LavenderCoffee

On wet, this is mostly lavender violet tears. Tears are coming across as a nice salty wet smell that goes well with lavender. (Paging fans of the lavender/sea salt/rain trio.) Drying down the pumpkin and sandalwood start to come through, and it is just the puree, no pumpkin spice to be found. I can't say I've smelled purple sandalwood before, but it provides a nice sturdy base here for the other notes. Lavender and tears hang out in the top range, while violets hang out with the pumpkin in the middle.

The tears are not capital A aquatic, but they're not Not aquatic, and they provide a nice contrast to the spoopy purple pumpkin. Nothing soapy happening - just atmospheric and a bit salty.

This could be the sad cousin of Every Day is Halloween. Instead of the booming warmth of toasted pumpkin and sandalwood, this is a subtle, cool salty pumpkin sandalwood with a handful of crushed flowers. Definitely an unusual pumpkin blend. It doesn't have a ton of throw but I keep wanting to sniff this, I think it's the violet/sandalwood combo. Really nice.

My skin loves apples, but I don't always love apples on my skin. Lucky for me, even though I'm getting mostly bourbon apples and then pumpkin stuff, I must confess that bourbon apples with pumpkin stuff smells delish. Fully dry there is a suggestion of candy corn in the form of a light vanillic sweetness. Was hoping to get more candy and coffee from this - my two favorite food groups!

In my head this is Prairie Witch goes to Target. I like Prairie Witch on the prairie better, but I still wanna hang onto this one because I also like distorting time and hoarding BPAL. 😅

Freshly applied, Sheut smells like a faceful of the lemon balm growing in (taking over) my front garden beds. Then in short order, there is something pleasantly sinus tickling, like camphor, as mentioned above. It's lemony, sweet, resinous, camphorous. After a few minutes, the Vicks aspect calms down and I get frankincense more clearly. It's not incredibly long lived on my skin but it is rather pleasant while it's there. A morning pick-me-up sort of scent.

I love this muffin! It's perfect: warm, muffiny, comforting. Pumpkin spice behaving itself on my skin, and I get chocolate chips more after the oil has dried. I kinda want to put a dab of Pinched w/Four Pumpkins with it, or Pumpkin Snake Latte. A delightful muffin on its own, and also an option for layering!

This is one of the DL blends that works well for me. I didn't jump on it right away, but I'm glad I was able to find some.

A year of mellowing has probably worked some magic here, since I don't get knocked over with a mountain of leaves right away, but the honeyed vanilla butter is immediately, richly present. Everything settles in cozily together, and I agree with artisjok that this and Snake's Kiss share a similar vibe. The leaves add an almost nutty, apple-y quality to the honey sweetened vanilla, which is the star of the show.

Well, this is positively delightful! One hundred percent as advertised, does exactly what it says. In the bottle and fresh on, there's a bit more of a Kool-aid type thing going on, but given a moment to open up on the skin, it's all gorgeous ripe strawberries luxuriously covered in honey. A rich, sweet, red and gold scent. 

I'm not sure if I love everything with ambrette seed in it or not, but I'm batting a thousand for everything I've tried so far. This is an exquisite pool of dark fruits when freshly applied, and then it just gets better. Guiaic and ambrette add layers of warmth over the sandalwood, and pink pepper pops out as a top note. Gorgeous interpretation of "a red room, a rich, deep, glowing red, where the shadows glistened as if they were soaked with wine." I could spend a season in this room. 

I absolutely adore the wet phase of Descent. Inky pom, spicy rose, myrrh! I can pick up on the pink pepper, the lily, the champaca, and even a touch of honey while the oil is still fresh on my skin. But as it starts to dry, the black musk slowly takes over. It's not too bad at first, but after 30 minutes it's all black musk with a dash of pom. I know my skin chemistry well enough to know I'm gambling every time I pick up a blend with black musk in it. Anyway sometimes it works out, but sadly this is not de-scent for me (ha ha). If you love a black musk though, and it loves you back, this is real good stuff.

I do get the impression of the classic cherry-almond scent briefly on initial application, but that subsides for me. Weirdly I think I'm getting the macadamia during that part. Then it goes very vanilla cream for a bit, and finally I get some pistachio nuttiness. I'm not getting soap or powder in the drydown, but I prefer the pistachio cream in the 2020 Dead Leaves blend.

For some reason I keep erasing the honey dust note from this blend when I try to think of the notes, and I'm surprised every time I test it at how sweet it is! 😂

It's such a lovely blend tho, and it's definitely not overly sweet or foodie sweet - it's dryly sweet. Ambered driftwood is also a prominent note to my nose, but there's so much supporting it. Honey dust and lavender floating over the top, funky beeswax and patch sticking it all together. Very happy to have this.

Oh my heart, I'm so relieved. My grabby hands mailbox test was not good for this one: acrid burnt snek. Haunt has improved significantly after some good resting time.

Fresh on the skin, it's a gust of leaves, and then a pleasant smoky snake and sweet lavender! Which is more likely lavender and Dorian getting mixed up together. What a lovely Fall night for the fam.

In the bottle it's a peppery vaguely rose muddle, hard to pin down, but the rose definitely comes to the forefront when I apply. As the rose calms down, the pepperberry amps up and goes a bit spicy, but that settles down too. Dry, this is reminiscent of All While Dreaming from last year's release, with a pepperberry kick instead of a fruity red currant. The labdanum does smooth things out considerably, providing a resinous complement to the rose, and contrast to the perfect patch/pepperberry combo. I really like this one!

I'm definitely getting the carnations in this, but in combination with strawberry and labdanum, they almost come across as bubblegummy, and not in a bad way. I'm getting more of the labdanum than the patch, and while the strawberry certainly sings out when freshly applied, it fades on my skin fairly quickly. It goes from straight up strawberry to strawberry scented carnation. This is a perfect scent for the story attached to it, a somewhat bittersweet memory of dad and kiddo time. 

Oh hello popcorn! It smells like it could be either caramel popcorn or kettle corn or both. Sweet popcorn but not a ton of caramel to my nose. In the bottle I get a suggestion of the cola, but not while wearing it. The popcorn is so glorious for the first hour or so but it fades pretty fast, giving way to a cotton candy skin scent. The early phase of the scent is more like being near the snack food stands at a fair/festival/carnival, the later phase is what you smell like when you get home  

This is almost all chocolate donut icing to me. In the bottle, wet on my skin, dry on my skin. More of the donut itself peeks out after it's been fully dry for awhile, but it is really like wearing the smell of the inside of a box or case of donuts. It is delicious. There may be a hint of maple to it, but it's mostly chocolate donut icing to me - very specifically donut icing. Spot on.

It's really wafting around me from just a dot on my wrist, I'm alarmed/excited to see what happens when I give it the SOTD treatment. 

In the bottle, it smells like a bit like painter's palette. The turpentine has a moment of prominence when freshly applied, but it recedes into the blend fairly quickly. What I think is the smoky umber is playing nicely with the frankincense after 15 minutes or so, and there's a bit of something metallic in the mix. I agree that it smells a bit like an antique shop! It's not as unsettling as I thought it would be, and definitely not unwearable, but I bet it was a lot more daunting when it was first released. A pleasantly unusual atmospheric scent.

What a cozy little mandrake this is! I imagine this is what the witch's home smells like after the mandrake has been invited inside.

I enjoy how the apple blossom fits into the scent without make it overtly floral or fruity. Sniffing the bottle you might think it would smell like shampoo, but not so. It does overlap with the coconut milk and sandalwood quite a bit, it's hard to pick those three apart without bumping into the others. The sharper mandrake note contrasts really well with this bundle of familiar notes. There is definitely a gently dusty feel to the blend that fits right into the woodmusk/leather backdrop. It's a faint, soft book cover type of leather. Would be curious to try other perfumes with this woodmusk.

I love black licorice and anise and licorice root so this was a no-brainer for me, even tho I don't wear Smut well on its own. The black jelly bean aspect of this blend has calmed down a lot since I first got it, and I agree with MamaMoth above that it wears like a gorgeous dark rooty smut now. An unobtrusive sexy licorice scent, since the throw isn't very noticeable on me. Yum. 

When wet it is very very cherry, but the fruitiness settles in nicely to become part of the perfume, which is wonderfully dark and slinky and witchy. Black musk scents usually don't work super well for me, so this isn't a slam dunk, but the tobacco really helps balance things out as it dries. I can see why it's so popular!

This is such a delightful surprise of a scent! Very skillful use of pineapple, which is clearly present but doesn't turn the whole thing into a tropical cocktail or a fruit salad. It's a Spongebob aquatic: Whooooooo lives in a pineapple under the sea? It certainly smells joyful and colorful and animated. I can also see how it might smell a bit like pine as the musk develops.

Another sneaky gorgeous blend from the August paintings! It really does smell pearly pink, but it's unexpectedly warm and sweet, in spite of the cool, inorganic* shell quality dancing around the periphery. How does she do that?! The russet musk, labdanum and oud create a soft, stunning base - it's absolutely not a scary oud. Stays close to the skin. Great for date night or anytime you want to feel shell-pink pretty.

*I guess technically shells are made of both organic and inorganic stuff, but hopefully you know what I mean. it smells like shells!

There's a sharp metallic aspect to Forge of Vulcan when I first open it, then after applying, the soot and smoke mute the sharp aspects of the metal. As it dries I'm reminded of Bronze Dildo but without the spices. Red amber and tobacco push forward to balance the sooty smoky molten metal that might be bronze, and it really does feel nicely balanced, like a well-forged blade. Tobacco and blood musk behaving themselves. This would be awesome to wear to a ren faire or cosplay event. Honestly this smells kinda great to me, but I am one of the few who also liked Bronze Dildo. 

This is a yummy blend! When wet it gives off a luscious gourmet fruitcake vibe. As it dries it veers a bit towards gingerbread or red hots - a warm, dry, sweet spice - but it also reminds me of the powdered sugar aspect of the recent funnel cake scents. Could be an Italian panforte maybe. Fully dry, it smells like a spiced cake with powdered sugar, and it has decent throw and staying power.

2020 version. This has been in the timeout/swaps drawer for two years because I did not enjoy it when I first got it. Retesting today and realizing I never reviewed it, I'm not sure I gave her a fair shake the first time around. There is an onslaught of DEAD LEAVES when opening the bottle and on application that probably put me off of it, but the leaves settle down pretty quickly now, and give way to a gorgeous autumnal rose scent. Once it dries, I get less rose and more of the other flowers plus chamomile. It's really pretty! And notable for me to get a scent in which notes like dead leaves and roses actually take turns and play well with others. Those notes can really go bonkers for me, which is tough because I want to love them. 

This review is for "There's a Certain Slant of Light Prototype 9 Unreleased" but I can't find a topic for that, so I'm putting it here and flagging to the mods. Received as a frottle with 2022 Liliths.

Wet, it is minty ozone with an herbal/medicinal accompaniment. As it dries, it gets a bit more resinous, but the minty ozone persists. For the resins, I think I am getting some frankincense, but I can't tell what else is with it. This is a strange combo to my nose, but surprisingly pleasant. I haven't smelled the released version but this proto doesn't seem very different based on reviews. I don't get violet, but the note listed for the released version is violet leaf, so idk. It settles into a minty ozonic frankincense.