Tungerine

I love this one. It's mainly dark, dry patchouli with a little earthy mandrake and warm pepper. There's no dirt note, no dampness, no blood, but it really does evoke the dark red-brown of blood-stained soil.

Smells like artificial banana flavouring in the bottle. VERY odd. It changes completely on my skin though, into an incredible warm and spicy metallic scent. The clove is drowning out the other notes a little but I expect it to mellow with time. This is the blood scent I've been looking for. This is what blood should smell like.

Courgette! It literally smells like a fresh vegetable at first. It reminds me of Troll, but simpler and gentler, much less spicy and woody. It's fresh but not light, green-grey but not sharp or bitter. The vetiver is grassy and not very strong at all, and the leather blends smoothly with the musk. The courgette eventually fades to soft green musk. It brings to mind grey autumn mornings in an overgrown field full of blackthorn and spindle shrubs. It adds a sort of cool, foggy greenness when layered with other things.

First impression on arrival: wine and bile. Actual bile. Yeah, it's foul. Like hangover vomit. It NEEDS to settle for a while. A few weeks later there's still a blast of wine vomit and vetiver, but it dries down to a beautiful smoky incense and wine scent, intense but in a good way. The incense note is very similar to Malediction. The wine isn't a sweet and fruity wine like in Nosferatu, it's dark and a little bitter, and with the smoky vetiver I totally get the comparison to whiskey. It's wonderfully dark and sinister, and I love it.

Death Cap is earthy and mild, but not warm or ruddy. There's something almost aquatic that turns it cool and damp, and there's coconut. I definitely get the sunscreen/lotion impression people have mentioned. Actually, it reminds me of a shampoo I bought once. It's not the realistic kind of damp earth that's in Yorick or Nosferatu, it's more perfumey. There's just a hint of warm dirty muskiness lurking behind the lotion, and I wish there was more. It's like Brown Jenkin, if Brown Jenkin had been shampooed. It's quite nice, but not what I'd hoped for. Update: After a couple of months it's warmer, softer, less like shampoo. Still not quite what I expected, but I like it anyway.

This is amazing. Golden and creamy, deep but not dark. It glows. It's warm, but just as suited to a hot summer day as a chilly winter night. I find the beeswax makes it a little too sweet to be something I reach for every day (is there vanilla in there?) but it's in my top 10 for sure.

Thanks, I'll check them out!

I'm looking for GCs or recurring LEs (so I don't have to worry about running out if I really like it) that are spicy but not (foody) sweet, and gender neutral to masculine. If it smells like curry to you, it might be what I'm looking for! I usually find amber too sweet, but it's ok if it's really subtle. Cinnamon and cassia tend to be overpowering, but I don't mind them if they're not too strong. A little resinous sweetness is fine too, but not as sweet as Shub-Niggurath, for example. At the moment I have Troll (one of my all time favourites) and Odin (the elm bark is gently spicy). Dracul is another one of my favourites, but it's sweeter and less spicy than I'm looking for. I like the spices in Scherezade but overall it's too feminine and sweet, and I suspect Morocco will be the same, but I'll try it. Oblivion could be good, the reviews suggest the spices are fairly subtle but I think I'll like it even if it's not exactly what I'm looking for. Any others I should try?

This one started off BAD. My notes say "vinegar, sweat, and pee". The lavender was much too strong and sharp, something was vaguely rotten, and the blackcurrant was. well. like pee. It just needed a few weeks to settle down though, and it's now in my top 10. The lavender is gentler, the blackcurrant is pleasantly herbal, and it has a lovely sweet depth. It's still intense, but in a good way, and somehow it does succesfully evoke despair and hunger, while also being elegant and nice to wear. It only lasts a couple of hours before fading to a faint powdery floral, but I can always reapply. If you've only tried Misericordia fresh from the Lab, give it a second chance.

Elm bark smells a little like cumin and tamarind to me, and with the amaranth and herbs Odin smells like a delicious sour stew when wet. It makes me hungry... This isn't a bad thing though! The musk is just a little odd in an otherwise foody scent. It's almost body odour musk (in a good way). The sharpness recedes within a few minutes, which reduces the delicious tamarind stew effect, and the musk blends in much better to create a really nice warm, spicy, brown scent with rugged masculine musk. It reminds me of Troll. Odin might be one of my favourites now.

Despite the dark musk, this smells very clean, without being soapy at all. The lavender and grapefruit are the most prominent notes, with the red currant adding a little juicy sweetness. It's refreshing and calming.

Aaagh this smells like an uncomfortable, stressful train journey. The vetiver, smoke, and steel remind me of the smell as the train brakes, and I'd actually like it a lot if it was just those two notes. However, the dragon's blood here smells like whatever cleaning products they use in the train and it makes me feel nauseous. I like all the notes in other contexts, it's just combined like this that they don't work for me, and it's more that it reminds me of bad experiences than anything else. I tried layering it with a few other things but nothing helped and I had to wash it off.

Dance of Death's living sister. Just as elegant, somehow deep inky purple-black and gentle white at the same time, but where Dance of Death is dry this is dewy and fresh. The first time I tried it, the violet went plasticky but I gave it another chance a few years later and I love it now.

Starts off smelling strongly of wintergreen, which is probably birch, and after a few minutes dries down to a clean, herbal scent. I wouldn't describe it as medicinal at this point, because that suggests it's harsh or bitter, but I could see it as a toothpaste flavour. After a while, woody notes start to come out and it sweetens. It's no longer toothpaste, it's fresh forest air. It's really nice at this point. The sharper herbal notes continue to fade until it's finally just gentle wood.

Tzadikim Nistarim is very hard to describe. Wet, there's a moment of confusing tropical fruitiness, but it's brief. Dry, it's smooth and gentle, with a little herbal bitterness. It's clean without being soapy. It's light, but deep. It glows. It reminds me of Alecto, but Tzadikim Nistarim is much gentler and kinder. Update: the bitterness is sticking around, and once the other notes have faded it's impossible to ignore. It's like tasting soap (not smelling it), and kind of metallic, no longer herbal at all. I might be allergic to something in here, or at least sensitive to it, because I have this problem with a couple of others, only it's much worse for them. This is still wearable and pleasant as long as I don't get it too close to my nose.

To begin with it's all strong, dark musk and vetiver. After a minute or so, something gives it an undertone of something like air freshener, which sticks around longer than the darker notes. I like the initial phase, but I don't like how it changes on my skin.

This is the creepiest BPAL I've ever tried, out of over a hundred! It's damp, mouldy, cold dirt and very sweet fruity wine with a hint of dusty herbs. The Lab's dirt notes usually just make me think of gardening (especially when combined with florals) but the way this cold green dirt combines with the sickly sweet wine is very unsettling. Not unpleasant, exactly. Just creepy. I wear it to create an atmosphere, maybe while reading/watching horror, not to smell good.

It smells like a cat in a forest! Many cat owners say their cats smell sweet between their ears, one of mine certainly does (the other doesn't), and the civet smells just like him only much stronger. It's definitely a clean sweet cat smell rather than dirty cat pee, with a fresh herbal foresty background, and musk which makes it more wild animal than housecat. The vetiver is more grassy than smoky. It's VERY strong though, I used a tiny drop and it can be smelt across the room. I think the strength helps evoke a HUGE cat (rather than a normal sized cat), but I have to be careful with it. I love it, but I can't wear it out (except maybe hiking alone) because it's so strong. It's also long-lasting and hard to wash off, so I avoid it even if I'm not going out for several hours. But when I can wear it, it's one of my favourites. (I got Yule Cat before I had cats, and the other day I noticed my cat's head smelt familiar so I dug out the bottle!)

Snake Oil is warm, dark, dry, and sweet. It reminds me of Aperotos Eros, but it's softer and sweeter with vanilla and perhaps patchouli. I'm picky about vanilla, and it's threatening to become overpowering here. Snake Oil is not really for me, but I can see why it's so popular and I'd recommend that everybody should try it a couple of times even if they think they won't like it.

Can someone compare Hoggle and Jack? Is the pumpkin note similar? I find it rancid in Jack, but I think the peach contributes to that. Also, how sweet is Hoggle compared to Jack?

Unfortunately, it smells like the mouthwash the dentist gives me after I've had a filling. It's something about the way the labdanum dominates and combines with the other notes. It's not unpleasant, but I don't want to be reminded of getting a filling! I think I'd like it if the labdanum wasn't so strong. I got it for the leather, but I can barely detect it. It improves after an hour or so, but the mouthwash phase is too long.

To begin with the red musk and cherry are super sweet, kind of powdery and artificial, but improves as it dries. It's hard to say if it's the combination of musk and cherry together or one more than the other. The anise REALLY helps though, it's enough to stop me washing it off immediately. It doesn't quite save it though. Kabuki is not for me.

This is pretty much all cassia and cinnamon. The other notes come out more eventually, but there's just too much cassia for me.

This starts off with very strong fresh chrysanthemum, like shoving your face into a bunch of flowers. It's almost astringent, but very definitely floral. After 20 minutes the chrysanthemum has become gentler, and is nicely balanced with the tea. It's like black tea with chrysanthemums in it rather than fresh chrysanthemums and tea. The lotus root takes a while to show up. It adds just a little sweetness and depth. This might be my favourite 2024 Shunga. It's simple but lovely and I can even make a drinkable version in a teapot. ETA: I don't get honey from this at all!

In bottle: Plums and so much brandy. First impression on skin: Mostly plums and brandy. It's not so much dark as heavy, with none of the bright tartness that fruit sometimes has. Plum blossoms add a little clean lightness on top. It's very strong. People tend to assume fruit scents are feminine, but to me this is VERY masculine, which is unsurprising given the inspiration! Dry: Fruity, sweetened more by the vanilla. Still pretty similar to when I first put it on. After half an hour: The plums and brandy are overpowering the vetiver, nutmeg, and tabac, but I can tell they're there. At this point it could be more unisex. It's almost too masculine for me, but I won't let that stop me. I might have to dilute it though, because I used just a tiny drop and it was really strong. I'll set it aside for a couple of months and see if it improves.