leptonpyr
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2025 version. Well, for someone who doesn't really like gourmands, I sure did order myself a pile of gourmand decants! In my defense, I wanted to try this one because every note *except* sufganiyot sounded wonderful to me, but you'll never guess which note was all I could smell. A sweet cakey sufyanigot, and something that went weirdly fruity-but-plasticky (?? I don't even know what this could be. Is this what the olive notes did on me? I will be very sad if that turns out to be true). Later on in the day I got the butterly BPAL baked-goods note that reminds me of popcorn, which I really don't care for, and maybe a bit of soft, slightly powdery beeswax, or maybe amber, I honestly couldn't quite tell. I never got anything that smelled like fig or pomegranate at all. I will let it rest for a month or so to see if the sufganiyot calms down and makes room for literally anything else, but if it doesn't, this one will not be a keeper for me.
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2025 version. Well, I'm pretty bummed to say I seem to be someone for whom Snow White goes "Play-Doh." It was *very* faint, hardly any throw at all, and mainly smelled weirdly plasticky, with a bit of sweet vanilla and the faintest suggestion of indoles. Sadly it never improved. Whatever indoles there were faded very quickly, and the vanilla eventually went powdery (not in a nice way, more scented baby powder). The plastic note got...slightly less offensive, but I still sort of smelled like a vanilla-scented plastic doll. I did see a review of an older version of this mention that allowing it to rest brought out something a bit greener and made it wearable for them, so I'll keep this around and retest it in a month or two. If it doesn't improve, I'll move it straight to the sales/swap pile, where hopefully it can find a more appreciative home.
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I was very pleased with this one as someone who isn't into gourmands but wanted to give a pure gourmand a chance. It mainly smelled of a very beautiful lavender, and a touch of almond that faded pretty quickly. The cream isn't super heavy or sweet, on me it really just added a really enjoyable slight vanillic touch. I don't think I ever got sweet buns, or curiously any cardamom, but I enjoyed this one a lot! A very yummy vanillic lavender. This is weird, but towards the very end of the day I could've sworn it almost smelled like cocoa (?!). It was really more the suggestion of cocoa than anything that truly smelled like chocolate, so I don't know, maybe that was the buns. Or maybe it's some combination of notes doing something odd, but it was really nice without being sweet or overly gourmand. Average throw, super short longevity on me, MAYBE 4hrs, if that.
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This goes on all rich, dark, velvety coffee beans, extremely photorealistic. It reminds me more of espresso, actually, because it is just *so* rich and velvety. Yum! I was worried the coffee smell would be too intense for me (do I really want to smell like an espresso?), but fortunately about the moment it touched my skin, a surprisingly bright, citric rose started to fold itself in. The combination is just gorgeous! Before too long (maybe half an hour), the rose starts to dominate on me, and the coffee beans start doing more work backing the rose, adding a really lovely layer of dark, rich warmth, rather than standing out on their own, which I was very happy about as a lover of rose and someone who isn't particularly interested in gourmands. As the hours went on, the coffee faded more and more, but never entirely, although by the end of the wear it was so subtle I wouldn't have been able to pick it out if I hadn't known it was there. The last stage of rose for me was this absolutely gorgeous lush-powdery note that had the same lush-powdery texture as orris butter! (Except of course it smells like rose instead of orris.) The rose never went soapy on me at all, much to my delight, so I suppose Bulgarian rose will be another note for me to look out for! I genuinely wasn't sure if this blend was going to be as pretty as I'd hoped it would be; I knew there was a chance I'd find the coffee overpowering or off-putting, but it truly surpassed my expectations. Not 100% sure whether I'll be reaching for this quite often enough to warrant a bottle, but I am a bit tempted. Luckily I have a few months to think it over! I predict this will see some serious wear in February, it feels absolutely perfect for Valentine's Day. Had some throw at first but receded much closer within the first hour or two, pretty short longevity before it mostly faded (4-5hrs, probably more like 4).
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The cardamom is beautiful going on, and very prominent! I'm getting BPAL's rice note quite prominently as well, which I find hard to describe other than...it smells like rice! Like steamed Basmati rice, which is a smell I've always loved. (I find BPAL's rice note to be extremely realistic.) The honey is there too, a little sweet but not too sweet. It really just smells wonderful, definitely gourmand-leaning but not a pure gourmand. It's oddly very nostalgic for me, although I couldn't tell you why. The amber is a very light amber, barely detectable if I didn't recognize it from other BPALs, but I think it's anchoring this scent and keeping it from crossing into pure gourmand territory. It's light and subtle under the cardamom and rice, and very pretty. It's verrrry lightly resinous in an almost-but-not-quite fruity way. It's a very delicate amber, feels almost...floaty? I am having a hard time describing things today! Around 2 hours in, Lines Written by a Bear of Very Little Brain gets a bit sweeter (still not too sweet for me!), the cardamom recedes a bit, and I get more of the milky musk, which is truly a milk-scented musk instead of pure milk, and it's very gentle. This blend felt very warm and cozy; there is something about it that feels very charming, like if it were a person, I would be delighted to be in their company. Average-to-short longevity for BPAL, the top notes were decidedly my favorite part but I enjoyed this very much the whole time. I don't think it's quite interesting enough to me to want a full bottle, but I'm really happy to have my decant, and it makes me excited to look for other cardamom-forward blends. Not sure if I ever got anything I could identify as "snowy slush", but I'm still not very familiar with BPAL's snow accord (yet!).
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2025 version. This review is basically redundant at this point, but I am so in love. When I opened my decant, I actually said out loud "oh my god, this literally just smells like a rose?" It does! And on my skin: the same! It doesn't smell like a rose perfume, it smells like a bouquet of real, freshly cut red roses, green stem and all. Really just absolutely stunning. I can identify notes *of* rose itself for the first time: it's a little citric, maybe a bit of apple, very fresh and a bit green. Just totally gorgeous, and keeps unfolding. All the more stunning for me: I'm someone who adores rose, but tragically most of my previous BPAL rose ventures have turned to soap on my skin. (If you have this problem too, in case it's useful to note: BPAL's "wild rose" note tends to work for me. But I only have that rose in other blends with other notes at the forefront; this is the first of any rose-dominant BPAL I've ever tried that works on me at all.) My only caveat is that, as if a commentary on the ephemeral nature of a rose, this perfume fades very fast. It gets really faint within the first few hours, then fades almost completely. Could barely detect a trace of it by the time I got home from work. I know florals are top notes, I know! If this is the price I must pay for the freshest, most perfect photorealistic rose perfume I could've hoped for, then I will take it!
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I... smell like a bowl of oatmeal? With honey and condensed milk. I'm not sure what I was expecting given the listed notes, but I think I was hoping the carrot leaf, vetiver, and lemon verbena would balance out the more straightforwardly gourmand notes to make something more on the side of woody and herbaceous. Sadly on my skin this was not to be. I remembered liking the milk note in Equivalent No. 314, so I had no misgivings about milk, but it didn't occur to me that that was kind of a weird milk note, whereas condensed milk was likely to be extremely sweet (and it was). I never got any tea either, which is quite sad, as tea is one of my favorite BPAL notes. I got a tiny amount of a lovely lemon while applying, but it evaporated pretty quickly, almost on drydown. The first thing I noticed was sweet toasted oats, and that is exactly what stuck around for the next ~4-6 hours until the fragrance faded. I imagine that if gourmands were my thing, I'd find One Has to Be Careful to be warm, cozy, and comforting. If I were to smell this fragrance in, say, a scented candle or from standing in the kitchen while someone was making sweetened oatmeal, I'd find it warm, cozy, and comforting. I, personally, have no desire to *be* a bowl of oatmeal. This was just never on my list of aspirations in life. I think I'll hang onto this one in hopes that allowing it to rest brings out some of the other notes I was hoping for; if not, into the sales/swap pile it goes.
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I was initially a little put off by how strong the leather note was on me when first applied, but this blend has really grown on me. There's a lot of leather at first, yes, but it settles down before too long into something really beautifully complex. The leather is the predominant note throughout, but underneath there's something like burnt caramel, something golden that's both honey- and hay-like. There's just a trace of something pine-like and resinous, and even more faintly there's something soft and a little powdery coming from the amber. I kept trying to pick out the myrrh but couldn't pinpoint it; there's too much going on in this blend that's smoky and dark. After a few hours of wear, it reminded me a bit of woodsmoke, but with a thrum of something more complex underneath, resins, just a touch of burnt sweetness that feels very surprising each time I notice it. If The Fall of Anarchy were a person, it would be someone who puts on a big show of bravado as a kind of smoke-and-mirrors act to distract from the depth of their inner life, who makes it easy to overlook their intricate complexities if you aren't paying close enough attention. I think this is due to come down this month, so I know I don't have a ton of time to decide, but I'm sort of tempted by a bottle: I would LOVE to see how this ages, something tells me it will only get more beautiful and its nuances more pronounced.
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I definitely get smooth, sweetish beeswax from this, but I also feel slightly insane because I SWEAR up and down I am also getting carnation! Like, a lot of carnation! It reminds me of Morocco. And none of the other reviews from what I can tell (granted I haven't looked exhaustively) seem to mention this carnation-bomb. It's definitely a waxy scented-candle version of the flower, not fresh or photo-realistic, but I would go so far as to describe this as primarily a powdery floral scent. It reminds me a bit of fancy soap, it smells powdery and clean. Not getting any trace of smoke at all. It certainly isn't bad, it's just not what I was expecting from "millions upon millions of candles illuminating the walls of Death’s shadowy cave: some tall, straight, and strong, blazing with the fire of life, others dim and guttering." Who knew Godfather Death was so enamored of carnations! I suppose they are a flower popular at funerals... (Seriously, if anyone can corroborate my carnation-dominant experience, please feel free to DM me, genuinely I'd love to know if anyone else has experienced this!)
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This is a GC that doesn't really need any more reviews, but I was wearing it today and I can't help but want to sing its praises! Katharina is stunning, how it's so simple yet so, so gorgeous. A very photorealistic orange blossom pairs beautifully with a very photorealistic apricot (I seriously feel like I'm putting my nose right up to the actual fruit), the slight sharpness and bitterness of each ingredient complements the other perfectly, and the apricot is almost juicy, but in a kind of dry way. Katharina is what it says in the tin, basically, but in the best possible way. It doesn't morph at all on me, and it wears pretty close to the skin. I have never noticed white musk in this; I really can't overemphasize how purely this smells of orange blossom & apricot to me, bright and clear, sharp but soft and lovely. It felt especially lovely to wear such a bright, clear scent in the middle of winter; it really buoyed me through the cold and the grey today.
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I'm in agreement with @feyofthefellwood that this reminds me of a classic "feminine" perfume. It's a very soft, crumbly-powdery vanilla orris, and it's a sweet vanilla. I was surprised I never got lavender from this, or rose. Ambergris is very prominent on me when first applied but it recedes to the background after about the first hour. The Woman behind It reminds me a bit of Porcelain Bat, which is not surprising considering the number of notes the two blends have in common (orris, ambergris, vanilla, even the "plaster dust"), but I don't think it comes together quite as well on me. If The Woman had *any* sharpness (like, say, lavender...), or a bit of an edge of any kind, I think it would be beautiful on me, but unfortunately it's so entirely soft and sweet it feels kind of flat and one-note. It's possible that aging may bring out the individual notes a little more clearly, but for now I'm finding this blend a little too powder-room for me. That said, as an interpretation of some pieces of The Yellow Wallpaper, The Woman behind It is perfect. The too-soft-and-sweet, too-powdery, too traditionally feminine (for me anyway!) quality encapsulates the feel of a woman with postpartum depression trapped in a disused nursery, infantilized and dismissed by her husband, whose authority she lives under. It's brilliant as a work of art, if not a scent I think I actually want to wear.
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A warm, bright, buttery balsamic. Forgive the indulgence, but the best way I can think to describe this scent is: if this scent were a color, it would be the soft orange glow of cheerful windows seen from a distance at night, or of that particular warm orange glow of a specifically winter sunset. On Friendship is terpenic and resinous, with a round, sweet, almost waxy nuttiness and butter from the bread accord, and it's lightened by just the smallest breath of bergamot, barely detectable but adds a lovely, gentle citrus lift. It really does feel like a warm meal shared with friends! It's undeniably woody but smells more of smoked or roasted chestnut to me, slightly vanillic, than pure woodsmoke, which is really just lovely. I'm finding it another delightfully cozy scent to curl up in for colder weather.
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2025 version. This blend goes on with what I'm now familiar with as dead leaves' big flare-up / immediate die-down, then I get a whiff of warm, dry, smoky spice, which gives the impression of a burning pile of leaves. It's a sweet hay-like tobacco/smoke mingling with spice that reminds me very much of the spice accords in Circe Transforming and A Dance to the Music of Time. There's something in this, I think probably the amber, that's lending a sort of round smoothness to the blend, softening what might otherwise be sharp edges of spice, smoke, and dead leaves. Around two hours in, The Death of Autumn coheres into a pretty harmonious blend, where I have difficulty picking out individual notes, more like the experience @gentle-twig described. I wasn't able to detect any florals, but given how well-blended this one is, I wouldn't be surprised if they were in there adding some subtlety I can't name. About average throw and longevity, and nothing goes sharper on me towards the end of the day as is often the case with other blends. The Death of Autumn fades away quite gently, like the last plume of smoke from a friendly autumn campfire.
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This opens with the macadamia accord, enveloped in rich, roasty, woody fireside hearth-smoke. It actually reminded me quite a bit on On Friendship (which would make sense, as On Friendship lists chestnut in lieu of macadamia), only a sweeter, nuttier, fattier, vanillic version. Extremely cozy, VERY much get the impression of chestnuts roasting on an open fire. I think some of the fattiness is coming from the beeswax. The leather does not stand out as a note in its own right, it's more that Dark Macademia is leathery in that kind of smoky way, lending an additional undercurrent to the atmosphere. It's very much just the hint of faded, older leather you might get from walking past a shelf of "time-worn tomes", not the total saturation of freshly tanned leather. About 4 hours in, much of the sweetness fades away and it becomes more prominently roasty and smoky. I know this is a Halloween release, but I was actually quite glad I didn't get to try it until December; it feels absolutely perfect for winter, really cozy and warm in a dark, rich way. It's definitely a gourmand, but it's not *overly* gourmand; the smoke and wood balance out the sweeter notes to keep it in more of a savory territory. I don't know if it's quite special enough for me to buy a whole bottle, but I'm happy to have this decant to get me through this winter.
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2025 version This went on SO heady it was totally overwhelming, almost nauseating. I believe the first thought I jotted down in my personal spreadsheet of perfume notes was "oh my god what the fuck." It definitely smells like a thick, syrupy-sweet tropical kind of dessert, largely banana. Not raw banana, definitely the dessert, cooked banana of turon. Maybe a touch of yam, too, although I had a difficult time picking out individual notes in this one; there is just so much going on I felt like I was swimming in it! I noticed the gourmand notes first, but it wasn't long before an extravagant efflorescence started to bloom. I definitely got jasmine and silky, tropical, fatty ylang ylang. Santan I'm not familiar with, but the descriptions I found online (supposedly santan flowers have some kind of tropical fragrance, close to gardenia, probably indolic, with a hint of citrus blossoms) seem to check out. I'm not 100% sure "everlasting flower" is the same as immortelle, but I kind of assume so, and I wonder if it's partially responsible for the honeyed, syrupy, dried-fruit quality of this blend. There's definitely a rice note in here somewhere, although it's hard to pick out with everything else that's going on, and I'm not sure I would've been able to recognize it if I hadn't happened to smell literal rice cooking in my kitchen. Araw Ng Mga Patay got much prettier as the day went on, and actually wound up reminding me a little of Interminable Grotesques without the almond. It definitely shares the big bouquet of strong, distinct florals and the honey, but Araw Ng Mga Patay is (obviously) much more prominently gourmand and tropical. I had a lot of fun with this one and will definitely wear it again, but/and if you saw all those notes and went "wow, that's a LOT", you are absolutely right; this one is A LOT! "A cheerful, raucous celebration of life and death" is a wonderfully apt description.
