Soupy Twist

Just burnt tobacco ash. Apparently "blackened" anything from the Lab doesn't work for me.

Grass (not sweet grass) in the bottle. Goes on as cut grass and dandelion leaves. Definitely a more direct "take a blade of grass and cut it" and not the "sweet grass succulent" of Wild Dandelion and Sagittarius 2006. No flowers, no honey. Pleasant enough.

You know, I see these lists of notes and I keep thinking "Oh, I would totally have blind-bottled that LE Lunacy if I'd been around when it was available." And then I try the decant, and 98 times out of 100 it goes to bleargh on my skin, and I am reminded once again why I've tried so hard to swear off blind bottles. Sour honey and spice in the bottle, which goes on as dry spices and never really improves. The sourness eventually fades, and I can get a sense of the Lab's perfumy honey, but it's just not there.

in the bottle, oh, gorgeous rich realistic maraschino cherries. Like a snootful of the jar. Wow, I hope this has some lasting power on me. on the wrist: oof! an explosion of chemical plastic/vinyl. Not cherry at all. It's not medicinal, it's artificial. Might be related to what the Lab's current French vanilla note is doing on my skin. This is probably what actual fake blood packets smell like, though, so yay to Beth for that. off to swaps to find a more loving home.

Cherry... something, maybe candy? fruit punch? and menthol in the bottle. Goes on as a menthol-heavy snow note with a sweet edge, but the sweetness fades as it dries, and it becomes just a piney menthol. It's a nice menthol, not too harsh, with juniper overtones and maybe with a bit of the wisteria smoothing it out. No other cherry or flower notes, though.

in the bottle: Oooh! what a pretty white floral! I feel like I have my face in a vase of flowers. Wet: WOW! holy shazbot, I am not a floral person and DANG this just about knocked me over it's so gorgeous! magnificent soft sweet white floral. Gardenia? Tuberose? I don't even know. I love this. There's still snow on the ground and suddenly I'm transported into spring. Dry: ...well shit. The green comes out, like a cut plant stem, and for a minute or two it's too much. Very planty, like I stumbled into the working end of a greenhouse. It's not a bad note, but it's too intense and too green. This eventually calms down and a little of the lovely white floral returns, with more of a honeysuckle focus now, but there's no throw. Crap, if only it would stay in that amazing wet stage. So so pretty.

Almond cookie in the bottle. Goes on as the lovely light lemony tea from Embalming Fluid, which rounds a little with cookie sweetness as it dries. Vanishes from my skin in half an hour, but YMMV on that. Just beautiful. No currants, no rice, but I'm okay with that.

In the bottle: cocoa and wood. Cocoa on application, and then a slight coffee bean note develops, but it shortly turns to wood. A beautiful, realistic, polished wood, which becomes almost perfumy as it continues. It's like standing in a gorgeous new library. I can't bear wood perfumes, so this is turning my stomach, but it's another in a long line of extraordinary technical accomplishments from Beth, so if you like woods, you will adore this.

Sour candy and candy powder. Delicious. I'd mainline it, but I don't think I want to wear it.

Brûlée. Just the perfect smoky crunchy brûlée note from Sugar Skull. nothing else. which is fine, because I love that note.

a tremendous, intense aquatic. Almost too much. no milk notes at all.

A sour, nasty plant note — is this the neroli? I can't tell. The Lab's jasmine hates me, so maybe it's related. There's a little menthol from the snow note struggling to come out, but whatever this plant thing is just smothers it. Scrubber. Which is heartbreaking, because the Lab's snow note is one of my absolute favorites.

BAAAANAAAAANAAAAAAAAAAA in the bottle and on application — just slightly artificial. A little mint dances in and out as it cycles through the various notes through the drydown: too much honey, pineapple, too much honey, neroli, musk, too much honey. woo! It's almost exactly like the Starburst fruit roller coaster ad. It's up! it's down! It's pineapple! it's mint! It's honey! It's WHAT IS IT I DON'T KNOW IT'S EVERYWHERE AT ONCE WAAAAAAA

Creamsicle in the bottle and on application. The sugared grapefruit appears as it continues — this is just gorgeous, but my skin eats citrus, so I have no hope it will last. There's a wave of cream as the grapefruit departs, which is really nice, and the tangerine makes a brief, slightly bitter appearance before it finishes as the amazing soft rounded vanilla from the Lick It series. I really like this! Not a lot of throw, but I'll try slathering and see how it sticks around.

Linden, linen, and fresh laundry. I would probably love this as a detergent scent, but I can't see wearing it. Honestly, it's a great laundry fragrance. I'd even consider this as an atmo. to add my comparisons: Wensleydale was such a strong, "pure soap" scent it made me nauseated. Dirty smells like fresh grass to me. This is in between them, on the nicer side, but not for me, I think.

Opens as pomegranate, flirts with juniper, and dries as a clean, soapy, slightly menthol mint.

Sour herb? in the bottle and on application. It smells greasy, if that's a thing. Clearly wild bergamot disagrees with me. I mean really disagrees; this smells like puke for about half a minute. Eventually the fog of vomit clears and the lovely, delicate apricot from Katharina appears, and that's where it stays, mercifully. The gross wet stage is over very quickly — less than five minutes. So big thumbs up on the finish if you can get past the opener. The beautiful apricot stays like 10 hours, although it doesn't have much throw.

oh, this is yummy. Strawberry Kool-Aid powder in the bottle. Goes on as baby aspirin, but that very quickly matures into a gorgeous blood orange/vanilla blend. It's a wee bit powdery, but very little. Mostly it's the most sophisticated creamsicle you've ever smelled. Might be worth a bottle depending on how long it lasts.

In the bottle: blood orange with oh no, incense! Goes on as baby aspirin which briefly morphs into something pungent — osmanthus, maybe? The baby aspirin returns, with a powdery overlay, and this sort of matures and sours into orange candy powder, like a Sour Straw. This isn't too bad, but then the tobacco comes in. It's not tobacco in the pipe, which I love, but already smoked tobacco, full of ash and smoke. Then the incense stick returns and I'm done. No bubbles, no clove, no vanilla. dammit, I had high hopes for this.

neroli and green stem in the bottle. Goes on as a musky, hoarse stem note, which sours into a fake soapy neroli. Significant throw. I am going to be very unhappy if the Fortuna line teaches me that my skin hates the Lab's orange blossom note.

In the bottle: a bad sangría and gin. Goes on as mostly gin. A gout of eye-watering red wine splashes in, but hold on, because this passes shortly. It starts to calm down more as it dries, developing into a blend of gin with a warm, almost tobacco-y aftershave note. Like you started the evening with the screechy, gossipy aunts but then escaped to the other room where the cool uncle hangs out, and you spend the rest of the visit sitting with him on the couch playing weird old card games and listening to him rumble stories about him and his brothers when they were all kids. The Lab's tobacco and gin notes are two of my favorites (ironic because I don't smoke and rarely drink), so this certainly ends well, but wow, that opening is tough. ETA okay, as the day goes on, the tobacco note gets stronger and really gorgeous. It's deeper and more fruity, almost a cherry tobacco, not the high white tobacco of Sherlock Holmes. I'm glad I gave this a shot, because it went from to huh... I might need a bottle of this.

Spearmint in the bottle and on application. Juniper quickly comes in, but the whole thing starts to sour. It dries as stale old spearmint gum — that must be the mastic. not for me.

you might try ED Luce. They definitely have wand caps.

Black pepper and juniper. Like Pottaskefill jumped into a pine tree. Pass. So much of the Garden line hasn't worked for me, and the only one I was really fond of, Squirting Cucumber, is DC.

2009 decant. A high, cold pine, with a little sweet fizz around the edges like 21's gin. Surprisingly nice. No musk, which is great for me.