starfish327

fig and berry, straight up. it's very sweet, and lush. the berry gives it an almost sweet-tart edge, but the fig makes the berry wearable (i normally can't wear the lab's berry note). i wish i got more leather, but i'll give up the leather since the cream isn't curdling on my skin the way that it did in candles moon. this is a very pretty blend and the only thing i wish is that it lasted longer on my skin- though i did notice that it amps every so often.

very woody and sweet. it's very feminine and light. it's also quite pretty- i'm getting something faintly floral on my skin. unfortunately there's something that's also aquatic-like on my skin, and a lot of aquatics give me headaches, so while this is pretty it's not pretty enough to want to keep around and tempt the migraine gods. it is however one of the nicest honeys i've tried so far, though it smells nothing like a honey note to me.

in the imp: there's a faint sweetness but it's quite faint and i don't get any other note impression from the wand. wet: a blast of sweet fig grounded by something faintly earthy. dry: the fig fades, nothing but amber/dirt left. very powdery. i love fig, it's one of my favorite notes. i wish the fig lasted longer than what it does on my skin but the powder note isn't offensive either. i'm going to try layering this under a couple of my other fig blends to see if i can more fig out of this.

grass (hay more than fresh) and smoke. i'm glad that i got to test this one, but i really wish i got more of the notes. i'm actually surprised to read the note list on this one, because my first impression was the long dry down of a hay and vetiver blend.

this is a truly nice blend. i wish that it worked with my skin chemistry. it's very sweet and creamy in the imp. i don't get any of the listed notes other than pumpkin, but it's very spicy and warm. it's the most foody of the pumpkins i've tried so far, and it was closest to my holy grail of a bpal pumpkin that smells like pie, and not pie plus _____ insert note here. i love the lab's pumpkin note in all forms, and this was almost perfect. until it dried and turned into microwaved plain popcorn.

i've been putting off trying this imp for awhile, putting it back in the test bag every time i pull it out. i sort of see why now- perhaps the bpal gods were trying to tell me something. it's very soapy on my skin, a screamingly high soap. periodically i get whiffs of orange blossom but that's the only note that i can identify right now. it's tolerable right now because it's so humid and warm in my room but i don't see this working at any other point of the year- it almost registers as a snow note on me, and snow notes rarely work (snow bunny is the only blend that snow isn't painful to my sinuses).

very very dry black herbs bordering on dusty. i think that if i got any of the current out of the blend, it would probably have saved it for me. otherwise, it's just too dry and herbal for my tastes.

it's very green, and almost bitter. however i don't get that much pine out of it- just a hint. that being said it's not overpowering and is almost what i would call light. it's not overly green and it doesn't smell like floor cleaner by any means, which is a problem i have with some of the greener blends. it's lovely underneath my CT:frankincense.

pumpkin and coconut with mid notes- i actually thought it was apple before i read the notes. it's an odd little pumpkin but i like it!

this must be strawberry week for me. this was the imp i had left out to test last night not realizing that i had already tested a strawberry blend yesterday... in the imp: gum. strawberry gum. very young. wet: wow. the strawberry gets dirty. but i'm not sure that i like it. it's very musky and there's something under it that i can't really identify (the amber and the vanilla from the notes description). dry: okay. i had put this in my swap bag but i may have to go pull it out. it's straight up red musk on me with a hint of vanilla. periodically i get whiffs of the strawberry. this is closer to what i wanted smut to be. this isn't sweet on me at all which is what saves it.

in the imp: very sweet, with a faint floral/herbal undertone. not quite citrus, but a citrusy tone. other people are saying strawberry but i'm not sure i've ever worn the lab's strawberry note so i'm going to take their word for it. wet: this reminds me of either candy or the dentist. it's very sweet still with a slight tart kick. there's a hint of spice underneath it as well. dry: a sort of fake strawberry note- like strawberry scented things, and not strawberries. that said, it's not bad but i feel like i want to try layering it with other things.

definitely lavendar in the imp. something else underneath it, another floral, however masculine type blend. something amps up very sweet and almost citrusy on the skin. the lavendar pulls back but it's still there. touch of white musk (i'm guessing it's white musk that gives me problems) because i'm getting just the slightest suggestion of sour skin. not nearly as masculine once dry, and i'm not sure that i like this one enough to want to keep it around. at the same time there's the citrus sweet thing that i like about akuma and vice. think it goes to a second round of testing before i decide.

in the imp: a much sweeter top note than what i was expecting and then vetiver wet: very spicy. very nice. reminds me of cookies. dry: pretty much the same. this may be the winner of the new gcs that i've tried. it's very fall/autumn though. not as heavy as i had feared though i don't think that i would be able to get away with this at work.

aquatics and i rarely mix. this one works better than most but it's very middle of the road. throughout- imp to dry- this reminds me of a good bath product, like an expensive bubble bath. it's obviously an aquatic but it's also warm (i'm guessing the incense lurking behind it). it's slightly sweet as well. something about the combination also reminds me of cooking though i'm not sure what i'm picking up on that reminds me of food. it's nice, but i think it would like it better as a bath product.

very bright, very fresh. i get a fake watermelon type note, and a blast of cherry. something in it verges on sour but stays just on this side of it. i don't normally associate color with scent but this is PINK.

this is my favorite out of the honeys so far...bright, light green, and slightly floral with a sweet hit behind it. it almost smells fruity to my nose. it's very light though not faint. i think this may be my new favorite honey blend behind crib girls. it's very clean without being ozone or aquatics.

this really should have worked. there's no reason for this blend NOT to have worked... in the imp: a sharp woody greenness with something under that i recognize but can't name either. wet: wow. something is amping up to a screaming greenness. i know that i i know what it is but i'm not sure i can name it either. dry: well...first it's all citronella. it smells like bug spray. then i think that it morphs into something like gardenia, and then hyacinth. in long dry down it's quite pretty. it finally settles into orange blossom (which almost always works on me, it has in every other blend i've tried that it's been in) with a woody undertone. i'm not sure that the long dry down is worth the citronella blast that it gives me for the first half an hour or so.

in the imp: metal and ozone. it makes my nose itch and reminds me of summer thunderstorms at night. wet: reminds me a lot of mechanical phoenix but not nearly as painful as that was. i have problems with metal notes. dry: metal. straight up metal. it's very clean and borders on cold. the mental image i'm getting is guns. the musk starts creeping in slowly and i think that it's saving the blend from the nightmare that mechanical phoenix was but it's still not very good on my skin chemistry. it's an interesting blend though.

there's something not right about this one, and i'm certain it's all me. it's very off-putting in the imp; i found it to be very strong, medicinal and almost woody. wet there's a hint of some type of kitchen spice but i'm not sure what. my first impression is clove but it smells nothing like clove. dry the rose comes forward and helps to balance out the blend. i'm guessing that it's the myrrh that's throwing me off in this blend because i don't really get the frankincense either. it dries down to really expensive soap. i smell very clean like a dove bar. this should have worked and doesn't.

in the imp: florals over something woody, very green wet: the lavender comes to the forefront. i wish that this blend was stronger. floral over slight spiciness. dry: lavender starting to be dominated by vanilla. there is a slight foody warmth to this with a hint of spice. whatever was registering as green has disappeared. this is a nice blend. i'm not one to be big on nice blends however. i wish that it had more oomph though i didn't apply much either. however what i did apply has faded into a straightforward vanilla. i think i'll pass this one on to someone who'll appreciate it more.

deathly pride smells like what would happen if jelly beans mated with suntan lotion. and that's a good thing. in the imp: it's a very...odd scent. there's definitely a blast of coconut- i'm guessing the same coconut from obatala. behind that there's a blast of licorice but it's behaving. there's something that registers cold to my nose as well. wet: it reminds me a lot of the bulk candy section at wegmans and i'm not sure why. it smells very sweet, like candy, but not sickeningly so and it's not really foody. i'm not getting incense out of this at all. dry: there's still something that's registering as cold. i have no idea what. the coconut seems to have burned off pretty quickly and just left an impression of coconut, but not the actual coconut itself. the licorice starts to morph forward and i'm getting the impression of incense without the actual incense itself. i'm a very visual thinker and i'm getting two very different images: biting down on something very meaty and burning candles. i have no idea where either are coming from. it's bordering on medicinal but staying just away from it. this is a very odd scent, and i like the really odd blends. j see this as much more summer than yule though, and it appeals greatly to my chaotic side.

i don't think that this one likes me much...it's a very sharp green floral. i get very little honey out of this one at all, and i think that more honey would probably have saved this blend for me.

gore shock was all severed limbs and running blood. the music of eric zahn is summer. hemlock honey smells like eddie bauer.

this is a pretty straight forward blend that doesn't morph much on me, so i'm just going to post my general impressions instead of my normal stepped reviews. straight up, it's a very medicinal but not astringent blend. it smells like honeyed cough drops, or faintly like the organic section at wegman's (this is going to be a very imagery heavy review...). i agree that this smells a lot like hemlock, though this is obviously a sweeter blend. it's a very green blend that borders on masculine but the honey keeps it from going too far into masculine. my initial reaction to the scent is that it gives me a lot of scent memories- the first being the girl scout camp i went to for years in the southern tier of new york. the second being...eddie bauer, the clothing store? i'm not sure why, unless at one point they had a body product that smelled like this. but i definitely get mental images of the eddie bauer store that used to be in Utica. either way it's a very earthy, warm green blend as opposed to some of the yule greens that i've tried. it's a vaguely, oddly sexual blend but i'm not sure that i would call this a cousin to O either. it's very...safe (but not mundane). it reminds me of skin milk (a brand of body creme that walmart used to sell) on late dry down but it could just be my body chemistry, and i liked the way skin milk smelled.

the first impression is fruit and dirt. then it's fruit and grasses, finally fruit cobbler. the peach hits as a high top note followed by the pomegranate. the rose is really prevalent but it seems to be behaving currently. it's pretty but it's a little too conventionally feminine for my tastes. i'd probably wear it again if i were frimped more of it, but i wouldn't seek it out. if there was a stronger/deeper bottom note i would like it a lot better but right now it strikes me as airy and almost weak.