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!

Meus Amor Aeternus When our tarantula, Pinky, died, Lilith buried her. She cradled Pinky’s little body and placed her in a special box. She dug the grave with her own hands. She composed a memorial for Pinky, and spoke at her funeral. She laid a heart-shaped stone that she had found at the beach on her grave, and many months later, she still does what she can to tend Pinky’s grave. She has a reverence and respect for both life and death that is as beautiful to me as it is uncanny. Just recently, Lilith asked Ted and I to compose eulogies for our Soccer Mom Car, which was recently totaled, so we could share our memories of the car and let the car know how much she meant to us, thanking our poor, unfortunate SUV for keeping us safe for so many years. I love and treasure many things about my daughter, but to me, her big heart is her most beautiful aspect. She seems to love everyone and everything, she forgives all, and she truly values other people’s feelings. Lilith, you are a good person. You are a better person than I, I suspect, and it is an honor to be your mother. A cotton candy-suffused blend of Snake Oil and Dorian, touched by earthy green moss and raiz de moras, hope-filled vanilla bean, sweet honey, and joyous carnation. In the bottle: mostly honey, with a faint hint of red musk and something vegetal. It reminds me a bit of Womb Furie, but the honey is softer somehow, and the red musk is definitely far in the background. It is definitely more snuggly than sexy. Wet: This is one of the perfumes that disappears the instant it touches my skin. Nothing, nada, zero, zip. But it's cold today, so I'll give it half an hour to warm up. 30 minutes later: It came back! It's a skin-scent with low throw, but it's delicious. Honey-forward, slightly tangy. The Snake Oil is something I get in the throw more than when I stick my hand to my wrist -- I'd almost think it's something left on my clothes, except my clothes didn't smell like Snake Oil when I put them on this morning! I don't get cotton candy or moss, and I'm pretty sure the raiz de moras is blackberry root and not vetiver -- there is something in here that keeps reminding me of blackberry leaves, but nothing smoky or grassy about it. Drydown: The vanilla comes out a bit in the later drydown, but it's just grounding the scent. Basically, this is a light, non-sticky honey on me, with a hint of red musk and a bit of spice and greenness. The notes don't quite come together for me, but it feels like one of the perfumes that needs a month or so to fully come together.

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.

The Sorcerer, the Cunning-Man, the Sage. He is the Kerux, Initiator and Psychopomp, the Divine Messenger who leads neophytes on their paths through the Mysteries and shepherds the souls to the underworld. Honey absolute, Oman frankincense, and asphodel. Lots of honey, with a floral note I'd probably guess was dandelion if I didn't know better -- my nose really isn't familiar with asphodel. The frankincense is just a gentle woodiness under the other notes. This stayed true on me through the whole wearing. Fairly mild throw, good longevity. Straight-forward and very pretty.

Sweet sandalwood, grassy vetiver, and bergamot floating over the top. It's a little sour if I push my nose right up against it, but the throw isn't sour at all. Not a hint of pepper to my nose. I can only identify the leather if I try, and it might be my imagination, or maybe just part of what makes this read as 'cologne' to me. This is masculine in a dapper, sophisticated way, and much sweeter than I was expecting from the notes.

Formed into the crux ansata, symbolizing his absolute power over life and death: golden myrrh, calamus, iris root, and cardamom. Wet: the myrrh goes to baby powder on me immediately, darn it. That's unusual for my body chemistry, and doesn't bode well. Dry: yep, baby powder. I get a bit of spice and floral if I stick my nose right against it, but the throw is all baby powder. Decent throw, but it only lasts a couple of hours. This would probably be beautiful on someone else's skin, but it's not for me.

A slightly fizzy, classy perfume. Very well-blended, so I don't really pick out the other notes so much. Decent throw and wear length.

Powdered laundry soap. It's a nice powdered laundry soap, but that's pretty much all I get out of this. Hella throw.

On me, this is almost single-note leather, kind of like Riding Crop. There is a bit of clove, but it's drowned in that new leather smell. I do expect it to age beautifully.

After settling in for a month, I love this perfume even more! Thick, luscious resins under a drifting breeze of licorice and lavender. Good throw and excellent longevity.

Floral lavender perfume. The lavender and palo santo work together to make it a gorgeous musky floral. Good throw and longevity. I was personally hoping it would be more like 18 June 1860 than it is -- on my skin, at least, that one has an airiness where this one is musky from the ambrette seed. Fairly similar, but not identical scents.

On me, the lavender smells more like the one in Puppet Kitty than in TKO. Otherwise, I agree with other reviewers -- a sweet lavender scent with the barest hint of lemony gingerbread warmth in the background. Decent throw and longevity.