Soupy Twist

A very accurate salt-water storm. Brilliant accomplishment; nothing I would wear.

rain in the bottle. A lovely sweet snowy aquatic on the wrist. this might be a bottle!

Yesterday’s sangría dregs. Not for me, thanks.

Another in the “just like Halfling” line. Pastry in the bottle; goes on as a buttery cake. Fades pretty quickly but tasty while it lasts.

Tea and bread in the bottle. Goes on as tea, cream, and pastry — the nutty pastry note from Halfling. This continues into a buttery bread crust as it dries, and then the nutty pastry note comes back. Very tasty, although not much throw.

Lily and sickeningly sweet cherry in the bottle. Goes on as cherry cough syrup. While this soon fades to a nice lily, it keeps going all the way to a powdery lily, which then tips over into sickeningly sweet lily. Pass.

Snow and fir in the bottle. Goes on as a sweet, berry/floral snow with fir — in the Skadi/Almond Blossom family — and dries as a beautiful fir, similar to Take the Moon. Just gorgeous. Not a ton of throw but it lasts most of the day.

Well, that’s an accurate description. Bubbles and ozone in the bottle. Goes on as ozone with neroli, but the neroli quickly disappears and it’s just hair spray. No tuberose (which I often love) or any other floral notes.

Count me in the acetone camp. Something boozy? in the bottle? fermented berries? Goes on as WTF fermented berries and quickly turns into nail polish remover. Wow, no idea what went wrong there, but I'm sort of relieved that I'm not the only one.

An aquatic mint in the bottle. Goes on as a minty, snowy aquatic. This is very fresh and green; I like it! It eventually settles into the Lab’s minty snow note (not the one in Snow White, the other one). z_z is right; this is in the F5 family. I would totally buy a bottle of this.

I am extremely sad to report that the Lab's lemon verbena note goes straight to "lemon Lysol floor cleaner" on my skin. Had to scrub it off.

Celery leaf. Astonishingly accurate, in-your-face celery leaf. I feel like I tripped and fell face-first into an organic farmstand at the height of summer. Not something I'd wear but fuck, Beth, how do you DO this magic?!?!

Melon. Just gorgeous, sweet, uncomplicated honeydew melon. stunning.

in the bottle: Apple!... with an odd edge. Goes on as aaaaaaaaaapple, the Lab’s awesome fresh-juice note. There’s an edge to it though, some kind of note on top I can’t place. Baked? something sour? can’t put my finger on it. What is that? Is it fermented honey? Is it my nemesis, ylang ylang? The apple is receding now into something powdery, and floral. Oh mercy, it’s roses. I’m done. This started really awesome, but the finish is out of my wheelhouse. Off to swaps to find someone who will love it more.

Starts out as a beautiful, promising, juicy lilac. During the drydown it becomes an iris/stamen note, but once it’s fully dry, the juicy lilac returns. Not much throw.

Is that cocoa in the bottle? Yep, it goes on as a thick, gorgeous cocoa liqueur, like in a really good truffle. This is the chocolate from El Dia de los Reyes, and it’s amazing. And it doesn’t last. In 10 minutes it’s all gone, and all I get is the dry gingerbread note. no coffee, no vanilla. I am very sad that nothing from this line works for me. 😩

Gingerbread (which I just found out doesn't work on me) and the Lab's French tobacco (which turns into "house fire" on my skin). double miss; not the Lab's fault.

Alas, I've now discovered that the Lab's gingerbread note doesn't work for me. I feel like I just dumped an entire shelf of my spice rack into my mouth at once, dry.

Sour green flower and faint honey in the bottle, but don’t run away. Goes on as clove, but still: don’t run away! As it dries, the honey comes in and smoothes out clove’s rough, sour edges, making this a soft, beautiful pure clove single note. An hour later, it’s more of the Lab’s gorgeous perfumy honey with the slightest edge of clove on top. Swoon. Can I have too many bottles of the Lab’s perfumy honey note? No. No I cannot.

Ambergris and honeysuckle in the bottle. Goes on as ooh pretty! honeysuckle. There’s a brief creamy foodie note as it dries, which might be the coconut, but it settles as a nice clear aquatic with occasional flashes of honeysuckle on top.

farina with ale in the bottle. goes on as spices. that’s it, just dry spices.

Sweet grass — almost a single note. There’s a breath or two of vanilla as it dries, but basically just the lovely sweet grass note from Nothing Gold Can Stay. I like it a lot! ETA several hours later the vanilla has showed up, and it's very soft and pretty. a tiny bit powdery but not in a bad way — more orchid than foodie. has nothing to do with the grass but it's great all on its own!

every note in this description was made of win for me, so I had high hopes. GINNNNNN in the bottle. Goes on as a soft-edged juniper. A lime note develops on top, which goes with it beautifully. I love love love this. LOVE! 💙 It shifts slightly between pine and more gin, gin, gin as it dries. It keeps the nice crisp edge of real gin and doesn’t veer into the sour sap note which actual juniper can develop. I adore the Lab’s gin note (21 is one of my all-time favorites) and this is equally good. It doesn’t stick around as long as 21, but that might be the weather. This is a bottle for certain. Did I mention GIN? and LOVE? 😍

2018: Sweet menthol-y snow, with hints of juniper and mint. Creamy, not harsh. Just as beautiful as the previous version. When I put both on at the same time, the 2013 version is a little gentler while the opening blast of the fresh one is more intense, but once they’re past the wet stage they smell the same. Snow, minty pine, and something lovely and sweet on top. Still one of my favorites! Thank you so much to the Lab for bringing this back!

I want to eat every note in this, but alas, almost nothing shows up on my skin. Delicious, amazing chococlate cherry cordial in the bottle and on application, but cherry gonna cherry on my skin and do its cherry vanishing act thing. Leaves behind a stale, kinda bloomed chocolate note with some smoke at the end. Literally no other notes.