doomsday_disco

I get a lot of foodie coconut and toasty, slightly lemon-y spun sugar from this, with the warmth of the hazelnut and a dusting of cocoa powder. It's not chocolate-y enough on me to be a full-on cocoa scent, and it's more along the lines of a magic bar without the crust and sweetened condensed milk and with some cocoa powder dusted on top of it instead of any chocolate chips. I'm not typically big on coconut in scents, whether it is the foodie or the beach variety, but I really enjoy how the spun sugar in this plays with the coconut, particularly during the first hour of wear. And I like how the hazelnut just adds a nice, nutty warmth to it without making it smell super rich. Of the scents featuring birb art in the Yule and New Year updates, this one is probably my favorite. The decant is a keeper, and I'm debating a bottle. (Plus, I love the name and the art!)

I get slushy, non-minty (Skadi-esque, sans berries) snow and non-acrid smoke from Birb Mob. I'd say it's more along the lines of the smoke from Fir Needle and Smoke, but it's more subdued in that scent. At least it's not a campfire/BBQ-y vetiver type of smoke, though. There's too much smoke in this scent for me, but I do think this scent matches the art!

Marranitos smells like a nice, spicy gingerbread with two ginger notes (a fresh, somewhat effervescent one and the deep ginger from scents like Shub) and a bit of a kick from the pink pepper. Texture wise, it's between a gingersnap and a fluffy gingerbread cookie but not full-on bready gingerbread. There's a butteriness to it that I also get from Frosted Pumpkin Spice Cookie. I feel like it's a melted butter note that would leave a bit of greasiness on your fingers upon picking up the pig-shaped cookie. This is the best gingerbread scent that actually smells like gingerbread (I mean, Gingerbread and Lavender Sugar is more lavender sugar with gingersnap crumbs) that the Lab has released since 2013, and I'm highly considering a bottle before it goes away. (Plus, the label is cute!)

I swapped for a decant of this one to see if it would help me be able to isolate osmanthus better. And it did! I do get this creamy, white floral with a slight apricot-like touch to it, along with what must be the honeybells, which I'm not familiar with, but the note doesn't smell like what I associate with honeysuckle, although I do get New Orleans (GC scent -- I haven't actually been to the city, sadly!) vibes from this. It's pretty, but not something I could see myself wearing.

This starts off strongest on the lemon peel and salt on me. It takes a long time for the honey to show up, and when it does, it is a very light honey, infused with some of the lemon peel and salt. I'm not even sure I'd recognize it as honey if it weren't labeled as such because it is so light on me. Really, just a drizzle of it. While this was fun to try, I couldn't see myself reaching for it over other lemon (or salt) scents.

L.A. River Pumpkin is not nearly as weird as it sounds. It is primarily a pineapple scent with a realistic, juicy pineapple note for the first few hours of wear that becomes slightly more perfume-y when the dried grasses and a little green musk join in in the background. I do not detect any pumpkin and am not familiar enough with prickly pear to be able to isolate that, although I wouldn't be surprised if it were cozying up to the pineapple early on when the scent is at its juiciest. I'm not big on tropical or fruity scents (aside from apple or citrus fruits), so this isn't really in my wheelhouse, but I am glad I got a chance to try it. If you're a fan of pineapple, don't let the other notes in this scare you away! My partner does enjoy some fruity scents and likes the pineapple in this.

Die Begierde is strongest on the rose water and rose (I get more of the pink rose than the red) on me, backed by the sugared carnation, which is a red variety with a slight spice to it. I only get a splash of cognac. I tend to amp carnation notes, but the carnation is never able to completely overtake the rose here, even though it does its best to cozy up to it. The sugared aspect of the carnation makes me think of Muse of Fire (going off memory -- I no longer have any to sniff and I destashed that one), although this one has different/less floral notes. I'm really glad that I got to try this one as I skipped the 2017 Luper update while I was living in Germany and had been interested in trying this one. But I do not think I'd reach for it over other rose scents in my collection.

This starts off as a wonderful cherry scent backed by resins and rose, quite different from The Red Queen due to the resins involved, but the cherry quickly burns off on me, and I'm left with berry-tinged resins and a bit of rose. Cherry, come baaaack.

I thought this would be worth a try since it wouldn't be going on my skin and there's white chocolate in here that could temper the orris. But the white chocolate did not keep it in check. It was mostly a powdery orris party to me with hints of the sandalwood and white chocolate. I sadly did not get any of the grey amber, but maybe it was just buried beneath the orris. I ended up having to throw out the paper towel I tested this on because the orris was so strong that it was giving me a headache. Definitely one for orris lovers.

On me, this was all about the coconut, with no bergamot, but perhaps that is due to the age of the bath oil and citrus notes diminishing over time. I did not think it was a foodie coconut, though, and more of a beach-y one. I'm not big on coconut, so this isn't for me, but it was fun to get to try it (especially since there's been very few BPTP products as of late).

So this features the sweet evergreen snow note found in scents like Snow Bunny, NYC Snowball Fight, and Marshmallow Snow, with just a hint of mint, but it's hard to make out anything else other than this snow note, which tends to declare dominion over anything it is paired with. It's nice, but I would have enjoyed it more if the sweet snow were Snow White's snow plus mint.

Oddly enough, I get very little cacao from this once applied, despite it being a Box of Chocolates scent. It goes on as candied lime on me backed by the coconut, but eventually the coconut overtakes the lime and it becomes a musky coconut scent on me after a while. I wish I had gotten more cacao from this, like other reviewers had. Alas.

I was hoping this would be like the cocoa equivalent of a burnt chocolate chip cookie. But what it actually is is cocoa mixed with woodsmoke. I'll stick with Baby's First Krampuslauf.

I could smell all of the notes in the bottle, but on me, the vanilla mint was really faint. There was some brief blueberry on me at first and just a hint of vanilla mint before it became a strawberry cotton candy party on me, but alas, the strawberry cotton candy note made me think of children's vitamins, if they were strawberry instead of orange, cherry, or grape. Despite the similar notes, this is nothing like Battle Fairy in Training. I had my partner test this one out, and on them, the blueberry and vanilla mint was a lot stronger. Only, they don't like blueberry in scents, so this was not a good development for them. I'm going to set this aside and retest it in a week or so, but unless I get more blueberry and vanilla mint to keep that strawberry cotton candy in check, it will have to go to swaps.

I tested this last weekend, but I decided to test it again against the original Velvet before doing a review. I do not own a bottle of Velvet, but I've kept the imp around to remind myself what it smells like. And I have to say that I vastly prefer this snowy variant of Velvet to the original. In the original, the myrrh is really strong on me and prevents me from loving it. In Velvet Snow, the snow tames that aspect of the scent, so that it is mostly snowy cacao, sandalwood, and vanilla on me. I feel like the cacao and vanilla really shine here. Even though all of these Snow on Snow scents feature the sweet Snow White snow note, the snow doesn't really remind me of Snow White. I think it's because the chill of that snow note, combined with the dry sandalwood, gives it the impression of the actual bite of cold air when there's snowfall, at least early on in wear. (And we lucked out here in the desert and got a little bit of snow on Tuesday! ) During my first test (prior to deathmatching the scents) , I did get what I believe was some coconut from the Snow White snow note, but it was very fleeting. And the cacao in this tends to drift in and out of the scent, being prominent more at some times than others. I usually don't allow myself to get a bottle of a variant if I don't own a bottle of the original, but I'm debating a bottle of this one. In any case, the decant is a keeper!

I'm not a big fan of pomegranate, and oud is a tricky note for me, but this one was better than I'd expected. The tart pomegranate reigns throughout, backed by the oud, and the oud is a nice woody oud, free of indoles and funk. The pomegranate ends up developing a slight plastic-y quality to it by the end of the day, kind of reminding me of chapstick, but the notes swirled together nicely for the first few hours of wear. If you're interested in this and don't have issues with pomegranate, don't let the oud in this one scare you away! It's still not something I'd wear, but it was nice to step out of my wheelhouse for a bit.

Note: I am not familiar enough with stephanotis to pick it out (I think I've only tried it in Queen of Hearts). Regan is a pretty, delicate white floral scent. I don't detect any actual vanilla here, and the orchid is the smoothest I've ever come across from the Lab. It goes powdery on my skin, but it's powdery in a pleasant way. I agree with LittleBird's description of this being like a vanilla dusting powder (but it's more of the orchid than the orchid's vanilla on me). It stays very close to the skin, but it's lovely. I never thought I'd get to try this one, as it had been on my wishlist since I discovered BPAL back in 2013. While it's not something I feel the need to hunt down more of (phew!), I am really glad that I got a chance to try this. Thank you to the kind soul who sent me some of this to try.

This starts off with a blast of the nutty and sweet pecan, along with some fig, but then the pecan and candied fig combo decides to get too sweet on me (especially the pecan, though), and I'm reminded of that Caramelized Pecan Rum Cake imp from last year's Black Friday imps. Maybe the musk in the chestnut musk is helping to amp up that pecan. It stays that way for a while, but becomes more sophisticated after a few hours as the russet amber emerges (I really enjoy this amber note) as well as some myrrh. I only get a hint of clove when I sniff up close, but it's mainly a nutty scent (more pecan than chestnut to my nose) accompanied by some fig. This is sweeter than At Martynesmasse I Kylle My Swine, which features chestnuts (along with some other nuts) and honey! Alas, it is too sweet for me, even with the amber doing its best, but it was really nice to get a chance to try it.

November Mood starts off with dead leaves (probably from the autumn breezes) and some birch, accompanied by a floral note, but it very quickly becomes very high-pitched on me. I think there's some secret wisteria or iris in here (leaning towards iris, though) because orris, while usually not a note that works on me, usually tends to turn to powder instead of going screechy. I think it's something in the 'crystalline' aspect of the amber, otherwise the sharp floral is just not listed as a note. I get some moss and herbs with this beneath the piercing floral note, but I can't sniff it too deeply to pinpoint other notes without risking a headache. I enjoyed the birch note during the wet phase, but this one is just too sharp for me. It was nice to get a chance to try it, though!

This starts off with a blast of leather book (I agree that it's slightly plastic-y), but then an almond-y sweetness joins in briefly, followed by what I think is the tea from the tea-stained pages. The tea ends up gaining strength with wear, and there was a point where I wondered, "What is this root beer-y vibe I am getting from this scent?" And I believe it was a light anise from the tea, as some of the Lab's black tea notes have a bit of that to my nose, but I also would not be surprised if it were the oak giving me root beer vibes, because I experienced that with Baby's First Ballista. Eventually, that anise/root beer aspect of the scent also fades, and it's a much softer leather book with the dusty vanillic-pages (but it's a good dust) and some oak (which isn't sharp!). I don't get any of the usual suspects in the Lab's cat scents (like cedar or musk). I am glad I let this rest for several days before trying it, because it was super strong on the leather and oak when my decant arrived, so that's why I tested it last. I think this is pretty nice and evocative of its inspiration, and I especially like how realistic the pages of the book smell, but I don't think I'd reach for it enough to warrant a bottle.

This starts off strongest on White Rider's leather and sandalwood, backed more by Snow White's chill at this point than its creamy sweet notes, and I feel like there might be some white musk at play, but it could just be the way the chill interacts with the white sandalwood. As the scent sits on the skin, the Snow White snow increases in strength, and as it does, it brings a welcome sweetness to the scent, so that it's as RoseThornandOak described with the two scents cuddling in the snow (with more of White Rider's leather than sandalwood by the end of the day). I like this, but it's not something I need more of, which I'm fine with since I already bottled several of the Snow on Snow scents and have... a ridiculous amount of just straight up Snow White, but I definitely recommend it if you're looking for a lightly leather-clad Snow White.

This one is strong on the tart cranberry and the dark musk, which has a slight red musk but darker quality to it and may be one of the musks found in Smut that I dislike (but I haven't smelled Smut in a while). I only get some almond in the beginning, not a lot (quite a feat, since almond usually comes out as a force to be reckoned with), but it's gone once dry. I purchased this decant for my partner, who loves cranberry and almond notes. They thought this was amazing at first, but they didn't love it once it was dry and they weren't getting the almond anymore.

On me, this starts off with tart cranberry, backed by the amber and tonka, but it ends up a mix of soft amber and dry grass-like tonka that stays very close to the skin with only the ghost of cranberry. This is a decant I purchased for my partner, who enjoys cranberry and amber notes. They just thought that it was okay, and also noted that it is rather light.

I had ordered a decant of this, but a very kind forumite frimped some to me, so I got to try it early. I tested this and then did a full-on slather a few days ago, and my partner has worn it as a scent of the day as well. We both love it. We recently bought some Spumoni because I wanted to see if I liked it better than I did when I was a kid, and because of the anticipation of this scent, of course! And I'm happy to report that we both enjoy Spumoni, and this really does smell like it (although with less chocolate). It's mostly a creamy pistachio and cherry scent on me with just a bit of chocolate, as if a little kid ate most of the chocolate layer and left you the rest. My only qualm about this scent is that it has low throw and staying power, but I don't care. I need a bottle and will slather away.

Oh, this is so pretty! It's a lilac party at first, backed by a little of the vanilla, but over time, the vanilla note increases in strength and it becomes a lilac swirled with the Lace-esque vanilla (but yeah, no cognac, so don't go into this thinking stealth . It stays like this for a long time with just a touch of the frankincense. Later on in the day, the pink sandalwood emerges and eventually joins the lilac and vanilla as dominant notes on my skin. I believe it's the same one found in Easter Egging, and I think it might be a combination of pink musk plus sandalwood? It has a perfume-y quality to it like the pink amber in Pink Amber and Peony. I think this is really lovely, but I rarely reach for the lilac scents I have (which would be helped if I had a lilac hair gloss to pair them with -- maybe if we're lucky this Lupercalia? ), so I am going to have to deathmatch it with the others I have and see if I need more or if one of the others will get the boot. It's definitely a contender for a bottle, though!