Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Lupercalia 2014'.
Found 62 results
-
White amber and Bulgarian rose. Oh God, I am so glad I bought a bottle of this unsniffed! It is absolutely beautiful. A perfect blend of clean, white (non-powdery) soft amber and a really exquisite rose. This is a classic, very pretty perfume that sticks close to the skin. I really love it.
-
Apple peel and oak ash, briar thorns and pine ash, and cypress gathered at a dead man's grave. In the Bottle: Camphor and dirt, oh dear, very much like the camphor that ruined "Like Brooms of Steel" for me. Wet: the Camphor is still very strong with hints of wood and cypress and a bit of the sweetness of the apple peel. Much better than I thought. Dry: The sweetness of the apple peel is much stronger now, I am glad I skintested it but I am still unsure about it because my nose can't get past that camphor. I am hoping a bit of aging will do it good. There's definitely none of that lovely burning smell that scents like Halloween in Los Angeles and Burning Book have, and I so wanted there to be some.
-
Longing and loss: fallen leaves, the memory of pale roses, and long-ago dried tears. In the Bottle: a sweet Aquatic, no rose at all, just soft florals. Wet on skin: Floral aquatic salt, very similar to the Ghosts of the Arroyo Seco, to me, which I love. I thought the tears would wind up being that belovesd aquatic salt note of mine, and they are. Drydown: Very much like the wet stage, only with a hint of that lovely leafy note. Definitely a keeper, and I hope the rose comes out as it ages.
-
Sweet pea, cherry blossoms, and sugared cream. In the bottle when it first arrived: Upon opening the bottle, I get the sweet pea note. I have the single note, so I know it is the main floral I am getting in the bottle. However, the sugared cream note makes it a sweeter sweet pea (if that makes sense). I can smell another floral in the background that must be the cherry blossom. This is really promising! In the bottle a few days later: The cherry blossom note is far more prominent after the blend has settled for a few days. However, I can still detect the sweet pea note. Wet: I can detect all of the notes, but the cherry blossom note is the dominant note on my skin at the moment. It is really lovely. Although it is cherry blossom, I can detect cherry in the note (much like I get apple from the Lab's Annurca Apple Blossom single note before the blossom dominates). The sugared cream note is emerging more over time. It is more cream than sugar on me. Dry: Ah, the 'sugared' part of the cream has made an appearance! This has dried down to a sugared cream (like the kind one would eat with a scone) with cherry blossom. Verdict: Absolutely lovely. I will definitely be keeping my bottle and may get a back-up bottle if I don't fall in love with too many scents from this Luper update. *edit* On second wear, the sweet pea is more prominent on me than it was during the first wear, and the scent is even more gorgeous than it was before! I think this is going to age wonderfully. I may need a second bottle.
-
Champaca magnolia, bourbon vanilla, blonde tobacco, and white honey. This is from a bottle straight from the lab. First impression- Wow. Definitely a cousin of Red Lantern, or maybe even a closer family member. That's the blonde tobacco, and it's all sweet and lovely on the first skin application. Next on the dry down, I'm really getting a sugared floral, which must be from the champaca magnolia. It reminds of something BPAL that I've smelled before and loved, and can't quite place. I hate when this happens. The tobacco and honey seem to anchor this with a warm heat- there's no giant honey overtone like Womb Fury, and the vanilla is not sticking out, it's an all around player. At this point it just seems to be a Day Walker, or lighter, version of Red Lantern. I tried this last night before I went to bed, and this morning right when I woke up, I thought, Midnight on the Midway. That's the other BPAL this reminds me of, and on today's retest, I can definitely say they share similarities. Overall, it's a fantastic blend and I'm glad I didn't hesitate on this blind bottle purchase. Since it's lighter than Red Lantern I'll get more wear out of it, so a backup may be necessary before the lupers come down.
-
Aged patchouli and ambrette with burgundy pitch, labdanum, orange blossom, gurjum balsam, and white sandalwood. I'll pretty much try anything with patchouli, so this hopped right into my cart. The patch pulls ahead with the ambrette, but it's brightened and softened by the orange blossom and the sandalwood. The balsam gives it a tangy touch that keeps it from being too relaxing and sleepy—make no mistake, this is a sexy spray. But I can also see myself spritzing a room just to be surrounded by its happy, hazy radiance. I think a lot of people will dig the incensy vibe of this atmo spray—it reminds me of some of the wonderful Fred Soll sticks I've burned. Earthy, sensuous, blood pressure-lowering stuff. Like the spray equivalent of a smoky eye done in copper, gold, bronze, and dark brown—smudged a little after a long kiss. Or y'know, a tortoiseshell dildo. One of my favorite atmos yet.
-
Rice flower, white cream, tea roses, abalone accord, white moss, beeswax, tuberose, and red currant. I think this might be my favorite of the Lupers I ordered this year. It feels opalescent to me, with hints of color—like white streaked with fine pinks and reds. The rice flower, cream, and rose are the most recognizable notes, with the abalone adding a hint of salty tang and the moss gently grounding everything. The beeswax, tuberose, and red currant are very subtle. In the bottle I can smell the florals much more clearly than on my skin. On the drydown it's absolutely beautiful and incredibly delicate—and the kind of blend that even people who are a little wary of floral notes might enjoy, because everything is so well-blended. It has cream, but it's not foody. It has florals, but it's not stridently floral (at least on me!). It has abalone and red currant, but it doesn't smell of the sea or dark berries. It smells like cloudy light through white, pulled-down shades, and the intimacy of skin on skin. The closest comp I can think of is To Helen, from the 2008 Lupers...also a favorite of mine. And it reminds me a bit of Chaste Moon. It shares a creamy, dreamy quality with both of those blends—and yet, of course, it has a distinct and luminous voice of its own. Tough to describe but definitely worth trying. ETA: Absolutely my favorite from my Lupers order, and it's hard to keep myself from wearing this every day!
-
White lilies, vermillion roses, vanilla orchid, sweet clove, white frankincense, velvety brown oudh, cistus, styrax, aged red patchouli, and a hint of black peppercorn. From You I Have Been Absent in the Spring is the most unabashed floral from my order—the lilies and roses and orchids bloom on the skin like a huge bouquet when first applied. At first the other notes sit well below that tumult of flowers, and provide a subtle warm, resiny, woody base, but after about a half hour, the top notes settle down. Then the most prominent notes are the lilies, orchid, frankincense, and oudh. The clove and patchouli and pepper are more subtle—I can pick them out if I concentrate on them, but they're not prominent. Then it goes through a bit of an awkward phase on me where the notes seem a little muddy or soapy—could just be my hormones/chemistry. And then it somehow mellows even more to a very nice vanilla-infused lily. This isn't an incensey blend on me or one with thick base notes to fill in the higher pitched florals—although both the frankincense and oudh become stronger with wear. It feels like a classic perfume, like perfume from some gorgeous '50s flacon. There's something retro and glam about it that I really like, even though I might not be up for a headstrong floral every day of the week.
-
SAINT FOUTIN DE VARAILLES Echoing the worship of ancient fertility gods, some early Christians attributed the power to grant blessings of reproductive fruitfulness to Christian saints through accidents of folk-etymology. A syncretic saint of questionable origin, he is possibly the result of a merging of the deity Priapus, or Mutinus Mutunus, and the sainted, semi-mythical first bishop of Lyons, Ponthius, often pronounced Fontin by the common folk of France where his veneration was concentrated. Saint Foutin's name is an amalgamation of Pothinus and the verb foutre, which means "to fuck", effectively granting this saint the prerogatives and powers of his predecessor, Priapus. Saint Foutin was said to cure venereal diseases and other genital maladies, grant fruitfulness to women, and restore potency to men. Scrapings of stone from the groin of one of the saint's statues in France was said to cure all sexual ailments. At other shrines, offerings of wine were poured onto the saint's penis, and worshippers molded ex votos in wax shaped to represent their afflicted body parts to leave in his care, either at the foot of his statue or hanging from the roof of his shrine. Beeswax, frankincense, dried rose petals, and a dribble of wine. So far, this is my 2nd favorite from the update. It's GORGEOUS. On me, it's predominantly a dark, tea-rose type scent that's bolstered by the smooth and sweet beeswax, the dark, resinous frankincense, and the tiniest hint of sweet, boozy, dark red wine. It's very feminine in a heavy, dark, and Victorian-gothic-romance type way. The throw is amazing for the first couple of hours, but at around the 2 hour point, it starts to fade quickly, leaving behind a weird after-scent on my skin that's kind of flat and powdery. But that's entirely beside the point because when it reaches that stage, I can just reapply a teeny tiny bit (since a little goes a very long way). This is really beautiful and I can't wait to dress up and wear it on a night out.
-
WOMB FURIE In the middle of the flanks of women lies the womb, a female viscus, closely resembling an animal; for it is moved of itself hither and thither in the flanks, also upwards in a direct line to below the cartilage of the thorax and also obliquely to the right or to the left, either to the liver or spleen; and it likewise is subject to falling downwards, and, in a word, it is altogether erratic. It delights, also, in fragrant smells, and advances towards them; and it has an aversion to fetid smells, and flees from them; and on the whole the womb is like an animal within an animal. -- Aretaeus the Cappadocian Oh, that wily womb! Hippocrates and his followers considered the womb a mobile creature, causing mayhem as it writhed its way through a woman's body. Sometimes this ornery organ, due to lack of sexual activity, would create conflicts within a woman's system or would become blocked itself, causing anxiety, nervousness, water retention, and sleeplessness. With the assistance of doctors, nursemaids, hand tools, or, occasionally, self-manipulation, this vexing condition could be alleviated through hysterical paroxysms. Or, as we call it nowadays: orgasm. An itch that needs to be scratched: Snake Oil and three types of honey. To be honest, and snake oil have a less than great record. Straight up snake oil makes me deal with two hours of annoying spice before it gives me the soft vanilla, and none of the Snake pit were a success. This however, has PROMISE!!! The honey cuts out the harshness that the indonesian oils do when they're on my skin, and they're not taking over. I can still tell i'm wearing snake oil, but it's got some honey underneath. The honey and the vanilla also last for a long time, so i'm definetly not getting the disappearing act that I usually associate with snake oil blends. I highly recommend giving it a try!!
-
Many legends surround St. Valentine, and history has yet to show, conclusively, which ones are true and which are fiction. One tale claims that Valentine was a 3rd century Christian priest. When Emperor Claudius II declared that his soldiers were never to marry - the emperor believed that single men made better soldiers than those with wives and children - Valentine continued to perform wedding ceremonies in secret. When the emperor learned of Valentine's disobedience, he imprisoned the priest. The emperor chose to interrogate the priest himself, and despite his fury at his orders being flagrantly disobeyed, he was impressed with the priest's intelligence, wisdom, and passion. He attempted to convert the priest to the Roman faith, and was furious when he failed. While incarcerated, Valentine fell in love with his jailor's blind daughter. Through God's grace and the power of Valentine's pure and true love for this woman, he was able to cure her blindness with a touch. Before he was beaten and beheaded, he sent her a letter expressing his feelings for her, signed 'From Your Valentine'. Ecclesiastical incense, Roman flora, and the fruits of martyrdom: cypress, olive blossom, frankincense, myrrh, and blood accord. Wow, looks like I'm the first one on this? I searched and couldn't find it so here goes! Wet in the bottle, I got worried. It has a sharp, astringent, green quality that reminds me strongly of Ides of March 2007. I almost liked Ides but it went on and stayed sharp and was itchy in the sinuses. NO! Please behave, Roman flora! Wet on skin -- what's this? Almost as soon as it hits my skin the smell warms. It must be the incense, I smell what is almost cinnamon but can't be cinnamon because BPAL's cinnamon note makes me welt and burn. HOORAY! This is getting really good, very round-smelling, savory is a good word for it. Like compelling in a way that sweet usually is, but yet not sweet. For a minute, there is what oddly smells like a flash of minty?? But only for a moment then it blends back in. Not unpleasant, just startling. On drydown: Total love. I took a huge chance with this one unsniffed, without reviews, based on the notes because I am a resin nut and an incense fiend. I am so so glad! The cypress doesn't get woody, it only grounds it some, the herbal aspect goes from sharp smelling to sort of 'fresh', and I just want to curl up and huff my wrist. I smell amazingly good, as rich as when I am wearing Gypsy Queen even but with a cleaner feel, not so bump-and-grind, more soothing. Oh lord. Now all I need is to hit the Lotto so I can get five more bottles of this stuff before Lupercalia comes down!
-
Piss off, Saint Valentine! Lupercalia is an ancient Roman celebration, held on February 15th, that kicked in the advent of Spring with a very, very festive purification, fertility and sexuality ritual. The ritual began near the cave of Lupercal on the Palatine, an area sacred to Faunus, as well as Ruminia, Romulus and Remus. During Lupercalia, Vestal Virgins first made offerings of sacred cakes to the fig tree under which the she-wolf suckled the Sacred Twins. A dog and two goats were then offered in sacrifice to Faunus. The blood of the sacrifice was smeared onto two naked patrician youths, who were assisted by the Virgins, and the blood was wiped clean with sacred wool dipped in milk. The youths donned the skins of the sacrificial goats, wielding whips made from the goat skins, and then led the priests and the Virgins around the pomarium, and around the base hills of Rome. This was a ceremony of great happiness and merriment, and was of particular interest to young women: being touched by the goat-whips young men that led the procession ensured their fertility in the coming year. It is believed that, after the initial rite, male participants would draw the name of an available maiden, with whom he spent the rest of the night. This scent is for the Luperci, the Chosen of Faunus, the Brothers of the Wolf: raw, down and dirty patchouli, Gurjam balsam, and essence of Sampson Root sweetened with the heightened sexuality of beeswax, virile juniper, oakmoss, ambrette seed over honey and East African musk. ... am I really the first? Oh dear! Stage fright. In the bottle: Patchouli, smacking me in the nose! Beeswax, moss, earthy, dirty, powerful. The husband likes this. Wet on skin: Patchouli and juniper, with a honey-sweet undertone, but the sharp woody note is on top. Dry on skin: Patchouli and a heavy, sweet musk. Juniper's still there, but the musk is overpowering it. Over time: Woody and sweet and musky. This is a heavy, woody, honey-sweet scent; patchouli likes me, as usual, and is sticking around as the strongest note. The juniper has receded almost entirely, leaving me with only a quiet sharpness in the woody scent to remind me of its presence. Overall: I expected to like this, and I'm not disappointed. It's a very earthy, sexy kind of scent, not a pretty or delicate scent; this is precisely what I wanted and expected out of it. Elf still likes it, too. Bonus. I used to wear patchouli straight, but I like this more; it's more complex and appealing. 4.5/5 - not hoarding like I do with Geek, but I'm glad I got a bottle, so it will last me a nice long time.
