u/D4RKMY5TL3T41NN

lots of art things i haven't tackled in a while in this one, like drawing men, perspective, rendering etc. but i think it turned out nicely :)

this enigma guy is pretty cool i guess

i've drawn latham more times in the past 24 hours than i have in the whole year she's been released. she's so silly it's awesome

her I1 outfit is a "serve" and "slays" until you find yourself trying to draw it and then it's "why did i do this to myself" and "who designed this thing"

one of the things that excited me the most about r1999 is the fact that all playable characters have established fragrance notes! i've been hugely into collecting perfumes for quite a while now so seeing a huge hobby of mine in one of my favorite games to play is simply a delight!

i based the tier list mainly off of their UTTU scents, but for vertin i based my ranking off of the merchandise photos (as i don't have access to the actual notes list) and some reviews online. my cobbled together notes list: florals, pine, black pepper and grapefruit/citrus

as for schneider, i based her placement off of the fragrance notes in her chinese beta profile from this comment (fruity notes, citrus, lemon, musk, tobacco)

i wanted to include everecho and cornerstone in here just for funsies as well, also because i thought up of potential fragrance notes for them too!

everecho: toasted barley, coumarin, heliotrope, orange zest, liturgical incense

cornerstone: plaster dust, ebony, long pepper, black plum, patchouli

some placements are very carried by how much i like the character themselves (charon, a knight, argus and loggerhead to name a few) but otherwise, they're based mainly off of just the scent notes.

tiers 3 and 4 range pretty widely in scent types, but in the "nah" tier, funnily enough a lot of the chypre scents landed there. even though on paper i'd really like chypres (bergamot, labdanum, oakmoss), i guess it's just the other notes that r1999 decided to include along with them that i don't agree with. besides the chypres, the more experimental ones (with metal mostly, sorry lucy, ulrich) also ended up there. about half of the aquatics also ended up in my "nah" tier, specifically when they're combined with seaweed. i'm very familiar with the scent of sea brine from growing up near the coast, and lemme tell you-- i don't find it pretty.

[perfume nerding out]

a lot of the scent notes are grounded in reality (which is great as it makes it easier to order bespoke perfumes) but i remember seeing some people's initial reactions to lorentz butterfly's, and they were a little funny to me as i've definitely seen some scents like that before in the indie perfume space. i personally interpret LB's [chaotic particle] note as Iso E super.

iso E is a lab made aroma, it has a subtly woody, ambery scent and it's typically used in conjunction to enhance other notes or the scent of your natural skin. another notable thing about iso E and other super ambers like it [cetalox, ambroxan etc] is that some people can be asnomic to it. or they can't smell it. i think it fits LB very well in that regard, seeing as disguises and slipping in and out of places is her thing.

in willow's fragrance notes it mentions [spirit cat essence] which, funnily enough i've tried a perfume along those lines. from the rest of the list, it leans amber heavy which leads me to assume it's something like ambroxan or cetalox. i'm more inclined to believe it's cetalox as it's warmer and a little creamier, mellower compared to ambroxan's fresh, brightness, which [cetalox] would work better for willow's character. (the cashmeran mentioned in noire's notes is also a lab made molecule in the amber family, like iso E and the ones i've mentioned before!)

fun fact! ONiON smells like pizza :) or at least like italian spices. anisaldehydes smell like, well, anise-- and both anise and fennel have a sort of licorice flavor to them. that, combined with the basil and oregano makes ONiON smell like pizza, or her UTTU page does.

another fun fact! amber is technically a fantasy note. amber in perfumery is based off of the imagery of prehistoric amber, but prehistoric amber itself often has no scent itself. in perfumery it's comprised of two parts, resin [typically benzoin or labdanum] and vanilla! different houses will have their own special blend/amber accord but they will always be comprised of a resin and vanilla. (sometimes ambers may even vary between different perfumes, even if they're made by the same house!)

i can definitely go on and on and on about perfume and about which perfumes i've tried that matches a certain character, so i'll have to leave it here. but! my fellow r1999 fragrance/perfume enjoyers please! please your own tier list in the comments, i want to see how yours compares!

i was gonna draw isolde originally but i found it way too similar to my previous piece so i switched last minute to ms. stranger :>

heavy inspiration taken from @/22_0724 on twitter! https://x.com/22_0724/status/2060692727508205954

My first ever BPAL lunacy event and it was so wonderful! I'm still swooning about it a little, to be honest. I had a marvelous time there, everyone was so kind and welcoming, and I got to connect with a fellow BPAL fan while trying to find where it was located lol. If you're reading this (and you know who you are, then, hi! I was so happy to chat with you today :))

It was very quaint in there, although there was a fellow customer that was chatting it up, so it wasn't quiet in there. It was so nice to hear others talk about BPAL in person! I had a great time listening to them talk about their experience even thought I was personally preoccupied with the scents.

On the display there were nail polishes (as pictured on the left), and on the same display there were some Haute Macabre collab scents available. Behind that and to the right of the display were atmosphere sprays, hair glosses, and lotions. And in front, of course, were the oils. There was a mix of weenies, GC, yules, and lupers/shungas. Mainly from this year, but there were some past LEs in the mix as well. They provided physical lists to flip through, with scent names, notes and prices provided in alphabetical order.

Besides my wallet, I also brought along a little notebook to jot my thoughts down. Although, I wish that I brought a skin safe marker along to note which perfume I sampled on my arm, and where (wasn't very convenient doing that with a pen.) Because it's so very easy to get caught up in the huge display in front of you. The most recent offering they had available were Milk Moon items. (Sorry to the friend that asked me for single scent note impressions!!) In total, I tried 19 scents, only two of which were retests, so 17 new scents!

Despite my best efforts, I was caught up in the moment, and my thoughts are sort of jumbled, as are the scents on my arms, so I'll try my best to decipher them. (Scents weren't open mouthed, they had wand caps for easy testing. Except for the Haute Macabre collab ones, they had roller balls.)

Jareth (Ethereal lilac fougere and gleaming leather with ti leaf, tonka absolute, white musk, and oudh.) A soft cologne like scent. I found it to be clean, and maybe a little soapy. It had a slight sweetness to it, maybe from the lilac? But it doesn't really read as lilac to me. This one changed dramatically, and a lot of leather came out on the dry down. Because of that, I didn't end up buying it.

Theodosius (Earl Grey tea leaves, a white fougere, jasmine leaf, pearlescent white musk, and vanilla bean.) BERGAMOT! BERGAMOT! BERGAMOT! There was a HUGE wave of bergamot in the beginning. Overwhelmingly citrusy, so bergamot haters please beware (I LOVED it though.) Not much fougere that I can discern, and no jasmine either. There's just a tiny hint of sweetness from the vanilla, and it dries down to a sort of powdery, dusty facsimile of an earl grey. Skipped out on FSing this one.

Dorian (A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea.) Dorian, Dorian, Dorian, alas you break my heart Dorian. It was so sour it was off putting in the bottle, and it was tannic and sour on skin as well. No sweetness to speak of.

Between Jareth, Theo, and Dorian, my #1 is Theo, #2 is Jareth and #3 is Dorian. Theo and Dorian are most similar, and I found that Jareth, despite the similar notes, wasn't comparable to the other two.

Smut (Three swaggering, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes.) An astoundingly accurate notes list, it reminded me of *Snake Oil'*s sweet musk but without any of the spice and bite. Was slightly boozy but you won't smell like a liquor cabinet.

Hiss and Hearse (A dribble of Dorian and a squiggle of Snake Oil, delicately stirred with a moss-crusted muddy shovel.) Dirt and green grass (noticeably NOT freshly mowed grass, as I hate that) but most assuredly it was mainly the moss crusted muddy shovel hitting me in the face. There was a little snake that slinked past me, but Dorian was no where to be seen.

Gentle Spring (Crushed dandelion stem, a riot of pansies, warm bare skin, sheer vanilla silk, cherry and apricot blossoms, wild strawberries, wild roses, sun-warmed grass, and a gust of white clover honey.) To be honest, I forget where I tested this on my arm (womp womp) But it was sour in the bottle? And on skin it melted into something softer, and floral. And it was most assuredly pink smelling. I didn't really catch any of the more fruitier notes.

La Dame Aux Pamplemousses (Billowing bulbous blobs of grapefruit marshmallows.) Less grapefruit and more marshmallows, and when I say less I mean none at all. Just a sugar bomb on me, boo hoo.

Grumbolch's Salt (Pale crystals poured from a chipped glass jar, emitting a brittle whiff of bitter almond and cinnabar, swirling, undissolved, into sugar-clotted lemonade.) This one was so sooo interesting to me. It was half part almond, and half part lemonade (and it really did smell like lemonade) in equal measure. Now it smells like salted lemons on my finger. I was considering FSing this one, but I wasn't in love with the dry down. [I am however, very delighted that the lemonade had enough back bone to stand up to the almond, despite that note usual steamrolling everything else on me!]

Gloomily, Gloomily (Soft grey musk, pink thistle, lavender ash, tea leaves, pale iris, grey lilac, and rain-soaked moss.) Another one that got caught in the whirlwind of scents I've tried and I have little remembrance of. I know this one has earned its praises, but it wasn't very memorable to me. I remember it smelling like laundry, but not quite soapy. More like clothes in the middle of being washed? With a light hand of soap. (They did NOT, have donkey's tail available to test.)

Is She Y'know? (Sweet 13-year aged patchouli, peru balsam, white oakmoss, spikenard, bourbon vanilla, sugar cane, and a sprig of lilac.) Smelled different compared to the one I've tested before, less full head of lilac bush and more herbal smelling. Wasn't nearly as sweet either. I also passed on it because of that.

Dahlia (Sugared amber, orchid petals, and vanilla chiffon spiced with smoked cardamom.) Smelled exactly, like how it did before but a little stronger. Gentle cardamom with vanilla to support it. I like it better this time around compared to when I tried it last year. I considered getting an FS.

Mouse's Long and Sad Tale (Vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood.) I couldn't really smell much of anything to be honest. It was vaguely floral and sweet? But I couldn't make much out of it.

Black Butterfly Moon (Shadow-dappled tuberose and black orchid, buffeted by crumpled violet leaves and ink-dipped tea roses. A glint of obsidian musk slinks beneath, woven with scorched vanilla resin, dusty myrrh, and the faintest touch of crushed blackberry skin.) Honestly? Cantaloupe. I asked a fellow Lunacy go-er to sniff it and make sure my nose wasn't broken and it was confirmed, yup, cantaloupe. Fruity, but it didn't lean into berry territory for me.

Juliet and Romeo (Crushed red rose and night-blooming jasmine unfurl over Verona stone warmed by summer dusk, sugared violets and bitter orange peel steeped in pale cypress smoke, with a single thread of myrrh rising like a whispered vow in the dark.) Oddly enough it smelled like air to me. Like... their Smoky Moon? It smelled like recirculated air, which was, interesting, but not at all what I expected.

Milk Moon: (Milk and White Musk) Not quite lactonic or foodie, it's quite mellow. The musk is the same, or very similar to the one that's in a previous lunacy offering, Jasmine Rice and White Musk. If you've had that, but are more inclined to milk scents, you might fancy this one. I don't know how to describe BPAL's milk scents, but it's definitely their accord. Like straight up milk? But without sweetness?

Seule (Amber-bedewed skin musk, golden honey, vanilla cream, and a trickle of sugared lemon.) Ah, I was so happy to see this one on display but alas, it wasn't meant to be. I thought it would be more sweet vanilla cream and a kiss of lemon but it's a straight lemon punch to the face. Like a warhead candy, almost? Very, very little sweetness, and certainly no vanilla or cream. Oh well, better to be disappointed sampling rather than blind buying!

Persephone's Ascent [Haute Macabre] (A glorious blend honoring the benevolence of spring: Sandalwood-Infused Vanilla, Vines of Pale Spring Blossoms, Honeysuckle Nectar, and Sweet Cream.) I was also, super duper excited to try this one, but the rollerball didn't disperse much so I couldn't smell it very well :( From what lingers on my arm it's a gentle floral, but I sadly can't discern much else. What a shame! What a shame, I was so looking forward to this one.

Mummies of Mexico [Haute Macabre] (Mummies of Mexico City contains notes of  church incense, ornate gold, old lace, and dust. A sacred, secret scent, recalling residual whispers of incense settling into the ancient, forgotten dust.) The lemon variant of frankincense, and lots of it. I'm partial to all sorts of frankincense and this is no different. Hate that I have trouble distinguishing the dry down on my skin though.

Mary Shelley (The scent of absinthe, lightning, stormclouds, and laudanum crashing through a veil of soft Victorian perfume.) An absolute sleeper hit, there was something in here that hooked me immediately. I had to reapply to my art to get a good reading for it. There was something so... alluring about it I suppose? It's not one that I'd usually go for from the notes list. And it was one I sampled by chance (as I did watch Del Toro's Frankenstein very recently) and it was my sleeper hit! Gentle, alluring absinthe melts into that veil of soft Victorian perfume, and the lightning, storm clouds and labdanum are in the background. I went home with a bottle of this beauty :) (So glad it's a cheaper GC offering!!! I got off easy in that regard!)

All in all, I adored my time there and would absolutely love to go again! If there's ever a BPAL Lunacy event happening near you then I must implore you to go! You won't regret it!! Besides that, I will go and update my running indie review masterlist, now up to 370ish unique scents? If you have any questions, please, please ask! I'd love to talk more about it :)

yayy back to my regularly scheduled isolde programming

if there's one thing about me it's that i'm gonna draw isolde :p

argus shouldn't have all the fun, i want to see a cowboy tuesday garment too!!!

my first time drawing splash art, i think it's fun!! i could still use a lot of work on drawing backgrounds/foregrounds and the like. i took lots of inspo from my other fave games, namely darkest dungeon and RDR2 for the shading and the garment itself. anywho, i'm begging BP for a cowboy tuesday garment please BP please!!!! ₍₍⚞( ˃ ロ ˂)⚟⁾⁾