dancingchair

Echoing that this is toffee-forward, enshrouded in a cloud of honey dust. The honey dust is a little more on the musky side, but that could be the auburn musk. It's not as sweet as you would expect, if that makes sense. To me, it smells like how I wish a fuzzy bumblebee dusted with pollen would smell. The musk is also pretty present for me and it's a cuddly and brown musk. I think I get the white rose petals as a green note rather than a floral note. To me, it smells like the velvet waft of dewy air on a rose petal. It's almost vegetal, but it doesn't quite get there. I don't really get any of the silk.

Generally, this reminds me of Famous Kabuki Actors in Imagined Scenes of Lovemaking. I was getting a very strong lettuce note that did not play well with the honey dust from that perfume, and this perfume does veer in that direction. It doesn't quite get there, so I'm still not quite sure how I feel about this one. If you're into the idea of a toffee perfume, though, this is probably going to be a big hit.

This only has two notes listed, but it's more complex than I expected. The white chocolate is very present. It's the kind of white chocolate note that almost veers into milk chocolate territory because of how rich it is. The taro cream note is where the complexity lies. Sometimes, I think the taro cream smells like gobs purple taro syrup. I get wafts of an unlisted cashmere note every now and then. I also occasionally feel like this smells like it was doused with ribbons of caramel sauce, especially in the wet stage.  I do not actually get a milky note from the taro cream, but maybe the cream is the note that is making the white chocolate smell so rich to me.

I really like this! I don't think it's too sweet, but it is definitely a chocolate perfume. I'd say it's in the same vein as Ghost Milk. I'm addicted to the taro cream note and I hope taro appears in more perfumes in the future!

I agree with the previous reviews, this is reminiscent of a cozy witch's cottage in October. The spices are the most prominent to me. Saffron can amp for me, but here it's pretty tame and is balanced well with the cardamom and nutmeg. The spices blend well with the incense notes, giving this the witchy vibe instead of just freshly baked pumpkin bread. The woods are probably the second most prominent. I can pick out the sandalwood the most, but the other wood notes add a deeper base to the higher-pitched sandalwood. The tobacco and pumpkin round everything out, adding a sweet and chewy base for everything. The cacao is very present, too, but it works so well with every other note.

I really like how well all the notes mesh in this 13. It's a fun olfactory puzzle trying to pick out every note, too. Glad I got to try this one!

Big disclaimer up front: I really dislike fizzy perfumes. I guess I have a very strong sense memory with lemon-lime soda and stomach illness because it makes me feel queasy whenever I smell something similar. However, I really wanted to try BPAL's champagne note because it's in so many fun perfumes and people gush about it.

Wet, this is a lot of effervescent citrus. It doesn't really read as champagne to me, more like a bright lemon soda. As it dries, I get a wave of booze and ginger. The citrus burns off and I'm left with ginger ale. Sometimes, I do get the impression of dry champagne. I do also get the musks and spices from Snake Oil surfacing in the bubbles. I don't really get much of the vanilla. It's kind of lost in the sticky sweetness of the ginger ale.

This is kind of a weird one for me. It shifts between "yuck, fizzy soda" and "ooo, ginger" and very rarely "hmmm, that does smell like champagne mixed with patchouli." If you're on the fence about this one, you probably shouldn't be looking at my impressions unless you also dislike fizzy lemon-lime soda perfumes. I'm glad I got to try it because it does confirm my suspicion that champagne notes are not for me.

Wet, this is possibly the most cherry that could be crammed into a perfume. This phase doesn't last long, and it settles into the next phase: cherry chestnut goodness. I love how the deep chestnut backs up the sweet, bright cherry. The oakmoss is probably the strongest here, but I only catch whiffs of it occasionally. This phase also doesn't last long and the perfume stabilizes into a sweet, resinous chestnut. The cherry isn't very strong in this phase and it reads more as a sweet dusting off sugar. There's something a bit spicy in here. I was worried the labdanum was going to be fizzy, but it is not. The oakmoss is a supporting player, which is a relief because sometimes it takes over on me.

I wasn't sure if this would lean musky or gourmand, and I think it is more gourmand on me. I wish the cherry stuck around for me more, but that isn't really unexpected. The sugary element is unexpected but I like it.

Wet, I get a lot of leather, hearth smoke, and something with a menthol bite, the lamp oil maybe? As it dries, the minty note disappears and I'm left with soft brown leather and the last coals of a smoldering fire. The lavender sachets and rose water are very faint on me and I don't think I get much linen until after quite a while. I do like the small wisp of floral notes amidst the heavy leather and smoke notes. It draws a nice contrast and keeps this from being too heavy.

Wet, this is a lot of tea and hinoki on me. As it dries, it does turn powdery for a while, kind of like baby powder. After a while, it settles back into tea and hinoki with the floral frangipani coming out more. I think the honey is a delicate, floral variety, so that adds another sweet floral dimension to the whole thing. It is a little powdery, but the other notes are too strong to keep it in that territory. It ends up smelling quite clean, not entirely in a soapy way. I think that might be how the lab's white tea notes wear for me, though. I don't ever get the frost and it doesn't smell particularly chilly to me. It does smell fresh and green, dotted with newly budded flowers. Very appropriate for spring.

I get a lot of smoke here, more than a subtle hint, but it's a nice smoky note and not overwhelming. The pipe tobacco note is complex and layered, with threads of rich honey and chocolate. I don't get any kind of fruitiness from the cherry wood, but it is maybe a bit spicy. I don't really get a lot of leather, though. Maybe sometimes I can detect it if I really focus.

I'm still not 100% sold on smoke as a note because I'm kind of sensitive to it, but this is lovely. I'm glad I finally got to try Hearth!

Wet, this is a blast of sweet marshmallow and slushy mint. There's an undercurrent of something fruity in here, like pomegranate or plum. Looking at reviews from past years, this could definitely be a pine note because I often confuse them with something fruity and sweet. The mint ends up giving the impression of candy cane dust as this dries. I do also occasionally get a whiff of the snow note from Snow White, but the other notes drown it out. Overall, it is quite sweet and pleasant. I think I'd like it more if the trees were more identifiable as trees to my nose, but that's probably a problem with my sniffer.

This is all about the dribbles of amber on me. The amber is rich and velvety. There is a fruitiness in it, too, but on me it leans more towards dark red fruits. The honey cream is pretty much exactly how I imagine creamed honey smells: viscous and a little gritty, but the honeyed sweetness is cut with rich cream. It is also buttery, but not overwhelmingly so. I think I also get a clean note in here, maybe from the amber? It's addictive to smell the combo of the clean note and the honeyed amber.

At first, I just get lots of lollipop. The lollipop is cotton candy flavored, but blue cotton candy maybe. I'm not sure I can exactly pick out the petrichor, but this does smell wet. There is a note in here that smells kind of mossy that appears sometimes in the first hour. It's got that bitter, green musky smell. Maybe that's actually the petrichor? I don't really get much grit here either, but there's a wisp of sweet incense after an hour or so of wear.

It kind of reminds me of Shore of the Lollipop Sea but not as tooth-achingly sweet. I like the end result with the lollipop-tinged incense quite a bit.

Wet, I get a big blast of whiskey that immediately fades into a barrel-aged sweet note. As it dries, it reminds me a lot of Bobbing for Snake Oil because it's sweet and spiced, almost like there are mulling spices swirled at the bottom of the drink. The honey blends really well with the Snake Oil musk, so it's barely detectable. The lemon is kind of like a slice of lemon dropped into a mug of hot tea. It's not very strong, but it does add some zest to the perfume. Snake Oil and whiskey is a wonderful combo.

The most prominent note is the honey. It's a lovely balance between funky and floral. The cake note is, indeed, very lightly spiced. I get a breath of spices mixed in the warm yellow cake note. I usually amp spices so this is a big relief for me. The lavender note is present in the wet stage of this perfume, then fades into the honey note. It's a light and cuddly lavender, which might be why the honey absorbs it so well.

This is a really nice gourmand with interesting depth. I do love the Lab's musky honey notes, though.

Smells like Snow White combined with my bottle of 2022 Snake Oil. There's a chilly element, too. There's a component that smells like cool, melty vanilla ice cream. The Snow White flowers meld with the musks and spices of Snake Oil, so it's mostly the sweet parts that I enjoy from Snow White.

I just got a decant of this because last year's Snow Snake was a red musk bomb, but this is more like the Snow White/Snake Oil combo I was imagining. I'm definitely thinking about upgrading to a bottle. It's really nice!

There's lots of jammy blackberry here for me, wrapped up in delicious fried dough. I'm not sure that I get a lot of apple, either, but maybe the apple will get stronger with time. It's pretty straightforward and quite yummy.

I got a small decant of this because the lemon both scared and intrigued me. I shouldn't have been so nervous because it's quite nice! The lemon is the sour curd from a tart lemon bar. The lavender is soft and sweet, keeping the lemon from getting too tart. There is a crust note lurking here, like a crumbly short bread that's kind of soggy with lemon goo from the time it's spent under the lemon curd. As it dries, the lemon and lavender fade in the background and the crust takes over. It's a bit of a bummer for me specifically because the crust is cookie-adjacent and therefore goes a bit bandaid on me.

I'm more interested in lemon curd notes than I was before. I like the wet stage of this perfume, with the lemon curd and lavender. If the Lab's cookie note doesn't go weird on you, this will probably work well for you!

Wet, this is a lot of camphorous lavender backed by the gooiest brownies you can imagine. The brownie note in this is very realistic and it does smell like brownies specifically, not just chocolate or fudge. I think the lavender here is the same as the lavender in Lavender Earl Grey Cookies and Lavender Buttercream but next to the overwhelming richness of the brownie note, it feels more herbal than sweet.

This has huge staying power. I wore Lavender and Brownies to bed last night and I can still smell it pretty clearly on my wrists this morning, although it's mostly just the brownies by now. The throw is perfect for me, not too strong or too faint.

I'm still trying to decide how I feel about this one. I love both lavender and brownies, but I didn't like the combination at first. The wet stage definitely bites back. I've worn it a few times now and it's growing on me, though.

Lots of bergamot and lavender here! The lavender is the fluffy and sweet variety, like in Lavender Buttercream. This bergamot isn't too loud here, and it pairs well with the sweet lavender note. The lab's cookie note goes plastic on me sometimes but this perfume isn't plastic at all to me. I also think the cookie note is more cakey than buttery, almost like vanilla cake. I don't get a ton of the tea note, but the lavender might be absorbing it.

The description of this as a four note chord is perfect. The lavender is loud at first, but it's a cloud of sweet lavender and not the rough and herbaceous variety. The tobacco flower is delicate and also sweet. It's the same as the note in Hagstone, I think, which is another favorite of mine. The ambergris adds a salty grit to the perfume. It's not really aquatic or clean to me, it mostly works to ground the other notes and hold back the sweetness of the perfume. I think the oudh also reads as sandalwood to me. It's a higher-pitched wood for sure. I can't really pick it out when I'm smelling my wrist up close, but I get a lot of it from the throw of the perfume.

I can see why this is so popular, it's gorgeous. It's situated somewhere in the middle of Hagstone, Every Day is Halloween, and Lavender Lace to me.

Like other reviewers, this doesn't really smell fried to me. I get a rich pastry cream smell, reminiscent of Bavarian cream or a vanilla custard, wrapped in a thin layer of flaky pastry. Dorian is definitely present, and here it's powdery, like a perfumed powdered sugar finish. The tea is present but faint. The Dorian is strong enough to stop this from being too rich or foody. It's Dorian but more delicious.

This one is very funky, but in a way that I like. The pear is very sweet and smells like canned pear in syrup, except the syrup is a thick ooze of honey. The honey steers this into funky town. It's the same musky honey in Honey Taffy Smut, but the pear almost makes it smell dirtier somehow. There aren't any delicate wildflower notes in this honey, it's blunt and filthy. I don't really get any tart crust, but I might be overwhelmed with thick honey goodness. It does smell like the pear disintegrates into the honey after a while and you're left with the pure musky essence of the honey note.

I can definitely see how this would be too much for someone, but I adore the lab's dirty honey note. I don't think I ever got banana here, but I could be too primed to think about pears. This one is not for everyone, but maybe you'll like it if you enjoy some funky musky honey.

This is mostly rich ginger cake on me. It's very dense and there are more spices than just ginger in here. I think I get clove and cinnamon, maybe there's also a dash of saffron in there. The spices and bready cake note take over, but I can imagine the orange zest and quince minced up and mixed into the cake. Honestly, if I didn't know this was ginger cake, I would have assumed it was pumpkin bread. It's very yummy!

This is more atmospheric than I expected! The tea-stained linen is very prominent. It's not a laundry smell, but like cloth bandages drenched in milky tea. The myrrh is more like a light cloud of incense. The embalming resins add a creepy aura to the whole thing. There is a sweetness, but it doesn't read as coconut so it must be from the condensed milk. I also get an oily note, but it's more like a funeral oil than a french fry to me most of the time.

This isn't really what I expected, but it's nice. I am perpetually hoping for more coconut, but this isn't really coconutty at all. It smells clean, but different from your usual clean laundry perfume.

I enjoy regular Perversion, but it is pretty sweet. I was hoping for Perversion plus leather to reign in the sweetness, but this isn't really like that on me. Wet, I get a big blast of floral perfume, like a sweet gardenia. As this dries down, it settles into a boozy perfume with a sharp floral edge. The tobacco is present under all the other loud notes, rich and chewy like the note in Perversion. The floral note is still there, loud and proud. I'm not sure where it's coming from, maybe the musk?

If I had to list the notes according to how this wears on me, I'd say they were gardenia, wine, and sugared tobacco. I think that this would be a great perfume for someone who wants something that smells expensive and like a floral mainstream perfume, but that's not really for me.

Wet, this is a lot of snappy black leather backed up by black musk. Black musk tends to be a a little indolic or bitter or something to me in a way that I don't like, but this black musk doesn't have that. As the perfume dries, it does become all about the sugared incense and musk. I can still smell the leather lurking in the background, but it's not very strong. The incense is soft and sweet, a little powdery.

Side by side next to Snooty Bat, this perfume is much softer. The nag champa was sharp on me in Snooty Bat and there isn't a note that goes sharp here. The clove also added extra bite that isn't present in Snootier Bat. This bat might be snootier, but they are cuddly and soft when you get to know them.