No Pls

[zankoku_zen]

Dismissively forbidding: white musk, honeyed orange blossom, and orris slammed by black pepper, tobacco absolute, blue musk, and cedar.

No Pls, you win as the strangest of the Dragon blends this year. I get mainly blue musk, cedar, whiffs of both tobacco and black pepper with just a hint of orange blossom. To me, you smell like a perfume pencil. Its like if you dreamed that you had this pencil, and instead of writing, it just squirted perfume. Yup. That's how I envision this working out.

Great throw and wear length though, so A+ for performance, and A++ for weirdness.

[bheansidhe]

I absolutely love cedar - They Lie Thus Chambered and Cold to the Moon was a big bottle buy last year - so I was pleased to try this one despite its lengthy list of bad-for-me notes.

 

Sniffed, this reads like one of the more elegant and cerebral Shunga blends. It smells like it should be named The Pale Naked Moon Maiden Scorning The Embraces of the Pepper Demon Askishikawa As They Struggle By Moonlight In a Black Cedar Grove. Like, there is just SO MUCH going on here: big perfumey blasts of white and blue and black musk, the light floral notes, the dark wet tobacco and the dry cracks of pepper. The honeyed orange blossom plays tug-of-war with the black pepper-tobacco, yanking the blend from masculine to feminine and back.

 

Mostly, though, it's blue musk and cedar. "Perfume pencil" kind of nails it. I do love pencil perfumes, but Chambered already fulfills that need, so I don't need a bottle. I'm glad I got to keep an imp, though.

Edited September 14, 2017 by bheansidhe

[gloame]

I know this was supposed to be dismissively forbidding, but all the notes looked really intriguing to me so I had a fairy pick up a 5ml for me.

 

It is indeed very dismissively forbidding. Wet, it's almost a Pine Sol cleaner sort of vibe, and that really scared me. But it dries down to a nice cedar backed by some blue musk. Not as sweet as I'd hoped (given the honeyed orange blossom) but still very pleasant.

 

Where I'd wear this: A weekend 'off-gridding', Pacific Northwest

[scentedbythesun]

I used to take care of a girl with autism whose favorite phrases were "no please" and "dragon" when she was angry, so obviously, I needed to get this for the memory alone. It does remind me of her, it's a scent that screeches at you becoming increasingly angry but still silly somehow, and does smell like pencil somewhat too, which reminds me of helping her at school. I love the orange blossom in it, and the pepper and tobacco are what transform it into an aggressive scent. It's really a special one for me!

Edited May 10, 2022 by scentedbythesun

[Little Bird]

I got a bottle of No Pls from the Lab's etsy page.  First on, it's a big dose of creamy, sweet orange blossom that threatens to go soapy at the edges, but in a pleasant way, like orange blossom turned into a luxurious, creamy bar of moisturizing soap.  As it dries down, it starts to shift and pick up a sweet cigar tobacco and dry cedar that's super smooth like a good quality sandalwood.  The honeyed orange blossom in the drydown stage actually starts to read as a really beautiful jasmine tea type of scent on me, losing the soapiness and going more dry alongside the cedar note to make me crave a cup of jasmine tea.

I expected this blend to be more spiky, chaotic and odd than it actually is.  It's very mellow and pretty to me.  The dry woods, sweet cigar tobacco, and beautiful orange blossom go really well together and are delicately sweet, smooth/creamy, and easy to wear.