Teaotter

Black Coffee from the 2020 Yules is my favorite straight-up coffee scent.

All I'm getting from this is a vanilla note that reminds me very much of They Shut Me Up in Prose. It's a very pretty gourmand vanilla.

This smells delightfully like gentle vanilla apricots for the fifteen minutes until my skin swallows it completely. I've tried slathering to no avail. It's perfectly lovely, but not for me.

When I first put this on, I get a blast of honey and fizzy cola. It settles down into a warm, spiced honey-patchouli on my skin. I get a bit of curry-ish earthy spice if I stick my nose against it, but the throw is all cardamom-honey-patchouli. Decent throw for the first four hours, then burns down to a warm skin scent for an hour or so before disappearing.

On me, the main note is ash. It's a sweet, smoky ash, more like burnt-down incense than firewood or tobacco ash. Unfortunately, after a few minutes, the fur note comes out -- but it's one that my skin turns from warm fur to warm sweat. So it's sweet incense ash and sweaty arm pits. Not what I was looking for! It's a skin scent, without a lot of throw.

I love fougeres! This one is warm and smoky with a strong oakmoss undertone. The clove and tobacco kick in to add a sweetness to the throw. Medium throw, lasts about half a day before it burns down to a skin scent on me.

Thick brown sugar and vanilla with the cardamom wafting over the top. This is very foody, but it has a strong, intensely dirty patchouli grounding it. The throw is a bit soft for me, and it doesn't last as long as I'd wish. But it's utterly delicious while it lasts!

The honey note in this one is very waxy on my skin, closer to beeswax than honey. I don't get a lot of ginger, but I do get a LOT of fizz. So this is basically beeswax champagne on my skin. It settles into a skin scent fairly quickly, but lasts surprisingly long.

Wet: crusty sweet bread, amaretto, and warm spices. I can't pick out the cardamom or anise distinctly. I get no butter at all, just a richness to the bread, if that makes sense. Drydown: The bread smell blossoms while the other notes fade into it. Dry: This smells like bread crust to me -- specifically the crust, and not the pale interior. It's a rich bread, a bit warm and only vaguely sweet, definitely not as sweet as brioche. I'm having a hard time describing this, but I keep huffing it. It's delightfully well-blended, comforting, and warm. It hovers right on the edge between gourmand perfume and smelling like an actual baked good, and I love it!

Wet: Intense, sticky honey. Drydown: The honey disappears into a blandly perfumey scent that hangs very close to my skin. Later: After about half an hour, I started smelling this wonderful intensely sticky honey incense smoke, and wasn't entirely sure where it was coming from. If I put my nose to my wrist, I still get something almost stereotypically oriental-perfumey, but the throw is SO FREAKING AMAZING. The mahogany lends a woody dryness to the incense, the honey gives it an intense sweetness, and the whole thing hovers on the edge of gourmand but doesn't quite fall into it. This one is so beautiful!

Wet: spicy woody incense. It reminds me overwhelmingly of The Huntsman, probably because it has a similar vetiver + woody incense combo. Dry: The lemon picks up a bit, giving it the occasional flash of citrus. But the vetiver stays the star of the show, with thick incense smoke drifting all around me. The throw is moderate, and it lingers for hours. Overall, I'd say it's The Huntsman's slightly less aggressive cousin -- a bit sweeter, a bit softer -- but definitely in the same family. Edit: My previous review was entirely from my decant. The bottle I received is much heavier on the vetiver so far, and it drowns out most of the incense. I'm going to give it a week to rest up and try it again

This is all coffee in the imp, but as soon as it hits my skin it becomes sweeter and woodier. There is still a coffee note wafting around, but the incense-y wood note dominates, along with a sugary sweetness. Throw is low, but it lasts fairly well on my skin. Sweet, woodsy incense and a cup of coffee.

Honeysuckle and lemon blossom. The amber barely peeks out after a couple of hours, and I don't get the peach at all. A light floral that burns down to a skin scent very quickly and fades out on my after a few hours.

I was worried that the tuberose and Queen of the Night might dominate this scent, but I love the other notes too much not to try it. And I'm glad I did! It's hard for me to pick out individual notes, no particular one seems to dominate. Overall, this is a sweet woody incense with some soft floral notes floating over it, and I adore it.

My previous bottle of Baku was very much soft lavender and anise. Fairly long-lasting, but it kept close to the skin. My new bottle is medicinal lavender and eucalyptus, with better throw and about the same longevity. I honestly don't know if this is an issue of aging, skin chemistry, or formula changes, but it's a significant difference.