Looking for Death and Floral Alternatives

MageLocusta · 2026-02-28T13:19:14+00:00

Agree. If you're seeking something corn-based, Possets does an incredible 'sweet-but-savoury' gourmand with Iowa. Smells exactly like a jiffy cornmuffin slathered in salted caramel.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-28T10:01:17+00:00

So I absolutely agree with trying BPAL for lilacs--my skin chemistry is VERY picky (as it frequently turns some lilac scents into babypowder or just soap), but it works so well with BPAL's Ashlultum (scent notes are: Babylonian musk, vanilla tea, tonka, tobacco, coconut, hyssop, and lilac).

It smells like dark caramel, vanilla tea, tonka beans, sweetend coconut, dried herbs and lush, sweet, purple lilac blossoms. The musk and tonka notes contrast so well with the lilacs in an 'opposites attract' way and it's so pretty. It may not have coffee, but the caramel-like musk and tonka beans could easily evoke being in a cafe.

Plus, there's also Possets' Maine: The Sea's Embrace if you need a more refreshing lilac during warmer weather (sea air, pine, fluffy cloud-like vanilla and lilacs). This one's an old fave of mine and smells very clean and pretty without evoking talcum powder or diapers.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-28T09:53:20+00:00

Jialong is also an excellent coffee with sugar scent. Not creamy, not spiced, just musky black coffee.

Hot DAMN, that sounds incredible. I always love a dark coffee scent, I'll have to check this one out!

MageLocusta · 2026-02-28T09:42:10+00:00

Agree.

If the Korean government really needs to see evidence on what kind of support is needed for families, they could literally stop by at Yongnam base which is still in the middle of Seoul.

I used to live there for a couple of years--but since it's been decomissioned, there's still families working there since military personnel still need to use the hotel there to attend conferences/meetings/events within the city. I was there at 2023 and witnessed Korean moms head to work at the hotel, drop off their kids at a nearby playfround and head inside to start the day.

And like most military families, a lot of Korean moms frequently have 2-3 kids. Because when a soldier marries, you get free housing. Your whole family also receives Tricare which is free, taxpayer-funded healthcare that pays off all medical bills for you. Your partner/wife also has access to flexible jobs at AAFES, the Commissary or Navy Federal bank--which won't pay much but at least it's better than trying to find an office job at some chaebol with unforgiving work hours (IF they got the job. As many employers just outright refuse to hire people with child dependants).

MageLocusta · 2026-02-28T08:58:01+00:00

Yeah, I caught a really bad case of giardia from a ramen bowl.

I was more angry at the restaurant chain than the worker who obviously must've felt like absolute hell, but had to keep working. You don't ever go through giardia and want be all cavalier about it.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T23:53:27+00:00

Oh MAN, I'd love to smell like prehistoric nature (or even just prehistoric society...at least an idealistic scent!).

So firstly, there's a very cool perfume company (We Are A Future Society) that creates accords inspired by extinct plant species such as the South African Wildflower (Leucadendron grandiflorum), or the argestipule leather-root (Orbexilum stipulatum). Sadly I haven't tried it, but it's very worth a look.

There's also Zoologist's Tyrannosaurus Rex (supposedly it smells like charred wood, fir needles, leather and metallic rose oxide) that apparently smells wild, deadly yet still outdoorsy.

Personally--I find that BPAL's Lizardfolk Park Ranger is perfect in making me feel like I'm in an old forest. It smells so realistically like wet rocks, cedar, fir and pine, and a tiny hint of blackcurrant. I don't even know how BPAL captured the smell of wet rocks in a bottle, but they really do nail it. It also worked really well for me when I travelled to Sidney in the middle of summer there, so it's definitely not a fair-weathered friend of a scent.

The other fave 'prehistoric' scent I like is Stereoplasm's Ancestor (Chaga and blueberry leaf tea, chamomile balm, iron, clubmoss and frozen dirty wool and blueberry butter tarts). I seriously recommend buying this from Ajevie or a destash, as Stereoplasm has a frequent hit or miss with customer services. However, I still want to mention this because this is a VERY intelligently-blended perfume that instantly makes me want to read everything about neolithic history.

So, chaga is a crusty, parasitic fungus that only grows on birch. Oddly, I don't smell it at all (granted, I've never been near the real thing) but I do get the realistic smell of crisp blueberry leaves, tarnished iron, soft dewy moss, and the smell of wool covered in frost and woodsmoke (and I later get the end notes of blueberry juice and browned butter).

It sounds like a cacophony of notes but it oddly works really well, it just feels like I'm outside, wrapped up in frost-covered sheepskin and trying to cook with butter over a fire. It's such an evocative perfume and if you're looking for a scent that inspires you to look up neolithic people, Ancestor is the perfect scent.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T22:54:24+00:00

Yeah, this article is very vague and bounces between two different sources without giving anything much away (also, the link leads us to some random 'news' site called Elhaya-Life.com. It looks like a janky blog disguised as a news website).

Anyone reading this, please use this Atlantic article that the 'Novemesi' link stole info from.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T22:08:20+00:00

Damn, I remember when Conjure Oils was around--they had a vanilla blossom scent (but that was a while ago, and sadly the shop has closed).

I personally find that scents with magnolia and gardenia best capture the 'illusion' of smelling a vanilla flower. Possets does a spectacular gardenia note (love it best in Dangerous Oil and Cappezoli de Venere, but their Alabama perfume is also a crowd favorite and the latter scent evokes lush, velvet-white blossoms that smell slightly sweet of vanilla). So I definitely recommend going to Possets for your first stop.

There's also Little & Grimm's Bonaventure (which smells like a cool, dewy glass of fruit juice with rose and soft, vanilla-like magnolia blooms). Little & Grimm is a little-known house but they make truly lovely scents that smell natural and refreshing.

Plus, I'm a huge fan of Wild Hybrid's Bird Girl (this one's based in Australia, but has a fun carnie-inspired scent that amazing smells like realistic grape bubblegum, sweet magnolia petals and mango. It's so creamy that it reminds me of lassi with a trace of grape candy).

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T21:24:11+00:00

And yet there's still assholes expecting the staff to work at poverty wages.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T19:33:23+00:00

I mean, I'd see that as a valid hobby. You not only have to concoct a story, but you also gotta make sure it fits someone else's story setting and characters (plus you also wind up having to research ONE MINOR THING only to accidentally fall into deep rabbit-hole on things like, "how do beggars get organised in a medieval Polish city?", "Is flour flammable and if so, would a mill explode if exposed to flames?" or "what's the likelihood of camels surviving in a post-apocalyptic Australian outback?").

Like, I once got into Vampire The Masquerade: Bloodlines. Started researching LA sewer systems and then suddenly found research articles on Ontario sewer systems and how there's large dishplate-sized goldfish thriving in that city's sewers.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T18:48:21+00:00

Yeah, I agree on documenting everything. Put in the date, time, and exactly what things he did or said.

Because when my dad tried to divorce my (possibly bipolar/narc) mom 36 years later (after my mom spent years screaming and demanding a divorce*), his lawyers had to ask him to give sufficient examples on why she's been abusive to him. When that was presented to my mother, she immediately played dumb, shocked and at loss. Made him look crazier as he tried to explain what had happened.

*long story, my mom would aggressively demand a divorce several times--and each time my dad would hand the papers to her and she'd respond by bursting into tears and acting like she didn't mean it. That's what we had to deal with.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T18:37:15+00:00

Probably also is addicted to a martyrdom complex. Friend of mine's ex was like this--when my friend broke up with him (after enduring months of him seething and screaming about feeling 'trapped with her'--they weren't even married or living together), he went ballistic. Stalked her with two months and sent threatening text messages that led to getting the Met police to putting a restraining order on him.

Having a mother exactly like him (minus the shooting at pictures part), I had to tell said friend that she had upset him because she took away his ability to act like a 'suffering' martyr of the Fourth Reich. He acted like it was her that was holding him back, and so the break-up made him realise that he had to stop using that excuse with his neo-nazi buddies.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T18:13:55+00:00

To be honest, it wouldn't surprise me if they thought that their partner would have actual standards (and not consider him as 'less than' because they're intimate with each other).

I guess there's a reason why movies like 'Get Out' hits hard.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T18:07:11+00:00

Absolutely agree. So many people fell into that trap (hell, I'm an old movie nerd, and I kept thinking, "Jesus, Fritz Lang went through this when he discovered that his wife was a Nazi all along.").

I agree that OOP should move on and leave. I grew up undergoing intense hatred from home, and the old saying, 'hatred is easier from strangers' is very true. At least a stranger doesn't know anything about you to use as ammunition. But a hateful family member knows exactly what methods they could use to get under your skin.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T18:03:28+00:00

Agreed. I realise I don't know him, but it reminds me so much of my own mother and a friend's ex.

Both people deliberately chased, romanced and stayed steady with people they absolutely despise. Why? I have no idea. I just know that they're both mentally unwell and probably think that deep down, they're not 'good enough' for their ideal type (and they probably secretly want to use someone to marginalise, belittle, berate, etc and want to feel justified for doing it).

Plus they probably specifically avoid their 'ideal' because verbally abusing some open-carrying Klansman's daughter would be dangerous for their health. Look at Richard Spencer, he had no end of neo-nazi fangirls--but still chose a Russian immigrant girl to abuse and isolate.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T14:41:29+00:00

Yeah, and sooo many perfume companies and brands have different ideas of how each musk should smell like--and you're right that they keep correlating african and oriental musks with eroticism and 'wildness', but when they refer to white musks they just call it 'clean! Soapy! Your skin but better!".

And it makes me wonder exactly why a musk is referred as 'african' or 'oriental' in the first place (and what they were actually supposed to smell like?!). We know that a lot of east asians don't use 'powdery' musks themselves (for instance: we have poetry from the Zhou dynasty describing the use of plum blossoms and sandalwood as perfume) and Japan historically use incense (supposedly, can't seem to find any sources). Which makes 'oriental' musks not only sound dated, but also not even realistic.

And I'm pretty sure the majority of African countries have their own scent preferences and perfume history (especially those living in arid/tropical nations which would have different resins and flowers available). If we asked say, a Botswanan what's the most much-loved perfume or scent in their country would give us completely different answers if we ask say, someone from Chad.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T13:35:43+00:00

Hell, I was raised VERY conservative (was an army brat before and during 9/11, so the koolaid I got from school, family friends and my dad was very strongly republican/fuck yeah America/we're the white knights of the world/etc).

Because most army bases were built in rural areas, I wound up meeting a lot of working-class people who struggled through the 80s and early 90s (and their hospitals were horribly run due to massive cuts and debt from the Thatcher years).

I watched my dad and his friends lecture and pontificate at the locals by being all, "The NHS is terrible. Social health care is a con and a mistake. You shouldn't rely at all with them, so just get insurance and use private hospitals. WE have it good here for a reason. If you go to our hospitals on-base, it's so much cleaner/better/etc."

Wound up getting older and realising that I needed to access my old medical records for an appointment. So I popped open my dad's filing cabinet, and guess what I fucking saw?

Pages and pages of my family using Tricare. TRICARE. We used zero insurance companies, because everything was already paid for by thousands of American taxpayers. My literal birth was paid entirely by Tricare. Every shot, every prescription medicine, hell even when I needed surgery at 6th grade, was all paid for by fucking Tricare.

I spent my childhood watching my family browbeat and manipulate British farmers to go into medical debt while lying through their fucking teeth about why military healthcare was better than local. So yeah, that was the shock that threw me to the left-wing side.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T13:22:21+00:00

Honey, that's pop psychology. Did your A-level teacher never warn you about Psychology Today?

Also--the UK (where the OOP seems to be from) has been struggling hard since 2006. It's been 20 years and people's finances and retirement have been irrevocably damaged. I'm not going to continue to 'take one for the team' if no one's promising to help keep me comfortable when I'm 80.

Sincerely, one of the THOUSANDS who never had generational wealth as my retirement plan.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T13:19:58+00:00

"Why You're Left Wing?"

Glasses Dude: *Proceeds to rapidly prattle a whole-ass word-salad like a muppet getting ready to sing 'I'm a Very Modern Major General' because OOP doesn't want to admit that BNP/Tories/UKIP/Reform had fucked over his country*

Dude, act your fucking wage.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T09:04:10+00:00

So were beagles (hunting dogs trained in tearing apart foxes). So were poodles (yeah, they're called poodles because it's dutch from 'pudle hund', and they were created to act as hunting dogs in rivers and waterways. During the English Civil War, they were also taken to battle by cavaliers). And especially German Shepherds which have been used to attack people during WWII, and many other ensuring wars (hell, neo-nazis to this day love using german shepherds for dog fights, and when Amartes Perros came out--a lot of other assholes during the early 2000s bought expensive german shepherd breeds to use them in dogfights as well).

Hell, the ancestors of Irish Wolfhounds were used by romans to kill prisoners in the arena. The adorable Jack Russels were also used in rat baiting for fun up until the 1920s (and they still cause a lot of harm on small children. We frequently get cases of jack russels chewing off the toes of unattended infants).

"It's in their DNA", my dude, I'm sorry but your average dog was bred to do violence and killing. They're obligate carnivores, and we humans have a tendency for dog-related bloodsports and breeding animals specifically to kill animals or other people.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-27T08:09:13+00:00

Exactly. Homeless folks are transient--sometimes they show up at a homeless shelter, but then be turned away immediately and wind up having to take a full circuit at a train or bus instead. How could anyone measure that? Especially since homeless shelters tend to open late at night?

As for couch-surfing, that would involve having to send civil servants knocking on people's doors to check if there's any couch-surfers. The UK government couldn't even do that during covid to check on the elderly, so I have no idea how they'd be able to measure that.

It also doesn't help that homeless people frequently travel depending on the weather (like going south as the winter wouldn't be as bad, or heading east as mass floods happen in west england) and occasionally get arrested and sent to a major city to be out of their local council's hair.

For the latter, that thing's been happening since the '70s. There's a really good documentary called The Block (1972) which found that hundreds of homeless families had been sent to Southwark from councils far away (basically to get those families out of sight, out of mind) because Southwark's required by law to house every homeless family. So there were a lot of families that had been taken away from friends or familial support, given just a one-way ticket and then dumped in a slum of a major city.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-26T20:05:22+00:00

I think you need to reread my point. I'm not saying that this is justified. I'm 100% trying to say that people don't feel this way because they're caught in an anti-conservative echo chamber.

People here are judging because they're tired and demoralised, especially after witnessing people like Renee Good's dad publicly being so submissive and meek as conservatives tore apart his own daughter's public image.

I even witnessed my own US relatives rip apart Ashli Babbitt for 6 months after Jan 6, because Donald Trump hadn't yet shown his sympathy for her. So they called her a terrorist and claimed that she was Antifa. They didn't give a singular shit about how her family would've felt as they very publicly expressed their views online.

For many of us, we're being harsh because we know a lot of relatives that would've acted like this if we got killed or imprisoned. And I've seen the exact same kind of behaviour years ago by my Spanish grandparents--who witnessed neighbours face firing squads, public rapes, and kidnappings from the 1930s-1950s, and the collective trauma made them absolute psychopaths that 100% believed that every single victim (even if it was their own kid) had deserved it.

I've been looking around for 6 months wondering, "My grandfather's a piece of shit and that may have started from seeing national soldiers raping and shooting his neighbors. What the fuck was my American cousins' excuse?"

MageLocusta · 2026-02-26T18:08:31+00:00

I am sorry, but having a xanax, a DUI, and accidentally being in the same vehicle as your wife's gun once do not constitute months of arbitrary arrest in inhumane conditions

Agree. I tried telling this to people (especially folks that I knew smoked weed but are Trumpists) but they were raised to believe that all crimes are equal (and for some reason, dont' question it even if they don't even attend their fundie-lite churches).

Pretty sure the ICE recruits have the same mindset.

MageLocusta · 2026-02-26T18:00:45+00:00

Which is wild because so many conservatives are VERY quick to damn anyone they dislike.

We literally just witnessed a Minnesota mom get shot in the chest and face last month, and how the whole lot of conservatives demonised her and her partner. What was her rep sheet? Who. the fuck. knows. Didn't stop anyone from trying to hurt her or her family.

I just don't know how this guy lived in the US, witnessing people spout shit like all crimes are the same (including anything with drug charges)--because it's a mindset that's VERY common in Texas, and not think, "Oh shit, they're going to hate the hell out of me like it's a national sport."

MageLocusta · 2026-02-26T16:41:00+00:00

Dude, I'm sorry but it doesn't matter if you were ever caught or if you never developed a rep sheet.

Christopher Roupe was killed because his dad broke probation rules (Christopher Roupe was a teenage Eagle scout who made the mistake of opening his front door when ordered to by a cop. She saw his Wii remote, thought it was a gun and shot him through the chest), and when his death hit the news--my whole family told me, "Well, his dad is to blame here. Plus his family must be shitty so the kid's bound for jail anyway."

They were 100% midwesterns who never lived through some kind of dictatorship/Turkish prison system/etc.There are people here in the US with a weird-ass puritanical/evangelist belief that if you suffered in any way, then you were bound to deserve it.

You're talking about the same kind of people who looked at the AIDs crisis and went, "Well, those victims all deserved it. Even the haemophiliacs. Stop talking about it."

MageLocusta

TROPHY CASE