splendidissima

Oh, ice's post above reminded me that I never reviewed this (2024 version) - and I actually just put some on last week while reorganizing the stash!

It's absolutely delightful - bright, sweet citrus + herbal lavender! It really does feel like an orange-lavender candy, as someone said above. I don't really get anise - wouldn't be mad about it as a note, but I can't pick it out - maybe mingling with the lavender? I love sweet citrus, so this is exactly my wheelhouse. I would've bought a backup but I have waaaaay too many bottles by now and need to finish some or rehome some!

Got this as a frottle in a recent order! And the bottle very definitely says TALVIKUV, with a V - seems to be not a common one!

I get very 'cold citrus' - I can see it being slightly cleaner-ish. I think it's a lemon-herbal note + the Lab's snow or ice - the one that's chillier and icier, like slush. I actually kind of like it, though I might like it more as a 'clean kitchen' house scent versus on me!

This is almost all coffee on me, all the time! Coffee + a hint of spices. I do wish it were sweeter - I don't mind it as such, but I wish I got more ice cream and more funnel cake!

Sweet red wine, red apples, rich dark-brown sticky dates! It does indeed smell like autumn; my husband took a sniff and said, "apple cider? but, like, dark?" So I think this is a win!

Mmm, this is nice! Coffee is sometimes way too strong on me, but this is a creamy, milky, foamy lattte, swirled with lavender syrup. Just a purely *nice* scent to wear!

(still catching up on reviews, as I re-organize the stash!)

This is exactly what it says, and I don't know how else to describe it! It's like...those little strawberry-wrapped hard candies (the ones that have the wrappers that look like strawberries) - which I have a weird nostalgic love for, courtesy of great-great-grandparents and their candy dish - plus some literally indefinably *gritty* note, something sort of dark and scratchy, like asphalt, but that sounds less pleasant than it is! The strawberry is the loudest note, but it is a *hard* strawberry in all senses, like it's been in a West Side Story style street fight - not all *that* dark but still definitely a street scuffle!

I'm re-organizing my bottle collection, and doing some reviews I missed!

This one is so, so interesting - it's like a...sweet-earthy-dry-wine? I actually quite like it; I might wish it were a tad more sweet, but it's really tasty in a...not super desserty way? I get earthy purple-ish fig, some rich sweet-ish (like a port or sherry) wine, and a grounding of cake, but not super-sweet cake, more like a very English Victoria sponge, which of course makes sense! I really don't get honey at all. I think I like but don't love it; still, I'm glad I tried it!

Oops, never reviewed this! It's very pretty - I love sweet orange scents, and this is a candied orange with a whisper of freesia and a little-little flirty-spicy fleck of pink pepper. It is very springtime to me, and I really like it! It does fade very fast on me, though.

Pink and fun! I get strawberries and spun sugar - it's a noticeably different kind of sweet from the Pink Moon 2024, no cream or milk notes at all. It's a glittery sugar-crystal sugar + ripe strawberries. I do really like it, but it fades super-fast on me; within just a few minutes I have to put my nose right on my arm to smell anything at all. Going to go through this bottle fast!

This is the second scent I picked up from the Gorey collection, and while La Dame is my favorite (so good!) this is also very good, and I'm glad I got it!

It goes on as primarily raspberry punch - the raspberry is at the forefront, but there're clearly other fruit notes too, the elderberry and lemon. I don't really get the gin, unless that's giving it a slight effervescent quality? It's not boozy at all. It's delightfully bright and fruity. After a few minutes, there's the cake note - it is definitely a sweet baked good, and a somewhat airy one, like a white cake or angel-food cake (not a yellow cake or any sort of heavy cake at all). It's a sugary, fluffy, baked good note. 

I have actually found myself reaching for this more than once after I get home from a long day of teaching + office hours - I'm kind of hoarding La Dame (mmm...) but I really like this Raspberry Punch Cake; it makes me smile, and it's both bright and fruity, and also cozy and comforting: berries + light sweet baking. 

I love this a RIDICULOUS amount. I'm considering a second bottle.

It is primarily a big, sweet, vanilla-creamy, warm marshmallow - I agree with everyone who says it's got a 'warm' note, like some sort of magic being captured, a perfectly gooey stretchy (not burnt or toasty, just liquid) marshmallow. But then there's this bright grapefruit citrus spike - not sour, but...*just* enough tartness, like a little pink-yellow sunshine-stripe, to cut the narrowest edge off the sweetness so it's back from the death-by-sweet brink and instead absolutely beautiful. 

Eep, am I first? Oh gosh...

I actually really like this one - but I do like gourmands and bakery scents, so, I was pretty sure I would! 

It opens with a burst of the Lab's white chocolate - it is distinctly the white chocolate, that sweeter creamier thicker almost-artificial (I mean that in a good way, if that makes sense? like...you know how a bar of white chocolate smells? it's exactly that!) scent. And then this lovely baked-goods note comes in, after a few minutes - it actually makes me think of oatmeal cookies, which I think is the effect of macadamia nut + baked goods? This note isn't actually super-sweet - I think that's why I'm thinking oatmeal, nuts, porridge, a big thick golden fluffy thing. This balances really well with the white chocolate note! 

The only downside is that it makes me want to bake white chocolate chip macadamia nut cookies, and eat them all!

I was making an order and couldn't resist, as a medievalist...

The leather goes on STRONG on me - it's loud. It is more in the brown, warm, worn-in leather style, versus black, I think. For the first few minutes that's all I can smell. And then...the leather doesn't go away, but something I think is the Lab's paper note, especially the sort of aged paper, comes out - like a dry, er, papery (sorry! I can't think of a better adjective!) vanilla, like sniffing the pages of a very old book. I happen to like that, so yay! The leather is still there but it's more complex now.

I cautiously like it...it's not my usual wheelhouse, but I'm not mad at it. I may try it on the Awesome Husband - I might like it better on a partner than on me specifically? I think on me it leans...not masculine necessarily but a little more rugged than I like as a 'me' scent, more like...an adventurer-archaeologist sort of person wearing a battered leather jacket has shown up in your library to search through antique books, and they're super-hot, and you're into it, but also they're pulling all these old books off the shelves and flipping through pages, and those scents of old bindings and old paper and sun-warmed scuffed leather and a shaft of sunlight is filling up all your senses.

This is very pretty - a creamy, lightly sweet rose. It is more rose than anything else on me, but pink rose + soft sweet (ish - not overly) milk. I like rose when it's got a sweet or gourmand component, so I do like this overall. I don't get tea at all, but that's okay. It'll be pretty for teaching or conferences, I think: the review that said 'calm' feels accurate to me, nothing dramatic, just a nice soft pink creamy rose. 

Bright bold orange! It does make me smile.

It's not really very sweet, but it is like orange zest and peel and also walking through a citrus grove - outdoorsy and unabashed. Fantastic for spring and summer and sunshine, or when you just want to feel that way! Big, big throw and it lasts for ages, which is lovely - I put some in my hair this morning before going off to teach, and I kept catching wafts of it all day long.

2024 version!

Ooh, I love this! It's a fluffy white cake with buttercream frosting, plus a warm spiced (not spicy like chili, but like pie spice) apple note - I want to just eat my arm! I agree that it's not very boozy and I don't really get the whiskey, but that's fine with me. Goodness, this is tasty - like you baked a big cake with layers upon layers of buttercream and spiced apple pie filling inside. If you like those things, you will want this one!

Oh, gosh, first! Let's see...

I do really like this one! But I like the Lab's cider note and also buttery notes - and this has both, at least on me!

It's the same cider that's in the other NYCC oils: bright apples, soft spices, a whisper of sweetness. (I've always loved the Lab's cider note, back in the Fearful Pleasure days, and such...) Here, it's also joined by the same butter / cream note that's in scents like White Larry - warm, rich, something I can only describe as "melted butter-y"! It actually goes very nicely with the cider - adding a slightly savory, buttery, richness to the bright cider. If you like those things, you will probably like this, and if you don't, then you likely won't!

(For an odd fleeting moment about half an hour after putting it on, I got something...vaguely reminiscent of BPAL's Jack? I'm not sure what prompted that scent association, but I definitely thought, "oh, this kind of reminds me of Jack! ...but, wait, why? but it made me have that scent memory!" That seems to've faded now.)

Oddly, this one fades the fastest on me out of all the NYCC cider scents - maybe something about the butter note and skin chemistry?

Fizzy, yes! Mostly ginger ale - which I'm not mad at; I like it! - and a swirl of caramel to add sweetness and cut the sharpness of the ginger. I don't get much apple - maybe it's in there as it dries? or maybe I just want it to be in there, so I think it's there? Either way, it's still a fun scent, especially if you like effervescent ginger.

Mostly lovely apple cider, bright apple + spices! A little extra booze - the brandy note is noticeable but not dominant. Not as sweet as, say, the Apple Cider Donut, but still mostly apple cider, which I like!

Delicious! Pure apple cider, apples  + spices + that BPAL cider note, over a murmur of warm pastry. I'd say it is more cider than donut, but the donut is there, in the background, like you bought it to eat with your cider and the scent of it is wafting up. I love this one!

Frottle from the Lab, 2024 (so probably aged quite a bit)

...metal, men's cologne, spices (clove, ginger, pepper), in that order. Not really a me scent, but I have a friend who likes those things, so I'll pass along the bottle! Glad I got to try it, as an anniversary scent. ?

Frottle! And, yep, sharp citrus. I like citrus, but I generally like it on the sweeter side; this has a bite. I wonder if it would layer okay with some sweeter notes - something with marshmallow or vanilla, maybe...

More earthy than I was expecting! Clay, earth, dry cacao, spice. I don't get a ton of fruit - I admit I was hoping for more of a balance! It's not sweet at all; it does have an impression of...warm dry redness or ocher colors, perhaps? Like chili spices in the sun next to a sun-baked historic adobe building, perhaps. Which isn't bad - in fact it's interesting! - but I might try it in a diffuser or oil warmer, as a house scent, versus on me.

Mostly a delicious apple cider, not much marshmallow, but I'm not mad at it - I like apple cider! I've been wearing this one a lot. ?

I will add, the last time I wore this to campus, I was chatting with a colleague in the hall, and she said, "do you smell something like...incense? or, like...cinnamon sticks?" and I said, "oh, I think that's my hair gloss!" So...there's that, if that helps anyone!

Sweet honeyed dandelion wine - like summer in a bottle! I actually really like this; I dug out my old partial bottle to test, and liked it more than I remembered!