ShadowEtienne

Something about these notes combined goes incredibly sweet on my skin, like almost overpowering sweet. I'm amping the rose-amber and the sandalwood vanishes. So overall impression is incredibly sweet resinous rose. It's actually quite pretty, but not what I want to smell like.

I got this as a frimp, and it's not something I ever would have bought for myself based on the description, but it seemed worth trying since my experiments in beard oil from BPAL have shown me that leather notes while iffy for me are sometimes just fine (Jolly Roger and Dee are my I will accept this leather scents so far). Moss is also often an iffy but sometimes works note for me. There is nothing inherently wrong with The Red Rider, but it's definitely not a me scent. It's a very tannic leather, and I think the mos combination brings me almost to leather in the process of being tanned. The basalm's resinous woody-cinnamony note is entirely the saving note of this scent for me. I like basalm, and it does come forward as the scent dries on me. Verdict: like the basalm element, don't enjoy the rest of it, though it's not awful and I think does what it aims for, just not for me. Will be passing it along to someone who will enjoy it more.

This is the 2009 version of the scent. Osmanthus, Ylang Ylang, and daffodil are the stars of the show on my skin. Bright and freshly bloomed during the last snows of the year. There is an almost creamy aquatic element to the snow that overlays them, but most of all the florals shine on my skin. I'm not getting much in the way of berries at all, and maybe the barest hint of an evergreen and some mint in the background as part of the snow/hoarfrost element. Overall, this is all about the flowers on my skin, and I'm here for it!

I appreciate that the scent of this is light. Rosewood is one of the main notes on my beard as it is on my skin, but it's very mellow on my beard in the form of beard oil. This has the impression of a private library or a music room for me (rosewood reminds me of music rooms because one of the baroque recorders that I learned on was rosewood). This is good for pairing with other wood scents (it's playing really nicely with Bits of Birnam Wood), but I could see it being overwhelmed by a lot of other scents, and not clashing with too much. It's not my favorite BPAL beard oil, but I'm happy to add it to my collection and to have it for pairing with things it is particularly harmonious with or on days when I want something very lightly scented.

Like the reviewer above, my bottle had the copy for Socrates, but I suspect this is a misprint because I'm definitely getting sage as the herbal. The juniper here also smells like it has the berries on right now, but the somewhat sweet and fruity frankincense and aromatic sage are the predominant notes to me. The formulation is lovely and I'm very excited to have more variety in my BPAL beard oils.

I'm not a huge fan of grass, and sometimes it is prone to amping on my skin, so I was nervous about this just based on description. My sister got an imp before I did, so I was able to pre-test it and it was lovely from a short test, so I was happy to get my hands on it and get a chance to give it a longer test (I got a lovely imp from a forumite, and actually have another on the way from the lab now amusingly). Amazingly for me, the grass never showed up! It's young fresh ginger, sage, and verbena in a gently falling rain. It's a soft, fresh but also tart and a tiny bit spicy with the herbs sort of scent. The only hint that the amber is in there on my skin is that this is a slightly warmed scent, like sun is starting to consider burning off the cloud cover. Overall, this is lovely, and a nice change of pace on grass not taking out a scent for me.

Fresh growing not quite ripe blackberries, and the scent of the entire growing plant. There is a background element that smells of just finished rain and fresh morning breezes. The heather is there in the background, but not the star of the scent. This is such a beautiful realistic blackberry! I would be thrilled if I could find more of this than just the sniffie/tester imp I was gifted.

Ooh this is lovely! Lilies take the unsurprising lead on my skin (I tend to amp lily). Not far behind are peppery carnation and a vivid chrysanthemum. The rose never once shows up to the party. Overall, this is an excellent, realistic floral, but it doesn't fill a role that I'm missing in scents. Glad to have the imp though.

A soft herbal-floral aquatic. This is a small clear stream with small flowering herbs growing on its banks. There's some gentle white florals in the background. This does remind me of a much quieter, more herbal Prague, as mentioned by someone else, and since Prague is one of my favorite scents, I'm pleased with that. I'm glad I got the chance to try this, but not too sad that it is no longer getable.

The greatest of all Aztec cities, and capital of their empire. Amber, hyssop, coriander, epazote, Mexican sage, prickly pear and Mexican tulip poppy.  Oh huh, I'd sniffed this from a friend before, possibly even tested it on the skin, and been uninterested. Giving it more time on the skin was a really good idea. It's pretty muddled on my skin for the first bit of time. But after about 30 minutes, it settles into a lovely sage, poppy, and prickly pear fruit scent with some other herbal undertones and a gently resinous backdrop. I don't love this enough for a bottle, but I'm happy to have the imp!

This is truly deeply beautiful and very much in line with what I love... i think I've found one of my perfect jasmines, and of course it's no longer available. The green tea is the scent that carries everything else, wafting lightly from the skin (it doesn't have huge throw). Jasmine and orange blossoms (neroli) are freshly blooming right outside the open window. Lemon verbena grows in the window box of that open window, and a few leaves have been recently crushed. It's a fresh airy tea scent, filled with growing floral and herbal scents. I would be immediately buying a full bottle if it still existed.

Peach trees, wild roses, and myrtle grow intertwined in a grove by the sea. The water is still today, but its still depth and chill blows in on a gentle breeze. The peach trees and the roses are blooming. There is a sweet herbal undertone here that I attribute to the melliot. I'm getting almost none of the pomegranate, only perhaps a slight sweet tartness. This is lovely, and I'm very excited for the imp I was gifted. Might try to pick up more of it in the future.

Ooh this is lovely! I've never been even close to the Carribean, I've spent my whole life living on the West Coast, so no clue how accurately it reads on that front, but it's a wonderful marine aquatic scent. It reminds me of kayaking and canoeing in sheltered areas along the NorCal coast watching out for sea otters amongst the seaweed on a foggy morning. It's a very clean, salty aquatic with several different but tangled seaweed notes. On me, it's very much in the same family as Cthulhu. I'm really glad to have gotten an imp from a lovely forumite of this discontinued scent. I'm glad I have other things in this family though, because otherwise I'd be desperately in search of a bottle (mind you, I wouldn't mind a bottle, this is definitely my sort of thing).

Asphodel is in the lily family, so I'm not surprised that the primary note on my skin is a soft white lily. I concur with others who mentioned jasmine, specifically it rather reminds me of night blooming and winter jasmine, just softly in the background, supporting the lily. The floral floats in a gently flowing freshwater stream. The water seems almost still and quiet, but there's definitely more a moving water than a still water smell. The flowers grow right on the banks and the petals fall in and drift slowly down stream. There's definitely a coolness and gentleness to this scent that reminds me of a cool clear night in early spring where everything is softly lit by the full moon. This plays nicely with my skin chemistry and is a very me sort of scent, very glad I picked up a bottle.

On first application, this was all sweet crushed rose petals. Giving it time to settle in, the peony really took over to my delight. The sweet crushed rose petals settled into the background and a realistic cut peony, almost fully opened took the lead. There is a whisper of something soft, dry, and cool in the background that makes me think of ceramics. I'm not sure I'd call this a cacophony, but it is a lovely floral, very peony forward on me.

This is lovely. The slightly lemony amber provides a resinous backdrop paired with the evergreen trees. Neither is a loud part of the scent but they ground it overall. It brings to mind emerging into a sunlight meadow from the woods. In the meadow, there are lilies and other white flowers blooming. I think there could be a tiny touch of moonflower in this because my brain definitely thinks this shares a floral note with A Little Silver Scimitar that I tested yesterday. There may also be a hint of jasmine, but it's not one of the main florals on my skin. To my relief, the laundry note has subsumed by the laundry. There is definitely a soft cotton drying on warm dry grasses in the sun vibe to the laundry scent. It's clean and soft and makes the scent gentle. I like this, it's really pretty!

Dragon's blood and blackcurrant are the leading notes in this on me, but all of them are present and gorgeous. The dragon's blood is richly resinous and almost tart, and the deeper quieter frankincense adds some warmth to the scent, backing up the resinous notes of the dragon's blood. The blackcurrant is juicy and tart, backed up by a rich syrupy blackberry that elevates the tartness and keeps it from going sour. The sugared violets are a delicate waft over the rest that is fairly subtle on my skin but really adds an airier lighter note keeping the scent from being sticky. There is just the hint of something green in the backdrop of this scent, perhaps the leaves of the violet are here too, and it helps keep the scent fresh despite the elements of resinous sweetness.

This is indeed magical! The ambergris and oris team up to make a creamy, foamy aquatic scent. The fir and cypress bring this to the wooded coast, fresh and pleasantly sharp in their evergreen nature and well balanced between both types of trees. The addition of moonflower takes this somewhere very special and magical though. It's a subtle moonflower, not heady as it can sometimes be, like just opening buds. This is perhaps a witch's garden in the woods by the sea, a peaceful place but one that seems a slight side step from reality.

This is 100% a California peach as backdrop. This is stunningly the scent of eating a peach while out hiking in the California chaparral! Sage, citrus rind, and poppy dance over the peach backdrop in this on my skin. In the background, there is the hint of lilac on the dry breeze. There's something very dry about this scent, that is reminiscent of that California chaparral. I'm not getting much currant, but I suspect it's helping round out the fruitiness of the peach and citrus. I love this and am very excited to have some!

This scent is very true to its notes. It's a tangy slightly sour but in the best way yellow peach and bright tart just bitten into kumquat. This is actually less sweet on my skin than in the bottle, and that's a good thing. All the slightly candied edge to the scent in the bottle vanishes on my skin, ending up with a scent very close to the actual fruit. There's no stickiness to the sweetness that remains, making it a very refreshing scent.

I was gifted a 2005 bottle in the wonderful @CardamomVanilla's PIF. Having looked back over reviews, someone who noted the comparison to the aquatic of Cthulhu but in a winter wood sense made me excited to smell it even before it arrived. I am thrilled to report a similar experience. I smell the birch and fir, softly blanketed in snow, but there is an underlying somewhat marine aquatic that makes me think of being in the WA coast woods in the snow, just near enough to catch a bit of the ocean smell, but eith the rich scent of the woods enveloping me, and minty herbal notes richly being brought out by the icy snow. This is delightful and reminds me of winter (cabin) camping trips. If this gets made again, I'm likely to try to pick up a bottle of the newer formulation.

I'm not personally familiar with Tom Ford Lost Cherry, but looking up the notes it looks like it's cherry, almond, vanilla, amber as sort of the predominant note set. Looking through the General Catalogue, here are some possibilities that might appeal based on the notes (this is very not my scent profile, so I can't speak to most of these scents): ▪︎Kabuki (Ars Amatoria) - Compelling, complex, and utterly enigmatic: a luxuriant, exotic blend of cherry, red musk, and star anise. ▪︎The Red Queen (Mad Tea Party) - Deep mahogany and rich, velvety woods lacquered with sweet, black-red cherries and currant. ▪︎Blood Kiss (Bewitching Brews) - Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk. ▪︎Blood (Bewitching Brews) - A vital, bold scent, throbbing with sensuality. Essence of dragon’s blood resin, thickened with myrrh and cherry, with a trickle of clove. ▪︎Vice (Sin and Salvation) - Voluptuous and indulgent! A deep chocolate scent, with black cherry and orange blossom. ▪︎Hollywood Babylon (Wanderlust) - The essence of innocence shattered: glittering Egyptian amber and heliotrope, infused with the sweetness of strawberry and vanilla – dragged into debauch by lusty red musk and a dribble of black cherry. There might well be LEs or special collections that aren't available as imps that are a better fit. I know that this year's Lupercalia collection had a lot of cherry scents in it.

I got this as a frimp, and while I'd sniffed it before, I'd not given it a proper test. On my skin, the copal incense is a lightly smoky resinous waft. There's a slightly metallic tang to the scent that underlies it, but is also a touch jarring. It's not bad, but it's not great on me either. I'll be passing it along to someone who appreciates it more.

I got this as a frimp, and it seemed worth testing out. The description is interesting but not super helpful in guessing what it would smell like. Amber is an iffy note for me, and I think that this is one of the amber notes that turns odd and gummy resin on my skin, with perhaps a tiny bit of offputting to me sharp sweet myrrh (a note that truly hates my skin). Not for me, I'll pass it along to someone whose skin chemistry doesn't play so poorly with whatever's in here.

The cala lily is the leading note on this for me, unsurprising as I tend to amp lily, and excellent as I love lily. This is a freshly bloomed cala lily and it especially reminds me of the darker varietals. It's a soft, spicy-sweet floral on my skin. The slightly peppery chrysanthemum supports and complements the cala lily beautifully. This is perhaps my very favorite of the lab's frankincense notes as well, a softly spicy resinous warmth that acts as a base for the two star flowers. The daphne and rose while present are very much in the background of this on my skin. They add to the overall floral, gardenlike element, but aren't prominent. The amber mostly just seems to be powering up the resinous notes of the frankincense for me because I'm not getting any distinct amber. Overall, this is the lovely cousin of the GC Seraphim for me. I like this better because it's smoother and more balanced towards my favorite notes, but I appreciate that Seraphim is more readily available.