erinallana

Fir needle and white tea with crushed fresh ginger, white amber, apricot, and oakmoss. Interlude After Sake is a beautiful blend, mellow and light. The white tea and ginger dominate the opening; the fir needles I only smell the bottle and when it's very, very wet; sort of a whiff of balsam pillow over what is otherwise a sweet/clean leaning perfume. The apricot and amber lend the sweetness, the ginger and tea prevent it from hitting foodie territory. There may even be oakmoss in there contributing something nice, but I have no idea what oakmoss smells like on its own. This is a low-throw perfume oil on me. It reminds me a bit of Kumiho, which I had an imp of years ago and loved, but could not wear because it lasted 0.5 seconds on me before disappearing. Interlude has medium staying power; lasting about 6 hours before fading to a lovely apricot-amber glow. Lovely.

I am a huge fan of the Lab's "black leather" note; in fact I am still nursing the dregs of a very aged bottle of De Sade. Sadly, none of the other scents in the GC with the same note really match that sharp and sexy love that I get from De Sade, so I was sad when it went to the Great Lab In The Sky. I've been on a constant lookout for black leather based LEs, so I picked up this one right away. That said, this scent does not start out where I expected at all. Given the description I was thinking it would be leather-forward, but on first application it's all boozy cherry with a strong, spicy-smoky caramelized sugar note that reminds me a bit of the Nefarious Plan bath oil the Goblins at the Trading Post put out a couple of seasons ago. But then, as it dries down...what's that? Whiffs of De Sade? Could it be? Sniffed on the skin this smells like cherry and vetiver, but that subtle throw is all sexy, sexy leather. Perfect replacement for my leather fix. Of course, my skin tends to eat leather for some reason, so this needs a re-application after a few hours - but it only takes a few sniffs of that dry down phase to make my day.

Pink strawberry, gardenia, blackberry wine, vanilla frankincense, and champaca absolute. Finally, I get to check off a strawberry scent from my list, and this could not be more perfect. Oddly (given the label and the spirit of smut that inspires the Shunga collection), I get a strong sense of nostalgia from this scent for childhood summers at my grandmother's house, which is exactly what I was looking for. The overall impression is not just strawberry; the blackberry wine and the vanilla frankincense bring it a sweet, slightly creamy berry scent. Gardenia and champaca are definitely there as well, but more in the background on me, like sitting in a garden and catching the scent of flowers on the odd breeze. They play more in the drydown but overall the blend stays pretty steady all day. This is definitely candy-like, and playful (fitting to the image, although what the hell are they doing), and may be too unsophisticated for some, but I often wear scents to evoke a mood and wow...this is perfect. Hubby review: "you smell like fake fruit" so...not the same scent for everyone Edited for readability