Beary Strange

On me this is a clean, sweet amber-esque musk accompanied by a lactonic-edged Oreo-filling. The clean amber smell I'm picking up reminds me of the one in Vintage Ghost Blow Mold, but the overall effect is simpler and the sweetness is calmer in this one. If you loved Traditional Sheet Ghost, I highly recommend this.

There's a definite hit of candy corn when this is freshly applied. While wet and on the drydown, it's more of a general buttery mallowcreme-esque sweetness, and then the amber hits and takes it in a very different direction. This is more of a clean amber to my nose, very different from Vintage Frank's amber. Fully dry, it's more of a sweet, clean scent than anything specifically reminiscent of candy corn, to me at least. Not so clean as to read as laundry though, if my review is causing concern. edit. With time I detect this as the same or similar amber to Frank, but something in this one is still causing it to read a bit clean to me. The candy corn/mallowcreme scent is also hanging around better with a bit of age on it.

Fresh on, it's a blast of those individually wrapped chocolate peppermints you find in bowls at receptionist desks. My skin usually just instantly eats mint but it's surprisingly readable here, and the chocolate doesn't go shea butter on me at all, but remains, much to my delight, chocolate the whole time (what is this sorcery?! I love it!). With full dry down and a bit of wear, the mint does fade and the amber comes out and oh what an amber it is, glowing is a very good way to describe it. The end result for me was much as I've seen others describe it: a gorgeous chocolate amber. I highly recommend this one. This has so far been the standout for me.

This is so pretty, what the heck? It starts off with a blast of hairspray and champaca (what it actually smells like to me is a variety of champa being used to represent hairspray, but who knows, I'm not a perfumer). I think it must be the same champa as Snooty Bat's because they smell so similar to me, but without the heavy leather and patchouli that made that one so cologney, although I'd say this still leans unisex, almost but not quite into cologne territory but a lot of atmospherics do that. I get the plush velvet note and wisps and curls of clove smoke next. The clove is very quiet at first, but does become more apparent with wear as it warms up. This is more of a warm, ambient clove than someone blowing clove smoke directly in your face. If you're here for the clove, I'd say probably check out Vampire Milk based on those reviews. But for a nice gothy atmospheric, you can't go wrong. The velvet with the champa is just lovely.

I get a gorgeous oak note accompanied by a lovely, perfumey sandalwood. These are definitely oak floorboards, not fresh oak timber. The sandalwood isn't one I've smelled before as far as I can tell, and it's very interesting. It's not creamy, but it's also not too dry; it's very hard to describe, but it's definitely got a distinct "I am a sandalwood that goes in perfume" smell to it. It's simple and straight forward, and a very nice unisex scent for those who enjoy wood, especially oak. It's not super long lasting yet, but I suspect it will hold on more with some age or a generous application.

Super smoky pumpkin rind with a bit of sweetness behind it. But mostly it's smoke. My hair smells like I spent all night hanging near a bonfire and am now effectively smoked. It's very "heavy" but thankfully does calm down with wear, leaving the heavy smoke to only interrupt my senses in wafts. Definitely not the sweet gourmand I was expecting based on the name and description though.

@MonBon That is a great breakdown, thanks so much!

Buttery and funk are both descriptors I keep seeing to describe goat's milk. But I also see people referring to the regular milk note as sour a lot, whereas I really enjoy the cream and milk notes, so I'm hopeful I can hang with the goat's funkiness. I do notice neither you nor elka referred to it as cheesy, which gives me hope. 🤞 Oh gosh, gamey. I hope that's not how goat's milk reads to me. 😅 Thank you both for your replies~

So the upcoming Monster Milk collection has a lot of unfamiliar-to-me milks, and I'm guessing I'm not the only one in that boat. So dear, more experienced BPALers: will you tell me/us about your experience with these milks? Does the Lab's goat's milk smell sweet as Google suggests it might, or does it smell cheesy as I'm remembering. What about evaporated milk? I've recently realized I had this one mixed up with condensed milk, or rather, I thought they were the same thing. Looking around, it seems that what I had thought was evaporated milk in Fairy Lobster is probably more likely condensed milk. Does the Lab's evaporated milk have any sweetness to it or is it just like plain milk? Buttermilk I'm just going to go ahead and guess smells buttery. But I would love to be wrong about that.

Strawberry hibiscus bubblegum (smells like actual gum not lotus) with carnation. Up close I can get the slightly dirty smell others mention that I think must be the orange blossom, but for me it’s not strong enough to be bothersome. Its mostly just a really nice fruity candy scent and I do want to get a bottle at some point.

On me this is primarily corn that leans a bit creamed or casserole-y, creamed wheat, and peonies with sugar. I can pick up the mallow close up, but it's those notes that lead the throw. Corn and wheat don't sound like something you'd want to smell like (or at least they didn't to me), but turns out they smell great all sugared up. After a while, it dries down to sugared cream with peonies and the amber comes a bit more forward, rendering the whole thing more perfumey that it starts out, but I can still pick up the corn in wafts. Love this one. 💕

White chocolate and indeed, fruity puffed cereal. I get something somewhere between Cap'n Crunch Berries and Trix. And oddly, anise--although my skin finds anise in things others generally don't so I wouldn't stress about that, and for my part, I like anise so I'm perfectly happy with that turn of events. I hope this is enough of a hit that we get more cereal scents because this is delicious smelling.

This smells pink. I'm not even a synesthesia person and the best descriptor I can give to accurately describe this scent is PINK. I'm not super familiar with all the flowers listed, although I can definitely pick out daffodil, lily, and pink carnation. The pink sugar and bourbon vanilla are the next most dominant scents, and then there's just a tiny bit of strawberry peeking in and out. So yeah, pink sugar vanilla with sweet florals and a hint of strawberry. This is the most "me" scent I've smelled from the Lab yet, absolutely 10/10--I'm in love.

Delicious watermelon sugar, although towards the later stages of dryness it's more about the sugar and the watermelon retreats to the background. If you know Tree Hut's Watermelon Sugar flavor, that's what this smells like, sans any sort of soap or chemical smell, and lasts fairly well for several hours. A perfect summery sweet scent.

White chocolate and creamy, buttery sandalwood with just enough lemon to balance things out. This is seriously delicious, and kinda smells like a Butterfinger. I did inadvertently fool my partner into believing I was baking while wearing this, so you know, wear with caution or you might disappoint people.