Little Bird

I get headshoppy amber incense (dark, slightly powdery/dusty, richly resinous and sweet, with a slight, hazy smokiness) and a spicy sweetness that smells like cinnamon dusted hot cocoa. The oud smells of dry wood and sharp smoke, and it's present for me in the drydown. So it's lots of labdanum, a sophisticated oud, and a mug of spiced cocoa. The dragon's blood gives everything an edge of sensuality and a dark, glowing red tone. Almost red musk-ish, but more incensey. The overall feel is very heavy from the strong labdanum/amber, and I don't love the powdery/dusty sides to it. After a couple hours, it leans towards a vanilla-y amber that's quite powdery, with the other notes having faded away underneath the labdanum. I can't smell the patchouli or opoponax at all.

My feelings are the same as Amoraexcena's. I thought this was a safe blind buy and figured it'd be a sweet, simple gloss and I couldn't go wrong with marshmallow and cotton candy. I was also hoping for creamy Stekk marshmallow. This is like circus peanuts on me, though. Gummy, chewy, unpleasant, slightly artificial banana and generic froot smell mixed with sugary dye. It's like a cheap candy that tastes sickly of dye and artificial things that you probably shouldn't be consuming. It smells stale rather than creamy, and not fluffy or gooey or marshmallow or reminiscent of real cotton candy at all. I 100% get that sickly orange color and stale chewiness and artificial monstrosity that is circus peanuts.

The only note that I was worried about was the orris (I think its powdered sugar sweetness would ruin this for me), and thankfully it is the only note that doesn't show up on my skin. Emeralds is beautiful. I always want to love green scents, but I rarely end up wearing them. Emeralds is a green scent that I've loved wearing this summer. I can smell the rose sap, ivy, oakmoss, pine, lime, and juniper. All of the notes sort of fade in and out around the rose sap, like they all want to be rose sap's leading man and are jostling for attention. It's not chaotic or jarring, though; everything melds together so well and so smoothly. I love the burst of lime, which is like a key lime squeezed over the scent, giving everything a citrusy lift that's mouthwatering to me. It's a very realistic lime note. There's a lot of lime for the first half hour and then it softens and enters the dance with the other notes. Ivy is there with its smooth, cool, dark greenery, the oakmoss with its earthier, dry green, and the pine and juniper smell like sweet evergreen sap and fresh needles. Nothing sour or harsh to me. The rose sap truly smells like I took a rose, tore off the petals on the top, and kept the rose-tinged, green stem. Very much that green, smooth, cool scent of walking into a florist's fridge, which is a scent that I've always loved. All of the notes are wonderful, like the best versions of themselves, and they dance around each other in a way that keeps the scent interesting for me. One of my favorites of this year's Lupers.

I like Cat Sleeping On An Armchair a lot more than the Coconut Tree blend that also recently went up on the Lab's site. Coconut Tree smelled like coconut suntan lotion, oily and cloying, but Cat Sleeping reminds me of a coconut Boo. The coconut here is super creamy, sweet yet not overly sweet, and just slightly buttery, like cracking open the best coconut ever and eating the meat of it. Then there's a slight undertone that keeps reminding me of breezy linens hung out to dry and, simultaneously, snuggling into a warm blanket. It's rare for me to find a coconut scent that I enjoy, but I love this one because it's so creamy, like a vanilla-y sweet cream mixed with coconut.

Starts off with fuzzy tomato stems and a dusty sharpness that I didn't enjoy, but it thankfully went away after a few minutes. Then it shifts into a phase where it's a little animalic and a lot earthy, and I love this midstage where it smells like some sort of dark patchouli musk. After about an hour, Black Cat With Tomato Plants settles into its final form and stays there for about 5 hours before it fades away. It's the clean musk of a men's department store perfume and a zesty orange blossom with a sharp orange note. It's interesting how this goes from earthy and animalic to a clean, masculine, slightly soapy, proper men's fragrance with a dose of orange zest and orange blossom that leans just slightly bitter, but it works as a men's fragrance. I happen to love wearing traditionally masculine fragrances, so I love this one. It winds up being simple and clean with a bit of a bite from the orange tones, softened by the creamy blossom part of the orange blossom. I was expecting a very literal scent of a tomato garden interspersed with the herbal-spicy scent of geranium and marigolds and dirt, but this is more refined and the musk and orange blossom are the drydown for me.

Old Woman With Cat is as cozy and autumnal as I hoped it would be. It starts off as soft, sugared spice, a cloud of cocoa powder, and flour dusted over a wooden board. Warm and sweet. I get a hint of dried herbs for the first few minutes, but that disappears quickly. After a half hour, I'm left with a pile of sugar with warm spices (cinnamon-ish from the pumpkin) sifted through it and a hint of flour. Every once in a while, I still get a random whiff of the chocolate, which is wonderful. By the 4 hour mark, the chocolate is more present again and it's darkening everything a little and it's so good. It makes the blend feel a bit shadowy and mysterious to me. Sugar with cinnamon and cocoa powder sifted through it. The description lists cocoa absolute, but there is no sludgy cocoa absolute in my bottle, so there's nothing that needs to be mixed up to experience the full scent and get the chocolate-y tones. I keep thinking 'sugar and spice and everything nice' as I wear this. It is the cozy autumn vibes that I need right now 🦇🧡🖤.

I got my new cats in the mail today! I wanted to let these rest a little, but couldn't resist slathering this one on immediately. First thing of note is that this is super strong with tons of throw, enveloping me in a gorgeous, caramelized vanilla cloud with enticing, slightly powdery, slightly spicy tonka and tiny drops of golden, smoothly woody amber. It's like a caramelized vanilla custard perfume in the sense that it smells delicous and vanilla-y, but you know that this is still an elegant perfume and not food in front of you, thanks to the other notes. Leans slightly tropical in feel, the way that some Tahitian vanilla and vanilla orchid notes strike me. The drydown after a couple hours is still that perfectly caramelized vanilla custard (sweet yet not too sweet, and this is super creamy) with the sense of a hint of vanilla orchid and a good dose of amazing tonka with its spicy, powdery nuances. Tonka notes are often pale and powdery to me with a weakly honeyed scent, but this picks up the spicy, creamy, well rounded sweetness that good tonka can have, so I'm really enjoying it. I love Cats & Sparrows just as much as I thought I would ❤️.

Blue Silk Rose is so pretty and unusual. I usually dislike violet in bpal fragrances because they're so strong and overpowering on my skin, but the powdered sugary, deliciously sweet violet in this is wonderful, bolstered by the blackberry that still smells sweet and juicy to me, not dried. The blue musk adds a smooth, cool quality to everything (but not minty) and when the rose comes through in the drydown, it's subdued by the other notes so that this isn't in-my-face rose or violet. The opium and orchid are light, but there, and add a sultry quality to the scent, a hint of dark resin and proper perfume floral. It really does have a blue feel to it, which is unique. I like this a lot, even though it does fade on me pretty quickly, gone in about 2 hours. It's a perfume that I'd have to wear in my hair to get more longevity out of it, but that's okay.

I agree with MamaMoth that this is like fuzzy tomato stems at first. You can smell the slight herbal spiciness and juiciness of a tomato, but it doesn't quite smell as intense or rich as a tomato plant generally does because this is quite clean smelling to me. The patchouli comes through in the drydown as a warm earthiness paired with the peppery tones and a very clean, watery tomato juice. Soup is very light on me. It sits right on the skin with no throw, and it barely lasts a half hour before I can't smell it at all anymore. All in all, I'd say that it's a clean and light scent, in spite of the patchouli.

Deep, rich, sweet, oaky (and in the drydown, slightly leathery), red wine, clean and milky skin, and smooth, woody, forest tones with a spicy warmth to them. I really enjoy this blend. It feels like a joyous romp between forest spirits, with wine flowing and no inhibitions. Sensual, playful, happy, wild scent. I love fragrances that feel both masculine and feminine at the same time, and I get that feel from Nymph & Satyr, appropriately. I almost missed this fragrance, lost in all of the updates, but I'm glad that I randomly decided to grab a bottle on the secondary market. This is one of those scents that the Lab does so well, that feels like offerings in the forest to me, because I usually offer red wines and honeyed milk.

Weirdly, Nymph in a Goldfish Pond is reminding me of ramune soda, ramune flavored puchao candy, and cream soda. Bubbly cream soda and pink bubblegum. The lab's lotus notes usually turn to a creamy pink bubblegum scent to me, and I strongly smell the lotus here. Then there's this vaguely fruity, bubbly, cheerful yet high pitched scent, like fizzy bubbles popping in a soda. I wish it stayed this way because the drydown starts to turn more powdery and dry, and kind of sickly sweet, and then the fizzy bit starts to go a little soapy on me. Cloying, sweet floral with pops of fruity, fizzy tones.

Very soapy and strong. It's kinda like someone danced around a freezing little stream and mossy glen flinging laundry soap powder all over everything. I can smell the humid moss and an impression of cold water, but the spring floral laundry soap thing is intense and even a tiny dab of this feels very overwhelming to me. It's like it wants to smell natural and alluring, but it's absolutely coated in harsh, artificially scented soap.

Baked strawberries (like big chunks of halved strawberries baked into a golden muffin) and a patchouli that reminds me strongly of Goblin's coconut husky, sweet, creamy patchouli. At first, there's a tropical lilt to the scent, like a drizzle of lychee and passionfruit, but the drydown is all that gorgeous patchouli, a more subtle, baked strawberry, and a surprising amount of creaminess on my skin. Strawberries and cream laying on a patch of sunwarmed earth. An excellent patchouli with good throw and staying power.

I recommend checking out: Alice (spicy carnation, milk, honey) Boomslang (Snake Oil, cocoa absolute, creamy rice milk, teakwood) Chad (you didn't mention chocolate, but this is the best bpal chocolate to me) Chocolate Babka (flaky, buttery croissant with melty chocolate, cinnamon, hint of rye bread) Cosmic Critters (vanilla frosting, frothy milk, pulpy fig, and patchouli) Doom Cake (haven't tried this, but it's cherry, lemon, buttercream, and cake) Gobo (sweet, cheerful citruses and marshmallowy vanilla) Honey Babka (reminds me of almond cake and donuts with powdered sugar) How Doth The Little Crocodile (mint, chocolate, vanilla, cedar) Jiaolong (if you like coffee, this is one of my favorites, and the sugar note in it is wonderful) Millennial Pink (raspberry jam, white chocolate, creamy musk) Nightingale (yellow cake, vanilla, honey, soft spices) Please Scream Inside Your Heart (oily, fried dough and cinnamon sugar) Schrodinger's Cat (mint chocolate, sweet citruses, and lavender) The Serpent in the Berries (gorgeous vanilla sugar, dark berries, strawberry, and a little Snake Oil) Syrnyk (vanilla cheesecake danish with powdered sugar and crumb topping) White Cat (lemony, marshmallowy, amber)

Goes on like smooth, spa-like bamboo, milky dandelion sap, and hints of green grass and something reminiscent of black pepper. Pulpy green with a bite. The peppery bite disappears after about 15 minutes, though. Reminds me of Kostnice, which I love. Flower Moon 2024 has a creamy, lightly sweet, floral quality in the drydown that makes me think of white lilies (no soap, but the scent of actual lilies). I wasn't sure what to expect from the notes and figured this scent would be challenging to wear, but it's actually a very beautiful, creamy, green touched floral that's easy to wear and soothing. Nothing soapy or sharp. Smells like running through a green field in a sundress with a bouquet of white lilies, as though you're in a Marc Jacobs commercial or an extra in the movie Midsommar, lol.