theredkilt

This is a fiery bourbon concoction. The first blast of roasted roaring bourbon hit me in the kisser. This is potent! After some time has passed this mellowed to a cozy bourbon paste. I don't smell the almonds or the leaves, just the bourbon paste/ cream with a tiny tad of roast in the background.

1 hour ago, ComicCreep said:

I loved Pere Noel, any suggestions for a Similar GC?

On Christmas Eve, French children leave shoes filled with carrots by their fireplaces as a treat for Gui, Père Noëls donkey. If the child has been good, Père Noël takes Guis offering and fills the childs shoes with sweet fruits, candies, and small toys.

Bright Sicilian oranges and sweet tangerines with a clink of lavender candy and a drop of anise

I love Pere Noel, but haven't been able to identify anything remotely similar in the GC catalogue. Carnal, maybe, but it's not even close. 

I've had this scent in my collection over 2 years and i still rarely reach for it. There's a clash of notes that ideally would go well together, but here they just try to outdo each other. I blame the tart green apple peel hijacking the entire show and stomping everything else. The jessamine peeks out initially but loses out to the apple. Bummer

I smell a brown type of honey with some sprinkled lily pollen and gardenia smoothing things over. Over time, the gardenia petals stand out more, while complimenting the honey perfectly. 

This is a warm snugly spicy scent. I know there are carnations in there, but my nose registers the entire scent as a creamy sweet mild clove with sandalwood notes. The daisies are missing in action.

This blend reminds me A LOT of Hilf, Ach, Hilf Mir, Kriegsgeselle.  It's a brown thick honey scent with hints of orange peel. I don't get the orange blossom. If you have Hilf, you don't need this. If you missed out on it, then this is a good alternative. Hilf is a night time, sinister and captivating blend, while HSOOB is the daytime counterpart.

This is a quite complex, but not what I expected. I smell the tart peach camouflaged under layers of something herbal and bitter. It's more of a pastel blend and fades away fast. My only blind bottle from the Yule 2020 collection and sadly it's a miss for me.

This is a tart peach but wrapped in some sort of smokiness and engine oil texture. I can't describe this better. I guess it's the oud that creates this association for me. Overall it's a smoky tart peach skin. 

I've learned that applying this scent with moderation on my skin does the trick.

I get a piercing thin sweet vanilla tea leaf scent on the drydown. The tea leaf is a white tea leaf variety to my nose  No jasmine ever showed up on my skin.

This reminds me of Iulia, L'Artiste du Diable from the Carnivale line, which is more complex.

This is a cherry blossom coated in a heavy layer of gardenia creaminess. The gardenia smells really nice, no waxiness or heady smell. Basically, the gardenia creaminess come first with the cherry blossom making its way soon afterwards in a modest way.

Tart lychee floral tea. Can't identify the peony note. 

This reminds me of an south east asian rice desert. On my skin, it has wonderfully slightly toasted vibe of milky rice coconut goodness. 

I get no rose out of this. I get pine things on a bed of oakmoss. A green woody chypre, dare i say?

This reminds me a lot of the general catalogue blend Velvet. That one was milk chocolate and myrrh, while this one's cocoa with elemi and white musk. I can't pinpoint the elemi though.

This reminds me of Grog, but with the sweetness much better balanced and more complex.

This is very short lived on my skin. Bright fragrant peaches rounded by a fir needle aquatic musk. 

It's a frosted sweet mandarin. Reminds me vaguely of the general catalogue "Carnal" oil. 

This one ends up as a sweet zesty mandarin with tiny shards of mentholated frost.

Gentle lemony powdery clean pink rose. I get hints of soap here and there. 

A vanilla amber blend with champa and davana giving it an extra oomph texture-wise and the cognac giving a subtle kick.

It's been 2 days since i received a bottle of this and i still can't pin point what i'm smelling.

I am greeted by orange peel, honey and some faint orange blossom, but way in the background i smell vetiver lurking around. It has a mild burnt-charred quality to it, but nothing off putting. As time goes by, the orange peel and the honey sweetness assert themselves and weave in together with the vetiver, transforming the blend into something almost edible, but not quite. I am tempted to describe this as an orange peel creme brulee, with emphasis on the vetiver burnt aspect/ quality.

Bracing green mint, mingled with other green notes. I can not identify the apple underneath the vibrant spiky tropical foliage. An aromatic dark green herbal. Can't wait to test it in the summer heat. 

Starts off as a clean citrus chypre executed à la 70s style, but slowly transitions into a smoky, clean and slightly soapy blend. Love! Reminds me vaguely of Oberon, but with a smoky element instead of a floral one. Lasted 4 hours on my skin.

I have a sad face. I expected the blackberry to burst with succulent juices. Unfortunately, it's so muted and so far in the background. Even the dead leaves don't smell like the usual note the Lab uses up to the point of me wondering if they are any dead leaves in here. The blend warms up in time and the red patch slowly blooms envelopped by the blackberry shy tartness, but doesn't really tick my fancy, regardless how hard i try. ☹️

Strawberries dipped in red musk. The red musk is not doing any favors on my skin. Should have known better and stayed away from it. Red musk, you you little trickster

This is the peach note used in some of the Lupercalia blends earlier this year. The peach is rounded by the amber notes and stays radiant throughout its entire life span. It's not a sweet peach, but more of a canned peach.