puellacaerulea

This one starts out with a blast of cardamom over heavy musks. As it dries down, the cardamom calms down but stays front and center, while a soft leather note comes out more and the musks settle. Overall post-drydown impression is soft leather and gentle musks sweetened and warmed up a bit by the cardamom. It's almost like Leather Phoenix's warmer, muskier cousin. Disclaimer: I've never tried Smut, but have tried Snake Oil but find it a little too heavy for my usual style. This is a take on SO that I find myself enjoying a lot more, probably due mainly to the leather and cardamom notes. Did end up buying a full bottle to see how it ages.

In the bottle, I get bright lemon peel and orange blossom. This isn't a harsh Pledge-type lemon -- it leans a little on the sweeter side and balances out the bittersweetness of the orange blossom. When I apply it, the lemon peel amps up a lot, with the orange blossom more of a background player. It's big on the citrus, but it's never harsh or bitter, just bright and sunny goodness. I can still smell it on my wrists several hours later, but the throw is pretty low. Highly recommended for citrus lovers.

In the imp, it's smooth and creamy musk with a hint of iris. The iris gets loud, sharp, and powdery on me after application, but fortunately it fades as it dries down. The end result is mostly a smooth, subtle, nutty musk -- I wouldn't have known coconut was a note if I hadn't read the scent description.

Deep, dark, incensey, and heavy on the opium. Agreed with Supreme Cort that this has a very 80s opium perfume vibe. As it wears on my skin (we're talking over the course of hours; this has staying power), the opium calms down a little and the benzoin comes out more, making the scent just a little softer and sweeter in a way that almost reminds me of sweet tobacco. Not sure if I'll hang onto this one -- maybe for special occasions -- but it's much heavier than my usual style.

I have a hard time specifically picking out the tomato in this, mainly because this is such a true-to-life cucumber note. Fresh, green, vegetal, just a little bitter. There's a slight acidity, but overall, this is fresh garden cucumber greenness throughout. As it wears on my skin, there's something that reminds me just a little of classic men's cologne, but don't let this put you off -- mostly it's making me wonder if cucumber is a note in said colognes. Debating a bottle so I can both wear this and make it into an atmo, because it would be an incredible summer room scent.

In the decant: gloriously bright, lush, damp greens. The green tea and bamboo stand out the most, and I think the wasabi's adding to the overall "brightness" of the scent without adding a lot of spicy bite. On my skin, this dries down to a darker, mossier green -- I think the musk and patch are starting to come out more on my skin, too. Probably going to stick with just a decant, since I like the in-the-decant scent more than I do the end result on my skin. It's the green tea scent I always dreamed of in the decant, though.

Very much a delicate fruit scent rather than a juicy, bright one. Soft mango and a creamy rice milk note -- even though it's not a super juicy mango note, it's not at all unlike what a ripe ataulfo mango smells like. It's a soft and pleasant fruit scent overall, but the creaminess threatens to go plasticky on me. That and the low throw and short-ish wear time will probably keep me from getting a full bottle, but I'll hold onto my decant.

In the decant and on, this is a fresh, juicy grapefruit with a hint of black pepper. The pepper reads as more dry and soft than spicy to me, and counterbalances the sweetness of the grapefruit a bit. Overall, a nice citrus scent that doesn't get too loud or too sweet. Unfortunately, the wear time is super short on me -- it's gone within two hours -- so I'll probably stick with just a decant of this.

In the decant, I get lots of pink fruity and citrus notes with a hint of coconut. The coconut amps up on me, taking the scent into tropical territory, with a hint of powderiness from the sandalwood. Unfortunately, this one fades super fast on me. Probably can skip a full bottle of this, but I'll keep my decant for warm-weather wear.

This starts in a weird, cologney place -- there's bittersweet orange blossom, but it goes through a brief sour period. It improves fast after drydown, and the driftwood notes become dominant. The post-drydown stage is a very "beach" scent, not in the sense of suntan lotion, but in the sense of salt and warm sand. Agreed that it's evocative of warmth and humidity without smelling fruity or stereotypically "tropical."

This is a very pretty and delicate milky coconut scent. The white tea adds some extra non-gourmand complexity and slight astringency, but it never goes loud. It reminds me a little bit of Lush's Furze perfume, but with more of a "white" aspect from the rice milk and tea. It has a summery feel to it, but I could also see this working in situations where you might want a more low-key scent. The only real drawback is the relatively short wear time (I needed to reapply around midday).

Agreed that this one starts out very much like Tennis Match -- lots of fresh greens and sweet grasses, but with a big whiff of dry matcha that differentiates it from Tennis Match. But the similarity ends once I apply it. Something about the green tea and sandalwood in this blend just isn't working for me -- on my skin, the fresh greenness goes away and takes on a quality that I can only really describe as Play-Doh-adjacent. Chalking this one up to a skin chemistry fail. Oh well, I still have Tennis Match for my green Luper needs.

This starts out with intense almond and bourbon cream -- sweet and boozy. The sandalwood comes out as it dries down and tones down the almond and bourbon cream -- at this stage it's reminding me a little of Judgmental Longhorn, but then the mimosa amps up and adds a little extra floral sweetness that puts an interesting spin on the bourbon cream + woods situation. Eventually it settles to a creamy sandalwood blend. It's pleasant, but I have enough similar things in my collection that I can pass on a full bottle.

I knew this was likely to be an odd combination of notes, but I really like white musk and elemi, so I decided to go for it. The best way I can describe the initial drydown stages of this scent is...dryer sheets dusted with cocoa powder. Later on the cacao fades and I get just a fresh white musk and elemi blend. An odd experience, but I'm glad I gave a decant a try.

To me, this is in the same amber-floral-honey category as No One is Above the Law and On Imagination, but it's a much more breezy, springlike variation on those scents. It's non-screechy spring florals lightly sweetened with honey and grounded with a light amber note, with very little morphing. I don't specifically pick up an ozone note, but I might just not be distinguishing it from the wildflower notes. That interplay between the amber, honey, and florals reminds me a lot of On Imagination, but where that one's more of a heady summer scent, It's All I Have to Bring Today is lighter and has more of a spring vibe. I might want a full bottle of this.

This stays salt-forward throughout. In the decant, it's all salt all the time. Once it's on, the carnation, cypress, and vetiver start to bloom, but they're still a background player to the salt. Very evocative of the beach -- the notes other than the salt don't really suggest things like carnation so much as they do dune grass and vegetation -- plants you'd be smelling the ocean breeze through. Not 100% sure if this'll be a bottle purchase, but I do like anything that's a scent memory of the beach, so maybe.

In the decant, it's a chilly, bright, fresh scent, but with a distinctly bitter undertone from the juniper and cade. Once applied, it has a brief period where the bitterness recedes and I get just the fresh notes...but then something goes wrong and it becomes both astringent and powdery. Not sure which of the notes went off my skin here, but it stays in that sharp powdery place the rest of the wear time. I had high hopes for this one, but it seems to be a miss with my skin chemistry.

I called Fragment 38 from last year's Lupers Defututa 2.0. This is Defututa 3.0. It's a really lovely warm, sweetened skin musk with a distinct olive blossom note -- rich and floral, but not cloying or in-your-face. I can't specifically point out the sandalwood, cedar, or orris, but there's a depth to this scent that takes it beyond floral + skin musk territory; meanwhile, there's no powdery orris to be found here. Despite the light musk, olive blossom, and woods, I wouldn't call this a heavy scent -- I agree with the above reviewers that there's a summery, Mediterranean vibe to this scent. It's like they took the best parts of Defututa and Like A Girl and merged them. This'll definitely be a bottle purchase for me.

This one starts out primarily cacao, but the lime rind and coconut amp up once on. The coconut in this is very much like the coconut note in the Coconut, Smoked Vanilla, and Fig Menage -- more fancy coconut-scented soap than suntan lotion. The notes all play really well together, and the cacao note has a certain creaminess to it that I haven't noticed in the other Pile of Cacao Pods scents I've tried so far. The best way I can describe the end result is like the smell of an expensive bar of cocoa butter soap scented with lime and coconut. Summery, but not in-your-face coconut and citrus. Probably my favorite of the cacao scents I've tried thus far.

In terms of scent, this is a really lovely palo santo-dominant blend backed with resins. It's that slightly minty, slightly anise-y palo santo note with a strong whiff of frankincense behind it. There is something very calming about it, and I've been using it as a sleep scent after especially stressful days.

This one starts off all strong, very smoky vetiver; no cacao or pepper in sight. As it wears, though, the vetiver slowly mellows out and lets the cacao and pepper come out. A few hours in it's smoky and peppery cacao with a bit of slightly earthy depth from the vetiver. I like where it goes once the vetiver chills out, but that intense BBQ smoke phase early on is a lot to power through.

In the decant, I get just cacao, but the cubeb immediately blooms once I apply it. It starts out, as has been mentioned above, as a fudgy chocolate along with a bright, sweet lemon scent from the cubeb. Like a brownie with lemon icing. As it wears, both notes soften -- a couple hours in it's more of a dry cocoa scent with a sort of soft, not-quite-powdery lemon. I don't get a peppery note from the cubeb, but it could just be blending really well with the citrus and cocoa notes. I probably won't wear this often enough for a full bottle, but it's a fun combo.

In the decant, this is an amazing, atmospheric chilly salt air and rain scent. When I apply it, the mossy green notes amp up a lot, with just a little not-unpleasant soapiness. The green notes remind me a lot of Liadain and Curithir, but this scent has more of a distinct salt-air note to it. I like it a little more in the decant than I do on my skin (more of that salt air note plz), but still might need to track down a full bottle.

Yep, this is muddy. In the decant I get a combo of cocoa and a distinct earth note (think the one from scents like Zombi). As it dries down, the earth note morphs into a wood note and then disappears entirely, leaving me with a dry cocoa scent with a slight creamy sweetness. I never do pick up the tobacco absolute. It's a fun scent, and go for it if you like cacao scents, but I don't need more than a decant.

This one starts out green tea and bright, somewhat antiseptic lemon peel. It's a fairly well-behaved lemon peel, though -- not Lemon Pledge, but not candied, too-sweet lemon peel, either. As it dries down, the lemon peel softens more and the green tea takes center stage. Overall, a simple, clean, bright green tea and citrus blend. It's a bit like Cooling Breeze with a citrus kick, or a simplified version of Shanghai. It could benefit from stronger throw and wear time (applied it in the morning and it was just the faintest whiff of green tea on my skin by mid-afternoon), but otherwise, no blind bottle regrets here.