Toby

A few people have mentioned that it smells like Lush's Rock Star, & I have to agree. It's not quite as fake as Rock Star, though, as the fruitiness is more of a true berry note while I find Rock Star a bit plasticky. It's very interesting -- I'm not often a "sugar" fan but I can see myself wearing this when I'm feeling really girly.

Very strong musk with a bit of woodiness and a very strong walnut note. I was hoping this would be more, ah, woody, but I'm not getting much in the way of woods at all. The walnut note gets softer, but I'm still not a fan.

Huh. How... odd. I got an imp of this because everybody was saying it smelled like vanilla, and I've been on a vanilla kick recently. However, when I tried this on, I had no idea why people liked it so much -- it smelled fresh to me in the way that soap smells fresh, with perhaps a hint of fresh loam. It wasn't terrible, but it definitely wasn't what I was hoping for (though oddly enough, it smelled exactly like I would expect opals to smell). Minutes later, it's morphed into a foody-ish scent that isn't quite vanilla with a backdrop of delicate florals that (I think) were creating that original soapy scent. It's very light and feminine, and while I like it, I'm not in love with it. ...And now it's fading away. Ah well.

Very subtle, and I can barely smell it, but man, it smells good. It's masculine without being manly, if that makes sense -- elegant and refined mascline, that is, not macho-manly bravado. Mmm, oh man. Weirdly, I can see myself actually using a bottle of this, though I'm not sure why I'd want to smell like a very sexy man. Huh.

Very brash and loud -- all I'm getting from it is something that smells like lemon (which I'm guessing is the verbena). It's very bright, but unfortunately, not me.

I'm almost certain the intent behind this scent was not to make me start grinning and suppressing giggles, what with the whole weeping clown thing, but that's the effect it had on me. It reminds me, weirdly, of being a kid -- chewing those colourful bubblegum balls that last maybe ten seconds. And yeah, it does smell like fruit salad like others have said, but it's just... so cheery. I'm not sure what guava smells like, but I can definitely smell the apple blossom and sugar. Very lovely.

This is the one of the two scents that I was looking forward to the most, and........ oh wow, it did not disappoint. Straight on my skin, it was amazing dark cocoa. It smelled dry, to the point that I was getting a dry feeling in the back of my throat, like cocoa powder. Then another note started creeping in; it must be the cream, but it smells more like banana to me; like a banana split with chocolate sauce drizzled over it. Strange, but really wonderful stuff.

I can't decide whether I like this or not. It's got the tea scent that I love from Shanghai, but fake somehow. Then it softened and sweetened -- I think that's the honey -- and while it smells lovely at this stage, it's also almost non-existant. Disappears almost immediately on my skin.

Soap, soap, and more soap. This smells like the 'triple-milled' soap that you get in hotel rooms, which is sad, because I'd been looking forward to this. Oh, florals, why must you hate me so? It's such a lovely scent in the imp, though -- warm and slightly floral -- that I might have to buy a scent locket for this. Argh!

Red musk, vanilla bean, pomegranate, patchouli leaf and wild plum. Hmmm, interesting. A very well-blended, complex scent; it reminds me of something, definitely, but I can't quite think what. One of the leather scents, I think, without the leather. It doesn't smell fruity at all to me; it's spicy, though I can pick up some vanilla undertones and quite a bit of patchouli. I can't quite decide if I like it; it's a beautiful scent, but patchouli always makes me wrinkle my nose, so I'll have to let it dry and see what I think then.

On initial sniff, Phobos was very strongly lemony with something very familiar underneath. I thought cookies at first, but no, that wasn't what it was. It reminded me of Lush's Lemony Flutter and its other lemongrass scents at first, but almost immediately morphed into... Fruit Loops. Fake and sweet.

This started out as an oddly bitter chocolate, but the cherry quickly took charge and overpowered the scent. I did then get a touch of orange blossom in the background, which faded as the chocolate took over. Lovely and sweet, if I can get past the first couple of minutes (I can).

Lovely. The first note I caught was lemon, and while this fades a bit, it is still quite evident, with the tea adding a bit of dryness. There is also a bit of bitterness in the background, and I'm not quite sure what it is. I don't quite like it, but the notes in the foreground tend to swallow it up, which is perfectly alright with me.

My immediate reaction to this is moss, or a bitter lichen of some sort. It's unpleasant and rather displeased, like a grumpy uncle glaring at you. This immediately fades into a sweet milk chocolate note, which morphs almost immediately into mint chocolate. It seems to be staying there for now, but it's more of a menthol-mint than mint mint. This is weird. Also morphing again. The menthol is now dominant on my skin and I can only get a slight hint of chocolate. I can smell a bit of sweetness underneath the cold, but there's not much left. I do wish it had stayed at that chocolate stage, which was sweet and absolutely gorgeous.

Oh, how lovely! The dominant note for me is jasmine, but it's more of a tea-like jasmine than a floral jasmine -- dryer, deeper, richer. Not quite as sharp. I can smell the ylang ylang, but it's so well-blended with the jasmine that I can't really tell them apart, and the plum is adding a crystalline sweetness that adds to the whole experience. Very nice! This might just be a big bottle for me.

Shockingly, overwhelming jasmine, though I think the rose might be lending a bit to the sharp note. I don't smell any of the warmth of the musk or incense. Luckily, I like jasmine enough that I'm not scrubbing this off and I might use this on occasion, but it's not something that I'll be reaching for often. This smells very like a moonlit grove, the kind you see painted in acryllics -- very stark blacks in the background and strong white moonlight shining through the leaves. There is nothing soft or particularly romantic about it. It is, however, softening a bit as I'm writing this. Still not the sort of night you'd meet a lover for a tryst, but softer. The rose is starting to dominate. Mmmm, this is actually really nice now.

Very pale and pungent. I smell herbs in this, and something minty or possibly citrussy -- but if that's citrus, it's definitely more citrus peel. As it dries down, the scent gets more dry as well, and is now lightly spicy and almost... powdery. Nice, but probably not nice enough to buy a bottle or even keep the imp.

Wicked and vicious! A sharp, cruel blend of lavender and pennyroyal. Wow, is this strong! I got a bit of this on my thumb as I was opening the imp to try it on, and I could smell it immediately. As others have said, it's a very minty scent; really, more mint than lavender. Very quicky develops an odd kind of bitterness that I suspect is from the pennyroyal (I don't know what that actually smells like). It reminds me of... bandages? You know how bandages smell when you peel them off your skin and they've been there for awhile? Like that. And that is such a weird image association, and this imp is going off to swaps.

I was talking to a friend when I first tried this on, after a very loooong series of 'no's, and quite literally, all that came out was: Oh. OH MY GOD. OOOOOOH MY GOD. OH, WOW. ...Which is a pretty good description for it. This smells like candy in the imp, and I had to double-check the ingredients list to be sure it was actually supposed to be rose. Dabbed it on and -- WOW. So sweet and lovely. I couldn't even smell the rose at first, it was so overpowered by the sweetness. Then the rose started coming out, and it is so beautiful. I don't like florals, but this has just that tinge of sweetness (no longer candy sweet, but plant-sweet) that makes it lovely. Definitely a giant bottle. I wish the lab still produced 10 mls!

Olive leaf, raspberry leaf, vetiver and cedarwood. This is green. Extremely green. It smells like slightly damp leaves that have been trodden upon, like ferns or some sort of forest. It starts turning dry, and oh, there's the vetivert. I was wondering where it had gone. It adds a sort of grounded, earthy, but very rich tone to this scent. Much prettier once it has dried down. =)

It's unfortunate, but the minute I took a sniff of this scent, I thought, "Chinese medicinal herbs." And that's the way it stayed. It's bitter and a bit sharp, but oddly warm -- like dry, rustling leaves and roots set against each other. Of course, I don't have the best associations with Chinese medicinal herbs at the best of times and I've had to drink things that smelled similar to this, so it's a definite 'no' for me.

This is a very strong 'fresh' scent; I was expecting more florals, but it just smells green and sharp at first. That's slowly fading into the background and being replaced by a subtle sweetness which reminds me of something, but I'm not quite sure what. It's extremely feminine and would make a great springtime scent -- I'm thinking hair flowing, sundress blown gently by the wind, Gone with the Wind-type spring. Weird, as that's not at all malicious. Clearly, the image association part of my brain is broken.

I was not expecting this one AT ALL, and would not have tried it had the Lab not sent it to me as a frimp. In the imp, it smells a lot like sharp peppermint gum -- Dentyne Ice, or something of the sort. I quite like it, actually, but then, I like super-flavoured gum. However, the scent is slowly being replaced by something sweeter, almost fruitier... and then it disappears from my skin completely. But it is beautiful, and I have clearly been sniffing the wrong trees, because this is amazing and may require a bottle.

This is mostly amber at the beginning (at least, I think that's amber), which was upsetting to me because I, erm, hate amber. It starts out very sharp and haughty, but after a few minutes, the peach overwhelms the amber and it is sweet and fruity with just a hint of the amber shining through. Oddly, I can't seem to smell this blend directly -- rather, I have to inhale really, really deeply, wait a second, and then I can smell it at the back of my throat. Very strange. I'm trying to decide whether I want to keep this, since the minute it hits that lovely peach stage, it disappears from my skin. But that peach stage is lovely (and I think I may be smelling it better when I don't bury my nose in it. Odd).

I was a bit shocked by this one. Usually, the Lab's 'clean' scents make me truly, painfully sick, but thankfully, that doesn't seem to be happening so far. A lot of people seem to be getting water from this scent, but I'm not. I live half a block away from a beautiful Japanese garden, and this is what it reminds me of -- clean deciduous trees, lakes, and water running. Possibly also bamboo. It smells almost exactly like a leaf, if you split it in half and hold it up to your nose. Unfortunately, this is a very soft scent and disappears almost immediately.