puellacaerulea

Seconding that this is more floral than you might expect from the notes listed, but in a good way! I expected something dusty and powdery from a violet/orris/sandalwood combo, but this is surprisingly not that. This is probably one of the least powdery takes on violet and orris I've tried. It's subtly floral, slightly spicy violet, with some backbone from the sandalwood and cedar. I suspect this one's going to get less love than Muddy Armadillo and Judgmental Longhorn, which is too bad, as it's a very complex floral/wood blend without the powderiness and sharpness I got from similar scents like Violet & Pale Woods. I can see this blend aging well, too.

In the decant, I get cacao, tonka, amber, and brown musk. Once it's on, the vanilla and benzoin start amping up along with the musk -- I end up with a warm amber/vanilla/musk combo with a sort of creamy sweetness to it. It's like Year of the Ox without the wood and tobacco notes. The musk takes it into semi-masculine territory and gives it a slight expensive-cologne vibe, but I do think anyone could wear this.

As other reviewers have said, don't expect vanilla in this scent -- this is a soft, sophisticated floral scent. In the bottle, it's a creamy floral with a little stemmy greenness to it. It does go through a troubling sour phase it dries down, which (luckily) settles after drydown. It's a light, spring-friendly floral, but without the loudness or screechiness you can sometimes get from floral + green scents. Glad I was able to snag a secondhand bottle of this.

I got an imp of this secondhand, so I'm not sure how aged it is/if aging has had any impact on how it works on my skin. I'd always meant to try this one before it got discontinued but never got around to it, and came across an imp recently. It's ozoney, airy notes in the imp...and then it turns to some kind of high-pitched, sour plastic on my skin. It does eventually calm down, but once it does, I mainly just get a very faint whiff of white flowers and rain. Oh well, at least I finally got to try it.

In the imp, I get light citrus and maybe a hint of white floral, but white musk stands out the most. When I apply it, my skin mostly eats up the citrus notes and lemon verbena, leaving me with soft white musk and a bit of powdery sandalwood. Even without the citrus notes, it's still a pretty, inoffensive, spring-friendly scent. Apart from being a good springtime scent, I could see this being good for office situations or other places you might want an unobtrusive scent. Low-ish throw and medium wear. (NB: This is a lab fresh imp, so I'm curious to see if aging brings out the other notes more.)

Very fresh and green in the decant, with a blast of citrus and salt to brighten things up. The citrus fades fast on me, and I'm left with green notes that are just this side of Irish Spring on my skin, but the saltiness keeps it from going into full soap territory. I miss the citrus notes, but it's pleasant greens and salt air on my skin. Not sure if this is going to be a bottle purchase for me, but I'll keep using my decant.

I'm not a big fan of currant, but I like fig and really love neroli, so I wanted to at least give a decant of this a shot. It's very fruity and sweet, and just a little tart -- currant seems to be the predominant note, but the fig is definitely kicking up the sweetness. I never do pick up the neroli between the fruit notes. A little too sweet for my tastes, but if you like juicy fruit notes, you might enjoy this one.

In the decant, this starts off with a spicy blast of cardamom and black pepper, with the salt and wood notes just under it. On my skin, the spices fade fast, and the wood and salt notes get more pronounced and a little camphor-y. I never do pick up the patchouli and tonka. End result on my skin is camphor, woods and salt air, with a breath of spices underneath. Sort of like the Teakwood, Moss, and Salt Menage, but with the camphor toned down some and a bit of extra warmth from those faint spices.

In the decant, it's mostly strong, freshly ground coffee -- I think the Turkish coffee description is apt. Unfortunately, coffee bean notes can go a little weirdly sharp and powdery on me, and this one does that. The caramel does amp up and smooth out some of that sharpness -- it's not an intensely sweet caramel, but it's noticeable and does tone down the sharpness I'm getting from the coffee beans. Given the way the coffee note in this goes on me, probably going to stick with just my decant.

In the decant, this is a whole lot of heady, dreamy white florals, with moonflower and honeysuckle standing out in particular. It does remind me of Blue Moon, and maybe also Cold Moon minus the snow note. On my skin, the orris amps up and makes the scent a little powdery and adds a slightly bittersweet undertone (I think I might also be getting thyme here), while the honeysuckle gets understated. Several hours later, the florals have mostly faded, and I finally pick up a faint whiff of white mint and thyme. Not 100% sure if I need a full bottle of this, mainly because I like it better in the decant than I do on my skin (honeysuckle, come baaaaaack). Still, fans of white florals in general and honeysuckle in particular will probably enjoy this one.

In my decant and once on, I get a sweet, fresh, non-soapy mandarin. The osmanthus starts to come out more as it dries down and is pretty well-balanced with the mandarin -- it's a soft, gentle yellow floral, almost a little peach-like. No soapy, screechy, or intensely citrusy notes here. I do wish it had a little more staying power, but it's pleasant while it lasts. If you like the idea of a citrus floral but are worried about the notes getting out of hand, give this a shot.

This one did appeal to me both for the scent notes and the intention behind it. Starting with the scent: It starts out woods and bright resins and even something like camphor, which I'm attributing to the copal and elemi alongside the palo santo. On my skin, it settles to a very soft palo santo and sandalwood, very similar to the Palo Santo & Sandalwood Duet. Which is in no way a bad thing, as I find that a very calming and peaceful scent. I think I need to test it a few more times to really get a feel for how it works in terms of intention, but this blend really does have a gentle, calming quality.

Scent-wise, this starts out as a mix of citrus and resins, then settles to a sort of spiced coffee scent, with star anise being the most prominent of said spices. If you're interested in intent/energy on this one, I don't feel as qualified to speak to that, but I chose to wear this on what's currently my most chaotic/busy day of the work week. I did feel like I was handling things a little more easily, not in a relaxed way, but more in a riding-the-wave sort of way.

This one starts out more cardamom-forward -- a little earthy, spicy, and subtly sweet. The amber is there in the background adding extra warmth to the cardamom, however. As it wears, the amber seems to get more prominent. These notes play really well together -- this is basically a warm, rich, spicy-sweet amber (and, as others have noted above, not spicy-sweet in a gourmand kind of way).

This is a pretty, classic, gentle white floral. It's primarily lily of the valley, with the sandalwood in the background softening the scent and keeping the white floral note from getting screechy. The lily of the valley does go soapy for a little bit, but it eventually settles. So, overall, gentle white floral and soft sandalwood. It has a sort of vintage feel to it. Fairly low throw and moderate wear time on me.

The star jasmine definitely stands out the most to me here -- heady white floral, a little indolic, but not super screechy. The beeswax mostly adds a slightly honeyed sweetness to the star jasmine. The amber's very much a background player, adding a little bit of warmth and grounding to the sweet florals. Jasmine fans will like this one.

This one is primarily myrrh, with a faint hint of floral sweetness from the rosewater in the background. As a bonus, this rose note doesn't go powdery. Simple, pretty, and resinous without being too heavy -- sort of like a lighter, pared-down version of Wander Darkling in the Eternal Space. It has moderate wear time; I applied it in the morning and it was mostly gone by late afternoon. One to try if you like myrrh and/or have bad luck with rose scents.

This starts out with the vetiver and black tea vying to be the dominant note. It's dark, bittersweet, and a little smoky (if this a black tea, it might be a lapsang souchong), but the tonka is adding a subtle warmth and sweetness. The tonka eventually takes a back seat and I'm left with a dark, smoky black tea.

The narcissus in this shows up as a white floral with slightly bitter, slightly green undertones, while the snow note is coming across as a powdery, sort of chilly sidekick. It's pretty, but it's low-throw and fades quickly -- more of a faint breath of a white floral than an in-your-face one. Going to pass on a full bottle due to the short wear time, but it's pretty enough that I'll hang onto my decant.

So my point of reference here is BPAL's Absinthe blend, which is bright, lemony, and green, but also with a boozy undercurrent. I recognize those notes in this blend, and they're an interesting point of contrast with the dead leaves. The leaves here do seem more green than some of the other DL blends I've tried, but maybe that's how it's playing with the absinthe notes. Think newly fallen leaves, not dry and crunchy ones. Lemony, herbal, but with the leaves giving it a deep green foundation.

I've struggled to describe this one after multiple tests, hence taking so long to finally review it. It's mostly peppery dry leaves and strong almond, but there is a sweetness to the almond that I'm guessing is the bourbon -- it's otherwise not noticeably boozy. There's a weirdly powdery-sweet quality to the dead leaf accord that I've noticed in some of the other 2020 DL blends -- not sure if it's the other notes in the blend making that happen, or something specific about the DL accord this year. So: green, peppery, sweet almond, and a little powdery. It's nice, but it doesn't quite wow me like some of the other dead leaves in my stash.

I came so close to getting this last winter, but my budget could only stretch so far and other Yules ended up winning the blind-bottle contest. I got a sniffie recently and am finally getting around to it. This one's a slow morpher, but definitely a morpher. It started out a chilly, pretty blend of eucalyptus-y/minty snow notes with sandalwood in the background. Then the sandalwood slowly comes out and switches places with the snow notes, at which point I was like "oh no I'm gonna need to find a bottle of this." But then the snow notes (slowly) went in another direction, and I'm left with sandalwood with something vaguely fruity/perfumey in the background. It's not unpleasant, but I really preferred the earlier stages of this scent. There's this to be said: it has serious staying power (on hour 11 and it's still going strong).

2020 version; haven't tried previous versions. I finally decided to give this a shot out of curiosity, to see if it would evoke memories of church incense as a kid (count me under the Lapsed Catholic audience for this scent). It's surprisingly sweet in the decant -- lots of resins, as expected, but also something that I swear smells like cherry. The sweetness calms down once on, and I get lots of dry resins and maybe a little bit of cedar. Solemn and peaceful. I think I was hoping for it to be a little smokier than it is, but I do like it for what it is. Not sure I'll use this enough to justify a full bottle, but I'll keep my decant.

In the bottle, this is all anise. Fortunately, once on, the strong anise note from the palo santo softens, and a dry sandalwood comes out to balance it out. So, slightly minty, anise-y palo santo with a dry, soft sandalwood. Agreed with the above reviewers that there's something very mellow and soothing about it.

Carnation isn't a note I'm super into, but I love both orris and tobacco, so I wanted to give a decant a try. I think I'm having the opposite experience as groovyrooby -- the carnation mostly stays in the background for me, adding a little spiciness and a subtle floral back note to the scent. I'm mainly getting soft orris and caramelly, chewy tobacco. A few hours after drydown, I'm getting just tobacco. I tend to amp tobacco, so other people might have a more carnation-forward experience with this. It's definitely an intriguing take on my usual tobacco blends, but I'm good with just a decant.