puellacaerulea

On me, this is mostly pumpkin spice, with a hint of musk. It's a pleasant enough gourmand scent, but it doesn't wow me like the other two scents in this series.

This one seems very well-blended, such that the notes that stand out the most are a soft, slightly smoky leather and rose, with a mix of balsams and resins underneath. The rose goes through a brief powdery phase on me, but otherwise behaves, and works surprisingly well with the leather note -- the overall post-drydown effect is almost like a skin musk. It stays fairly close to the skin and is weirdly cozy. Not 100% sure if I need a bottle yet, but I'll definitely be using my decant.

I'm also in the "more oud than pecan" camp. Throughout its wear time, this is a deep, woody, spicy oud, with a hint of nutty sweetness in the background. Fortunately, the oud behaves -- there are moments where I think I'm picking up something indolic, but this oud doesn't go stanky on me. This might be my favorite of the pie series.

This one starts out with light, sunny amber and citrus, with a hint of fresh ginger root in the background. The ginger amps up along with the lime blossom and neroli as it dries down, adding a fresh, slightly floral zinginess to the scent. Overall impression is a bright and sunny citrus floral grounded with a bit of amber and fresh ginger giving it a little effervescence. I'll probably be breaking this one out more during warm weather, but it would be great whenever you want something cheerful and fresh. No blind bottle regrets here.

In the imp: maraschino cherries. Once it's on, creamy vanilla notes come out and balance out the sweet cherry. As it dries down, slightly buttery notes come out as well. It's like angel food cake topped with cherry pie filling. Given that's one of my favorite desserts, I'm not mad.

For some reason I expected a version of the dead leaves with this. This is not that, but it's pretty great. It's bright and grassy, but it's not exactly a "freshly mown grass" sort of a grass note -- maybe that's the herbs alongside it? The hay is pretty subtle, but it's adding a sort of dry sweetness to the scent. Overall, bright, herbaceous, slightly dry grassiness. Like walking in a field in early autumn. I could see going for this one in warm weather, too.

In the decant: APPLES! My skin eats the apples up fast, though -- once it's on, the apples mostly disappear and the oud and amber amp up. It's not heavy, though -- it's a relatively light amber/oud combo, with maybe a bit of the honey detectable, but it's a subtle honey. It is a little indolic, but the oud mostly behaves. So: golden, light, sophisticated, gently sweetened amber and oud.

This starts off as a combo of bright lemongrass, neroli, and white musk, emphasis on the lemongrass. This isn't just cleaning-product lemon, though -- there's a distinctly herbal tone to it, which I'm guessing the lavender is helping to provide. As it wears, the lemongrass settles a bit, and the cedar and oakmoss come out more, giving the scent a bit more backbone. This is still primarily lemongrass and white musk to me, but with a slight herbaceousness and woodiness that grounds it. It's like Phantasm with a little more oomph. If you like scents like Phantasm or Embalming Fluid, you'll probably also really enjoy this. I might need a full bottle to fill the Phantasm-shaped hole in my heart.

This is another interesting take on the Dead Leaves blends, in that the dead leaves seem to be a background player through all stages of this scent. This is primarily a warm, rich, spicy amber to me. I do pick up the balsam, which I think is adding a woody/spicy note to the amber, but the smokiness is minimal. The dead leaves do peek out more well after drydown, adding to the woodsiness of the scent. If you've ever tried Pacifica's Spanish Amber, this reminds me a lot of that. Medium throw and great wear length -- a little goes a long way. If you like amber blends, this is one to try.

I've tried a ton of the DL blends over the past few years, and this one's definitely different. It's almost more gourmand than leaves. The leaves are there, but they're a background player to the marshmallow and pistachio, and they don't have the cologne-y vibe you can sometimes get from the DL note. It starts out sweet, creamy, and a little nutty. After a weird sharp/powdery phase, it settles and gets nuttier, but the leaves keep it from getting cloying. Nutty sweetness with an undercurrent of dry leaves.

Pretty much exactly what you'd expect -- smoky dead leaves! It's a sweet-ish, non-overwhelming smoke, though, somewhere between "distant bonfire" and "candle you just snuffed out." Definitely distinctly smoky, though. If you tried October and wanted something more smoky, give this one a go.

This one starts out with aggressive cinnamon. Like, *aggressive* cinnamon. As in sticking-your-nose-in-a-cinnamon-scented-candle cinnamon, and combined with the dead leaves, it's a bit much. Fortunately, after drydown, the cinnamon settles quite a bit, and more of the sweet notes come out. After settling, the leaves stand out more than the cinnamon buns. The cinnamon buns are still detectable, though, and do that thing that sweet notes seem to do to the dead leaf note -- adding warmth and toning down the super green, bell-pepper-esque scent people tend to notice in the dead leaf note. The end stage is warm, dry leaves with a hint of cinnamon buns wafting around in the background. Fortunately, it lasts for a long time post-drydown, so if this sounds appealing, powering through the "ZOMG CINNAMON" stage might be worth it.

Simple and pretty rose and vanilla combo. The chypre is also there and, along with the rose, a little more prominent than the vanilla -- it gives the scent a sort of shimmering, effervescent quality. The rose does go a little bit powdery on me, as rose tends to do, but the bourbon vanilla balances it out. The throw is subtle, but it has great wear length. If you liked the smell of TAL Enchantment and Rose-Tinted Mirror, you might also like this.

I think I was hoping for more salt/sea air/aquatics in this one, but I'm getting more of the fruits/mosses/florals. There is a blue-green aspect to this scent, but to me it's less oceanic and more muddy and bayou-esque. My skin chemistry might also not be playing well with this one, as it goes slightly powdery for a bit. It's not bad as a green, mossy take on an aquatic, but just might not be for me.

In the decant, I get a bit of that same sweet, oily, doughy scent from PSIYH, but it's way more subtle here -- it's like an extra sweet and rich Snake Oil. On me, the SO is dominant while the funnel cake scent is a background player -- it adds just a little extra sweetness to the SO that tips it more to the vanilla/musk side and downplays some of the heavier, incense-y notes in regular SO. So, yeah, if the idea of a more gourmand Snake Oil appeals to you, this is worth trying!