caitilarkin

In the bottle: Wow, this is...salty. There's musk and sweetness in the background, but I got such a strong salt note every time I opened this that I let it sit for a couple of months before testing it on my skin.

Wet on skin: I bought this before I realized that every nut note hates me. Even blossoms of any nut tree hate me. It's a conspiracy. Anyway, chestnut blossom hates me just as much as the rest of 'em, and it's amping fiercely.

Dry on skin: This is much better, but it's so different from what I was expecting. The blend eventually resolves into a very strong chestnut with buttercream, as previous reviewers have mentioned. There's no citrus, no discernible musk...it's Chestnut Victorious.

I'll have to think about this one for awhile.

In the bottle: Resins and lychee with lavender in the background

Wet on skin: Something is amping unpleasantly, almost like sweat (blames and glares at mysterious lunar herbs). And where is the Lab's lovely snow note that I adore so? The lychee and lavender are still present, though.

Dry on skin: Ah, here we go! The scary sweaty smell is gone and I'm left with a lovely blend that smells exactly like the description: chilly winter fruits and florals backed by cool resins.

This is a faint, close-to-the-skin blend on me and lasts about four hours.

In the bottle: Icy balsam (registered as mint to my nose at first) with very faint musk and florals

Wet on skin: Yowza, the balsam amps to high heaven and the other notes flee in terror.

Dry on skin: This takes almost an hour to bloom on my skin, but when it does...the balsam is tempered by the softness of the skin musk, while the florals and berries are discernable but very much in the distance.

Lasts over 6 hours on me, becoming richer and warmer with time.

Wintry loveliness!

In the imp: The lab's lovely dirt/soil note, with a hint of fruit

Wet on skin: The earth is joined by cherry, plum, tobacco with faint traces of florals.

Dry on skin: This scent literally blooms as it dries. The soil backs off just enough to highlight the deep sweetness of the fruit and the lighter florals (and the evil jasmine is behaving on me, for once in its life). If I try very hard, I can pretend that I'm gardening. Really!

This is so utterly lovely, and very different from any other scent I own. Now I need to decide if I'll wear it enough to justify springing for a bottle.

In the imp: Light aquatic notes with faint florals and frankincense

Wet on skin: Here come the florals--light and not at all soapy

Dry on skin: Sour, salty dryer sheets, then gone in about an hour

I need more of the water element in my life and really wanted to love this one.

In the imp: Wood with florals in the distance

Wet on skin: Well. I'm amping the wood notes to high heaven; the musk and florals are completely outmanned. I can definitely pick out the bamboo, but the other wood notes are blending. I think maybe I detect the walnut but that might be wishful thinking.

Dry on skin: I spoke too soon. Magnolia has arrived and she's taking over.

This ends up being a soapy magnolia with some bamboo on me. And it's so nice in the imp...maybe it will work better in my clocket, because these notes, they do not love my skin.

This is my first experience with the Lab's metal note.

In the imp: Ozone and light florals

Wet on skin: Ah, here come the honeysuckle and the musk. And the metal note, which registered as ozone to me at first, is very delicate, as others have said.

Dry on skin: Now slightly warmer and spicier from the carnation--absolutely beautiful.

Time to try more blends with metal, because this one's gorgeous!

In the imp: Sweet Tarts! I thought this would be entirely sweet but it has a delicious candy tartness as well.

Wet on skin: Crystallized pear, pomegranate and currant dusted with powdered sugar (still with the lovely tartness).

Dry on skin: Stays delicious for several hours--no soapiness or sharpness at all during the drydown.

I didn't think I'd like this one, but I love it!

In the bottle: Spice cake--I detect a lot of ginger but the fruitcake is very prominent.

Wet on skin: Gingered fruitcake--ginger, sugar, allspice and rum (which isn't smelling very alcoholic to my nose)

Dry on skin: The musk appears and the blend becomes less foody.

Very appropriate for the season, although I think it would be spicier without the musk. Very yummy and longlasting on me.

Got a frimp of this from a lovely and generous forumite

In the imp: Honey and subdued, rich florals

Wet on skin: The florals are behaving beautifully, even rose and gardenia which usually go crazy on my skin. The pink pepper is in the background adding a tiny hint of sweet spiciness.

Dry on skin: More resinous and slightly more spicy, with the florals still prominent.

This is one of the few blends with rose to work on me. And it's the first where gardenia has played nicely with the other scents. It's not quite as sassy as I expected, but I love it.

In the bottle: Incense and freshly cut wood

Wet on skin: Well-blended incense and wood (not pine but not massively cedar-y either)

Dry on skin: Becomes lighter and sweeter with time and lasts only 3-4 hours

I like this pretty well now, but based on past reviews it will probably improve hugely with age.

I bought a bottle unsniffed after reading all the rave reviews--this is one I never would have gone near based on the notes alone. And now it's my favorite BPAL. Ever.

In the bottle: Deep, velvety lavender and poppy with incense; this reminds me of Midnight Mass for some reason (probably because of the aforementioned incense).

Wet on skin: Delicious incense-y florals (well-blended lavender and poppy) are joined by deep amber and wood

Dry on skin: Just as the scent description says, this blend is an embrace, an enveloping friendly darkness.

Sexy, classy, smoky and utterly unique. If I had to stick to one scent for the rest of my life, this would be it.

I wore Perchta for Christmas. This was a particularly happy holiday for me this year (usually it's either meh or awful) and so Perchta will always evoke wonderful memories.

I jumped on a bottle of this as part of my rapacious lust for honeysuckle, even though I was a bit worried about some of the other notes (mead tends to go grainy on me and thyme sometimes ends up bitter).

In the bottle: Well-blended sunny florals with mead in the background

Wet on skin: The grainy mead amped for a few minutes before mellowing into a deliciously golden, boozy note. The florals are yellow and summery but not overwhelming.

Dry on skin: This is glorious, much more so than I had thought it would be. The honey appears and blends the richness of the mead with the supersweetness of the florals, while the herbs and woods add depth without bitterness.

This is a gorgeous representation of Summer Solstice--sunny, sweet and natural.

In the bottle: Sweet, creamy smoke and beeswax

Wet on skin: Warm beeswax with soft smoke and a vaguely spicy citrus note way in the background

Dry on skin: The beeswax note intensifies and I think I can detect a fruity olive oil--it's like an olive oil fresh off the presses in Italy that still is more olive than oil.

I adore this blend. It's strong, simple, warm and deliciously rich.

I got a decant of this thinking it would be the big hit of the Yules for me (citrus, honey and amber always do well on my skin) and that I would end up buying bottles and bottles of the stuff.

In the imp: Strong brown musk and some pine

Wet on skin: Patchouli has entered the fray, making this a very woodsy, husky scent.

Dry on skin: This blend has been entirely taken over by patchouli and brown musk with some pine in the background. No amber, honey, florals or citrus are to be found.

Now, I love musk and like patchouli and pine in some blends. But there is nothing sweet or citrusy in this blend at all, which I expected especially because I usually amp citrus and florals. This will probably go to someone whose skin chemistry is more compatible with this combination of notes.

In the imp: Lots of ozone with unidentifiable sweetness way in the background

Wet on skin: As expected, I'm amping the ozone and will have to wait it out...

Dry on skin: The mega-ozone lasted about an hour, then the violet becomes more prominent. I'm never able to detect any of the other notes.

Maybe aging will temper the ozone a bit; I'd love to get some sandalwood from this.

Resurrected Version

In the bottle: Rich, creamy vanilla with light spices and fruit

Wet on skin: Same as above, now with coconut and plum

Dry on skin: Slightly spicier, with a good balance between the creaminess of the coconut and the sweetness from the vanilla and plum

On my skin, this is richer and less spicy than Snake Oil; in fact, I wouldn't have thought to compare them if I hadn't read posts about similarities (and differences) between the two.

This goes strong on my skin for about six hours, then slowly fades over another three to six hours.

Love it and will be getting a back up bottle, seeing that this will probably age well.

In the bottle: The lab's beautiful trademark snow note, minus the pine that I usually smell with it

Wet on skin: Goes through a very brief plastic phase (but, of course, this bottle is less than a month old), then the snow is joined by light, unidentifiable florals

Dry on skin: Soft snow and faint florals...yup, just like the description. Lasts 7-8 hours on me, becoming slightly sweeter with time.

I love this now and can see it being wonderful during the summer as well as winter.

BeaverVersary!

In the bottle: Buttery vanilla cake goodness without the plastic note that I sometimes notice in foody scents when they're new

Wet on skin: Homemade vanilla cake and homemade cheesecake with freshly ground vanilla bean

Dry on skin: Oh baby...creamy vanilla cake with nutmeg and cinammon...where did the spices come from? They're perfectly blended with the yummy vanilla and cake notes.

This lasts forever and a day on me, basically until I scrub it off.

There's not even a whiff of strawberry to be found, but I don't care because this is glorious. I wore it all weekend and had people cuddling up to me the entire time. Love, love, love.

In the imp: Ozone and dust with a hint of sweetness (florals? fruit?)

Wet on skin: The ozone-y dust note amps for a bit, then turns pleasantly dusty, while the sweet notes intensify.

Dry on skin: Turns out gorgeous, like an apple orchard in the fall. Great staying power--lasts about eight hours on me. The lovely dust note fades a bit but the fruit stays sweet and lovely for the entire wearlength.

Bottleworthy!

In the imp: Peach

Wet on skin: Starts out peach, then morphs into the Soapy Gardenia Monster

Drydown: The Soapy Gardenia Monster kills the peach and vanilla cream notes and eats them. She then takes a nap and the honey furtively peeks out from under the rock where it has been hiding. In the end, I'm left with a pleasant-enough single note honey.

Hmmmm. Let's see how it ages.

In the imp: Spicy butter

Wet on skin: Hi, pumpkin! There you are! And you've brought lovely nutmeg and clove with you!

Dry on skin: Oh, mama...I want to lick my arm. Jack is warm, spicy pumpkin pie filling. There's no hint of peach anywhere--this is all spice, all the time.

I will need to check the Aging BPAL thread to see if there's any info on how this does over time; if it ages well, then I'm definitely going to need a bottle.

In the imp: The piney snow note (as opposed to the clean snow note in Snow White) with musky florals

Wet on skin: The snow note warms up and the pine is crisp without being astringent. I can't separate the various floral notes, but these are woodland flowers as opposed to hothouse-grown.

Dry on skin: Just lovely...this is the surprise hit of the Yules for me so far. Perchta evokes cross-country skiing through a pine forest on a star-filled December night.

How on earth will I be able to talk myself out of getting a bottle? This scent just says Yule to me.

Amber loves me. Yes, it does. It loves me so much that I almost bought a bottle of Jacob's Ladder unsniffed when the Yules came out, but in an uncharacteristic fit of caution I signed up for a decant instead. Turns out that was a good thing, because Jacob's Ladder does not love me.

In the decant: Light, sweet, almost fizzy resin. There's nothing heavy or serious about this blend.

Wet on skin: Jacob's Ladder meets my skin and immediately becomes confused. The notes are not blending--the light amber clashes with something floral and the tonka becomes very, very sweet, drowning out the other notes.

Dry on skin: For the first time, I am experiencing powdery amber in a BPAL. The blend dries down to a light, acrid tonka powder.

This was so thoroughly different from what I had expected that I bought an additional decant, thinking that perhaps the first one was mislabeled. Nope. Multiple tests from both vials have yielded the same results. Maybe the decants will grow deeper with age, but for right now this is my biggest BPAL sadness. Glad it works on so many others, though.