TheOnliest

I love the simplicity and contrast of the notes. I get the gentle florals, and I get the metal but the metal smells cold to me. Maybe it's so hot it seems cold? It does have a unisex cologne-like quality but I don't find it at all overwhelming or offensive. In the bottle and after initial application this smells almost identical to Torture Queen (I did one on each wrist) but the differences are easy to pick out as it dries down, the main one being that it's missing the sweet creaminess I get from TQ upon dry-down. If you already have one you might not feel the need to get the other but TQ's sweet creamy aspect makes them different enough for me to keep both.

When I opened the bottle to sniff I got... is it? Yes, it's the vanilla note from Antique Lace, my current go-to scent. Yay! In the bottle this is roses and the Lab's lovely vanilla. On my skin Hope is fresh-cut roses and vanilla with lots of throw. I smell stems. Once everything settles down I'm left with a soft, creamy rose-infused vanilla. Less creamy and rosy as the scent fades but everything's still there, complementing each other nicely. The rose is less green and seems sweeter, but that's probably me amping the vanilla. The only way I'd love this more is if the rose stayed sharper but that's nothing reapplication couldn't fix. Hope is pretty and uncomplicated. Sugared rose, indeed. *edited because "compliment" and "complement" are not the same thing. Yes, it's a month later.

... Ogun's ofrenda is heavy and dark cigar tobacco, gin and juniper, melon, chili pepper and a touch of honey. On me Ogun is a vibrant, sweet, juicy melon. And then, flat Sprite. edited to add scent description

I bought this for the caramel note. Hm. In the bottle I get something like caramel, something nutty, something astringent? I can't pin it down. On my skin it's about the same, but instead of astringent now I'm getting wood (sorry). It took about 10 minutes of alternately sniffing the inside of my left arm and my right middle finger for me to figure it out why it smelled so familiar... pee. It's pee. Huh. How 'bout that bottle art?

I ordered a bottle unsniffed because it was recommended to someone looking for ginger ale-like scents. In the bottle I get straight-up gummy cola. It's so evocative of the candy to me that it's uncanny. On my wrist it's gummy cola with a hint of body odor, but a very sophisticated body odor, if you understand what I mean. I'm going to go out on a limb and say the body odor did not belong to me. This is an interesting scent; I'm unsure what to do with it. I definitely need to try this again.