marared

Nope. Nope nope nope. The concept was almost exactly on the nose for me: it smells like I ate too much funnel cake at a cheap parking lot carnival and then I got on a pirate ship ride or something else that sends everything sloshing and I can taste it threatening to come back up. I had to scrub it off. I'm going to forget about it for 3-4 years to see if Snake Oil does its thing.

I smell the honeysuckle in the bottle - and almost mistook it for magnolia - but on my skin it's a lightly floral peach, and the peach is juicy, smells very much like actual fruit rather than syrup. The amber is barely there, and the lemon blossom doesn't come out until the honeysuckle fades a bit after a few minutes. It's soft, pretty, feminine, totally summery.

I love this. It's one of the most interesting blends I've ever smelled from the Lab.

Right off the bat, this is very strong, very sharp leafy black pepper on a bed of hay. There is no "tomato" note to it at all, it is strictly that intense green scent on your hands after you've brushed up against a tomato plant. It is extremely peppery. EXTREMELY. The hay sits way down at the bottom of the scent for quite a while. The leafiness starts to fade after about 10-15 minutes, and after a good while longer, the pepperiness finally recedes a little as well, and then the hay comes out - which is startlingly sweet, almost like amber but without being rich or powdery.

It's pretty strong but it doesn't have a lot of throw, and the strength is purely in the pepper; once that fades after about 20-30 minutes, it's a much gentler scent.

Chocolate soap, yep. Well, more like chocolate cleaning fluid rather than *soap* - it's not powdery, but it's high-pitched and unnatural and it smells like a very strange cookie. The amber is barely even noticeable and I typically amp amber a lot.

I tried this after two weeks to see if it was just travel shock, and it has not improved for me. I can't even let it sit on my skin more than ten minutes.

2008 Mead Moon is one of my top tier favorites and I'm running low on my last bottle, so I was looking forward to trying the new one. It is noticeably different, but not in a bad way at all.

2008 is fizzy and bright like soda, and the spices are more prominent - it has a fairly sharp zing to it, and I would have *sworn* it had labdanum, but it doesn't.

2020 is much sweeter, more syrupy, and much heavier on the fruit, but in a good way! It's not overpowering or too jammy. The fruits all blend well, it doesn't announce itself as distinctively berry OR citrus. It smells like a sangria mix without the wine. The spices are still there but they're much further down in the blend. This is delicious, I love it. I bought two, might have to get another couple before they come down...

In the imp, it's loud red musk. Directly applied, it's loud skin musk with the grapey red musk underneath it. After it dries, it's just powdery red musk, which dominates every other note in the blend, even amber.

In the bottle: rich foodie vanilla caramel.

Freshly applied, it smells like smoked caramel, almost chocolatey but not quite - loud, lots of throw.

After a few minutes, it dries down a lot more like the bottle - dark syrupy vanilla. If I put my nose against my skin, inhale deeply, and think about it, I can detect the chili - this note is why I bought it, and I wish it was stronger, because it would give the blend more personality. It might strengthen with some age; we'll see.

Startlingly invigorating like getting hit in the face with a musk-soaked lime. Loud, sharp, heavy throw. Smells more like lime zest than lime fruit, but either way it's eye-watering to the point that I can't wait for the drydown, even after a few months in the closet. Maybe in six more months...

Tart raspberry candy with an undercurrent of sour, slightly powdery GACK, and I'm not sure which note is causing it. I'm leaning towards the raspberry, because I've never had this reaction from benzoin, and the last couple times I've tried a raspberry-heavy blend from the lab, they didn't work out all that well. I'm gonna stick it in the closet for a couple of years and check every few months to see if the gack mellows out with age, because I really love a good smooth resiny raspberry.

So what I was hoping for here was a cousin to Bath and Body Works' Jasmine Vanilla - I still have some of the old formula, which is so much richer than it's been the last several years, the epitome of dark and sexy vanilla floral. 

This is much brighter. It was a little much on first application - nose-wrinklingly potent ylang ylang with high-pitched candyish vanilla behind it. But within ten minutes or so, the ylang ylang calms down, and the sandalwood comes out to mesh smoothly with the vanilla, and it becomes much more gentle and feminine. Not much throw at all, sits close to the skin, lasts for a good few hours but I have to put my nose to my wrist to really smell it. Probably going to order a backup bottle...

A sister scent would be A Spirit, Katie. 

ExtrEEEEEmely potent. My hands smelled of this just opening the box and the bubble wrap. It's like red musk potent. Loud, libidinous, bacchanalian fruit just barely held back by the oakmoss. 

Oh, this is gorgeous. Everything is so well blended that nothing really dominates. Can't really detect the vanilla, the patchouli is so aged and smooth that it's way down in the blend just chillin'. If anything is more noticeable than another, I'd say it's the champaca. Frankincense creates that powdery resinous undertone. Gloriously hippie without being obnoxious.

ETA that the champaca is definitely the dominant note here. That sweet grapey incense note is more noticeable on my fleece than on my skin though.

In the bottle and the first minute or two on the skin is a lovely fruity musk, but within five minutes the hinoki wood starts to dominate. Virtually no vanilla to speak of. I wish the fruit stayed longer, but this is still lovely and delicate, like high quality Japanese fruity-wood incense.

ETA: This aged really nicely. It's less musky; the apricot and the vanilla are more noticeable now (and I can tell it's specifically apricot), and I get some of the sticky brandy behind the wood on a deep inhale. It's low-key sweet.

Sexed up patchouli that's not quite so dark and planty - the honey is an undertone, not immediately identifiable as such, and the sandalwood dries things up a bit, but it's the labdanum and benzoin that shine here, giving it a lighter, playful, HOW YA DOIN? aspect.

This started out woody smoky grape - for about two minutes - and then it turned into strong syrupy grape, rose, and opium. Wine. Yes. This is sweet musky homemade WINE. 

Botanical, herby lavender suspended in a delicate sweet musk. The amber is there, but it's a bottom note that is undetectable in the bottle and only shows up on my skin if I inhale deeply. This might be a good nighttime blend - TKO frequently gives me vivid and weird dreams, and I think this will do the same.

Hot herbal ginger. Definitely the peel rather than the fruit, giving it an earthier aspect, and I think that's what gives it the "mineral" feel. Khus is apparently vetiver (which I love), and I don't smell it at all, or the mandarin, but the cistus is loud and proud. Ginger herbaceous floral. It's pretty strong on the skin, but the throw is mild. Strangely enough, it really does have a Christmassy feel to it, which might be the mandarin and the balsam working together?

Initially: salty musk. Neither the rose nor the amber are distinctive; they meld together to create an impression of beach sand. This is a semi-tropical beach on a cool fall day with the wind driving waves against the rocks. Not much throw. With time, the rose gets a little stronger - but my chemistry also notoriously amps rose. It doesn't *dominate* the blend, but it does slowly become more floral than beach, and I can see this having a "craft store powder" effect on some people. 

Orris is, ordinarily, a death note, but this does not go soapy at all on me. It's kind of a vanilla marshmallow with a golden overtone to it - it's kind of a love child of O and Sed Non Satiata - but it's not excessively sweet and it's REALLY good.

5ML PLS.

Fresh on my skin: extremely tart apple and something cool green that is not herbal or planty at all. The leather is waaay down under there if I inhale deeply. It's definitely seasonally appropriate There is a bit of sour playdoh that's similar to what I get from Snake Oil. Not sure what the culprit is, but I suspect it's either the clove or the rum.

After about ten minutes, it has definitely gone far too sour for me to enjoy, so it's off to the closet for a few months.

This one morphs a LOT. On my skin, it smells like luxury pencil shavings with the black suede in the background, and it's a little too sharp and fresh for a good ten or fifteen minutes. But then, abruptly, it smooths out into delicious deep rich sandalwood thoroughly blended into the musk. No leather, no bergamot, even the cedar vanishes. I can't believe how *different* it becomes in so short a time.

This suffered badly from travel shock - when I first got it, and even now on first sniff, it was an unappealingly loud jumble of scents. But it calms down after a few minutes, and while it is initially very rich, it becomes cool, smooth, slightly musky and woody labdanum. The fruit and the tuberose are just undertones, the vanilla isn't particularly noticeable, and the neroli fades after the initial blast. It morphs a lot, and I think it's going to get even smoother over a couple of years.

Ooh boy. Filthy is a good word for this. Both notes smell like they have some age on them - they're strong, but they're not sharp, and masterfully blended. The vetiver is by far the dominant note in both the bottle and the skin, and it's rich with slight hint of dark vegetation. The patchouli holds it down and smooths it out. 

If you don't like vetiver, this won't change your mind - it's not swampy or scorched, but it's still definitive and forceful. It's about as Dirty Hippie as you can get without sandalwood.

Whenever I order decants, I always get one that's outside my comfort zone, because I am regularly surprised by things I shouldn't like. This was my experiment, but unfortunately it didn't work out on my skin.

When it's fresh, it's a really juicy and sweet floral, and not even all that much rose. It has almost more of a ... hibiscus tang to it. But once it dries down, it goes through a slightly ammonia phase (like jasmine but not nearly so strong) and then turns to powdery apricot. 

Fresh application is bright zingy orange and lime as promised, and the ylang ylang shows up a few minutes later. Aaaaand then the citrus fades away, leaving a slightly resinous floral with only the ghost of fruit beneath it.