Soupy Twist

oh my gods it's perfect! it's absolutely perfect! this is the "sweet grass" note from Sagittarius I love so much! I LOVE IT!!

I just started using bath oils also, as a post-shower moisturizer in this ridiculous dry weather. Dana O'Shee is gorgeous. It goes on slightly thicker than other oils and spreads widely. The scent remains all day, although close to the skin, and is true to the perfume oil — sweet creamy grains. Magnificent.

It's an olfactory portrait of Rosie Cotton, Sam Gamgee's wife. Nuts and pastry in the bottle. Goes on as a buttery crust with nuts, like a nut tart. Then a sweet note comes in, like a floral honey. It morphs to pine briefly, and then returns as a sweet pastry, or maybe an oatmeal cookie, as others have noted. I totally want to eat this. Very little throw. Might pair well with Dana O'Shee.

In the bottle: Cherry! a really gorgeous cherry. Goes on as a great cherry (cough) syrup. There's a brief note of dry, spicy cinnamon, but it doesn't stay long. The entire lovely thing disappears in under an hour. I might try it in a locket. No licorice at all.

heady marshmallow, with definite graham cracker notes. there are chocolatey undertones as well. as ZZ noted above, if you're into s'mores, this is for you.

It's gotta be me at this point. My skin has gone off the rails. Eucalyptus and something sour and astringent in the bottle and on application. It's like an unpleasant dentist's-office mouthwash. Eventually it dries to a a dry, crumbly mint with lime overtones.

2017 version: After an initial blast of — is that cat pee?! — it settles into a more proper snowy mint. It develops into an aquatic menthol once it's dried. Pleasant, but not the Lab's classic snow note or the Snow White series which so much of this Yule update has been featuring.

Ginger and orange in the bottle. Goes on as orange spice, similar to Only a Sip, but then it sours and goes weird, which might be the carnation. Not for me.

no, it's not. It's the Lab's jasmine stamen note which always goes sour on me. there's no honey or snow. I had such high hopes for this. It's definitely the floral from Snow White; that went to stinky stamen on my skin too.

2007 decant. Powdery sour wet red fruit. yuck. And I love actual pomegranates.

Like wearing a particularly complex sangría. Dark red fruits with a boozy undertone, like Lady MacBeth, shifting here and there to add a hint of musk and then a hint of melon and then some red wine and then some dry raisin thing going on.

Dammit, this is the Lab's vanilla note which turns into "dollar-store vanilla candle stuck in a milk jug and set on fire" on my skin. Sigh. It's not the Lab's fault; it's just my skin chemistry. It's the same one which is in French Vanilla, so whatever that did for you, this will too.

The perfect thick sweet summery fir single note. I get nothing else and don't need it; this is exquisite.

Almost identical to my beloved Sagittarius 2007 or Nothing Gold Can Stay. Sweet grasses, a breath of pine which thankfully passes, and some florals which dry back to sweet grass. Beautiful.

Generic white floral. Maybe hints of sweetness, like honeysuckle or gardenia. Becomes waxy on the drydown. No vanilla at all. I have prettier florals than the opening, and the florals in this don't even last.

If you want honey notes: Josie: Heady magnolia and honeyed peaches Against Idleness and Mischief: Pollen-dusted honey, diligent tonka, steadfast chamomile, and goodly hyssop Honeyed Apple: Slices of apple dipped in golden honey Door: Golden honey, nicotiana, blue chamomile, and cistus For sweetness, you could also try some of the Lab's sweet snow combinations, like Almond Blossom and Skadi.

A blend of citrus and the Lab's snow note in the bottle, which gets a little more aquatic on the wrist. This is beautiful!

Opens as a good lemon cough drop, dries as hard lemon candy, gone in 30 minutes, leaving a not-particularly-pleasant orange/lemon/citrus floor cleaner note. erg.

2017 Decant: Alas, whatever the Lab is using for this spice blend doesn't work on me. It's the same "dried cinnamon in the dregs of a mug of something" note I've gotten in several Weenies this year.

Creamy frosting in the bottle. Goes on as a marvelous cinnamon cake, and quickly develops a cream cheese frosting. I would love to eat this, but I don't know if I want to smell like it. The cinnamon starts to do that weird dry-dregs thing the Lab's cinnamon spice sometimes does on my skin, like in Apple Butter Rum, although that finally fades in the drydown. Totally dry it's back to the cinnamon cake note, but there's almost zero throw. Sweet Epiphanies has a good point: This is like the base spice combination from The Witches.

Buttery rum in the bottle. Goes on as too much dry cinnamon on cream. Dries as the dregs in the bottom of a glass of apple cider. A wee bit sickly sweet. Very heavy spice, although the apple comes out eventually. As Lady_Pandora notes, this is substantially similar to Yule 2016's Hot Buttered Whiskey (which went to Rum Cake on me). Apparently the Lab's "spice + rum" combination doesn't work on me; Spiced Rum Buttercream Coffee was the same "rum and spice dregs." But Elegba, which is "sweet sugared rum," is one of my favorites because it's got the brûlée thing going on. Skin chemistry is so weird!

This is wonderful — like biting into a fresh, crisp Cortland. Not too tart, but not too sweet either. It's very fresh. Not as dark as Pure Applesauce; there's a lighter, more perfumy note that the Lab has been using as a sweetener lately which is just divine. It definitely does make it more like "apple perfume" or "apple-scented soap/wash" as noted above than like actual apple juice. I'll have to match it up against Poisoned Apple; I think this is just a touch sweeter. I have several bottles of pure apple note, so I don't think I'll need this one, but if you don't, this is the one to get. ETA as the day goes on, it becomes lighter and cleaner, with less apple and something almost resembling the Lab's snow note. This might be a bottle after all!

Honeydew or something fresh in the bottle. Goes on as a green, planty note which slowly becomes a clean wood as it dries, but this develops into a generic freesia and I'm so done. Not my jam.

Okay, so I have to share the origin story of this bottle: My sister was able to get tix for NYCC, so I asked if she could stop by the Lab's booth to fairy for me. My sister is incredibly allergic to perfumes — I can't wear any kind of scent when I go visit her. But bless her, she agreed to hold her breath long enough to get a bottle of this for me. She said she got a headache 10 feet away from the booth, but she braved the whole scent cloud to pick this up. Sweetie, it was worth it. Holy shazbot. Sweet, apple-tinged fizzy ginger ale in the bottle. Goes on as a lovely sweet ginger ale. As it dries, there's a candy apple note coming in which in no way detracts from or overwhelms the ginger ale. This sweetens into caramel, almost like the candied apple got baked. Just a breath of spices develops. The gingery fizz and caramel sweetness remain and remain and remain, frak me. This is positively AMAZEBALLS and I need backups now. :wub3:

Aquatic in the bottle, which goes on as green. Wet it's a sweet grass note, very similar to Sagittarius 2007 and Nothing Gold Can Stay. It sours a bit with the moss and lime as it dries, but those notes fade and it comes back to a beautiful cool blue-green aquatic. This is gorgeous. I can't believe I found two Lilith hits in a row! Liliths never work for me.