DurAnorak

I don't know what's going on with this. I ordered it before I realised how much BPAL's florals hate me - near-universally, except that this thing is gorgeous. Gorgeous. In the imp, all I can smell is a bucket of ylang ylang, but as soon as it hits my skin it unfolds itself and becomes genuinely a scent of longing; warm, languorous, beautiful. Which is very welcome, but seriously, what's up with that? I wish I knew what made it one of only two non-rose florals so far not to turn into OH HI DISH SOAP on my skin...

I'm obsessed with the piece of classical music that goes under this name (the version with sung lyrics is even better than the violin one that's more well-known) and I was beyond thrilled to open this imp and discover that it is exactly, precisely, what I would have wanted the scent of Danse Macabre to be. It's deep green and gleeful, dark, dead and unnerving - while I'm wearing it it's like there's a shadow just out of the corner of my eye all the time. waiting for me to give in and dance with it. I seem to be in a minority here, but this is one of my favourite of all the lab's scents - it's perfect, not only cypress trees but the weaving dance between them as well. I love it and would wear it all Autumn and Winter if the damn lab didn't do so many other brilliant seasonal scents...

If I didn't know better (as in, I have tried different samples of Shadwell from different containers, before adding it all to one bottle and GUARDING IT WITH MY LIFE because I love it so), I'd say I'd been wearing a different oil to everyone else who's reviewed this! What I don't get : Milk, tea, mildewed raincoat, caramel, moss, aquatic notes of any kind, treacle, cologne. What I do get : High church incense. Seriously. I open the bottle and it's like being hit in the face with everything Henry VIII tried to ban. Huge vaulted ceilings and chanting and statuary and marble tombs - the works. After ten minutes of that, it does, admittedly, turn into 'I have accidentally taken a bath in cigars', but I like that about it. I take it it's just me, though, with the incense?