mazaru

This smells 100% exactly like an actual lump of coal - posh charcoal, to be specific - and I absolutely love it.

I LOVE THIS. Initially there's this massive, wafty cloud of banana, which then dies down into a sweet backdrop for smoky tobaccoey vetiver darkness. It's like a goth gourmand; it absolutely loves my skin, too, with strong throw (in layers - a touch of banana at the edge and a darker smokiness close up, my partner says) and long wear length.

This is really special on me. It changes as the day goes by. To begin with, wet, it smells of red grapes, perhaps fermenting into wine; as the day goes on the initial wet fruitiness dies down and reveals a soft honey-and-thyme scent. Over the day it goes from being a heady, thick smell to a soft, breezy one: like a day outdoors in Italy followed by a large glass of wine, but in reverse. It reminds me of walking through the ruins near the Coloseum in Rome, and the lethargic cats that lounge amid the ancient stone.

Random question but... is it normal not to get an order confirmation by email from the Lab? I've got confirmation from PayPal, but not the Lab itself.

oh my god. Oh my god. It smells of licorice and lemon and wormwood and being 17.

This is very golden, mellow, bright floral, sophisticated, adult. It doesn't feel very me at all. It sort of reminds me of Steamworks because of the golden sheen to it.

I found it impossible to pick out individual notes for this one. In the bottle and when wet, it smelled very fresh, wet, and oddly salty - almost aquatic. On the dry down it softened a little, and became a more rounded VERY BRIGHT NEON GREEN smell, a little ozony, a little fruity, very sharp and glistening. Dry, though, it turned into a sort of generic cologne smell – quite manly and nice to smell, but not something I'd wear.

This is very sharp on me, acrid almost, high and in the back of my throat. It's too spicy for me - too much high earthy spice, without the sweetness I like to round it out. The patchouli/cardamon combination is just too much for my skin chemistry, too, and it's constantly threatening baby powder.

I'm getting all dust and no coffee. Which is a shame but not the end of the world, because when I put it on my boyfriend he smells impressively like caramel vanilla coffee beans, and the throw is strong enough that I can effectively use him as a room scent. It's good stuff, but not wearable for me.

Soap. Curse you, skin chemistry!

This is fruity and leafy at the same time, a pleasant wet autumn garden after the rain. Not much blood for me, but a pretty scent without being girly.

Cocoa, rum, red wine, coffee, in that order. This is one of the few 'dark' BPAL scents that feels like I could wear it all day - it's biting and bitter without being harsh or so woodsy that it makes me sneeze, and I absolutely adore it. Gorgeously thick and complex.

I think it's the black musk that comes out first for me in this - very dark, earthy, with light figgy/redwood edges. When it dries down, it's a very earthy scent still, with barely a hint of the fig. The spices come in around the edges. Overall it is a little soapy, and much more masculine than I was expecting - which as far as I'm concerned is a good thing. It's sassy. I like that in a smell.

ADDED 10/5/09:

I think it's the black musk that comes out first for me in this - very dark, earthy, with light figgy/redwood edges. When it dries down, it's a very earthy scent still, with barely a hint of the fig. The spices come in around the edges. Overall it is a little soapy, and much more masculine than I was expecting - which as far as I'm concerned is a good thing. It's sassy. I like that in a smell.

This goes pure neroli very quickly on me. Slowly the peach emerges, and eventually the cocoa comes out to make a soft, sweet, pretty/foody smell. The cocoa isn't too plasticky on my skin for once, and it's a lovely scent overall. Sadly, it only lasts for about half an hour before reverting to pure neroli again. I'm keeping hold of this to test again, to see if my skin chemistry is more forgiving next time.

Wet: dark, rich, narcotic and slightly evil. Dry: smooth, rounded, red and black, interesting and deep. A keeper.

Initially, it's high, sparkling and boyish, almost too boyish for me to get away with. The smoky note - black musk, I guess? - starts coming out quite quickly, grounding it and making it much smoother and more rounded. Dries to a nice cologney scent, but I've lost the darker sides of the scent somewhere in the dry-down, and it's cologne with little else by the end.

Wet: Now, I know I just put perfume on. My wrist is wet. So where the hell is it? *check notes* Ah. Tea. One of those infamous disappearing notes that my skin just eats. Oh, hang on. Flowers. That'll be the gardenia. Oh dear. I smell like my granny. This is not precisely what I had in mind when I read the name 'Torture Queen'.

Dry: It's gone. Just disappeared, almost entirely. There's a tiny hint of vanilla and a tiny hint of generic floral when you get right up close, but otherwise, nothing. Chalk up another victim of the ichthyosis, and move on.

Wet: Grapefruit! I think it's the mix of orange and pepper. Very tart, very sudden. Delicious.

Dry: Sugared orange. Just like candied peel. Mmm. Yes please.

This scent is unexpectedly light and airy - I was expecting something much thicker and headier. Initially I found it too light - it almost disappeared on me, fading into the lightest touch of musk and resin, and very little else. Dry, the vanilla and honey started to come through, and I found it much nicer; still very close to the skin, with little throw, but rich and complex and mmm foody. Later on the pine came through, cutting the sweetness nicely and cooling the scent right down. It's an interesting scent, and one I will definitely wear on hot summer days.

Wet, this is really deep, dark red, a lovely blended redcurrant and patchouli/bergamot. Dry, on me, sadly, the red musk goes a little soapy, and the flowers come out a little too much for my liking. It's an almost-but-not-quite for me; I think I'll wear it occasionally, when I'm out for a posh-ish evening and wearing a skirt and want to feel womanly in a way that doesn't happen very often, but I wouldn't use a bottle.

I have an odd love-hate relationship with this scent, and it's the first thing that's made me realise quite how changeable my skin chemistry is. Three out of four times when I put this on, it's not a good smell. The musks amp up on my skin and become powerfully acrid and powdery at the same time - so much so that it gives me a headache and I generally end up washing it off. The fourth time, though, usually on a day when I've drunk a lot of coffee, the musks behave themselves, the cinnamon becomes dominant and the smoke washes in behind it beautifully. It's beautiful when that happens; golden, soft and warm, exactly what I want. I just wish it was like that all the time

On me, this was just too much rose and not enough spice, and it faded out to baby powder within minutes. On the gentleman friend it fares much better, going richer and darker rather than the baby-soft floral it ended up as on me. Not a keeper for either of us, but an interesting smell all the same.

Wet: Apples! Green apples, everywhere! I didn't know that was possible without, well, being in a room with a lot of freshly sliced apples. Wow.

Dry: Smokier, darker, a much more rounded and full-bodied scent. The apples are still there, and I think I'm getting the amber but not much of the herbs. It's definitely a black and green smell, but I'm finding it hard to pin down or define. I think it'd be a lovely smell for a house, but I'm not sure that it's a good thing on me.

Initially, this is all about the grapes. It fast loses the foody/fruity quality it has in the bottle, and goes through a sweet, subdued phase, with notes that my nose isn't trained well enough to identify yet (I'm guessing frankincense...). And then out comes the myrrh to make my nose tickle and turn the whole thing into baby powder.

There is a cake cooking and it is covered with honey and on me. Mmmmmmm This just keeps getting better and better. I don't get any of the dreaded milk notes, and the honey is the perfect blend of sweet and tasty. I'm a real foody lover, and I can't stop sniffing my wrist. This might have to go on the bottle list...