miss_rynn

Unexpectedly, this smells like how I wanted Sweet Lavinia's Risalamande to smell. It's a very rice-type gain smell with marmalade. It's pleasent, but it doesn't rock my world. A nice scent for a lazy winter weekend at home.

In the bottle I get sweetened condensed milk laced with snake oil. Historically, condensed milk scents end up being all kinds of awful on my skin, so I was concerned. On the skin it becomes more of a candied or a salted caramel snake oil. It's pretty, but the muskier incense notes don't quite sit well with the candied notes. I'm sure all that it needs is a bit of aging to smooth things out a bit more. Also, it's pretty clear that this one is using the aged patch and vanilla that have been missing from the pandemic snake oil varients. The vegetal notes and the musks are more tempered and well behaved, the patch less high pitched, and the vanilla more full-bodied.

This one is a bit unexpected. It starts off on the skin as dry coconut husk that reminds me of Eden. I was concerned that the cinnamon would be too dry, but it played nicely. Thick, rich, dark honey. You can get the cocoa, but it mostly adds depth and texture to the honey. Oddly, though, it really doesn't feel 'foody'. It has that kind of richness that you get from some arabic attars or ouds, where you can pick the gourmand notes but they are blended in such a way that it becomes a strong, heady perfume. The honey is almost too dark and heavy for me, but it's still wearable. The drydown actually reminds me of Hellcat, but it's nowhere near as foody.

I was expecting something like cinnamon buns or hot cross buns, which this certainly wasn't. Gingerbread with a very strong yeasty bread note to begin with, but dries down to something very much like Three Witches. Unexpected but a lovely non-foody ginger and clove skin scent.

Disappointing floral soap.

I do love me some Beaver Moon, but they can be a little hit and miss for me. This year's version actually reminds me very strongly of one of my favourite LEs from long ago: Monster Bait - Closet. I've spent years trying scent after scent to try to find something that is similar to Closet, and I'm super surprised and delighted to have found one! This smells like a mix of classic Beaver Moon and Monster Bait - Closet, a cream cheese frosting on a red velvet cupcake drizzled with blackberry and cherry syrup. Just plain lovely. ❤️

Bittersweet chocolate cupcakes whisked with stout and topped with inky dark chocolate frosting. This is amazing - it's what I wanted Monsterbait Underbed to smell like. It's a dark and rich scent to begin with - somewhere between dark and mean chocolate and dark and mean stout. Not too sweet, not too boozey, and just barely savoury. On the skin it blooms. I becomes a rich, devil's food cake with the dark, yeasty tang - just a little - of stout. The chocolate cake shifts to a somehow less foody but more like frosting after a little while. It's like leaving some frosting behind on the plate when you've finished the cake. Very faintly boozey, and the stout takes the edge off of the sweetness. If you like chocolate but don't want to smell like candy, give this one a try!

Brown sugar cookies with fat chunks of cinnamon-dusted apple and swirls of caramel. This feels like a very apple crumble scent. Or, rather, the brown sugar/oats/cinnamon crumble part with a huge dose of unbaked green apples. Even to the point of green apple peel. It settles into a more rounded apple note, but the apple crumble vibe is still there. My skin eats it pretty fast, but it is a perfectly pleasant little perfume.

This comes across as a chocolate flavoured Sacred Whore of Babylon to me. The jasmine and orange blossom really compliment eachother, and gives me a scent memory of Singapore for some reason. This is really floral forward, with a wisp of chocolate in the background. If you are a jasmine lover, this is for you.

2019 Version This smells like... like an old lady version of Snake Oil. It's not as lemony as the previous edition, but the honey and cream comes across as the scent of the lovely old neighbourhood lady who babysits kids while their parents go out to dinner. Well-washed, hand knit pink angora twinset and pearls, practical rubber soled nurse shoes, and perfectly puffed and primped white fluffy hair.

Black Phoenix's Christmas Pudding is loosely based on a medieval recipe, and is crafted, as tradition dictates, from thirteen ingredients (representing Christ and his apostles, natch). Thick with treacle, smoky with suet (suet accord, sillies - there's no mutton fat in this perfume!), and sweet with stirred custard. I don't really get much Christmas pudding from this, but it certainly *feels* Christmassy. I get a lot of plum in this - probably from the historical plum pudding recipes. It's actually quite green, like freshly sliced, slightly under-ripe plums. The suet is in there - a slightly savoury, fatty scent - but it doesn't smell like lard. Almost like pie dough with less flour. Oddly, the treacle is quite understated. I normally amp things like treacle, but this one is playing nice. I am just faintly getting the custard, but I'm hoping it will come out more with wear. Unexpected, given the description, but very Christmassy.

I'm forever looking for the red velvet cake note found in Monsterbait: Closet, but once more, alas, it isn't here. That's not to say that Senator Barriel isn't lovely, though. To me it smells very much like sprinkles, with a base of cake crumbs. It's not too foody or overly sweet and isn't hugely strong, so it's worth a try if you're on the fence about foody scents.

I'm pretty sure I'm the first on this one; I'm sorry if I'm not! This is an incredibly soapy, colongey smell on the skin. It's not so much aquatic as it is damp, fresh water smelling. It rounds out with a spiced undertone. The original is supposed to be all swampy and wet and bog lilies; I find this to have an almost under-ripe fruit scent under the soap, with a masculine streak of spice beside it. It's the clean-soap smell of Lightning rather than the salty-aquatic of Cthulhu. In fact, that's what the fresh-aquatic and damp-greens reminds me of; the true smell that comes before a storm, not quite the sharp and piercing scent of ozone. It's a very hard scent to pin down, but I'm pretty sure that I like it.

I found this really odd. The lemony note actually comes across to me as acai - it's like Australian Copperhead (I think), except with less snake oil. I'm going to let it settle and try again later.

There's no way I can respond to that without coming across like an extremist harpy except yes, I agree, it's incredibly stupid. (No fault to the Lab!) EDIT: Success! It took about three weeks in customs, which (having whined at friends) is not that unusual if it's been detained for extra man handling.

My order has been "held in US Customs for further inspection" for over a week. Has anyone else had this happen?

In Irish folklore the Dana O’Shee are a fae, elven people that live in a realm of beauty, their nobility akin to our that own Age of Chivalry, eternally beautiful and eternally young. They surround themselves with the pleasures of the Arts, they live for the hunt, and to this day can be seen riding in procession through the Irish countryside at twilight, led by their King and Queen. However, the Dana O’Shee are not benevolent creatures, despite what their unearthly beauty may imply. They are vengeful and treacherous and possess a streak of mischievous malice, and many have whispered that their true home lies deep in the shadowed groves of the Realm of the Dead. Hearing even a single chord of their otherworldly music leaves one stunned and lost to the mortal realms for ever, finding themselves prey to the Dana O’Shee’s hunt or enslaved in their Court as servants or playthings. Offerings of milk, honey and sweet grains were made to placate these creatures, and it is that the basis of the scent created in their name. Just plain lovely. It's a little different from the perfume, but it comes across as the same vanilla note from Snowblind. Not overpowering by any means, but it feels like the powdered softness of a gentlelady's boudoir.

The good news is that if you like the Lab's frost/snow note and the Lab's bready note, this will work fabulously for you. I've found that I don't like the Lab's frost note, but that being said it feels like a cooler, less complex version of Samhain.

ALL the red musk. I had to tone it down with some Snake Oil gloss, because red musk is a headache note for me. I hope it settles, because I was really keen for a more sweet/dragon's blood kind of feel.

This is surprisingly not sweet in my hair at all. It seems to be unisex, almost masculine, with the rum and spices coming across as bay rum. It's a very nice 'every day' scent rather than a special occasion hair gloss. This is right up there with Alice in my everyday work horse gloss.

This is a fancier, sweeter version of Velvet. It has that elusive soft and fuzzy scent memory. At first it comes on all pencil shavings, much like Tombstone, but if you wait long enough it settles. I suppose you can think of it as the love child of Velvet and Tombstone. Soft, but with a sophisticated coat. If you can get passed the sharpness of the cardamom and cedarwood it settles to a very sleek scent indeed.

Bast is a tricksy scent. It reminds me of what I wanted Bilquis to be, way back in the day. Something about the myrrh and amber comes across as a heady lily. It's that oddly floral note that only thick and rich resins can. The cacao is a warm, throaty base, but it's hard for me to get beyond the resin/floral heart. It's probably the mix of the myrrh and the honey that does it. If you're after a deep, thick, unapologetic sweet resin, this is for you.

Super cardamom right off the bat, but certainly a more bakery style than a savoury scent. Not at all stabby or intrusive, just very clear and true. The cake note comes through softly with wear, but it starts to turn ashy on me like many of the cakey Liliths do before I could get a real feel for it. Certainly worth trying if more cakey-scents work on you!

Starts up as a super juicy and sweet version of Hideous Heart (a deeply unappreciated scent, IMO), but settles down to a weird kind of junket scent. Almost like one of those cherry/berry scented dolls, but just on this side of creamy. If you are the sort of person who doesn't morph vanilla into plastic, this will be a delightful perfume.

It's best to not think of this as a chocolate scent. It's dark, almost earthy, with a rich sweet core. To me it comes across as patchouli sweetened with honey, given depth by the chestnut, and a deep, dark cocoa swirling in and out. Perfect for resin lovers who are scared of anything too foody.