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quetzal changed their profile photo
- Today
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A frimp, and not at all a collection of notes I would have picked for myself! I was surprised by its wet scent because it was more sweetpea than I expected. It dries down to something like powdery and milky-sweet vanilla. A fuzzy little white mouse. I'm kind of scared of vanilla because it sometimes goes sickly and/or totally artificial on me when it dries. This one isn't too bad at all! It remains pleasant, but it's just really not something I'd wear. My long-term tolerance for something this sweet is pretty limited too.
- Yesterday
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Did the Lab's atmos used to have an alcohol base? Because that's what I get from the decant when it is first sprayed. But then that goes away and it becomes a really nice, warm, nutty scent that just gets better over time. The hazelnuts are the star of the show, but the chestnuts become more noticeable after a while, making the scent sweeter. I really enjoy this and think it would be wonderful to spray around during the colder months.
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I was gifted a decant of this one and had the same experience as the above reviewer. I once had Samhain Atmo, which I ended up destashing because the scent was so strong that it was overwhelming to me. This doesn't smell like Samhain to me at all, although it is also overwhelming. It's very sour, and there's also a leaf-y scent beneath the sourness. I get no Samhain, cinnamon sugar, or candy from this whatsoever, sadly. I sprayed this on a paper towel to test this and ended up having to throw the paper towel away because the scent was so bothersome. It seems like there may be a batch variation with this one according to the reviews?
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Michelle Turner Rangel changed their profile photo
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*Note: I applied this after I’d tried The Lights of Men’s Lives earlier in the day. Since that had faded, I washed it off and decided to review another imp. First Sniff: What it says on the tin: gentle rose with some sunny mango underneath. Initial Wet Application: Sweet, sugary mango, woohoo! Dry Down (first 15 minutes): As this dried, it went all soft rose on me which is disappointing. I hope the happy mango comes back! My Reaction: I wouldn’t have thought to pair rose with something so tropical, but this somehow works. The rose is gentle and lovely while the mango is the wild child with fruity, sunny goodness. I just wish the throw was stronger! Rating: 3
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elinox changed their profile photo
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This is such a gorgeous and perfectly wearable blend. It has become my daily fragrance since Christmas and at the rate I am going, my bottle will not let a whole year. It's a perfect skin scent on me, subtle with a deeply resinous dry down and just a little bit of ripe, sweet, citrus fruit. Golden is exactly the way to describe this one. I don't really get incense from this, although that may be because I associate incense so strongly nag champa-type and smoky smells. Instead, the frankincense in this is very much unburned frankincense resin to me. (It smells like the frankincense tears that come on my favorite soap and that I hoard like a dragon.) And don't let my "sweet" comment scare the non-food people. This is NOT a cloying sweetness or a sugar sweetness. This is a golden syrup sweetness that is subtle, but delicious. It's a sweetness I associate with cuddling up under super soft mohair blankets freshly clean from a bath, not of candy. The throw on this one is mild for me, and that's part of why I can wear it as a daily scent. It sits close to my skin and no one would notice it unless they hug me, but I can smell it and I smell dang good.
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I have no idea why this was such a fail on me. I searched through my entire perfume database. The Lab's fig and the Lab's vanilla bean both work fine on me in multiple blends. This was gross dry slightly brackish grass with a little Fig Newton in the background. No vanilla at all. The cause is important, so I don't regret buying the blind bottle, but why, skin, why? Why you gotta do me like this?
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This is delightful. A sort of cakey, not too spicy, very gentle gingerbread that has been spun into candy floss (similar to cotton candy). This is somewhere related to Midway (not a dupe but in the same family) but with gingerbread instead of funnel cake and no taffy. Somehow manages to not be overwhelmingly foody? Not super sweet? This isn’t like a cake scent with frosting that makes your teeth ache. This is very understated. Throw is extremely low and staying power seems lowish too.
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First Sniff: Sugary sweet candied coconut. Initial Wet Application: As I put it on my wrist, it suddenly doesn’t seem there at all; just a bare whiff of sweet coconut. I like the first sniff, but I just know this is going to fade within the hour. Dry Down (first 15 minutes): I double-applied this since it was so faint, with 4 swipes of the wand. As this continued to dry I was getting gentle baby powder too. I’m also getting a hint of vanilla candle, as some other’s have described, but it’s faint and not likely to stick around either. My Reaction: The sweet coconut is lovely, but overall this is just too light on my skin. I want to like this, but it’s just too faint. My coconut favorite is Obatala anyway. Rating: 1
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Buttery notes are a nightmare on me -- when they're part of foodie scents, my skin seems to like to pump it up until that drowns out whatever other notes were in the mix, and then also promptly go rancid. Insult to injury, the damn stuff then lasts forever... Original Knave of Hearts on my skin is just yuk. For that reason, Frostbitten Knave of Hearts is wonderful for me. It feels like it cools down the warmth of the original blend (I recently got an imp to compare it against, so super handy!) to a point where it's actually wearable -- snow-covered fruits and a touch of flowers that comes out as it dries off. I think the snow note here is a minty marshmallow (so, not the sugary snow that's in Frostbitten Dorian). It's still a rosy tart, but it's more of a frozen tart, now, with a gentle throw that means I'll catch whiffs of it as I move my arms around. I can still sniff the butter trying to do its thing from time to time, thought, which is truly frightening. Glad I picked this up -- my normal comfort zone for foodie stuff tends to be restricted almost exclusively to fruits, and I didn't realize the original scent had such a buttery component to it, but this is a great change of pace.
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This is quite an aged oil by now, but what's surprising is how strong this still is! I make this review with the note that I'm trying it just as my period's starting, so I'll have to test it again to see how different it is without hormones coming into play. In Bottle: A slightly screechy floral -- the gardenia and neroli come out on top, and not much else. Wet/Early Dry-down: More gardenia, more neroli. Its a cold, bitter and sharp floral at first -- almost a bit metallic, I'd say -- but as it warms up, it develops a fair bit of complexity. Hard to pick out what's going on, but the bitterness fades rather surprisingly quickly, and a bit of fruit peeks through. Dry: I'm shocked, after the cold and floral start, how the heck this manages to dry down to something that's almost a little ... vanilla cookie-y, without the butter? It's hard to describe, but 'warm vanilla' would be most apt, I think. This stage lingers for a while, and is fairly stable. Start to finish, it takes about four hours to need a re-application. I'd consider it to have medium throw -- might have had more if I'd applied a larger amount!
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I really want to like Rogue, and it doesn't smell BAD, it just ... Stay with me here, it smells like the inside of a new car. Like you just got into a new car at the car dealership, and there's a fancy car air freshener hanging from the mirror, and the salesman's sitting next to you, and he's NOT greasy or anything, he's actually very well put together (you think maybe he moisturizes with cocoa butter). But. It's still new car smell. WHY IS THIS HAPPENING TO ME, I want this to smell like daring misdeeds, not a Honda dealership! 😭 Maybe this will smell better on my husband. Who knows. I believe skin chemistry can be a wild thing sometimes.
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i enjoy the creamy/vanilla/sugary florals so knew i had to try this. it starts off with primarily cream and rose...the cream has a sort of burnt sugar thing going on. after a few minutes i get a little bit of jasmine too. after about 15 minutes the burnt sugar note wears off and it's mostly rose, cream and a little bit of amber. it ends up primarily a rose cream after the drydown with a little hint of amber. i know i've tried several other bpals in the same vein and i think i'll stick with the ones that are slightly less foody. that burnt sugar thing doesn't really work for me...
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This scent is both confusing and SO cozy... I don’t even. It is mostly au lait that used to live near coffee, so you sometimes catch a lingering tendril. However, this is laid over an absolutely indescribable sort of cuddly, cozy, soft and fluffy scent. Assuming this is the wool blanket, it is incredible. Not a huge throw, but good staying power. It is not super foody - not very sweet, more a feeling than a scent. I don’t know. This scent puzzles me but I also love it and have zero blind bottle regrets.
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This one smells like a masculine fougere. I get musk, amber resin, notes of champaca, herbs, and woods. It's definitely not just a perfume, if you ask me. I get a ton of throw from this in the first two or three hours, and it goes from a fresh green to a more woodsy green as it dries.
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Oh wow! Out of the set of three, I was keenest to try this one and I was right to because it's really good. It's sweet, but exactly the kind I like. Patchouli with that rich honey-like sweetness and resins. It's deep but also mellow. I accidentally put more on that I should have, because it's one of those weird ones for me that seems like it's going to be weaker than it is at the start. It didn't matter that I overdid it, because it was incensey sweet patchouli all day and continued to be lovely. Will definitely be keeping and using.
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13Curses changed their profile photo
- Last week
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If you missed The Mountebank but wish you could have tried it, try this. This is the same lavender and brown leather from that scent sweetened by tonka. It starts off as mostly being a sweet lavender scent with a hint of leather, but the leather ends up becoming more prominent with wear until it is one of the main players. This is really lovely, and if I didn't already have a bottle of The Mountebank, I would grab a bottle of this.
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This one did not work on me. Right out of the gate, I am hit with a blast of vinegar, which is either the labdanum or woodsmoke being acrid on me. I suspect it is the labdanum, which appears to be a sour variety here, but I have had some smoky scents turn acrid on me, too. It does mellow out over time, with the fuzzy brown musk becoming more noticeable with wear, making this a warm, musky, resin scent with a wisp of smoke. The beginning is far too sour on me, though.
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Fuzzy brown musk, sunny bergamot, and a whiff of grass is what I get from Bub. I think there may be some spiced amber at play, too? It's a happy, cozy scent that becomes more fuzzy and musky over time. I think it's nice, but I prefer the wet phase when the bergamot and grass are more noticeable, before the musky amber almost completely takes over.
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Note: I have never tried Devil's Night. I feel like the above reviews are pretty spot on. Devil's Night in the Pumpkin Patch is the 'cool guy' scent in this year's pumpkin patch. The dark musk is the star here, backed by some light spice, a bit of booze, and the suggestion of a leather jacket. There's no buttery pumpkin or syrup-y pumpkin spice here. It's nice, but I also know I am not likely to reach for such a musk-heavy scent, so I don't think it's a keeper for me. Definitely one of the highlights of the pumpkin patch this blends I tried this year, though.
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*Note: I applied this after I’d tried Small Brown Cat earlier in the day. Since that had faded, I washed it off and decided to review another imp. First Sniff: Pinesol lemon; yikes that’s lemony fresh! Initial Wet Application: Yup, definitely the same lemon as in my Mom’s cleaning spray from my childhood. This is the reason I’ve hated lemon for years! Dry Down (first 15 minutes): Still just “lemony fresh” yuck! Egyptian kyphi is supposed to be: cassia, cinnamon, mastic, mint, henna and mimosa. There’s nothing citrus/lemon in it so I have no idea where the lemon I’m getting is coming from. My Reaction: It’s light and fresh, in a “pow in your face” kind of way, but that kind of lemon is most definitely not my thing! I’ll re-test this, but so far, this will likely go into the swap pile! Rating: 1
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Not a drill! All Haute Macabre pre-orders are back, and there's a new member in this family: TOTALITY, available both as a perfume and a hair gloss. The splendor and terror of Totality: an abyss of black patchouli, tabac, burgundy pitch, smoky frankincense, and black fig surrounded by a glowing nimbus of fossilized amber. You'll find everything here: https://haute-macabre.myshopify.com/
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This is soooo masculine on me. It just screams high quality cologne. I’m trying to pick out the different scents in here since there’s no description. In the bottle I was excited by the mossy green. Surprisingly fresh for dead leaves. On my skin it’s really intense. There’s a smell I associate with water floating around in here, probably patchouli too. It still smells green, but it’s really subsided into the background. There’s a little funk that probably the mushroom note but I can’t tell what it is. It is super complex. Not the best fragrance on me, but it’s really interesting.
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Oh man, this pine is one of the cat pee pine notes. Wet, this was super bitter and pungent, with a hint of ammonia. The lotus is earthy and rooty and not sweet at all. I was taken aback by how bitter this was, like a very concentrated cocktail bitters. Dry: After about an hour, the angry piss pine really calms down into a more gentle pine note and the scent sweetens up a little, and slowly it starts to smell of Cthulhu/ Irish spring. The dry down version is not bad, but yeesh that wet stage.
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I love olive blossom scent when it's a bit more like the fruit and high quality creamy olive oil and have for some time been looking for an olive oil and ambergris perfume blend. This has that. Unfortunately, something in this produces a strong lemony note (the majoram?) and causes the whole thing to smell like very **expensive** vegan lemon pledge on me, which is very disappointing. As it dries down, the lemon note burns off and the olive oil ambergris mix is quite lovely.
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I agree with the above reviews. Cozy Pumpkin Sweater is a cinnamon/clove-spiced sugar entwined in a vanilla-touched wool. I don’t get much of a pumpkin note on my skin, but I’ve noticed it’s tends to ghost on me. The spice is fairly mellow, and fades into a supporting roll after an hour, then it’s all sweet crunchy sugar and cozy sweater. I’m pleased with the scent and glad I sprung for a bottle. A light-hearted scent for staying cozy on a chilly day.
