Honey

What a scary aquatic: Fresh, crisp, clean, bold! I get lots of fresh flower stems and/or lilies (you now, that smell you get when you walk into a flower shop). It's a white and green scent with something very tart underneath. Could be a stark grapefruit and maybe the white fluff on the inside of a citrus fruit peel. During drydown, the blend mellows out a little. The florals are less harsh, but the tartness remains. The whole blends now reads as very dark blue to me for some reason - maybe I am thinking of the deeep ocean? Yeah, it's more of a marine than a lightning scent for me - I am missing sharper notes like mints or eucalyptus or tea tree to give me any electric vibe. I'm not getting any ozone unfortunately. Not my cup of tea at all - off to the swap pile.

This is soo yummy! I opened it as the first bottle fresh out of the box I received today. It's juicy pink grapefruit on the forefront and a nutty coconut in the background (think of coconut oil, not a candy coconut). It's sugary sweet with a light sharp sourness peeking thorugh. Hmm, this blend becomes a bit flat during drydown. I can detect a sweet fruity scent with a light musk underneath - but that's it. I will re-test this later when it has aged a little to see if the coconut and musk have become stronger. I also wish the sandalwood would appear to give this a dusty finish. But we'll see.

What a very unique blend! I remember smelling another bread scent that turned into rancid oil on me, so I was really curious what would happen to this one on my skin. This is a pleasant savory bread scent: bready, yeasty, a bit milky perhaps. It's not sugary sweet at all. It's like a soft slice of toast. I never would have guessed it's possible to recreate this in a perfume oil! On top of the bread, I get creamy anise with a hint of almond. There is also a spiciness to the blend that must come from the cardamom. I have no idea what to think of it. It's unique and offers an interesting take on a spicy blend. The amaretto and almond become stronger during drydown, and the blend turns into a panettone bread experience (minus the raisins) that reminds me of Christmas time. I actually think you could layer this with a figgy and/or vanilla-cinnamon blend and recreate a wonderful holiday experience. For spring or summer though? Pass! I think I will keep this for winter and see if I want to keep it or not.

Wow! This hits me with a very familiar note - soft pear! It smells very close to Perilous Parlor - they are so much alike actually that you could get this one if you really like PP but have trouble getting your hands on a bottle. (You may want to layer with a vanilla scent though for the full creamy experience.) I keep huffing my arm, and this is a good sign. The pear is very soft and fruity. It's almost floral and not candy-like or "fake fruit" at all. I love it. The pear note also blends well with the other light spicy notes, the white champace and the white musk. The grapefruit adds a dry and sour element that keeps the pear from being too sweet and the champaca/musk from being too heavy. I second astarinel's comment above: "Drydown is primarily a champaca skin musk with a wisp of pear." I also don't get any bubblegum note at all. To me, this is actually a fresh linen scent - as if sliding into a freshly made bed at my grandma's house who used to wear a grapefruit-heavy perfume. Seriously, this scent triggers very good childhood memories! It's spicy and musky enough to be an actual perfume blend, but the soft and dry quality of the scent make this a great pick for snuggling up on the couch in summer or when going to bed. I will definitely use my decant and think about upgrading to a bottle.

This one is very fizzy and sparkly. It's mostly yuzu/lemon with a hint of flat sweet raspberry. I'm a hard sell on fruit scents, and this one, sadly, didn't do it for me either. During drydown, it mostly stays pink grapefruit on my skin. Maybe I get a hint of plum? The more it dries, the more plummy and musky it gets (which is quite nice actually). I wish this had been... fresher? More yuzu, grapfruit and musk perhaps? It's a bit too sweet for my taste, and fizzy doesn't work on my skin at all.

Wet on, this is of similar quality to Plastic Pink Flamingo. While PPF is sweet sugar with red fruit, flower petals and resinous sap, TTVOTL is fruit-forward with a hard candy quality, a soft floral undertone and woodsy elements that work in a similar fashion than the sap. The blend is very bright, summery and feels coral red in color. The watermelon is very prominent, but there is also berries in the background. It's not a naturalistic smell, however, no fresh or green stem notes - at least one me, it's pure candy. The musk is not that noticeable, it rather gives this a perfumey quality so it's not just hard candy that's been licked and slathered on your wrists. The scent becomes very faint after drydown. I do detect a soapy watermelon (a bit floral, a bit musky), but that's pretty much it. Fun and different but nothing I'd actually wear.

Wet on, this is a pleasant apricot-colored laundry detergent or fabric softener: Sweet, slightly fizzy, clean, and comforting. I'm not sure what kind of apple this is, but it smells closer to... a jumble of orange-red fruits (that are not berries). What works is the fizziness in this blend that can actually be smelled and is very reminiscent of actual cider - made from a very ripe and juicy Red Delicious. The laundry detergent smell makes me think of a cozy sweater for sure. However, I am missing some softer cream notes that tone down the harshness of the blend a little. When dry, there is an apple blossom note coming out that's really pleasant. There is also less fizz and more cream in the scent. If you want to smell like fresh laundry, this is one is the best BPALs I know of so far!

Funny how this is one of the few rose scents that I put on and that doesn't go completely iffy and soapy on me! Wet, this is very dark, purple, and fancy. The plum, rose, jasmine and patchouli are very rich, luxurious and complex. It's neither too heavy nor too heady. It's neither too stinky nor too earthy. It's a bit spicy, like incense, but overall a very nice and well-grounded floral blend. It could be a more floral version of Mme. Moriarty without the vanilla/SO in it. It is sweet and only a bit tart (as prunes would smell) - and totally wearable for someone who usually hates rose. Like, seriously, this is the first rose blend that I will keep for reference. 😮

Wet on, it is much sweeter than I would have imagined. I get sweet resins, incense and pitch, but I also get a sweaty, stinky patchouli - though maybe it is ambrette seed or a brown musk? - and vetiver. The allover scent is dark brown, fuzzy, sweaty, outdoorsy - like a human being that is living in the wilderness, has dirt under their nails, not washed their robes in a while and is brewing a herbal tea while burning an assortment of incense to attune with nature. I wish I got more pine, but it's mainly stinky arm pits and sweet incense when dry.

This is not a typical scent for me to try, way outside of my comfort zone. Wet on this is dark and strong and, omg, leather and musk and vetiver, bam! I think of leather armor, renaissance fairs, and old medieval castles that have a very heavy, dusty and masculine smell to them. There is a medicinal element to the blend as well, like the sharpness of tea tree oil that could come from the leather or vetiver note. It's also a bit spicy and balsamic, reminds me of cedar or another heavy wood (without any pencil shavings dryness). Iago calms down during drydown, but it never behaves or submits. It's heavy on the leather and vetiver, and the dark musk works as a binding agent of sorts. It smells like a warm, worn-in saddle or like a loved pair of boots. I wonder how it would layer with a rich buttery vanilla? I don't see it as a scent that works for me although I don't mind the vetiver at all. It's way too masculine for my taste, but I wouldn't mind smelling this on a partner.

I kid you not - this is chocolate chip cookies! It's rich milk chocolate, and it's perfectly buttery crispy cookies. Wow. This does not go weird on my skin - no celery/fennel, burned sugar, plastic or whatever smell. It's very yummy! There could be a note that reminds of nutty caramel popcorn, but it's very faint. During drydown, I can smell more of the popcorn and cookie and a bit less of the chocolate. Not sure what the soda is supposed to smell like, but I don't pick it out as a prominent note. I think I do detect a salty vibe here - coming from both the pretzel and the popcorn. It is not an aquatic salty note, however, just the salt you'd get in a sea salt caramel chocolate (which I absolutely adore). I'm really happy I got this! It's fun, unique, and gives you straight up what it promised in the notes.

Wet on, I can smell faint flowers, maybe even the green stem sap of flowers. Very green, premature, fresh and tart. I don't get any absinthe - maybe the faintest hint? I was expecting more of an anise note to be honest. My skin eats this up almost entirely. There may be some stormy aquatic quality to it, but it's nowhere near the stark ozone that I get from A Torrent of Light, for example. There could be a white or light green tea note in this. But I don't get any spices or resins. The scent is so super light, even if I slather it on, I cannot pick out any prominent and individual notes. Aha! What a miracle. The anise note develops during drydown. Now I get the 30% light version of the Absinthe blend with added tea and floral freshness. I think that's a good pick for someone who likes it light, only slightly feminine, not too offensive - for me though, my skin just eats it up and I can barely detect anything.

I like this a lot! Very clean, bright, floral. Perfect for making a room smell fresh, cozy, warm - like after a good spring cleaning! It's a soft scent and not tart or astringent at all. Wish I had more than just a tester.

This is so hilarious! I can smell the notes as if they were lined up next to each other! Enter the lilac - with a dark quality. Enter the pomegranate - red, sweet, and sticky. Bam, eucalyptus - but with a softer flutter, clearly the blossom instead of the leaf juice. I can even smell the velvet - there is a fuzzy fabric quality that's like a layering over the notes. Crazy! It's like a purple blend with lots of dark red and black swirls in it that dance and make some note pop out, then disappear again to give more room to others. Even when dry, this smells pretty similar to the wet stage: A bold lilac with a fruity sweet undercurrent of pomegranate, overall a very floral and purple quality. Nice and fun and not like anything else I own.

CCCXXVIII (328) The oil in my decant is as yellow as the green tea in the mug next to me. The blend smells really orange though - floral, slightly fruity, a bit sour or astringent as well (I have to think of nail polish remover somehow). There is a "metallic" note that I usually get with violet or cucumber for some reason - it's similar to the one I can smell in Tortue Queen. There could be some brown musk or maybe ambrette seed in this one - something that smells a bit vegetal, tart, even iffy... it's hard to describe. As notes go, I have to agree with another person who described the same scent in this thread (fairynymph): There may be chrysantemum in this blend. But it could be another yellow or orange flower. Marigold perhaps? There is something in here that's sweet but also flat - you know, like a fresh glass of soda that went stale and warm in the sun. I am not sure I smell lemon, lime, yuzu, kumquat, orange or garpefruit in this blend - it's just that it smells fruity without giving away any clear fruit note. It's not guava, strawberry, cherry, or watermelon either. Argh, nose, come on! Aha, I think this could be apricot orp each! They always turn really sweet and flat on my skin - and remind me of hand soap in public toilets (school, university, rest stops). During drydown ,I do get a bit of a "fresh sweat" note, that's why I was thinking of the ambrette seed before. The floral-fruit mix stays pretty one-dimensional, as no note is standing out as super unique in this blend. It's all just mushed together somehow. Interesting journey, but it's doesn't smell super exciting to me.

This is such a weird scent! I definitely get a blast of peppermint. But not the sharp kind - it is much softer and reminds me more of toothpaste. So, spearmint perhaps? I wouldn't have thought so by myself, but after reading previous comments, I also think I can smell a faint memory of wintergreen and/or pine in WT. It also features carnation and/or orris for the sharp creaminess that ties into the mint. And, that's the kicker, I thought I smelled that dreaded celery note again that I get whenever there is a sugar note in a scent, especially brown sugar. After the blend has calmed down a bit, the celery note actually reveals itself as fennel/anise note - I think there is anise and/or absinthe in this blend. Either that or the whole blend reminds me very much of Absinthe, especially since that one also has several mints listed as notes. I expected this to be closer to a Lick It blend as I wanted to smell mint and vanilla notes so badly. Also, I was hoping for the snow note that I love in Snow White. This, however, is the worst combination of carnation hand lotion, old toothpaste and anise hard candy that I could imagine. Sorry, big nope - just want to wash this off.

Wow. Smoked chocolate! This is one of those blends with the dark brown oil separating in the bottle that you have to shake first in order to get a good gloop of the chocolate parts on our skin (and I love it). I get hard-boiled leather. Would not be surprised if this were an Aztec warrior goddess, but it is not, so strange. The smoke & leather breastplate mix mellows down pretty quickly and gives more of a spotlight to the smokey copal and the honey notes. This is a moderately sweet but very resinous blend. I get more of a cocoa powder note than sweet dark or even milk chocolate. This is a chocolate you use in savory dishes, not the kind with cream and nuts you gobble down while reading a book. The honey note doesn't stand out as honey, it works more as another sweetening agent if you will. I have no idea how maize is supposed to smell, but I do get a lightness that reminds me of linen and sheets - I think the cotton blossom bring a soft freshness to this blend so it doesn't end up as a scorched pile of resins. I tested this in an imp but am tempted to purchase a bottle just to slather it on and see how it smells then. I always find that some scents work differently when out of a bottle, and I might have gotten intrigued enough by chocolate scents lately to start a little collection (even though Boomslang, Boomslang v2, Hohensalzburg Fortress and The Black Temple Burlesque Troupe satisfy my varying needs already ... to a degree). I think even if you have several chocolate blends, this one seems unique enough to try and keep alongside other favorites.

Wow, not at all what I expected. This is not just tart - it's straight out bitter. I smell grapefruit rind and pith - yes, grapefruit pith! That spongey part between peel and fruit flesh. Blended into that is tart but fresh white lilly, a true lily - those I associate with funeral arrangements. When drying down, the most prominent notes blend better into each other and the citrus scent gets warmed up and sweetened ever so slightly by my skin. I'm not even sure I think of this as an aquatic scent, it's just very tart, fresh, androgynous and floral. I could see this on a more mature person who loves flowers but doesn't go for girly blends with vanilla or heady blends with ambers or patchouli. It's simple but not boring, just maybe a bit too tart for my taste.

This is a creamy white musk scent. It is super strong on the gardenia and the chrome note - actually a bit of a violet vibe going on here that borders on making me nauseous, but it's still behaved enough so I can wear it. There's also something cool like cucumber in there maybe? Definitely make for a clean, cold, metallic blend that's also very sophisticated and a bit fancy actually. I can see it being in the broader scent family with Giant Vulva or any of the Vulva scents that are featuring a gardenia note. The more it dries down, the more the gardenia and tea become prominent. It's fresh, lush, and floral. It's definitely musky (not sure how that white amber is different than a white musk), features a non-gourmand vanilla and is focused on the gardenia and chrome being the prominent players. I really love gardenia, tea and vanilla flower. The chrome note makes this a bit funky on me though. (To my nose, on my skin it's actually quite beautiful.) I want to love it, and I sometimes wear it, but the violet makes it a bit hard to stomach sometimes. It's funny how this blend tortures me like that and I willingly agree to it - a nice imagery for the blend for sure.

It is such a simple blend, but it's not boring at all: Golden resinous amber, sensual vanilla and powdery balsamic oudh. It is very sweet, dry and perfumey. The amber is quite strong in this one, and it takes a while for the vanilla to get noticed on my skin when wearing it. The components blend into each other during drydown to form a really pretty oriental backdrop - it's warm, snuggly, rich and almost like caramel. It doesn't have a powerful throw, so you can totally wear this on those days when you don't want to overpower your nose or your surroundings but get a nice waft of perfume every once in a while. It's also perfect for layering with other simpler blends. I'm wearing it with Hohensalzburg Fortress (chocolate and white amber) today, and the ambers just melt really beautifully into each other and support the chocolate and vanilla notes even better. I also think any blend with a gourmand vanilla would be perfect to layer this with. So happy I have a bottle of this!

I only got this today but had to try it because I haven't really had a special gourmand in a long time. So, wet this is screaming fake banana - but I don't mind that it's a bit loud and yellow and artificial. It quickly disappears actually and fades into a banana ice cream and then into pure vanilla ice cream - rich, buttery, melty. It's a tad bit artificial but not like plastic - although I have to say that I never have this side effect with vanilla notes on my skin anyway. My skin just eats it up. Poof. Gets weaker within minutes, only lasts about 1-2 hours. BUT! There is joy in that. Joy in sitting at home in my cream banana hoodie and my khaki leopard leggings, painting my toe nails, watching true crime documentaries and smelling like crazy banana for a while. It's as much fun as eating a fizzy piece of candy - enjoying the flavour for a moment, then getting busy with something else. This is a blend I can imagine wearing when I'm hanging out in front of my computer and just want to feel cozy and girly - especially since my partner loves vanilla and can easily snuggle up to me later.

I thought of a strong mint at first when putting this on, but then I read the notes again - so, yeah, that's really a very bright pine in there, fill on. It's very medicinal and clean, neither resinous nor smokey. Not getting much else. Maybe a hint of herbal lavender? It stays lemony pine on me. A bit herbal, a bit like a cleaning agent. It's not too bad, but it's also a bit less perfumey than I expected.

This hits me wet on with a sharp green cardamom and a funky vegetable brown musk - it's a bit stinky but also has a warmer woodsy quality that surely comes from the cedar. It's smells very furry and brown indeed - no vanilla to be detected, however. The sharpness fades quickly and leaves a warm woodsy scent on my skin. Is this more than a single-note cedar? I wouldn't mind the brown musk so much if the vanilla would gives this a creamy and feminine vibe that I'm missing to really like this. I'd like to smell this on another person I cuddle up to, not really on myself.

This is very fruity. Mostly a sweet lemon (a bit dish-soapy) plus a red current or berry scent that comes from the red musk note. There is only a faint musky quality to this. Also not very dry or woodsy initially. This has become really woodsy and spicy after drydown. I guess it's a combination of the cassia and the agarwood. I can't really put my finger on it, but the spice read as myrrh or something other that's quite herbal and resinous for a moment. The spiciness is layered on a fizzy and soapy orange scent, coming from the lemon and mango I'm sure. What a weird scent! The fruit and wood notes clash a little on me and don't really come together in this blend. It's very fruity first, and very woodsy and spicy later. Hmm. It's not awful but also not super amazing.

Wet on, this reminds me a lot of Black Temple Burlesque Troupe - just not as musky, more earthy with the patchouli. I get dark resinous chocolate, but the patchouli is very sharp and stinky in this one, not mellow and sweet like in some other blends. It's a bit spicy from the incense and and tart from the leather, but I don't get a floral vibe from it at all. Wow, that smells a bit like arm pits - thanks, stinky patch! It's overpowering everything but the chocolate, but it's really not a nice blend on me.