Aveya

Source: Decant Circle

Preconception: Lavender, vanilla, tobacco? Sign me up.

Vial: Lavender. beautiful beautiful lavender with a touch of sweetness and grittyness.

Skin: Lavender, tempered hard by "lace". Sweetness from the tobacco cuts in just as I hoped. There's a smokey fabric vibe happening.

Drydown: Oh no. OH NO. Someone spilled their creme brulee all over my lovely lavender lace. It's ruined and can't be washed. Seriously if you amp foody caramel into gross generic "foodstuffs", do not snuff your nose at this caramelized tobacco. Half of the wear of this scent decided it was "foody" caramel. Everything else got drenched in the sticky goopy over-the-top caramel nonsense happening here. I am devastated. Everything else was working perfectly for me. Underneath the caramel-foody-ampage is something stunningly beautiful, albeit light on the lavender. The tobacco, smoke, lace effect is glorious. I'll be trying other laces for sure.

Verdict: Ruined by caramel-amp for me personally. Wanted to love so bad.

Source: Swap!

Preconception: I love lavender, herbal blends, and berries. Figured it was worth a try.

Bottle: Whoa lavender! Prominent.

Skin: Oh mai. This is stunning - right in line with many of the other reviews. First application is utter relaxation. Lavender, sweet herbs. The White musk is adding a "clean" element to the edges of this scent. Just yum. I'm sad there isn't more a fruit note for me. It's mostly a lovely herbal gentle musk blend.

Drydown: White musk, I'm assuming, is making this go super "clean" on my skin. Goes through crisp linen phase, then wet freshly cleaned laundry, then to soap proper, and now heading into baby powder land. I think that's just me "amping" white musk? So sad, the initial phase was just stupidly stunningly soothing. I'll be keeping lookout for other herbal blends sans white musk.

Verdict: Super super soothing scent. Unisex, herbal prominent, musky "clean" edge with the barest hint of tart-sweet fruit.

Source: Forum Swap

Preconception: Excited. I'm a clover lover in all forms, and frankincense is growing on me. And I'm an avid tea lover but not sure how it works in scents yet. Interested!

Vial: Simple, clean. Floral and light.

Skin: YUM CLOVE. With tea. Fresh fresh green tea and clove.

Drydown: Gets more herbal/floral. The clove eases up and just adds a gentle bite to the green tea and wisteria.

Pretty well balanced in the end. Floral professional green tea (don't think matcha, think lose leaf chinese buds with flower blossoms), spiced with clove - it's not subtle but it's not overpowering. Then Frank is adding his sweet funk to the blend, plus wisteria's floral vibe.

Verdict; Spiced herbal flowers. Light, green, leans toward feminine. Lovely throw.

Source: Decant Circle

Preconception: Jasmine and I have a history. Floral and I just, don't get along we'll say.

Vial: Floral's, hey! Light sweet bright.

Skin: Remarkably smooth and sweet, for being a floral. But then there's an after-smell that sort of burns you randomly. Floral but agressive. Which is in contrast to the otherwise smooth, sweet, gentle floral.

Drydown: I'm not strong with my floral notes, but this feels like a classic chypre. It's well blended, grounded, but also lovely neroli top note. It comes across slightly clean to me, but only just the barest touch. Those in love with gentle clean florals should enjoy this.

low-medium throw on me.

Source: Decant Circle

Preconception: Ozone is not a note I wear. I fully expect this will get swapped off.

Vial : SHEW LEATHER. Black black black leather. Zap.

Skin: Calms down and smooths out. It's actually surprisingly lovely. I know a few people this scent actually reminds me of. It's entirely wearable, although super distinct. Still leather and ozone, 100%. But it comes across as a smoother, strong, robust cologne.

Drydown: Mellows more as time goes on. It morphs into something aquatic, almost. Smooth ocean breeze at moments. But generally the same scent all through. It's simple enough that you could easily layer this. Perhaps even with some of the RPG scents if you want to add some creativity to your RPG characters.

Verdict: Smooth, sophisticated, edgy, well-kept, kinky. Very masculine but surprisingly un-assaulting, considering. On me it had great throw and staying power.

Source: Decant circle!

Preconceptions: I'm on a hunt for an imaginary "Skin Musk" feeling I got from an ooooold decant long ago, for the life of me I can't remember what it was. I just remember putting Skin Musk on my radar.

Vial: Unexpectedly herbal?

Skin: I didn't expect this at all. Bright. Almost herbal musk. I'm not familiar with Frankincense (working on understanding that one) so I'm useless there.

Drydown: Much more perfume-esq powdery clean than I anticipated. Not much if any vanilla. Sheer is the key word here. Like a nice cotton sheet laid down, ready for more scent. But the direction it will take isn't a journey I necessary want.

Verdict: Bright, light, sheer, clean. Big throw and staying power.

Source: Decant! Note - This is a thiiiick blend that's trying to separate even in my vial. Make sure you roll your bottles.

Preconception: MOST excited for this scent. This has every love ticked for me.

Vial: Deeeeep red. Rich. Patch and musk. Cocoa sticks out.

Skin: I'm in Heaven. deep red musk. Gently sweet. I'd say red musk forward, patch and tobacco are there but are united with the supporting characters. Making one delicious dark smooth blend I could bathe in.

Drydown: Wood-notes come out later game and tame the red musk more. As Red musk is tamed, I feel like the other notes can come forward a little more. Stage one for me was decidedly womanly sexy smut. Stage two is leaning more masculine Stage one is fifteen bottles backup, stage two is maybe one.

I'll be trying again once I've let this vial sit a tad longer from mailshock. I just couldn't wait any longer.

Verdict: Beautiful, red, dark, smooth, woody. Late-game masculine.

Source: Forum Decant

Preconception: I actually really super love Nori? Not sure how it works in a scent but I'm too curious to pass it up. Unfamiliar with the other notes; including the musk variants.

Vial: Salty!

Skin: Weird. Literally like, I got tangled in sea-debris. Salty weedy musky. Not aquatic to me in the usual sense - I'm not feeling any "Ozone" tang in this one which is a little bit of a relief.

Drydown: Musky, blue variations. Aquatic but without the usual ozone method - this is pine and salt and sea. It must be chamomile that'd adding a floral-esq clean edge to the blend.

Verdict: Musk dominant, engulfing sea storm. Like a rolling cloud embracing you in the most comforting way possible.

Source: Decant circle! Awesome.

Preconception: Super excited - love fruity sweet scents.

Vial: Dreamy. SUPER PINK. Fruity, sweet, so sweet. Literally pink sugar slime.

Skin: First application came across as pure bubblegum for me. Super scared.

Drydown: Eases up into a much more beautiful pink pop of fruity fizz. The lime is very notable to me - keeps the scent from being a cloying mess. The orchid seems to add an air to the scent, keeping it light and distinctly feminine.

It interestingly has a slight "clean" slant to it. Not sure what's causing it, probably the combo. But the Guava is the star, holding everything together and being pulled in every direction by the others.

Verdict: Super Fing Pink. Sweet, feminine, bright, happy, peppy.

Source: Lovely lovely decant circle

Preconception: Weary - Cardamon is new to me, cream can go sour, fig has been meh before, whisky can get too boozy tart.

Vial Sniff: OMG this is heaven. Slathered on skin right away.

Skin: Stays beautiful with cardamon and team - a creamy warm spiced sweet beautiful thing

Drydown: Carmel-esq with a tart boozy high note. Foody without doing that "baked goods" grubby thing (No idea how to describe that). However the base note seems absent. I can tell this is going to struggle to stick around for the long game.

... Sound like it needs layered.

With, maybe, Drag is for everyone?

Verdict: High-note heavy; top notes of caramel and booze, nice spiced. Late drydown starts to go a tad masculine with a boozy spiced remnant.

Whoa.

Imp: Sharp Strawberry

Skin: Oh heavy beeswax. It cuts into the sharp strawberry easily, and there are these moments where it's 100% Jolly Rancher.

Drydown: Easily morphs out of candy and falls into something red-musk esq. Reminiscent of the new Edible G-String scent. Same fruity sexy musk vibe happening. But much more wax.

Hefty throw, beeswax stays around. Overall warm, red-musky, starts with sharp sweet fruit but fades to a warm red honey-haze.

Source: Random swap pick from forumite
Preconception: I love patch. I'm newly learning Tobacco doesn't smell like a smoker and is actually beautiful. So I'm optimistic. But I've never come across "hay" and liked it.

Bottle: Surprisingly sweet and perfumey.
Skin: Oh what a bloom. Still "perfumey" but tamed down. I know that's Hay being a weirdo. Otherwise this is all sweet smooth elegant patchouli & tobacco. They go together so beautifully - I can't. There aren't words for this combo. It's a new combo for me personally, I've ran across tobacco recently as I try to clear out my to-test stash. But the combo is just so delicious. Woody, earthy (but in a soft, summer breeze sort of way), smooth, sweet. Their combo is like amber's dark sister.

Drydown: Stays about the same for me. The hay is sort of slicing into the patch+tobacco beauty I'm swooning for, and turning this more perfume-esq and possibly masculine edged. I think that's about where it stops; there isn't much more to this scent to tantalize my gemini self. I want something more for no reason at all.

Verdict; beautiful and straightforward. Warm, smooth, gently earthly, slightly masculine blend. Beautiful and simple. If you're someone who loves wearing say vanilla straight, this is one you should try out.

I agree, it will age amazingly. I'll try a few more wears before I swap or sell this bottle, because it's almost nirvana.

Source: Decant from 2012, waiting for me to get to it.

Preconception: I'm afraid of florals, So, this one is intimidating.

Imp: Wet, sweet, juicy.

Skin: I ALWAYS underestimate how beautiful lotus is. This is wet, pretty, "floral" technically but absolutely beautiful. Like sitting next to a creek in soring.

Drydown: Unfortunately it IS a floral and I'm dumb to different flower scents. One of them takes center stage and turns the blend away from creek-wet-breezes and into pollen territory. White, sweet, a bit clean. But steals the show.

The amount of floral/pollen I get from this keeps the scent from feeling autumnal to me, and more like a spring/summer scent.

Source: Decant circle from 2012

Preconception: Just curious. I'm assuming it wont work on me, but trying everything out.

Imp: Cotton, pine, herbal

Skin: That... is pot. Pine pot. LOL makes Norman seeing ghosts make a whole lot more sense, eh? Wet pine pot on top of fabric.

Drydown: Pot note eases up and moves into a more pine-citrus direction. On top of "Clothing" perfume. A kind of musky fabric. Cream keeps everything pooled together but I don't find it prominent at all. I swear there's something cedar in here too, woody.

Verdict: Hits the namesake again. Clothing, pine, and citrusy potty ectoplasm.

Source: Old decant circle from the forums I neglected.

Preconception: Just curious, no idea or prejudices against these notes.

Imp: Dusty hills

Skin: ... Road trip. This smells exactly like a road trip. Leather, skin, faint waft of gasoline from so many stops, and dirt - dry natural summer dirt.

As a lover of gasoline smell (I was that weird kid inhaling deeply at the gas station, and my mom freaking out that I was going to give myself brain damage) I have to say it's NOT prominent. It's just the barest edge of passing by a gas station or car repair shop.

Drydown: I actually really love this one. Smells like the Black Hills. Motorcyclists and all

Verdict: Sturgis scent. Leather, motorcycles, nature, beautiful endless horizons, maybe a stray buffalo. First scent I've ever had from the lab that roots me back to South Dakota. Not my home state, but my current home.

Pale, gentle, clean, ethereal white & green floral. Light, not heady, barely sweet. Delicate and feminine.

Source: Who the heck knows, Probably lab.

Preconception: Love plum. But I have this handwritten note from years ago that says "Pretty but faint" So...

Imp: Floral simple not a lot to get.

Skin: Mmm spicy plum.

Drydown: My note was not wrong. This blend doesn't work on me - just no throw. I get little zings of spice but that's it. Maybe this vial is just a dud.

Verdict: Pretty but faint

Source: Swap!

Preconception: Pretty sure this one was a frimpie, or a "heck why not". No opinions!

Imp: Whoa clean and soapy. Didn't expect that.

Skin: Yep. Lovely clean soap.

Drydown: Metallics are there. The electrostatic effect can be read as electrostatic, or when Im lazy "soap". Metallic soap. A touch of ... leather? Like soft well worn brown leather, almost skin-like musk.

Verdict: Clean, electro-static charged, metallic. Comes across unisex, but I feel like it would do beautifully on someone masculine.

Source: Old decant circle in 2012 I neglected to test

Preconception: Honestly don't know what I was thinking getting this one. I assume it's going to be death-by-ozone.

Source: Lab

Preconception: The only note I see is Vetiver. Pusling red. My death note I'm trying so hard to understand.

Imp: ... So hey there, vet. Wet basement on the menu today? Maybe we can stick to like, happy prairie grass instead, huh?

Skin: Rootbeer! That's fun. For five seconds. Then smoke billows up. Then someone threw vetiver into the bonfire and started drinking rootbeer again. Quit jumping around and let me smell you.

Drydown: Actually a pretty cool scent. Once I get over my vetiver issues, it fizzles together into a nice blend. Citrus-spiked root beer, bonfire smoke, a general vibe of sweetness.

Verdict: Youth group bonfire. Good intentions, youthful pep, naivety in abundance.

Source: Lab

Preconception: NOPE. NOPE. Don't make me wear this, self. Magnolia? Gardenia!? JASMINE?! You know how I feel about jasmine. YEAH BUT TRY IT YOU HAVE IT. TRY EVERYTHING RAWR

Imp: Florals. Yeah. Yeah I know.

Skin: ....

PUT IT ON YOUR SKIN.

...

Ahem

Skin: Florals. Imagine that. OOoh but patchouli!? See there's reasons we try everything.

Drydown: OK so this is a floral that doesn't do that perfumey dusty in-your-nostrils thing that Jasmine very specifically does to me all the time. Instead this stays... behaved. Heady, for sure. But instead of powdery grandma it feels full bodied and well rounded. That depth from the patch and team is very very lovely.

Beginner's floral. Floral for those that can't quite. Has an edge to it that feels oddly western - cedar? Woody patchouli for sure. It's sweet and full, floral but tempered from taking over the world. Actually worked really well on me.

Verdict: That backup bottle the tom-boy female keeps for those occasions when she has to put on a dress and go to a wedding and pretend to be a girly bridesmaid for your sister in law. It passes as feminine but doesn't completely abandon you.

Source: Lab

Preconceptions: Yawn-fest. I dunno why but I was so un-interested.

Imp: I dunno what I smell. It's like, nothing?

Skin: Surprisingly lovely what the heck. It's almost sarsaparilla-esq, but if it were cinnamon based. Vanilla backing, smokey hint. What the heck why is this so amazing.

Drydown: Oh no. I sniffed it all off. It's gone. There's nothing. I can only sniff it by merging by face with my arm via bending laws of physics.

Verdict: Lovely western cinnamon scent - but no throw. Super close to skin

Source: Lab

Preconception: Super masculine/too edgy for me. Wouldn't have tried if I hadn't ran a circle for these.

Imp: Boozy bold peppery leather.

Skin: Comes across leathery to me at first. Then unravels to reveal it's just complicated spices. This is some artisan cognac is all I can say. Either that, or that dust on the pepper is some complicated mid-eastern spice-bazaar-dust.

Drydown: Smoke is the prominent accord to me. That mid-eastern bazaar I mentioned? Fucking burning down. Ginny had enough of their "let me wrap it for you" shenanigans, coming back with other crap in the package half full and bad quality.

Verdict; Dark sexy lady with cowboy boots, standing in front of a burning spice Bazaar. With a sparkle in her eye.

Source: Extra decant from my circle

Preconception: SUPER STOKED! I love peach. I love carnation. I love patchoul. Vanilla. Bergamot. This is going to be awesome.

Sniff: AWESOME. Fruity, zesty, spicy.

Skin: Hm. Notable GREEN edge pops out. I'm not familiar with geranium, but I'm thinking it acts a bit like white rose?

Drydown: Pretty disappointed. This turned into what my nose just considers rose. And after a small google of "what does geranium smell like" the answer is apparently "Rose". And Geranium doesn't care, it's gonna amp just like rose too. Everything else is lost in the spread.

Verdict; Rose SN due to ampage. Small dusting behind that of a lovely fruity scent. So sad!