Kay Torres

In the imp, I pick up the incense and jasmine, and not much else. Wet: Jasmine. I'm not really sure if jasmine loves me because it likes to loudly announce its presence, but I can assure you that I don't love jasmine. It's nothing but a jasmine sn once it touches my skin. Loud, heavy, suffocatingly sweet. Dry: This reminds me of my grandma's Sunday perfume; dark, heavy, slightly soapy. At least I can detect incense with the jasmine now. Unfortunately, it's so overwhelmingly sugary (powdered sugar is how my nose reads it - is there musk in this?) that it makes me nauseous. Caterpillar is not a win.

I normally love violets. I don't love Faith. With her sister, I get candied rose petal. Faith, on the other hand, smells like someone has done something medicinal to the violets. It smells sort of like a violet tincture. Not pleasing to my nose. The alcoholic violet smell of it actually made me nauseous. I layered liberally with Hope. I'm glad that I did. Because while I may not be able to stomach the smell of Faith by herself, with Hope they both blossom into something far more beautiful than either one could hope to be alone.

Candied rose petals. After years of avoiding rose like the plague, I'm quickly discovering that I'm a sucker for rose scents. This is sweet, beautiful and delicate. Others have said that this has a low throw and a short life. I haven't found that to be the case. On me this has a medium throw and was still present 16 hours after initial application. *eta* I cannot say enough good things about this, I've been wearing this a lot, and a full bottle is indeed in my near future. I love, love, love it. It's very innocent and romantic on its own, and it layers beautifully with almost every rose scent that I've managed to snag.

It smells like that time I had to eat tons of oatmeal and take fenugreek when I was breastfeeding to increase my milk supply. I constantly smelled like the brown sugar that I put on top of the oatmeal, milk, and the fenugreek that made even my sweat smell like maple syrup. That's Zarita. I'll pass, just because it brings back stressful memories. But if smelling like a bowl of sugary, maple cream oatmeal is your thing, then it's good.

I can't pick a single note out of this, it's THAT well blended. My impressions of this are confused... It starts off sharp and green. There's something slightly ominous about it, like danger lurking in the darkness underneath wet leaves. Then it gets sweet (probably the musks because musk loves to turn into a heavy sugar crystal smell on my skin, and this one is heavier and sweeter than any other I've ever tried). But here's the thing, even with all that sugar, it's still SHARP. It starts smelling a lot like a man's cologne to my nose at this point. But there's something there that says woman. Feral woman. Predatory woman. After about two hours, it dries down to honeyed floral musk. I can't say that I like it. I don't dislike it either. I think this one is really a mood scent. I'd have to be feeling like a huntress to wear this and love it. But for day to day wear? No. ** edited to add* 8 hours later and I'm left with sugared honey and floral I still wouldn't wear this as an every day scent. Its initial stages are somewhat unsettling and best reserved for a more *primal* mood. *also edited because sometimes my brain doesn't work and I think I'm editing a different post. lol*

Since my decant sat for two days (not through any patience on my part, my brother brought my package in, and I didn't notice until today), I decided to start with this because Snake Oil does bad things with my body chemistry 75% of the time, and I'd rather know right away how this is going to go. In the imp: That distinctive SO smell with a faint trace of fruit and flowers. Wet: Spicy and apple-icious! Like a sweet cider made with ripe apples! This is why I held out hope for this one - apple adores me. A little plumeria, and NO gardenia or Play-Doh, thank sweet baby Jesus! Dry: Orange is coming out to play, but I can't detect any lemon peel. It's so gorgeous right now. The SO is still playing nicely and just adds a sexy, sweet skin smell to my spiced apple, orange, and plumeria blend here. An hour in and still no Play-Doh. It's warming up, though - softening... I've burned through the apple and orange, and this has turned into soft flowery vanilla sex. Mmmm!! I thought I was in love before, but I'm really in love now. When the apple is in play, this has insane throw on me, but once it fades, this stays thisclose to my skin. Ungh!!! Delicious! Verdict - LOVE. LOVE. LOVE. 8/10. I'd give it higher marks if it lasted a little longer before turning into a skin scent. If SO turns nasty, but apple and citrus love you, give Coral Snake a try. It's working for me during a time that SO usually doesn't.

In the imp: Very radish-y and earthy. Wet: Lots and lots of radish. I smell like I've been picking them! There's the peppery tang of them mixed with a very faint aroma of wet earth. Yay!! Dry: After about half an hour of smelling pleasantly like dirty radishes, the herbs start to come through. Not really sure what they are but they're soft and sweet, not an in your face green... Kind of like a sweet herb garden planted with savory and strawberry spinach and things like that. Delicate, fruity, sugary. I wish that I was able to smell this while still smelling the radish and the dirt, but alas, those two don't last long. Beautiful. It smells like happiness in my garden.

This smells exactly like my laundry soap, only much, much stronger. Mokey was my favorite Fraggle, and I was incredibly excited to try this, but the overwhelming soapiness of this scent made it a pass for me. I'm very grateful that I was able to try before buying. I'll dilute it and use it to freshen my laundry, but I won't put it on my skin again.

Definitely gonna recommend Coraline Jones: “No,” said Coraline. “I don't want to do those things. I want to explore.” Dry grass, clean skin, and a little bit of mossy berry. Squirting Cucumber: Yikes! A spurt of wet, grassy greenness. Hopeless romantic in love that gets vengeful? How about Edith Cushing: Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind: pearlescent vanilla musk with white sandalwood, grey amber, white patchouli, ambrette seed, and oudh. Fairy Wine: An ethereal vintage, steeped with dandelion, honey, and red currants. Host of Air: Peat and rolling grass-covered hills, with wine-dappled heather, white clover, cloudberry, juniper berry, bluebell, dandelion, and cross-leaved heath. Depending on how stereotypically hippie you are, you can't get much more hipppie than Ask the Nearest Hippie haha!: patchouli, hemp, smoky vanilla bean, and cannabis accord. I managed to snag a bottle of Host of the Air, and it is freaking magnificent! This was an excellent recommendation - it truly smells like meandering through a meadow! Thanks!!

Thanks to a very generous forumite, I was able to snag a bottle of this. I tried it on right out of the mail because I just couldn't wait. In the bottle, this smells like clover and dandelion. It's just pure spring. It's just beautiful. Wet: Oh, so much dandelion goodness! I have a thing for dandelions, in case you couldn't tell from my profile picture. A strong grass note, the clover is still hanging tough. This smells for all the world EXACTLY like a late morning walk in a meadow at the edge of the woods, while the grass is still slightly dewy and the flowers are just opening up in the sun. It's just happy, but in a quiet sort of way. Dry: I've had it on for about an hour now, and it just gets better. It's just so very green! For someone like, me that doesn't like to be indoors during growing season, it's a huge mood booster. It does get a little soapy, but only a very little bit, and not in an unpleasant way.

Bless you for making this topic!!

In the imp: Citrus and coconut, but a green sort of coconut - more fleshy than creamy, if that makes sense. Wet: LIME!! Loud and in your face lime at first, then I can pick up the lemongrass. It's really, really quite loudly citrus on me at first. This phase lasts about half an hour or so, but again, citrus and I have a thing. I love citrus, but it does like to announce itself to all and sundry when I wear it. Dry: A vaguely citrus, sweet, musky floral. I'm not doing this justice, because it's much, much prettier than I can possibly describe. Let me say this, I woke up this morning and really wished that I could just go back to sleep. Since that wasn't a possibility, I put Shoggoth on instead. It's the adjectives bright, perky, and happy all bottled up. Shoggoth is on my GC full bottle list. *12 hours later and the citrus is gone and I'm left with a warm, soft, sugary scent that sits thisfreakingclose to the skin. The man LOVES it right now and says it smells like candy.

In the imp: This sort of smells like a heavy duty commercial cleaner - a chemical sort of floral. Wet: Definitely a very heady floral. Others have said everything from violets to lilies to jasmine. It doesn't smell like any of these to me. My memory may be faulty, but it smells the way I remember my mum's peonies smelling. Whether or not this is actually peonies, I'll probably never know. But I get a mental image of the big showy blossoms in front of our old house. Very pretty. Dry: Pretty much the same, but some of the sharpness goes away and it gets a little softer and sweeter. If there is spice of any sort it doesn't show up on my skin at all. I like it as it is, though.

This smells like an herbal that my cousin makes for me to help me with my dream work and readings. Perhaps because of that, when I smell Nanshe, I smell bergamot and lavender - the two major players in my cousin's herbal concoction. It's a beautiful scent. It's crisp, bright and comforting to me. It's a little too crisp and bright to help me fall asleep, and I find that when I wear this to bed, I have more trouble than usual falling asleep. But, boy do I dream!! Real doozies too! I've also found that it doesn't help me with interpreting my readings either. I still love it for its simple beauty (think lemon lavender candy) and for the increase in vivid, memorable dreams.

This was the scent that started me on my love affair with the Lab. This is my review as it appears on the site: "I had my doubts about this one. I opened the imp and tart, tart apple flooded out with a disturbing sort of sour note. Wet it smells like, well, apples. But not a fresh, cheery apple scent, more like apples that have fallen off the tree and are rotting in leaf litter and saturated earth. It smells like the death of an apple orchard. But then, when it dries, that is when the magic happens. And my god, is it magical! I can believe wholeheartedly that this is the apple that the wicked queen gave to Snow White. It's a full, rounded mature apple scent. Adult somehow. It's beautifully mingled with deceptively soft, spicy florals that keep you coming back to sniff. It's a dangerous seduction. It's the apple Eve ate. It's the first time I've loved an apple scent and I will absolutely be buying a full bottle..." The throw on this one is strong and on me it lasts over 12 hours. As the imp has gotten older, the apple takes on a darker note. I honestly can't explain it any better than that. It smells "sinister". I put this one on when I'm feeling particularly "girl gone wild". Lol. I'm getting to the end of my imp, so it's time to order that bottle.

This is really, really good, y'all! In the imp: Citrus soda... 7UP or Sprite. Really. Wet: Effervescent. It's actually effervescent! It's sparkling citrus. Like a citrus-y, sweet champagne or white moscato. I'm really shocked that the champagne smells so realistically like champagne. I almost expect to see the bubbles. Dry: The same! This is a green tea that doesn't go all wonky on me! It's so light and happy! I think I'm going to have to sample ALL of the Mad Tea Party scents because they seem to be a hit with me (minus that unfortunate incident with How Doth the Little Crocodile)! Throw is low and it doesn't last. I like it enough to buy big bottles and slather throughout the day, though.

Imp: Sweet floral with hints of spice. Wet: Toothache inducingly sweet and the jasmine makes my eyes water. Dry: Sickeningly sweet, powdered jasmine soap. There is a clean,full brightness behind it that I imagine is the olive blossom. It isn't strong enough to compete with the jasmine. My eyes and nose are streaming. And there's an ice pick stabbing my sinuses. The throw is insane and this doesn't wash off. I'm really beginning to think that my skin HATES jasmine (and apparently just the Lab's jasmine, because I looked over the notes for my favorite commercial perfumes and they all include it). It seems to interact with me in a way that makes this one thousand times stronger than it should be. On the plus side, my boss complimented my new "soap" (well, actually she asked me where I managed to find a bar of Cashmere Bouquet, which I LOVE so I took it as a compliment). So apparently, I'm the only one in agony over the way this smells.

Wet: Dr. Pepper. I'm giddy with excitement because I love Dr. Pepper. This doesn't last long, though. About five minutes. Dry: Sweet powdered almonds and spice blend. The spice blend isn't heavy or very exotic. It's kind of generically spicy, like the pumpkin pie spice blend in the store - all ginger, cinnamon, and clove. I think I smell a hint of tobacco too. It reminds me of fall. It's a comforting scent. Stays very close to the skin.

Very sugary grapefruit and lavender. Not the best description for one of my favorites, but that's what it smells like on me.

For a really, really long time, I wore Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea Honeysuckle. I didn't particularly like it, but I got a bottle free in one of those promo things. I don't particularly like this either because it smells EXACTLY the same on me. So now I know that if green tea is in the mix, it's going to beat every other note into submission. That's why I never got any other notes in GTH, and why I'm not getting any other notes here. It's just single note green tea. I'd imagine that it would smell beautiful on someone else, because the imp smells like a spring in a bottle.

I tried this one this morning and I have to say - O. M. G! This is absolutely divine! Bold, rich, red wine is what hits your nose first - and it's absolutely magnificent!! The peach quickly comes out to play, adding a little flirtation to the wine. As it dries down, the coconut gets its moment to shine too and smoothes over both notes with a mellow, rich and delicious nuttiness. It's just so smooth. So sexy... And the tobacco flower... Unnhhh! Adds a spicy floral that makes me want to eat my own wrist. Just yum!! I want to tackle myself, or go tackle the man and make him sniff me... I smell divine!! So very glad I bought this... I need another. I can't ever run out of this. Bad things will happen if I do.

It seems I'm the oddball here. This is definitely not light or floral on me at all. In the bottle it definitely is, but on my skin it turns to food. It's thick creamy honey. I think I've found my seduce the man scent. I may need a backup.

In the imp: This smelled like it could be interesting. A floral candy-ish apple. Wet: Dude, it smells like a Jolly Rancher. Dry: It STILL smells like a Jolly Rancher. Not kidding. The perfume-y apple blossom and the wood disappeared into my skin, never to return and all that's left behind is an apple Jolly Rancher. It's very light and stays close to the skin. Can't speak to its longevity yet, I've only had it on for two hours. But it seems like it may be fading already. I will not apply more. eta* After about five hours, there was nothing left of this.

I've been wanting to try Alice since I first found the Lab, but for various reasons, I held off. I don't know what I was thinking. In the Imp: Spicy roses. Have to admit that I was scared, it smelled a little industrial. Wet: A very pretty, creamy rose, but a bit of something thin and sharp playing hide and seek... Can't identify the thin and sharp. Dry: My mom used to make me angel tea in the mornings when I was very small. Angel tea is mostly milk, some honey, a dribble of vanilla and a very little bit of actual tea. Alice smells like Angel tea on my wrists. On my chest, Alice is rose pudding. Not even kidding. I haven't thought of rose pudding in years, but the smell wafting up from my neckline is rose pudding - rose petals, powdered milk, honey... I smell delicious. It's like the Lab bottled the smell of my childhood. It's magical. It brought back so many memories of being small and believing that absolutely anything can happen. I've found my happy scent. Alice, you're a beautiful girl. *As my bottle of Alice sat, the rose note in it seemed to disappear. There's no more rose pudding from Alice. Sad face, sad face. So now I layer her with any and every rose that strikes my fancy, but mostly Hope.

Spilled this on my hand in the haste to sniff my imps. I had no intentions of trying any scents on skin today. I haven't slept (Thanks ever so much, Insomnia). That tends to make me hypersensitive to everything. May I just say that this is a bright, JUICY orange. I can't really pick out the fig as fig... there's just a nebulous something in the background trying to sedate that orange. It seems a smidge somber in the face of the orange's overwhelming effervescence and optimism. This is very strong (take that with a grain of salt - as I said, I'm hypersensitive right now). I spilled the drop on my hand roughly an hour ago and it still hasn't toned down yet. Nope, not just my perception. I'm at work and a coworker that sits a bit over 10 feet away asked who is eating orange candy. In spite of it's strength, I quite like it. Very realistic and no iffy florals screwing up my citrus fix. It makes me feel peppy and happy, which is no small thing after having been awake for 35 hours straight. 2 hours in - the realism of the orange has vanished. It's gone plastic now. Sad. I was digging it. I'll try it again on a different day and update. It could just be that I'm all out of whack today. *edited to update* Nope, it wasn't that I was out of whack that day. The mandarin really DOES turn to plastic on my skin all the time.