Mountaingrrl00

The Unsteady Governess is doing nicely in the hot weather.

In the vial I get ozone and metal. On my skin, it warms up to a soft, green resin scent. It actually reminds me a lot of Midnight Mass, but a bit lighter.

I'm a violet lover, and this is such a beautiful setting for violet - smoky, earthy, a little juicy, with just a subtle hint of ylang ylang. One of my favorites.

I got this when it came out about nine months ago, but never wore it beyond the initial skin-test. In the long, cold autumn and winter the ozone and burnt smells just didn't work. I'm glad I hung onto it now, though, because it's glorious in the heat. It blooms on my skin and evokes the dry air and western herbs and grasses I grew up with, and the burning smell is really subdued now, like incense without the smoke. It's herbal-resiny, slightly sweet, natural-smelling, unisex. It's going to be very wearable for summer.

This isn't something I thought I'd like, and I almost passed it on after the initial sharp, piney sniff of it in the vial. I'm glad I tested it, though, because once it hits my skin it blooms into a balsam needle smell with just a hint of the tree bark. It reminds me of one of my favorite LEs, Midnight Mass, but younger and greener.

Reminds me of Givenchy Pi, which I love. It's fresh and almost cologney but with a lovely almost vanilla warmth to it.

The Silk Road smells like lightly spiced rice to me.

This was a heartbreaker for me. The description looked so lovely, but I didn't get any of my beloved caramel or red musk. For some reason it smells smoky and multi-floral, not a combination I like.

This is pretty much summer in a bottle. The strawberry dominates at first, true and tart-sweet, then recedes into an ethereal green scent. I got a bottle of this and it's a great winter pick-me-up as well as a fitting light scent in summer.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this yet! It's one of my all-time favorites. The mead note is very true, yummy and rich. The way it mixes with the lemon and spices and gruit smells warm and festive and never fails to put me in a good mood.

This had promise. I love incense scents, and I like the syrupy aspect to this one, but something about it consistently made me sneeze. Had to swap it away.

I keep trying different things on, but my place smells definitively of Goblin of Yuletide Present.

A new year's blessing! Peony, China's national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, cypress for longevity, and peach fruit and hemp to represent the fourth phase of Wu Xing, with a splash of blazing red of dragon's blood... to help you scare away the rampaging Nian. This smells like bright copper at first, and it reminds me more than a bit of Copper Phoenix. I agree with filigree_shadow that it is fruity and bright and happy, too. The peach and citrus distinguish themselves first. The floral notes are subtle and spring-like. I can't really pick out the cypress or hemp, and I only know the dragon's blood is there because of the metal association. This is a nice mood-booster of a scent.

I love it. The strong cardamom and nutmeg give it an assertiveness and brightness that gradually melds into the richness of the leather, coffee, hazelnut and tobacco. This is heady stuff, quite sexy, and yummy without being overtly foodie.

Spicy plastic leather? I think it's the dragon's blood that's behaving oddly on me, although I don't have this reaction to Dragon's Milk. I usually love the Lab's spice scents, but this one doesn't work for me.

The Arabian Dance (from the 2010 Yules) is cardamom-spicy and smoky with coffee, tobacco and hazelnut. It's rich but not sweet.

This is an amazingly nostalgic scent for me. It reminds me of baking with my grandmother. She used to make these light, creamy cookies scented with ginger and vanilla and orange extracts. Mother Ginger is like being in that kitchen and stirring the batter and having the ingredients wafting around. The marshmallow is there too -- the same cozy note that's in TKO. The strong natural ginger fades after a few hours, and I'm left with the marshmallow and French vanilla and a very light, creamy orange.

At first sniff, this is chilly and almost ozone-like, as BPAL pomegranate often is to me. It warms up quickly on my skin, though, and morphs into a beautiful bittersweet scent that's like chocolate oranges, but lighter and with a bit of a perfume edge. It's yummy but not too foody. There's something that's almost like orange zest in the drydown. I like this a lot -- it's very cheerful in a grown-up way. It doesn't have much throw, but it does last a long time.

Not available as a lab imp, but if you can get a decant of The Unsteady Governess from swaps, it's a wonderful tea scent - just white tea and violet leaf.

Wet: Very true to the scent of a horse chestnut. I can smell the glossy wood of the husk as well as the nutty meat. The honey is like a flavor-enhancer, bringing the smell forward. Dry: More muted. Sweet, but in a softer way. A little greener and less nutty. After eight hours: It has faded completely from the back of my hand, but is still a soft honey on my wrists.

Thank goodness Baitu frimped me this, because I never would have thought to try it based on the scary description. (I'm sure I'm unusual here, but the birch scared me the most after my experience with it in Vinland.) I even hesitated to try it on, as the pine was so strong in the vial. But as soon as it goes on my skin, it smells lovely! The musky notes become soft and snuggly, the pine is recognizable but blends and mellows, and there's a nice herbal thing going on in the background. It stays pretty close to the skin and becomes faint pretty quickly, but the last faint phase lasts a long time. I'm very glad I came across this, and expect I'll be wearing it a lot this winter.

Is anyone else getting a nutty smell in the wet phase? I know cherries can sometimes read as almonds and vice-versa, but I'm not even getting almond at first -- it's like a rich mixture of hazelnuts and chestnuts, with a buttery sweetness. Then it dries down and I get the fruit, strawberries and cherries and yeah, graham cracker crust. Then it gets really soft, lightly sweet with a fruit undertone and a kind of powdery quality I associate with amber, though I never smelled amber. I really like this final powdery phase and wish it had more throw at this point. It's a really pretty gourmand scent for when I'm in that kind of mood. Makes me terribly hungry, though.

Halloween: Los Angeles deserves mention in this thread.

Gingerbread Poppet today to go with all the other foodie smells of the day.

2010 Version: It's a light, thin amber in the vial. It blooms quickly on my skin. The amber becomes richer and a bit sweeter, and there are also smoky and leathery notes as it dries down. I remember previous versions being more citrusy. This version is more resiny, spicier and sexier. It doesn't have a lot of throw, but lasts a long time and is wonderful for sniffing my wrists throughout the day.