Seajewel

You all are inspiring! I made it out for another 2 mile run yesterday. Scent of choice was The Mystery of Giant Testicles on a Brothel Visitor. Beeswax, sandalwood incense, ti leaf, roasted nuts, and bamboo. This was a favorite but lately it's going overly salty on my skin (not aging, I only got it a couple months ago and it was good then.. but skin is not acting nicely lately). Hopefully it goes back to being creamy goodness with a hint of salt.

This smells far better than I would have imagined (especially given the extra creepy inspiration). A friend sent me a tester or else I wouldn't have tried it, but I'm contemplating a bottle. It smells like a rich, heady, almost intoxicating powder scent with sweetness. No clean soapiness here. Hopefully other reviews can better articulate what this scent is doing, but it's good!

My second appearance in this thread! Thank you for all the welcomes the last time I posted! I am trying to get back on the wagon, and made it out for a 2-mile run yesterday, which felt great. The scent I chose to run with was A Demon and Her Unholy Basketball, one of the recent Liliths. Sadly, although it was one of the ones that I was most excited for, it's one of the few misses for me, there is a bitter, almost grainy bread note that gets in the way of my enjoyment. I suspect it's the brimstone note but it could be something to do with pumpkin sugar. But the run was great and I'm hoping to make it a more consistent thing

This is a very buttery cream scent to my nose. It's not overly sweet and I struggle to detect caramel. There's something almost bread-like about the scent, but nothing bitter--maybe like a very rich bread pudding? Someone in the Liliths thread asked how it compares to Underpants. To me, there are some similar elements, but this is lower-pitched and much more foodie/buttery than Underpants. I quite like it though it is more foodie than I would normally go for. It captures the beautiful, deep quality of Lilith's singing that served as the inspiration.

Well, I'll agree that when wet, it is an awful bathroom cleaner type of smell. Like a public bathroom that smells like it was cleaned but the funk is *just* barely hiding under the industrial strength cleaner or something. I don't get a poop smell, thankfully, but the wet stage is not fun. And that wet stage lasts for about an hour. But when it finally settles on the skin, it becomes this beautiful wood smell, but not a hint of pine or cedar or oak or mahogany. This is a golden wood smell, like the essence of sun and ancient tree. It's not sweet but it's not masculine in a DUDE way, either. I just smell beautiful, but the throw is pretty low, I have to get my nose right against my arm to smell it.. but when I do, I love it. My 5 year old loved the drydown as well. I do not get fig, though maybe it was in the bathroom cleaner mix, but I'm fine with that. I don't get champaca either. All good things. So, oudh.. Despite the scary wet stage, I might need a bottle of this one after all.

Thanks! And I am totally team Hay Moon '20 and totally get wanting to live in it. It's such a beautiful, comforting scent and my favorite release this year (so far). You Get a Lifetime really tests ones limits with the oudh at the start, but I'm definitely going to retest. Despite the wet stage it might be worth a bottle. I also just love the name. Though I'm trying not to hoard things for the sake of hoarding them.. Dreams Shape the World, also part of the Sandman collection, has a beautiful oudhy lavender too that I like and might upgrade for a sleep scent. For workouts I think something like Dorian would be lovely, but I'm constantly testing new things as I buy my way through the pandemic (just BPAL)..

All, I am following this exercise and your discussions with much joy, but haven't posted because my capacity to work out right now is very limited. I was, however, inspired by y'all to get on the treadmill and walk a mile on Saturday night. I was wearing an assortment of scents as I do nearly daily, but particularly You Get What Anybody Gets - You Get a Lifetime. Which, by the way, was not very nice for the first hour before settling into something alluringly woody without being pine or cedar. I'll try to post whenever I can get a workout in--currently limited by working too much and a lingering shoulder injury that has flared up pretty badly recently. At the start of the lockdown I was running a lot outside which felt great, but work was slower and my shoulder was less of a problem then. Would like to get back into a regular workout schedule though..

In the bottle and wet it smells like Sprite. Vanilla amber makes itself known, maybe a hint of something salty. I can't find rose (a good thing in my opinion) or leather. I am a little surprised I like this (honestly.. do not even recall getting it, but apparently I did back in the day!), but I don't know that I would reach for it very often. Edited to add: As it dries down even further the fizz dissipates and it becomes a beautiful vanilla amber scent. Really very nice and more my style without the Sprite fizziness.

I think Zorya Polunochnaya is one to try for the perfect vanilla that isn't sugary sweet. I've found my tastes have changed a lot and vanilla musk scents along the lines of Antique Lace etc. are no longer really my thing, but I was surprised by Zorya P. That said, I think the tobacco leaf is fairly prominent there and that might account for my liking of it.

I just put it on again and I think that's how my brain interprets the combo. When I first put it on it goes on with a blast of patchouli but very quickly quiets down. It's not as loud of a patchouli as, say, the Sumatran Red Patchouli SN that I have. My tolerance for patch has really gone down but this is ok. Now that I try really hard to pick out stuff I can sort of sort out that there's a very smooth patch with whatever other stuff mixing in making it kind of read earth for me, but that may not be what others get. I have a very unsophisticated nose, haha. Learning a lot about my tastes this year working through the menage a trois! For example.. turns out I *hate* orange blossom but had no idea until the Lemon Peel Marshmallow Orange Blossom trio went cloyingly medicinally sweet to me and someone told me it was prob OB. I checked the vetiver, ylang ylang, orange blossom trio that I did not like previously and yep, same bad note in there too and that's what makes it go wrong. So I felt ready to tackle the Liliths with my newfound knowledge and then the Lab created like 32 scents that all sound kind of good and only like 4 with notes I wanted to avoid. Thanks.... sort of.

No cola either!! Maybe it's just me.. but that's what I get. like a much less sweet Death Cap (but i've only tried death cap a couple times so don't put too much stock in that comparison).

Speaking of dirt notes, I think I might grab a bottle of the Patchouli, Labdanum, and Ylang Ylang before it goes to wear at night. It's such a mild, soft scent. None of the parts of patchouli that I don't like. Just earth and a little sweetness.

My bedtime BPALs currently are Cotton Phoenix (and it leaves remnants of this deep sexy sweet incense the next day) as well as The Mystery of Giant Testicles on a Brothel Visitor. Creamy, salty nuts.. somehow deeply comforting. *shrug*

I can't follow up such a beautiful, perfect review in any proper way, but I wanted to add my thoughts as I have tested this menage three times since I got it last Friday. The Lab's chocolate/cacao notes often go wrong on me--there's just something that reminds me of funky dirty feet, especially in the wet stage. This one, unfortunately, suffers from that issue too, and a slight funk lingers for quite some time after applying. And yet there is something deeply alluring about the scent. I really do see the cacao beans drying in the hot sun image that @lookingglass described in their review. It's a dry, earthy gourmand and I want to love it so very much even though I can't quite get there. After several hours pass, the funk is entirely gone and a beautiful dry hint of sophisticated vetiver with a tiny edge of sweetness remains. It's mesmerizing. But it's not really in my wheelhouse and I'm struggling to resist the urge to upgrade just to keep trying it until my nose disassociates chocolate with funk, it's that good. If you get along better than I do with the Lab's chocolate note, and you are not afraid of vetiver, this is a must-try!

This is a very lovely, mildly sweet earth scent to me. Reminds me of Death Cap but less sweet. It's very soft and close to the skin. I quite like it, could go into my bucket of comfort scents. May grab a partial or upgrade to a full at some point. ETA: also lasts a really long time despite how quiet it is. I could still smell it all day the next day after applying at night.