celestia

♔ Khrysee In the Bottle: Lightly floral fragranced hairspray and medicinal amber Wet: I get a sweet vanillic amber and an orange blossom that reminds me of Katharina, it’s almost honeyed, even! It kind of smells like a lighter, more florally Snake Oil? The amber is powdery and tangy- but beautiful. It’s quite simple and also reminds me of the vanilla-honey-amber combination from Blossoms in Springtime, though BoS is a lot more ‘yellow’ gold, while Khrysee leans more towards an ‘orange’ rust, kind of gold. In a way, this maybe because to me, BoS has a higher proportion of vanilla to amber, while Khrysee contains a higher dosage of amber, than vanilla. Drydown: This dries to a very simple honeyed vanilla amber, the orange blossom is a background and supporting note on me, much like in Katharina. It’s a little spicy and golden, like Hod – with orange blossom replacing carnation, but a lot less foody. TL:DR: Honeyed vanilla amber and orange blossom.

♔ Sugar Plum Fairy In the Bottle: Sugared candy Plums Wet: On wet, this smells like watermelon jolly ranchers, it’s not heavy or cloying, quite light and fruity. It’s so sugary sweet and candied, that it almost smells like it belongs with the sugared floral twins from Carnival Diabolique (Faith and Hope). I find the sugar plum here to be more sugary and fruitier than the Midwinter’s Eve series, which to me was more floral and also maybe a little more simple and lacking depth. The apricot note here smells like the sharp apricot from Katharina...which sort of smells more like peach than apricot to me…It’s a refreshing, almost tart kind of sweet too, peach sugar, perhaps? The cocoa dust doesn’t make itself heard at all, just adds a bit of muskiness. I imagine the vanilla infused sugar was supposed to add some sort of creaminess to blend but it smells overwhelmingly sugary than creamy with my chemistry. Drydown: The candied sugared plums now have a dusting of powdered sugar over them but are still gloriously fruity and light. I do prefer this over Midwinter’s Eve, which smells less full bodied, and maybe a little flat and one-dimensional at times.. Sugar Plum Fairy has a lot more complexity with its elements that highlight multiple notes. They are equally and expertly blended and work so harmoniously together. TL;DR: Candied sugared plums and light peach sugar.

I feel that Stekkjastaur has a great musky marshmallow note. Pip has a very similar musky marshmallow note, but also has a sugary floral and sweet amber note you may or ma not want to gamble with. (Blue satin swaths of iris and indigo flower, billows of white mallow root and smoked sugar, embroidered with antiqued amber.) If you are keen to try more marshmallow-centric scents, Marshmallow Poof (Marshmallow Poof -- A gooey mound of white fluffiness! And yes, it is vegan!) and the single note, Stale Sugar-Crusted Marshmallow Chick both come to mind. For Lady Lucile Sharpe, I've suggested the prototype, Clytemnestra v3 in the past for the similar dark floral and plum vibes they both share in common, in reviews. You may also like Miss Addie, although they are very evidently different scents, she is a dark floral and fruit with blackcurrant. Dr. Alan McMichael was a wonderful light brown scent- a sweet spicy rum and woodsy musk. You might like Jolly Roger which also carries some similar notes: Sea spray with an undercurrent of leather, Bay Rum, and salty, dry woods. I think there was a lot of speculation and comparison between This Wan White Humming Hive and The Light of Men's Lives as they are both musky.smoky.creamy beeswax scents. Lettuce notes in BPAL are quite interesting. Rapunzel is also a floral scent which also has Wild Lettuce that is easily searchable in the Lab's product list. Lemurian Ghost also comes to mind as it also shares wild lettuce and ethereal florals (Green, white, and ochre musks with moonflower, white mint, and wild lettuce). The Unicorn, Rushing Against the Tree, Fixed its Horn so Fast in the Trunk that it Could Not Draw it Out is a great scent that reminds me of The Last Unicorn, but does not have a lettuce note. If you are purely interested in The Last Unicorn for its lettuce, there other lettuce scents with an ethereal vibe, you might want to look into When the Stars are Weeping (Glittering starry musk dotted with crystalline vanilla, benzoin, violet leaf, Italian bergamot, white honeysuckle, water lettuce, and grief-touched crushed carrot seed.). Edited to fix formatting DX

I'm not great with some of these notes, as I live on the sweeter, lighter spectrum towards vanilla, amber, carnation, lighter soft leather, and ambergris. So my recommendations/suggestions might only be partially useful. :/ Have you tried Clockwork Couture: Female? Leather, golden amber, vanilla orchid, Spanish moss, Oxford clay, and tonka. It is a beautifully sugary vanilla and sweet golden amber kind of scent scent and has one of my favourite leathers also! For jammy rose, I don't really have anything that comes to mind without layering, but if you haven't tried Love, you might be interested? It has a sugared rose nose and a sweet fruit together with more sweet confectionery but the rose is made present even with all the sugary components! Marshmallows and rose sugar with whipped vanilla cream and a hint of strawberry. Failing that, layer a lot of Peacock Queen with Raspberry Sufganiyot (only a drop)? haha. Ambergris is a beautiful note and I even though I own quite a few, I feel the ones I have are more of a supporting note than the main attraction. If you're looking for something like a single note, that might be "perfect" because i showcases the note loud and clear. My favourite that I could probably call an ambergris blend of sorts is still Lyonesse, which some even describe as a salty sweet vanilla amber... it is also a vanilla and amber blend of sorts which might help marry some of these notes up together. I love carnations and I think while some blends containing it are impossible or too expensive to hunt down, others, like Miss Lizzie, are more recent and might appeal to you! If you're keen to mix your carnations with amber, you might also be interested in Hod (Resurrected version is easier to find). Spanish Red Carnation is quite a bit more spicier than I personally prefer for carnation scents, but if you are okay with this, it might be up your ally.

♔ Pink Moon 2005 In the Bottle: Creamy, sugared and pink phlox, with light floral honey and gently ripened strawberries. A little spicy and matured..or fermented. Wet: This is such a feminine pink floral, it’s soft and juice and very pink, but softly so. It is quite sweet and gentle, but also has a great depth to it. I’m surprised! There is a bit of fruitiness to this that balances this vanillic pink floral into a juicier fruity floral. It reminds me a little of the pink floral sweetness and creaminess I get from Lady in Pink Speckled Kimono. It’s just gorgeous! Drydown: Powdered strawberry sweetened by honey and pink and white florals. TL;DR: creamy, sugary, slightly spiced pink floral, hint of sun ripened strawberries, white floral honey.

♔ Daisy Hilton In the Bottle: sweet generic perfumey cologne, non offensive but it doesn’t really strike memorable- almost pleasantly generic. Wet: This opens and blossoms beautifully sweet and creamy, a little sugary- there has to be some kind of white floral in this. I get a slight background of rose dominated by creamy, sweet. and white floral incense (is that white tobacco??)...which is strangely morphing...sour? what? Okay, weird. That creamy sweet note has morphed yet again...er... into white florals sitting in fertiliser. White tobacco in this blend also seems to amplify the resiny musk note, which ends up smelling like a lighter ethereal sandalwood. Sandalwood and oudh usually go hand in hand, and this white oudh seems to have a sandalwood like quality to it. Honestly, and as I've mentioned to others in the past prior to this review, I wouldn’t be surprised if there was a mix of white sandalwood in this to create white oudh, as the pairings are quite frequent in other BPAL blends. It’s very lightly smoky, musky and warm I assume that karanones are more present in white oudh than nondescript oudh/oud/agarwood, because I detect a slight citrus note accompanying the faint woodsiness. Drydown: The fertiliser note has faded away and a normal rose has come forth. I get a musky resiny and slightly citric tea rose, the kind that turned sour on me in Blossoming Vulva…hmm a bit of a let down. I really wish rose took a backseat and was darker, like in The White Witch, or had more depth like Eve...or even dried, like in Crucifixion or Cicuta.,, Something less pure and less dominant to let the white tobacco and white oudh shine a bit more. The tobacco in this is very light and resiny- I find it difficult to differentiate between the light resinous oudh.. I struggle to even think they’re in there as anything but a supporting note to the rosehip that strangely smells more like tea rose and rose than fruit of the rose plant on me .-. TL;DR: Citric tea rose, white sandalwood, white florals, really nice creamy, light tobacco....and dirt ;[

♔ Violet Hilton In the Bottle: strong herbal floral Wet: Sweet, slightly tart orange blossom and zest, and sweet, sugary white florals. Almost instantly, I get a peppery whiff of peppercorn which combines with the white musk to overpower all the other notes, leaving only a faint trace of orange and white floral. I don’t really smell a familiar kind of sweet orange blossom, it's a little sharper here and almost as though the other notes have separated them into two distinguishable/ individual components; orange zest and white floral...where the white floral component from this note is terribly soapy. I'm guessing this is the part where I try to excuse my chemistry for making it smell 'clean' and uncomplicated. Drydown: As it dries, this begins to smell like light, zesty orange citrus again, only this time, it's brought more friends- like reaaaaaally loud, white floral friends. The white musk in this doesn’t seem to do anything but amplify the lack of other notes present. I don’t get any coconut, not even the watery kind (let alone the juicy or meaty and fleshy kind)..nothing that resembles the smell of coconut anyway, but I do get a creaminess in the floral, it kind of makes me think the coconut note renders the white florals to smell a little off and juicier, with slight ..maybe slight coconut water present?… is that a compensation or a compromise of my chemistry? Haha I don’t know. This is mostly white musk, orange zest, white floral and a drop of coconut water. TL;DR: Sharp white musk, orange zest, white floral, drop of coconut water.

♔ Body, Remember In the Bottle: Perfumed Coconut juice Wet: Sweet, sugary coconut juice! I smell sugar cane in this which is morphs to an almost caramelised and thick syrup. The sugar cane and coconut juice is muddled very well together, it's definitely very sticky. And while the coconut is still grounding the scent as a base- I get the impression there is a tropical white floral hiding somewhere in there- and juicy, young, sweet coconut juice. I had always imagined black coconut to smell like a husk of desiccated coconut meat inside a blackened coconut shell, like the black coconut in So Below! I thought maybe raw black coconut to be similar, but I'm pleasantly surprised! It's much more foody-delicious, and sugary (also owing to the other notes, obviously)- but this is all juice, no meat! It's a watery kind of rich as well, not creamy-meaty kind of rich. I know the description mentions champaca flower which I tend to categorise as a nag champa incense based floral, but it really just adds a huskier, sexier depth to the coconut juice note. Perhaps a little salty sweat from the ambergris? The way the notes read altogether, it brings to mind a scent that reflects the height of summer, on the beach, in the shade..no. at night... doing naughty things! lol. Drydown: The dry down smells like sugar cane juice, coconut juice, and some sort of pale coloured, tropical flower floating atop. The sugar cane really is taken into the foreground during the drydown, its wet and juicy and still grounded by the sweet, sticky coconut juice. TL;DR: Caramelised coconut juice, sugar cane syrup, and soft, pale coloured tropical floral.

♔ Morocco In the Bottle: Sweet, warm and gentle spices Wet: Warm light musk and carnation, with gentle, creamy spices. I feel like there must also be some sort of cream in there with sugary spices because this is quite sweet! I get a similar warmth and glow from the red sandalwood as I do when I wear Jingu, though its amplified here to smell a little more resinous. The red sandalwood is riding with another note- amber? I mean, it's not mentioned anywhere in the description, but I’m getting hints of some sort of soft, warm, golden amber. It’s creamy and musky and the resins are more pronounced. It could be what is making everything so creamy and sweet as amber tends to turn like that on me (and why I love it so). Drydown: Much more muskier now and the incense wafts in to further ground the sandalwood, the spiciness from the carnation, cassia and Arabian spices are taking the forefront now and the creaminess I got from initial application is fading. An incredible creamy, gently spiced and lightly glowing oriental scent with a speckle of reddish-pink carnation. TL;DR: Gentle, creamy spices, reddish-pink carnation, and warm sugared incense.

♔ Hetairae In the bottle: Honey wine and soapy white florals Wet: It’s definitely a honeyed floral- but it’s kind of an ‘off’ or sickly sweet honey that’s been fermented and almost turned into a wine, it definitely does not start out as a fresh honey by any stretch. There’s also a whiff of dried fig, not the fruity creamy fig I get from Love and Sleep, I think this one has attached itself to the patchouli because it smells slightly greenier and a little dirty, though that could be the clove, which reacts horribly with my chemistry. It actually kind of smells a like the dirty green fig note in The Hanging Gardens? I also get stinky sweaty florals, which I can only assume to be the ylang ylang… probably also married to clove and patchouli ..of which they and I are not the best of friends. Alas! Drydown: The drydown is more forgiving and kinder to me. I get a very floral dominant blend with a tinge of gentle, floral honey. It’s nowhere near as cocky and flamboyant as it opened with. I’m also starting to get a sweet rose note caused by the florals and honey reacting to the clove and patchouli.. how strange, that burns off quickly though, and I’m left with spicy clovey honey with a tint of fragrant ylang ylang. The clove behaves and only aides to keep the scent gently, and warmly spiced. This end phase is definitely much nicer! TL;DR: Honey clove wine, dirty fig and sweaty ylang ylang.

♔ Elephant’s Leash In the Bottle: floral peach vanilla and some red wine musk Wet: Peach floral liquor, wine like. Slightly fermenting or over ripe. Red musk is making it smell boozier and more incensey than I'd like, it almost reminds me of red wine?? Sweet, fruity Peach nectar and musky red sandalwood. If this is complex, it's picking all the wrong notes to impress me. Drydown: The scent is almost identical to the wet stage, not a whole lot of morphing. It’s mostly just silky jammy peach syrup with a heavier musky undertone I get from red sandalwood. It’s nice but it doesn’t floor me. I could appreciate this without owning it. I feel like if I loved red musk, this would have absolutely floored me. TL;DR: Sticky, ripe peaches soaked in red wine, enhanced by a hint of resinous woods

♔ Kaidan In the bottle: Dewy candied fruity floral- reminds me of a cross between titania and the spun sugar and fruit from Xanthe…but instead of apple, it’s sugar plum. Same vibe as the pear in Titania though Wet: Almost immediately the liquid is dropped onto my skin, the rose explodes. It’s a slightly petally red rose, lightly sugared. I don’t get much of any amber or incense yet …or the white sandalwood, but the sugared plum blossom is wafting around, struggling to reign supreme over the rose which now reminds me of a crystal shop; slightly musty, powdery sweet and a little dried. If rosehip were replaced with any other coloured floral…or if by chance the yellow floral in this stood a chance, I would buy bottles of this stuff. I get a slightly powdery resinous musk in the background, which I can only assume is the amber loaded incense coming out Drydown: The rose and amber are reacting to each other and I’m getting a bit of a blooded, copper tang. How odd. The rosehip is becoming slightly more lemony but also less noticeable. It’s begun to recede. It’s pretty but the rose ultimately ruins the scent for me because the initial scent smelt like it was going in a different direction and I was super excited to follow, how unfortunate! I'm super grateful to have been able to sample this though! TL;DR: Dewy sugared plum, crystal shop rose and copper bright amber

♔ Antique Lace In the Bottle: Dusty florals and a creamy linen, vanilla musk Wet: It's been years since I've smelt this again and already I feel the nostalgic scent of this scent's distinctive vanilla note. This is a beautiful, old delicate creamy vanilla musk scent with light whisps of dried white florals. It is as though this scent would have remained as beautiful and almost dainty, had it not been soaked with age. Still, it is a soft, powdery and creamy (almost milky) vanilla of the utmost refined and welcoming manner, and the vanilla has a depth to it that reminds me of linen- but isn’t the fresh dryer sheet linen note I get from Boo. Together, the dried florals and linen create a raspy kind of coarse dusty scent that evokes something old, fragile, but delicate. It is not a cold scent either, it smells resolute, accepting and stable. Drydown: The scent remains the same throughout all stages. It’s not the ageless youth I get from Elf v4, which smells extremely similar but is a lot more refined and ‘ageless’. It’s as though Elf v4 had its immortality stripped and is now aging gracefully. There is still a great deal of vanilla musk in this, it’s still creamy, but flecked with hints of time and age that still smell like particles of perfumey dust. It dries down to a creamy dust, dried florals, and vanillic musk. TL;DR: Milky, musky, perfumey vanilla and dried florals

♔ Pink Snowballs 2009 In the Bottle: Soft fluffy snow, a little perfumey and fragrant. Wet: This blend smells like soft cottony and pillowy snow with perfumed rose petals pushing through. It’s very gentle and delicate, but also quite simple. The rose starts out stemmy with a hint of freshness- but still evidentially quite perfume smelling. Drydown: No sharpness, no metallic notes, no ozone or menthol- nothing related to the normal associations of a snow scent. Just perfumed rose petals on softly perfumed, cottony linen sheets

♔ The Butterfly In the Bottle: Tingly citrus and perfumey amber Wet: I immediately get a bright pop of citrus from the bergamot, which I can only describe as quite sweet and lemony. It’s a little sparkly rather than fuzzy. It’s very bright and quite sharp- but not to the point of smelling acidic. I get a tiny hint of something sweet and a little creamy underneath. It’s a caramel and sunshine yellow scent but does not actually smell caramel or sweet. Drydown: The tonka and amber are rounding out now, smoothing the scent so that it’s not so sharp. There is a little creaminess to the tonka bean, almost like a very light vanilla. The bergamot never really subsides and on me amps more sharply than I’d like. The amber in this phase is also quite powdery, a little sweet and quite glowy and bright.. most likely lended by the citrussy bergamot. It's a happy scent. There is also a woodsy note peeking out from the petitgrain that I wasn't able to detect during the wet stage. The tonka bean mixing with it kind of makes it smell like a brown musk of sorts? TL;DR: Sparkly brown, woodsy musk and glowy citrussy amber.

♔ Tattered Lace In the Bottle: Slightly sweetened incense Wet: Citrus and incense, it’s quite green and fresh- like a grass note in a springtime blend…or like one of those Ode to Aphrodite blends (Verticordia, Murcia etc). Drydown: Smokiness is coming out, the grassiness disappeared and subdued now. I get cognac without vanilla. It’s quite sharp. I don’t really get any of the conceptually described notes at all and was hoping for the vanilla to be more prominently tea-stained but it smells aged, dusty and dry on me, not quite what I remembered of the creamy vanillas hailing from the lace family. I also get no tea mixed in, not do I manage to capture what “silk” here is supposed to smell like. The description is so beautiful, the last time I wore it, was also very beautiful- but currently, as of now- none of what I remember is present. It's not that delicate creamy lightly vanillic musk I remember trying back all those years. I imagined this to smell like an upper class, classic perfume from an older woman, perhaps resinous and regal with a slight fragility in the blend. It feels like this tattered lace became starchy and stiff – almost like crunchy tattered lace. It smells a bit like the decaying leaf note in the Autumn Leaves blends. TL;DR: Crunch starchy, dusty musk with a light leafy citric incense.

♔ Strawberry Moon v5 In the Bottle: Fresh, tangy and a little sour fruit Wet: Grassy fresh pinky red fruit- smells a little more like fresh apple and a light musk with either stems or some crushed grass, than the strawberries I was expecting. I get a little tang of effort coming from what I imagine should have been the strawberry. Drydown: Sweet greenery, I get a bright pop of pink apply fruit, it’s not incredibly juicy but it’s definitely fruity and the throw is quite strong- yet it smells kind of fae, dewy and ethereal - most probably attributed to the dewy sharpness coming from the crushed grass. It's quite nice, but a little more green than I was going for. TL;DR: Crushed grass and light pinky red apple musk, with a tang of unripe strawberry.

♔ The Fairy Market In the Bottle: Explosion of sharp, sweet grass and faint pale coloured florals in a mist Wet: Ah! One of my favourite, fondly thought of and scene-evoking scents! Fizzy white incense, really delicate petals the sharpness of the scent reminds me of tuberose and a little of the freesia in Ava and BFJA mixed with a wisp of lavender and another watery cold-coloured floral. Its not at all a candied floral, its not fresh per-se either.. its like something changed the composition and these grasses and florals became everlasting and might smell like this forever, dewy, yet sharp and crystalline without any of the coldness a little nose tingle maybe- like fairy dust? It definitely reminds me of the same sharpness and almost effervescent/shimmery/sparkly, fae-like quality I get from Juliet, BFJA, Ava, Muse of Fire, and Midnight on the Midway. Drydown: The mist seems sweeter to the nose now, though still as sharp, like powder-coated and effervescent boiled lollies sitting in the sun-glowy, warmed grass. This smells like Midnight on the Midway during the day, without its cotton candyish sugared incense component and with boiled lollies instead. I feel like a dewy golden sunshine is warming everything up, its quite atmospheric but at the very same time. TL;DR: Pale coloured, boiled sweets sitting in effervescent ever-fae grass, glistening in the glowy warm sun. ETA: fixed typo

♔ Bitches Love Unicorns In the Bottle: The smell of freshly opened rainbow skittles- and the bright red plastic packet it comes in. mostly the original variety, not my favourite wild berry ones that come in the purple packet. Wet: Lemon Skittles. The lemon is quite sharp for a bit, and the fizzy quality does smell like day old 7up or Sprite- the kind that’s gone slightly flat, but is still aerated. It’s fizzy, bubbly and effervescent- but also very one dimensional, lemonade and lemon squashy, which I’m not loving. After a few minutes, the rest of the pale coloured rainbow starts morphing into the foreground here and the scent is quite fizzy pink, fizzy peach and I get some of the same blueberry candy note as found in blue lollipops. It’s definitely candy-like and smells like how a skittle would taste after the hard shell has been dissolved into the mouth. I feel like I’m smelling a vodka raspberry lemonade- without much of the booze and a handful of extra pink, orange, yellow skills, with a few purple and blue pieces thrown in. Drydown: It’s generally just fizzy-lemonade drenched, sugared fruits from the pink/peach variety. I don’t do citrus but I like effervescent. This one scent is of the first to have challenged my olfactory “line” the most. The atmosphere around me is a very pleasant powdery fizzy candy-like pink/peach coloured fruit kind of scent. I really do like this but I wish it were a little more “pink”, and that maybe the amazing phase of the scent opened up first, rather than having to morph into it. TL;DR: pink, yellow, orange skittles, maybe one or two purple and blue ones too... with their candy shell coating sucked away, all sticking together and hoping they still retain their identity even though they're all pale tinged with the colours they used to be.

♔ Hod (original) In the Bottle: creamy sweet spices and carnation petals. Wet: Gorgeous, STRONG, sweet and creamy spices and soft incense, similar to Morocco and Eve, maybe louder and more golden than Eve, because she is an incredibly subdued and complex scent! Also, in place of rose in Eve, there’s gently spiced up carnation. Almost immediately though, it morphs into a foodier kind of scent and almost reminds of the spices I get in Butter Rum Cookie with Morocco instead of the golden buttery note, though it too, settles quickly. There’s a vanilla note and a subtle amber note that reminds me of the chemistry reaction I get with snake oil and I can detect a subtle similarity here. It’s become quite sweet and verrrry golden, flecked with foody baking spices.. I also think a rich, non-floral honey must be in here because it's amping up a slight snake oil vibe. This scent feels somewhere between O and Morocoo. The carnation is just so beautifully milky and creamy and spicy. I feel like this is a little more ambery and golden version of Morocco Haha. More amber and honey in this now smells like aged O (amber and honey) + carnation. Drydown: The drydown actually reminds me more of Alice now, with the milky carnation and spices coming through, with an evenshot of foody baking spices equally present. It’s so so so beautiful if I don’t inhale deeply... and if i do, it ends up smelling like a more golden snake oil with spicy sweet carnation. TL;DR: Creamy spicy spices with carnation, honey, vanillic amber, and soft incense

♔ French Vanilla In the Bottle: Mild vanilla cream, a little oily and plasticky Wet: A light vanilla custard with a spicy note with an astringent ‘extracty’ boozy note The vanilla in this is not deep and rich like vanilla bean, but mixed into a pudding to smell more like custard and less like vanilla cream. It’s slightly plasticky and carries a bit of a spice that smells a little like anise to accent the vanilla and give it a bit more depth, but it's not at all prominent.... and it almost burns off completely in the first 10 seconds. French Vanilla smells almost identical to the vanilla present in Love’s Philosophy- sans the saffron. There are two vanillas I was assuming it would be- I hoped that it would be more like the same Madagascan vanilla note I get from Celeste, Antique Lace and Elfv4… but where celeste’s vanilla note is creamy rich, full bodied and vanilla-beany (vanilla rich), the vanilla in this is light and absent, airy and almost milky- kind of like the vanilla I get in Love’s Philosophy with a similar extract note (vanilla lite) only not so amped that it ends up smelling like menthol/wintergreens. Drydown: The anise aspect is fairly light and is drunk completely by my skin pretty early. The lingering aftermath ends up giving the vanilla more depth and dimension- no added liquorice. yay! I get a little bit of a caramel note that reminds me of that fried dought smells from Midway… kind of like Midway got stripped of all its flavour and got left with the base vanilla hhaha. Midway was definitely more cotton candy and fried funnel cake- but it had this oily sort of smell that reminds me of the diluted-ness in the French Vanilla It kind of smells like a light caramel and vanilla custard cream. I kind of really like this, it dries completely to a sugary cream but I feel like I should be holding out for a muskier, AL-based Madagascan vanilla or a richer, more full bodied vanilla. TL;DR: Airy, milky and oily light vanilla

♔ Cake Smash In the Bottle: spiced batter note that is prominent in many bpal cake blends. Slightly artificial/plasticky. Wet: Spicy golden brown cake mix, slightly sweet and pink- but not sprinklecake 'pink', maybe the frosting? I get a little chocolatey note that reminds me of sweetened dry cocoa than the buttery nutty chocolate I expect to see in chocolate blends. There’s no tang so- I can’t say there’s much of the cream cheese frosting other than the plastic strawberry pink cake covering I get, over a dry cocoa chocolate base which is undoubtedly the red velvet. Drydown: There’s more of the strawberry pink covered cocoa cake note coming into the foreground– and the red velvet/dry cocoa note disappears in this stage which is disappointing. I also seem to amp more of the snake oil on dry down...with the spiced cake batter, it mixes into a nice dry golden amber and aged vanilla – but it's definitely snake oil. It’s a little sweeter and lighter, like Khrysee- but not floral. I imagine that Dorian hiding in there somewhere because I don't even get hints of vanilla tea. I also don't really understand why it morphed into strawberry pink cake icing on me? what? Especially as Sprinklecake gave me a lot more pink "sprinkles" and less chocolate base. hmmm TL;DR: Spicy golden cake batter, sprinkled with dry cocoa, with pink icing atop.

Plumeria, pear and white champagne. In the Bottle: Sweet pear with a sickly off note. Wet: Fizzy fermenting peach and a light floral note, reminds me of Agalea. The peach is a drizzle in the background. I catch a hint of more fruits- fizzy golden peach and white pear as in Titania Drydown: It’s become a little lemony and the florals are getting sharper. I feel like white florals must be in there- but mixed with others. It’s a fizzy pale pink, green and lemony white scent. I swear there’s a bit of honeysuckle in there as I’m getting a similar note to the honeysuckle in Do the Dancing Maidens Sleep. TL;DR: Fermenting, fizzy golden peach and dewy white pear

You have some great suggestions so far, Waiting, The Haunted Beach, and Stormclouds over the Midway all showcase the different olfactory experiences rain can have over different places and geographical locations. Here's one more to add to your list: On the Porch In the Rain: A white chypre drenched in soft spring rain against a backdrop of gently swaying bamboo reeds

♔ Pip In the Bottle: Nutty, foody buttery marshmallow musk and sugared golden amber..what? This makes me feel a little sick. Wet: The white mallow root definitely reminds me of the same woolly marshmallow note in Stekkjarstaur- but it’s as though the Yule lad got dipped in the lab’s chocolate note because I’m getting this horrible nutty scent, instantly upon application and I don’t really like anything nutty. It could be from the smoked sugar, as I've had a similar nutty chemistry clash with Sugar Skull 2007, or it could be from the mallow root which makes more sense on paper - or a combination of both. If I look beyond that, I get a gold sweet amber note, similar to Blossoms in Springtime but is juxtaposed with foodie buttery mallow instead of the golden florals I love so much in that blend. I'm pretty certain it’s the same antiqued amber. The florals and the smoke from the sugar, both temper the amber from turning into heavily honeyed or sugared amber which is a relief, because I that combination tends to turn anything into snake-oil with my chemistry. Drydown: The marshmallow note has dried down a lot sweeter, more sugary, but less buttery and rich. I like it better in this stage. I get various gradients of purple florals coming through a lot more now- the smoked sugar smells more like slightly deeper and richer sugared iris at the forefront and I’m LOVING this. It ends up smelling like the dewy sugared lilacs I get from Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree- but with iris instead of lilac. The amber is glowing again and overtaking the rest of the notes. It’s golden and sweet, not unlike Blossoms in Springtime which is one of my favourite golden floral blends. A faint whiff of sugared iris and marshmallow sugar. I like this phase a lot. I wish the initial stage would have smelt more like this instead though. TL;DR: Dewy sugared purple florals and sweet, golden amber.