clockworktomato

I was going to write up my own review of this, then I saw Kakiphony's review and my experience was identical. This blend has already morphed about three times on me, from leatherleatherleather right out of the bottle, to the woodsy musk of the frankincense, to...wait, what? Citrus? Where did that come from? And in the time of typing this, it has changed again, and I'm getting faint rose under a very soft hint of warm patchouli. This is a chameleon blend. Exactly. I don't think this is a scent that I would wear out and about, which I kind of suspected when I bought it, as most of the notes are darker and heavier and outside of my usual realm of fruit and spice. But for just sitting around at home playing with oils, I'm liking this a lot. It keeps changing and changing and changing; it's an experiment in oils and body chemistry. I also hadn't even noticed the darker layer at the bottom of my bottle, so I hadn't mixed that in before testing. I'll have to see if I can roll this around enough to get that to mix in a bit and see what that does. I can definitely see this being one that changes over time, and changes again, and changes again. It seems tricksy, to change so much in just the space of 30 minutes of wearing, then I discover that dark layer in the bottle. I think just the surprises that this oil may give over time and with age really match up as a wonderfully appropriate anniversary blend, in that the longer we stick with it, there's no telling what surprises the oil (and the Lab) will come up with.

From reading the reviews here and understanding that Khus is something like Vetiver, I skipped this scent with my first order, instead opting for October. October just sounded like it would be the epitome of what I wanted a fall scent to be. And then I received October and it failed on me. I only got the faintest hint of the crisp, crackly leaves before the whole thing faded away. So then I read some of the reviews of Death of Autumn and thought, "Well, that SOUNDS more like what I want, but, well, vetiver hates me, so won't the khus react the same way?" I put it off and thought about it and thought about snagging a decant, then the Beaver Moon update came and I said "You know what, let's just go for it." So I bought a bottle. Last night when I applied it, I was almost squeamish in doing so. I waited for the burning cat ass smell that vetiver turns to on me. I waited for the throbbing headache and... Wait. This. This WORKS! It starts out similar to October -- very green, like vase water, but not quite as decay-scented as October. This green overlay VERY quickly releases into smoke. At first it's JUST smoke, but then the smoke opens up to reveal wood and leaves and cool autumn forest floor. It lasts far longer on me than October did, too. I adore this scent, and for those who are avoiding it due to the possibility of vetiver -- there is a chance that this one could work for you if you're intrigued by it. Vetiver is my absolute worst note, but the khus seems to either fade into the background on me or doesn't morph into SCENT OF HATE.

Dry, cold autumn wind. A rustle of red leaves, a touch of smoke and sap in the air. In the Bottle: I was immediately disappointed when I sniffed this in the bottle. It smells sort of like a bouquet of flowers will smell once they've been sitting in the water too long and they've started to droop. It was that scent of dusky, dry flowers mixed with a little bit of a damp, moldy scent. But hey, I know better than to judge the oil in the bottle, so I swabbed some on. Just after application: It begins to open up, but slowly. The damp aspect of the scent goes away and it's left with a dry version of the old bouquet/floral scent, yet the floral is still one of dark, heavy flowers -- it almost feels wrong to call it "floral." I can only think of one thing when I smell this: Miss Havisham. Twenty minutes later: Okay. Okay NOW we have something. The florals have all but wafted away -- you have to really put your nose to wrist and sniff hard to get the hint of floral, and even then it comes across more as a sugary blend than the scent that first wafted out of the bottle. The dryness has finally morphed into leaves, and just leaves, and it's woody and crisp. This is a complex scent. I thought it would be a favorite, then I thought I would hate it, and now I'm somewhere near ambivalence. It's one that I probably won't wear very often, but I still really enjoy it.