oncominbeige

Starts out very chocolate-y, with a vanilla base, and then fades to the sour/BO smell that other reviewers have mentioned. Never ever got the cinnamon or pepper, which is the reason I wanted to try this. No.

Wet, this is an absolutely stunning rose and jasmine scent. They're both pretty loud, but they keep each other in check. I think I also smell neroli. Somewhere between the dry-down and dry, however, it turns into something very different. Both the jasmine and the rose fade away, and I'm left with what I'm pretty sure is tobacco-scented soap. argh

Wet, I get mostly cocoa, but a dry, nice kind that doesn't actually make me smell like a chocolate bar. It's gourmand, not foody. Dry down: The cocoa starts receeding into the background and the vanilla starts taking over the show. Rose makes a breif appearance, but isn't particularly noticable. Dry: ...Hi vanilla SN? I think the custard might be backing it up a little, and I have no idea if the oud or skin musk are doing anything. I'm going to have to retest this to see if there's anything making this a more complicated scent, but I wish the cocoa had stuck around, or that the rose was more prominent. I didn't smell lemons AT ALL, but my skin gobbles up most citrus notes so that's no surprise.

In the imp: Buttered Rum or Butterscotch. Mmmm. Wet: Holy hell, buttered toast. Seriously, buttered toast in a bottle. Dry down: Buttered toast morphing slowly into buttered popcorn Dry: I don't actually smell any meat, but this has changed to an unpleasant sort of toasted...thing. The butter is mostly gone, I believe. I had no idea what to expect with Drink Me, so I just had to try it out. I'm glad I got to, but seriously. Such an odd experience.

This was a frimp from a lovely swapper. In the imp: Citrus and grass! Wet: Citrus! Dry-down (and checking notes): Aaaaaah verbena, that explains some things. For the first 10-15 minutes, Mag Mell is the Verbena Show. Luckily, as a L'Occitane fan, I've learned to adore verbena, because it certainly is central. But then, it starts to morph. The ginger peeks its head in, as does the grass. It becomes spicy and lemon-y and really quite nice. I like this! Dry: .....but where did the verbena go? After about 45 minutes, this is just...vaguely sweet. I can't even detect any particular note. I assume the sweetness comes from the ginger and it's a relief that the amber didn't turn things to powder, but it's not a distinct scent at all. I'd like this more if the verbena stuck around, and might retest it just in case, but as it stands, this just isn't for me.

Like others have said, this is a wonderful, dark, understated floral. It does, in fact, start off fresh and light before gaining depth and darkness. I think I can smell the heliotrope and tonka, but I'm not advanced enough to tease out distinct florals. Unfortunately, on me a powdery, sour note crept in about half an hour into the dry-down/dry stage, and kept making itself known. I wish it hadn't because I so wanted to like Sheol, and it was very close to making it onto the bottle list. Oh well, off to swaps for you.

Nadie Se Conoce from the Pickman Gallery has bitter cloves as one of its notes! It's really deliciously spicy, and VERY CLOVEY on me, although it also drys down to sweet spice due to the caramel note. But yeah, almost all I smell are the cloves initially. I don't know the difference either, but for what it's worth, it doesn't smell as christmas-y on me as 'normal' cloves.

This may be my inexperience talking, but literally all I smell after this goes on my skin is the sandalwood, possibly jasmine. I'm not sure if it's because sandalwood is easily recognizable for me, but I KNOW I smelt all these delicious things when it was in the imp, and it was all buttery-wonderful. I might give this another try, but luckily this was something the lab threw into my order. I'm really sad though, the imp smells delicious. Mmmmaybe I just amp sandalwood. ETA: After a few weeks, Defututa is growing on me. Don't get me wrong, sandalwood is still the dominant note at every stage (except in the imp), but I can also smell the honey/vanilla now, which makes me much more friendly towards this blend. I'm not sure I'm going to buy a bottle, but I'm definitely keeping the imp.