LavenderCoffee

The scent cloud on this one for me is very much in line with "chocolate cake," but if I get in and sniff my skin where I've applied it, I get more of the tobacco and coffee. Tremendously cozy and warm. 

This is an incredibly pleasant tomb scent. Juniper is less dominant than expected. It plays in parallel with wormwood and moss, and frankincense and opoponax balance things on the softer end. It's earthy without a soil note. Very wearable.

This is a rich and lovely strawberry cream scent for me. There are layers to the strawberry cream, it's more sophisticated than candy-like. Love the depth added by the jasmine and oud, but it's definitely a soft and approachable blend.

This scent is dominated by jasmine and vetiver for me and I'm struggling to find anything else. Skin chemistry fail here.

This wet phase of Wanton Airs takes me to a very similar place as See Thyself, Devil! and the Sugar, Poppy Tar, and Red Currant ménage blend.

As it dries it goes a bit softer than either of the sugared poppy options. If you shy away from oud, this one doesn't bring anything indolic to the table in my experience. It dries into a sweet cognac touched with bergamot over a gentle oud, true to the spectral part of the scent description.

ETA: this has quite a bit of throw!

Not much to add really: badass scorched clove kicks the door down and sidekick cinnamon follows swiftly behind. Also not a surprise based on the notes, but I am getting an angry patch on my arm where I applied this.

I put a long sleeve tshirt on over it and I'm finally able to smell the tobacco through my sleeve ? ...and it smells awesome!

A perfect pale moonlight scent. The wool blanket softens the slightly scratchy hay note for sure. A few short minutes after applying, it goes to such a gentle place. Neither warm nor cool, but comforting. 

What it might smell like to be twitterpated: on wet, this is rich and invigorating with honeyed clove* and rooty soil, and then the flowers seem to magically bloom up out of it, finally drying down into a handsome rose scent. 

*not a clove tinged honey, definitely a honeyed clove

This is a lovely dark cherry backed by faint vanilla for me, and the cherry actually sticks it out pretty well compared to other cherries I've worn from the lab. Very bold up front of course, and 8 hours later a faint trace remains on my forearm, but it fared better as an under the clothes type of scent. I don't get a ton of champaca, weirdly, since that is often a louder note on my skin. I'm neither here nor there on this blend, but if I were more into cherries I would put a bottle in a drawer somewhere, to encourage the vanilla.

Fairy Lovers is a lush, balanced floral - lots of leading ladies in this bouquet of gardenia, moonflower, orchid, rose but nothing is really screaming at me. "Creamy narcotic floral" is spot on, especially with the slinky labdanum underscore. Apply sparingly for sneaky seduction. 

A lovely fae scent. Gorgeous light floral incense floating over a pouf of mallow + cream. and it's not even incense-y incense, and not resinous in the least, just an ever so soft suggestion. I do love the peonies in this as well. I would wear this as a sleep scent, or on a lounging around day, or a sundress day. It's dreamy. 

Boy howdy if I was guessing blind I would have thought this had a nice rooty patchouli in it underneath the funnel cakes. Maybe some rum? I really dig this one. Getting a minor skin tingle from it, assuming there's a touch of cinnamon.

I passed on this originally because I assumed I would not want a pear scent, but now a year later, this decant is giving me all the heady French Vanilla goodness with just a touch of pear. Serious root beer float vibes.

I was excited to try this because I don't see (or smell) persimmon very often - it seems like an appropriate choice for a dragon!

On my skin the fruit is bright but slightly tart and bitter, almost reminiscent of bergamot, and I'm getting more of a wood type of vibe from this oudh. Once it dries it is more subtle than I anticipated.

It's so close to working for me, but I think it could be stunning on the right person.

Ooh this smells magical! A beautifully balanced blend of honey sweetened resins. The dragon's blood is much more pronounced in the bottle than on my skin, where I get a pleasant amount of copal. Smells like good vibes and sunbeams - gonna rotate this with the Coffee and Copal blend for those times when I want a scent to help me calm down, take a deep breath, and look on the bright side. 

is this the most perfect comfort scent of all time? I would not be surprised. I'm definitely getting the coffee beans. they lend an atmospheric coffeehouse sort of vibe. rather, with the hint of spices, it's more of a homey kitchen thing: someone made a pot of coffee before baking a pan of brownies, "come on in and have a seat." so heartwarming and cozy. 

I finally started appreciating snake oil this year, and I was fortunate to receive a sample of bordello, so I snagged this bottle just before the sugar plum alchemy lab closed up shop for the season.

It's a dark yummy plummy snek. Sugared, but less sweet than I had anticipated, and stays close. I get pleasant wafts of plum swirling and snaking around my personal space. 

Freshly applied, this is very similar to Alisz without the mint. As it dries, the rose becomes a bit more prominent, but it's still a gorgeously soft pillow of rose cotton candy.

Recently acquired from Etsy. Bottle number appears to be DLX (560), good ol' silver marker on black label did its best.

In the bottle and freshly applied, I'm getting a big hit of what smells like balsam. Oil is a vivid dark yellow. SO is way off in the distant background at the start, but starts to slither forward in the first ten minutes, and the blend becomes more balanced. I struggle with balsam sometimes but this is real nice. 

Pleasure Abundant lands in a very warm and golden place for me as well. Pink peppercorn is super subtle here, and if I was behind the curtain, I would turn up the volume on the honey. It's a gorgeous orange blossom scent and I enjoy how it works with the frankincense a lot more than I expected.

This is such a trap for me, and I'm happy to fall into it. Honey rose goat's milk, yes x100! With just a touch of hazelnut. It does remind me a bit of my beloved Knave.

The champagne grape in this one has a slight musty quality to it when I wear it, but it provides a pleasant complexity and counterbalance to the vanilla amber. 

This is so fun and sparkling, effervescent is a great word for it. Just when I thought peach was done with me, I am reminded of white peach. A gorgeous and subtle floral with a kiss of peach, and I love how bergamot is bringing everything together here. Brighter and cleaner than the champagne of Unarmed and Laughing.

This is more of a dessert scent on me, where Nightengale landed in more of a breakfasty place. It has a smooth, creamy quality. Almond cakes seem to be the most prominent, and I would love to get more fig.

I'm getting more of a hazel-eyed scent. On me this leads with toasted cardamom in a big way, followed by brown sugar and patch. It's lovely and warm, but gentle and short-lived. I bet these notes will age nicely, so it might be fun to squirrel one of these away.