Musamea

in the imp: Fresh fresh fresh Red Delicious apple

wet: like a just-bitten Red Delicious apple – pulp, skin, and juice dribbling down your chin

dry: oh interesting – I thought this would stay straight up apple, but about 30 minutes after applying, something almost cinnamony comes forward; the opium really begins to bloom here and the entire scent deepens and grows slightly sinister. Ten minutes later, my skin has completely gobbled it up and the scent is completely gone.

Overall: Poisoned Apple is more of a scent story than a perfume scent for me, but it's interesting enough to keep the imp around!

in the imp: hot chocolate powder – like the scent of a Swiss Miss packet; drier and less sweet than expected, the teeeeeniest bit of dirt in the background

wet: hot chocolate powder, a touch of marshmallow and a hint of cold rain – incredibly evocative of Ted's description

dry: smells like a cup of Swiss Miss hot chocolate mix, a bit thin because it was made with hot water rather than milk. The marshmallows have floated to the top and there are swirls of spilled chocolate powder all over the counter. Huge throw. Foodie but not at all gourmand. This is… nice, but doesn't quite do it for me.

in the imp: sharp chamomile and lavender, astringent and somewhat medicinal

wet: the sharpness in the imp smooths down immediately into a blend of chamomile and lavender

dry: oooooh, I was worried this scent would stay super-sharp, but as it dries the vanilla comes forward and melds the lavender and chamomile together into a really soft, light scent. It's almost herbal and almost soapy, yet something keeps it from moving too far in either of those directions… it almost, almost smells the way your skin does after a day at the pool – warm chlorinated skin with the last vestiges of your aloe-coconut sunscreen, and the languid full body relaxation of lying sprawled out in the sun poolside after a good swim. That description is probably super unappealing, and yet I can't stop huffing my hand and can totally see why this makes for a sleepytime scent. I'll use up my decant, and this makes me want to check out some of the Lab's other sleep scents, particularly TKO, since other reviews note this scent is TKO's less sweet, more herby cousin.

This was the Lilith I was most eager to try -- I was hoping that the scent would be vanilla, almond, and amber forward with a hint of soft leather in the background to keep things from getting too sweet. Alas, this starts off all cherry almond floor cleaner on me, cold, high, and medicinal. Then the leather muscles forward, morphing from a sharp black leather into a soft brown one that takes over the entire scent. Overall far too masculine and medicinal for my tastes.

Fresh from the Post, received 10/5, tested 10/6

In the bottle: Sugary, sticky caramel syrup, with a hint of vanilla latte foam. The "roasted beans" are less the scent of coffee itself and more something deep in the background that grounds the scent and keeps it from getting overwhelmingly cloying

Wet: I get an initial blast of dry, bitter coffee bean, which is then almost immediately joined by lightly spiced vanilla sugar – this is the scent of the bottom dregs of a flavored coffee drink or the lingering smell of coffeeshop on your clothes after you've spent an afternoon reading in one

Initial dry: The oil sank into my skin really quickly and I have to really bury my nose into the crooks of my arms and my wrists to catch it right now. The coffee note is still prominent in my elbows, but on my wrists I'm getting the faintest, teeeeeeniest whiff of pencil shavings (not unusual for me with the Lab's vanillas – usually it ages out of the blend really quickly) and the wet caramel note that was so strong in the bottle is warming up and making its presence felt

Full dry: the yummy caramel is most prominent and the coffee dials back and combines with the vanilla mostly to give the caramel depth and a slight foodie spiciness. I would definitely characterize this as more of a caramel-coffee scent than a coffee-caramel one. Throw is fairly light but this oil lasts for hours and hours.

Verdict: I'm so glad I blind bought a bottle! I can already tell this is a blend that will just get deeper and better with age.

Received as a frimp many moons ago, just now testing

In the imp: Whoaaaa holy patchouli! With just the slightest hint of something else (poppy?) in the background

Wet: Patchouli with musk peeking through; this is STRONG and peppery, though it doesn't quite veer into headshop as I think the musks temper the patchouli; smells very masculine to me; as it dries a bit more the poppy begins reasserting itself against the patchouli – the throw from arm's length is nice – a spicy, masculine musk; up close the patchouli is still pretty overwhelming

Dry: initial drydown turns the scent a bit cedary, but in a very warm woodsy way, not medicinal/floor cleaner at all, the musks are also warming up a lot (I'm a little afraid this is going to turn super-salty on me, as tends to happen with the Lab's white musks). The throw is still really lovely. Medium drydown – the cedar fades back a bit; I'm amping the musks and maybe the poppy? There's a bright note on top of a really nice warm and spicy skin scent. The patchouli has dialed back a lot and lurks in the background to lend depth. There is a teeeeeny hint of waxiness that I'm hoping will go away.
Full dry: this scent finally settles into a softly spiced, slightly salty "second skin" kind of scent. This may be one to make the husband try as I don't particularly want to smell like this myself but do find it comforting and sexy; it's like the Lab's take on a nice men's cologne or aftershave -- just enough character to elevate it from being totally generic, while not being completely foreign to the "smells like a gentleman" category

in the decant: Mostly honey and floral vanilla, with a touch of ambergris

wet: Honey honey honey! And something that reminds me of the orchid in Regan (I think vanilla flower is technically an orchid?) A very wet scent. I feel like I sense the tea tempering the sweetness of the honey and the flowers more than I actually smell it

dry: Honeyed orchid, with crazy throw (I can barely smell the other scents I'm testing over this); up close I can still get some of the tea and a bit of the muskiness of the ambergris (which I'm not crazy about), but from far away it's all heavy floral; a bit too heavy floral for me to see wearing it often

verdict: swap or sell

retested a month later – now I'm getting warm vanilla flower overlaying green tea with just a touch of honey; everything has smoothed over and the heaviness of the floral has died way back, tempered by the tea. The scent doesn't feel as wet and sharp as before either, more like the aftermath of tea, spilled on a table; it's really really nice, definitely hanging on to the imp now!
Wear when wanting: something sexy, lightly exotic, and playful, mostly a spring/summer scent

frimp from Lab

in the imp: strong jasmine, a bit high-pitched but not *quite* in the cat pee territory, musk

wet: musk and very very sharp jasmine, verging on cat pee, ugh, not getting any almond or sandalwood

drydown: if I whiff deeeeeeply I get really delightful, delicate jasmine, but the top of the jasmine note is very very screechy

verdict: Lab jasmines are still a great big nope on me

Tested a very aged imp

In the imp: sharp and green, and slightly smoky

Wet: almost medicinal at first (the hemp?) with a smoky topnote, then the weeds also come out to play and turn the scent more green; I don't get any booze, though the smokiness combined with the green could resemble toasted hops

Dry: initial drydown fades back the smokiness quite a bit and the hemp and dandelion/grass become more dominant – I wouldn't call this a clean scent, but neither is it overpowering – it definitely feels very much like the morning after a raucous night at the roadhouse – some smoke still lingering in the air, infusing the wood of the bar, where some sticky residue of strong drinks were spilled and a bit of freshly mown grass floating in through an open window; it's interesting, but not very me. (Note that I get very generic waxy perfume store as the topnote on final drydown, but I think that's from the imp sitting in an unopened box full of imps for a really long time – a deep sniff yields the character of this blend)

Testing a very aged (5+ years) imp

In the imp: strong, but so well blended it's really difficult for me to pick out any one note; there's a slight sweetness here that may be coming from the musk, but it's tempered by the other notes – overall sweeter than I would have expected (I feel like I have a scent memory of some of these notes, but haven't done enough sniffing recently to be able to distinguish what it is/what other Lab blends I've smelled it in)

Wet: The sweet note stays (seriously what is that? Musk? Ambergris?, with a nice whuff of leather if I inhale deeply; the incense also comes out to play a bit more

Dry: initially the sweet scent is amped, with leather just lingering in the background; as it dries, the sweet note (which I think I'm now deciding is the dark musk) is toning back and it's a swirl of tobacco and incense smoke (definitely incense smoke – this isn't a wet incense smell at all), the leather is mostly gone. Overall – sweet smoky musk. Interesting but ultimately a pass for me.

Testing a super-aged imp (at least 5 years)

In imp: Amber and generic perfume box, with a faint hint of sourness underneath

Wet: spicy amber – this is pretty masculine and sharp to the nose

Drydown: the spice starts to sweeten up a little bit, reminds me faintly of the wet stage of Mama-ji (though I'm also wearing that today, so maybe it's melding?)

Dry: A very soft, warm, dry cinnamon and amber, more cuddly than ferocious, very close to the skin – in a way it reminds me of the Lab's other cinnamon and spice scents (various aspects of Morocco, Mama-ji, Chimera) tempered with amber so that the scent stays on the more masculine or gender neutral side. The Lion is just so comforting – like burying your face into a furry pelt; after skin testing on the back of my hand, I just really wanted to slather my wrists with this and have the scent around me all day

Verdict: Perhaps too close to some other spice blends for me to get a big bottle, but I'll definitely use this imp for when I want my spice on the warmer and comforting vs. sweeter and sexier side

In the imp: smells a bit like the inside of a spice cabinet, wood in the background and a blend of peppery spices and a hint of dry tea leaves in the forefront; very soothing

Wet: A blast of pepper, cinnamon, and clove, very dry and woody spice

Dry: sweetens up just a little bit and the spices stop feeling quite as dry, the pepper fades back and now Plunder's a clovey/nutmeggy cinnamon and sandalwood on my skin, with the clove as the star of the show. I don't really get any tobacco.

Extreme drydown: clove and sandalwood

Verdict: Keep and explore layering. I bet Plunder would layer super well with Samhain and some of my other autumn scents that I wish were warmer. I'm glad to finally find a blend that has the clovey yumminess of Jack and March Hare without the weird popcorn smell of the first and the discontinued sadness of the latter!

In the imp: soap and fresh, wet lilac

Wet: it's very soapy and yet not unpleasant; this is very expensive French laundry type soap with something spicy lingering in the background, not food spice and not exactly sharp floral – it's like the spice of a very very fresh floral

Dry: the spicy floral comes forward, but the scent doesn't lose its high end soap aspect. Come to Me is sophisticated and comforting at the same time, the kind of scent you'd wear to high tea or for a gentle romp between freshly washed sheets

Tested a super aged (about 5 years) imp.

In the imp: Almond! All almond all the time

Wet: Mostly almond and cardamom, the latter of which shows up as a wet rather than a dry spice, if that makes any sense. The amber warms everything up and there's a teeeeeeny hint of the lotus adding fruitiness in the background

Dry: on initial drydown the lotus and myrrh really come out to play, adding wetness to the scent; the amber is still around to exotify things up and the nutty spices die waaaay back, final drydown on me is mostly amber and lotus

Overall it's a teeny bit generic perfume box and pencil shavings, but that might be from the age of the imp; if I didn't already have a favorite almond-and-spices scent I'd get a fresh imp to re-test!

In the imp, Good is all light honeyed vanilla, with a hint of the acacia wood smoothing things out and a kind of pulpy wetness from the sugar cane

Just applied, I get musk and a floral rather than foody vanilla, with acacia and greeny cane if I sniff deeply. Good is a very "white" scent on me, which is surprising given the color in the imp is a reddish brown

Dry: Oh, this is interesting. I'm getting spicy wood and floral vanilla with a delicious light musk overlaying everything and a hint of incense to keep things mysterious. There's a sliiiiiiiight bit of pencil shavings from the wood notes that I'm hoping aging will smooth over. This blend strikes me as neither feminine nor masculine. I could see how it would layer well with other RPG scents, yet by itself it's still complex enough to keep things intriguing. I will definitely get a lot of wear out of this!

Extreme dry: true to form, I'm amping everything that is floral and sweet in Good, the final result is something very close to the orchid vanilla that I get out of Regan, but without the problematic cream

In the imp, Neutral is super sweet! But not sweet in a foody, floral, or fruity way, just clean and very very fresh.

On wet, it's still sweet, with a teeny bit of floral blooming, like the very lightest of pale roses, covered with dew – I can already see how this would pair well with a ton of other blends

dry: What in the world is this deliciousness? Up close the closest thing I can think of is plumeria and then honeysuckle, but it's also not at all uber-floral, nor is it soapy, nor foody, yet it's the sweetest cleanest second skin scent I can think of; this is how I wish my skin smelled like all the time; I can't wait to layer with other scents!

Extreme dry: goes increasingly white floral (honeysuckle, gardenia) but never unbearably so (I'm not a huge fan of florals and generally prefer foody or resiny blends, but I'm really liking this), would be a great springtime scent on its own!

Initial impressions in the imp: sharp and cologney, frankincense and metallic, cold and clean

Wet: all sharp metallic frankincense and supple wet leather, with the musk adding sweetness

Drydown: the sharpness dies waaaaay back, now it's worn-in smoky leather with a tinge of metallic armor (like a saddle under chainmail), with a bit of clean sweat; neither sweet nor cologne-y anymore, more on the masculine than feminine side but just barely that – it's more manly than masculine, if that makes sense, very very close to the skin; I'd probably never wear this on its own, but am interested in the layering potential and using for cosplay/DnD

In the decant: okay, this is the delicious thing my entire decant order envelope smelled like – bam, light almonds and a frothy, creamy vanilla (with eek! A slight plastic note in the background)

Wet: Nutty almonds, ever so slightly bitter, softened by a light, non-foody vanilla, soft and very well balanced – it's not too sweet or floral, which I like – the sweetness comes from more of a spicy nuttiness with hints of light vanilla cream

Dry: Oh gods above this blend is amazing. Nutty, rich, complex almond, with a wash of frothy vanilla cream – sexy sexy sexy; it actually reminds me a bit of the wet stage of Snake Oil, crossed with the drydown of Chimera, but with something extra thrown in. Insta-big bottle purchase!

Received as a frimp from the Lab

In the imp, I get bergamot and something unidentifiable that's maybe the bourbon vetiver? But not at all dirt-like, which is what I usually associate with vetiver. Apparently opoponax is a kind of resin in the myrrh family – I can see that giving the scent its wet quality; I get just the teeeeeniest whiff of dry hay in the background. This blend smells super masculine, though not in a department store way; very strong – I'm almost afraid to test it, though the little bit that got on my fingers when opening the imp is pretty delicious

Wet: sharp and peppery men's cologne; incredibly masculine

Initial dry: mostly still cologne/vetiver/strong bergamot, but something a teeny bit sweeter, almost like a citrusy tea scent, is dancing around the edges – there's a lot here that reminds me of the citrus and tea cologne aspect of Dorian, without the sweetness of the vanilla – Stoker is Dorian's more powerful, more masculine cousin – if Dorian is looking to debauch you in the parlor, Stoker throws you over a pile of wet, freshly mown hay and has his wicked way with you

Dry: sweet, peppery cologne – amazing throw – this scent may be too masculine for me to wear out and about, but I'll make the SO try it since it's making me think naughty thoughts!

in the imp: Mostly rosewood and sandalwood, with a hint of wet peach in the background

wet: a sweet rosewood and a teeny bit of peach dancing in the background, with the sharpness of osmanthus; no sandalwood or vanilla for me, alas!

initial dry: I was really hoping to get some sandalwood vanilla out of this, but it's mostly peach tempered by rosewood right now, with a teeny whiff of something powdery, rendering it a somewhat generic floral; a bit later – not sure if it's a time of the month thing, but now I'm getting something dry and musty/a little musky-feral underneath the floral, it's not great

complete drydown/final impressions: this turns into generic perfume-box scent on me –all muddled florals, wine, and powder; I’m starting to realize that peach is just not a preferred note for me

decant

In imp: Big juicy apricot! Closest thing I've encountered to the apricot in March Hare, though I can see the "preserved" aspect – this is like a really good apricot jelly rather than apricot fruit

wet: Apricot with something sharp behind it – I would almost swear some kind of vetiver or similar sharp "dirt" note, just a teeeeeeeny bit of peppery cardamom as well

dry: Apricot – this one's a fast fader down to a second skin scent – I like it enough to hang onto the imp to use along with March Hare for when I want a hit of apricot goodness, but this isn't really a big bottle purchase for me

use it for: apricot plumminess and when I want a snuggly, comforting second skin scent

In the imp, The Apothecary is green but less herby than I would have thought from the description. There's a green tea note like the one in Embalming Fluid (definitely more like tea than tea leaf), with a hint of sweetness (not sure if it's the ginger or fig? It's not fruity in any way). Very soothing and interesting!

Wet: That greeny sweetness comes forth most prominently – I know that I've smelled it in another BPAL blend before but I'm having trouble placing it

Dry: Drydown is a dry, gentleman's cologne-y scent, very green and herbal – I think the sharpness here comes from ginger, but it reads like cologne to me

Verdict: sell or swap, overall too one-dimensionally masculine for my tastes

In the imp: a bit like Juicy Fruit bubblegum, I definitely get a big whiff of the clove and orange, with a lot of patchouli and a slightly sour note in the background

Wet: Patchouli in the front, plus clove/cinnamon, with hints of orange floating around. I'm still getting a teeeeny bit of that sour cat pee note if I sniff closely

Initial drydown: orange cloves, with patchouli in the background, darkening things up; peach emerges as soft, dryer sheet type smell

Dry: orange and peach predominant, spiced by cloves; I've lost the patchouli and incense (and thankfully also the cat-pee smell); this is what a Juicy Fruit dryer sheet would smell like. I'm pretty meh about it – probably will pass the imp on unless aging makes something interesting happen

When my 5mL of Haloes first arrived, I was kicking myself for buying it blind because while it smelled nice in the bottle, it immediately turned into pencil shavings and play-doh on my skin. Letting the bottle sit for about a week did the trick, though. It's turned into the most beautiful blend in the month and a half that I've had it, and I can't wait to see what aging does to this oil.

In the bottle: this is where the lily and ginger notes are the most prominent for me -- spicy, sharp floral with some amber thrown in the mix

Wet: what I think of as the "warm" notes of the blend -- vanilla, tonka, and amber -- immediately come forward and take over. If I huff my skin deeply I can smell gingery sandalwood and a bit of the lily still

Drydown: For a few hours, I get a glorious, gorgeous spiced/woodsy/creamy vanilla that's not at all gourmand/foody. The sandalwood and amber both mellow out, and I can see why "golden" is used to describe this scent so often. At this stage, I'd describe Haloes as a sophisticated and sexy second skin scent.

Extreme drydown: sweet vanilla

Definitely one to hoard -- I've been wearing Haloes nearly every day for a month and can't get enough of it.

in the imp and wet: All dragon's blood and sharp benzoin, with hot pepper spiking the mix and a cool hint of steel lying in wait beneath.

dry: Soooo interesting. This one's *powerful* -- the pepper really grounds the scent and lends a unique kick to it. The "leather, fire, and steel" -- wow, I never thought someone could capture the scent of fire and steel, but Beth's done it. Conquest, power, and fury indeed. It's a little too "much" for me… makes me wish I had a guy in my life whom I could make wear this all the time!