BPAL Yule 1
Nov. 30th, 2012 01:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
gwydionDecants are coming, so there will be more.
The Frimps:
KITSUNE-TSUKI (Diabolus): (Company says: Asian plum, orchid, daffodil, jasmine and white musk.)
In bottle: Richly floral in an unusual way. The orchids a daffodil make this really different. The jasmine rounds it out beautifully, while the plum supports an bolsters the dominant notes. The musk is soft and exquisite. Wet: The orchids and daffodils continue the work beutifully together. The jasmine and musk are more assertive, but still harmonious. The plum is more background and support and less individual. Dry: It grows a little shappoo on the dry down, but retains some of the individual nature of the particular florals. My skin chemistry is far from ideal and it may break down less on more hospitable skin.
THE INN (BPTP, RPG, Atmospheric spray, Prototype, LE):
In bottle: Banana dominant with some wood, nuts, yeast and barely (or beer) in support. After a while there’s something fabricky either cotton or wool that is good with the nuts and some other sort of fruit. Seriously this is about the bananas, though, which is weird. Is this inn in the tropics?
THE MUSIC OF ERIC ZAHN 2009 (Picnic in Arkham, discontinued): (Company says: A ghoulish and tortured scent, suffused with the blackness of space illimitable: ajowan, vetiver, black musk, opoponax, mimosa, and tamarind.
In bottle: Lots of opoponax corrupted by vetiver. Add in the musk too, and it’s a darkly predatory incense blend. It is softened by the mimosa, which I’m calling second strongest. The tamarind is soft support for the mimosa and the caraway adds and unusual spicy edge. It suits it’s concept, but isn’t my thing. I’m not skin testing as it contains vetiver.
THE QUEEN'S CROQUET GROUND (BPTP, Atmospheric spray, LE): (Company says: Green grass and red roses.)
In bottle: Strongly rose dominant with soft grass support. It’s a pretty and individual sort of rose, but roses are not so much to my taste.
Ordered:
AUTUMN LACE 2012 (LE, Dark Delicacies: Halloween): (Company says: An October funeral, 1888. Black linen and delicate, sugar-spun lace suffused with the scent of tobacco, black tea, Indian musk, liturgical incense, and cognac, with a drop of laudanum and crushed Autumn leaves.)
In bottle: It’s tough to pin down the order of strength as it’s very balanced and well blended. I’m going to call it black tea on top with linen, cognac, musk, and tobacco for support. I’m not a fan of linen, but it plays beautifully with others here. The sugar is subtle, but pervasive. The laudanum is a clever little accent. The incense is soft and blends well with the laudanum. This is just terribly subtle and clever in it’s design. Wet: The musk is stronger on my skin as I amp musk, but I think I can handle it. I’m suspecting patchouli as being in the incense blend. Either way, the incense is stronger and dancing with the musk. The tea and cognac are now about second in strength and the whole thing is both sweeter and more wickedly sexual. The leaves are now dancing with the linen. I have a bad history with autumn leaves, which are hit or miss, but this works to my pleased surprise. Dry: More linen on the dry down. It’s mostly musk with some linen and a touch of incense.
LICH'S LABORATORY (BPTP, RPG, Atmospheric spray): (Company says: Hissing vials of acid, swirls of thick incense, creeping mosses, flecks of grave loam, and noxious potions clutter the blackened stone biers of an abandoned burial vault.)
Review: Loam dominant with stone and moss in support. The incense and the acid/potions creep up on one a little, twining through the loam corrupting it with an herb and chemical mix that suits the conceopt well. The results are uncomfortable, but compelling. The moss seems to be bridging the loam/stone with the alchemical elements. I bet there’s mushrooms in the potions. There’s also this chalkiness that suggests bone. It'’ very well designed to convey it’s concept, but it’s not something I want my home to smell like.
MRS. PALMER'S ESTABLISHMENT (BPTP, Gentlemen’s Directory, Atmospheric spray): (Company says: The house No. 112 Spring street is kept by Mrs. Palmer. It is a low establishment, and frequented only by the lagends of the community. Aged patchouli, sweet tobacco, oakmoss, leather, and barrel-aged bourbon vanilla.
Review: Leather dominant, but the Tobacco and patchouli give strong support. This is rich dark aged, patchouli, not eau des hippies, so is of the sort more to my taste. The bourbon vanilla is pervasive and softens the strongly masculine effect of the leather/tobacco/patchouli. The oakmoss is soft and doing lovely things with the heaviness of the furniture leather. It’s lovely.
MOTHER SHUB'S GINGERBREAD TEMPLES 2012 (LE, Yule): (Company says:
Mother Shub's secret gingerbread recipe contains ritually-consecrated resins and pulped root from her own hydroponically-grown Saturnian ginger cultivar. Each temple is decorated with sweets from local candymaker Abyssal Addictions!
In bottle: This is not really much like the gingerbread of previous years. It’s candy dominant with strong resin support. The gingerbread is second in strength and functions as a spicy bready canvass on which the candy sweetness is painted. Wet: Still candy dominant, but the ginger makes a bit of a comeback. The resins play well with both factions and stay a strong second. The ginger a strong third, with the spices giving the whole blend a yule appropriate edge. It definitely suits the idea of decorated gingerbread temples as the sort of gingerbread you build with isn’t as strongly scented in the real world. Dry: Mostly sugar, and spices.
MOTHER SHUB'S STYGIAN NOUGAT 2012 (LE, Yule): (Company says: A torpid black nougat with belladonna honey, somnolent lavender, and thyme.)
In bottle: I’m guessing it’s the sort of nougat with embedded almonds as the strong nougat scent has a distinctive almond flavour to it. The honey is strong and gives the impression of sweet gooiness. The lavender is a perfect accent to the nougat. The thyme is understated and clever, giving a special unexpected twist without being particularly strong compared to the other element. Wet: The honey is overwhelming the nougat a little, but luckily does not drown it. The lavander continues to be delicious with the nougat. The thyme is now most a hint than a reality. Dry: Mostly honey.
SWEET LAVINIA'S DREAD PUDDINGS 2012 (LE, Yule, Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire): (Company says: Lavinia Whateley is famous throughout the Miskatonic Valley for her inimitably delightful and suspiciously spicy dread bread puddings!)
In bottle: This is very boozy, deliciously so. The pudding is very sugary, with the breadiness present, but understated. It’s sort of as if you combined crème brulee and bread. There is nothing wrong with that and I very much like it, but expectations may vary. Wet: Still quite boozy and very creamy and sweet. It’s more bready on the skin though not by a lot. It implies coconut crème without actually being coconut. It’s also bit more spicy on the skin. Delicious. Dry: Soft, sweet, mildly coconut pudding. Fast fading.
THE TRACKLESS ERG (BPTP, RPG, Atmospheric spray): (Company says: The merciless sun pounds on a sea of endless, wind-battered sand: desolate, lifeless, silent, and without end.)
Review: It’s lovely and delicate and hard to explain. It’s got a middle eastern incense feel to it. The individual elements are familiar, but hard to place without context. I’m guessing sandalwood and balsam are mixed in with other desert adjacent incense, and fragrant woods, and spices. I’m calling it balsam dominant. It may contain one of the paler musks, but that could just be my skin.
WERERAT-INFESTED SEWER (BPTP, RPG, Atmospheric spray): (Company says: Moist, moss-crusted stone, stagnant, silty wastewater, wererat musk, and wet leather.)
Review: Weirdly appealing. The moss here is a sharper sort than normal and the silt and leather are lovely with it, forming and dissolving delightful temporary accords. The musk is subtle and perfect; the stone understated but oh so right. This is a complex dark green moss dominant sort of scent and very exciting. Definitely a keeper.
Winners: Wererat Infested sewer, Mrs. Palmer’s establishment.
Runners Up: Autumn Lace, Mother Shub’s Stygian Nougat
The Frimps:
KITSUNE-TSUKI (Diabolus): (Company says: Asian plum, orchid, daffodil, jasmine and white musk.)
In bottle: Richly floral in an unusual way. The orchids a daffodil make this really different. The jasmine rounds it out beautifully, while the plum supports an bolsters the dominant notes. The musk is soft and exquisite. Wet: The orchids and daffodils continue the work beutifully together. The jasmine and musk are more assertive, but still harmonious. The plum is more background and support and less individual. Dry: It grows a little shappoo on the dry down, but retains some of the individual nature of the particular florals. My skin chemistry is far from ideal and it may break down less on more hospitable skin.
THE INN (BPTP, RPG, Atmospheric spray, Prototype, LE):
In bottle: Banana dominant with some wood, nuts, yeast and barely (or beer) in support. After a while there’s something fabricky either cotton or wool that is good with the nuts and some other sort of fruit. Seriously this is about the bananas, though, which is weird. Is this inn in the tropics?
THE MUSIC OF ERIC ZAHN 2009 (Picnic in Arkham, discontinued): (Company says: A ghoulish and tortured scent, suffused with the blackness of space illimitable: ajowan, vetiver, black musk, opoponax, mimosa, and tamarind.
In bottle: Lots of opoponax corrupted by vetiver. Add in the musk too, and it’s a darkly predatory incense blend. It is softened by the mimosa, which I’m calling second strongest. The tamarind is soft support for the mimosa and the caraway adds and unusual spicy edge. It suits it’s concept, but isn’t my thing. I’m not skin testing as it contains vetiver.
THE QUEEN'S CROQUET GROUND (BPTP, Atmospheric spray, LE): (Company says: Green grass and red roses.)
In bottle: Strongly rose dominant with soft grass support. It’s a pretty and individual sort of rose, but roses are not so much to my taste.
Ordered:
AUTUMN LACE 2012 (LE, Dark Delicacies: Halloween): (Company says: An October funeral, 1888. Black linen and delicate, sugar-spun lace suffused with the scent of tobacco, black tea, Indian musk, liturgical incense, and cognac, with a drop of laudanum and crushed Autumn leaves.)
In bottle: It’s tough to pin down the order of strength as it’s very balanced and well blended. I’m going to call it black tea on top with linen, cognac, musk, and tobacco for support. I’m not a fan of linen, but it plays beautifully with others here. The sugar is subtle, but pervasive. The laudanum is a clever little accent. The incense is soft and blends well with the laudanum. This is just terribly subtle and clever in it’s design. Wet: The musk is stronger on my skin as I amp musk, but I think I can handle it. I’m suspecting patchouli as being in the incense blend. Either way, the incense is stronger and dancing with the musk. The tea and cognac are now about second in strength and the whole thing is both sweeter and more wickedly sexual. The leaves are now dancing with the linen. I have a bad history with autumn leaves, which are hit or miss, but this works to my pleased surprise. Dry: More linen on the dry down. It’s mostly musk with some linen and a touch of incense.
LICH'S LABORATORY (BPTP, RPG, Atmospheric spray): (Company says: Hissing vials of acid, swirls of thick incense, creeping mosses, flecks of grave loam, and noxious potions clutter the blackened stone biers of an abandoned burial vault.)
Review: Loam dominant with stone and moss in support. The incense and the acid/potions creep up on one a little, twining through the loam corrupting it with an herb and chemical mix that suits the conceopt well. The results are uncomfortable, but compelling. The moss seems to be bridging the loam/stone with the alchemical elements. I bet there’s mushrooms in the potions. There’s also this chalkiness that suggests bone. It'’ very well designed to convey it’s concept, but it’s not something I want my home to smell like.
MRS. PALMER'S ESTABLISHMENT (BPTP, Gentlemen’s Directory, Atmospheric spray): (Company says: The house No. 112 Spring street is kept by Mrs. Palmer. It is a low establishment, and frequented only by the lagends of the community. Aged patchouli, sweet tobacco, oakmoss, leather, and barrel-aged bourbon vanilla.
Review: Leather dominant, but the Tobacco and patchouli give strong support. This is rich dark aged, patchouli, not eau des hippies, so is of the sort more to my taste. The bourbon vanilla is pervasive and softens the strongly masculine effect of the leather/tobacco/patchouli. The oakmoss is soft and doing lovely things with the heaviness of the furniture leather. It’s lovely.
MOTHER SHUB'S GINGERBREAD TEMPLES 2012 (LE, Yule): (Company says:
Mother Shub's secret gingerbread recipe contains ritually-consecrated resins and pulped root from her own hydroponically-grown Saturnian ginger cultivar. Each temple is decorated with sweets from local candymaker Abyssal Addictions!
In bottle: This is not really much like the gingerbread of previous years. It’s candy dominant with strong resin support. The gingerbread is second in strength and functions as a spicy bready canvass on which the candy sweetness is painted. Wet: Still candy dominant, but the ginger makes a bit of a comeback. The resins play well with both factions and stay a strong second. The ginger a strong third, with the spices giving the whole blend a yule appropriate edge. It definitely suits the idea of decorated gingerbread temples as the sort of gingerbread you build with isn’t as strongly scented in the real world. Dry: Mostly sugar, and spices.
MOTHER SHUB'S STYGIAN NOUGAT 2012 (LE, Yule): (Company says: A torpid black nougat with belladonna honey, somnolent lavender, and thyme.)
In bottle: I’m guessing it’s the sort of nougat with embedded almonds as the strong nougat scent has a distinctive almond flavour to it. The honey is strong and gives the impression of sweet gooiness. The lavender is a perfect accent to the nougat. The thyme is understated and clever, giving a special unexpected twist without being particularly strong compared to the other element. Wet: The honey is overwhelming the nougat a little, but luckily does not drown it. The lavander continues to be delicious with the nougat. The thyme is now most a hint than a reality. Dry: Mostly honey.
SWEET LAVINIA'S DREAD PUDDINGS 2012 (LE, Yule, Miskatonic Valley Yuletide Faire): (Company says: Lavinia Whateley is famous throughout the Miskatonic Valley for her inimitably delightful and suspiciously spicy dread bread puddings!)
In bottle: This is very boozy, deliciously so. The pudding is very sugary, with the breadiness present, but understated. It’s sort of as if you combined crème brulee and bread. There is nothing wrong with that and I very much like it, but expectations may vary. Wet: Still quite boozy and very creamy and sweet. It’s more bready on the skin though not by a lot. It implies coconut crème without actually being coconut. It’s also bit more spicy on the skin. Delicious. Dry: Soft, sweet, mildly coconut pudding. Fast fading.
THE TRACKLESS ERG (BPTP, RPG, Atmospheric spray): (Company says: The merciless sun pounds on a sea of endless, wind-battered sand: desolate, lifeless, silent, and without end.)
Review: It’s lovely and delicate and hard to explain. It’s got a middle eastern incense feel to it. The individual elements are familiar, but hard to place without context. I’m guessing sandalwood and balsam are mixed in with other desert adjacent incense, and fragrant woods, and spices. I’m calling it balsam dominant. It may contain one of the paler musks, but that could just be my skin.
WERERAT-INFESTED SEWER (BPTP, RPG, Atmospheric spray): (Company says: Moist, moss-crusted stone, stagnant, silty wastewater, wererat musk, and wet leather.)
Review: Weirdly appealing. The moss here is a sharper sort than normal and the silt and leather are lovely with it, forming and dissolving delightful temporary accords. The musk is subtle and perfect; the stone understated but oh so right. This is a complex dark green moss dominant sort of scent and very exciting. Definitely a keeper.
Winners: Wererat Infested sewer, Mrs. Palmer’s establishment.
Runners Up: Autumn Lace, Mother Shub’s Stygian Nougat