Ishtar

Wow, thank you neptuneanblues! The Velvets look perfect - I love violet, and iris, and amber, and incense, and and and... *scampers off to sales pages*

Bumping this, as I'm in the same boat as stellamaris: dark musk lover here! I LOVE powdery scents - there, I said it, and now I'm going to be shunned by three quarters of the forum! My favourite pairing for black musk is amber - Haunted and Bakeneko are two perennial Top 10 scents, and I'd love to find others. Vanilla, spice, woods, resins, and most florals are all notes with which my skin gets along great. So, for those of you who can stomach darker musks, what would you recommend as a must-try? It sounds like I'll definitely have to track down some Playful Wooden Mallets, that sounds amazing!

I had been craving the perfect snow/evergreen/red berries blend - and this is exactly it! Freshly applied, it does remind me a lot of Skadi, only without the sharpness. But the way the various components waft and dance on my skin is very similar. After a few minutes, the "girlie perfume" starts opening up and becomes sweeter. My nose still interprets it as berries, but it's taking the blend in a different direction now, less crisp evergreen and, well, more perfumey. Not that it's a bad thing, because it smells amazing! After complete drydown, I'm in total snowy heaven. It's airy, floral, fruity, a tiny bit sweet, soft and fluffy, with a touch of very slight sourness that I often get (and love) from real evergreen. Snow Bunny had better come back this Yule, or I'll have to hunt down another bottle of this wascally wintry wabbit

I for one love lemon, and I wholeheartedly second skyelyric's rec for Delirium. It's very pretty and playful. Most of my favourite classically girly blends (all of them florals) have sadly been discontinued, but some of them are still relatively easy to find: Eos and Nuit come to mind. Peitho might be worth a try if you can do jasmine, although it tends to be a little heavier than the other scents mentioned. For some reason, when I hear girly I automatically think Alice, even though I haven't tried it in years. Maybe that's another possibility?

La Belle Dame started off very green, clean, and soapy on my skin. Now I get what people mean when they specifically compare certain blends to shampoo - this is exactly what it reminds me of. After 15 minutes or so, the intense soapiness calmed down, giving way to haughty florals floating on an aquatic background. It is not a "cold" scent per se, but it does a wonderful job of capturing the feel of absolute emotional detachment. After complete drydown, the rose takes centre stage and eventually overpowers the other florals, as the greenness returns to the fore. Sadly, this is a scent that doesn't really bloom on my skin - it must be absolutely beautiful on someone with the right chemistry, though.

Well, colour me impressed. No, make that extremely impressed. I've been using Milk & Honey for all of 2 days, and here's what's happened in this 48-hour period: - A client gave me a whole Elizabeth Arden 8-Hour Cream gift set as a thank-you - just hours after I noticed I was running low on moisturizer and was considering getting an inexpensive drugstore brand to tide me over; - An organization I'm leading a small workshop for later this month paid me my honorarium yesterday. Two weeks before the workshop actually takes place. I've never had that happen before (partial payment beforehand would be expected for a larger, multiday seminar, but for a 2-hour workshop? Completely unheard of as far as I'm concerned); - After a string of unexpected computer- and business-related expenses last month, I wasn't looking forward to getting my credit card statement. Turns out it's a good $200 lower than what I had estimated... and I'm not sure I fully understand how I have a feeling Milk & Honey is just what the doctor ordered at this particular point in time. After years of watching my expenses very closely while I was getting my business off the ground, letting go of the habit of pinching pennies is proving more challenging than I thought. Milk & Honey seems to be a fantastic tool for reminding myself it's OK to finally relax about money and small luxuries, and for inviting a sense of abundance back into my life. Oh, and for those who aren't crazy about the scent, I paired it with Golden Priapus, and the combo worked surprisingly well. ETA: 3rd day of wearing Milk & Honey, and I received no fewer than four invitations to do fun stuff for free next week, ranging from standup paddling to a fashion show, to a conference I wanted to attend but that was out of my price range. If you need me, I'll be over there looking like this and like this and like this Milk & Honey, you rock!!!

Woodsmoke and I don't get along IRL - it's one of the very few scents that make me queasy. Needless to say, I've been steadfastly avoiding blends with as little as a hint of smoke in the description. However, despite my misgivings, it turns out St John's Eve is really quite nice. In the vial, I get almost pure vetiver, and really good vetiver, at that: the rooty, earthy, fruity kind. It's rich, masculine and alluring. First impression after applying: it's powerful yet it stays close to the skin. A strong scent with minimal throw, if that makes any sense. For a few moments I get whiffs of classic men's aftershave, then the smoke shows up. Much to my surprise, it's sweet, fruity... and perfectly wearable. It doesn't morph much on me past that stage, and fades to a sweet woody scent that I think would be great for layering. I could see it lending extra depth and body to soft florals, for example. So. It appears than not only can I wear smokey scents after all, I am already making plans to layer them with others. You do learn something new every day!

I've always found Spellbound rather dramatic and commanding

Interesting! I tried Uruk many moons ago, and my chemistry turned it into something completely different On the other hand, La Befana reminds me strongly of the original LL - same gourmand violet/liquorice combo

I've never tried Green Tea Lavender, but I think many forumites have mentioned in their reviews how similar Shanghai is to EA's Green Tea. In other news, I think I might be falling in love with Prada Candy. According to one of the descriptions, its notes include "an elegant mix of musks in the top, a sensual balsamic vanillic accord of benzoin in the heart and sweet modern caramel in the base of the fragrance." In spite of the caramel, it's more cotton candy/Pink Sugar-esque on me than Red Lantern-ish et al. Any suggestions?

Catalyst is a bright, slightly herbal lemon scent on me. I for one happen to love lemon, so this is quite enjoyable as TALs go. The first time I had tried Catalyst (a year or two ago), nothing particularly noteworthy happened. Now, I think this is more of a "let's get the ball rolling and let's commit to a project for the long run" than a strong kick in the pants a la Determination - so don't expect instantaneous, dramatic results from this one. However, used with a clear intent, it definitely works. I used it in conjunction with Determination today, and the difference in feel was very noticeable. Determination grabs me by the collar and makes me do the things I don't want to do - it gets the job done, but I'm still thinking "drudgery, drudgery, and more drudgery" while I'm getting it done. In comparison, Catalyst sits down for a gentle but invigorating pep talk with my work ethics (and the part of me that loves starting new projects), and doesn't stop until everyone is positively brimming with enthusiasm and motivation. Catalyst is a motivational speaker and personal coach in a bottle.

Sugar Skull 2004 I never reviewed Sugar Skull back when I got a fresh decant of it, because I didn't really know what to make of it. The intense sweetness was a little off-putting, and while the scent underneath felt promising, it was pretty one-dimensional. So I kind of forgot about it. For six long years. I tried it again the other day, in a fit of "everything that hasn't been worn in while must go!", and I was amazed at how much it had changed. It's a completely different scent now, almost unrecognizable. And that's not because it's gone bad! Quite the opposite: now that the overwhelming sugar note has calmed down, Sugar Skull has finally come into its own as a sweet yet delicate scent. It's much more layered and complex than it used to be, with a positively divine floral note emerging from the sweetness upon drydown. It's so lovely that I am almost tempted to hunt down some more of the early vintages.

Wow, I've had my imp of Tamora for years, yet I never got around to reviewing it? Must remedy that! (also, what's with all the vintage Tamora reviewing going on on this page? ) As other have said before, the peach has become quite faint with age. Once the initial burst of fruit dies down, I think I would actually have a hard time identifying the peach as such. Rather, the fruitiness I am getting seems to be coming from the heliotrope and the amber. This is a warm, gentle scent that stays close to the skin. Much less sweet and summery than I remembered it to be when it was fresh, which is probably a good thing as it makes it more wearable in all kinds of weather. The drydown is almost pure golden amber and sandalwood, a winning combination for an amber lover like me. Tamora fades rather quickly after complete drydown, at which point it reminds me of a less assertive Brisingamen.

My bottle of Green Tree Viper must be about 2 years old by now. The mint is a little less bright than it used to be, but it is still quite, well, nice and minty. Green Tree Viper feels lighter to me than the other Snakes - not only does the mint impart a certain airiness, the Snake Oil base itself seems less heady than in, say, Boomslang or Asp Viper. I think that the bergamot - or maybe a specific kind of mint that I wasn't able to detect before - is coming to the forefront with age. It is most noticeable 10-15 minutes after applying, when this ever so slightly sharper note interacts with the spices in Snake Oil to create an almost medicinal feel. This stage is rather fleeting though, and I am soon left with a delicious combination of warm spicy vanilla and fresh mint - the contrast between the two is spectacular.

In the imp: dark and rich, both in colour and smell. I agree with the previous reviewers: the cocoa here is very reminiscent of Velvet, dry and (nicely) gritty, rather than the Lab's chocolate note. Even though the cocoa is very noticeable at first, it fades quite fast. I can't say that I detect any rice milk at all, and I might be getting a hint of teakwood every now and then, but maybe that's just my imagination. On me, Boomslang is like a somewhat richer-smelling version of Snake Oil - and thus, absolutely delicious. It doesn't change much from start to finish, once the initial burst of cocoa goes away.

Opuhi has really mellowed with age. I remember clearly that the first few minutes used to be nothing but a blast of ginger, with an intense underlying sweetness. A big, bold tropical scent, best applied sparingly. Trying it again tonight after over a year without wearing it, I was surprised to smell such a soft, spicy vanilla. For some reason, it really reminds me of these vanilla pudding cups with caramel at the bottom. It takes a while for the ginger to appear, and when it does it is to add warmth to the blend, not zing and bite the way it used to. After complete drydown, Opuhi turns into a very sweet floral that reminds me of Dragon's Milk. Now I can see why this is ginger blossom as opposed to ginger root, and I can distinctly smell the orchid. Strangely, I think I liked it even better when it was louder and almost garishly tropical - there was something about it that was a perfect fit for the tiki aesthetic, or at least my idea of it. Still, it is a lovely scent, and since most orchid blends seem to be falling victim to discontinuation these days, I will be sure to cherish my bottle.

I hadn't bought Pumpkin Queen back when it was released because, while I don't mind orange, it is not my favourite citrus note. However, I do love amber, cardamom and fig, so I had always been curious about this scent. Then a wonderfully generous forumite gave me a partial bottle at a Meet'n'Sniff last year I have been cherishing it ever since. Interestingly enough, the orange is MIA on me. If I sniff my wrist carefully, I can detect the tanginess of the mandarin and the warmth of the fig, but overall the fruit notes are very faint. What I do get from Pumpkin Queen, though, is a good helping of butter crust, and it is delicious. I don't want to use the word "buttery" for fear of putting off those who find Jack et al a little much - but let me assure you there's none of that heavy, almost overwhelming richness here. This butter crust has that kind of wholesome goodness reminds me of home baking with only the very best ingredients (thank you, Beth, for using butter and not margarine in your olfactory baking ) As far as I am concerned, Pumpkin Queen is possibly the best pumpkin scent ever created by the Lab. A few of the Pumpkin Patch blends have a similar vibe (and are much easier to procure), but if cucurbitaceae as a perfume appeals to you, then it's well worth trying to find the Queen.

Wow. Out of the imp, this is all tonic water for a fleeting moment (Schweppes, anyone?), but wait a few seconds and there is no possible doubt that this is a martini we're talking about. Oh yes, this is gin all right! This blend has a definite fizzy feel to me - it's more G&T than martini, but let's not nitpick, shall we? This is fun, and fresh, and pretty amazing. Not something I would want to smell like, but I'm thinking this would be an excellent fragrance for bath products or other crafts.

In the imp, the first thing I notice is a nice citrussy note (more specifically, sweet orange) rising above a bright, fresh, sweet beeswax base. On the skin, the beeswax, benzoin and mastic take charge. I am particularly happy to see that mastic is such a recognizable note, as I used to love it - and cook with it - back when I was in the Middle East. Its aroma is pretty unmistakable, and I think this is the first time I smell it out of context, so to speak. As the metallic notes come out, the scent becomes less comforting, more distant, and altogether harder, if that makes any sense. Ultimately, it proves to be too much aloof polished metal for me to wear, but regardless, what an interesting scent this is!

In the imp, this smelled like a classic and very high-quality men's cologne to me - fresh, a little citrussy, a little herbal. Very appealing, in a unisex kind of way. The Black Tower retains its "gentlemanly" feel throughout all the stages of its drydown. The ambergris and ivy are quite prominent for the first half-hour, only to be replaced by leather, smoke and dark woods after complete drydown - interestingly, these latter notes combine into a nice blond tobacco accord on my skin. Yet another stunning blend. I don't think I would reach for it often, but I can't help admiring the artistry that went into formulating this scent.

My first try with Brown Jenkins wasn't successful, to say the least. Dusty, a little sharp, lacking cohesiveness, it looked like this scent wasn't going to work for me, even though I usually get along very well with all the notes listed. Fast forward a year or so, as I try this again for reviewing purposes. What a dramatic change! Wet, this is all coconut incense of the highest quality - far from being cloying and musty, it is refined, airy and bright. Were I to find such a lovely incense for sale, I would burn it in my home all day long! As the oil settles down on my skin, the orris and sandalwood show up and impart a slightly drier quality to the scent, as the coconut recedes in the background. After complete drydown, I am left with a beautiful resiny/woodsy fragrance. I saw many reviews comparing Brown Jenkins to Midnight Mass, but on me it's very reminiscent of a fading Tombstone with a faint hint of coconut instead of the vanilla. Gorgeous, and a definite keeper.

For some reason I expected Seraphim to be a boring floral - I don't mind florals at all, but they usually fail to captivate me, and so "boring floral" is a whole subcategory in itself around these parts However, this beautifully soft, dewy Damascus rose commended my attention right out of the imp. Airy without being wispy, gentle without being insipid, this is remarkably well balanced. It's not uplifting per se, yet it is truly comforting, like an embrace. I don't know if I'll feel inclined to wear it often, but I am very pleasantly surprised by its gorgeousness.

In the imp and wet on my skin, all I'm getting is patchouli and vetiver. Maybe a faint hint of blood orange. The yang-ylang is MIA, which might be for the better as it is a rather iffy note on me. This is a strong and dark scent, and while it's not altoghether unpleasant, there is an undercurrent of something unsettling, almost cruel, lurking beneath the surface. After a few minutes, a sharp burnt note appears seemingly from out of nowhere - it is intensely acrid, but thankfully it soon dies down, leaving behind a fairly generic dark woodsy scent. Not a keeper for me, although I can see how it must be gorgeous on the right person.

When I first applied it, Oya smelled very alcoholic and a little... murky? Not bad, mind you, but rather like a big jumble of deep, darker notes. Even though there is a definite fruitiness to it, I am not getting a bright or juicy feel from it - if it was a colour, it would be a matte medium brown. I am having a hard time detecting individual notes in this blend. A high-pitched floral note (jasmine? Honeysuckle?) is present at first but it burns off very quickly, letting the indistinct dark fruit notes take centre stage. If the description didn't mention plum, I would actually be tempted to guess berries, and maybe even grapes as there is definitely something wine-like to my nose in this. Oya is a deep, mysterious scent. I don't think I would be reaching for it very often, but I find it very wearable, all the more so that it stays pretty close to the skin.

I love coconut, and Obatala caught my eye as soon as it was released. I finished up my first imp of it pretty quickly and reordered another one - then for some reason I stopped wearing it for a while. Rediscovering the imp in my box today, I was suprised by how green and watery Obatala is when freshly applied. For some reason, I always expect coconut scents to be sweet. The dominant mood here is fresh and breezy, which kind of throws me off. The scent does become thicker and sweeter as is dries down; yet there is a kind of perfumy undertone to it that I am not too sure about. Granted, early February is probably not the best time to be wearing such a summery scent. I will need to give Obatala another try once the weather warms up.