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Showing results for tags 'Lupercalia 2019'.
Found 91 results
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Coconut foam, Siamese benzoin, Himalayan cedar, translucent petals, lilac milk, and mallow. From the bottle, this smells buttery, coconut, marshmallow. I'm excited. Fresh on, this is milk, chewy, syrupy coconut milk, with the benzoin adding a bit more depth to the foodiness. I'm really looking for the lilac or petals... but am not really finding either. It's settling into a very rich, dense, marshmallow/vanilla resin scent, with a little sprinkling of coconut. Hrm. Either the flowers are so well blended that they're hard to find, or perhaps this is more about the foodier notes. It's still very potent, and would please coconut lovers and marshmallow lovers.
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Peach-touched sandalwood, fig meat, and milky white musk. This is a nice white peach musk. Something in it—perhaps the musk—is reminding me of orris. It’s a clean and dry scent that’s fruity but also a little elegant. It’s like a grown up version of a peach perfume—very pretty and classy.
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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!!
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The membrane enclosing the heart: white sandalwood and rice milk shimmering with sheer vanilla, white amber resin, frankincense, and a drop of sweet clove. This smells very smooth in the bottle, sweet woods. On, this immediately brings to mind Liz but without the pepperyness or the smoldering smoke. I'm getting more of the vanilla and amber, and less of the milk and smoky frankincense. The clove, if present, truly is just a little drop since I'm not getting a very strong spicy vibe. This stays very close to the skin, and does have light throw, but it's silken smooth, and remains a non-foody vanilla floating over a dry, medium weight sandalwood. I'll have to give it more wear time.
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Believed to be the first pornographic film, Le Coucher de la Mariée was first screened in Paris in 1896. Billowing white clouds of sugared vanilla chypre. Vanilla wood smoke! A cloud indeed!
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Golden amber and lotus blossom, cherry blossom and white teak, mallow root and wildflower honey. Marshmallow, honey, touches of cherry blossom and amber. This one is a grown up sexy marshmallow smell. It's sweet, seductive, and naughty. Medium throw and wear length.
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Ascending and descending: a cascade of white lily and osmanthus with flutters of red musk. This post is merely a placeholder for future reviews. Whoever is first to review, please report this post using the report button below, so a mod can merge it with yours. Thanks!
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[No additional description provided.] This one is coming out different than the imagined. On the wand, I get golden honey over a hay-and-greenery vibe. I wonder if this greenery impression is from the hay being an absolute. On my skin, the greenery wins. It steps forward as green, a little sour, and a little tart. Somehow it smells like a mix of recently cut and dried grasses or shrub leaves. Yup, this is pretty much greenery and I don't know where the honey and amber went. Ah, there's the honey amber, peeking out in early drydown. The tart greenery settles. Later, this is just a super soft honey amber, with a scarce hay hint. I'm going to chalk most of this up to my skin.
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[No additional description provided.] In The Bottle: That's a whoooooole lotta labdanum! Wet On Skin: This is reading like a sweet labdanum single note. If it stays this way, I won't object- I wouldn't mind being in possession of such a thing. I can always layer it with "O" if this continues! Dry Down: The honey comes out a teeeeeny bit. But really, this is the Labdanum Show, with your host, Sweet Labdanum. This note, being the rich little minx that it is, ages quite well, and my long term experience of the Lab's various honey notes is the same. I wouldn't be surprised if the honey doesn't really shine in this until, like, six months from now. But even if it just lurks in the background, I'm satisfied with having a really good labdanum "single note" ☺️
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He lifted his head from his drinking, as cattle do, And looked at me vaguely, as drinking cattle do, And flickered his two-forked tongue from his lips, and mused a moment, And stooped and drank a little more… Snake Oil with caramelized tobacco, davana, black amber, bourbon vanilla absolute, ambergris accord, oakmoss, and CO2 extract of oak wood. This one is so very quiet. In the bottle, all I can detect is some distant, indistinct resins. On my skin, the familiar Snake Oil base comes out. The other notes sort of peep through, then recede quickly. It's mostly a dark, extra-resinous, rich Snake Oil right now, with the oak, tobacco, etc. stepping in and out-- they're present, but elusive. I am thinking this needs a couple of weeks to settle into itself.
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In the deep, strange-scented shade of the great dark carob-tree I came down the steps with my pitcher And must wait, must stand and wait, for there he was at the trough before me. Snake Oil, black oudh, labdanum, vetiver, and 10-year aged patchouli. In The Bottle: Labdanum and oudh. Wet On Skin: The oudh is strong with this one. It's really so far out front that as it warms on my skin, I can get nothing else from it. Help us Snake Oil, you're our only hope! Dry Down: no vetiver, no patch that I can detect. The oudh is still definitely at the front, but traces of Snake Oil are, in fact, coming through, as is the sweetness of the labdanum. I'm going to let this settle for at least a month before retest, I am one of the masses for whom,e fresh Snake Oil does not generally cooperate. I choose to hold out hope, and if not, I've got some very fine aged SO that I can layer with this bad boy to get the party started
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Teakwood, sweet myrrh, beeswax rosin, and driftwood. I smelled this at the the Dirty South Lunacy, but didn’t get to skin test. In the bottle it smelled light and sweet, but I wanted to do a larger test area than I had room on my arms and wrists after trying out so many new scents from the Lupercalia collection, so I did not skin test that day. My decant came yesterday in the mail, and I did a full test this morning. So far this is my favorite from the release. The beeswax is most prominent on skin, and in the background there is the softest floral note. I do not enjoy florals very often, and tend to find them too prominent in scents, but this is so light, that I am thinking it must be the driftwood which I read can smell slightly like Sandalwood as a scent note. So, not a true floral, more sandalwood. I suppose this could be called a powdery note as well, however, it’s so ethereal, so blissfully soft and so pretty that I would own a thousand powdery scents if they all emulated this. It has medium throw and wear length. ETA: medium throw, but it’s eight hours since I applied and still going strong.
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Terebinth resin, jasmine absolute, and snow magnolia. Magnolia, jasmine, and a whiff of pine resin. Okay, hold up. This is the first time a magnolia and jasmine blend didn't just HULK OUT into some horrible monster of a blend and death match my nose into submission by smelling of wet wool and cat pee. This smells like creamy magnolias (yes, I know what they smell like, my MIL has a magnolia tree in her backyard), whiffs of delicate jasmine bloom, and underneath this pine resin. It's more of a skin scent, I'd say medium throw and wear length. But hell and damnation, first magnolia-jasmine blend not to turn into a monster. BRAVO.
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Green tea, white oudh, cedar, green mandarin, frankincense, bois de rose, and honey. I get mainly green tea, mandarin, frankincense with a touch of honeyed rose. It's actually a beautiful, refined tea blend. It's more of a skin scent than anything, but gorgeous. And hey, oudh isn't a huge monster for me on this.
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Beeswax, sandalwood incense, ti leaf, roasted nuts, and bamboo. In The Bottle: Sweet, creamy beeswax (YUM) and a hint of the roasted nuts. NOMNOMNOM. Wet On Skin: The beeswax is definitely in the lead here, with the nuts adding a bit of salt. I'm not getting the greenery of bamboo or ti leaf, and I don't detect anysandawood at this stage, either. Dry Down: One of those scents that really stays true from bottle to dry down, this oil has a low throw, stays close to the skin (as many Shungas tend to do in my experience) and is quietly delectable. Beeswax from the lab tends to age extraordinarily well, and I'm excited to see where this goes, because it's already eminently wearable straight out of the mailbox!😋
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Tonka bean, vetiver, black currant, black tea, and clove. Black tea, currants, clove, and whiffs of tonka. This smells like a black tea and cookies sort of blend (I blame the cookies on the currants, clove, and warmth of the tonka). It's definitely an 'eastern' vibe to it. So elegant tea house in Japan sort of black tea. Good throw and wear length.
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Honeyed cream, immortelle, orris root, French lavender, and amber incense. In The Bottle: The beautiful strangeness that is immortelle is front and center at first sniff. I can't really pick up on anything else because of the strength of that one note. Wet On Skin: As soon as the oil begins to warm on my skin, the honeyed cream comes right to the surface. It's surprisingly different from the honey notes in "O" or the beeswax note in The Mystery of the Giant Testicle. This honey has a bit of grit, which keeps it from being sugary or too smooth. Dry Down: Wow, this is really pretty. The immortelle keeps this from being too foodie and the honeyed cream prevents this from being a floral. The two parts (the only 2 I get, that can obviously change with aging but this is where it's at for me right now) balance each other really well, making it not just a gorgeous early-springtime scent but making it accessible for folks that normally don't care for gourmand scents AND folks who normally steer clear of florals. Just lovely!
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[No additional description provided.] Fresh from the Lab, this one is overwhelmingly rice in the bottle and on application. And specifically basmati rice. It's a very rich, savory grain smell. On the skin, the champaca comes out, and, to a much lesser degree, the honey. Moments after application, the savory and the floral/sweet are warring with each other, not quite meshing. As time wears on, the honey comes out more, and the rice decides to stop screaming, but that savory note is still there. It seems to be settling into center-stage champaca, with the other notes balancing and supporting. This one has a lot of throw. Beware-- that rice is STRONG at first. Edit: This is the first scent that my partner has physically recoiled from. The champaca is going very ammonia/urine-like on my skin. Edit 2: In the end, this scent was all heavily buttered popcorn and ammonia on my skin. Traded it away.
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Rose petals, frangipani, gardenia, jasmine sambac, white cognac, and lemon peel. This is a lovely, blooming scent that unfolds little by little on my skin. It's neither a naive, sunny sort of floral, nor a restrained soapy bouquet; rather, it seems to capture a kind of quiet delight, a natural and easy pleasure. It's very well-blended, too, with no one flower seeming to dominate its discourse. A very apt scent for its inspiration, and while it isn't quite right when I wear it, I can imagine other flower-lovers adoring this one!
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[No additional description provided.] Ahhhh I love this one! It’s the best, most realistic honey scent in the world, with some spicy carnation. I have a hard time finding honey scents that I like, and this one is such a winner!
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White and golden amber, peach juice, green cardamom, vanilla cream, frankincense, yellow sandalwood, golden patchouli, and mandarin. This one is a playful and unusual scent! It’s like peach nectar and green cardamom (definitely green and fresh, not dried) ice cream in a fragrant wooden bowl. There’s lots of peach juice here. I love the cute kitty on the label!!
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Red musk and sweet golden amber with red agarwood, leather, labdanum, black tea, orris, and lavender. Wow! Well, this is definitely very, very leather-forward. It's the cool leather note, and when first spritzed, I swear it's almost a sprayable harness, hah hah! In all seriousness, there's a hint of the lavender present when you're smelling the top of the sprayer. When dispersed into the air, yes, leather is very apparent, but behind it is a very well blended warmth, although it's a bit of a stand-offish warmth, if that makes sense. The amber, musk and labdanum give a bit of support, but in no means do I get resinous from this at all. It's very sensuous, but also callous, in only the best way.
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Velvet red roses, bourbon tobacco, and smoked tonka. Sweet tobacco and smoky Tonka, with a hint of dark red Peacock Queen-esque roses in the background. Vampy and fancy, like a traditional perfume.
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Green bamboo reeds, polished labdanum, oakmoss, and white patchouli. Slightly sweet and incredibly fresh and green at first. I almost get a sense of lime and fresh cut grass - that sort of zesty freshness. Then the heavier notes start to come in, grounding the fragrance like a soft bed of moss. It's still very green, like the color the landscape gets after a heavy downpour. After the bamboo, the labdanum is most recognizable, adding its sweetness. The fragrance goes mossier as it dries down, but it stays light and springy. There's a touch of aquatic going on, and Bamboo Curtain begins to go a little soapy on me, but I'm still finding it pleasant. All soapiness is gone after 1/2 an hour. The white patch has made a demure entrance, and now the moss smells gently spiced. Gender neutral, subtle, and beautifully green. Hopefully this one gets some love, b/c it's very nice; think bamboo forest in a rain storm and you've got the gist. Lovely for rainy spring days and the summer.
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Russet musk, white cream amber, sweet red patchouli, and pink pepper. Oooh boy, a lot of people are going to love this one. Red musk and sugary patch lovers rejoice! It’s sweet wood, musk, and cream. The pepper keeps it peppy. The sweet patchouli is dominant. This one’s a beauty.
