Ythik

A warning not to go into this expecting it to be too similar to Morocco, as it doesn't really have much in common with that scent other than the name. The pomegranate here is really soapy somehow, which I feel like I experienced with another pomegranate recently though I'm having trouble remembering exactly which one it was, possibly Personent Hodie? Pomegranate is usually a note I enjoy quite a bit but this one isn't the normal juicy tart red fruity kind and feels much more like a heavily perfumed soap of some sort. As it dries the sandalwood comes in a little bit more with a very light spice (though spices are generally pretty quiet on me). It begins to feel a lot like The Return of Persephone from the June Lunacy, though there is a little hint of spice here that was not in that. I think I was hoping for Pomegranate Grove Morocco, but this scent is not that.

I've never tried Lemon Scented Sticky Bat, but this opens with a very pleasant lemon. It's not too sweet or sugary (and I tend to have a low threshold for sweet scents) but it's also not too sharp or cleanser-ish either. The snake oil lurks there a bit underneath it while wet, but comes out much more as it starts to dry. The bulk of the lemony-ness fades pretty early, but it keeps a bit of brightness compared to standalone snake oil even in the drydown. A very wonderful combination, though I suspect anyone who has these two scents already could probably achieve similar results through layering them.

This is very much strawberry without feeling fruity which is interesting. It is a little more floral on the skin than in the bottle, but still in a kind of strawberry way that I don't mind. The juice note is really interesting too, it's kind of strawberry but thin. It lacks the body of a fruitier strawberry note. The strawberries are a lot stronger than the marble note on the skin, but it's definite under there still, cool and smooth and stony. It's definitely coming in more in the drydown though, as the juice note fades back a bit. This is honestly a really interesting combination.

On the skin this keeps its wonderful blend of very dark brownie and very dark coffee from the bottle. They're both fantastic and the way they sort of blend into each other is also wonderful. As it dries I'm getting a little bit of the amber, soft and sweet and a little more powdery than I'd like, but not enough to overwhelm the coffee/brownie. I'm not really getting any of the cardamom, but I'm not sure I even really mind since the rest of this is so nice.

The red oud and golden sandalwood really show up on the skin here. It has that same slightly sweet zing that a lot of the other 'red' notes have, but softened by that rich warmth of the golden sandalwood. I definitely got a little bit of the ointment note at first but it disappeared almost immediately as the oud and sandalwood came storming in. I definitely got the frankincense in the bottle but on the skin it gets lost in the other notes.

This is a very green zingy scent, heavy on the cedar while wet. But there's something more than cedar here that I can't quite identify. Definitely feels green and it has a bit of bite, maybe it's the moss and the bergamot together. This kind of smooths out as it dries though with the intensity of the cedar and the zing softening up a bit. There's a bit of a rich warmth in the undertone from the tobacco and I think the cade, though the greenness is still in there. Not sure I would've full sized this one if I'd tested it first, cause it's nice but not amazing. But I'll keep it and probably use it intentionally on occasion.

I can't say I'm a big fan of this one, though it seems a little more well-behaved for me than most other people. I'm definitely mostly getting an animal musk of some sort, and it feels slightly leathery/suede-y in a buckskin sort of way, which is probably the deer skin note. I got a brief period of *very* faint forest-y vibes but even when they were there they just barely sort of float around the edges of the scent indistinctly. It definitely has a warm evening air quality to it though. A kind of almost-muggy warmth just before the evening starts to get chillier. As it dries I occasionally get something that feels a little off, a little sharp, that my brain is interpreting as something like animal urine, which I can't say I enjoy, but then it sort of disappears back into the musk/deerskin warm fuzziness which is much nicer. After reading all of the reviews here though I can definitely see how people are getting grains/carbs/popcorn. There is something in here that feels grain-like in a strange way.

Smells-wise (can't speak to the ritual element here, personally) this is a very bright citrus to start. Mostly it's the lemongrass with a bit of lime added in. The lime kind of fades within the first few minutes but the lemongrass lingers as the angelica comes in more. It's still a very bright blend but the angelica adds a bit of woody herbiness. I'm not really getting any palmarosa, which is fine for me cause that tends to be a bit more floral than I like. The frankincense is also fairly quiet here, though I believe it's adding a lot to the depth of this. Around ten to fifteen minutes the frankincense starts to show up a little more distinctly, and it's very reminiscent of the frankincense that was in a couple other recent TAL blends (Bounce, Quies) which also reminds me a fair bit of the frankincense in Choirs of Angels from the Ars Inspiratio collection. Overall, the scent here is bright, not quite as "warm" as I think of a "sunlight" blend being (Choirs had more of that burning brightness for instance) but definitely very fresh and clean.

From a smells perspective (not trying to use this as a ritual oil personally) this is soft and steady and quite fresh. There's a sort of herbal element to start with a pleasantly soft woodiness underneath it. I'm not really getting an evergreen note from the fir or juniper, but the sandalwood/palo santo is quiet and pleasant at the bottom of this. There's something that feels vaguely citrusy about it, which google suggests might be the purslane (lemony) or the rue (orange-ish); I'm not familiar with either of those two scents really. Overall this is a fairly subtle smell that does sort of give the air of fresh, clean, safety/surety.

There is a strong similarity between this and Choirs of Angels from the Ars Inspiratio collection for me. I'm going to assume it's related to the angelica/frankincense combination and/or the specific frankincense used in both. There's a definite brightness to both, though Choirs stays a lot more bright and fiery, while Quies picks up a softer, smoother undertone as it dries and the palo santo/mallow/orris butter fill in underneath the brighter notes. I do occasionally get a very faint whiff of something floral which must be the lotus, but it's definitely not a prominent element on my skin.

This is very grass forward on me, reminiscent a bit of last year's Wer Opfer Heut Zu Bringen Scheut which was very grassy with undertones of wood and nuts. This one is a similar grass but the woody undertones here are smoother and less forest-y, thanks to the sandalwood and balsam. It swaps Wer Opfer's nuttiness for a slightly sweet pine-iness from the juniper berries. The beeswax and musk are present but very subtle, just kind of adding a bit of a feeling more than a recognizable scent. I agree that this is a playful frolicking springtime wolf more than a wintery predator.

Oh my gosh this is gorgeous. It's so cool blue and smooth, but also rich deep warm resins at the same time. The myrrh is definitely there first, but there's something else I can't quite identify that's giving it a coolness and a mistiness, maybe? I dunno, this one is really hard to describe. Just a lot of rich resins dancing between cool blue and warm rich smells in a really amazing way. As it dries it loses a bit of the cool blue-ness and settles more into the rich resin-y warmer side of things, but still in a very complex well-blended kind of way. It's not a fully dark smell, but there's a kind of cool, well-lit night nature to it though still. Quite evocative of a night under a full-moon.

On wet, it's very light and bright, almost sparkly in it's brightness. It's definitely a kind of fuzzy amber smell, though far less golden than a typical amber. As it dries I think I'm getting the orris (though I'm not entirely sure I know what orris smells like entirely). There's something kind of rich and woody but also slightly sweet in the middle here. It's almost like a powdery smell except not powdery at all. It's like if "powder" was creamy instead, if that makes any sense. It's kind of clean and fresh and dry, but smooth and creamy.

This is very dark and murky, but there's a bit of a dark sweetness too, I'm assuming it's the fig, but it almost smells plummy to me. This doesn't have the sharp overwhelming-ness of the red musks I've struggled with though I can definitely tell it's in there. I suppose partly it's just that the other notes, mostly the oud I think, are keeping up with it. I'm usually a big fan of dark smells, but this almost feels too dark for me. But it is very smooth and velvety darkness. Scary, but intriguing. It feels like it might improve a bit as it dries too, because the red musk and the fig are coming forward a little bit more to lighten things up (red musk lightening something up is not a thing I expected to ever say, but it's true here).

Wet this is very sweet on me, almost pure sugar cookie, with a bit of vanilla behind it. It's a very dry crumbly sugar cookie smell. Not like unpleasant dry cookie, but a pretty dry smell. Over time, I am getting a bit more of the wood here, but I'm not sure it's balancing out the sweetness enough for me. A solid choice for anyone who wants a delicious crumbly vanilla sugar cookie smell though. More time and the cookie does fade here a bit, though the lingering vanilla is fairly reminiscent of it, and it moves more solidly into a very sweet vanilla wood. I agree with everyone that it's reminiscent of Antikythera Mechanism, though this is definitely a lot sweeter, and it was too sweet for me.

Wet I'm definitely getting that carnation first. It's a little bit spicy, but still quite floral. That may also be the ylang ylang mixing in. This feels like a less spicy version of There Is No Bliss Like This, which was one of my favorites from this year's Lupers. This is soft and pink and gently misty florals. I think, for me, I don't like it quite as much with less spice to it, which was one of my favorite parts of TINBLT. As it dries, I think I'm getting more of the ylang ylang and it is veering a little into that indolic territory. The indole proceeded to get more pronounced over the day and went into that fecal-adjacent territory over longer wear.

Wet it's a warm gentle honey with a bit of creaminess to it. There's a little tiny bit of spice from the cinnamon. The myrrh starts to come up and fill everything out pretty quickly, giving this just a rich robust fullness. It's a very gentle comforting kind of scent with a bit of honey sweetness that plays with the earthier sweetness of the fig. And there's definitely a smooth creaminess to it. But the little hint of cinnamon and the robust myrrh keep it from descending into pure sweetness in a really beautiful way. This was my biggest winner of this year's Liliths. It's so warm and cozy and absolutely fits the concept of hugging a puppy. It's going to be kind of wonderful in colder weather.

I was a little wary of this. The lab's red musk can be nice sometimes, but sometimes it's very overpowering on me and drowns out everything else. On initial application that seems like it might be an issue here too. I am getting a very strong presence from the red musk and very little else, maybe a very faint hint of the sandalwood and orange blossom behind it. They do seem to be tempering the red musk slightly (or maybe that's the skin musk just quieting it down), so it's not quite as sharp or aggressive as I've had it go in the past. It's definitely still the dominant note by far, and this is very much a red musk centered scent on my skin at least. That's leaving my brain a little confused I think, because it does sort of smell nice, but I've had so many scents feel overwhelming with this note that I keep expecting it to be too much or unpleasant, when really it's a much smoother take on the red musk scent. Definitely feeling a bit torn on this one.

The blackberry is very prominent at first, sweet and a little juicy, but the leather comes up underneath it very quickly. The cade moves in too, kind of dark and tar-like. It's not a particularly smoky cade on me (I was actually hoping for a bit more smoke) leaning more towards the woody tar of cade. I'm definitely getting the black musk as well, a murky inky blackness just sitting still and foreboding underneath everything else. The berry falls to the back as the other darker elements come forward, but it's still in there giving the musk/cade/leather combo a hint of dark red/purple fruity sweetness. I get a bit of a variable throw thing with this, where I like it more from further out, when it's a kind of dark murky smell with a hint of berry, and don't like it as much up close, where the berry comes in a lot stronger.

On initial application this is darkly green and sharply herbal. Very prickly and tangled. I occasionally get a whiff of something slightly sweet but it's hard to pin down. It could be a tiny rosebud, or it could be a handful of berries, or the faintest splash of vanilla. And then it disappears again and it's back to the tangled beautiful dangerous mess of a briar patch beneath the trees. It's never particularly dark, but it is shadowed and mysterious. Like afternoon in the woods, it's not too dark to see, but the sunlight also never quite reaches the ground. As it dries, the sharper herby smells settle back and it just becomes this beautifully rich woodland sort of blend. Green and deep and witchy and full of mysteries. It absolutely fits the woman who lives out away from "society" and knows secrets that you don't, but which you desperately want to learn.

I got a very strong whiff of cigarette smoke right off the bat when I put this on, but that was quickly overtaken by the very strong fruit smells, leaning more into the pomegranate sweetness at first. As it dried the tuberose started to give the pomegranate a bit of soft floral creaminess, but the cigarette smoke keeps floating up every now and then. A bit more time and the pomegranate settles back a bit and the earthier fig smell comes forward a bit more and starts to play a bit with the scratchy tobacco. Overall, this feels very accurate to the character. The creamy floral and fruity smells give this a very feminine edge while the tobacco and smoke give it a more masculine tinge, and the result dances around in a very any and all genders kind of place. The smoke is also definitely cigarette smoke, which my brain is fairly convinced is not a smoke I like much, but it melds so beautifully into this blend that in practice I find it confusingly seductive.

On initial application this was strongly neroli with a bit of bergamot to it. I never really got any lemon. It briefly felt like there was something a little smoky behind the front notes but I can't seem to find that again. Now the citrus has faded and it's pretty strongly neroli with a kind of sharp green edge (maybe the clary sage?) to it. As it dries further, I can feel it start to move a bit into that fuzzy labdanum smell, but the neroli is still the most prominent note for me. About an hour in, this stays primarily neroli on my skin with a bit of the fuzzy smell from the labdanum. Still haven't really gotten the amber from it.

I love this so much. It's dry and warm, a little sweet and a little nutty, from the honey and cardamom respectively I assume, but neither of those notes stands out of the mix. The dry hay/oat smells are the foundation here. It's definitely a late summer in the country kind of smell. For me it's very reminiscent of the way it feels when the sun has gone down after a long summer day, and everything still radiates the heat its absorbed back out into the cooler evening air. Just like the whole world giving off a warm, dry sigh of relief now that the sun has stopped baking it for the moment.

This was very strongly musk-forward for me. It went on musky and stayed musky. It had a sharpness from the herbs while wet, that faded out in about twenty minutes or so. There was a bit of back and forth with the soft amber after that for another half an hour or so, before it settled into pretty much just the musk. But maybe my skin is just amping that up to the exclusion of everything else?

There are plenty of reviews here so I'll just add that something in this, I'm assuming the black patchouli (because I know what earth and apricot smell like) smells exactly like the page in Sesame Street's scratch and sniff book "See No Evil, Hear No Evil, Smell No Evil" where Oscar the Grouch brings sardines. And anyone who was around in the 80 who thinks it smells like garbage, that might be why.