Wren12

Im totally in love with this! In bottle...lush berries, black, tart and sweet in equal proportions. On wet...the berries remain true, rounded out by slight green chlorophyll-y vines. On dry...the berries are a perfect mixture of tart and sweet, grounded by the green note in the background. The scent is reminiscent of a dark berry, slightly foreboding, but delicious to taste. The throw is amazing and I am in love. This is so a bottle order!

2009 Version: Chocolate...lovely lovely chocolate in the imp, on my skin, on the dry down...with just the slightest tinge of musk, deepened by a boozey note and tinged with smokey tobacco. I adore it. 2012 version: In the imp: Holy black musk batman. It's almost verbena, it's so lemony! On Wet: The chocolate pops its head out...but it is mainly being aggressively smothered to death under a black musk pillow (can I mention here I usually adore all the lab's musk?) On dry: Yup, that's black musk. About 1.5 hours in the musk backs it on up and the chocolate finally gets to breathe a little...it's still twitching under that pillow. I like it much better now. I think this may be a case of 'needs to age.' I like the 2009 version so very much I'm tucking this baby into the keep section and waiting for it to get wonderful, which I'm sure it will.

I was lucky enough to try this thanks to Suedonym's sniffing circle! On wet: Sharp fruits, light incense, it's the amber. It's slightly tart, but something is coming off very 'perfumey.' On dry: The patchouli makes itself known, and it's not the patchouli I like, I feel like it brings the high tartness of the fruits down and rubs dirt on them. I'm not a huge fan of amber in general, and it doesn't seem to play well, to my nose, here. Unlike G'milut this is not one that I need to track down, thank goodness. I think I'm not a fan just due to the constituents, not because it's a bad scent.

CII: Penitence with sweet lotus. A little bubble gummy.

I was lucky enough to try this thanks to SueDonym's sniffing circle. Thanks Sue!! Sniffed this without looking at the notes again. In the bottle: Sweet, sharp, some kind of tart fruit. Berries? A deep purple color, if it was a color. Some resin? On Wet: Mmm...lush fruity scent. The sweetness of the fruit is tempered by a resin, something which gives it an incensey quality, somewhat tangy and sharp. On dry: Love this. It is intensely fruity, softly sweet, not cloying. It's balanced out by the resiny incense notes very well. Not much morph until about 1.5 hours in when I get the tiniest bit of floral, but not enough floral to put me out. Looking at the notes I see the 'berry/fruit' was pomegranate/plum, and this makes sense, being that pom is a sharper fruit scent. I have no idea how I did not identify the honey note, as it's one of my faves, but it is so smoothly blended in that there's no sense of stickiness that you sometimes get with it. The resin was myrrh, and the bitter bit which cuts the sweetness of the honey makes sense now. All in all, love this, would love to hunt down an imp! Thanks again Sue!

In the imp: Very apple, very very apple. Something unpleasant too, a chemical sting. On wet: More of the same...reminds me of a shampoo I used to use. On dry: Sharp, alkaline, apple shampoo. This was an expensive shampoo, mind you, but still...not really what I want with apples. A definite alkaline edge to it. A shame, I love foodie scents, but this is not for me. Off to swaps!

Eerie billows of spun sugar, fluttering white cotton, and sheets of cream. I got a partial of Boo 09 from a wonderful swapmate and was so very excited because I've been aching to try it and never had a chance! Definitely a treat and not a trick! In the bottle: mmm...vanilla-y...light sugar with rich cream. On wet: pretty true to the bottle, I am in lurv. Airy sweet spun sugar with cream slowly warming and breathing richness and body into the fluffy sugar. On dry: the cotton wafts into the wonderfulness that is already happening here, light, a clean and slightly crisp back note to the wonderful that is already happening here. The cream continues to warm and is lush under the perfect sweetness of the sugar, giving a very vanilla feel to the scent. All in all, love this soso much. I will treasure this bottle!

In the bottle: A nice citrus, likely the verbena as others have noted, though I couldn't place it before reading the scent notes. Underneath is a nice herbal base. On wet: The citrus remains prominent and the herbals take on a greener quality. The sandlewood in this seems to be playing nicely on me (often it becomes soapy.) Dry down: I get the tiniest hint of the anise seed as it dries, and the verbena softens with the sandlewood providing a nice counterbalance to its sharpness. The light herbaceous base remains pleasing, likely the sassafras and anise, which aren't pronounced but nicely blended in. All in all I like it, I don't love it, but the label is very cool! Although, now that I think about it, it's nice to have a sandlewood that doesn't go all soapy!

I highly, highly, recommend Crowley, from the Gaiman Good Omens line. It has infernal musk, lavender cologne, lime rind, leather...and awesome, pure distilled awesome. It doesn't meet all the notes you were thinking of, but I think it could definitely fit the bill! And how sweet of him to give you BPAL for Xmas! I wish someone had done that for me! Eta: here's the Crowley review thread... http://www.bpal.org/topic/35105-crowley/page__st__125

Mmm...I love this! In the imp...ooh, yay, this has the same ozone/cold/snow note that I so loved with Monastery in the Mountains, with a slight sweet/tart note not present in that scent. On wet...the snowy note stays chilly and quite nice, with the tart lime giving it a nice base. I very much get fruit, but can't pick out the type, just some sweetness. On dry...still love it! The fruity sweetness is tempered by the lime and the whole is overlayed by that lovely cold now note whichbinds it together...almost like tart fruits in a cold glass covered in fresh snow on a high peak somewhere. The first time I worr it I felt that it didn't have much staying power, but this time its holding on strong. Overall, totally adore it, and this confirms that I love the labs snowy notes. I think I may like this better than my previous chilly fave, Monastery, and I'm fine with that because I'm lucky enough to have half a bottle headed my way!

Crowley is simply amazing. It is easily in my top 3!! Although more masculine than feminine I'd say.

I second. War, from the Gaiman line, very sexy and dangerous and lovely.

In the imp...bright tart pomegranate On wet...lovely red pom juice, bright and tart, with slight whiffs of juniper heightening the juiciness of the pom Dry down...the tartness of Tue pomegranate remains in the forefront with good throw and little morphing. There is a hint of hooziness but mainly its just a bright true pom. Luckily I don't get the soapy cleaning fluid that so many do, maybe cuz I love pomegranate, so this is just a wonderful scent on me!!

I was lucky enough to pounce on a bottle of this... In the bottle...Sweet and comforting...not sugary sweet or cloying, with a whiff of tobacco. On wet...much the same, but with a warming tang from the cognac. The tobacco is pronounced with a light undercurrent of vanilla? On Dry...the sweetness fades somewhat, replaced by a deeper, smoky tobacco scent, but lightened with a swirl of incense dancing throughout. The tobacco is not heavy, and seems to accent the swirl of incense and sharp bite of the cognac from my wrist. A dry crackle of fallen leaves provides an undercurrent to the lighter notes, playing a crisp counterpoint to the smoke and bite. The leaf smell becomes more 'real' as the scent matures on my wrist, becoming a mixture of crisp and a light dab of chlorophyll from the leaves yet dried by the wind. Definite vanilla notes waft subtly underneath the rest. I note a touch of musk, which my skin loves, and really helps this scent bloom for me. I am amazed by this scent. I absolutely adore it. I hope it just gets better with age because it is going to be sticking around for awhile!! ETA: after about an hour on I begin getting the most interesting hint of maple sugar from this. Yum!

A very well aged imp, received in a lot, at least 2 years old... In imp...rusted metal, very distinctly rusted metal, as though I'm rubbing a flaking bit of sheet metal and inhaling the fine red dust dust which shifts from its husk. No ham, thank goodness. On wet...the rusted metal blooms somdwhat, changing from a piece of rusted scrap to a mouldering copper bell, abandoned at the bottom of a church steeple, wet, with that viscous copper tang of spilt blood. Drydown...the copper tang sings a high note while a spicy, sweaty musk warms and wafts from my skin. The musk is.actually incredibly sexy from this scent and reminds me of the naughty parts in horror movies that inevitably dooms the participants to a blood soaked end. All in all, either I got a different oil than everyone else or this oil has aged incredibly well. This is a deep, dark, sexy smell on me.I adore it, and must have a bottle to age for myself. I don't get the ham or meat smell that other reviewers have mentioned and the smell is anything but nauseating. This is very much a nasty scent, but in a good way. Much better than Psychological Horror, that's for sure!

In the imp...bright and shiny. The smell is evocative of freshly shined brass, a metallic tinge, with a tiny hit of sweetness. On wet...the metal seems to brighten more, taking on a sharp edge. It begins to take on a masculine cologne scent. The leather peeks about the corner as it begins to warm and the frankincense becomes more assertive. Drydown...wowie, do I really like this. The leather becomes significantly more pronounced st this stage. The metallic edge is still present but subsides somewhat. The earlier noted, cologne scent, becomes more noticeable, mixing with an almost aquatic note (the oils?) and the sweet note of frankincense becomes a lovely, slightly incensey top note. I don't notice the spices that others have mentioned, but that's fine as I adore this just the way it is. Another bottle to add to the wish list!

Mother Ginger! Fizzy, citrusy ginger ale.

In the bottle...effervescent and bright. Hmmm...is that lemon I smell? On wet...much the same, fizzy lemon with not much in the way of spiciness I would normally associate with a ginger note. Dry down...still lemony citrus. What the heck? I was anticipating a warm, spicy scent reminiscent of gingerbread with marshmallow snow. Something sweet and mouth watering, but I still am mainly getting bubbly citrus. It remind me a bit of Cerberus, which was also lemony on me...Ginger Skulls also had the same citrus tones but was sweeter. I do get tiny brushes of vanilla which warms the sharpness of the citrus, but I'm just not getting the ginger. I do like this scent, I just wish I got more spicy ginger from it. I got this as a swap and I don't regret it, but due to its similarity to Cerberus on me I think I only need to keep one of the two.

Omg, duh, VILF is the oil I was thinking of! Cedar, leather and sin. So so so good!

Tombstone is amazing on me... Let's see...there was something else that had cedar in it I reviewed recently... ETA: Ok, I can't find the one I was looking for...but I can recommend Ranger as a really nice scent with woods. It's like woods and leather, it's wonderful.

In imp: Bright, yellow! If that makes sense. A nice sharp citrus. On Wet: Stays citrus-ey. In my head I confused it with Tweedledum which I think has kumquat as one of the notes and I'm getting a lot of the citrus, to the point of almost lemon, but more orange. On Dry: Alas, it stays as a somewhat murky citrus. I hadn't read the description until I went to write this and I don't get any of that lovely peppery bite that the lab does so well. Now that it is dry I do note a bit of the tea note come through, but I'm not sure if it was there before, or if now that I know it's there I can smell it out. Mainly it is a very, very close to the skin citrus. All in all, very nice, not what I would expect from the notes...maybe my skin amps orange blossom, because that's the main, high note hitting through. I like it, but with it's skin closeness and single notedness on me I think it may be headed to swaps. Now...Tweedledum, where are you. Caveat...my skin may be acting a bit weird with this one because I was wearing Red Phoenix all morning, which has really strong cassia and didn't wash it off, so that might be skewing things?

In the imp: Spicy, yet sweet, a soothing intermingling of clove and musk. Love this so far. On wet: The cloves bloom first, bolstered by the musk which ignites a warm sweetness to their spice. I'm not sure what opopnox is (a resin?) but there is a faint incense behind the spicy top notes. On dry: Yum, cloves and musk. The spice remains, becoming more assertive as the pepper makes itself known. It tickles my nose a little, like sniffing pepper from the pot, not a bad thing. The musk and cloves blend amazingly well in this. The incense notes waft through the background, giving this scent an almost smoky quality. I love this scent. It is more masculine than quite a few of the labs offerings, not a problem here. I wouldn't mind too bad if I happened to get a bottle of this!

Sol Invictus and Penitence come to mind when I think about bright smells...just off the top of my head.

Ranger is pretty amazing, smells like leather in the middle of a verdant wood, very masculine.

VILF, Crowley and Hellboy all immediately come to mind when I think masculine. And I love them all.