HerbGirl

Ok. In the bottle: WHOA CHERRY. I honestly don't get cough drops from this, just commercially recognizable cherry. On my skin: WHOOOOOO CHERRY. Glorious! After 5 minutes: Cherry? Wait, this had cherry in it? LOL After 15 minutes: This is herbal. This is the chypre taking over...I suppose. No cherry! After 20 minutes: It is now a gorgeous blend of herbs and cherry, soft and beautiful. Of course, YMMV. What an interesting scent journey! I love it and am very curious to see how it ages.

I actually really like this. I dislike how heavy the leather usually is in book scents but I took a chance with this and I'm glad I did. I don't smell leather. I smell something akin to paper but my brain keeps saying it is a nutty scent (?) and there is just a hint of lavender. Very comforting. Very snuggly. Not a strong scent. ETA: I've been trying to figure out what smells so familiar here. It is the parchment note from Dee that I'm smelling. I love this oil so much.

My final Luper impulse buy! This is so nice. I wasn't sure what I was smelling for the first few minutes but it certainly wasn't bad. Something about my body chemistry is bringing out an extremely muted dark velvety cinnamon note which is really really nice but I'm not sure why. I definitely smell the sandalwood (hooray!) the hay and the hinoki and I love this. If the ambergris and frankincense come forward that will make it even more precious. (I get the comparison to Gloomy Day (which is a favorite of mine) but I don't think they smell similar and the vibes are completely different.) I'm so glad I took a chance on this bottle. This year's Lupers were just full of amazing blends.

THIS IS SO VELVETY SOFT, DARK AND GREEN!!! I loooooove it! Patchouli, herbs, vanilla. I feel like this is Nasty Woman's witchy counterpart.

This is truly beautiful. It is beautiful in the same way, to me, that Lady Death: Savage is beautiful. It is a lovely perfume. I am familiar with each scent note but am not smelling any of them individually. Truly a masterpiece and I am so glad I bought a bottle.

Leaves, black currant and patchouli, in that order. I absolutely adore this one and am surprised I didn't review when I got it last year! It is everything I had hoped it would be.

It took me an hour to figure out what this reminds me of. I was super excited when I smelled this because it reminded me of an old love that I only have a half decant of left: Beaver Moon '10. No peach and no cheesecake, lol, but they are really similar in my opinion - enough to trigger an immediate 'WHAT IS THAT?!' response. I love it.

I received a frottle of this in my last order (wow, right?!) and have only managed to sniff it in the bottle. It smells like stale cigarette smoke (almost ashtray) in the bottle and, as I just quit smoking in January, it is a major turn off to smell that. I will update this review if I ever have the balls to skin test.

This is beautiful. I'm not sure if anyone else gets this but, this is the pink rose that burns my sinuses when I inhale too deeply, lol. I still love the scent. The chypre is there, under the rose and I'm sure the vanilla is there, smoothing things out but I can't pick it out. Very lovely.

Now, this is my favorite red musk: reddish brown, not red or dark pink, coupled with a hint of dark pink florals and just the barest hint of patchouli, which is much lighter than I anticipated from looking at the notes! Honestly, this is just so beautiful.

The burst of peach is real. The other notes play supporting roles but that peach. That peach. I love it. The honeysuckle is fairly prominent and goes through a finicky stage but it smooths out. This perfume reminds me of the perfect sunset. Eta: The honeysuckle is no longer finicky at all. And oh my goodness this has settled into such a beautiful scent. It reminds me of a perfect hot late summer day, sitting near a honeysuckle twined fence or tree, eating a peach, waiting to watch the sun set. I'm not getting much amber but the other three notes are perfectly balanced. So wonderful. ETA2 June '21 This continues to age beautifully. What a gorgeous perfume! If I was to tie this scent to a city, I would tie it to Olympia, WA. I know most folks would be adamant about a patchouli scent for Oly but this just brings me back there...in the summer...I love this scent so very much.

Yeah. So. I've been a fan of Snake Oil since 2008. A BIG fan. I love most of the variants I've tried. This? This is fantastic. This is SNEKITY SNAKE OIL with added pastry sweetness. I don't detect extra cinnamon, I just get sweet pastry. Nom nom nom, Scream Inside Your Snake Oil, indeed. Nom. I forgot to add: in the beginning there was an interesting thing going on. I could have sworn I was smelling Snake Oil and pastry scent floating in the breeze on a summer's day. That might sound weird, and it was fleeting but, it was there. Very neat. ETA: this dries down to a delicious pastry. Nom nom.

This is fantastic. The blackberry is certainly the stand out, which is lovely. This isn't a jammy blackberry, it's more of a blackberry tea which makes sense considering the notes. The notes meld perfectly into a common scent so it just smells like a semi tart, sparkly (not fizzy), soft dewberry scent. The waft is wonderful! It took me a while but this reminds me of a Dewberry perfume I bought at a Body Shop in Seoul back in 2000 that I loved. I am very glad I finally decided to get a bottle! Eta: More of a blackberry hard candy now, softened by the rice element and just delightful. I am so glad I got a bottle! I don't wear it often but it brightens up my entire day when I do!

This is stunning. Subdued, but stunning. I can't compare it to anything. Mossy dry cocoa. If this sounds up your alley at all, go for it! I will enjoy wearing this one out for crisp autumn walks after the bears have started to hibernate. I love this so much. I still love this but wanted to add that it has a cologney quality that I wasn't getting until now. The cocoa sticks around for a while with the moss, and then the moss comes into its own and becomes this seriously gorgeous dark cologne. It has also become much stronger with age - holy moly one dab will do it.

Aging has smoothed this out nicely.

I love this. If you enjoyed The Instructional Manual, you will enjoy this. Great waft and staying power. I was excited to see this and am glad to have a bottle.

Thomas Stothard White leather and cypress-tinged white musk with cardamom, smouldering incense, Ceylon cinnamon and white sandalwood. Holy moly. This reminds me most of the Hell of Great Heat meets the Evening on the Veranda atmo spray from Trading Post. I would assume if you enjoyed either one of those (as I do) you would love this. The leather isn't harsh or chemical-y and I smell it first with a touch of cypress and cinnamon. Then...there is a spicy incense explosion! Cardamom, yes. Cinnamon, yes. Incense, yes. Wow. This one is going to age like a dream, but it is already perfect. LOVE THIS.

Scent review: I can smell the 4 notes listed. Thankfully the Ylang is most prominent. There's a touch of Blue Tansy (which, I hate to say, I strongly dislike the scent of, despite using it for skin care and aromatherapy at home) but the Chamomile is just underneath the Ylang and Elemi is just barely perceptible as a lightly astringent higher pitched wood scent (that is not a favorite of mine). So, Ylang and Chamomile. It smells lovely and has sweetened up on my skin in the last 30 minutes. I am truly glad to have a bottle of this because it called out to me for it's intended use. I'm just glad it smells good, too!

White Rose smells beautiful. Gossamer, paper roses in white and perhaps yellow. I feel like I'm actually smelling the borage, too. Sweet and truly a beautiful scent. I think I started really smelling the magnolia and coriander after about 30 minutes but all of these notes are so perfectly blended that it just creates a perfect blend. Very cool. I actually meant to test another oil this morning but, somehow, White Rose was the bottle I opened. I guess it knew I needed it today? Gotta love TAL oils. I'm sure this oil 'works' in addition to just smelling awesome but I'm not sure how it will work for me yet. Indulge me for a second while I muse that this oil smells necessary. I've never had that feeling before but it is really powerful. I feel bad that my scent review is really not doing this oil justice: it is truly beautiful and one of a kind. Also, for anyone worried, I don't smell soapy rose here. Just lovely. I'm very surprised to be the first reviewer. I was hesitant but had to write something. 🙂 Beautiful.

Exactly what the description says. Holy moly I love this! It smells like the perfect hike: sun warmed evergreens wafting in the air, a hint of amber with a bit of the best cologne I've ever smelled. Sorry this review isn't great, I just needed to exclaim how amazing this is. I love it. Eta: This is still beautiful but it has become very cologne-y.

I had high hopes for this and am not disappointed. This is gorgeous. I feel like it's the femme version of The Ninth Cage. Just sweet enough, just oaky enough, dusting of cocoa, wow. Exactly what I was hoping for.

This is light but stunningly beautiful. Not much frankincense (it should develop with age, I'm certain) but horchata is a pretty good comparison. I love this! Eta: This no longer reminds me of horchata. There is a slightly foody quality (the rice milk, I'm sure) but this is all about the tobacco and the awesome way it blends with the other notes. Gorgeous.

ETA 26 September: This has finally come into its own. Glorious. Lemony semi sweet hay. I love it. (This was the only disappointment of the Lupers that I bought, and it may just be my skin chemistry. I get the hay, and it's nice but there's nothing here to sweeten it. No sugar. I don't smell rice milk. I keep testing but nothing changes 😞 It's nice but I was hoping for the sugar to add another dimension to the hay.)

Shadow musk and blood musk with opoponax, aged patchouli, leather accord, black pepper, and bitter clove. I've been waiting for this one!!! Yes...the only notes that I was worried about were clove and black pepper but this is so beautiful! Blood musk, clove and opoponax...om nom nom I'm not getting the leather yet but I can smell just a hint of pepper as I'm exhaling after I sniff my wrist (if that makes any sense!) This is warm and sexy...I love it and will need a bottle. Great stuff! Forgot to say that I'm not picking out much patchouli here...I bet it will come out with a bit of aging. This is beautiful. ETA 23 Nov I wore this today and now I know what it reminds me of - Le Lethe! Om nom nom

Shadowy lavender oudh. Anyone remember the I Am Tired of Tears and Laughter perfume oil? Oh yeah...this is similar. Simple and beautiful lavender oudh. I have secretly been wishing for a lavender bath oil to use as an in shower moisturizer and bought it immediately. I will cherish this bottle. Eta: I just used this in the shower...it is a lovely, dark lavender. Love it.