ramblingrambler

Oddly, this reads slightly masculine on me with sharp, high notes from application through drydown but very feminine and delicate on my boyfriend. I think on the right person, as mentioned above, this would be a beautiful, happy springtime blend. I might tuck away for some aging, but for now, I don't see it working for me .

This has been in my swap box for a couple of years, but I took it out yesterday to reorganize my storage areas, and after re-testing it fell in love. I usually amp tobacco to high heavens, which is why I probably put this aside, but whatever tobacco in this melds deliciously with everything else. It's truly difficult to pick apart the notes because this is a luscious, indulgent blend that reminds me of glamorous femme fatales hellbent on vengeance. I love it wet and all the way through drydown (and on drydown, it is straddles high-end perfume and high-end indie on me). Wear is loud and long and strong. I'm keeping this. Sorry, folks.

I waited and waited to finally get a chance at this beauty, but my wait was well worth it. It's like Snake Oil meets any of the Sufs (or beignets with framboise) for HOURS. It's pretty linear and strong until it basically disappears entirely from the skin, one moment there and the next gone. Good lord, I want a million bottles of this.

NYC snowball fight sounded delish. BUT Ragamuffin nailed it with B.O. as an unlisted note. I was put off immediately on application because it smelled like what I remember P.E. in fourth and fifth grade to smell like... a time before young boys discovered that deodorant and showers made them much more pleasant to be around, especially while sweating. To lessen the ick factor, there's a perfume-y undercurrent which made me hopeful, as anything would have been better than staaaaank. As it dries, the B.O. wears off but becomes a pine-sol scent with a tinge of sweetness. I imagine this is supposed to evoke a chilly, Christmassy feeling, but it makes me want to scrub off since pine usually triggers terrible migraines. Dry down, its pine-sol remains until about hour three or four, at which point the sweet, not-quite Vanilla (a semblance, perhaps, but its resemblance is skewed by the strong pine-sol scent) comes out. Toward hour six, pine-sol begins to fade, and more of a sugared mintiness comes forward, but it not like the sugared mint we see in the Lick It series. I, too, was hoping more for a Snow Blind, Snow White, or other soft snow scent. This trends more toward a Nuclear Winter (total blast) profile, which makes me think it might be a great masculine fragrance, as my partner wears Nuclear Winter very, very well. I'll age it to see what happens because I really want to love it. I mostly think it's "just okay" at the moment. If I come back to it in six months and it still smells at all the same, it has to go to my partner... or maybe to one of you. (P.S. I got a headache over the course of the first few hours of wearing, but I can't be sure it was attributed to this scent in particular, and it wasn't a migraine, per se, as coniferous notes tend to give me—so I'm not sure if there is pine or fir or other notes in the perfume or if it was "just an everyday headache" totally coincidentally )

I'm not sure what's going on here, whether I received a mislabeled bottle or my skin chemistry is skewing it OR my nose is just borked, but Little Photojournalist smells like an herbal, sugared tea until about an hour into wear. Then it becomes a slightly incensed fragrance, more perfume-y smelling than anything. I was really wanting a sweet, fruity incense blend. Still, this is lovely.

I don't know how to describe this scent even now, but I knew I had to have it and paid a pretty penny for it. Many of my friends have remarked that if I were a tarot card, I would be the Queen of Pentacles... and I think this scent perfectly captures both the card and my personality. This is a sweet, edgy fragrance: fruity, earthy, resinous, slightly spicy—but tempered by a demur creaminess. This is both a woman down-to-earth and demanding recognition simply for existing and making life easier for everyone she knows. YMMV with this one though. I get a lot of compliments from women when I wear this, but men have told me I smell like potpourri (which makes sense re: Queen of Pentacles, I guess!).

Warm fur coupled with red and black musk, vanilla bean, patchouli, champaca flower, juniper berry, chocolate peppermint, frangipani, browned sandalwood, ferntop ash resin, and massoia bark. WILF is beautiful, but it makes me sneeze nonstop... so I might have to sell it off. This reminds me of Black Temple Burlesque Troupe meets Hag Musk meets Snake Oil meets... something wispy and fragrant. It is like I'm snuggling with a hottie lycanthrope, fuzz not only soft and warm, but also tickling my nose. Legit friggin' gorgeous, but I want it to plz stahp making me sneeze.

I see why this fragrance is so sought after and incredibly popularit is downright superb. Expertly blended and glorious, L'Estate strikes me as something that could be sold as mainstream perfume but is just enough off the beaten path to be sneered at as niche. And that's not a disrespectful comment on my end... people don't know what they're missing on the niche, indie, e-tail market until they're actively buying it (and then never going back ). To be sure, this bottle is everything golden and warm. Sniffed, I can parse it two ways: one in which all notes are inextricably linked to create one overarching impression, and the other in harmonious parts to a perfect whole. I smell it both ways as it wafts toward me... it is a blend of components, a true masterpiece, that together sings just the right song, perfectly tuned and attuned to body chemistry. I can't say anything about it except it is elegant, sophisticated, and exceptional. It smells like high-end perfume that isn't trying to be perfume. Edit: I use this sparingly, so five months later Ive come back to revisit my post. It is still glorious, beautiful enough to move me to pick up this post again, if you know what I mean. This time, I wear it as we approach spring through what the groundhog said would be a long winter, and I am reminded of early April, the apex of blooming and blossoming flowers before the rainy months set in. The warmth is really present today on my skin, so this smells like the sun beating down on fragrant yellow, orange, and white gardens - something we dont usually see here until the late spring and early summer months. I am, however, also reminded of the intense humidity present under willowy tree shade where the soil remains slightly damp in the morning, before the sun has fully dried it all. I guess this is like taking a stroll around ten or eleven in the morning and feeling the day go into full swing.

This is not something I would typically wear or even like, but my goodness is this lovely. I don't know if I can pick out the notes one by one, but it, all together, captures the scent of light penetrating death. I have no idea how I know that–didn't read the scent description until after I started my review, but that was my first thought upon application... "This is light and energy!" and as it started to dry, "It's slightly somber but intensely energetic still." Indeed, light penetrating death. I would wear this at the first remnants of spring and then all summer long.

Typically vetiver destroys a fragrance for me not because I dislike it but because my chemistry does not play well with it. HOWEVER, in Fallen, it works well. I don't know if it is because my imp is very aged or if the ratio of vetiver to other components is extremely small, but whatever the reason, I'm glad. Fallen is an understated floral resting on the foundation of soft resinous and woody notes. Balanced and well done.

This is a sweet but not juicy, dry but not brittle, woody but not pencil shavings CLEAN fragrance. On me, its linear, retaining the same fragrance profile throughout wear. As above mentioned, it is a low-key, pleasant scent.

I got a frimp from the Lab with my last order and really loved this even though there's a clean, crisp, almost soapy undertone to it (maybe the orris on me?). After reading one of the first reviews about it smelling like Mr Bubble, I layered it with Cthulhu, and REALLY got a bubble bath smell. My partner didn't like it as a day-wear scent. After hitting the gym, I thought it would be a good "need a shower so I'm going to slather and run some errands and hope for the best because I'm waiting until I'm home to get clean" scent, haha. He thought I actually smelled good when I came in... So I guess it worked. Alone, it is powdery, fruity, and soft. Throw is medium, wear is medium. With Cthulhu, it's quite a "big," "long" scent.

I can't do caramel scents so I wasn't sure what I was going to get with this, but man oh man am I glad I took a chance! In bottle, it smells like waxy, stale candy corn. Wet, the stale smell is pronounced, and it's slightly worrying because the drydown doesn't start happening for a while if you slather like I did . Dry, it becomes a glorious buttery, sugary, creamy frosting scent... no staleness, no caramel, nothing I can't do but everything I can. In LOVE with this purchase, and just in time for Halloween .

Holy crap. I wore this today and thought I made a mistake when I first put it on (first time wearing). I didn't have time to remove, so I had to go with it—and to a very packed academic conference. It was very strong wet... very powdery. But at some point during my hour drive this morning, it became something MAGICAL. And people couldn't stop complimenting me. It's warm. It's calming. And it's damn good. This is a very deep golden scent to me, and aptly so with the listed notes, I guess.

Earthy, loamy—and with dried roses—Zombi makes for an incredible scent *for the right person,* but that person is not me. I can see its appeal the instant it goes on, but for skin chemistry like mine, it smells like neosporin and bandaids as it begins to dry. Since I do not want to smell like neosporin and bandaids, I'll be passing my bottle along.

I hate to say it, and I don't know what it is or why it happens, but something about this on me reminds me of Raid! How sad.

Review from a very aged Vixen: This is phenomenal (still). It smells like a beautiful but linear red musk wet, and then as it begins to dry, it morphs into Snake Oil. Unless slathered, aged Vixen stays a skin scent, perfect for close, intimate moments with the significant other or heating up a more innocent date.

Like zankoku_zen above, I was tempted to discredit the beauty of the blend so everyone would sell me their bottles (kidding!), but it would do a disservice to anyone who wears these notes well. This is fresh, green strawberry scent tempered with musk (or, perhaps, the other way around? Musk brightened by strawberry? Either way, it works!). On me, the chypre reads as very, very perfume-y wet, and as it moves into dry down, blends more evenly the strawberry-musk fruitiness that, for me, is the starring role of this fragrance. As wear goes on, it oscillates between strawberry-musk and perfume-y perfume until about the hour and a half mark, at which point it becomes exceptionally intermingled and no longer does strawberry or musk have meaning anymorethey are two in one, body and soul. If any notes listed are your jam, this is a must for you. My favorite DragonCon scent, and probably my favorite release this year. Thank you, Beth! Now, time to find precisely 3749493927 more bottles...

Jealous of anyone getting blackberry from this. Redoul Honey is a sharp, green scent on me and dries into... a sharp, green scent. Some time into drydown the honeyed sweetness comes out, but it isn't enough to tone down the sharpness.

Hellfire smells like I slept—just slept!—next to a gorgeous man who is all sorts of bad in just the right ways. I can pull out each note by itself if I want to, but I would rather smell it blended together, not concentrating on what's what because hot damn is it delicious. It's just a mish-mash of sexy smells!

I would imagine a forest elf would smell like this. At first, wet, it was pencil shavings which didn't make sense because I don't see any notes to indicate it would go that way, but after drying, it became a fragrant mix of florals. Everything you would expect from a fragrance called Ephemera is here.

Sharp, clean, herbal-green-citrus scent that alone makes me think cologne but layered with a predominantly gourmand fragrance works really, really well to lighten up an otherwise heavy scent.

On me this is all honey and fig. Much too sweet and pronounced for me! I smell no patch or clove throughout wear. Somewhere into drydown it becomes slightly musty, which I attribute to either fig or honey since I get this reaction to both if they're prominent notes. For those into either, this blend should work for you!

I got Urd because I love all the notes, and it doesn't disappoint... but it is definitely different from what I expected! On me, it's a playful blend of fruit and incense, very light and almost child-like. Patchouli is almost non-existent except to balance and temper the fruitiness from the grape. If you were to tell me this were a patch blend, I wouldn't believe you—unless I stopped to think about how to balance a bright and juicy fruit like muscadine in a completely understated way. THEN I would notice the patchouli. Beautiful all around, especially as the muscadine fades away and gives in to the trailing nag champa at the end of wear. Lovely!

I'm sure this is intended to rile up my beloved, but honestly, I'm making myself hot just sniffing my wrist over and over . Applies almost as a faint cinnamon single note but eventually becomes more complex—starting off as slightly doughy cinnamon (soft, soft cinnamon), and then adding a light, resinous-woody note of some kind (my guy thinks cedar, but I think more probably just a drop of some type of boswellia). It reminds me of a TAL (maybe La Flamme? Glamour? I can't remember which at the moment), one that inspires sexual attraction, romance, charisma, etc. It makes me feel sexy, and it's easier to pick up on BPAL instead of the TAL etsy, so it works out for me.