on my neck and wrists, and I can smell different aspects of the scent in the different spots - if you get some on or under fabric, it holds onto the floral and bay rum longer, and the scent on exposed skin goes a bit smokier and darker. it's kinda posh and kinda brooding and totally swoonworthy, so all in all, very Louis! my fav of the character scents released so far.
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Vampire DJ of Some Renown
LavenderCoffee replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat
renowned for smelling great, this vamp of all trades has a truly versatile fragrance, reflecting a savviness across centuries. the rum note is deployed deftly to connect the ozonic top notes to the rest of the composition without going boozy, and I actually get some of the blood too. were you dancing in the club or brawling in the halls? no one will know. but do not sleep on this DJ, VDJOSR is wearable as hell. -
had a bit of a kombucha meme experience with Long Face. at first it was very OH NO MISTAKES WERE MADE but then very quickly I arrived at WAIT WTF how is the greasepaint making this sexier?! so even tho this advice is good advice for all perfume oils, I want to say this one especially benefits from rest and a skin test to get the measure of it. between the ambergris and the leather and the greasepaint there is definitely a bit of funkiness to the blend, but I find it nicely balanced with the frankincense/velvet/orris. the internet rabble (inc me) who were excitedly clicking on fan photos from filming locations seemed to think the pants were chartreuse, and I wonder if a brighter pop of color than gold would have been interesting here, but there is a beautiful velvety quality to this scent regardless of the color. and it adds an element of timelessness in conjunction with the ambergris, like you could just as easily imagine Lestat as a rockstar or as Lelio while wearing this and it fits either way.
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Butterscotch Bitch
LavenderCoffee replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Anne Rice's The Vampire Lestat
I keep wanting to make a dad joke about how this was made in a lab for me (in an alchemy lab! made to order for me!), but man oh MAN this butterscotchy woodsmoke is my absolute jam. can I live in this scent? will they keep making it for always? the more I smell it the more I'm amazed at the artistry, which is common with BPAL, but when it is also a blend that feels perfect for me, I am simply goggled. it's so much MORE than just butterscotch and woodsmoke: the cognac and saffron are exquisite in this. very evocative of the red yellow pinky purple of the label, and terribly sexy. -
if you know and love the BPAL champagne, that fizzy delight arrives up front with a nice accent of plum. the licorice really comes out on the skin, and then you have plum accented licorice champagne, which was not a thing I knew I needed until right now. and thanks to the lovely dark resins holding everything down, it won't disappear into the night. I don't get much in the way of leather from this personally, but it's absolutely delicious. ETA the resinous drydown is EPIC I love this one so much!!