lady_pandora

I was sooo worried when I started seeing mentions of ozone in the reviews for Midnight on the Midway. I should have known it would be there from the mention of lightning, but I think I thought that was just the Lab being poetic. So I adjusted my expectations downward a bit...but I needn't have. I LOVE this. This is a bottle. This is a Miracle BPAL that Breaks All the Rules: an ozone scent I can wear. Not really much of a morpher, it does pretty much this on me throughout: sugary sugary incense (I think it might be frankincense, since it's light and feels "yellow," but don't quote me on that), bit of musk, some floral floating around, and the ozone/dryer sheets smell kept on its best behavior by the sugar and incense. I've never had ozone behave this well. Ever. And the sugar is just divine. It brings to mind a memory that hovers just out of my reach; I can't pin it down. It does remind me a bit of how Smut was when I first tried it, before I started amping the red musk so much. I also think it smells a bit like an old, old Dia de los Muertos I used to have a decant of. That actually makes a lot of sense when I look at those notes--incense is there, candy is there, and it has cereus which is a night-blooming flower and might well be in MotM. I just *huuuuuffffffff* love this and find it *snnnaaaaarrrfffff* amazingly comforting and lovely and kind of *hhufffffff* nostalgic.

I never got to try the original Madame, but based on the notes list, I thought my skin might turn it into something similar to The White Witch. And it does. I think I actually like Mme even better, but it's close enough that I'm not sure I can justify a bottle of this to myself. I'll reach for them in very similar moods. This starts out red musk, thick bittersweet fruit, and patchouli. There's a cough-syrup vibe at first, and I say this with love--I generally like the cough-syrupy ones. Then the fruit becomes really round and smooth and juicy, and I can pick out the plum and the pomegranate against a smoky background. I think the smokiness comes from a synergy between the patchouli and the vanilla--I can't really pick out vanilla here, but I think it's what makes it so smooth, and I think it's the same husky vanilla/patch thing that WW does, or that Black Cherry Love does. Bordello also comes to mind--when I tested Bordello a few months ago, I noted that it needed something else to really make it feel complete, and now I know what it is--the smoky incensiness I get here. This is truly lovely, and womanly. I would say WW is stronger on the patchouli and thus more hippie-ish, while Mme is stronger on the fruit and thus more lush. In the later stages, the fruit notes seem to dry out and become less juicy, and then there is less difference between Mme and WW. Like I said, I'm not sure I'll need a full bottle of this, because my skin just does such similar things with them. Definitely keeping the decant though.

Pure Applesauce starts out bright, sweet apple, and a few minutes later tobacco comes in, and for a few minutes the combo is a little cloying. Then, a smoky note comes to the fore (I really don't know which note is causing this--possibly the tobacco or tea, IDK) and gives it kind of a burnt apples quality. At this stage, I was like "hmm, smoky apples, I like smoky apples, but darned if I don't already have a lot of smoky apple scents." And then I proceeded to forget about it for a few hours. And then...WOW. This is at its best when I've had it on for about five hours. It turned into this glorious apple/sugar/honey/tiny smidge of tobacco thing that was just divine. I guess I need a bottle, don't I? Darn you Beth!

Mmm, this is nice. Starts out with mostly the apple note, which is a crisp, juicy, really realistic note. I think this is a new note the Lab started getting in the last few years. It's different from the note in, say, Poisoned Apple, and more like the one in The Gas Lamps' Flare (FWIW, I like both). The benzoin and oud then come in to make a soft incensey cloud around the apple. I've had oud take a stronger role before (as in Sinus Amoris, Angel of Death), but here it blends really well with the benzoin and is just kind of a soft indistinct incense. The blend is lovely, but does not have much throw or longevity on my skin at this time. I'm hoping it will get more oomph with age, but it really does smell great.

This is a throaty purr of an oil. Lots of deep cherry, and a dark, smoky, husky vanilla. I think I can pick out some patchouli in the background. I don't know cubeb well, but I know it was in Cerberus, and I would definitely believe there's a common note between this and that. This oil smells dangerous, like it's a drink that you shouldn't be drinking, just this side of cough syrup but in a good way, kind of boozy. (Disclaimer: obviously, don't drink it.) And after all that purple prose, I have to report that I haven't had any noticeable magical effects from it, alas. Will update if that changes.

TKO goes on as lavender mixed with something sludgy-sweet; this must be the marshmallow thing everybody's talking about. The combo smells kind of weird, and it's really strong (I'd wondered if it would be a bit like Stygian Nougat, but TKO has like 10x the throw of Stygian Nougat), and yet really comforting. The first night I wore it to sleep, it didn't really work--maybe my mind was churning too much, or maybe I just needed to get used to it. So the next night I used Ebon Night instead, which is another story, but then the next night, I gave TKO another shot. That time, I slept great, waking up with vague memories of dreams. The smell in the morning is a bit cloying to me; the lavender is mostly gone and it's just sweet and sweet and more sweet. But hey, for a sleep blend, who cares what it smells like in the morning! Especially since, unlike the Midnight Mass I also sometimes sleep in, it actually washes off in the shower and doesn't hang around the rest of the day! (Edited to add: And now, on third wear, the marshmallow scent is really identifiable as marshmallow in the morning, and smells better than it did last time. Maybe my nose was just off before. IDK.) I think this will be a good sleep blend for relatively ordinary nights, when I don't need the added magical punch of Ebon Night or the meaningful dreams of (the even-weirder-smelling) March 2015 13 and don't want to smell like Midnight Mass for the next 18 hours. I wouldn't choose it as a regular perfume, but for sleep it works just fine.

Ebon Night smells like a combination of lavender, and something that reminds me of Cleric, and something that reminds me of one of the stages I got from Yggdrasil. So, while I won't swear these are the correct notes, I'm going to guess it's lavender and frankincense and some kind of wood note. My mental image is of a forest with a dark, dark pool in it, though there is no aquatic note here. That's just my imagination running away with me. I used this when I was too annoyed and anxious to sleep one night, needed to be sharp the next morning, and was worried my other sleep oils wouldn't be up to the task. As I was trying to fall asleep, it worked a little like White Light does for me during the day--anytime I tried to obsess, it would refract my thoughts in a million different directions so I couldn't concentrate on the negative thing. And then I got a reasonable amount of deep, dreamless sleep. I used it with the intent of sleep itself, rather than dreams, and I think that's why it turned out that way. I'll update this review when I've tried it with dreams as the intent. ETA: I think there is also narcissus in this. ETA2: This continues to be my "big guns" when it comes to sleep. I've been sleeping badly for about a week and a half because I was worrying about a health thing. Even after I got checked out and it turned out to be something much less dire, I'd lay awake at night like "What if they're wrong?" Last night I decided I just really needed some sleep. I used Ebon Night, and this time I recited the whole Hymn to Nyx that goes with it too (the mention of fears in it really resonated with me), and I slept like a rock. Vague memories of dreams. Feel pretty darn good this morning.

I first got a whiff of Belle Epoque by way of a sniffie, and then a lovely forumite frimped me a full imp of it, so now I've been able to test it on my skin. I ended up really liking this! It starts out mostly floral--I was thinking lily before I looked at the notes list. I know lily of the valley is actually a completely different flower, and so I don't know if my sniffer is off, or if there is a resemblance in scent. Anyway, lilyish floral, with the mandarin manifesting not really as a full note, more as a tart bit of effervescence around the edges of the floral. I can also smell a little vanilla underneath. And then oooh, just when I'd forgotten I had it on, the drydown swoops in and it's terrific. The lily and mandarin are gone. I get a lovely smoky vanilla mixed with sandalwood. It reminds me a bit of a milder Sinus Amoris, the way the vanilla and sandalwood work together here. And this is a pairing that almost always works well on me. The smokiness, I think, is coming from the opium, because it's a sweetish smokiness. I haven't decided yet if I need a huge supply of this, because I have a fair-sized supply of vanilla/sandalwood blends already, but we'll see how often I find myself reaching for it. It gives me some of the same warm fuzzies Sinus Amoris does, while probably being less in-your-face for occasions like work.

No description listed at the Twilight Alchemy Lab website First of all, I want to thank Court for giving me the chance to try this--I might never have gotten to it, and I'm so glad I did. For various reasons, I wanted to do a ritual to the Dagda. I've worked with him a little bit before, but not extensively, and I've sometimes had trouble connecting to "father-god" type deities. I dithered a bit about what oil to wear, but when I thought of Jupiter, the idea really seemed to click. For this use, my intent was more "Jupiter as planetary archetype" and less "Jupiter as specific Roman deity," since I was invoking a different deity but with some similar energies. Scentwise, PM: Jupiter starts out strongly cedar for me, with maybe the slightest hint of sage? As it wears on, vetiver comes up from underneath to join the cedar. The cedar is generally more prominent in the early stages and the vetiver generally more dominant in the later stages, but this isn't absolute; I get wafts of each during the other's reign. The closest GC I've tried so far is Lear. Lear with some vetiver added. I felt that the ritual went really well. The energy I felt was a strong, steady masculine one; there was a sense of depth, of rootedness. Also a frisson of "I could be dangerous if someone pissed me off, but I'm not pissed off right now" like you might get from a large animal at rest, power held in abeyance. It felt very ancient, and glad to be honored. I know there's another side to Jupiter energy--the jovial side, pun intended--but in this use at least, it didn't really go to that place for me, even though I know both Jupiter and the Dagda have that aspect too. I will definitely be hanging on to this oil. It will be invaluable when I'm in need of that type of energy.

I've been wearing a ton of Lacus Bonitatis. It reminds me of a creamsicle, due to what parts of it I amp.

Blue Moon is minty on me! From bottle to skin and the whole time it's on, minty. It's an herby, sweet, minty scent. It's full of notes I don't know well, so I don't know what note or notes are creating this effect--clary sage is a Lamiaceae so maybe that's it? maybe it's connected to the tea somehow? I don't know. Anyway, though, it's a soothing, cooling blend, and very fitting for a lunar perfume.

Countess Willie starts out with the chocolate note and something kind of...minty? It develops into chocolate and a red-fruit haze and red musk. This smells just like Midnight Kiss, except better and more stable; Midnight Kiss was prone to randomly amping the chocolate or the patchouli beyond reason. Countess Willie seems to have a better balance between the notes on me.

Bittersweet yet powerful: salty aquatic notes and bursting with dragon's blood. For the second time in about a week, I thought I smelled vetiver in something it wasn't in, though in this case I think it's because the combo of honeysuckle and something bitter reminded me of Anathema and short-circuited my brain. This time, the vetiver impression didn't stick around like it did in my oddball Dragon's Claw imp. But the dragon's blood, or maybe the dragon's blood/aquatic mix, is bitter here and not the fruity version of DB. Anyway, it starts out bitter DB and a floral I think is honeysuckle. Someone else in the thread mentioned linden, and I'd believe that too--they smell a lot alike to me. It morphs into more of a "salty tears" note with an edge of dragon's blood, and then in the drydown goes back to DB/honeysuckle. It's a little soapy in a good way, and the aquatic isn't sharp and headachey like some others have been. I'll probably keep this imp; it's nice.

Mmm, I really like this. Loved to Death is O's goth sister. I get mostly smoky vanilla and honey-y beeswax with a hint of clove. I've had clove go wild in blends before, but not here--I have this friend who smokes clove cigarettes and while I don't feel the urge to take up smoking them myself, I love it when I get just a waft of hers, and that's what the clove note does for me here. I can maybe find a bit of cinnamon if I go looking for it, but it won't cinnamon you to kingdom come. Bet it'll age great too. I might end up needing a bottle. ETA: On further wear, there is a distinct similarity to Visions of Autumn III, at least on my particular skin.

This is a really interesting scent! The first time I tried it, I really just smelled the tobacco and had a sad. Maybe my nose was off that day, because on a retest, this is really well-blended and has a lot going on. I'd kind of been hoping for COFFEECOFFEECOFFEE, but what I got instead is still pretty nice. I smell coffee and tobacco and spices. It doesn't really "smell like" any particular thing or place I've smelled. It makes me want to keep sniffing at it, though. I'm not normally big on tobacco, but this is nice. Really evokes the color brown. I wonder how it would layer with something sweet like Antikythera?

Crib Girls starts out with a big blast of cleaning-products lemon, along with honey. I get more honey in the throw and more lemon close to the skin. The lemon isn't behaving, not yet. It takes about 25-30 minutes to calm down, at which point it becomes more of an edible lemon or scented-dolls lemon a bit like what I like in Seven Herbs Charm, still accompanied by honey. The morphing process is a gradual mellowing and blending and finally vanishing of the lemon, leaving behind spicy honey. I'm not in love with the very beginning of this, but it ends up something I really like! Possible bottle.

Mmmm, Sinus Amoris. This is a hard one to review because I don't always get the same result when I wear it. I don't know if it's hormonal or what. But either way, it starts out with the champaca over red sandalwood, and then it develops into either mostly vanilla or mostly oud. The vanilla note here is not polite foody vanilla like, say, Mini Magdalene--this is husky and syrupy and smoky and in-your-face, the vanilla that's in Black Cherry Love. The oud, which I'm finally able to identify because it's the thing that's in both this and Angel of Death that isn't sandalwood, apparently likes to smell like ambergris on me in both blends. And whether I'm having a Vanilla Day or an Oud Day, I can smell lovely incensey myrrh beneath it all. This is dead sexy and I need more of it. And it will console me for the rarity of Angel of Death because I actually like this even better.

Any possibility it's Devil's Claw instead? Huh! That does sound closer. It looks like it's discon, but maybe an imp was still lurking somewhere...When I get back home, I'll double check the label, but it could be a mislabeling anyway. ETA: It does say Dragon's. But you may still be right and it might be mislabeled Devil's. That sounds more like what I have.

Does anyone have a weird Dragon's Claw? I swear it's got about a gallon of vetiver in it, but that's not a listed note and nobody else mentions it in their review either. I'm wondering if it's a mislabeled something else.

There's no vetiver in this? I seriously get so much vetiver. So much. It starts out pretty much all vetiver, then for a moment I think I can smell a light floral peeping out, then back to vetiver, the vetiver starts to smell like either leather or petrochemicals (yes, I probably sound weird), then finally sandalwood comes out, and a while after that, the dragon's blood. At around the 1.5 hour mark is when it really comes together, vetiver and sandalwood and dragon's blood. It's quite nice at that point But it spends too long in the petrochemicals stage; I don't want to wait that out every time I want the final result, so this is a miss on me. But it sounds like it may be a weird batch variation, or maybe a mislabeled Dragon's Hide or something? ETA: New theory: I may have a mislabeled Devil's Claw. In any case, my review appears to not be representative, so take it with the requisite salt.

I can't really pick out plum here but mostly get what smells like grape--bright, purple, juicy grape. For the first few minutes it's grape bubble gum, then calms down into the juicy grapey scent. It's not the wine note of Lilith or Cairo; it's more a grape note, like the one in Purple Phoenix. There's something a little smoky that emerges as it dries down too. I feel like it needs one more thing--and I don't know what--to make it a huge favorite of mine, but it's pretty and fun and juicy, and will get its share of wear.

Fairy Thorn, Titania, Dormouse, La Belle Au Bois Dormant, The Unicorn (discon), and definitely give Snow White a whirl when Yule rolls back around or if you can get a decant.

Dammit, the last thing I needed was to fall in love with Angel of Death! But this is beautiful. My Plagues decanter was kind enough to include a sniffie of this, and with creative use of a toothpick, I was able to get enough for a skin test (and hopefully can eke one more wear out too). For the first hour or so, I get a beautiful golden incense scent in the throw, while the skin scent is wood and something chemical-y, like a furniture polish. But when it's fully dry and settled, all is amazing, all is perfect. It reminds me of what I think is the lab's ambergris note (though I can't say I'm vastly familiar with it) layered over rich wood. Gender neutral. Strange but compelling.

I really really wanted to like this one, as a lover of rose and incense, but it's going wonky on me! Not even consistently wonky, but phasing in and out of wonkiness. I get mostly rose amber, frankincense, wood, and something lemony (possibly also the frankincense?), and it switches back and forth between being lovely rosy incense and...bug repellent. It reminds me of Off! or something. And then it'll phase back to pretty again. And then bug repellent again. Gah. Maybe I'll try aging it a bit.

Tested this last night. My first sniff on skin, I thought "Yeah! I can wear this!" Obviously, that's hasty, so I stayed with it through the evening to see if it morphed, but it didn't really. Not necessarily a great love, but a scent that was instantly comfortable and comforting to me, and nostalgic for something I can't put my finger on. I never would have tried this based on the description, but I really like it. My home computer is down, so I was testing without recourse to the internet, and I would have told you Yorick smelled of a subdued rose, a light musk, and dirt. One out of three ain't bad? I guess my sniffer is off, but I like the scent.