VioletChaos

The throw is surprisingly low given the profile. Still, I always personally recommend starting with a drop- you can always go up from there if you want it to be stronger, but if you amp it, it's hard to come back from that in the initial application The lasting power for me is several hours. But it depends on 1. how much I've applied 2. if my activities make me sweat and 3. how dry my skin is on a given day. If I had to round it out, I'd estimate about 4 hours, give or take.

I got this as a frottle (Thanks, sweet Lab Goblins!) and I'm really glad I did! In the bottle I get a delicate blend of incense, ti and a touch of gardenia. Wet on skin and heading into dry down, the scent shifts with the *cumin* of all notes keeping it from being too light or cloying or sweet. The scent pretty much stays there from here on out, which is a delightful surprise to me- I normally can't wear any cedar scents as they go full Pencil Shaving / Hamster Cage on me, but the note is barely present. In fact, all those earthy, root-y notes, and not one of them seems to be coming out to play, making this fragrance a light, delicate study in green tea and white florals. Normally I don't head in that direction, but this blend is really pretty- something I might wear with a white gossamer gown billowing around me as I walked the moors thinking of a lost love...or maybe just curling up to watch a few episodes of Dark Shadows In all, a sweet, light floral concoction with a medium to strong throw. Definitely test sparingly until you know how it will behave. A surprising addition to my collection

In the bottle, the sugar, the juicy pear and the vanilla silk are all coming on strong. This Carmilla scent, like the other one I picked up, proves to be a real chameleon when actually applied. That's not in a bad way. But for me, with my skin chemistry, everything that was present at first sniff then completely evaporates after full dry-down. What remains is like a sexy cousin of Obatala, minus the water note and replace the shea butter with orris butter. The melange reminds me of a scent I was gifted about 20 years ago from a stranger who passed me on the street smelling amazing and when I asked him what he was wearing, he took a bottle from his pocket and tossed it to me and walked away. That scent became known as the Magic Musk and now I feel like it's just come back into my life through mysterious back-door means. If I had any complaint -and it's a small one- it's that I had been hoping for a showing of those violets, which, probably unsurprisingly, are my favorite floral scent. However, this scent is a sexy, musky masterpiece just the same. ❤️

Exactly as advertised! Seriously, though, in the bottle the chocolate is dark, thick, rich. It's the kind of chocolate where the cream hardly even makes an indent, no blood to speak of even. All things obliterated by the chocolatey chocolate! Once on the skin, it all starts to morph and almost reverse course, with the blood becoming the dominant note and the chocolate receding. At full dry down, the scent has become a spicy confection of blood with the chocolate acting as a delicate, sugary foil for it. The cream has left the building entirely, but this duo is a heady brew on its own. In all, a lighter throw than you might expect given the notes. I'd call this a sexy daytime scent or a playful something to wear on a casual first or weeknight date. Given the notes involved, I'm really hoping to see a change in a few months' time that will allow it to deepen and get a little more complex. As it now stands, it's perfectly lovely, and light enough that I'd be interested in playing around with layering, maybe with something like Graveyard Dirt, to make an "alternate universe" version of Penny Dreadful!

2024 version. I essentially got this as a backup bottle- I'm running dangerously low on previous iterations. So I was really just hoping for more of the same- and I've gotten it! It's possible this scent will calm down in the coming months or years, but certainly right now this version is somehow even MORE dirt-like and earthy! It really is like opening a big ol' bag of soil. Or laying in a graveyard. (Yes, I've done both of these things). If you love earth-forward scents like Penny Dreadful but have been hesitant to go full Dirt, I invite you to try. It's a scent that I think is gorgeous almost year round (high summer excluded) and as a single note, it really IS versatile, in terms of how you can use it to layer with other scents (I invite you to apply with a super-sweet foodie scent for instance and watch the show!) I only picked up one bottle but now that I've tested it, I'm definitely getting additional backups for sure!

Full disclosure: the autumn leaf notes tend to HATE me. Like, with a fiery, cologne-y passion that breaks my heart every year at this time when folks get to slather on the Dead Leaf scents. But I figured I'd take a chance with this one because literally every other note in this blend is something I adore (and works on me), so I'm hoping for a Hail Mary. Let's see how it goes, shall we? In the bottle, I get the corn husk immediately which combines with the hay note in the best possible way. The leaves are peeping in the background, which always smell fine in the bottle, I hope it translates to my skin without issue! 🤞 Wet on skin and through to dry-down, I get wisps of the hay, the oak, the corn husk and the leaves. I was hoping for more vetiver, which is a note I adore, but I am pleased as punch to have found a maple leaf scent that I can ACTUALLY wear!!! I suspect that the other notes, with their dry-earthy qualities were enough to do a course-correct with my skin chemistry. So if you, too, are a person that's been sad about a lack of Dead Leaves in your life, definitely give the Autumn Folk a try! I'd say this is a low-to-medium throw, so test cautiously until you know how your personal chemistry will respond. I can't wait to see how this ages! ❤️

GOODNESS! This is good! The the bottle I get the creaminess of the flan and evaporated milk and the richness of the ube. Once it warms up on the skin, the show *really* begins, with that mango note coming out to play and the dried coconut coming in for a quick "hello". (This coconut is NOT a big star, so the "dried" aspect is apt here- it's a nice supporting character, but definitely no stronger than the creamy notes, for instance.) The yam notes here are really blowing my mind. They are elevating this from what might otherwise be a scent that would mostly appeal only to foodies and gourmand lovers and transforms it into something else. Beth has been playing around with these earthy-food notes this year (like the *exquisite* use of Red Bean Paste in a peach hair gloss a month ago for D-Con) and these new fragrances are showing that her range just gets more and more complex, interesting and exciting. Here the ube plays with the mango and milk in a way that leaves me just wanting to huff my wrist for EVER. Literally, every time I pull my hand away, I immediately feel loss, and need to sniff again. A low throw scent, test before slathering because this is a scent that will be for YOU, not for your companions. Not that they won't want to snuggle in closer, but that this is one of those fragrances that feels more intimate, more personal, and you might just want to keep it all for yourself In all: DEFINITELY worthy of a backup bottle- or two!

In the bottle I get the chocolate immediately but right on the heels of that comes the nutmeg, clove and saffron. A spicy chocolate concoction to be sure! Wet on skin: the coconut starts to bloom into the mix a little. I was slightly worried as coconut can amp on me under certain circumstances. But here it's just another voice in the chorus, adding a bit of depth and nicely rounding out the rough edges of all that spice. Dry down, things get more mellow. The clove is now out in front, but not in a loud way- it's the one noticeable note at this point, but not anything like, say, Thorns' Clove Cigarette scent. The chocolate is still present but waaaay in the back, which makes sense, since this is a chocolate TEA, not a bar of chocolate. In all: low throw, this scent definitely stays close to the skin. Test it before going nuts but don't be surprised if you need to add more to make an impact. A lovely, spicy daytime scent, I see myself wearing this during these next months of seasonal transition, as we get deeper into fall. Pair with your favorite spiced latter variant and a cozy sweater to make for a lovely Autumnal day! ☕ 🍁

I. Am. SMITTEN. I kept my D-Con order much more limited this year due to an immanent relocation, but even though I've never encountered a Red Bean Paste note personally before, I figured this would be one of my three splurged items since the note sounded intriguing and since I've had very good luck with Peach HG's in previous years. This? Blows them ALL out of the water. In the bottle, the bean paste note is SO deep and rich, it almost comes across like cacao, if cacao somehow wasn't chocolatey. That might hurt your brain, but I assure you, when you smell this? You will understand. It's the rich-paste thing. There's nothing "creamy" about it, but it had that level of richness. I sprayed a little on my hand (which is what I do with the Hair Glosses: I spray them into my hand, lightly rub my hands together, then run my hands though my hair, focusing on the bottom two thirds of length). Once warmed up, the richness mellows, but only a bit. This allows the tendrils of peach to find their way in. Side note about the peach: I got three Pit items this year and all three share the experience of a greatly understated Peach note as compared to previous years. But take my advice- do NOT let that be a deterrent! Whereas previous Peach Pit iterations have caused me to rave about the "juiciness" and the "fresh", "ripe" qualities, this year's Peach is a study in what a "quiet" peach can be. It's not food or gourmand- it's a dry, delicate scent that removes the edible aspects, so that it comes across like a skin musk that happens to be extracted from a peach- or the pith near the stone at the center. What it loses in the kind of brash immediacy of previous years, it gains in being subtle, adult, and frankly gorgeous. And in a 3-out-of-3 tries, it elevates the scent and the experience each time. After settling in, this scent, in this hair gloss, is something that I didn't even know I was missing from my (frankly? VAST) collection of BPALs. I could not be happier that after almost two solid decades of rabidly following this company that the always-masterful Beth can still surprise me and leave me in awe. ❤️ Final thoughts: low throw, brilliant on its own, but if you felt like layering or pairing, I'd recommend any of the bone-dry sandalwood or cacao-forward scents to add even more depth.

This is a shockingly light fragrance given the note list. In the bottle, all the above is present, and in a big, loud way. Once applied to the skin, it starts to shift pretty much immediately. Even elements that typically amp on me, like red musk, wind up being kinda...fleeting. 🤷‍♀️ Which isn't to say that this scent isn't lovely- it is! But rather than be bold, the scent is quiet. The musks are verrrrry close to the skin as are the other traditionally bossy notes like the patch and the fig. By all means, test sparingly when you initially try it, but don't be surprised if subsequent wearings find you slathering. After about an hour of wear, the scent is a gentle whisper of dark musks and vanillas and the peach is present but only on the take-away. The peach was similar in the other Peach Pit scent I got from this year's crop, so I wonder if there's something fundamentally different from last year's Pit? Just a bit of musing. Either way, I like this scent very much and the irony is, with the delicacy of the Pit scents overall, I'm apt to wear them more frequently, not just when I'm in the mood for an overtly juicy, fruity vibe!

Have you ever had the pleasure of eating thai mango sticky rice? This is essentially what it smells like. The coconut milk is NOT the coconut of, say, Obatala and it's also not a "suntan lotion" coconut either. It really is the true experience of what coconut sticky rice smells like- the coconut milk is *delicate* yet distinct, and the same is true of the sticky rice. They mix seamlessly here to become their destiny. And into that dynamic duo comes the peach. In the bottle and when first applied, it comes on strong. And if I'm being honest, a bit TOO strong, in that it overpowers the delicacy of the other notes. But once it dries down completely, it mixes more evenly and really embodies what's on the label. I'm delighted to add this to my roster of Con scents! ❤️ 🍑

I adore both the Lab's Carnation note and also their Hay note. It would never have occurred to me to put them together, so that alone made me want to try Mouse. In the bottle, I mostly get the carnation plus little bits of vanilla and cream to soften the spicy edges. Once on the skin, the scent blooms with the full chorus of all listed notes playing a part! (this is a rare thing for me- like many folks, my personal chemistry usually pulls some notes forward and others linger in the background. More often than not a note or two won't show up for me at all! So this really was an interesting turn of events.) In the dry down and for several hours after, everything but the hazelnuts stick around, creating a warm, cuddly scent that's a perfect transition from later summer and into early fall. Given the richness of the notes, it's a surprisingly low throw scent and sticks close to the skin. Test sparingly at first, of course, but don't be surprised if you need to top up beyond your usual amount. In all, the scent is a fine addition to my "summer hay" scents and glad I snagged a bottle!

This scent is *lovely*. For me, part of what makes it so is that there's something about this blend and the unusual nature / juxtaposition of the notes that gives this scent a real vintage BPAL vibe. It's what I'd been hoping for when I read the description and my gamble paid off! In the bottle, I get a deliciously odd melange of the lemon rind, tonka and patchouli. On the one hand, these elements seemingly shouldn't work together, and yet they somehow doo- the patch slips under, providing a rumbling base, the lemon is indeed pithy, not icy, so while it's got that citrus aspect one would hope for, the rind gives it a slight bitter edge, which is balanced by the sweet resin of the tonka. I was hooked! Wet on skin, the other notes all start to come into play, but the way it warms up, different aspects come in and out at different times- and stick around at different rates. So there was about 30-45 minutes where the scent was intriguingly all over the place, sweet, sappy amber and bergamot and lemon one moment, the bergamot slipping away and the tonka and patch becoming more present, tonka fading and vanilla coming into dance just as lemon heads out the door, cacao showing up and bergamot re-emerging at the same moment...and on and on. I huffed my wrist repeatedly whilst walking around my neighborhood, marveling at every twist and turn, each one a slightly different but equally compelling mix. Upon full dry down and for several hours after, the scent eventually settles down into a sultry mix of all the base notes- patch, cacao, vanilla, tonka and a bit of the amber. Unsurprisingly, the citrus notes by this point have all left the building for good, alas. Citrus typically doesn't hang around for the long haul (on me, at least) unless it's basically the totality of the scent (like lemon in Happy Baby In A Long Dress or orange in Kingdom of Sweets, for instance) so I was prepared for this to be the case. But that assortment of deeper notes is really gorgeous just the same, so I'm not even mad. Interestingly, I had to REALLY slather this scent to get it to stay put. I mean, like, re-application three times in the space of ten minutes, because the first two times were just eaten by my skin in their entirety. But the third time really was the charm for staying power. So, take that as you will- maybe you'll only have to apply the usual one time, but don't be surprised if more is required to be merrier. That said, the scent remained quite close to the skin and had a surprisingly low throw given some of the usually-heavy hitters in the mix. I end this review as I started it. In all, this scent is *lovely*. It's completely its own thing, but also makes me delight in some of my oldest BPAL treasures all over again. ❤️

Of the July 2024 releases, I admit, this was the one I was MOST excited for! In The Bottle: All coconut aspects accounted for! I definitely can individually pull out the husk from the meat from the milk, even at this early stage, and it is SO good! Wet On Skin: Milk and Meat are coming out to the fore. I hope this is transitional, cause that husk smelled *really* good in the bottle. Dry Down: The husk *does* come back! Hooray! If the frond is meant to be a bit of a "green" note, I don't get it here. But I'm not at all mad about it, because this is so beautiful as is with the coconut milk, meat and husk. It's got a bit of that "cool" coconut note I remember from Obatala, but this is definitely its own thing. It's NOT suntan lotion and it's *also* NOT candy coconut. This is the scent of sitting under a coconut tree surrounded by fallen, dry fronds, basking in the gentle warmth, protected from the direct sunlight by the tree's shadow. It's ridiculously beautiful and may, in fact, require at least one backup bottle.

In The Bottle: There is something surprisingly...watery...about this combination. 😳 I'm really surprised, because neither of these notes has EVER given me even a hint of such a thing! I think there's something about these two together that lends itself toward a whisper of petrichor somehow, and I definitely don't mind. Wet On Skin: As with this month's Deer Moon itself, it starts to shift fairly dramatically shortly after it begins to warm up. The notes are separating themselves out into the very recognizable beeswax note I've known and loved in other BPAL blends and a less-prominent tobacco that smells more like the soil note in Penny Dreadful than any tobacco notes I've encountered from The Lab previously. For me, it works, cause I usually love earth and dirt notes. Dry Down: It stays largely the same from first touch to dry down, so not much morphing. It's a warm "skin" scent, definitely stays close, not alot of throw. Always test carefully, but don't be surprised if you have to slather a little Layered with Deer Moon, as intended: I get it. If Deer Moon didn't have such forward Blackberry, adding in this Duet might be overkill. But these two notes add some warmth with the sweetness making the layering a really beautiful cuddly scent. In All: F or the remainder of this hot, hot summer, I'll likely keep this Duet for separate use from the Deer it's paired with. The *moment* we get a cool, autumnal day, though, the layering will be ON