Shollin

First sniff: A fruitier, drier and sharper version of the plumeria I’m familiar with, which is not at all a bad thing – plumeria is usually too loudly sweet-floral for me. Kitsune-Tsuki has a touch of smoky mystery to it.

Wearing: There’s a touch of fresh crispness, which is very nice and not something I was expecting from a round-fruity scent like this. It’s more floral on me, sweet and smooth and quietly beautiful.

It doesn't leap out and grab me by the throat and demand YOU WILL LOVE ME NOW... it sits back waiting to be noticed, and keeps surprising me with its introverted beauty. (I'm quite the introvert meself so I appreciate these things!) I like muchly.

First sniff: Cherry lollipops. Very bright, very sweet, very fun. Kabuki is decidedly less sophisticated and rich than Old Kyoto – these are just cherries for cherries’ sake.

Wearing: It tones down quickly on my skin, yay. There’s an odd dryness to it immediately – it switches from Extreme Juicy to desert air very quickly. I didn’t notice it very much at work, but before it faded off it developed an odd licorice-y aftertaste that I couldn’t really get into.

My mailbox was all mint and cherries when my last box showed up. Quite a different scent from the previous orders, and really lovely.

First sniff: Pure, sweet, gooey, drippy honey over a big bowl of fresh fruit, apples and blueberries. YUM.

Wearing: Why oh why did I wait so long to order Jezebel? It’s absolutely decadent. Warm and gooey and not too screamingly sweet. Amazing staying power, though it’s a bit odd – if I’m sniffing my wrist it's very faint, but every so often even after twelve hours or so I catch a whiff of the utterly intoxicating aura. This one’s a definite keeper.

Hey lady!

Do we need to bug you about it if they didn't spill much, just so you have some idea of how widespread the problem is? I know my High Priestess' label came off, but there's barely a dent in the oil level...

Ooh. That would be a fantabulous gift, actually - I know a lot of people who are nutters about rose soap.

First sniff: Oh-so-jasminey, cool and sweet. I’ve been rereading my Mercedes Lackey collection and jasmine always reminds me of what I think the Tayledras Vales would smell like at night – Nyx is no exception.

Wearing: It’s just too sweet, sadly. Toward the end of the night I kept catching a whiff of something I thought was musk, but it never quite settled. I'm betting the friend who ended up with most of my "too-girly-for-me" scents will love this one though.

I had a wee bit of leakage - the High Priestess seems to be the biggest culprit, but all four of my bottles were a bit slippery when I took them out of the packaging. I actually wiped the High Priestess' label off when I was trying to clean her up, but it stuck back on without a problem.

First sniff: Smooth honey and tart apples, a very springtime scent. I don’t smell rose in the vial.

Wearing: Ah, there it is. Slices of green apple rubbed with rose petals, when first sniffed on my skin, but the rose quickly becomes predominant and twines more firmly around the apple tree, greenery and all. It’s a fresh, calm, sunny blend that I think I really like. I’d categorize Eve as a green/floral. The honey shows up after a couple of hours and turns it decidedly less innocent. I was going to try something else on when I got home, but even after a couple of hours in a smoky bar Eve is quite determinedly hanging on… which is a good thing!

She's also responsible for my Very First Lab-inspired compliment... the lady at the blood drive today said I smelled "good... not too strong, but really good." Yay.

Dana O'Shee. Definitely. Jester would also be a great soap scent. And countless others, but those are what's coming to mind at the moment.

Yay for updates! And Nella told me my 4/17 order shipped out today, so an extra-big fuzzy snuggly :snerfle: to the gang!

I smelled tart green apples in Undertow, bizarrely. That's one of many that faded to soap on me though, so I can't really recommend it. Jester is by far the appliest to my nose, even though there's no apple in the description.

I've tried both Virgo and Libra and didn't smell apple in either of them - but I swapped them away before the scent notes were posted, so I didn't really get a chance to sniff for specific things.

I'm hoping for appley goodness in Eve - she's in my next order which WILL COME TODAY. :nods firmly:

Ooh! Another one I have to look for...

Does anyone know what happened to Ingenue?

Massage oil is what I was thinking. I'm having sudden visions of a massage with Bliss... :drool:

We're going to see our accountant [the one who bailed me out of my tax mess this year] on Thursday. Basically he's going to help us figure out how to switch from CcNow with minimal grief, and he's going to help me see if its at all feasable for me to quit my day job so I can do the Lab full time.

 

Here's hopin', right? =P

That would seriously ROCK, Beth. I'll keep some spare appendages crossed for you!

Oh, good... that means I won't have to place another order immediately when my current one shows up.

Good to see you around again, Beth. Glad Nella's making stuff slightly less insane!

Welcome, Nella. Good to have you around!

Yup, there's definitely a PJ's here and I know exactly where it is. Maybe I'll take myself out for coffee tomorrow on my weekend.

Thanks for the rec, SV! *end of hijack*

Well, I've just come to the stunning realisation that I've never actually had a good cup of chai... just the stuff from Starbucks, which I wasn't terribly impressed with.

So I don't know how helpful I can be about the scent, but I can tell you Hunger and Seraglio smell hellagood together, very creamy-sweet, somewhat foody-spicy, and surprisingly, Hunger's orange and Seraglio's rose aren't clashing. I actually can't smell the rose at all, which is weird, because after the almond fades that's usually Seraglio's topnote. They both seem to be toning each other down so I don't feel like I've spilled almond extract all over me (from Seraglio) and I don't feel like I'm sitting inside a vanilla candle (from Hunger) - it's melded into one delicious sweet/spicy scent with just enough vanilla.

Granted, they haven't had a whole lot of time to dry and develop yet, but the first few minutes are very promising.

Hunger has the vanilla and the orange peel, but not the other stuff. I wonder if you could layer it with Seraglio or if they'd fight... hmm, I have both of those scents, I should try it. I'm not sure the Lab has any scents that contain black tea... there are a few with green or white tea, but I don't remember seeing one with black.

I'll report on the Hunger/Seraglio experiment.

Well, I should probably check these things before I lie to y'all...

It still might be an oversight - I remember that in the last update before this one, Ingenue and Vicomte de Valmont were listed as available on the Shiny & New page but never made it onto the Love Potions page. However, Vicomte is there now, and not Ingenue...

I'll wait for confirmation from Beth before leaving a "discontinued" note in the Ingenue topic title in Reviews. And if it is gone... well, at least I got to try it...

I liked Ingenue.  It's very "clean" smelling with green, fresh undertones.

 

Why can't I find a description of it anywhere?  Is it new?

If you're looking for reviews, they're right here. If you're searching for it on the Lab's site, it's under Love Potions - and the "find" function of your browser might not work because there's an accent over the first e.

Phantasm - light, fresh, clean and citrusy. No basil though.

First sniff: Bold, bright berries. Bordello smells like dessert – I feel like I should be eating it with really good vanilla ice cream, the pricey kind with the little brown flecks.

Wearing: A wild, thorny berry patch in the moonlight. It’s not sunny like so many of the fruit scents I’ve tried have been – this one is shadowed. After a few minutes it’s less of a berry patch and more of a vineyard, but still wild and overgrown; I smell grapes rather than wine, big round lush grapes that would burst perfectly on your tongue.

First sniff: Holy WOW. Chocolate almonds is my first thought – there’s definitely something in Bliss that elevates it above Hershey. My enduring visual impression is melted chocolate being drizzled over someone’s bare skin in a very warm candlelit bedroom. It’s amazingly sensual.

Wearing: As Emeril would say, “Oh yeah, baby.” I want to lick myself. Same in the vial as on my skin - just chocolate, chocolate, chocolate.