bheansidhe
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Everything posted by bheansidhe
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Tested in the vendor hall, so I may have missed some nuances, but here's my fast impression: blackened plum curtains shielding the hidden doorway to an occult headshop. Only a hint of incense trickles out behind the clove, black fruits, and red musk. I don't get oud except for a hint of bitterness sharpening the fruits. No rust or rot - this is musk, sharp dark fruits, and essence of Goth, as advertised.
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This looks like a serene, muted, office-appropriate plum -- from a distance. In reality, it's the perfect shade to wear to the surprise funeral of your secret enemy. You'll look appropriately solemn and respectful -- again, from a distance. No one will suspect the glee behind your composure, or the insouciance behind your manicure. But once the rites have concluded, and you've stripped off your black gloves, you'll grasp your steering wheel and watch the sunlight dazzle and dance off the thousand rainbow shimmers swimming in the bruise-black depths of your nail beds, and you will smile. You will smile.
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If our eyes interpreted the lightless void between the stars not as black, but as pink, it would look like this pink. If you wanted your hands to cosplay Margot Robbie's cowgirl suit, this would be your pink. In fact, if Greta Gerwig fed every frame of the Barbie movie into a centrifuge until it separated into a spectrum of pinks, and then she made a nail polish from the densest pink particle she could extract, tossing in a handful of glitter from Barbie's dance floor, it would be this polish. So, as I mean to tell you, this is PINK. For a jelly, it's densely pigmented enough that I'd call it a crelly. I got one-coat coverage, though I'm sure you could add as many coats as your doctor allowed. It's not clear from the photos on the site, but it's actually packed with gold, lavender, and hot pink sparkles. This is PINK PLUS. This is the ENTIRE Pink Pony Club in a bottle. Drag queens, perkygoths, kindergarteners and kindergarten teachers alike: come and get your pink.
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Coquelicot is a nonstop baby-aspirin-peach-tinted rave on my thumbnail. There is no light source - none - that keeps these flakies from flashing and glittering like a shattered disco ball. Going to the bathroom in the middle of the night? Follow the glowing reindeer nose on my left hand. Formula-wise, the jelly base is squishy and dense with a single coat, which is all I had time to apply at the booth. It's sheer and fully packed with flakes. I'm sure it would build to something spectacular or make a great topper. Color-wise, my eye can't decide if it's baby pink with pumpkin-orange flakes or pale sherbert orange with hot pink flakes; it's hard to focus through the dazzle. (Okay, now that I'm looking at it in the sunlight, I see that the flakes are multichrome hues of green-gold, gold-orange, and orange-pink.)
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This one sold out the fastest at the booth, for good reason. A single swipe and it's still sheer enough to see the color of my nail bed, but as I flex, it flashes nearly opaque from the density of the scattered holo shimmer. The color is old gold, peaches, and champagne beige, flaring with minute specks of lime green on rotation. I love how it's demure and flashy at the same time - "What dragon nails? Oh, THESE dragon nails? That's just a little sparkle is all." This would work as a standalone or a topper. I think it would be amazing over a black, opaque white, or bright green base. It's not really a clubbing polish, but it would be STUNNING for day wear, for dates, and by candle-light.
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What it says on the tin: Beth's hyper-realistic lipstick accord with fresh white peach juice. Light, sweet, waxen, and fruity.
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Are you on the fence about this one? Grab it anyway; someone else will gladly take it off your hands if you decide it doesn't suit. Is it a chewy, not-too-sweet vanilla oatmeal cookie? Is it almond milk-infused tea? Is it a cozy wool sweater freshly pulled from the wooden drawer? Yes. It's lightly desserty, but rides the line between the other notes; I'd call it half-gourmand. It's cozy, warm, softly sweet, and snuggly to the nose, with just a faint suggestion of sandalwood and baking spices.
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Tested at Dragoncon. You MUST enjoy licorice, anise, fennel, and related notes, because this is a blast of true black licorice, not the plasticky twizzler stuff. It's an interesting balance once the pepper comes out to play, especially with the innate vegetal sweetness of licorice. I don't think I get the amber, but the overall blend is rounder and richer than it should be with the other two notes, so I think this is another of those unique blends that everyone should test. Assuming you don't hate licorice. If you do, you'll be sad - or converted?! It's definitely not a cologne, but this is a candy that drags masculine if you need that in your repertoire. I think it would be a great clubbing scent, especially around Halloween.
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Idle Moon: White Tea and Red Ginger
bheansidhe replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
It seems like the Lab has released so many good ginger scents lately, and this is another! This duet is drier and more peppery than The Third Veil, lacking that blend's lush floral garden party vibe. White Tea & Red Ginger reads like you're joining your friend the Appalachian root worker on their front porch, and they're offering you shots of their homemade Doctor Pepper (from a mason jar, of course). Oh, and your friend makes olive oil soaps to sell at the local market. You can smell the clean, soapy notes on their clothes, but you're nowhere near the soap bars themselves. As it wears on my skin, this gets drier and more like an austere white tea, with all the lovely complicated floral notes of Silver Needle. Overall, this one fits very well into my collection of ginger and tea blends (two favorite notes). -
Dr. E. S. Packard, of Corunna, Me., in the Eastern Star, states that Mr. David Prescott, of South Sangerville, over ninety years of age, “wandered away into the woods, and not returning, a crowd of over a hundred men hunted for him nearly two days; the mill pond near his house was drained. Search was made in every direction but to no success. “A gentleman of that place decided to call in the aid of Mrs. Stevens; she told him somebody was lost, and not being able to visit the place she drew a map or chart of the locality, giving directions, by which, on his return he was immediately found alive, but died the next day. The day following I was at South Sangerville, and stopping at this gentleman’s house, examined the map, which was perfect in every respect. The house and shed were correctly drawn, the mill and pond near the house were marked, the field and woods, two fences over which Mr. Prescott must climb, even to the swinging of the road by the house was definitely given. “The spot where she said he was, was shown by a large black mark, and he was found exactly in that place. When we consider that Mrs. Stevens never saw this place in her normal condition, it is to me a wonderful test of spirit power.” Absolute and perfect clarity: rockrose, white amber, Corsican immortelle, Siamese benzoin, white sandalwood, and life everlasting. Sniffed, I get clouds of sweet sandalwood incense and white cotton -- not "clean laundry," but something white and cottony and opaque. I think this particular iteration of white amber is doing the powdery thing. It's not floral-forward, though the flowers advance as the blend wears down. Mostly, it's reading as benzoin/sandalwood dusting powder. There's a non-foody but vanilla-like sweetness (probably the benzoin, which contains vanillin). Also, somehow, the blend smells white. The vanilla-resin-powderyness makes me place it in the XYZ Lace family of Lab blends (e.g. Antique Lace, Black Lace, Red Lace). So this is... Psychic Lace.
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Lesbian Maidservants Cavorting with a Tortoiseshell Dildo
bheansidhe replied to Jenjin's topic in Lupercalia
This one is beautiful, sultry, and bringing up some of my more ..... confusing .... scent connotations. My brain offers: this smells like the CONCEPT of CATS .... like ... not like an actual cat or (god forbid) cat-related accessory, but like if you were describing to an alien how amazing it was to pet a really plush, sleek cat's fur, but as a scent, it would be this one. Or: this smells like the sister blend to ***just*** the cushion component of the cushions in The Crimson from The Girth of Venus, so maybe it smells like silk feather-down-insert cushions and the idea of cats, as a concept overall. It smells close and secret and like something you'd go searching for in the crevices of something beautiful and warm and maybe a little (ahem) dirty. It smells ilke it could be the missing Eighth Veil. Also, a little bit like apples. Welp THANKS ANYWAY, BRAIN. -
Idle Moon: Vanilla Husk and a Bundle of Twigs
bheansidhe replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
As noted, this perfume is alllll about the bundle of twigs, and they're quite the assortment. I am getting whiffs of sweet, jammy fir sap, and also the cool wintergreen of birch, some tannic oak, and maybe some mellow rosewood as well. In addition to vanilla husk (which takes a while to emerge), I think there may be a trace of cassia bark giving it a warm, spicy afterburn. If I was sniffing this blind, I'd guess it was some kind of sweet and mellow resin blend. This one feels like a candidate for aging and retesting for sure! -
The first wave is a sharply bitter floral soap; the bitterness may be a tannic lavender of the kind described as "herbal". I'm not sure what's causing the soapiness, because it's not the jasmine. Night-blooming jasmine usually reads as "nutty and warm" on me, while it's the more traditional jasmines that cast a soapy vibe. Fortunately, once this untangles itself and gets its sea legs, it becomes a much gentler bouquet of lavender and rose hips with some kind of complicated cool white floral thing happening way in the background, and a slightly salty, slightly green-grassy moonlit dew.
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This reads as a sexy, sultry caramel -- or possibly maple syrup, as another commentator noted. I get the comparison, and maybe that's a better choice, because there's no butter in the mix. Let's say, then, that it's syrup distilled from amber and sandalwood, sun-warmed and honey-dusted. I normally can't wear any of the Lab's honey blends, but "honey dust" seems better-behaved on my skin, so I have VERY hopeful hopes here!
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This is not at all angsty; it's a rather peppery, pithy grapefruit and red ginger (more rooty and spicy than the white kind?) with sweet, bracing fir needle and rhubarb, anchored by some kind of tree bark. I'm never quite sure what balsam is supposed to smell like, so I can't tell you if that note dominates. There's a particular patch of forest I hike in central Oregon where the air smells of fir needle, and that's definitely the conifer here - not pine or pine freshener. As it dries, it turns into an achingly gourmet, small-batch rhubarb ginger ale - the kind you put into a $25 cocktail being served somewhere foody. (Now that I think of it, I need to try brewing a rhubarb ginger ale.) The final drydown is gently woodsy. So much more cheerful than the painting, but I'm not mad about it.
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*heavy sigh* Gonna be another one of THOSE reviews, I can tell ..... Okay. This smells like the Gingerbread Man after you're finished f&cking him. (It's a fairytale, okay?)
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Sniffed: this is SO pungent in the vial, about 50% sharp clean clary sage (sweeter than white sage) and 50% rooty, resinous notes I don't recognize, even though I know (and enjoy) vetiver. It's herbal, but not like tidy dried bundles, and more like you yanked a handful of autumn-dried stalks from the ground, root and all. Applied, it takes a moment to settle on my skin, where it turns into something oddly reminiscent of .... bronze? the actual metal bronze, the smell of a temple bell in your sweaty palms. It's bronze-tinged musk. There's the funky vetiver, finally, layered with the sun-warmed bronze, the clary sage, and the brown patchouli root. Willow boughs could mean salicylic acid, which would account for the tinge of aspirin bitterness amid the herbs and roots. The musk smooths everything together in the end, but it's a dark and austere smooth over a dark and thrumming base. I don't get cypress per se, but I get what Beth has described as "funeral vibes" in the mix. It doesn't smell menacing, but it smells dark and quietly unfuckwithable.
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Boney Moon: Spiced Chestnut and Honey
bheansidhe replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Do you know how some patchoulis are described as "chewy" (looking at OG Banshee Beat / Revenant Rhythm here)? This duet has the same sweet, chewy quality as that patch when first applied, while not smelling one bit like actual patchouli. Honey and chestnut notes both hate me, so there's a brief discordant arm-wrestle with my personal chemistry where I get a treacle-y molasses cut with a strong potpourri note, which resolves into nutmeg, ground ginger, and a touch of what's reading as bay leaf. The spices are warming and culinary-adjacent, but not baking spices per se; this isn't another pumpkin spice iteration. It's spiced like the Silk Road, not like Starbucks. It's wearing down like a big, round, sweet, chewy, kind of REALLY funky caramel incense overlaid with chestnut toffee and ginger beer - a little like Red Lantern. I can see this as a demented dark circus food stall. -
This painting's canvas is firmly in the "scorched milk" family of Snake Milk, Ghost Milk, Mummy's Milk, etc. It's layered with a soft iris that, combined with the white tea blossom, lends an Earl Grey bergamot vibe, like tea mixed into clotted cream. There's a perfumey musk middle section that I assume is the ambergris. Overall low throw, but very discernable on the skin. Verdict: soft, creamy, "if milk was a perfume."
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This is a cold white floral AND a sweet incense smoke AND a spicy clove-blackened lavender at the same time, all bottled up in orris root soap like a trio of baffled genii. It's clean skin, but also a clouded smudge of myrrh. The clove never dominates, but lends a spicy quality to the floral notes. The lavender is astringent and herbal, but also mild. This winds up smelling like a really, really expensive French soap on me.
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A Guardian Angel Serves a Small Breakfast
bheansidhe replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Limited Editions
AAAHHH, THIS IS SO GOOD, THIS IS SO GOOD it's .. gingersnaps? Peppery crispy gingersnaps, butter, a little waft of coffee steam, and something I can't name but makes me want to drag my waffles through it, and then my whole entire butt. Why the hell did I type that? What unhinged review is this? I'm snorting my arm like a truffle pig. What am I smelling? Oh, there's the musky component, and the cream, and the spices, and the amber, and now the gingersnaps are something much closer to the magical sweet buttery dough note in Lavender Lussekatter, sans lavender. Rosenkuchen apparently has rum, poppy seeds, almonds, and/or raisins, depending on the recipe, and now I'm getting a German bakery vibe, but primarily? It smells like angelic pastries for breakfast and MAGIC. -
From start to finish, this blend reads like "honey plus" - and as noted, this is a viscous forest honey, almost as funky as a chestnut honey; pungent, distinctly musky, but still definitely a *honey*. Sniffed, it's dark honey plus lemon blossom and neroli. On my skin, it's honey plus tree-sap resins and a touch of floral sweetness like honeysuckle blooming in the background. For a moment, confusingly, it's honey plus a very realistic salted black licorice. On drydown, it's honey plus a resinous musk, still viscous and sweetened, but not cloying. I never get a separate note of ylang ylang or amber. It's low, golden, and darkly warm; really an interesting play on honey variations. ETA: the next day I still smell it, and it's now honey plus amber.
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Sniffed: a dark purple Snake Oil variant. Applied: a medium-bright Snake Oil overlaid with a floral pollen that's almost bitter, like angelica root, but gradually softens and opens into both a lilac floral and a vegetal green vanilla musk. The lilac is realistic, but not shrill, bright, or soapy; it floats like a leaf on the Snake Oil river. This is overall a softer and slinkier blend than I was expecting, with the vanilla musk and some chewy patchouli notes carrying equal weight with the lilac.
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This one confuses me a lot (without offending me in the least). Sniffed, I get .. sexy ginger ale without the bite? A very green, vegetal vanilla note? Something powdery and light blue? What it IMPLIES is that you are floating across the sunny lawn at a garden party wearing a giant, GIANT flower-bedecked and tulle-veiled hat, something that treads the line between 40s starlet and 80s church lady, an ankle-length sundress (not a caftan), and comfortable -- yet kittenish -- strappy sandals. While sipping something refreshing, ginger-infused, and deceptively non-alcoholic. Enjoy. ETA: creamy, powdery, sweet ginger-ale musk at drydown.
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For a relatively short (low-throw) perfume, this blend announces itself with BIG shouty cassia and cinnamon notes when it hits the skin. Fortunately, they're muffled by the waxen lipstick accord. There's a touch of bright citrus at the edges, but as it wears, it fades into warm, spicy, slightly powdery, cassia-scented stage makeup. I don't specifically get myrrh or lotus, but I get a fringe of glamour. 100% wear this if you want to feel like Liz playing Cleopatra.