Soupy Twist

Juniper in the bottle, which sours on application. This eventually sweetens into a chilly violet, continuing into cedar before it vanishes briefly before returning as powder.

Tea and maybe fig in the bottle. Goes on as tea, but not a sweet one; it turns bitter quickly — maybe the olive? A little lemon shows up as it dries, but overall this is a cup of unsweetened white tea. No honey at all.

Tuberose in the bottle. Goes on as a pretty but nameless floral. Orange blossom in the drydown, which continues into a kind of vanilla-tinged hyacinth (even though that's not one of the notes). This finishes drying into peach. A close sibling of Sea of Glass. Very pretty. One of the few florals I could see myself wearing. ETA Well, I could if the dang thing hadn't flat-out disappeared in an hour.

Well, now I know what oudh smells like on my skin: musty, rotted wood. Completely blots out the honey, and if there's any bourbon vanilla there I never got to it. Scrubber.

Cherry and mustiness in the bottle and on application. The sour lemon starts to creep in briefly, and then it turns to Jolly Rancher. This curdles as it dries into something sickeningly sweet, maybe with a flicker of patchouli.

A little tea and succulent in the bottle. Goes on as cut succulent, but something sour comes in — the oude? I'm not sure what oude smells like. The whole thing eventually dries to an unpleasant plant pulp. I want the sparkly green refreshing citrus tea everyone else smelled.

Buttery tonka and brûlée. Extremely similar to Sugar Skull, in a good way, although not as strong. I have to keep huffing my wrist to get anything.

An ethereal vintage, steeped with dandelion, honey, and red currants. Dandelion and honey in the bottle. Goes on as a nice honey note — just a breath of the one from Honeyed Appe. The tartness of the currants comes in, along with something which feels alcoholic — a bit of mead somehow, which makes sense. Dries as a sweet grassy note, a little like Squirting Cucumber but not as green as Sagittarius. Fades quickly, but the air is very dry right now, so I'll try again in May.

Amsterdam (Tulips, peony, fresh flowing water and crisp green grasses.) Also: Lilium Inter Spinas (Hibiscus syriacus, white sandalwood, lily of the valley, apple blossom, and green fig) Sea of Glass (an amazing hyacinth) Titania (A nocturnal bounty of fae dew-kissed petals and pale fruits: white grape, white peach, iced pear, musk rose, sweet pea, moonflower and snapdragon) Nothing Gold Can Stay (Dewy green leaves colored by Moroccan amber, ginseng, and rooibos. On me it's grassy, cut succulent) Gorg's Garden (Radishes, freshly turned soil, and soft herbs.)

While this claims to be Caribbean, and starts out as a salty marine, it absolutely dries to the Lab's snow note with soap on top. I like the Lab's snow note, so this is not a problem for me, but if you're expecting something more aquatic or warm-water, this is not for you.

I could wish for more vino and less ligna in this Veritas. Frankincense and wood and I'm so done.

Wood? paper? in the bottle. It's hard to describe this. Twigs? The root of a plant? Maybe orris. There's definitely a paper/plant/wood thing going on. Not very pleasant.

Stale, bloomed chocolate. Nothing else. Yuck.

More like cherry cough syrup, honestly. A happy artificial sweet cherry-berry note. Fades quickly.

This is interesting. It's heavy berry juice, which deepens as it dries and develops an unspecified herbal edge — like you'd mulled some berry juice with herbs. It's more of a liqueur than a wine. I may have to try this in the early summer.

Candle wax with a breath of vanilla, wicks, and a wee bit of smoke. Astonishing. I don't need a bottle, but what a brilliant accomplishment.

Sugar cane or raw sugar in the bottle and on application. There's a wee bit of honey as it dries, which turns slightly floral, in a sickly-sweet sort of way. Practically no throw on this at all. No rum, no oak (for which I'm grateful).

Lily? and honeysuckle in the bottle. Goes on as a generalized floral with touches of pear. The honeysuckle returns, paired with sweet pea, and as it dries the sweet pea becomes more pronounced and then sadly powdery and soapy. "A bar of soap" is a good summary, as others have noted. This is what I thought RPG Good would smell like: innocent. While this is a pretty, nondescript floral, I think people forget that Juliet was the stronger of the two star-crossed lovers. She moved a good chunk of the action forward. She decided to take the fake poison, and then when Romeo died she briskly stabbed herself and didn't take all day wibbling about it. I'm sad that there's nothing to represent that fierceness here.

This started out quite promisingly, and if I didn't object to a bunch of everyone else's favorite notes I'd probably love this. It's an olfactory portrait of Joy from Inside Out. Honey, marvelous honey in the bottle. Goes on as honey with sugar and... is that bubblegum? Why, yes, yes it is. That's hilarious. The honey returns briefly, making this a more natural and less plastic/fake bubblegum (if there is such a thing). At this moment I'm wondering if I have a new bottle scent. But alas, the morph continues into my no-no-notes. It turns into musk as it dries, which then becomes baby powder and sweet pea. The sweet pea turns into rose, and I'm out. Well done Lab! Just not for me. I'm not as good as all that, apparently.

Booze? rum? in the bottle. Goes on as booze with the honeyed apple note I love so much. There's a brief brûlée note as it dries, and the honeyed apple dissipates, leaving more of a brown, sugary note. Not "brown sugar," but something like an apple cider residue. The sweetness finally fades out of that, until it's just that slightly fermented brown sludge at the bottom of the tankard. Possibly a stout; I don't drink so I have no idea. Not really mushrooms, thank goodness, but definitely not a fruit — maybe "apple rootstock" meaning "the wood of apple trees." A little of the butterscotch note from Grog starts to surface after a while. I could totally see this being a Tolkien kind of ale.

Unsweetened cocoa powder in the bottle. Goes on as an amazing dark chocolate. Definitely the cocoa/chocolate note from El Dia de los Reyes. Sadly, as it dries, it smells like the chocolate solids bloom, and it finishes as a stale milk chocolate. This has so much promise wet.

Opens with spruce, but slowly morphs into cedar. I don't like cedar. It smells like pencil shavings. As a few minutes pass, some of that vanilla/root beer/sarsparilla flickers for the briefest moment, but it's still mostly cedar, and then that changes to stone. There's a little of the Lab's snow note, like a breath of mint, over the whole stony-cedar thing. And then the whole dang thing is gone in an hour. Sigh. Skin chemistry is so fickle.

A bitter, woody, leaf pile/acorn note. That's it. Not getting any berry or tobacco.

no chocolate at all, not even cocoa powder. Just cinnamon and nutmeg, like an empty jar of "Pumpkin Spice blend."

Berry and tea/sage/grass something in the bottle. Goes on as berry and fuzzy sage leaf. (honestly, Beth, how do you make something smell fuzzy?) As it dries, the sage and berry notes cycle, but it finishes as blackberry tea. This is much nicer than I thought it was going to be. No musk at all.