VioletChaos

This tobacco accord is soulful, earthy, and multifaceted: the scent reverberates like a deep bass note, possessing a very faint citrus-like twang and an almost animalic caramel richness. In The Bottle: Warm and yes, slightly caramel, but not foody. There's also an astringent quality that's coming through strongly at this point. Wet On Skin: The astringency has mellowed a bit. I feel pretty certain this is the tobacco note from Pinched With Four Aces. Dry Down: Staying true. Someone at Will Call compared this to high-quality pipe tobacco, and I can see where the comparison is apt. There's a warm sweetness that is usually present in pipe tobacco that you don't find in other varieties, and this has a bit of that. In All: Medium throw. As with nearly all the other single notes, this stays more or less the same from in the bottle through to it's finish. I don't know that I'll have much cause for wearing this on it's own. That being said, this is a *great* asset in adding to other scents when you're looking to add some warmth or sweetness without anything that'll read as sugary or food-like. This is a great addition to any BPAL collection and I predict it becomes one of the most popular Single Notes released during this 12 month period. ETA It's about 40 minutes later and the warmth and throw have both continued to grow with this Single Note. I think this has great potential to be mixed in with all kinds of other scents effectively, but be careful, because the throw on this scent is really really high at this point, and I barely put any on my hand at all. This is the epitome of A Little Goes A Long Way.

No joke! Greasy petrolatum, lanolin, and titanium dioxide accords smeared with vanilla cream. Please note: this product contains no clowns or clown-derived materia. I HAD to have this. But I can't imagine what this will smell like... In The Bottle: Sort of like vanilla Play Dough Wet On Skin: A soft, white sweet smell. Not even vanilla, exactly. Like marshmallow fluff, or sweet-scented stage fog. Dry Down: It's become almost a sweet light musk. It's incredibly unassuming, very sweet and charming. Not the chemical greasepaint I had feared. But it's honestly rather hard to describe. In All: low to medium throw, sweet and comforting. Much better than clowns!

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! ❤️ 🍑

“Have you remembered how I do my little coin trick?” he asked Shadow with a grin. “I have not.” “If you can guess how I did it,” said Mad Sweeney, his lips purple, his blue eyes beclouded, “I’ll tell you if you get warm.” “It’s not a palm is it?” asked Shadow. “It is not.” “Is it a gadget of some kind? Something up your sleeve or elsewhere that shoots the coins up for you to catch?” “It is not that neither. More whiskey, anybody?” “I read in a book about a way of doing the miser’s dream with latex covering the palm of your hand, making a skin-colored pouch for the coins to hide behind.” “This is a sad wake for Great Sweeney who flew like a bird across all of Ireland and ate watercress in his madness: to be dead and unmourned save for a bird, a dog, and an idiot. No, it is not a pouch.” “Well, that’s pretty much it for ideas,” said Shadow. “I expect you just take them out of nowhere.” It was meant to be sarcasm, but then he saw the expression on Sweeney’s face. “You do,” he said. “You do take them from nowhere.” “Well, not exactly nowhere,” said Mad Sweeney. “But now you’re getting the idea. You take them from the hoard.” “The hoard,” said Shadow, starting to remember. “Yes.” “You just have to hold it in your mind, and it’s yours to take from. The sun’s treasure. It’s there in those moments when the world makes a rainbow. It’s there in the moment of eclipse and the moment of the storm.” And he showed Shadow how to do the thing. This time Shadow got it. Radiant amber and orange blossom, golden oudh, and saffron-threaded honey. In The Bottle: Sweet, spicy saffron and warm, thick honey. Soooooo beautiful. Wet On Skin: The amber is definitely in the mix, but the saffron is really dominating. I get no orange blossom at this stage. Dry Down: Dead. Sexy. This is a sultry, spicy, close-to-the-skin kind of scent. I will wear this on all the hot summer nights that lie ahead for ever and ever. <3

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

In The Bottle: A surprisingly light combination of the cacao and musk, with a little blackberry and oak bark bitten off at the end. Wet On Skin: It warms up and starts to shift quickly, becoming more rich and strong- basically more in line what I'd expect from the scent profile for this. The musk is warm but not super dark, like a brown or black musk. I'm frankly relieved as those both tend to go wet cardboard with my chemistry suuuuuper fast. The blackberry continues its upward climb, becoming a near-predominant note. It's fascinating because I've generally experienced it in blends that are foodie-forward and really support a fruit as the star of the show. But this is an instant where the note plays against type and it's really working at this stage. Dry Down:The blackberry, oak bark musk and a hint of the cacao all come together in the blend at this point where it's a bit harder to pull out the individual notes. (given the density for most of them, I anticipate this will only get stronger with age). That said, I want to make clear that in spite of a few prominent notes, I would *not* call this a foodie or gourmand scent. If anything the combination, once settled and released by the skin, becomes a little reminiscent of a high-end masculine cologne. Alas, I get no blood or sandalwood at any point in the process, but it's a really interesting scent that I think will come into its own with a little bit of aging.

If I had to compare this scent with another, for me what comes closest is Australian Copperhead from Carnival Diabolique's Snake Pit. It's the combination of Snake Oil and the Acai Berry in that one that I recall as I sniff the strawberry / Snake Oil mix in this one. Full disclosure, I am one of those for whom fresh SO doesn't really work. For me, fireworks don't really kick off for, at the *very* least, a month. Six months is better, a year is far better and a decade or more is best. (Not kidding: slowly working my way currently through a 10mL bottle of Snake Oil from 2006 or so and it's just about the love of my life!). I mention this because there's a way that Snake Oil needs time and patience to settle into itself. Fortunately, this strawberry is NOT going plastic on me! It's retaining its sweet, fruity self in much the same way the fruit is forward and sweet-tart in Copperhead. And because of that, I have every reason to believe that this latest iteration of Snek is going to be a fine addition to my collection. In all: if you love all the Snakes OR you like your SO blends with a bit of fruit, you will likely want to snag Serpent in the Berries sooner rather than later!

I've been on a bit of a musk kick recently, and was both intrigued by what "silvered" might mean and also by how it might in fact layer with Strawberry Moon 2024, which I already knew I was going to purchase. As with some of the duets, the perfume on its own is fairly simple and straight forward, which is totally the point. The currant is one I've encountered in other Lab blends, and is slightly tart and gently sweet and fruity. The musk took me by a bit of surprise. For some reason I'd anticipated that it would be similar to a white musk, and it's not at all. That said, it's not a rich musk either. The closest thing I can point to is that this is sort of a water-musk. As in, the note I'm getting from it reminds me of other water / rain / ocean notes I've encountered (no salt, though, so don't expect any!). Metallics can go weird on me, as can water notes, so I was leery of what would happen next. What happened next, is that I tested it all by itself and it scarcely stayed on my skin, other than as a ghost of a scent. BUT, what was *actually* surprising, and delightful, is when I layered it with Strawberry Moon as it was designed for- and THAT was a lovely surprise! Perhaps because in the composition of this year's SM there's richer, grounded notes like Laudanum and incense, it seems to have given these delicate notes something to hold onto, so it definitely increased the staying power for sure. AND it shifted the Moon out of its thoroughly dark aspect and into something more far-reaching and expansive. This is my first official foray into the Duets that are meant to be layered with specific Moons but it won't be the last based on the success of this one!

This is a perfect counter-weight to the Strawberry Moons of the past. What I mean by that is that the previous SM's that I've personally adored have been bright, tart affairs, they dazzled because they were that magic thing of smelling unbelievably Real. I still hoard my beloved SM '09, with its juicy berry and tart, green sap notes. It's beautiful as a mild, very sunny summer day. This Strawberry Moon? Is most decidedly NOT any of that. I was excited to try this new iteration because of the pairing of potentially lighter elements (berry, tea) with emphatically darker ones (notably my always-favorite indigo musk plus plum incense and laudanum). And it's a HUGE win. This, to me, is primarily an incense-heavy scent. And one might see "strawberry+incense must therefore = headshop", but fear not, gentle folk, it's not that! The incense quality gives it that 'dark' quality from the Lab description of the scent, though I concur with the above poster that this doesn't come across as ominous. It's definitely a summer scent, but again, the opposite of the "bright/sunny/mild" aspects- this is both for those oppressively hot days when the air is so thick it feels like we should swim through it rather than walk. And it's definitely for gloomy, rainy, overcast days as well. The strawberry isn't quite real, or if it is, it's less to me reading as over-ripe and more like dried berries, in the same way that fresh roses, when dried, go from being envisioned in a vase or on the stem to being in a crypt or a Victorian parlor. And in spite of all elements, the scent has surprisingly low throw, so start gently, but don't be surprised if you feel the need to slather, at least a little. In All, likely going to pick up a second bottle, after it's confirmed that this ages as well as I suspect it will! (PS, I *did* layer with one of its intended Duets, Silvered Musk and Red Currant, and yes, it is a worthwhile activity as it shifts the scent quite a bit!)

Frost-dappled night-blooming petals, Oman frankincense, champaca orchid resin, and opium tar accord. Oh. Oh MYYYYYYYY. To be honest, although my interest was piqued instantly when I read the notes, I also was concerned. Frost? Is that going to be like water or ozone? Because those notes almost never work with my skin chemistry. And the champaca could go either way. But the opium tar and night-blooming petals had my hopes up. And it paid off! In the bottle, I noticed right away that the scent was lighter than I'd expected given some of the notes but also given this was a Bloodmilk scent, since many of the ones I've tried tend to be very dense and rich and moody (just like their jewelry!) but this really was quite light, and even slightly powdery. As the scent warmed up and then fully dried on my skin, it just got better and better, those florals mixing gorgeously with the tar and resins to create this dreamy encounter, reminding me somehow of a passionflower incense I adored in high school. I have not been able to stop huffing myself and it's literally hours and hours later. Total, beautiful, win.

A Victorian bathing beauty: wisps of vanilla cream, caramelized tobacco absolute, white opium poppy, summer honeysuckle nectar, effervescent white mandarin, apple blossom, and green cognac. In The Bottle: The first thing I notice is the "effervescent" part- I don't know how Mistress Beth DOES that, but here's another of those brill scents where one can nearly feels the bubbly going right up the nose! In short, it's amaze-balls. Anyway, after that neat introduction, I get a fruitiness, courtesy of the mandarin and perhaps some of the apple blossom in a back-up roll. the vanilla cream is also coming through, and I'm vaguely reminded of the original release of Cheshire Moon, that fruit-and-cream combo thing. I'm getting curiouser and curiouser! Wet On Skin: The apple is coming out more now, though for me it's sans blossom. I'm also getting a deep crispness that I associate with the green cognac. At this stage I don't get much of the tobacco note, though it might be there, mitigating the vanilla cream, adulterating- corrupting - it, if you will. Dry Down: Wow- this changed a LOT in the dry-down. This now seems far more akin to Tattered Lace , which makes sense, as they both have variations of Cognac, Vanilla and Opium. The fruit has pretty much vanished and what's left is a slightly-dusty, gently-sweet reverie for hot summer days strolling beneath the canopy of a parasol and a stand of trees. In All: Low throw and rather fine for the upcoming Dog Days. I had initially said to myself that one bottle would surely be enough, but now I'm not so sure...

Blackened cacao, black sandalwood, coconut, and dark, sweet musk. In The Bottle: Rich, chocolately chocolate. Like Bliss, if it were dark chocolate instead of milk chocolate. Wet On Skin: I can see the comparison to the original Candy Butcher for sure- it's like a very dark melted Belgium chocolate cut through with a dollop of cream. YUM! Dry Down: On dry-down, the chocolate becomes slightly more like a powdered chocolate- like a dark hot cocoa mix. It's warmed up a bit, too, scent-wise- I suspect that's the black sandalwood adding some depth to the mix. I might detect a *sliver* of coconut, but this isn't a Mounds bar or anything, so don't expect that. In All: Chocolate scents can be hit/miss on me. Luckily, this appears in the same family as Bliss and Candy Butcher and so it's pure win. Low throw, warm and gorgeous. I will treasure this now and anticipate more glory with age. <3