LavenderCoffee

My, my, I must agree with mymymai. This doesn't smell like wine per se, but it does smell like the grape juice has started to turn - at first it leans more towards hooch, but as it dries it comes across more like medicine. I used to love grape flavored Dimetapp (maybe my memories are biased!), but this seems less candy grape-y. 

In the bottle, Poolside is all gorgeous slinky florals, with peony and jasmine intertwined. On my skin, the blue musk pops out, and the lavender and vanilla tea attempt to do the same. Like they poke their heads out from behind the curtains to say "Hi!" and then disappear.

Dry on my skin, it's a pleasantly (surprisingly!) subtle floral musk - subtle in that it has a distinct floral character but not a ton of throw. The jasmine is of the higher-pitched (not indolic) variety imo, so it sits on top of the scent but thankfully doesn't scream to high heavens. 

Eta: One year later the vanilla tea is really popping out! This is a sweeter, more youthful perfume today than it was when I first smelled it. And I'm still so pleased with how the jasmine plays nice with the other notes.

In the bottle and freshly applied, I am also getting a crush of blackberry, but it recedes into the background. There is definitely something creating a sharper, medicinal type of smell as the oil dries, but that fades as well. It settles into an herbal patchouli with a murky, almost velvety fruit backdrop - there's the labdanum. It's like a darker, murkier version of Blackberry Moon '22 and I'm here for it.

2015 version: In the bottle it honestly smells like rum - very boozy! On my skin the booziness fades into a richly caramelized sweetness. Not getting any fruit really, more like a dark red backdrop for dark toasty sugars. I don't mind it at all!

This is a pleasingly rounded scent that wears nicely for me. Honeyed oats aren't taking over everything, and it's not too beery. It was very sweet in the imp, then honeyed oats and corn pop out on my skin, then finally I get a bit of beer and woodmoss. I think the moss wants to go to cologne town but it never really gets there. 

edited to add, several months on: this wears gorgeously for me, and all day. I can't stand how simple and great it is. it's not as cloying as other honey-foodie scents can be. just really nicely balanced.

Truly a warm, dry, sun-baked scent. I was curious how the incense and olive leaves would factor in, and they are subtle, but they seem to lend a hint of sweetness to the wood and grass. It is indeed a bit dusty but somehow comforting. 

I wasn't prepared for this one! It's a warm aquatic, if that's possible. I thought got a hit of actual cream when I first applied, but it could be richness from the ambergris. It's surprisingly sweet in the imp, then salty and beachy on the skin, with warmth from the rosy sandalwood. I don't get a distinct sense of fabric/cotton/linen. Curiously cozy.

Freshly applied the grass and leaves combo is swoon worthy - very evocative of a walk on a crisp Fall day. The lilies are present but not overbearing, although I think they obscure the lavender. A soft sweet tea comes out as it dries, along with some rose. Might layer this with a bit more lavender - perhaps Dead Leaves and Lavender Buds - but it's truly gorgeous on its own. A fresh white bouquet in a well kept cemetery. 

I missed the Serpent Spring scents when they were first released, and have since fallen head over heels for Snake Eyes Gleaming, so when I got a chance to try this one I went for it. Wow! Snakes Basking is an exquisite orange blossom honey scent with the lightest touch of cinnamon ...over a Snake Oil backdrop. A rich, sweet, dark golden scent. 

This is lovely, it provides a nice light buzz of scent. When I wear it on exposed skin, it seems to fade quickly, but under my clothes it hangs out longer. The white patchouli leaf is not as bold as other patch I've worn, I get more of the ambergris, but in the mix with the beeswax and incense it's almost sparkly and magical. 

My expectation here was that the lavender would be a sharper herbal variety and I wasn't sure how that would play with Dead Leaves, but I wanted to try it. On my skin the lavender is surprisingly sweet! Certainly not a floofy Lilith lavender, and not piles of sugar or anything, but perhaps the age of the bottle and the contrast with the dead leaves has played up the gentle sweetness of the lavender itself. Or more likely taken the punch out of the straight up herbal scent. Either way this is amazingly lovely and I'm so pleased to have this in my collection now. Lovely Lavender Leaves for Fall.

A decidedly un-sweet scent, but so lovely! On my skin this is a full bodied red rose with an under-currant (ha) of dark fruit. What takes my breath away is the wood effect that remains after the oil has dried - it really puts me in mind of a bouquet of roses on a coffin! Would not mind having more than a decant of this.

I've been resting and rolling this one, hoping to give it a fair shake, since I am also not getting the donut. I read Kailey's review and sniffed my bottle and said "what mango? where?!" But alas, this is still not playing well with my skin chemistry. It's yeasty and vaguely peachy and slightly off putting, like the donut was undercooked. Someone somewhere has the magic touch for this and will get all the donut glory.

There is something nose tickling happening here, and it was much more pronounced when I first received it, but I've been resting and rolling this lil pupper because I believe in her. Is it possible the rooty tooty patchouli had a tiff with the impertinent twiggy green fig, and squash is staying out of the drama? Or is our butternut heroine a prepared squash? It does seem like there's a touch of spice along the lines of cardamom here, but I wonder if it's not actually a bit of bitter green fig leaf. 

Please Scream Inside Your Haunted House is my faaaavorite but screaming in the pumpkin patch is also pretty great. This pumpkin reads a bit buttery to me when freshly applied, which I like, and then there are the lightly cinnamon-y funnel cakes in the hay. I would turn down the volume on the cinnamon (already fairly low) and turn up the volume on the pumpkin, if I could, but it's a tremendously sniffable scent. 

I got a selection of imps from Haute Macabre since they started offering them recently, and I didn't expect to enjoy Citrine as much as I do! It is quite citrus forward at first but the ambrette and myrrh and bay are so gorgeous alongside it! And warm, like sunshine. I'm strongly considering a full size bottle  

Oh this is a nice one. I loved the Milk, Burnt Honey, and Ambrette Seed ménage à trois and had high hopes for Snake Milk, but SM went weird on my skin. This does not go weird, and it's got a nice amount of throw to it. In the bottle it's more of a syrupy peach, like the best canned peaches in the world, but on my skin it's much more baked peaches. Peach pie filling, but with extra caramelized richness. After an hour or so of wear, there's just a pinch of peach perched on top of the scorched milk note, and it's so lovely. 

I like this a lot better than I expected to. The words vodka and martini do not go together in my mind, and pomegranate vodka grosses me out. This oil does not remind me of crummy vodka drinks, thankfully. Pom and peach fruitiness really opens up with skin contact, and there is an alcohol component but it's not overwhelmingly boozy. Smells like a proper cocktail with real ingredients, the pomegranate is nice and tart. Dry I get a big round pomegranate, sweetened by peach. 

I'm picturing the Pumpkinville label with a peach for a head instead of a pumpkin.  In the bottle and freshly applied, there's heady peach, sweet musk, and a bit of spice. A trace of spice lingers through the drydown, but once this has dried all the way, it's mostly sweet musk.

So good! Starts with a great big blast of cacao and coffee, not dissimilar to Margaret Magdalena Muffinhead, but obviously this one doesn't have any amber or sugar and spice. Khus provides a grassy, earthy balance on the drydown and blends in really well with the other notes. Lands in a lovely lightly smoky non foodie coffee/cacao place, and I am gonna wear the heck out of it.

I was also hesitant to bottle both Oberon/Titania/Puck and Ceres, but the label art is very informative. If you wish to smell ethereal/of the other realms, you go with the Fairies, if you wish to smell of the cloud nine goodness of the bounty of this world, you go with Ceres. A rich harvest of the earthly things we love: cream, corn, wheat, and sugar. Much more floral in the fairy blend, much more foodie with our rosy cheeked agricultural goddess. 

5 hours ago, Little Bird said:

an airy 'sea island cotton' vibe

Oh bless, thank you, I was doubting my nose! I'm getting a cotton/linen thing happening as well, along with a lovely warm salty sea breeze. It actually smells warm, and my brain wants to insert a sunblock smell where there is none, because I smell like I've been in the sun by the water (but not in the water). Wear your Summer linens for a sunny day on the coast and bring some bread in a picnic basket, but keep the basket firmly closed, and there it is. "Down by the sea! Wouldn't that be smashing?" 

A whiff?! For me, this goes on with a glorious cloud of doob smoke. Maybe a skin chemistry thing, but even though it stays close to the skin, for the first 30 minutes or so it's nice and potent. I only get to the fudgcicle after drydown, and it's just a trace of something subtly sweet and chilly with the doob in the background.

I did not get to try the Cold Moon 2020 lunacy blend I think we're referencing here, so I'm not sure how that one wears, but this is a fun mashup!

Yesss you magnificent gnarly aged patchouli! Yes! I'm imagining all the other notes dancing in a circle around the patch, which is where the scent begins when wet. The black tea leaf fougere is stunning, though, opening up and holding its own against the other notes. A pleasant swirl of vanilla and incense smoke. There is also something a bit herbal and almost greenish. Like flashes of color reflected off a raven's wing. The most delicious inky stinky. Maybe not a truly inky black scent but goth AF. Gothier than the raven wings of midnight. 

This one went on very spicy and herbal for me in a great big WHOOSH of sinus clearing goodness. Once that dissipated I found flowers and frankincense. But I'm convinced there's some ginger in this, it tingles my skin a bit.