LavenderCoffee
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Everything posted by LavenderCoffee
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Chocolate, Cinnamon Bark, and Chipotle Honey
LavenderCoffee replied to Silvertree's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
I love chocolate and I love honey, and I was very pleasantly surprised by how the chipotle and cinnamon bark fit in. It's got a nice chocolately throw and I think the spices and honey give it a bit of a warm, sweet musky quality. The cinnamon bark does make my skin tingle a teensy bit but it's not as intense as other spiced blends. Very nice wearable chocolate blend. -
I was SO SURE I did not want this one. "Red wine?! with MINT!?" but every other note was so terribly tempting, so I grabbed a decant. I can't stop sniffing it!. There is indeed a distinctly lovely vanilla minty phase: chilly minty on the skin, vanilla minty to my nose. As everyone has observed, it is like the winter snow and/or those deliciously pillowy after dinner treats as it sparkles and melts away. There was red wine skulking around in the mint phase, with more of a standard tannic red wine character, but after the melt, the wine no longer reads as a dry or dinner red. It starts jamming with the honey and the strawberries and it's so great. Vanilla still floats around the periphery of things. and it's still kinda chilly on my skin!
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I love this blend, it's a beautifully muddy forest floor situation. "richness and liveliness of river mud and shady evergreens" is 💯 I especially like adding some of it to a bath at the end of the day - it's like soaking in the mud sans mud.
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I love seeing other people's impressions of this one and how it compares to mine - for some this is the coconut bra, but for me this is totally the grass skirt! More specifically a dry, sweet coconutty grass smell. I've never huffed a coconut husk so maybe that's why I went to the skirt. Also coming across as more playful than seedy to me, and I dig it.
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Discarded Images goes on lightly sweet and hazy green - there's definitely a shimmery silvered quality to it. Lemon blossoms bloom in soft focus alongside bergamot, juniper. A soft leather warms its way into the background, deliciously mingled with mate, green tea, and green amber. I'm not getting anything dusty, although the combined effect of these notes is a bit earthy, in a fresh way. I'm not able to pick out anything recognizable as oud until the drydown, where it adds some welcome dimension, stealthily aligning with the leather. I hesitate to say that this is spa-like, because I don't mean that in a reductive way. It reminds me a bit of Bulgari's green tea scent (au thé vert) that I used to wear a whole lifetime ago, which I thought smelled clean/unisex/gorgeous/expensive. This is better: more grounded and less floral.
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My skin, or some combination of my skin and the oud, is making this almond sweet. Not cloying/overpowering, but noticeable, as the almond has a good bit of throw when first applied. I'm also getting a nice amount of black pepper and spices, and overall having a similar experience as MamaMoth described - it is indeed a bit bready! As with last year's Shadow Games I was really hype to try this, but it's not quite clicking into place for me yet.
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I haven't been much of a hair gloss person but my hair is getting long again and these notes called out to me. This is such a fun and delicious scent, I might use it lightly as a body spray as well!
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I went back and forth so much on whether I should give this one a go. I'm a cat person but this label is one of the cutest dog pictures I've ever seen. All the notes seem fine, but I don't usually want to smell like a massive sugar bomb. But most importantly, channeling my inner doggo, I really wanted to know - will I get the stick??! Well my tail is wagging because this stuff is great. The rich buttercream is there at first, but my skin seems to eat that part and then it transforms into smoky chai stick time, with just a dab of honey. Easy to wear, unobtrusive, comfy cozy.
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Tea Leaves, Vanilla Bean, and Incense Smoke
LavenderCoffee replied to Seajewel's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Oh, this is nice. Lots of vanilla bean richness when first applied, and then it mellows out and you can smell the tea, like putting your nose in a tin of black tea. Not getting the subtle anise note that I've picked up before in other BPAL tea scents - although that would be gorgeous with this vanilla! Plus there's a soft wispy smoke around the edges. A great skin scent and great for layering. -
Hellooo cinnamon bark! I tested this from a decant closer to when it was released, but today was the first application from the bottle I ordered. I did not hold back applying it to my underarms and ohmigosh it's a bit spicy under there now! Anywho now that my case of spicy pits is subsiding (sorry/yw), this gooped girl is all deliciously spiced cedar and carnation with a cuddly ambery black musk backdrop. There was more black musk when I first tested it, but not enough to prevent me taking the plunge on the bottle. This is a rare win for me in the black musk column and I will just need to remember to cool my jets on applying it to sensitive skin areas 😅
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This is unlike other BPAL roses and other Snake Oil blends in my collection. This is a bold rose, but I'm also enjoying the brazen amber, rising to the occasion: must be some generous flecks! I'm not really picking up on a blackened vibe from the rose, except that it feels very goth femme and I am wayyy into it, even if it isn't especially snakey yet. Edited to add: woke up the next day smelling the snake oil! Ok coming back in 4 months later: this is still. sooo. good. I can't help but think that the snake oil emerging late in the wear time is intentional. The serpent is lurking in the roses but you see (and smell) the roses first! Sneaky snek! I think the blackened rose reads more clearly now and I just love everything about this blend.
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Non Vider goes on with an enthusiastic punch of cologne-like blackcurrant. The wet scent skews to the higher register, and you could easily imagine this with a citrus fruit instead of the currant. As it dries, the purple-y garnet facet of the berry really pops out. I wish I could detect more frankincense and beeswax, but as it stands it remains quite sharp. These longing eyes are red from crying and in need of some sweet solace.
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This is so fun, it's a fuzzy chocolate moss. Certifiably chocolatey but also decidedly non-foodie and somehow refined. A gentleperson's chocolate scent, not for the children. It benefitted from a couple days rest and is now tremendously wearable, with average staying power and low throw.
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Y'all. How is this blend so freakin subtle? I spot tested it for two days after receipt, and still could not believe my nose, so today it is SOTD. Try to hide your tricks now, you sneaky sneef! This is unbelievable to me for two reasons: the leather/oakmoss combo, and of course, the black oud. The Empress and The Chariot from Liliths '21 has a kickin' leather/oak bark combo that has settled since release but is still revvingly noisy. Non Vider from this year's main batch of Lupers (review forthcoming) might still need some settling, but she has got some things to say! aaaand I guess black oud just has a bad rap. I love to smell all the wild weird ouds, but this is not one of them. Last year's Cacao/Black Leather/Incense was a no-go for me, and I almost skipped testing this one. But! I'm so glad I didn't, and here we are. Slinky sexy and subtle. The dark, cacao-dusted leather jacket scent of my dreams. Unisex, and doesn't even really skew masc to my nose, but everyone will have their own opinion on that. I want to smell like this, and I want other people to smell like this, and we will all be the sexiest chocolates in the box, ok? Ok.
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I admit that I saw cotton candy peonies and mashed the add to cart button, but now that I've tested this a few times, I'm asking myself how I missed rose cream! Thankfully it's a note I enjoy. It has a nice amount of throw, it's not as heady as it was paired with jasmine cream in Poinsettia Gown, plus there is definitely a sweet candy aspect to the peony that balances things quite nicely. So no, not a cotton candy scent, but appropriately playful/dramatic/silly like a massive silk peony blossom. I'm not picking up on any booze from the cognac but it has a nice smooth drydown.
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Abalone and Peach Blossoms does start out quite salty on my skin, but it shifts fairly quickly as it dries. It is somehow warm and sweet but also cool and aquatic at the same time, depending on which notes you catch in a given moment (an impressive interpretation of the label art). Sea salt, crushed abalone and grapefruit create a decidedly pink sea air vibe, and then peach blossoms and plum with just a breath of water lily bring some blushing sweet warmth into the picture. Once it's dry, it smells the way the inside of a seashell looks. I'm not usually into aquatics but I am really enjoying this one. It will be in the rotation for sundress season for sure. ETA: Five-ish months later this is still a stunner, and less salty to my nose. I am so impressed with this because I can't consistently do aquatics or pretty peachy stuff but I just love this one!
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When this first arrived I was only getting coffee bean from it - for a brief moment on initial application I got that hit of dark chocolate and coffee together that really floats my boat, but then the dark chocolate made a hasty exit stage left. There was a cloud of boozy rum that also quickly dissipated, and all I was left with was dupe of the Guatemalan Volcanic Coffee Bean SN. Time, it needs time! I said. So today I revisit: the initial progression is almost the same, but now the rum transitions from outright boozy into what I think of as a warm and fuzzy rum scent, like in Zipline II (or at least in the same way that one reads on my skin) and the big hit of chocolate becomes a silky ribbon of chocolate in the background. So it's ultimately very coffee bean forward, and quite nice as a trio, but it turns out I prefer cacao with coffee, bean on bean, instead of chocolate with coffee bean. TMYK 🌈✨
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Unmistakably a Snake Oil blend to my nose, but also unmistakably bubblegummy, and with some serious throw right out of the gate! Comparing this to Abduction of Proserpine on the same arm, the lavender is really popping out, but it really comes in third to the SO and the candy. This is absolutely the scent I would expect to smell sitting between a certain mother and child back in 2016.
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I’ve recently learned pom is a tricky note for me, and I’ve been on tricky terms with white sandalwood for a minute, but black currant is brokering some kind of unlikely peace here and this blend is really nice on me somehow? A deep, rich fruit note befitting of Proserpine.
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When this first touched my skin there was like a second and half where my brain went "uhhh" as though there was something overly animalic and icky happening, but then it went directly to "Oh. Oh my! Nsfw!" As others have mentioned, I'm definitely getting an impression of leather, but it's a worn-in leather. imo this is less sweet and more smutty than Smut. The more it dries, and please forgive me here, the more the impression changes to armpit, but in a post-coital way, like the description says. Sometimes in that moment, that person's armpit is the best thing you've ever smelled. Other times, that same armpit is like, whew you need a rinse and some fresh BPAL, lol. 😅 I don't really get any booze from this at any point. Seems like a scent one would need to be in a certain mood to wear.
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Revisiting Scenes of Past Delight
LavenderCoffee replied to GypsyRoseRed's topic in Event Exclusive Oils
This is not a scent I would have picked up for myself, so I'm pleasantly surprised at how nice it is. Fresh, sweet melon, with mandarin peeking out just after application. Drying down it is absolutely giving platonic ideal of melon hi-chew, as mentioned at the top of the thread, but somehow soft and luminous is also spot on (thank you white musk). I'm not picking up on any nutmeg, or anything cologne-y or even really floral? It's just the best melon candy you ever had, levitating in a halo of light with a choral sound effect. -
I was lucky enough to snag a bottle of this off of Etsy last month, and I'm quite glad I did. I find it tremendously comforting, and it smells exactly like these scent notes from the text, right down to the charcoal: "dried cinnamon leaves and dried laurel leaves beneath the charcoal ...cinnamon and sandalwood smoke" The sandalwood smoke is most prominent, accented with dry laurel (not a swaggering full strength bay) and dry cinnamon (not red hots, nor skin irritant), traces of ash and charcoal (like the end of an incense burn). A gorgeous dry incense blend.
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Sooo yeah this is great. It's like if there was a patchouli version of Cinnamon Toast Crunch. No milk, obviously, but all the comfort and ease of Saturday morning breakfast cereal.
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This is a soft, sweetly unsweet blend that my skin seems to gobble up. Teak tends to be slightly sharp on me but I only get that briefly here in the wet phase. I'm not sure how you get leather to be sweet, but it is exactly that, and well-worn. Coffee and cacao combinations are my jam, and I like those notes to be front and center, but here they are background players. It's not unlike sitting in your grandfather's chair, where untold cups of coffee and crossword puzzles have been finished.
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This is such a beautiful addition to the pantheon of bpal cat scents! It's very rich and complex, and kinda RICH, you know, befitting members of the royal court. It's a pale oil with flecks of what I assume is cacao suspended throughout. Wearing it is like looking through a prism, getting fleeting impressions of different notes the way you get different colors - or I suppose, more appropriately, light reflecting off a cat's fur. When wet, I get cedar and agarwood alternating with cacao most prominently. Dry, it's toasted cardamom time, with tobacco flecked cream in the background, especially in spots less exposed to the air like elbow and armpits. It's not a creamy scent, but it's very rich and sleek. I keep wanting to call it a warm golden brown sort of color, even though the cats depicted are not, but the amber musk picks the thread of cacao back up at the tail end of things, so yeah. Super wearable and comfy, but also slinky and elevated.