thekittenkat

Note: I do not know what Tan Xiang is. In the imp: Sweet fir needles. Wet: This is nice at the moment. I suspect the apple blossom is the sweetening agent, along with the balsam. Dry: Sadly, the sweet woods seem to drying and thinning out, but it's a slow process. I was hoping that this would be more like the evergreen woods perfumes that Beth creates for the Yules. This is more of a skin scent. It's six of one, half-a-dozen of the other if I need a bottle or not, as I have many evergreen woods scents already.

In the imp: Vetiver flashing under the finish line with some florals bringing up the rear, like a furlong back. Wet: Getting some red musk and some rose, but not much. Very strange, as I usually amp red musk and also any rose note. Dry: A hint of the black tea in the dry-down. Pretty much the vetiver just stomped all over the other notes from first to last. In horse racing, we would say that it destroyed the field (the other horses in the race). Too bad, as this could have been a loved scent for me, because of all the other notes. I now understand why this perfume is getting no love in the reviews. I would like to see it come back next year, without the vetiver. Right now, it's like sweet vetiver. No pleasure in reading the book or playing with the toys. Vetiver won, but I didn't bet on "him". Some aging might help. I'll keep my decant and see what happens.

I love chestnut notes, such as was in a certain 'weenie last year, Cristina from the Literary Vampire. In the imp: Chestnut, but tempered by the other notes. Wet: Still very nutty (in a good way), but the sharpness of the geranium is present. And some sweetness from the magnolia and also maybe the rice powder? Dry: This is a sweet chestnut scent, with only a hint of the vetiver and the geranium, thank goodness. A cool scent, perfect for spring. It's also light and delicate, which is a surprise because of the chestnut. If you wanted to like Cristina, but found "her" too loud, this may be a good scent to try. Very much a skin scent, btw.

In the imp: Well-blended, mostly honey but not very sweet. Wet: This is a light fresh herbal/grassy/green honey scent, very clean and clear in the scent. However, the pepper is lurking underneath. I suspect the rice, oakmoss, and sandalwood are helping to produce the clean and clear notes. Dry: Another lovely creation that really doesn't morph on me. Lovely and clean and a different honey note than from what I'm accustomed. It's certainly a light springtime scent. Nice, but I may only need a partial bottle, unless something amazing happens and it morphs, but I'm not expecting that at this point.

In the imp: Tea, peach, and mandarin jump right out. Wet: The tea note is rather obvious, but amber and myrrh are keeping the fruits and the vanilla from sweetening the blend too much so. The mandarin is the most obvious of the fruit notes. And there's a hint of bubblegum sweet from the lotus root (I'm always worried about this tendency of lotus anything on my skin). Dry: Well, so far so good with the lotus. Overall, this is a nice tea scent, with some fruits steeped in it for a few moments. The myrrh provides spice, the amber a grounding so that the scent doesn't waft away, and the vanilla smooths the sharpness of the tannins. It's a very quiet tea scent, but I have tea scents I adore already. However, I will keep my decant. This is very much a skin scent and sadly, it seems as though my skin just eats it up.

In the imp: Floral tea. Wet: Floral tea but with added ginger. All the flowers are sort of flying and floating around and in and about the tea note, which has some ginger bits at the bottom of the cup. Dry: This is like the best cup of flowery tea ever, with just a little bit of musk (only now appearing) to keep it from being too delicate. Instead the ginger and the musk give this floral tea scent a rich grounding. Too bad it's not really tea, or I'd be tempted to drink it, with some honey stirred in. Of course, it's just perfume oil, not tea, but this is another wonderfully well-blended scent. At the moment, this may be my fave of this year's Shungas (now tied with Autumn Moon of the Mirror Stand). It's like a spring garden in a bottle.

Lilac, ho wood, smoky vanilla, galbanum, and tonka. In the imp: The sweet tonka and vanilla are top notes, with a touch of the lilac as well. Wet: Tonka and yummy vanilla are being slightly tempered by the lilac, and there's also a hint of a light wood as a base note. Dry: There is a touch of galbanum, but it's not too bitter and it's keeping this scent from being too much of a floral candy, but it's really not that foodie. The lilac is more obvious as it dries down. This is a good sweet springtime scent; in the dry-down it loses the headiness of the foodie tonka and vanilla, and surprisingly becomes more of a light sweet floral, but always with some richness to anchor it. The smokey vanilla note is just wonderful. For a masculine name, this is rather girle, but in a good way. I like it a lot and must get more.

First things first. I'm not sure what asuhi is. I am excited about ginger cream. I don't usually like orris root. In the imp: The frank and the orris root are very loud. Wet: The frank and the orris root are still very loud and overpowering, but slowly I'm getting a hint of the ginger deep in the blend. And some sweetness that must be the cream accord. Dry: The ginger cream has come on strongly and defeated the evil orris root. The frankincense is keeping this from being sweet, so at the last it settles into a nice gingery scent. The leather note has come out to play, but it's mild, as though someone had some ginger-scented saddle soap and was cleaning up their lovingly cared for but rather getting close to be being worn out tack (saddle and bridle). If you like a light leather scent and also like ginger, this may be a good choice. It will smell amazing on the bf, I bet. Could be bottle-worthy.

This is yummy! I can't stop huffing my wrist. All the notes are present. What I'm reminded of is good French toast, served with a lovely cup of hot tea, perhaps a light Darjeeling or Lady Earl Grey, both with lots of sugar.

In the imp: Lots of coffee bean, incense and oak! Wet: Blood and wine for starters. Slowly, ever so slowly the plum, cherry, and rose make their faint presence known. (Okay, so there are supposed to be hints.) Dry: All the notes are slowly melding into a nice Cabernet Sauvignon. A tad sweeter as it dries down, and that's probably from the fruits. I must admit that I'm not much of a connoisseur of red wines, though, either to drink or to wear. But if you like this wine, you may like this perfume oil. It was certainly a morpher on my skin.

When I first looked at the notes, it was "what's not to like here". Okay, so I'm not that wild about wine notes, but it's just a dribble. On me, this is the honey note of the beeswax and the lovely rose, not a pink rose, but a darker rose. The frank keeps it from being too sweet or too floral. The wine note gives it an air of mystery. Like The Peacock Queen, I'm not sure where I would wear this out to, but if we could hit up a big band nightclub, this would be perfect. Otherwise, it will be perfect for any goth nights, or anytime I'm wearing blacks and velvets and black velvet. And, I plan on wearing it with my steampunk garb. It's lush and rich and just a little decadent. I do like it.

One of those amazing blends where it's difficult to pick out all the notes. It's pretty flowers on me, tempered by the musks and the orange and the amber. The violets (a scent I love but it doesn't love me) and the lilies seemingly behaved themselves. After more testing, I'll add to this review later on. ETA: Testing this again. In the bottle: Sharp and powdery florals. Betting the sharpness is from the lilies. Wet: Well, shoot, that amber has gone all powdery on me already. The rest of the flowers are coming back into play, very pretty and spring-into-summer scents. The orange is also making its presence known. Dry: The musk is centering the florals, but the amber's gone to powder. I really like the orange note, though. However, this is heading in the direction of soapy flowers. Disappointing result. ETA: The frank and the benzoin finally showed up, but not enough to save this for me. I wanted to be able to like this so much because of my beloved blood orange. Now, I'm dreaming of blood orange, red musk, benzoin, frankincense, roses, and something for sweetening.

This is for the 2010 version. The florals are the top notes. The fruits are in the middle, and rather faint. Everything else is like a wonderful but crazy combination of base notes. Sweet florals in the middle of dark and dusky, sweet-spicy-musky woods, that's a brief take on this lovely scent.

All three scent notes are present and blending somewhat. Not sure what the wood note is, but it's probably a light wood. The leather is well-worn indeed and very much a soft note. The olive oil is light and clear, but still very much olive oil. It's a unisex scent to me, and could be worn when one wants a scent, but not a complex one.

This is the 2010 version. Well, there's lots of patch here, but not what some think of as "dirty hippie", as the balsam, honey, and beeswax are making it sweeter and not so much like incense. I have no idea what Sampson Root should smell like. The juniper, oakmoss and ambrette are keeping this blend from going too much to the sweet side. The musk is grounding all the other notes. As I love honey and beeswax, this makes for a lovely scent.

This is for the 2010 version. The notes that stay predominant throughout, from opening the bottle through the dry-down are the amber (not too powdery), the honey, the currant, and the musk. I'm going to assume that the kush is maize, and is serving as a base note. I always forget that dragon's blood is produced by daemonorops; it's not a favorite note of mine, but I'm not picking it up much in this scent, thank goodness. The oil is a sweet and sunny scent, and will be good to evoke the sun on those rainy spring days.

All the notes are present and accounted for and work together in a lovely fashion. I was hesitant about this scent, because of the lilac, but here it's just lovely and light and fresh. The tonka and vanilla give their sweet notes but do not overwhelm. Galbanum is always welcome because for me it's like crisp green apples, only with a slight resinous touch. The wood of course is the base note, and it's around this that all the other notes swirl and combine. Definitely a springtime scent.

Lilies and I don't usually get along, but what a lovely surprise here: the water lily don't jump up and beat all the other notes into submission. Instead, it and the freesia combine to give this scent a touch of sweetness that it needs to offset slightly the tangy salt of the sea spray. There's hints of the ambergris, but since I wasn't sure what the seashell should smell like (perhaps a light stone note), the major base note is the driftwood. Sea aquatic and woodsy, with touches of sweet spice. This invokes the beach during a calm evening sunset walk very well. May need a back-up. And, it lasts a long time.

I love this. I had great hopes for this, and I am not disappointed! The cranberry and currant combine into this yummy red fruit scent that's not too sweet, yet not too tart. The woods are the base, and are just beautiful. The mint and thyme join together to give the scent a good but gentle spiciness, but it is a mild spice. The tobacco flower serves to round all the other notes out and keeps them in check. That all the notes are faves is just wonderful. Sweet sex in a wooden kite thingy--yeah, pretty much. Going to need a back-up. Or two.

Another well-blended oil, so it's a little difficult to pick out individual notes on my skin. It's mostly these light florals with a touch of the fruits. However, the metallic note is the dominant one as it goes along. I like this wet, but not as it dries down. Might be best in a scent locket. I really wish that I had gotten more of the fruit notes, as they are all favorites.

This is one of the best well-blended scents that I have ever tried, from the Lab or elsewhere. No one note dominates at any time, from first sniff of the bottle to a much later dry-down. It's sweet but not too sweet: that's the coconut milk and orange blossom. There's a bit of an edginess from the ambergris. Ylang ylang is a fave scent note, but here it's not overpowering, but just blending in nicely. Surprisingly, the white amber is not going too powdery on me. And the skin musk is the base for all these lovely notes. This is a scent that I would wear when I want to wear perfume, but don't want to be too obvious about it, and also have people think, the ones that get close, that maybe that's the real skin scent. Beth, take a bow, because this is wonderful!

This review is for the 2010 version. Pretty much as advertised. Lots of booze, various musks (red musk is the one that I really noticed), and some sugar to keep it nice and tasty (however, do not drink it!). I would wear this out to a bar or the coffee shop that we like to get a late-night dinner at, but only if the bf was driving. Once again, it's obvious that I amp BPAL's alcohol notes.

I used to drink rum-based drinks at university, but not since. That being said, I would still rather drink rum than smell like it. Strangely enough, I'm not picking up any rum here as a precise note, but I'm afraid that it's the rum that's turning the milk chocolate a little sour (again that sour cream note?). There's not much coconut or cardamom, as the ginger note rises up and slays them. Later on in the evening, the notes I could detect did do a lovely blending, but it took a while to get there. I really wanted to like this, and the dry-down is good after a while, but while it's wet, it's too odd, perhaps. It might work best as something to layer with.

The Gilman House Hotel is quite the surprise. The scent description is probably putting off many who would otherwise like this oil. Much like Julia Stone from last year's Halloweenies, pay no attention to the scent listings, and just try this. It's a pleasant combination of many light florals and herbs, maybe some fresh spring green grass. It's what I would call a very green scent, without being in the least aquatic or like a traditional men's cologne. And anchoring everything is a skin musk that keeps all the other notes from being too fresh and too green. (Btw, no comparison to Julia Stone is meant; it's just that both scents have interesting scent descriptions that did not prepare me for how lovely both oils smelled in the bottle and on the skin.)

Of all the Shungas, this one really stood out when I looked at the notes. Everything sounded so lovely, and seemed that it would blend so well--with one exception: the cognac. I've mentioned in other reviews how I seem to amp the Lab's various liquor notes quite often, a sad state of affairs. So, I was worried when I first put this one on, and it seemed as though my fears would come true. The cognac was the top note, with all the other notes swirling underneath. But, as the evening wore on, all the notes came forward and surrounded the cognac; not drowning it out, but allowing it just enough presence to temper the sweetness of the rest of the notes. In the end, this is mostly a honey scent, but the fruits and the tobacco keep it from being too sweet. The vanilla has blended into the honey to give it a bit of an edge. This is what one wishes that good pipe tobacco or one of those little cigars could smell like. Autumn Moon of the Mirror Stand will be in rotation next autumn for me, on those days when Falling Leaf Moon might be a little heavy and dark. Of all the Shungas so far, this is my fave.