Convallaria

Doubt thou the stars are fire; Doubt that the sun doth move; Doubt truth to be a liar; But never doubt I love. Tag! Thou Art ‘t! Playing tag with Lilith on the banks of the Avon before taking her to see Hamlet was such a wonderful experience. She loved the play, and still talks about it to this day. A distant whiff of clove smoke and pipe tobacco, black tea, and crumbs from tiny cakes. First few minutes aren't as much "crumbs" as a full-force blast of standard Lab moist vanilla cake. After it settles, it becomes a blend of listed notes. Not what I usually think of as "bittersweet", but it still fits. Sweetness of the cake is on the bottom, tempering the mildly spicy/bitter mix of clove, unsweetened tea and a pinch of tobacco. Later in drydown phase it's mostly clove-spiced tobacco, somewhat smoky but not bitter. Throw is decent at start, but drydown sticks close to skin yet lasts relatively long. It will take some adjustment - I'm not a big fan of the cake note alone, but that opening moment vanishes soon enough it shouldn't be a problem. It's really interesting and I'm glad I gave it a chance.

Which teetotaler dad ordered a martini just so his daughter could get the light up ice cube that came with it? Luckily, it was tasty and I didn’t fall into the Sleeping Death. I would do almost anything to bring a smile to my Lilith. Sour apple martinis! What it says in the description: apple+light booze. I expected Shade with apple instead of grapefruit and without fizz and that's what I got! After a while, the booze evaporates and it's pretty much apple SN. It's not synthetic enough to remind me of cleaning agents and like, but I cannot guarantee it will work for everyone. Very light with medium throw at the start, drydown is close to skin but surprisingly long-lasting for this type of scent. (Longer than Shade, I believe.)

After a long day at the museum, Lilith was hungry and begging for pasta with butter. As her loving father, I searched and searched until I found a place that would stay open a wee bit longer so we could get some. This is the photo of her thanking me. I believe it is the best photo of us, and it makes me so happy. Tiramisu and black coffee. Pretty much what it says in the description, very close to the real deal; a bittersweet combination, leaning toward "bitter" but not unpleasantly so. Not sure if tiramisu is the cake note or cream note - I don't have much experience with the latter, and it lacks the bite of the first, though it could be covered-up by coffee. There is no amaretto, but I think that some other kind of alcohol was involved, as well as some bitter cocoa. Dry, it goes a little bit sweeter, but all ingredients are still present. Stick close to the skin but is intense and rather long-lasting.

2017 version: The opening smells of burnt sugar, brandy and rum mix, and cream. After a while it settles down into a bit too generic sugar with a pinch of spice and a whiff of liquor. The overall effect is sweet and smoky. Drydown is fluffy sweet cream, very low in intensity.

Opening is sweet beeswax, a bit too sweet for my taste. When dust creeps through, it feels more like soil than dry dust you’d expect from the concept. The result is rotten-sweet blend that’s really not my thing. Drydown goes back to beeswax, now slightly less cloying, and chalk. This is also the first time it starts feeling like occult. I really like the final phase but I’m not sure I can deal with the previous ones to get there.

Opening is clean musk with a hint of gardenia. After that mild tea takes over, eventually settling into sweet white floral and tea blend.

Another hair gel that is sweeter on me than I expected. There's a refreshing swirl of vetiver and leather at the opening, but after that amber gradually takes over.

I was expecting something along the lines of Tabula Smaragdina, but this one is primarily a very sweet rose scent on me, with little "darkness" to it. Incense is the strongest at the opening, then it settles into roses sweetened with clove, but after that it's mostly just plain sweet rose.

This is kind of...edible evergreen forest on me. Not too sugary, but it's definitely there. Likewise, the forest isn't too cologney.

On me, this is a wine spill with a pinch of poppy from start to finish. It makes me think more of wino than wine itself. Rather intense and long-lasting - hard to wash off too.

Testing on wrist because my hair is not long enough to sniff. Starts with a blast of sweetness, settles into a bit more spicy, but still sweet overall. Like others noted, white tobacco note is mild and not ashtray-like at all. The drydown is back to sweet ambergris. It lasted long on the wrist but I can't make any judgement about hair - I'm picky about hair scents and I won't be going for this one. (Personal preference - it's a nice scent.)

Testing on wrist because my hair is not long enough to sniff. The opening was unpleasant on me as well. But soon after the blueberry comes through and stays in the lead all the way until the drydown.

Fellow forumites from Japan, what do you label the oils as when shipping swap/sale items internationally? "Essential oils" seems to be iffy based on my research. I'm afraid general "cosmetics" might bounce back if scanned.

The opening is surprisingly green. Flowery notes, primarily violets, gradually rise to the front, sweet and a little powdery (orris?). The drydown is sweet (more subdued than middle stage), powdery in that classical perfume way and lasts relatively long. Full bottle candidate for me - this is the kind of sweetness that works for me and it's well-blended without being too blended.

For me, the opening was mostly pomegranate - nicely juicy, not too sweet. Later on, it gets more depth with juniper and the pomegranate gets blended in as the time goes on. Mint doesn't really stand out, and it's of the mild, herbal tea variety. In fact, the whole concoction is like a thick pomegranate-scented herbal tea. Drydown loses depth and is mostly all about the pomegranate again. My first attempt at Lab's pomegranate (me being vary of fruit scents) and it's really nice - latter phase is kind of meh, but the pomegranate note works for me.

Musky almond, more bitter at the opening, mellows down soon after. I got this for the black pepper note, but I barely feel any - only if I press my nose to the skin and take a deep sniff, and even then I doubt I would have spotted it if I hadn't known it was there. Lab pepper tends to be a no-show on me, I only really got it in Old Demons of the First Class' spice mix and a whiff or two in Ifrit. This actually reminds me of Old Demons of the First Class, but less aggressive and "masculine" perfume-like (though I'd say it's still very much unisex), with the sweetness of almond tempering the spices. The drydown is sweet, slightly spicy, musk. Long-lasting.

Dew-touched grass and tulsi, gleaming with muguet des bois, fir balsam, ti leaf, and violet leaf. Grass! The opening is pretty much like Egg Hunt Grass Stain. Muguet creeps out later on, but the green still dominates. Even with the edge of grass blade dulled as the time goes on, the scent is consistently on the fresh plant side, leaves adding to the greenery rather than providing herbal effect. Tulsi sweetens the mixture in the drydown, but only barely, just to take away the bitterness of freshly cut plant. I was worried about fir balsam adding a note too masculine for my taste, but it wasn't the case - it was a part of the background blend. I tried four unicorn scents (including this one) so far, and all four have been well blended. Some had a dominant note, some didn't, and this one definitely did - that fresh greenery. Everything else is there to prop it up. Wear length was moderate.

For a "Bordello", it's surprisingly wholesome. Grape/red berry mix juice, all the way. (Not the wine note.) Intense and lasts rather long. Not for me, but I'll probably keep the frimp to see how it changes with age.

Well, I heard that tobacco is well-behaved in this one, but I didn't expect it to go so well! I can see why it's everyone's favorite, it's so smooth and balanced and well-blended. A true classic. I agree with "androgynous" assessment - it's a true middle-of-the-road, not a masculine you could steal. I was worried that woods would be amped, but it's not a case for me - tobacco is the star of the show. This reminds me of a whole dried leaf rather than a cigarette. In the drydown, the vanilla comes out, though the tobacco still doesn't disappear.

Oh, god, I knew I would like this, but I wasn't sure I would like it this much! What is this wonderful opening concoction? Siberian musk? Siberian musk+neroli? Musk+neroli+clove? I actually bought an imp (because my frimp luck is bad) for pepper, and it's not as peppery as I want, but it's great enough for me to not feel too grumpy about it. It's still definitely there, for a while at least. After that, it's back to that spicy musk. Later drydown is all sweet cuddly musk+tonka, very classical perfume. It's very unisex. Perhaps leaning a bit more towards masculine, until the late drydown at least, but nowhere near the point it feels questionable.

The May 2016 Thirteen doesn't have patchouli - it's "blackened cacao" with "Siamese red benzoin, olibanum, black copal, fossilized amber oil, sweet myrrh, Coptic rose resin, guggul gum, dragon’s blood resin, Palo Santo, bdellium, dammar gum, and attar of onycha." I remember because I wikipedia'd some of those notes when it was released, since I'd never heard of bdellium and onycha before El Dia de los Reyes may re-occur this December if we're lucky (I hope so, anyway, since it's my wife's favorite and I like to keep a back-up bottle on-hand). One of the other recurring Yules, Gelt, is also chocolate, but I've never tried that one because it always seemed excessive to buy two chocolate perfumes at once and there's usually another Yule LE I want more to accompany ELdlR. My bet is that it's a milk chocolate note, though, because those gold-foil covered Hanukkah coins are usually made out of cheap milk chocolate. ETA: Somebody upthread mentioned The Malignant Dreams of Cthulhu in Love, which is hard to find, but worth trying if you can track down a decant. It's a salty aquatic with chocolate, and despite chocolate and aquatics/salt both being iffy notes on me (one can disappear and the other usually turns into soap), the combination is weirdly sexy. Ah, it wasn't patchouli, but dragon's blood resin! But I knew I dismissed it over an iffy note. Pity because I love all of other resins in the mix. Hopefully next Yule will have at least one edible chocolate, then. I like salt, and I ate salted chocolate before, so Malignant Dreams sounds like something I should like, too! I think I saw some on one of sales I have bookmarked. ETA I should also mention I liked the cocoa note in Seven Word Story: Sloth.

Boomslang vanished in under five minutes on me, so I can't help you there. But if it doesn't work for you, you may want to try Velvet from the GC for another spin on chocolate + vanilla incense. It's cocoa with vanilla, sandalwood, and myrrh and is church-incense dominant rather than foodie. My favorite cocoa/chocolate scents are El Dia de los Reyes, one of the recurring Yules, which is a dead ringer for the scent of baking brownies (super foodie), and Dark Chocolate, Black Tobacco, and Vetiver (non-foodie, mostly tobacco & vetiver), but close behind them is this May's Friday the 13th LE. It starts out a really weird and not at all harmonious mix of chocolate and resins, which I suspect is why it doesn't seem to have been a big hit, but after a half-hour or so it eventually settles into a soft cocoa skin-scent that lasts all day, even on my chocolate-note-eating skin. Thank you! I already planned ordering imps of GCs that have been mentioned in this topic and don't contain notes I have problem with. I think I've already tried Dark Chocolate, Black Tobacco and Vetiver - as one of Lupers with dark chocolate note I mentioned. The problem is, I really didn't like the "dark chocolate" note there and want to avoid it - one of reasons I'm having second thoughts on Boomslang and Krampuslauf. I'm also uncertain about 13 because of the patchouli - it can go bad on me sometimes. I'll keep my eye out for El Dia de los Reyes, then, maybe look for old decant/sample. Thanks for the rec!

The opening is crushed grass with a side of white musk. Lavender is there if you take a close sniff. I get the "ozone" impression as well. Dry, the ozonic edge of white musk is gone, making the scent smell "clean". A bit too close to fabric softener for my taste, perhaps. The effect softens in the later stages. Moderate wear length, medium throw.

The opening is ginger - almost cookie-like - over guava/mango background. it goes even more spicy after a while, tobacco deepening the ginger. After that initial stage, it morphs into a sweeter mango/guava combo with some tobacco aftertaste that lasts moderately long - and longer than I expected from the notes. Sadly, salt is barely noticeable until barely-there final drydown. It wasn't what I expected, but it works for me and it's unique.

The opening is a mix of chilled tea and fougere spiced with ti leaf and bergamot. Black tea is, again, of the "fresh" variety. I get the comparisons to Dorian, but thankfully it lacks that extra spoonful of sugar that makes Dorian unbearable to me. When the drydown starts, the the top is less "fresh", more like a cologne. Latter drydown is first fougere and vanilla, then fougere and musk. ETA: Review for 2015/16 version, never sniffed the original.