ShadowEtienne

I purchased a bottle of this from a lovely forumite, and I was pretty confident it would work well for me from the notes. It reminds me all at once of the original Tiger Lily, 2023 Lupercalia's Silk Tiger Lily, and Morgause. (All of those are favorites, this is a good thing.) Lily in general amps on me, which I certainly don't mind since it love it. This is a big juicy, sweet, spicy lily blooming in a sun warmed field, backed up closely by a rich earthy spicy ginger that balances it while emphasizing the natural spicy touch of the lily. The next most prominent note on me is juicy, almost syrupy plum, one of the ones that is so dark of purple it verges on black. Frankincense is only barely present on my skin as a hint of something resinously warm and spicy in the background, and neroli isn't showing up at all. I'm very glad to have a bottle of this, but I also have other scents that I like for many of the same reasons that are easier to get a hold of.

This is a beautiful late winter/start of spring floral. On my skin, it is mainly peonies and cherry blossoms, airy and beautiful. The snow note that wraps around them reminds me of Talvikuu's snow. It is fresh and sort of floral and promises spring soon in its wetness. The plum juice is there as a soft undercurrent, bringing a fruitiness to the florals, but staying well behaved and a backing note. The rose petals are a barely there whisper helping to emphasize the florals. Despite not sharing any named notes, this has a similar overall scent profile to Prague, which is one of my favorite GCs.

Fresh, tart lychee is the predominant note in this on me. That beautiful lychee note rests on top of a lovely herbal-floral bed that really balances it and keeps it from being too simple. Angelica (with its sort of herbal licoricy element) and peonies are the more distinct herbal-floral note, but there's a whisper of Ylang Ylang behind them, and the hint of tart rosehip helps merge the herbal notes to the lychee. Not getting any of the pink peppercorn, but I wouldn't be surprised if its presence is helping to hold back the scent from getting too sweet. Overall this is lovely and tart lychee with a complex herbal-floral base, and I'm glad that I got a share of a bottle!

Ooh, some interesting ones! Thank you for taking a stab at this, I appreciate the thought that went into it, and it was interesting to look at the descriptions. - Cascading Silks unfortunately has lavender which I am major respiratory levels of distress allergic to - Cock Stamen I will have to see if a friend who's been into BPAL longer than me has around to sniff, I'm dubious of cacao, but everything else sounds amazing - Argento Sunrise, unfortunately has a musk, and I've had very bad luck with anything the lab labels as having musk giving me a nasty skin reaction - L'Agonie unfortunately has a hard no note of vanilla for me (and chamomile which usually makes me sneeze, but I'd still at least sniff something that was chamomile). The overall scent profile sounds up my alley - Last Tavern at the Town Gate, oh no musk again, otherwise sounds interesting, but I've learned not to test my skin that way - Worm Moon 2021 is unfortunately part of how I learned about the musk skin reaction (sampled from a friend), but you're right on the nose in that it smells amazing to me - The Gilman House Hote, ooh I am intrigued! Which of course means it will be impossible to find. I'm very interested in the Miskatonic Valley/Springtime in Arkham/Picnic in Arkham scents in general, and it's a place I'm often willing to try things a little out of my comfort zone. - Stargazing at Sea, if it wasn't for the musk, this sounds right up my alley. I love moonflower. And this is why I maybe should have included my hard no notes, you definitely had the scent profile in the right direction, but my skin and respiratory system are not kind to me.

Lily notes tend to amp on me (fortunately I love them), and this is no exception! The red spider lily note is a creamy, sweet, spicy, juicy lily that really speaks to my favorite sort of lily notes. This is the leading note of the scent from the moment my skin gets involved. In roughly equal prominence behind the beautiful lily note are a tangy, juicy plum, currently being sliced and dripping juices, along with a bright, sharp, resinous dragon's blood. They balance out the different elements of the lily well. The cypress and immortelle (and maybe the amber, but I'm not really finding the amber of its own accord) are faint and quiet in the background, but they create an ambiance of an evergreen forest with a stream and flowers blooming along its banks. I love the balance of this on my skin, and it really blooms from the scent in the bottle.

I collect the Lunar New Year scents, so I got 2 bottles of this right off the bat, and I may end up ordering an extra before it goes away if the timing lines up right. Like all of the LNY scents, Wooden Dragon evokes the decorative red lacquer dishes of dried and candied fruits that my foster family would put out for LNY. This year, the lychee definitely leads the fruit on my skin, bright and sweet and tart. The bright, tart citrus and crisp watery quince back it up, and I can especially pick out tangerine from the citrus. The warm, resinous notes of the dragon's blood especially evokes for me those red lacquer dishes. It's almost what they looked like they should smell like, and combined with the pine resin, it also reminds me of freshly cleaned house with a tiny waft of incense. The florals are very present and airy, like their are cut bouquets of peony scattered around the room, and from open windows drift rich wafts of plum and peach blossoms. It's a beautifully balanced LNY scent, a bit more floral toward than fruit forward, and I really love how distinct the dragon's blood is this year.

This was my immediate must have of all the Lupers this year. I love ginseng and ginger, and the rest of the notes all seemed to be things that would work well. The ginger and ginseng definitely take the lead on this scent! It's an herbal, tangy, aromatic ginseng that very much smells like ginseng tea. The ginger is bright and fresh and tart as well. There's a hint of something peppery (probably the cubeb), and there are bitter herbal undertones that I couldn't name as a specific herb but really round out and ground the scent. This is a good sort of bitter. All together, it smells very much like going into Chinese herbal and tea shops with my foster family growing up. It's a soothing scent, one that evokes good memories for me, but I can definitely see it as being a divisive one. I'm definitely thrilled with my bottle!

There is definitely some skin chemistry magic happening here. In the bottle and when very first applied, like those above me, this scent was predominantly a rich, fruity red wine. Interesting and pleasant, but not necessarily something I'd reach for often. Then my skin happened to it, and other notes rose to prominence. Ylang Ylang blooms fresh and bright and tropical, blending with a herbal-spicy-aquatic ambergris with a hint of oakmoss combo. This is less creamy than some ambergris on my skin, but still lovely! The Spanish mandarin is being peeled right nearby, and behind its sweet tartness is a gentle backing note of that same rich fruity red wine, still a beautiful note, but very much in the backdrop. This is not at all what I was expecting sniffing it in the bottle, but it is delightful.

This scent is much gentler than I would have expected from something called Implacable Beautiful Tyrant. I never experienced the original hair gloss, so I can say nothing to the comparison, but i am enjoying this scent for itself! I do get all the listed notes, or at least implications of them, even if it wasn't quite what I would have expected. The base of this on my skin is mostly frankincense, but the gentlest frankincense I've ever encountered! It's a softly creamy, resinous, spicy layer. It's warmed by soft amber that adds to the gentle resinous creaminess. There is just a hint of slightly sour wood from the oudh that adds a layer of interesting contrast. The white ginger sits on top of this creamy resinous base as a bright, sweet, zing of fresh white ginger. It's much more delicate than some gingers, almost slightly floral, but it is bright and harmonious with the spiciness of the frankincense. Frankincense and ginger continues to be a winning combination on my skin, even if not in the way precisely I would have expected from this name and description.

This starts with rich warm wood notes from the teak and cypress. They are distinct but blend well. I suspect that the amber oud is adding to the warm woodiness, but I'm not getting distinct notes of that. Behind it is a fresh, almost watery green that brightens it from the bamboo and ti leaf. The crystalized ginger is a wonderful spicy tang of ginger that is the star of the scent dancing on top, and it is the main waft of the scent once on my hair. This is only my second hair gloss, but it will definitely fill a niche with matching many of my scents. Ginger is a prominent note among my scents, and this seems to be coherent with a lot of the other ginger notes, especially since it's somewhere between the earthier and brighter gingers.

Ooh interesting! The Sea Foams Blood is one that I've never tried, but I may have to look into. Tweedledee and Baobhan Sith are lovely and I have imps of, Tweedledee may at some point get upgraded to a bottle. Snooty Rose is also lovely but more my sister's scent than mine. Leanan Sidhe, I expected to like, but on my skin it smells almost exactly like how cilantro tastes to me, and it is baffling. The Froth of the Serpents of Pleasure is currently on its way to me, and I'm very hopeful for it! I'll have to keep an eye out for Right Atrium though because that does sound lovely! (And you are on the nose with me loving all the citrus three notes.) Sea Foams Blood is definitely one for me to aim to get a chance to try though. I think I've been antsy about it in the past because I wasnt sure what the blood note was going to be like.

I'm intrigued enough to try this. I feel like I'm pretty good at figuring out what I will like, but maybe someone will point out something to me that I wouldn't have thought of: 1. Lunar New Year Scents (Water Snake is probably my most favorite, only partially because Snake is my year) 2. Cthulhu (both in perfume oil and beard oil form) 3. Night-Gaunt 4. Aizen-Myoo 5. The Hound and the Milk White Doe Trying to make a list of five is hard! I kept adding things and replacing them and feeling like I was leaving things out. (I have a whole list of hard-no notes, either due to allergies or just strongly disliking a note, but I figure I will leave them off for now and see what happens)

I was going to come in here and recommend Dee, which while it's isn't one of my favorites seemed to fit the bill of what you were asking. I'm fascinated to see it described as sweet or vanilla, because while I've got more impression of it as a beard oil than as a perfume oil, it mostly gives me rosewood, incense, and something a touch spicy and tannic. This might just be a skin chemistry thing, but if some of it is readily available for you to test, it might be worth revisiting. Otherwise, I wonder if some of the Picnic in Arkham scents might be an interesting possibility. I think of this partially because Cthulhu is my favorite beard oil (and one of my favorite perfumes), and I feel like anything that ends up in the beard oil category might be a possibility. The others in Picnic in Arkham that I could maybe see being worth a thought: Azathoth, Nyarlathotep, R'lyeh, and Y'ha-nthlei. I'm not sure this will be the right vibes, but they seemed worth putting into the ideas being tossed around. Also just in general looking over some of the beard oils and seeing if they give you ideas to reference back into perfume oils.

Just juiced and zested limes, just zested blood orange, currently in the process of being juiced. The blood orange fresh juiciness is the strongest note, but the fresh tart lime is also very present, and the zest and oil notes of both fruits are amplifying and complementing the juice notes. Ylang Ylang is the quietest note here, but it is a beautiful and identifiable floral note wafting over the citrus and blending nicely with them. Well balanced citrus forward three note, and I'm definitely distinctly getting all three notes.

When it first touches my skin, I get a wave of too sweet for me syrupy pomegranate that reminds me of homemade grenadine. Fortunately, it settles down pretty quickly and the over sweetness backs off. I'm left with fresh pomegranate juice, just cut into wild plums, and a delicate, airy pan roasted green tea that balance into a fresh, tart, juicy, and light scent that is really lovely. Very true to the notes and not too complicated, but that is excellent!

I love Delirium, and champagne has been a solid note for me, so I was very excited about this scent! On me, the apples are the star of the show in Delirium, and they are not too sweet, perfectly ripe pink skinned apples, probably pink ladies. That crisp fresh wonderful apple note is still here in Champagne and Delerium, but the champagne note twined with the lemon peel rises to equal it in prominence. The champagne is light and fizzy and bright, and the lemon is the bright fresh smell of the oils released from the zest. Roses are a soft airy background note of lightly crushed petals that helps create a beautiful balance. I like this just as much as Delirium, but I appreciate the way that it is decidedly different. This is Delirium at a fancy cocktail party, and it's a really fitting New Year's scent. I think that it will be delightful year round though because it's bright and fresh.

I ended up with this bottle in a small mix up, but figured it smelled nice enough in the bottle that I would test it before passing it along to my sister, who loves rose scents. I do tend to like the balance of BPAL's chypres, and on my skin, this is a tart, bright rose, fresh and a little herbal. It's lovely, and I entirely see the appeal, but rose doesn't tend to be something I reach for as a dominant note. I think for the rest of the day, I will go reach for something to layer into it, and I will indeed be passing the bottle along to my sister as intended.

On wet, this was all wild plum and white mint. It was a good start, but not the level of complexity I'd hoped for. As it settled in, the cassis and red currant unfolded, wonderfully tart and juicy, rounding out the fruity elements of the wild plum. The green tea, peppermint, and neroli are soft in this, and take a little while to show up to the party, but they mesh really well with the white mint, balancing it out, and giving it floral and herbal depth. Altogether, they lend a certain airiness to the scent that I love. I like all the stages of this so far, but I'm really most pleased with the balance that it's settling into: tart and fruity and minty with tea and floral, and nothing too sweet. I'm really glad that I landed a bottle of this off the lab's eBay.

I'm going to give this an attempt since no one who knows the original scent well has stepped in. Doing a little digging through the review thread for this scent, some scents that it was compared to that are still around are: Fae [white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss] Tamora [Amber, heliotrope, golden sandalwood, peach blossom and vanilla bean] Aglaea [Three golden ambers, bright musk, peach wine and myrtle] The official notes were: attar of rose, calla lily, palmarosa, peach blossom, wisteria, rice flower, and black musk. Depending on what amped on you and how it balanced, I could see this going in lots of different ways. Sticking to mostly GCs here, and things readily available in general. If you like the calla lily, rose, and wisteria combo and are down for resins, I could see Seraphim [calla lily, wisteria, white sandalwood, Damascus rose and frankincense] being worth a try. This is a very lingering scent on my skin, and has a good deal of throw. Obviously skin chemistry varies. For peach blossom in a fruity-floral-resinous blend, it might be worth checking out the current Lunar New Year scent, Wooden Dragon (or other LNY scents if you can find them to buy on the forums). From Picnic in Arkham, Shoggoth [white amber, green coconut meat, iris, palmarosa, Chinese peony, lime, water lily, snowdrop, muguet, lemongrass, osmanthus, wisteria, glassy musk, and hinoki] shares some notes, including the wisteria and palmarosa and a musk. I hope someone who was familiar with The Temptation comes across this and can give you some more insight!

Based on what you've liked, a few of the Picnic in Arkham scents (GC) might appeal to you: Azathoth, Shub-Niggurath, and maybe R'Lyeh or Nyarlathotep. It might be worth checking if there are notes that are showing up a lot in the stuff you are liking (for example, glancing through things you've liked, I saw a few with vetiver as a shared note), and then looking at other GCs that have that note. Having a list of notes you tend to enjoy (and finding shared notes of things that you don't) can help make it easier to spot the stuff that will appeal to you.

On my skin, this is based in a cool, resinous, creaminess, which I suspect is amber + snow. I don't get vanilla in that creaminess, for which I am grateful because I hate vanilla, but perhaps tonka or some other somewhat vanillic resinous note that fortunately doesn't read as vanilla to me. Overlaying that is rich and sharply sweet cardamom, with a touch of citrus zest (guessing that's from the bergamot). It manages to stay balanced towards not too sweet for me though, even if there is some sweetness to the spice and bitter. The florals have the most throw on me, predominately the lily, which like all lilies on my skin is rich and juicy and slightly spicy. It's an arier lily though, which is augmented by the more subtle olive blossom. Lily and cardamom and creaminess is the final take away of this on my skin, which suits me. They're the notes of this that I was the most excited about. I really love this, and this is especially a beautiful cardamom note.

This is my first Hair Gloss from BPTP, and I'm very pleased with it! I'd sampled one of my sister's HGs a while back and determined that it is too light for my hair within about 48 hours of a wash, but I have other products for that. For me, this is a later in the hair cycle product, and it is sitting really nicely on my hair, soothing out frizz and fly aways without making my hair oily. It's refreshingly light while still actually doing its job. The scent is very true to its notes for me: a floral leaning white tea and fresh sage, slightly crushed. It's not too strong a scent, which is good for a hair gloss, especially since it took about 10-12 spritzes to work it through all my hair. This meshes well with my go to beard oils and most of my favorite scent profile, so I see it getting a fair bit of use. I'll definitely be keeping an eye out for more hair glosses that suit my tastes.

The first thing out of my sister's mouth upon us opening this to sniff it was "This smells like a drink [cocktail] you would make." She was of course quite right. It is delightful on my skin, and just the hoped for amount of bitterness. There is a zesty, approaching floral bright pink grapefruit, freshly squeezed. The licorice has its almost biting spice, deep and complex, perhaps backed by some anise, and it balances beautifully with the grapefruit. There is no extra sweetness here on me, just the natural sweetness that is part of grapefruit, and I am happy for it. I was hopeful that this would not turn into its candy self on my skin, and it did not.

Cthulhu is one of my favorite and most reached for GC scents, and I was thrilled to see it become available in beard oil format! I have a lot of beard and I have found that BPAL's beard oil formulation works very well on me. The scent is very true to its perfume oil counterpart, and I'm going to quote my description of that here: The beard oil scent is very similar, but it is a touch more mellow and a touch more herbal. I am happy that it is a beard oil with a reasonable amount of throw and scent strength (not too much, but enough to be a pleasant experience for me). I predict this is rapidly going to become my most reached for beard oil. I'd love to see more of the Picnic in Arkham scents as beard oils as well!

I'm not sure that I ever would have taken the chance on testing this if I'd not been gifted an imp in an order from a lovely forumite. I'm really glad to have gotten the chance to try this though! The white tea, angelica, and angel's trumpet are definitely the leading notes on my skin. It's a lovely fresh and airy white tea that ties the anise adjacent sweet angelica and slightly heady true to the flower angel's trumpet together. (I love anise and anise adjacent things, and heady is a good thing here for me.) Because of the white tea, it's not too intense or sticky of a smell. Behind those airy floral-tea elements, there's a rich woody, spicy resinous scent that is definitely most recognizable as olibanum and basalm to me, but is drawing elements from sandalwood and oude almost certainly. There is a tiny waft of violet hiding in the background that is a lovely addition to the other florals, and smells very fresh on me. This is lovely, and I may seek out more when this imp runs out!