doomsday_disco

Beeswax & Pine Needle.

Blackened lavender and sensual rivulets of labdanum with Oman frankincense and raw cacao.

A new year’s blessing! Peony, China’s national flower, with bamboo for flexibility, plum blossom for perseverance, courage, and hope, tangerine for wealth, orange for happiness, lychee for household peace, pine resin for constancy, golden kumquat and quince for prosperity, narcissus and King mandarin for good fortune, and peach blossom for longevity, with a splash of blazing red of dragon’s blood to help you scare away the rampaging Nian.

Snow-covered stroopwafels, ice-rimed brown leaves, and a swish of boot leather.

Harpocrates would never. Peru balsam, dusty leather accord, jingling brazen amber, oakmoss, crushed mint, teakwood, and a coxcomb curl of red musk.

Ambergris foam, twinkling white musk, lime rind, frosted lemon, Norway spruce, sour green apple, night-blooming jasmine, Icelandic moss, and yellow bergamot.

River reeds, fen violets, water lilies, starfruit, wild berries, lily of the valley, and climbing roses.

Red Poppy Pod and Blue Lilac.

Patchouli and Wormwood.

English Ivy Leaves and Milky Hemlock Sap.

Belladonna Berries and Sugared Black Tea.

Bourbon Vanilla.

A fable in scent: bone-white sandalwood aged with beeswax and balsam, crushed grass and juniper berries, ambrette seed, and lupine musk.

Lupine Musk & Ambrette Seed.

The more pity, that fools may not speak wisely what wise men do foolishly: fig milk, white cedar, white pear, vanilla cream, bourbon sandalwood, clove, honey cake, and sweet musk.

Addressing you directly, dear reader, with this important message: NYAHHHH!! Cheeky blackcurrant against a backdrop of scorched goat’s milk, festooned with ribbons of scarlet musk, dried plum, and sweet rose-infused amber.

Control your own fate? You can’t even control your fête! A rollicking scent that upturns hierarchies and flies in the face of conventions: cacophonous red poppy, sweet almond cream, wildflower honey, molasses, gingerbread, scarlet jasmine, red amber, lemon peel, Spanish moss, and black musk.

“It is impossible to say how first the idea entered my brain; but once conceived, it haunted me day and night.” Pulsating globs of red musk oozing through a hot, crusty strawberry, red currant, and black cherry tart.

The season’s first snowdrop, stark white and spring green against a backdrop of black ink and myrrh resin.

Assam and Darjeeling tea, milk, and jaggery with a blend of cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, star anise, pepper, and fennel seed.

Lavender-infused vanilla cream with crystalline flowers and a hint of red velvet cake. Normally I let scents rest for at least a day after arrival, but I was too excited to test this one! I'll update this if it ends up being really different after it has had time to settle. In the bottle: The crystalline flowers are the star of the show, shooting through the lavender-infused vanilla cream (more vanilla than lavender) and red velvet cake, the latter of which I can smell most prominently after I've inhaled deeply. Some of the flowers I think I am smelling are honeysuckle and orange blossom. I'm reminded of Muse of Fire, if it were accompanied by foodie elements. Wet: I'm getting a blast of bright, somewhat effervescent florals (they read as yellow and orange) tamed by the lavender-infused vanilla cream. The ice cream note gains strength as the scent sits on my skin, further taming the bright floral notes, and the lavender aspect of the vanilla cream starts to really gain its footing, so that the scent is beginning to read more as purple, although the yellow and orange flowers are still very present. Dry: The red velvet cake note has emerged, and I can smell both the cake and the frosting really well. It's the scent of red velvet cupcakes drifting through a garden full of bright flowers, where a tea party is being held, and the lavender-infused vanilla cream is beginning to melt. I think there may be some orchid in this, and maybe some freesia, but I could be wrong. Although the bright flowers haven't gone away, I'm definitely getting the darker colors of the rainbow now. Verdict: This one is certainly evocative of its name! As a fan of sugary florals, I am thrilled to have it! But it's not one that I feel the need to hoard (as the lavender and vanilla are not the main players on me). This is more floral than gourmand, so if you're mostly hoping for vanilla cream and red velvet cake, this one is probably not for you. The florals play a very big role in this one. *edit* Retest on 4/26/18, three months later: I'm getting strong strawberry from this now, but it's more like strawberry candy or jam than actual strawberry. The crystalline florals are next in prominence, followed by the lavender-infused vanilla cream. I'm also getting more of the red velvet cake than I did initially. I thought the lavender-infused vanilla cream or red velvet cake might become more prominent with age, and while I get a bit more of the red velvet cake than before, it's mostly about strawberry candy and crystalline, Muse of Fire-like florals on me.

Pale lichen, sweet Oman frankincense, moss-covered bark, silver fir needle, golden myrrh, and green patchouli leaf.

Winter Apple and Lily of the Valley.

So... I have tried the original, but not when it was new. A kind forumite sent me a decant from their bottle back in 2018, so the decant I received was of an oil that had already aged for five years, and of course, decants themselves age quicker than bottles do, so any comparisons I make to the original release aren't from when the original was fresh. Here's my review of the aged original release. So the main notes I get from both versions are the patchouli, lavender, and opium, but the aged decant of the original I have is far stronger (I deathmatched them). That is not abnormal for an aged oil, though. The red, Sumatran patchouli in it is particularly bold in the aged version, so the lavender and opium aren't as prominent in the aged version. Although I still get a lot of patchouli from this one, it's much lighter than the patchouli from the aged decant, so I get more lavender and opium from the new release (with the opium being longer lasting), which is fine with me. I just wish it had the oomph of my decant, but maybe it will with age? The blood musk in here is not like the Lab's usual red musk note at all, so I would still give this a try if the other notes appeal. Right now, I like this, but I don't love it, and I'm wondering if that will change with age, so I'm going to hang onto it and see how it develops. I thought this would for sure be my pick from the Our Lady of Pain re-release, but Hair Loosened and Soiled in Mid-Orgies is my favorite from that collection.

This was my favorite of this year's New Year's scents, but I keep retesting it and keep waffling on whether or not I need more than a decant. This is mostly a berry-infused cream scent on me. The cream is mostly a true, light, homemade whipped cream, and the gooseberry note is unlike any other berry note I've come across from the Lab, both sweet and tart, like there are both green and red gooseberries here. There isn't a huge fried dough presence from the fattigman note: like Little Bird said, it just adds a light spice and sugary warmth to this scent. The crumbs reside in the background, never overtaking the gooseberries or cream on me. And the cream only gets a little buttery after it has been on the skin for several hours. I didn't notice anything particularly musky coming from this, and for that, I am glad. The decant is definitely a keeper, and I will have to retest it one more time to how much of it I've used and if it will be enough before these scents come down.