Soupy Twist

White floral in the bottle and on the wrist — the tuberose/gardenia mix I love so much. There’s a sugary note on top while it dries, which turns the floral a little shrill, but that smoothes out and softens once it’s dry. Almost no throw when it’s done, alas. Very pretty — another in the line of Eternal Queen, Humanite, and Swans on the River.

Another spectacular achievement by Beth. Baked apples in the bottle. Goes on as baked apple and apple blossom — I think it’s the Annurca from the single note. There are definitely flowers. I want to say I smell buds? Does a bud smell different from a flower? That’s what I’m getting. As it dries it’s more apple juice, as in fresh from the apple. Something sweet and weird comes in as it approaches the finish, like… broken twigs. Honest to fuck I am smelling broken twigs from an apple tree. Finishes as freshly-broken branches from an apple tree. Beth, you are a literal adept of your art. This is astonishing. It is all of appledom in one perfume.

Chanukkiyah (Yule 2013): Olive oil, beeswax, glowing amber, sweet sufganiyot, pomegranate, and fig. My notes say "finishes as warm beeswax." Democrat (Election 2008): Beeswax and spices Al-Azif (A Picnic in Arkham) turns into a lovely beeswax on me despite the description. Honey and Absinthe (Lupercalia 2019, The Honey Pot) is more beeswax than honey on me, and I never got any absinthe out of it.

Liquid cocoa in the bottle. Goes on as spicy! cocoa. I would totally drink this. It softens into a nice clove powder; the cocoa rounds it out and keeps it from going harsh like Low-Key Lyesmith. This continues until it’s a lovely single-note clove.

that is a scent, holy fuck. A little of the oil got on the outside of the bottle when it was being poured and the entire box from the Lab was perfumed with it. In the bottle (and outside it): Heavy tuberose but with fruit notes underneath to sweeten it and round it out — tuberose can occasionally go a bit screechy. Goes on as a mango floral, which is interesting. The two notes balance out almost evenly as it dries. Once dry, it’s almost all tuberose again. Gorgeous and surprisingly complex; not as much throw as I’d like. Might be the weather. Happy I took a chance on this.

Like somebody combined Pine-Sol and Lysol floor cleaners. It's the lemon balm. Whatever the Lab is using for that, it does not like my skin chemistry. sigh.

DAMN is this a ride. A gorgeous thick liquid cocoa in the bottle and on application. A slight booze undertone appears, turning it into an expensive chocolate liqueur, like the center of a really good truffle. As it dries, the chocolate part begins to recede and a baked-apple note sort of sidles alongside as it morphs into the toasty boozy cooked-grains note from Halfling. That soon drops out and it morphs back into apple, but this is the sweet, almost snowy apple from 2017’s Bobbing for Apples. I don’t know what this was planned for, but it’s like the best Weenie ever. holy shit.

When this went up on etsy I dithered. No matter how many times I promise myself no more blind bottles, I keep, you know... buying blind bottles. 🙄 But I read the reviews and checked my scent twins and I read the board and I've seen many times how excited people were for this scent, so I figured if it didn't work out, it'd be easy enough to rehome. I get mint and the faintest breath of tuberose in the bottle, but this goes on as the Lab’s slushy, minty snow note, and stays there. I literally get nothing else. No musk (which is good), no chocolate, no wisteria, no flowers at all. Now, I happen to love the Lab’s slushy, minty snow note, so this is not a bad thing by any means, but I bought this hoping for the lilac and tuberose. Oh well; guess I’ll keep looking for the lilac and put this one next to Öndurdis and Jarnsaxa. They can be ski triplets.

Dry grass or wheat in the bottle. Goes on as dry grass with a touch of powder (the amber). Something sour underneath. The powder is the strongest note. The sour and powder continue as it dries. Not even sickly honey. Blech.

Opium and rotting fruits. yuck. well, I tried.

Moss in the bottle. Goes on as uncut grass, like a lawn. Continues into wet/used tea leaves with some sour lemongrass.

Cherry cough syrup.

Burnt tobacco and rubbing alcohol in the bottle. Goes on as thick, cloying honey under rubbing alcohol. The alcohol burns off eventually as it dries, and the nicer pipe tobacco moves in. It finishes as pipe tobacco with a faint honey overtone, but there’s almost no throw, and I don’t think I can suffer through the drydown when I have other scents with this tobacco note.

Ambergris and maybe the top note of whatever Beth uses for fizz (which would be the grapes, I suppose). Goes on as a cold, slightly menthol/citrus ambergris. The grape pre-fizz returns as it dries, which is a note I really like. Starts to turn into generic perfume, but then it dials back and becomes more of the ethereal grace note which is usually on top of the Lab’s “perfumy honey” and here tops the Riesling. Can’t quite decide if it works.

So I have realized something new about my skin chemistry: Whatever the Lab uses for “goat’s milk” turns into “cinnamon/nutmeg spice blend” on my skin. I thought it was just weirdness with My Baby and a Baby Goat, but nope, it's that accord. I get that here, plus a definite burp of ale, and then the whole thing starts to sour and turn into flat musk.

ooh, a nice tobacco leaf in the bottle. Goes on as… a weird lilac? Sort of fake? Maybe that’s the frankincense. I did take a chance on that; it’s one of my no-no-notes. Continues turning artificial and plastic as it dries. I have no idea what this is doing on my skin, but it’s really turning my stomach, so I suppose it’s making me not hungry? Is that appropriate for Famine? Off to swaps and someone who will love it more.

Soapy cotton in the bottle. Goes on as Ivory soap and aftershave. Ooh, this is not a nice soap. This might be the same one from Wensleydale, which I really did not like. Dries down to aftershave. (Sorry, Beth.) What happened to the tobacco and tea?

2008 version: Goes on as a delicious tobacco, where the 2012 version is more candied fruit. After 10 minutes or so they even out into the same lovely brûlée sugar note.

I have to explain the context of this. When I first started in this obsession hobby, I was exchanging Lucky Scent samples with a friend. She had sent me a few which had ylang ylang in them, and to me every one smelled like “old-man cigars.” However, I had also gotten some Lucky Scent samples which had literally spoiled and didn’t smell anything like what they were supposed to, so I always faintly wondered if I had gotten the note wrong, particularly when so many people here talked about how lovely the floral was. So when I read the reviews of this which talked about how it was mostly ylang ylang, I thought “you know what? I’m just going to give this another try and see if my initial impressions were correct, because it’s Beth and oil rather than alcohol and who knows.” And it turns out that while ylang ylang in oil form is not “old-man cigars,” it is the same stinky stamen note which jasmine turns into on my skin. That's all this is: stinky jasmine. So I have learned that nope, I really don’t like ylang ylang, but at least I know what the note is supposed to smell like for real.

General categories to try: Apple Chocolate Tea Caramel/Burnt Sugar Honey

Green tea, juniper leaf, and honeyed green apple. Green apple and juniper in the bottle. Goes on as a lovely apple with an eyewateringly sour juniper. I love juniper and I love apple but man, these two are fighting like chocolate and pickles. The drydown continues into the sour, dusty juniper leaf. No honey, no tea.

I find aquatics, citrus, mint, pine, and snow to be pretty non-gendered. Things which smell masculine to me are herbs, woods, "cologne" (that generic aftershave kind of smell), and maybe tobacco. My notes say Protoplasmic Ooze "would probably be amazing on a guy," and Odin is "masculine."

Chamomile and cypress in the bottle, which turn to pine and rose. The wood makes a brief return, but then both pine and wood depart for rose, which is where I get off this train.

2006 version: A lovely, uncomplicated fresh apple juice — the juice you get while eating the apple, not bottled juice. No cranberries or spices. 2010 version: Apple and spices in the bottle. Goes on as fresh apple juice with cinnamon, like freshly pressed cider. There’s more sweet fresh apple juice as it dries, and then the soft spices come back in. This is really nice — a definite keeper now. Still no cranberry but this is beautiful.

opens as a promising juniper with hints of cedar, like a spicy Christmas potpourri, but the cedar soon drowns the whole forest in pencil shavings.