yakiguri

This is a super dark, herbally lavender mixed with something that's turning the blend to ashes and burnt plastic on my skin. Since black musk is the only note that does that, I suspect that's the culprit. Black musk only behaves on my skin after YEEEEAAAARRRSSS of aging (I nearly got rid of BTBT numerous times because of this) so I'll keep it in the aging box and hope it marinates into the awesomeness others have mentioned above.

To the reviewers wishing for more of the peat stage--you can have mine, as on my skin the soil/herbalness/peat strangles the rest of the notes all the way from application to drydown. Oddly enough I usually worry about red musk dominating a blend, but I guess I finally found a note that puts it in its place. A bit too well it seems...on my skin The Visionary is dirt with just the tiniest hint of musk and honey. *sigh* I'll revisit in a few months and see what it's like then, but the current prognosis isn't good.

Since orchids are my favorite flowers scent-wise buying this blend was almost like a moral imperative. Unfortunately I'm realizing I need some sort of anchor with my orchid blends (musk, leather, etc.) or else the orchid completely dominates. From application to drydown Opiate Gardens is soapy ALL ORCHID, ALL THE TIME. I get tiny hints of poppy and peony if I get my nose right up on my skin, but otherwise it's orchid all the way. Not necessarily a bad thing, as I love the scent of orchids, it's just not very deep as a blend. The scent is evocative of having bathed in exotic soap, so this will work for when I just want to smell clean.

Having sniffed the bath oil at the last Will Call I was beyond excited. Snow + vanilla rose? Yes please! When I got home though I realized I was given the perfume oil instead of the bath oil...I thought nothing of it though, I was going to get a bottle of the perfume at some point anyway. They should more or less be the same, right? Nope. At least, not currently. This smells exactly like Snow White, which I already have a bottle of. No rose, no vanilla, nothing but slushy ambiguous flowers. Of course, I eventually grew to appreciate Snow White after some aging and the cooling sensation from wearing it in 100+ degree heat. Hopefully Pink Snowballs will be the same. I'll remain cautiously optimistic and revisit in the summer...I guess in the very least I'll have a backup to Snow White, but this might be the last ____Snowballs blend I buy.

Not much I can say here that hasn't already been said by others, but if you love the smell of gingerbread, and you love Snake Oil, getting this blend should be a no-brainer. I can't distinctly pick out the Snake Oil like I could with Snakes in the Pumpkin Patch, but I know it's there; there's a richness to the blend, like vanilla'd molasses, that could only be Snake Oil. This should be utterly amazing with age.

Being half Filipino of course I had to get this. Hell, my mom's maiden name is basically sampaguita. Unlike many on this forum I'm a major jasmine lover. I grew up surrounded by it: jasmine bushes around our house, sipping jasmine tea, jasmine rice with every meal prepared by my Filipino mother. Sampaguita evokes memories of the jasmine of my life; heady, lush, yet soft, not at all screechy and sneezy like some jasmines can be. If you're a jasmine-phobe you should at least give this a try. This is the smell of my house when mom cooked dinner. This is the smell of hot cups of jasmine tea while watching the snow when we lived in Japan. This is...well, the smell of my heritage. Thank you Beth so much for this.

This shouldn't have worked on me. The Lab's oudh note for some reason has never worked on me, teasing me with its depth and beauty before quickly turning into band aids and latex gloves. But when I saw someone mention Hesiod's Phoenix being a dead ringer for Serge Lutens' Ambre Sultan I was compelled to buy a bottle blind. I was I had bought more than just 1! This is definitely akin to Ambre Sultan with its sweet, almost gingerbread-esque amber. But where AS has a slight mustiness thanks to the spices, HP has none of that. HP also translates as slightly sweeter and deeper on my skin thanks to the oudh, which is mercifully behaving. If it's like this now this will crazy amazing with age. I think I need about elebenty bottles of this.

I agree that compared to the Eldritch Dark bath oil, in the perfume the leather is pitch black and much more dominant. I hate to say it, but as much as I love leather, and as much as I love the Eldritch Dark bath oil, I'm on the fence at this point about the perfume since black leather is my least fave. I luuuurv what's going on in the background though with the honey, sugared rose, and musks, I just wish the leather stopped trying to assert its dominance over them. I'll revisit in a few months as I'm confident the leather will smooth out considerably. I'd put this in the same family as VILF and Haute Macabre.

Even though Rags to Royalty has two notes that typically don't work on me (oudh and cacao) they play quite nicely in this. Overall I get thick, syrupy-sweet patch and amber swirled with honey and a dash of cacao. It has the same tone to it as Scrappy Damsel, and I can see this being something she'd bath in.

*sigh* Remind me never again to attend a skin party where both lavender and frankincense are together. Apparently my skin has decided that the combination of the two = latex, and I smell like I've been prepping for surgery or rolling around on condoms. Only when the scent is juuuuust about the dissipate do the other notes show up and I get something more tolerable. I'll try it in the bath rather than directly on the skin as a moisturizer to see if it's more agreeable, otherwise it looks like the Fourth Impossible Errand was to get my skin to agree with it.

Ahh skin chemistry, you do the wonkiest things. Even though Scrappy Damsel only shares honey in common with Variety of Pleasing Amusements, they translate almost exactly the same on my skin--spicy tobacco honey. There's definitely things trapped in the honey of both blends, but they're scarily similar, like scent siblings. As Variety of Pleasing Amusements is a favorite, and I also have two bottles of it, I think one Scrappy Damsel is enough. I'm curious to see though if further aging will turn her into something more unique, or at least unique to my stash.

Oh man, this is Jareth running around sporting the Bow and Crown of Conquest minus the oudh that turns the Goblin King into the Band Aid king on my skin. Starts off a little sharp, but mellows into a sweet snuggly vanilla-lavender-sage-leather concoction, like wrapping yourself if your guy's fave shirt. I'm quite appreciative that the lavender doesn't get bracing and sharp and veer into medicinal or manly shower gel territory Knight in Shiny armor is just how I like my heroes--warm and comforting, but with enough spice to keep things interesting. I'm going to need another bottle. EDIT: Just put this on Mr. Elf. Ohhhhhh man. It's not as sweet as him as it is on me, but adding male skin chemistry turns into a seeexy Knight. On him it's much deeper and richer. I think he amps the lavender fougere much more than I do. I smell the hints of Vicomte de Valmont too, but this Knight is softer and more approachable thanks to the vanilla and not as sharp. I'm going to need VATS of this as I think I just found his new signature scent.

Sylvia starts off on my skin as a strongly resinous pine + leather combo, but gradually the balsam takes more of a back seat and lets the carnation and clove come to the fore. The leather + resins combo reminds me strongly of Rogue, which is LOVE as Rogue is of my top faves. Unfortunately Sylvia is prone to wanderlust--unless I slather myself I can barely detect her, and my skin eats the blend entirely within a 2-3 hours if not sooner. I'll revisit Sylvia just before the Weenies come down to see if she becomes more tenacious on my skin. I'd love to have something else in the Rogue family in my stash, but not if she's as undetectable as one. Otherwise I'll stick with my one bottle.

Callidora starts off as a peppery cloud of powdery smoke that unfortunately skews waay too close to ashtray levels, a rarity for this tobacco-loving gal. She then hits a phase where the myrrh (I suspect) turns the powderiness up to 11 and would make the blend unbearable if not for the patch finally making an appearance, but not as strong as one as I'd like. Hours later the vamp calms down to a spicy-sweet mix of benzoin, patchouli and peppery musk. Cacao never deigns to make an appearance. I want to like this, but I'm meh at the moment. I'll have to revisit in a few months to see if the notes are meshing better together, otherwise I may have to let this vamp go.

I hesitated on the hair glosses forever since my hair really doesn't like silicone products, but I HAD to get this. The scent does NOT disappoint. Completely and utterly agree that it's like a puff of cotton candy patchouli, sweet but not tooth achingly so, deep but not screaming dirty hippy. It actually reminds me quite strongly of sweet incense blends like All Souls and Midnight on the Midway. As for the actual effect on the hair, it does add a nice sheen but I don't find it particularly moisturizing. I flipped my head over and did 4 spritzes in my dry hair, and within a few hours my hair has eaten up the moisture along with most of the scent. My shoulder blade-length curls are thick and course though, and coupled with the dry California air they're always crying for more moisture. I was primarily worried about the 'cones drying out and frizzing my hair, and I'm happy and relieved to report that hasn't happened. Can't say my wallet is relieved though. I dare say if your budget only allows for just one item from this year's TP Weenies, GET THIS. If it was a regular blend I'd be hoarding like mad. Despite the 6 month shelf life I may just get another bottle. If Silkybat made it's way into the TP GC collection there'd be a LOT of happy campers I bet...I sure would be one.

(Note: I have super dry gator skin so I use my bath oils as after shower moisturizers, especially for post-run showers and shaving.) Bloodbath is quite similar on my skin to Eldrich Dark, both sharing the same musky dark sugared rose theme--they could be scent cousins, or fraternal twins. However in Bloodbath the sugar is stronger and the rose skirts just over the line of perfuminess to an almost sneezy level. After a few hours the rose calms down and I get sweet red musk + patch, but if it's that strong on just my forearm, oiling my legs and arms post-bath might just be too much. I like it enough to keep my bottle but I'll leave the hoarding to others.

Fruits don't work on my skin unless tempered with stronger, heavier notes like musk, patchouli, leather, etc. Gave this a shot since I picked the decant up for a friend and yup, dusty acrid fruit.

2013 version: This is a lovely blend of tobacco, spices, and woods. Initially the agave is prominent and adds a tropical sweetness to it, but is eventually muted by the spice and woods. Copal adds a creaminess to the blend and the cigar smoke is quite lovely in the background. I really don't get much rose. If the agave was more pervasive and long lasting this would definitely be a bottle purchase, but out of my sizable collection of tobbaco/spice/woods blends this just isn't unique enough to warrant a bottle purchase. I'll certainly enjoy my decant though.

I love my sweet incense blends, but for some reason All Souls reads as cake and then sweet plastic rubber, like the scented erasers you can get from Asian stationary stores. It has an almost pencil shavings edge to it that makes me wonder if cedar is a note, though cedar usually behaves on me.

I don't know what note in here is the culprit but this blend goes VERY wrong VERY quickly on my skin. It's incredibly fetid and swamp-like, and I blame the lemon and black musk notes, if those are indeed in here, as those are two of my WORST skin nemeses. Nope, never risking a bottle purchase on note-less blends ever again...glad I was patient and only grabbed a decant.

I don't know whether to blame the chypre or the pom but my skin reads this as dusty desiccated fruit. Odd, since there's not a single death note here...I suppose these notes are fine on my skin mixed with other notes but brought all together I get fruit powder.

Morocco is already pretty strong on my skin--I prefer to dab it in my hair or put a drop or two in my hair oil--so I was hoping the pumpkin would mellow it out some. NOPE. Pumpkin peeked its head in for only a few minutes before Morocco firmly shunted it behind and made its presence known. I'll hold onto my decant to see if it mellows with age but I think I'm fine with my one and barely touched bottle of Morocco.

For some reason on my skin the pumpkin and Dorian keep duking it out for dominance, one being prominent over the other but the two never quite melding together like they do with Snakes in the Pumpkin Patch. It's either DORIAN + pumpkin or PUMPKIN + Dorian. I'm hoping they eventually play nice together as I'd love to buy a bottle of this.

Snakes in the Pumpkin patch is basically the SO everyone loves with creamy pumpkin shmeared in the background. It adds a slightly foodie tint to SO but not so much that it heads into bakery territory. Finally the Lab made a pumpkin blend I can wear! This is going to be utterly FANTASTIC aged, but while I'll definitely grab a bottle I don't think I need more than one...maybe.

*sigh* Came looking for a replacement for my beloved Zorya, instead I get men's deodorant. Indeed very clean with prominent lavender, but whatever else is in this blend turns it into "sporty male wash." I have no desire to smell like I swiped Mr. Elf's body wash, thank you.