biggnerd

this gives me Shadow vibes. Labdanum is the strongest note. It's spicy and sweet, it doesn't go into root beer territory like it sometimes can. It has the sweet spiciness that some root beers have, without going full root beer. The sandalwood is providing a woody base that makes the labdanum behave. The grey musk is hanging around being a gauzey mist of musk that sometimes appears in front and sometimes behind. 

This smells like a fresh bag of clay, earthy and mineralic, a little dusty, I think this is the scent of the bean. The phlox is a light sweet floral that sits in the backseat. 

Medicinal clove (like the one in Pericardium) and light vetiver. I tend to amp both clove and vetiver. The clove is stronger on me than the vetiver. The vetiver isn't very dark, oily, or charred. 

grassy vetiver with some char, the honey becomes more apparent as the scent warms up and melds with the skin. It's a dry, amber honey, kind of like it dried on some wood.

A Place of Seeing Lilith: a soft marshmallow pillow, not too sweet, with some flower petals scattered on it. The bergamot is keeping everything from being too sweet, but it isn't sharp or citrusy.

This is such a pretty forest scent. It deviates a little from my usual "oh hey, here's a face full of pine needles" scents. It starts off as moss, mugwort, cypress, pine, and balsam. On the skin it initially goes soapy (both moss and mugwort can do that on me), it eventually turns into a soft, powdery pine sap and cedar scent. That phase is nice, but the soap phase lasts too long for my liking. 

This is a weird strawberry scent. It smells kind of like what my strawberry shortcake doll smelled like, minus the doll smell. It's weird because it doesn't smell realistic, but it has enough realism in it to make my mind associate with picking strawberries. It's like a fictional handful of fresh strawberries, so in that sense, it's apropos. 

This is a cousin of Strawberry Moon. The sweet, juicy strawberry is there, but it's hanging out in the background adding some sweetness to the blend. It's prominence faded as it aged. 

This is a heady, big floral where I can't pick out one flower over the other. It doesn't go soapy or indolic. The strawberry is adding just a kiss of fruity sweetness. 

Starts off as sweet coffee and fades into sweet ambrette. It's a warm, caramel colored scent that hangs around all day. It's a sweet, musky, golden amber. 

This is a spicy black pepper and tobacco flower scent. I love tobacco flower and love it combined with the black pepper. However, something in this makes my skin go bright red and itchy so it will be a scent locket scent. Luckily, it doesn't morph much on my skin. 

This is herbal lavender, slightly camphorous, my favorite. The oakmoss is soapy and almost aquatic. It reminds me of the moss in Parthenope. This is like a soothing lavender soap, in a good way. When I wear this for bed, I can still smell it in the morning. 

I had a lot of hope for this. I wanted a creamy, ricey, resiny blend. I got loud, medicinal clove with a hint of creamy rice. Massive bummer. 

It smells the way honeysuckle nectar taste, a hit of sugar, a bit of pollen, and a hint of green. All with a beautiful pale pink scent floating around you.

When I sniff this I think, "tonka?" Then, looking at the notes, I'm trying to puzzle through what's giving me that vibe. I think it's the tobacco, benzoin, and cedar. The tobacco is dry and kind of light brown, sweetened by the benzoin, and the cedar is there providing a woody base (not overtly woody, but a grounding sweetness). This is the like The Cat - dark musk + dry tobacco. I don't get much ambergris, it's kind of in there hanging around with the benzoin, or any costus. 

Oh, Mad Sweeney, you are boozed soaked and lovely. 

I slathered this the other day and had a moment where it took my breathe away a little. The fumes are quite strong. They burn off quickly, like how you get used to the burn when sipping a nice whiskey neat. The scent settles down into a peaty, caramel, butterscotch with toasted, warm oak. It's like giving a good whisky or scotch a good sniff. Once the scent melds with my skin, I smell like a boozy butterscotch hanging out in a dark, oak box. It's a snuggly, cozy scent perfect for cooler weather. 

Be careful if you slather though. Take it easy on application. 

Oh my glorb this is amazing. This is a strong, juicy, slightly floral, sweet strawberry. There's a hint of chewy honeycomb, but it's just there adding a syrupiness to it. This is like strawberry syrup made from fresh strawberries. It is really gorgeous and a wonderful scent to enjoy in warm weather, or when you're dreaming about warm weather. The throw is amazing too. Slathering is almost too much. 

Trumpet honeysuckle & lemon bee balm is lemony, smooth honeysuckle. It's fresh. The bee balm keeps the honeysuckle from being heady and the lemon isn't going pledge. This is a cousin to Shanghai.

This is mainly a powdery, honey and chamomile smell. It's like huffing the head of a freshly washed baby. It's very comforting. There is just a hint of cistus and nicotiana adding some light floral and resin depth. 

Oh man, this has gotten better with age. It's musky, fruity, sugary banana and guava with amber grounding it. The banana has mellowed with age and is less runts candy and now is golden, sweet, ripe banana. It melds with the guava to make the perfect tropical fruit salad sprinkled with amber and musk. 

I want to lick myself. 

Pink peppercorn with a lemony rose, eventually settles down into soft, faint pink rose. 

This is the diffuse scent of silver asphodel with a touch of ozone. 

Finally! The TKO I've been looking for. The released version is way too sweet for and overpowering. This version of TKO has a soft, herbal, floral lavender that cuddles with a soft sweetness. The marshmallow and vanilla are subdued and make the scent snuggly instead of "OMG I fell in the vanilla marshmallow vat at the chocolate factory!" 

First, oud and I don't get along - it's usually either poopy or overly perfumey on me. Pecan Pie Oud is well-behaved oud. Initially I get a whole lot of nuttiness with a perfumey oud underneath. I get a little buttery pastry dough, then it settles into the sweet chess filling plus gentle, smooth oud. 

This is sweetened nutmeg and cinnamon musk.  

I have a fresh imp from the Lab that's been settling about a week. I've tried Tombstone before and it smelled like root beer. Usually my skin is going to take any vanilla and run with it, however, that didn't happen with Tombstone. The main note is the balsam, which, when untempered by other notes, is quite manky on me. It eventually settles down and a sweet cedar emerges, but never surpasses the balsam.