caitilarkin

Sage hates me, and frankincense often goes too sweet on my skin, but I had hoped that the musk and currant would dominate here.

 

In the imp: Oooh, promising! The Moroccan musk is lovely and so is the currant. I can only detect a distant hint of sage. Yay!

 

Wet on skin: Well, my friend sage is behaving, but the frankincense has amped to a very high, overly sweet state, as it is wont to do.

 

Dry on skin: Crap, crap, crap. It's The Frankincense Show, with a little bit of musk and nary a hint of red currant.

 

All other resins like me; frankincense is the only holdout.

In the imp: Currant and rhubarb with a faint hint of mushroom

 

Wet on skin: Oh dear, the rhubarb is turning very, very tart and clashing with the mushroom.

 

Dry on skin: Sadly, the rhubarb and mushroom were the dominant notes and they did not like each other, or me. The champaca probably didn't help either, as it has a history of going very sharp on me. Ah well.

In the imp: Deliciously musky, woodsy, resiny, metallic pear--very well-blended

 

Wet on skin: I keep waiting for the pear or the pyrite notes to amp, but they're behaving perfectly.

 

Dry on skin: This is the perfect balance of fruit, musk, wood, resin and metal. Marotte is rich without being overpowering, sweet without being cloying, metallic without the sharpness, and the whole blend is grounded by the lovely mahogany and patchouli notes. (Actually, I can barely detect the patchouli at all.) And it lasts over eight hours on me.

 

Total win

In the imp: Lovely rich tonka backed by tobacco and a whiff of coffee

 

Wet on skin: The tonka is very strong--good thing we likes tonka. The coffee is more subdued now, the tobacco is going a tad cigarette-ish and there's a booze note that is going a bit sour.

 

Dry on skin: After about an hour, my skin turns this blend into old cigarettes and cheap whiskey. This is especially sad because the Lab's booze notes usually love me.

 

This is lovely in the imp, just not on my skin. Scent locket time!

In the bottle: This smells exactly like Wensleydale--a clean, vaguely cottony skin scent. Weird. This scent doesn't seem to have any relationship to O. My imp of O is so strong that I can usually smell it from across the room.

 

Wet on skin: Faint amber and honey with a tiny hint of spice

 

Dry on skin: Spicier, and the honey is overtaking the amber. The blend is still quite faint, so this will be a good one for hot weather.

 

I shall christen this blend A Summertime O.

Like all the other insomniacs who have reviewed TKO, I purchased this in hopes of getting help in my endless quest for a decent night's sleep. Lavender can either be softly floral on me or can go to pungent herbal body odor, so this should be interesting.

 

In the bottle: Sharply herbal, with lavender in the background

 

Wet on skin: Still mostly herbal, but the lavender is a bit more noticeable and is luckily staying away from the dreaded BO morph.

 

Dry on skin: After about an hour, the lavender is at the forefront. I never get the soft vanilla sugar/marshmallow that others have mentioned. Instead, the lavender stays very plant-like (for lack of a better word) and doesn't get sweet or overtly floral.

 

It definitely helps me sleep, so much so that I can only wear it before bed if I definitely don't have to wake up for at least eight hours. Overall, it was very different from what I expected based on previous reviews but it certainly serves its purpose.

The label is smudged and I can't make out any of the numbers.

 

In the bottle: Dorian with extra lemon

 

Wet on skin: The extra lemon is more like lemon verbena--yum! And there's a lovely dollop of ginger as well.

 

Dry on skin: Dorian with soft lemon verbena and ginger! I have officially lucked out with this bottle.

 

Sadly, it only lasted about two hours in my first test. I'll have to see what I can do to increase the wearlength because this is gorgeous.

DII

 

In the bottle: A wood note that registers as oak to my nose with faint florals. No trace of Snake Oil...

 

Wet on skin: The floral note, which I have decided is in the lily family, is amping and threatening to turn soapy. Where is my Snake Oil?

 

Dry on skin: Yep, there is definitely some kind of lily in here being grounded and subdued by a lovely oak note. After about an hour, the scent is quite nice and I will keep it to see how it ages. But it freaks me out that there is absolutely no trace of Snake Oil in this blend--no spices, no vanilla, no red musk--nada.

CCNow didn't send email confirmation of my Lab or Trading Post orders either (the Lab order was Friday, the TP order was placed today). But I printed out the page immediately after hitting the submit button, so at least there's proof if something goes wrong.

In the imp: Very tart citrus

 

Wet on skin: Strong, bitter citrus--sadly, without a touch of sweetness or depth to cut the sharpness

 

Dry on skin: This stayed strong and bitter for several hours, then mercifully faded into nothingness.

 

I am a citrus FIEND, and normally love the Lab's grapefruit and yuzu notes especially. Sadly, this one was too much for me.

I am a hardcore citrus fiend and particularly in love with mandarin orange, but fig is very hit-or-miss on me.

 

In the imp: Orange (which is more like orange blossom at this point) with faint, dark fruitiness in the background that must be the fig

 

Wet on skin: The mandarin orange is much brighter and stronger, and very sweet. Not getting much fig at this point.

 

Dry on skin: Now the mandarin is grounded and subdued by the fig, but the blend still remains bright and tart. So far today, it has lasted about five hours. It's a very straightforward blend--perfect for late spring and all summer, or anytime you don't feel in the mood for a spicy scent.

 

I adore this one! Any citrus lovers out there absolutely must try this one out.

In the imp: Very faint floral, with a buttery/aquatic tang as previous reviewers have mentioned

 

Wet on skin: Antique Lace, is that you? Because it sure smells like you...

 

Dry on skin: Ah, here's that transformation that everyone's been talking about. Now it's mostly a non-foody vanilla, with a distant ocean/floral/buttery scent that I've never experienced before. The blend is also much stronger dry than wet.

 

This lasted about 10 hours on me and garnered a compliment last night, so it's going into the Pile of Win.

In the imp: Tea (much lighter than I had expected) with lots and lots of lemon

 

Wet on skin: Light tea with lots of sugar, cream and lemon--florals very far in the background

 

Dry on skin: This becomes much fainter as it dries, but remains a lovely, creamy tea scent. Luckily, the lemon never turns to Pledge on me in this blend. Dorian will be nice for spring and summer.

In the imp: Plums floating in a dish of cream

Wet on skin: Much greener and lighter than in the imp, probably because of the florals--the plum and cream are still dominant, though

Dry on skin: The greenery/wildflowers note fades into the distance, the plum is a bit lighter and the cream is smooth and rich.

Lots of throw--I was complimented on this scent last night by people who were nearly a foot away and I had only put a little dab on each wrist. And Prunella was still going strong when I woke up this morning.

Bottleworthy!


ETA scent description

The Lab's musk notes love me, particularly white musk, so I was excited to try this.

 

In the imp: Very strong white musk, with a hint of floral and...dirt. Huh. That must be the patchouli, but it usually doesn't smell like dirt to me.

 

Wet on skin: I never thought I'd say this, but there is apparently such a thing as too much white musk. Wow. Even the patchouli has fled in terror.

 

Dry on skin: This was quite the morpher. The first hour, the white musk went through a very strong aftershave/hairspray phase. But by the two hour mark, the poppy had emerged to tame the musk into a mellow, springlike blend with just the faintest hint of patchouli for depth.

 

I loved the final phase and it lasted for more than 10 hours. But getting through the hairspray part was very painful. I'll have to retest this one.

In the imp: Rich plum--not too sweet or overripe

 

Wet on skin: The lilac amps for about 15 minutes, but then calms down and blends with the plum and leather.

 

Dry on skin: After about an hour, this is a beautifully blended plum and leather scent with the lilac adding faint sweetness. Once again I am reminded how much I love the lab's leather note.

 

Lasts about 12 hours on me, with the plum being the strongest and longest-lasting note. I'm currently trying to talk myself out of a bottle...

I was nervous about this one after reading previous reviews because almond is an angry, bitter Note of Death on my skin.

 

In the imp: Cream and oatmeal with maybe a hint of almond (but maybe I'm just imagining the almond)

 

Wet on skin: I'm getting more almond to go with the oatmeal and cream, but it's staying sweet--YAY!

 

Dry on skin: This remained a lovely, comforting oatmeal with a touch of almond. It's pretty faint and doesn't last long (3-4 hours on me) but I love it while it's around. This will be one of my post-gym imps.

In the imp: Lots of rose, backed by straw/hay and a faint aquatic note

 

Wet on skin: ROSE to the nth power...but it is a mellow, demure rose without any of the sourness that sometimes accompanies this flower on my skin.

 

Dry on skin: The rose is nice, but there is nary a hint of any of the other notes. I loved it in the imp and will have to try it in a scent locket to see if the straw and amber will come out to play.

In the imp: Antique Lace HUH?

 

Wet on skin: The same linen-y vanilla from Antique Lace, lightly spiced with carnation

 

Dry on skin: Yup, Morocco is Antique Lace's urban cousin--a creamy vanilla with light spices. Lasts 3-4 hours on me and is very close to the skin.

 

I expected a much spicier, heavier scent so multiple tests of this one really freaked me out until I read the previous reviews and realized that I was not, in fact, going crazy or the possessor of some weird olfactory blind spot. This is close enough to my beloved Antique Lace that I won't need a bottle, but I will have fun using up my imp.

In the bottle: Citrus with suprisingly light amber, spiced with black pepper

 

Wet on skin: Peppery citrus, made sweeter by the amber and tobacco, but nary a hint of vetiver

 

Dry on skin: The black pepper receeds into the background while the citrus/tobacco/amber meld into...fresh squeezed orange juice.

 

Definitely lighter and less complex than I expected, but very lovely, especially since I adore the Lab's citrus notes. Perhaps it will deepen with age...in any case, I like this very well right now as a springtime scent.

This review is for a bottle from the Lab, aged for about four months.

 

In the bottle: Plummy, musky patchouli

 

Wet on skin: The fruit and musk are amping and the patchouli is receeding--this is incredibly strong but very, very delicious.

 

Dry on skin: The fruit/musk becomes sweeter with time (I'm not really getting any vanilla from this blend) and the patchouli fades quite a bit, adding just a touch of dirty spice in the background.

 

Loads of throw and long wearlength (8+ hours)--I've gotten oodles of compliments on this the few times I've worn it because it is TEH SEXAY. (Sadly, I wouldn't dare to wear this at my extremely conservative job.) This is a BPAL classic that everyone should at least sniff once.

In the bottle: I purchased this from the Lab four months ago, but decided to let it age a bit before reviewing. Originally, it smelled like sharp cocoa and fresh (i.e., very medicinal) Snake Oil, but it has now mellowed into rich, milky chocolate backed by teak with subdued Snake Oil in the distance.

 

Wet on skin: Woody cocoa and vanilla (from the SO) backed by Snake Oil spices.

 

Dry on skin: The cocoa, vanilla and teak are perfectly balanced, with the mysterious Snake Oil spices keeping the blend interesting. Sweet, complex and non-foody, this very cocoa-y blend lasts over 12 hours on me and never gets either bitter or too sweet.

 

From first sniff in the bottle until I wash it off 8-9 hours later, this is rich, creamy milk chocolate. The Lab's chocolate note has proven to be tempermental on my skin *glares at Bliss and Velvet* so maybe the buttercream is making it behave for me. There's no discernible morphing over time for me--it's just a buttery, chocolately love fest.

 

Try it, wear it in public and prepare to be NOMMED by friends, co-workers, luvahs and random strangers.

In the bottle: Spicy, woody chocolate (not getting any cherry)

 

Wet on skin: Hi, cherry! Thanks for coming out to play with the chocolate!

 

Dry on skin: The cherry is bright and strong, but it's balanced by the chocolatey/herbal/spice/wood elements.

 

Lasts over 12 hours on me and the cherry fades considerably after the first 2-3.

In the bottle: Honeyed, spicy wildflowers

 

Wet on skin: Yum! These flowers are definitely swaying in the breeze somewhere, not in a greenhouse. The honey is present, but is not taking over the blend at this point.

 

Dry on skin: The scent because more honeyed and syrupy as it dries, but it never gets cloying because of the green-ness of the wildflowers.

 

Lasts for 5-6 hours on me (the honey lasts longer than the florals). It's a keeper!