Estamets

Lemony ginger beer. This is shockingly perfect for a very hot day! There's something here also that taps into a scent memory of scented stickers (in a fantastic, nostalgic way)... I found this in The Butterfly as well, and that makes me wonder if there's a common "effervescence" note in both. Welp, I had put this one into my swaps pile automatically, but I'm pulling it right back off; this one is mine, all mine mwah ha ha ha!

This is so hard!! I’ve picked from diverse families of scent, and GCs with the hope that more folks will be familiar with them: Obatala Brown Jenkin Hecate Tombstone Queen and much Snake Oil excited to hear recommendations! ETA: okay LOOK. I tried to walk away without mentioning Small Brown Cat. BUT I CAN’T. So: Small Brown Cat. There. EATA: also Lights of Men’s Lives. Okay that’s it. The last one.

“I'd prefer not to put myself in the situation (yet again) where I'm looking around for the attractive-smelling woman near me only to discover that I am the attractive-smelling woman.“ I only came to say this made me LOL.

Someone sprayed Lemon Pledge all over some dry vanilla tea cookies. It's been over an hour (and a yoga session), and I'm not getting any other notes. This might be a nice lemony cologne for someone who likes cologney blends!

Vanilla cowfriend, you are breaking my heart! I love this smell so much: it's brown, musky VANILLA GORGEOUSNESS with no sweetness, just pure earthy beauty... but I can only smell it when I stick my nose into my cleavage! I utterly slathered my neck and between my boobs with this 3 times, and I have only gotten about two whiffs all day - and it's 100 degrees today so it should be pouring off of me in lovely vanilla cowfriend waves. This is a truly beautiful blend and I wish happiness and good vanilla cow fortune on anyone with skin that doesn't drink this right up.

He is fizzy! He is sparkly! He is warm & friendly! I love this scent, not least because it reminds me of a scented sticker from when I was in grade school: a joyful, carefree scent memory, not a plasticky sensation. The effervescence here is so strong and so unique. The top notes truly fizz off the skin, while the grounding notes are like lovely spiced soda - vanilla and warming spices and sweet homeyness (no sarsparilla or sassafrass). After 5 hours, the amber dominates, with just a hint of the bergamot fizz brightening up the joint. Every stage of this scent has brought me joy and comfort. I'll leave it overnight and report back if anything interesting happens by morning. ETA: the next morning (14 hours after application), the amber is still there very close to the skin. EATA: I’m giving this a full wear today (behind ears & ‘twixt boobs), and I keep getting whiffs of that 1980’s scent… a scented sticker? A “children’s perfume”? A room freshener? I can’t place it exactly but it’s making my inner child feel very fancy and my outer grownup feel very childlike and overall it’s a fucking joyous experience.

I agree with previous reviewers: this is nothing like what I would have expected from the description. To me, this smells like toast. Yummy, plain toast. A couple of hours in, a milk note creeps in: break soaked in milk, like something my grandpa would have eaten for breakfast. Now, 5 hours in I've got a lovely sweet skin scent. I could be persuaded to believe that my natural smell is bread, but that's certainly not what I expected! ETA: I swapped for a bottle of this because I actually…. like it? I’m getting the popcorn that others mentioned now, and a sliver of something lunar-esque. No moss, but maybe a touch of amber. I don’t get any forest greenery out of this. It’s quite gentle & cozy… that could be the fur note but it’s definitely a short, coarse fur, not shaggy dog or fluffy cat or hibernating bear fur. EATA: okay WHOA. I just applied on my other wrist and BAM- there’s the pine forest! Crystalline needles! Dew-kissed juniper and cedar berries! The dry brown note comes through on the dry down, and is more recognizable as fur (rather than toasted grains). It’s all. Right. There. I don’t know if this is a super sensitive skin chemistry thing or if my nose is adapting to the subtleties of this blend, but it’s a world of difference. I get all of the notes except smoke, and I can understand “animalistic, deep scent” as taking a cozy nap in a pile of deer - NOT, as I first understood it, as a dark, human-turned-animal scent. ETA (Sep 12, 2021): for more of the lunar notes, SLATHER. I definitely get more complexity from the blend with greater quantities. Close up, it’s still that cozy popcorn musk, but after a decent slather on the shoulders with a roller ball, the throw is all clean crystalline dewy pine pitch and juniper. It almost turns soapy, but makes a U-turn as it dries down.

Reviewing 2015 and 2021 side by side. About an hour in, it’s exactly what you’d expect: ‘15 is deeper and more complex, a little more grown up. ‘21 is juicier and brighter. ‘21 wants to go out for cocktails and dancing; ‘15 wants to slip into something more comfortable. ’21 is louder right now as well, where ‘15 is fairly subtle, as far as how much smell I get up my nose when I sniff. 2 hours in, ‘21 has dried down to a faint, barely-there juicy musk. ‘15 is a gorgeous earthy vanillic skin-close musk with more presence than ‘21. On a scale of 1 to HELL YES, can I make out with myself? 4 hours in, almost nothing is left of either. ‘21 is a tart, fruity, almost woodsy whiff. ‘15 is a faint dark/red musk. After 12 hours, both smell like a swipe of sugar. My skin, but sweeter. Like if I dipped my finger in a sweet cocktail and used that as perfume. I never got a boozy note from either, just a hint of the woody aromatics of a nice barrel-aged brown drink, but any alcohol has evaporated.

Spicy carnation, lightly sweetened and lightly earthened (is that a word?? No. No it is not.) Orris and tobacco are unrecognizable, but I appreciate the roles they play here in elevating the carnation. I didn’t like this at first, but now I kind of love it. It’s going to be a great winter scent, I think.

Yay, a fellow foody! I also hate lavender and florals! Yay! LE: Adventuresome Encounters is a cinnamony, autumnal deliciousness, but not heavy, there’s a nice lightness. The cinnamon is not red hots cinammon, it's really very much like the marshmallow-drenched "candied" yams that are a staple for holidays in my family. Please Scream Inside Your… ANYTHING. My personal fave is PSIY Snake Oil. Unsubtle Euphemism is exactly like milk bread, and would sweeten up with a vanilla or sugar SN. the Lick Its: mint + sugar + vanilla imPEACHment is sweet on me as well, very fresh peach! Maybe pair it with a vanilla to get a cobbler? Heirophant's Benediction: My quick note to myself is "comfort baking". GC: I find Obatala to be a bit foody, but I turn everything sweet 🤷🏼‍♀️ Dana O’Shea is lovely. Elegba if you like coconut. Miskatonic University 🤤 Irish coffee Red Queen stays quite fruity on me - not quite jammy, but the dark red preserves. If you don't mind an undercurrent of woods, that's a nice one. Kitsune-Tsuki is like a Jolly Rancher. Bounce (TAL) is also like a delightful bite of orange candy/pez Pro tip: I’ve had a lot of luck with “milk” scents, including rice milk and almond milk. Also try searching for "grains" and "butter." ETA: the Dodo is like vanilla cookies with mango jelly. sed Non Gratiata is a baked good soaked in booze… so, nice if you like a booze note.

2020 bottle, rested 7 months. I tried this when I first got it, did not love it, and passed it to a friend who also did not love it and gave it back to me. On retesting after 7 months, I find this much more agreeable! On me, this is a nice soft brown leather! Leather is dominant when wet, and settles into a balanced grounding note when dry. As one of the first reviewers noted, there’s a tingle! Something about the cherry wood note is effervescent, but not cedary or sandalwoody or balsamy. It’s its own thing, but be ready for some kinetic energy in your nostrils. It’s a wood note that I like very much: light and present without taking over. An underpinning of smoke that’s pleasant because I was raised by adults who loved me and also smoked like chimneys, though this isn’t exactly cigarette smoke or pipe smoke… I guess it’s more like clean fireplace smoke (duh), but that’s a scent I’m not super familiar with. Most notably, throughout wet and dry stages, there’s a top note of tart, dark fruit, that could be cherry, which was frankly overwhelming on the first test and probably the reason I didn’t like this blend, and is now still too sour for my liking. Overall, I don’t love this now but I have great hopes for a winter reunion during which that sour top note recedes even further.

These are the prettiest rocks I’ve ever slathered on my wrist!! This is a fresh tingly clean reminiscent of cedar chips, but a grey version of that smell. It’s that smell, but powdery rocks. This is like… like an elegant princess in a shiny white dress who you think is going to be stuck up and terrible but then she’s actually really friendly and gives the best hugs but is still absolutely an elegant princess. The best soon-to-be-a-monarch best friend ever. ETA: I put this on a couple-few hours before bed, and I woke up in the middle of the night to my wrist smelling of the most gorgeous, glowing golden scent. Absolutely stunning the way this morphed from grey to gold. This morning, my wrist still smells wonderful. This has been a skin scent the whole time. ETA: husband says it smells like tree bark dipped in chocolate. He also agreed with my “vanilla rocks” description. On my mom it smells like stony cookies. We all like it!

I’m in love with the poetry of threesomes in this blend: green + white/grey + brown. Three threesomes bookended by golden amber and a sacred trio. Brilliant. I can see how folks get cardamom- I think it’s the greens: vetiver, elemi, and whatever “crushed greenery” is. It’s similar to green cardamom, but brighter and a little more lemony on the dry down. That green herbal note is perfectly balanced by the warm brown and cool grey/white notes. it’s fresh and bright, but also cozy and inviting, but also elegant and elevated. This is so beautiful, and I think I’ll like it even better after some aging when the green calms down and the vanilla develops. ETA: I applied this after dinner last night. This morning, my wrist smells faintly of a sweet greenness that is still lovely, with a hint of resiny tingle. It didn’t go soapy or funky in any way whatsoever. This has been a skin scent the whole time.

Bottled: 2021, purchased new from Mütter Museum, rested 4 days In the bottle and wet on the skin, this has a funk. It could be tanning leather, or maybe decaying people as someone upthread mentioned. It's... unpleasant but also captivating. Unsettling. I don't get any vanilla or balsam, but it could be mouldering books if I squint at it sideways. Drying, this gives me deep purple fruit vibes, which I know is weird and must be a scent memory for me because I also get this from So Below. It doesn't smell LIKE deep purple fruit; it makes me THINK OF deep purple fruit. Brains are weird. It's like a jar of deep purple fruit preserve that I've just unearthed from fecund soil. Dry: oh OKAY maybe there's some vanilla in this. There's still a funky, this-deep-purple-fruit-might-give-me-botulism thing, but there's a little sappy green peeping out as well. I didn't realize this had only rested 4 days. I'll give it another week or so before trying again, and then I think I need to forget that I own it for a year or seven and come back when then the vanilla is more developed.

I get a lot of herbs, and an earthy musk. It's captivating in a confusing way... as it warms up it starts to smell like animal, and then it turns into a scared animal: my cat stuck in the carrier on an airplane. This one isn't a keeper for me, sadly.

I find Tristran to be quite dapper, and with a youthful edge that's nice, as well. Lord of the Heavens is also fantastic, for more of a void-black suit with a silk cravat kind of scent.

I stinking LOVE this scent, and I think she deserves more attention! This is a cozy, earthy, non-food vanilla. It's so deep that it makes me think of fudge brownies - there's no chocolate note, it's just reminiscent of that gooey dense experience. I don't get much cedar, except that there's an edge to this that keeps the vanilla from being cloying or overwhelming. This is an esoteric description, but this is a beautiful cozy scent with POTENTIAL, as the word is used in physics. It's static now, but I can feel that it's just waiting to spring into action. It's not one of those cats that you can pick up and move around and it will just open an eyelid halfway to glare at you. No; this is one of those cats that, when you sit still enough for long enough in exactly the right beam of sunlight, it just might deign to adorn your lap with its fluff, at which point it tiptoes very carefully onto your thighs and deliberately curls up into a just-right ball, and so you sit there without moving because you know if it senses that you're going to disturb its precious rest it will be up and out of your life in an instant and you might never get it back. KINETIC POTENTIAL. Cozy and precious and liminal AF. Just like my favorite cats. It's perfect. Low throw, lasts for about 4-5 hours. ETA: I slathered it on my mom and my unsuspecting husband. my mom amps pine/juniper scents and she amps the cedar in this. The vanilla comes out to warm & balance everything, but it takes much longer than on me, and the cedar is still a prominent note on the dry down. on my husband, he said the throw smelled like makeup when wet. On dry down it’s a halfway point between me and my mom: a 50/50 balance between vanilla and cedar. It’s very snuggly and I like it. ETA (July 2023) : two years later, this scent has deepened beautifully. The sharp edges on the cedar are rounding out, and it is less about-to-pounce and more “when I wake up from this nap I might attack something languorously.” I haven’t been wearing this much because the cardamom and cedar get loud on me, but it will definitely get more wear now that it’s relaxing. This is SO GORGEOUS, and I’m contemplating getting a back up bottle just to age it.

Holy shit, I don’t hate this! Received a frottle from the lab; I would NEVER have picked this for myself since I dislike almost everything floral… especially rose. I popped this straight into my swap pile, but something made me decide to try it this morning. This is mostly white/gray woods & incense. “Pale” and “pallid” are accurately evocative terms for this translucent scent. On dry down, it is resinous and vaguely sweet. A complex cousin to Cathedral. Rose is but the faintest idea after 7 years in this bottle. It’s not there unless you’re looking for it, and even then it’s the mere memory of a rose brushed by one’s skirts on a morning walk with a loved one. I…… I’m going to keep this one. And actually wear it. Who knew?? (The Lab, that’s who. They knew. They always know.) ETA: wet, this has a funk. Like decaying rose petals. For me, that disappears after 5ish minutes and I’m left with clear, white/grey/silver resin similar to Cathedral, but with a hint of green thorny stem running through.

In the bottle: this is almost boozy? Wet: Middling aquatic, with dry spices underneath. Dry down: friendly, dry spice - like if you rub spices on a grilling plank, then store that plank in a cabinet for a while, then open it and a big spiced woody waft comes at you -- but the cabinet is on a boat and you're on the boat and the boat is in the ocean. This isn't foodie at all. It's almost too "clean aquatic" for me, but it's such a nice sun-bright scent with all the spice and woods that I love, that I'm going to give it a go just behind my ears, where I can't stick my nose all up in it's business, and see how that goes. ETA: (From a lab-new bottle that has rested 4 days.) I wore this for a day (behind the ears and a dab between the boobs) and something in it made me a little nauseous; it might be the teensy bit of salty aquatic coming on too strong. The primary note when worn this way was black pepper.

What’s on your BPAL “must try” list? Let’s say 5-10 imps and maybe 1-3 full bottles… but who’s counting? Gold stars given for justifications. (Gold stars can be exchanged for brownie points which are good for absolutely nothing other than feeling a little more awesome about yourself.) (dearest mods, I searched for “starter pack” and didn’t find anything, but if this is a duplicate, please merge or point me in the right direction THANK YOU!!!)

I definitely get the sage & black pepper - it's reminiscent of my grandmother's longterm storage pantry in the attic, with all sorts of spices of varying ages mixed up in the air with no rhyme or reason. It also becomes increasingly dusty, but a good clean summer camp in the desert mountains dust; it actually feels like it's drying out my nose, but I have good associations with that feeling. This sweetens on me, as most scents do, so I get a sage-and-black-pepper ice cream... with an olive oil ice cream base? It's sweet and smooth without being milky. This is a go-to scent for me. It feels empowering in an ancestral way. I could wear Queen every day with no regrets.

My wishlist is grooooooowing!!!! @a_bear I haven't tried any of the specific scents you mention! Although a few are in the order I placed last week I've tried several from the Tea Party, though, and I have a couple of Activism bottles. @torischroeder9 & @ziggystardust13 AM is one of the first bottles I bought! I love it sooooo much. I haven't tried the other scents you listed, but I'm on the waitlist for Snake Oil and Dorian, and I just added some of the others to my wishlist

A wonderful antidote to an all-nighter oozing with drunken, addled perversion and debauchery. A fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy. [Context: my skin turns everything into candy, except for florals which it turns into rancid garbage.] In the imp: green, green, juicy green. I just laid down in a field and I'm smooshing grass and maybe a few wildflowers. Oh! honeysuckle! When you pinch the base off with your fingernails to suck the nectar off the stamen. Yep, nailed it. Wet: I get juicy, green stems, aloe, or smashed cucumber but the cucumbers that are way overripe and don't have a "cucumber" scent anymore - just green and wet and fibrous. I kept thinking of a flax plant, so I wonder if there's flax flower or greens in there, but I could be heavily swayed by the scent note. Dry: This dries down into almost nothing after an hour or so. I'm not even left with a powder, which is unusual for me. I could see layering this to add a floral note, add as that may sound to you lucky folks who can wear florals.

I received an order over a week ago, and I just picked up the velvet bag that my imps had come in, and BAM: The White Rider was hiding in there! What a frimpy surprise! wet & fresh: clean leather, pale green like when my cats snack on their cat grass, no earthiness. drydown: light leather, close to the skin, still a hint of green freshness - all bright green leaves, no herby tang. later: all smooth leather, like wearing a thin leather cuff or riding a horse in a well-worn saddle. I never got sandalwood. This sits very close to the skin, and is such a comforting note. I would wear this on days when I want to feel homey, but secretly and only on my own terms. This would also be great for layering.

@VetchVesper paper bag is also not a great scent, but it might be less disconcerting than Kraft Mac & Cheez 😂😂 You are an absolute FONT! Thank you so much for these recommendations.