Allumina

One of my two Weenie purchases from NYCC! Dominated by the sweet veviter, with hints of the vanilla and wool. I love all kinds of veviter, but the sweetness in this definitely makes it more wearable.

Absinthe, white clove, and patchouli. Wish I had something more exciting than the first review! Wet, this is bright and juicy absinthe- it actually smells more to me like lemon/lime candy than licorice. It's pretty and refreshing. As it dries down a little, I get more of the anise. Sadly though, on drydown this fades quickly into a very soft skin scent. I think I'm getting some of the patch, but it's really hard to tell with it being so faint. This is a decant I received yesterday though, so I will wait a few days, try again, and update this review.

I tested this a day after getting my decant, and I suspect it needs some aging. On me, this is primarily rich, sweet tobacco, both wet and on drydown. I might get a hint of the leather or the other notes later on, but tobacco is the star. The tobacco is lovely, I have several lovely tobacco scents, so I will give this another shot in a few days before swapping.

tea, tobacco and a bit of cake dries down to a beautiful sweet, slightly foody tobacco with a hint of clove. It's like a less heavy Grievous Swarm, or a slightly more masculine Red Lantern- very warm and cozy! I get how the tea note can read as anise, but I love anise, so it works for me. I loved my decant so much I ended up buying a bottle of this, finally, after several mishaps!

This is my surprise winner of the yules. Soft, elegant, fuzzy warm pretty woods backed up with very smooth ambergris. Something (I think the ambergris?) sort of hints at being minty in the mid dry-down without actually smelling like mint. Lovely!

Sigh. I think this is one of those that either really works with your chemistry, or falls flat. It smells lovely in the imp, but on, the raspberry takes on a weird medicinal edge, and I can smell what I'm pretty sure is the powdered sugar note trying and failing to emerge. I eventually get the scented plastic note with a faint edge of pastry. Based on the imp and the very initial wet stage I am 100% sure it's just my chemistry not playing nice. I'm going to rehome my imp with my doughnut loving friend and hope it works on her!

Magpies is...really weird on me. The first time I tried it was straight out of the mailbox, and I got an overwhelming single note of expensive lipstick/cosmetics. It wasn't a bad smell per say, but lasted for hours and was a weirdness that made me feel slightly nauseous with the scent memory. A few days later, it has settled down a lot. The lipstick note threatened to emerge for like a minute, but quickly faded away. I was really excited by the blackcurrant, but I get zero of it- on me it's powdery (maybe the sandalwood?) violet leaf over whatever that winter background is. It's elegant and faintly sweet. It's definitely more put together than it was when fresh, but I think this one needs a lot of aging to see what it will be like.

I've always liked the smell of real roses, but never quite warmed to it as a perfume- it always smelled weird on me, too floral and powdery and cloying. This is not that rose. This smells pretty much just sticking your nose in a slightly damp rose. Absolutely lovely. (2016 version)

My chemistry will sweeten pretty much anything, so on me this starts off wet as a sasparillia candy type thing, before settling down into something heavy on the veviter with some additional notes that are dry and slightly sooty. I'm not getting any smoke or sulfur. I was hoping for something a little harsher, actually- I agree with mazuru on the "posh charcoal" descriptor. I was interested in trying this as a layering note to soften the sweetness of some scents, so I'll update once I actually try that.

As you pass down Houston street, faro banks abound, till we reach an unpretending red brick building No 25, kept by Frank Burns, known as the "Judge and Jury." This is a great resort for sportsmen both of this and of the other country. Everything here is conducted in a respectable and orderly manner. Oxblood leather, sweet cigar smoke, and fine whiskey with a swish of silken musk, bay rum, and neroli. I would totally visit this brothel, it smells delightful! I am getting over a comiccon cold that won't seem to fade, so this review is a little less nuanced than I'd like, but oh well. This is a lovely fall scent- warm and inviting without being overpowering, expensive while still being comfortable. It's pretty well blended, so I'm having trouble picking out the notes, but the main player is the sweet, almost chewy tobacco with a hint of musk. I can't pick out the whiskey and leather individually, but they are there providing background support- I get the impression of being curled up on a leather couch in some drawing room in front of the fire on a cold day. It's a little strong at first, but it fades down into a nice blanket of deliciousness touching the room. I'd say it's gender neutral leaning towards masculine.

You may like Jareth if you like Theodosius and Dorian, they're pretty similar in terms of their fougere. Dorian was also too sweet for me, but I found Blacker than the Raven Wings of Midnight to have a similar, less sweet vibe!

I like this one a lot! I'm not usually a fan of the lab's snow note (I traded my Blue Spruce and Snow-Capped Pine Atmo because it gave me a headache) but the snow note in this is somehow...fizzy? I think it's the Bon Vivant thing meadow_fabulous mentioned upthread. The notes other than the snow are hard to pick out, but I'm getting a little bit of stone, a little bit of moss, all overlaid by the sparkly, slightly sweet snow. This is actually really pretty and kind of elegant. Considering getting a bottle of this.

I wish I could enjoy this like the other reviewers are doing, and I can tell it's well blended, but it's very strong on the nag champa and as nc is one of the few notes I just straight up dislike, it's keeping me from smelling any of the listed notes in this blend. I picked up a decant because I was hoping for clovey-sandelwood-musk goodness, and didn't realize nc would be present from the description (is it the burgundy musk?). However, if you like incense and musk and don't have the same relationship I do with champa, you will probably find this pretty and elegant and sexy. If anything, this made me realize that the nc in the bottle of Funnel of Love I'm stubbornly holding onto isn't so bad!

Wet I get the red musk and a tinge of what is reading to me as veviter (the "smoky"?). As it starts to dry down, the fougere starts to peek out. Unfortunately, something in the fougere is turning to powder on me. It's not a straight up screeching turn into baby powder (*waves at Juke Joint*), but it's enough to ruin the scent and keep it from really developing on my skin. I hoped maybe more settling would help and waited a few days before trying again, but got the same result. In general I do well with a lot of the lab's fougere scents, so this was disappointing. More for someone else, I guess!

Sigh. My chemistry has been weird lately, so maybe that's it, but this was a disappointment, especially since I love all the listed notes. Wet, I get a hint of red musk, cacao, and something else, but within about 15 seconds of hitting my skin it decides that the caramelized tobacco is the only note in this blend. Which isn't unpleasant, just not what I was hoping for.