RoseThornAndOak

A nice crisp aquatic at first, a bit soapy, a bit classic perfume. On the drydown I get some champaca and woods. After that this stays in a nice spot between pretty, soft, aquatic soap/perfume and champaca. It's quite fine. Clean and elegant. A bit more aquatic and floral than Possessed Teen. There are other aquatics I love more, but I do like how refined this is.

Wow this is nice! Totally agree. Sweet Snow White snow, with dry sludgy cacao. If you shake the bottle, more of the cacao goodness comes out. Without a shake before application, I get more Snow White with just a bit of murk. My mind goes to slushy streets in Victorian England, like a scene in The Little Princess, but if they were the prettied up, wearable version. The frankincense and myrrh don't go weird on me. It's not a lemony frankincense, or too dark. There's a bit of a medicinal but smoothed out edge, that brightens yet darkens at once. It reminds me a bit of Frostbitten SO and Frostbitten Lust which both are mostly sweet + musky resins on me, but this is behaving on my skin much better. Basically Snow White with dark cacao and resins/incense going on (not smoky). Snow White goes rogue, and does countermagick on the witch queen like "Good gracious, we're doing this now?"

I wanted to like this more than I did. The violet, plum, and sandalwood together are creating a weird breathy, indolic fruity floral that doesn't coalesce on my skin. In the bottle it is a gorgeous plum violet marshmallow. I think on the right skin this would be a nice complex fruity violet vanilla marshmallow with some woods supporting. Some sandalwoods just don't like me and that's fine. This is fine.

I believe this has the same milk note as Mummy Milk, but less stronk. It's very clovey, very tangy milk, but that milk is still far too tangy for me even though it's lighter than Mummy Milk. If you love the goats milk note, this is gonna work amazing on you. The spice of the clove does ground it a bit. Ghost Milk plays better on me, less tangy, so I'll stick with that. It does get better throughout the day.

Something told me not to skip this one, and I'm glad to Something. I get a very neutral woody scent. No evergreens, very much a fine, high quality sandalwood oak. It's perfect for layering perfect on it's own. I feel like you could wear this anywhere, in any context. Sexy pirate? Set the course for Port Royal. Haunted hause? Come with me, murderess! Genteel person? Why I do declare this be mighty fine. Viking? Set sail to plunder! Poet? Start the duel already, wallpaper! Wood Elf? And you have my bow. Hippie? That's just like, you're opinion man. Cottagecore: I be the witch in the wood. I do get the Antikythera light flanker vibe too. It reminds me of No Man is An Island a bit, too. Less dark and sweet, more dry. There's s tad of a cologne/perfume vibe, but it's mostly about those woods. Later in the afternoon: goes a bit sharp now and then. Might have to use this in a locket but it's not all that bad.

I really like this. Sweet, spiced, pumpkin apple in the bottle. It's heavy on the cinnamon as it dries, no rash though, and the sweetness remains. I'm not getting the fruity or cloying white sugar note if you're worried or were hoping for that. The brown sugar seems to play better on me, sweet, kinda darker, and less strong. There's a tad of a buttery note from the pumpkin, but only ever so. It's not reading so much as a cider on me now, but more of a sludgy autumn dessert without the cake or bread notes. Maybe if the cider still has a ton of apple, pumpkin and spice bits floating around in the bowl, a cider you half drink, half eat. Actually now that I think of it, this shares a lot of similarities with Caramel Apple Cookie. This turned out real good. I don't always gel with apple or pumpkin or even spice notes sometimes, but it works here. It reminds me of a Christmas party we had at a mid 19th century house that John Wilkes Booth stopped at, but this totally has Fall vibes too and can be worn throughout the season.

I got two Lupers: Jovial Tengu and this. Ever since trying Akima Botanicals Pepperose I've found how beautifully pepper and rose can roll together. It's gorgeous. Dark chocolate with a slight peppery kick, and a nice reddish pink, nonpowdery rose, voluptuous and rich. Dark chocolate: compared to the fudge note, it's darker, less sweet. Compared to cacao: smoother, sweeter, less dry. I suppose there's vanilla in this, but kind of like when you eat chocolate vanilla ice cream you think chocolate more than vanilla, the same goes here. This doesn't smell like ice cream, just used here for explanation. This isn't foodie in a sweet, bready, or savory way at all. As with most chocolate notes, this fades quite a bit throughout wear. It's classy and romantic! I got a smol spray of Dries von Noten's Raving Rose, which is pepper + rose, and this is up there with that in quality. This is quite softer and less aggressive on the pepper. I would say on the spice/grit scale, this is quite a few degrees lighter than your lightest of light white patchouli, which barely smells like patchouli to me to begin with. If you like the idea of chocolate and rose together and want a note to add complexity, intrigue, and groundedness just a smidgen, yet want something different than patchouli, dirt, cinnamom, woods, or incense, this is your bae. The pepper is perfectly placed here. Also, this didn't burn my skin. Well done Lab, well done.

Ok. The Human Animals ended up being the sleeper hits for me of the Halloween offerings this year. This doesn't read Halloween to me at all, but there's an eerieness to it and yes this is fey, fae, fay. Otherworldly and difficult to describe, I feel like I've smelled something vaguely similar, a long long time ago, maybe in the Y2K days. It's a creepy fae fruity floral, like if you asked some faeries to try yo create a fruity floral for humans and it doesn't ever stop smelling fae, lol. This is so elf punk its awesome and it's going right next to Liz and others that put me in that headspace. I dont know it musky, citrusy, floral, creepy cool kid.

It's nice, my decant has a gingerbread note that goes fruity, like red fruit. A little bit of cocoa, but if someone held this to my nose and said "Hey! Wiff this!" I'd say spicy mulled wine. Glad I tried it, glad I didn' spring for a bottle, but I'm enjoying it all the same.

Yep, that's Gingerbread and Leather, one of my favorite BPALs! This year is spicy sweet in the vial, and dries down more vegetal spicy with a bit of leather supporting. This year's seems a bit more savory, but YMMV and aging does G&L well.

This reads mostly white floral, mostly lily, with some sweet bready spices underneath, almost fruity gingerbread. Good balance, soft, pleasant.

Ton of lilac here all the way through. There are some vintage glamourous things underneath. A note that goes sharp on me if I sniff close. It's nice bit there are other lilacs I love more.

This is nice. The evergreen is much more mellow than Vintage Snowman Blowmold. I dont really read orris, cypress, or ambergris, but it does have a soft around the edges feel but with pops of evergreen. I do get some moonflower, but agree with PumpkinGuts more moonflower would've been wellplaced. I'll keep the decant but don't need more.

Yeah I agree with HerbGirl and everyone here this is pretty fierce spruce. For me it basically stays that way only softening slightly. It's nice but more of an atmospheric for me but might layer well. Not much plastic really.

Wow this is quite lovely. Orange maple leaves (no green pepper) + golden moss reads outdoorsy but in a warm nest of orange/citrus, sweet amber musk. Not red musk, but as Lapis noted, a red-toned musk, like a red-orange, golden warmth and glow. Mmm. Atmospheric, so this would make a good room blend, and works perfect on hair, or skin. Actually just bathe me in this because its sexy as hell. Gender neutral. Yeah, I agree, it smells far better than many high end pricy things. You're an Elf in Rivendell watching an autumn sunset glow on the glimmering leaves and footpaths, and everything around you seems lit from within. *Oof y'all. This is Goddamn electric cozied up with Gingerbread and Leather. You're now a Metal Elf in Rivendell, singing the Bard's Song while watching an autumn sunset glow on the glimmering leaves and footpaths, and everything around you seems even more lit from within, and spicy. Those leaves are spicy. Spicy metal leaves.