doomsday_disco

I am so glad that this one ended up getting notes listed the day after the Yules went live, because I almost passed it up, and then I ended up being able to grab a decant once the notes were updated. It would have been a shame to have passed this one up, because it ended up being my favorite scent from the Yule 2021 update! This goes on as a gorgeous lavender and skin musk on me. At that point, it is soft and close to the skin. Then the vanilla husk and myrrh emerge, and during that phase, it seems like a cousin to one of my favorite atmos, The First Love Fades Too, but with myrrh instead of sandalwood. The ylang ylang joins in and becomes more prominent as the vanilla husk does, and then it's a cousin to one of my favorite massage oils: Formula 57 with its ylang ylang and vanilla. Wisteria is usually a note that is high-pitched and screechy on me, tending to stomp all over other notes, but in this scent, it is incredibly well-behaved. It does add a high-pitched perfume-y aspect to the scent by the end of the day, but it is kept in check and even complemented by this absolutely stunning floofy, billowy, vanilla musk. I'm in love. Multiple bottle worthy.

This smells like the most wonderful dark red mulled wine (lightly spiced) backed by a touch of non-acrid hearth smoke and the same cotton-y tobacco musk type of note from Cafe au Lait and a Wool Blanket and You are Not Alone. Over time, that aspect of the scent gains strength and ends up dominating, with only a hint of the mulled wine. Wild, because I usually amp the Lab's wine note. I want this wine but without the wool blanket.

On me, the raspberry jam is the star, and it's even more jam-like than the raspberry apricot jam from Raspberry Apricot Sufganiyot. It's backed by some tangerine, spun sugar, and what seems to be a creamy amber... there's this creamy softness to it that kind of makes me think of Starburst, even though there are no raspberry Starburst, or perhaps a raspberry Mamba if it had the softer texture of a Starburst. It ends up being mostly raspberry cotton candy on me with hints of orange and amber. I almost didn't grab a decant of this one, but I'm glad I did. I'm not sure I need a whole bottle, but I think I'll hang on to my decant to pair it with Pa-Pow HG. ETA: I decided this one was bottle worthy after all!

Pine, stone, and that unlisted oudh mentioned in 15 Minutes of Fume are the first notes that leap out at me, followed by some sage and a bit of fog. Then I get a dark variety of musk... not black musk, but maybe something like the pine and musk in Thanatopsis? It's been a while since I've tried that one, so I don't know for sure. But this ends up being a mostly musky resinous pine and stone scent on me accompanied by some flowers and ozonic mist. I was really hoping to like this one with the pine and stone notes, but sadly, this ended up being too musky for me.

On me, this one opens strong on the pastry, and the fried dough has something in common with the fried dough note in Please Scream Inside Your Heart, but they aren't completely similar, and without the spice. The other sufganiyot scents I've tried (Blackcurrant Sufganiyot, Raspberry Sufganiyot, and Snake Oil Jelly Doughnut) don't seem to have this dough note. I get more apricot in the jam than the raspberry at first, although the raspberry is definitely there -- but it is nowhere as near as strong as it is in just straight-up Raspberry Sufganiyot. Over time, the raspberry jam does gain strength and ends up becoming stronger than the apricot as the dough note takes on the powdered sugar-covered doughnut scent that I enjoy from the sufs. The apricot jam is still around, though -- just not nearly as strong as it was before (and the raspberry is still not as strong as it is in Raspberry Suf). And I get more pastry from this one than its raspberry counterpart. I enjoy the end result of this one, although it was a bit wonky in the beginning on me, with that similarity to the soggy, fried dough from the Please Scream scents. I think I'll hold onto the decant and retest this before it goes down, but at the moment, I'm thinking, like Raspberry Suf, just a decant will be enough.

This smells like a sweet blueberry lollipop throughout wear. I get some saltiness if I sniff up close, but it is more like a few flecks of salt on the outside of a salted lolly. I ended up frimping my decant of Blue Lollipops away, so I haven't smelled it in years, but I do think they could be similar, only this one is a little more sophisticated thanks to the bit of salt. It is NOT as salty as scents like Lavender, Sea Salt, and Rain and Urban Undine, if you're worried about the salt! This is actually less salty than I thought it would be. I like it, but I think just the decant will suffice.

To me, this is all Please Scream Inside Your Heart's funnel cake soggy dough at first, accompanied by some extra spice from the gingerbread. But mostly it's just Please Scream Inside Your Heart on me for the first few hours before it mostly becomes about the spicy gingerbread, which made me feel like I was experiencing both parts of the scent individually instead of together, but eventually, by the end of the day, it does become more balanced and there's a nice cake-y gingerbread overlaying the fried dough note. I was really hoping this wouldn't be a cousin to Please Scream Inside Your Heart, as I have enough of that note, but I do appreciate the gingerbread in this one. If only it didn't take so long to appear!

This is a whole lot of lemon, backed by a bit of grain representing the gingerbread, but it's not registering as gingerbread to me. The lemon combined with the hint of the gingerbread note makes me think this is a very intensely lemony version of a LÖÖP. But it isn't sugary enough to be cereal -- it just teeters on that. And this is how it remains for a while, until the lemon calms down and there's just a teeny bit of gingerbread spices, and then, by the end of the day, it morphs again and is lemon-tinged booze. I think I'm reminded of the alcohol note in 21, but without any juniper. I'll have to slather this on for a full day of wear to determine if I need more of this, but I can definitely say Gingerbread Limoncello >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> Gingerbread and Lemon Sugar (neither are particularly gingerbread-y, but the limoncello note is a nicer lemon to my nose). ETA: It morphed again after that and became more lemon than alcohol! And the lemon was giving me Trumpet Honeysuckle and Lemon Bee Balm vibes!

This started off as super cinnamon-y cinnamon buns swirled with ginger on me and remained that way for a while. You can tell the ginger is there, but it is more of a sexy ginger than a foodie one and the cinnamon doesn't want it to be the star. By the end of the day, it smells musky and spicy, like some other reviewers have mentioned -- it's not particularly foodie anymore and I feel like there may be a floral tinge to the musk? There's a smear of icing sweetening the spiced musk at this point, and maaaaybe a bit of breadiness, but it is still more about the spices than the buns on me. I know this is called Gingerbread Sticky Buns, but I could see this scent fitting in right along with the Conjure Bag scents.

This is a really nice, honeyed and toasted grain scent accompanied by lots of spice. I get more clove than nutmeg, but the spices are pretty intense at first and irritated the back of my hand where I applied this... not enough to need to wash it off, but they did create a burning feeling and leave a little red area. Over time, the spices do calm down and it becomes mostly about that toasty grain note with just a smattering of honey for sweetness and some much more subdued spices. This isn't particularly cake-y, but that's fine with me, as the toasty spelt note is so lovely, and so is the clove (even if my skin did get irritated during the wet phase). I'll have to give this a full day of wear to see if my sensitive skin can handle it, because the scent is lovely, but if I can't slather, then I'll have to be content with the decant.

I get deep black cherry, lightly spiced, and backed by some bourbon, which is kind of giving me cherry NyQuil vibes as well. However, that phase is short-lived, and for a while, it's a nice cherry-infused bourbon. But the bourbon does take over by the end of the day. The cherry still lingers, but it is much fainter than before, sadly. But the spices in this remain tame throughout wear and never dominate or burn the skin! I want more of this cherry, but not accompanied by booze.

I almost blind bottled this one, and then I decided to play it safe and grab a decant. Out of the gate, I get creamy marshmallow, like the kind in Cabbage White Caterpillar and Apple Marshmallow hair glosses, accompanied by lemon and peppermint. The lemon and cool peppermint increase in strength as it sits on the skin, at one point becoming a little reminiscent of a cough drop, but then those notes settle down again and it's this floofy marshmallow scent accompanied by the zing of the lemon and the bracing peppermint. I'll need to slather this on and wear it as a scent of the day to be sure, but I may end up grabbing a bottle after all. I think it would be a great scent to wear when you're feeling ill or during the warm summer months. I know for sure I'll be pairing this with Cabbage White Caterpillar HG!

On application, I mostly get the honeyed cacao and a chewy vetiver. The cacao in this is a bitter type of chocolate (the honey isn't adding much sweetness at the moment), and the vetiver in this is very tame. I thought, from the vial sniff, that it might be the same one from Two Sheep and Two Goats. Now I'm not so sure once applied, since that one was more grassy, so I can't say for sure without deathmatching the two scents -- but I can say it isn't smoky and doesn't go BBQ on me like some vetiver notes do. The toasted part of the amber kind of makes me think of toasted hazelnut, like in O the Joy of My Spirit! The caramelized musk note ends up gaining strength after a few minutes. It's not a red, brown, or black musk, but I'm not able to identify which type it is. I can only quote Wilfred Mott and say that it's cleaner than I thought it would be. It goes from cacao and vetiver to toasty musk, and then the honey becomes more prominent over time and makes it a honeyed musk and toasted amber with a dab of cacao. Curiously enough, the vetiver, although prominent in the beginning, didn't end up being a main player on me throughout wear. At the moment, I don't feel like I need a bottle, but I'm going to let this rest for a few weeks and retest it again to be sure. I like that the vetiver in this one is tame, but I kind of wish that I got less musk and more cacao. In any case, I'll be hanging onto my decant!

It's orchid and freesia out of the gate, a bit of of licorice bark that's not full-on licorice, and some brightness from the elemi. The jasmine ends up joining the party, but it's not a bully here (at least not from the amount in this tester). On me, the orchid and freesia dominate throughout wear, with the freesia becoming more high-pitched over time, accompanied by the bright elemi. This one isn't in my wheelhouse, but it was still fun to try it. I wouldn't have expected a scent with a first note of licorice bark to not be particularly licorice-y!

This one wasn't on my radar, but I ordered a decant from someone because I figured my boyfriend would be interested in this (Red is his favorite scent, and this one also has a cranberry note). On me, this is mostly CRANBERRY with touches of watery orange behind it (is that the carrot pulp???) and a bit of a sharpness that must be the orange blossom, even though it's not contributing anything obviously orange-y or blossom-like to this scent. On my boyfriend, he got a blast of cranberry at first, and while the cranberry stuck around, it wasn't nearly as strong on him as it remained on me, and he also got more of the orange notes from it (I could smell the pumpkin on him). He liked it enough to keep the decant, but he does not love it as much as Red.

Full disclosure: I have no idea what hydrangea smells like and I don't know what chichi is. But what I get from this at first is something like chewy SweeTarts candy, ginger, and a bit of mentholated smoke? I didn't get much rose or cocoa from this one, and eventually, the smoke wins out, although without the touch of menthol that was infused with the smoke in the beginning. It doesn't smell like oh god, get it off me cigarette smoke, though. I was thinking this might be a cacao-tinged floral scent, but that's not how it ended up on me. The candy phase in the beginning was nice, though!

I tried this twice, in the same spot, on the same day, once in the morning, and once in the evening, and had two different experiences with it. The first time, it was very muddy at first, with the slush coming out more over time and having notes of petrichor and asphalt to it! The second time, it was more slush-forward from the beginning, backed by the mud. And it does smell like mud and not just the Lab's usual dirt note. Back when Muddy Puddles came out, we all wondered if it had a mud note in it or not. It did not. So I took it upon myself to layer a drop of this with Muddy Puddles, and the layering combo was PERFECT -- mostly hot cocoa with marshmallows and just a bit of the mud and slush that you trailed inside on your boots. This is wonderful, and I will definitely be hanging onto my decant and layering it with Muddy Puddles in the future. And if I see a reasonably priced bottle in the future, I'll grab one.

At first, I get oak, vetiver, and rain from this. I'm not sure if there's secretly a grassy vetiver among these notes, or if the oak and moss are combining in such a way that reminds me of it, but there you go. It's accompanied by some strong sea salt and rain, and the oak, possible vetiver, and salt make this a little too rough for me at first, but the vetiver aspect ends up going away, and the oak and salt end up calming down over time, so that it ends up becoming rain mixed with salty sea air on a bed of moss with a smoother oak. I liked this stage of the scent, and it was comforting enough to fall asleep to, and that's why I'm hanging onto the decant -- although as far as rain scents go, I do not enjoy this nearly as much as Waiting 2016. And I did not get any asphalt from this like some other reviewers, sadly (I was so hoping for that note!). But I do think this ends up being a nice rain scent if you can get past the somewhat harsh opening.

This starts off strong on Lust's red musk swirling with Midway, from which I get the apple note most prominently. So it's red musky apple for a while, with touches of Lust's patchouli, ylang ylang, and myrrh. I don't get Darkness' strong narcissus and opium. While I've only tried Midway Res. and not the original, I feel like that scent is mostly the powdered sugar of the funnel cake and taffy on me, but it is pretty light. In this, Midway's apple is far stronger. And then it morphs, and I get musky buttery popcorn, even though that isn't even a listed note in Midway! I'm not a red musk fan, and this is too musky for me, but it was neat getting to try to pick out the notes in this one and experience how they swirl together. Midway fans that do enjoy red musk should check this out, though.

I originally passed on this one, even though I have bottles of Chimera and Shanghai, because of the dragon's blood in Blood. But 15 Minutes of Fume and starbow's review got me curious, so I ended up grabbing a leftover partial from a decant circle. Well, of course the note I was concerned about ends up being prominent on me. It's accompanied by Blood's clove and Chimera's spices and the myrrh that those two blends share. The green tea and lemon from Shanghai brighten this somewhat dusty, dry, spicy resinous scent. The dragon's blood does calm down over time as those notes gain strength, and although this doesn't have as much honeysuckle as one would expect from Chimera and Shanghai sharing those notes, it is noticeable by the end of the day. The cherry in Blood also present at this point, but it is really light and doesn't scream cherry. I only appreciate Blood once it is super aged, and I think you have to like Blood in order to enjoy this one. And cinnamon and clove. (But it's still not as spicy as Chimera on its own!) I don't think I'd reach for this over my bottles of Chimera or Shanghai, but this blapimpsottle works better than I thought it would, and it was really fun to give it a try.

This starts off with the oak being the most prominent to my nose, lightly sweetened with vanilla. Then it all becomes a swirl of musky woods, but the amber and rosewood end up being the strongest notes to my nose by the end of the day, along with the ambrette seed. I'm not familiar enough with hinoki to be able to isolate it, though, so I can't say how prominent it is. I think this is nice, but I wish I got more vanilla along with the woods.

I got the Oreos (also more the chocolate wafer part than the filling), rose, and resins at first, but then the rose amped up really strongly on me and was the type that hasn't been playing well on my skin as of late (it smelled like tomato soup, alas). It remained that way for a few hours, but by the end of the day, it morphed into a resinous rose and gardenia scent with a bit of sweetness. I was digging the Oreos, but the rose in this just wasn't kind to me.| ETA: I death matched this to The Hierophant and the Empress, and I was surprised by how different they were despite sharing some notes in common. The Hierophant and the Empress is actually sweeter with its violet leaf and mallow flower (I really expected Circus Bear to be sweeter with its Oreo and cotton candy), and the rose in that one didn't go funky on me.

This morphed through three phases on me. The first one was extremely green, and it's so well-blended that I can't pick out any of the notes, but the blast of greenery kind of reminds me of Emerald Lace? Then the coconut becomes the dominant note on me and takes this into a super tropical territory for a while. But by the end of the day, it's become a perfume-y neroli and white amber scent with some coconut behind those notes, and it doesn't really smell green anymore. I liked the initial phase, but the others weren't really my jam. It was fun to see how this one morphed, though!

This started off heavy on the champaca incense on me, and it remained the dominant note throughout wear, although I got some creamy orange and vanilla behind it, and then some tobacco, which quickly became stronger than the orange blossom and vanilla. By the end of the day, I still get champaca incense swirled with those notes as well as some opium, and it's a somewhat perfume-y incense on me. I'm glad I got to try this, but I wish I hadn't amped the champaca so hard.

Dimetapp honey? Honestly, I mostly get an artificial grape scent mingling with some floral honey. I'm not a fan of anything artificial grape, ever, so this one is not for me.