astarinel

Strong, sweet vanilla mint. While wet, this reminds me of some of the vanilla Lick It blends, just a blast of sweet cool mint candy. As it dries, a bit of the pistachio makes itself known, adding a bit of nuttiness to the blend. I've got one Lovebird on each hand, and they definitely complement each other, slathering a minty buttercream onto Pink Lovebird's pink cupcakes, with a sprinkle of pistachio and cardamom on top.

Vanilla cupcakes dusted with cardamom. This is a very sugary, fluffy vanilla cake while wet, and the cake settles down and the scent becomes a little more about sugared spices as it dries. If you like cake scents (and I certainly do) it absolutely delivers! It's almost mouth-watering. It reminds me a lot of My Little Grotesque from the Lilith blends a couple years ago, and that's one of the few scents I regretted not getting, with a bit less cardamom and a bit more pink fluff.

2020 version. I picked up a decant of this because I love peach scents, so I was surprised to find this not terribly peachy! It's actually quite amber-forward to my nose, and very sugary! It definitely has an interesting sparkly/bright quality to it, and if I really reach for it I can smell a soft peach juice scent, but I don't think I'd pick it out without knowing it was there. This isn't what I suspected, but is lovely nevertheless! A really beautiful sugared golden amber musk, with a gentle peach note in the background. Somewhat low throw, good lasting power with the amber musk drydown hanging around for quite a while.

Lovely soft green apple, with apple blossom and soft white musk. I'm surprised this hasn't gotten more buzz, it's a gorgeous spring apple scent. Actually, this makes me think of a spring version of Snow, Glass, Apples! It has a similar outdoorsy, tart green apple note in the front, but with soft florals and musk instead of the snow and touch of mint in SGA. It actually reminds me a whole lot of one of the SGA prototypes that had a stronger apple note. (This scent actually reminds me even more strongly of an older Arcana fave, Stretched on Your Grave: Cold green apples, alabaster musk, and a scattering of cheerless white blossoms: calla lily, gardenia, tuberose, moonflower, and heart-leaf milkweed.) Beautiful, very wearable, and not overly apple-y, especially in the long drydown. Good throw and wear length. I love this type of scent (obviously, as I apparently have three bottles that are very similar!), so the question is whether I need more than a decant of this precise version!

Yeah, purple fruits. Having just tested Couple Reading an Erotic Scroll, this one is significantly less heavy on the pure blackberry. I think the primary note I can pick out is actually the plum, with some tart currant. Despite the riotous purple fruit notes, I don't find this one overly sweet -- the oakmoss keeps it edging on musky/woodsy. It's more of a juicy fresh scent, like a basket of sun-warmed fruits sitting outside. I get a slight soapy-powdery note here, but that may just be my skin chemistry messing things up. Good throw, average lasting power.

I love the Lab's champagne blends, and this one is no exception. Strong, sweet maraschino cherry immediately when wet, over the dry fizz of the champagne note. I really enjoy this wet phase, where the cherry is strong and juicy and verges on that almond-cherry scent, but if you are not looking for something that absolutely screams "marachino cherry!!" for a while, you should skip this one. As it dries, the cherry backs off a bit and the scent becomes a softer cherry champagne, like a champagne cocktail with a couple maraschino cherries fizzing in the bottom. Good throw, and the scent lasts a long time in this softer phase. This was my only blind bottle buy from the Lupers, and I don't regret it. If you enjoy the Lab's champagne blends and want that sweet, sticky maraschino cherry scent, this delivers.

Blackberry is definitely the strongest note wet, somehow it merges with the bergamot and smells sort of like blackberry lemonade, a berry-citrus refreshing drink. Hints of herbal astringency, which I'm guessing is the white tea. This wears pretty close to the skin, and the blackberry fades a little bit as it dries, coming into a bit more balance with the other notes. I'm not sure what rice paper or rice milk smell like, honestly, and I'm not sure I'm really getting either of them here, but there's something a little soft, maybe powdery? under the berry-citrus. Good lasting power, though, and if you've been waiting for a scent where blackberry is the star, it might be this one!

Honeyed peaches. This one has a bit of the tart, fuzzy "peach skin" smell, but it's mostly soft peach flesh. I expected a stronger peach, but the peach actually blends into the other notes quite well, resulting in a very soft, sexy skin scent that balances peach, honey, and soft cream. It reminds me a bit of Josie (magnolia and honeyed peaches), but this is a much softer, subtler version. If I didn't already have several scents in this honeyed stone fruit genre (Josie, Thaleia, The Delicate Ambrosial Dews of Heavenly Nectar) I might be interested in picking more of this up. Peach fades a bit more as it dries, it wore relatively close to the skin for me, but good wear length.

Very straightforward strawberries and cream scent. Sweet, jammy strawberry note (like the strawberry in Strawberry Sufganiyot), swirled into vanilla marshmallow cream. Very sweet and soft, fairly low throw but decent lasting power. I like this, but it's like a less complex relative of two strawberry scents I already own (Kitty, Battle Fairy in Training). Would be a very good scent for a young girl or someone who really likes straightforward gourmands.

This is softer and less sweet than I expected. Primarily beeswax and honey musk, tinged with green, almost adding a grassy/herbal quality to the honey. I can't wear the "dead leaves" blends at all, and this is a much lighter, more green, and less sharp version of a leaf note. The "lemon blossom" is definitely lemony, but in a light, floral way -- this is a soft, airy lemon rather than a juicy lemon. Springlike, bright, and surprisingly refreshing given the honey musk and beeswax!

Apple is most prominent on wet, with a little of the honeyed apricot right behind it. I wouldn't have said apple peel without looking at the notes, but the apple note is a bit less juicy and fruity than it is elsewhere. As it dries the notes balance a little more and I get some of the oak and mums, a little woody and bitter. Pleasant and autumnal, and not overly sweet.

This is a very tart and bright scent that reminds me of a sparkly, fruity cocktail, thrown over some over white musk. Good throw, good lasting power even for the lime note, and doesn't change much as it dries.

VERY sweet, almond-like cherries over snake oil. Super juicy maraschino cherries! I really like this while wet because the cherry notes is strong and amazing, but as it dries the cherries fade pretty quickly to just a sweet wisp and then it's basically just snake oil. And I like snake oil, but I have a bottle of snake oil if I want to smell like just snake oil.

Very strongly neroli and lemon! This is a bright, fresh, clean citrussy scent. I can see where someone might find this a little like lemon cleaner because it's more towards tart/clean than sugary/gourmand. Good lasting power for a citrus, I think maybe because of the verbena/neroli which tend to stick around a bit longer than the pure citrus fruit notes. A bit more soft ambery-resinous as it dries, but decent lasting power.

Sweet, juicy red apples. This is an incredibly realistic, fresh apple -- like biting into a ripe, bright red apple. The sugar is a bit in the background here, but comes out more as it dries, and I wouldn't call this an overly-sweet or cloying scent at any stage (although I have a pretty high tolerance for sweet tooth scents). Probably my favorite apple scent from this year's batch! Good throw while wet, but fairly short duration.