astarinel

This is a very gentle peach. I normally prefer peach blends that have more of a juiciness and sweetness to them, but this one is on the ethereal side, more like peach skin or peach blossom than peach flesh. Well-blended, subtle, and a bit perfumey. A soft, musky fruit-tinged scent with a little freshness and a little spice. I tend to think of scents vibes as colors, and this one is a sheer pale cool-toned pink. Very fitting for the painting, but not quite what works for me.

This is very cozy! While wet, it's very much baked red apples with soft spices and sugar, and I don't really get much oatmeal or cookie. Reminds me a bit of Lambs-Wool and the other spiced cider scents. As it dries, the grain notes come to the forefront and the scent becomes primarily oatmeal flavored with apple cider and a touch of spice. There's a little bit of woody nuttiness to the scent, as well, but "cookie" never really makes an appearance. I was prepared to death match this against Sugar Cookie, but now I'm more interested in layering them.

2020 version. Does exactly what it says on the tin: a stack of warm, fresh from the oven sugar cookies, lightly sprinkled with cinnamon sugar. I also get very little cinnamon here, this is not a snickerdoodle, it's just those big round pale sugar cookies. Fairly buttery , but no frosting/icing here! This is making me really want to eat cookies.

This is the BPAL snow note that I prefer, the one with sort of a herbal slushy evergreen vibe as in Snow Moon ('05/'12), Skadi, Cloister Graveyard in the Snow, or Nuclear Winter. I loathe the sweet snow note in Snow White and it goes really terrible on my skin, and that one is nowhere to be found here! However, I was really hoping for more marshmallow, because I love the Lab's marshmallow scents and I was expecting a balance here. On wet, however, it's all slushy piney snow with a little bit of vanilla sweetness. As it dries the marshmallow comes out a little more, but this is definitely all about that snow note. If that's your favorite snow note and a sweet vanilla version appeals to you, this is definitely that scent.

Much less milky than I expected! I sometimes have issues with milk/cream notes, but goat's milk is generally okay and all of the rest of the notes here appealed to me. I was surprised until I read some reviews, but the strongest note for me is the vanilla cashmere. It's this very soft, wooly vanilla musk, and it's actually what I wanted out of the cozy sweater scents and never really got. It's also got a sprinkling of marshmallows and honey dust, but I don't get anything I'd specifically identify as goat's milk or white chocolate. Maybe they're in the background adding some creaminess? This is not very gourmand, it's more of a soft vanilla cozy scent. I could imagine this being a lovely candle or room spray, too.

I love the lab's champagne note, so this was one of the Yules I was most excited about! On wet, the champagne is definitely the star, but it's also got that chewy dark ginger spice to it, like a really good ginger beer with lots of ginger in it. This smells like an amazing champagne cocktail made with ginger beer and lemonade, and I'd definitely drink it. I'm actually pleased the gingerbread takes a back seat to the champagne, and I think I'd layer with Gingerbread Poppet if I felt like I wanted to amp the gingerbread here. This scent isn't overly gourmand or sweet, it's more fizzy and spicy and tart. Super festive, although it didn't have a ton of throw or lasting power on me. I find the champagne scents in general stick pretty close to the skin and this one was no exception.

Thick, spicy, chewy gingerbread topped with a little bit of vanilla icing. I really only get gingerbread from this scent, but that's fine! This reminds me very much of Gingerbread Poppet, but with a bit of vanilla. Since I have a bottle of that, I probably don't need this one (and could achieve the effect with layering some of my vanillas if necessary). But if you were missing that one (which hasn't been around for a decade!? yikes!), this is a similar spicy, sweet gingerbread note and very delicious.

I've tried Smut itself several times, and I like it okay, but I was never interested in a full bottle. But having it as a base for weenies? Now I'm interested. I didn't like this one quite as much as Candy Apple Smut because I didn't find the honey taffy note quite as appealing as the sugared apple. Although it started heavily honey candy, as it dried this scent faded into sort of a warm buttery brown sugar, which didn't add as much interest to Smut as I would have liked. If you like Smut and wanted a more sugary, honeyed version, this is definitely that.

This was my favorite of the weenies I tried. I've tried Smut itself several times, and I like it okay, but I was never interested in a full bottle. But having it as a base for weenies? Now I'm interested. On, wet, it's immediately a strong, sugary candy apple. Not a caramel apple, but one of those juicy apples with a hard red candy shell. Underneath it has a dark, boozy base. As it dries, the notes sort of meld together and come into balance in a beautiful way, turning into this sort of mulled cider Smut, with dark spiced rum notes and delicious sweet apples. This one lasts a long time in the drydown and has fantastic throw.

Soft juicy golden apples when wet, with a little honey. As it dries, the other notes come out and this becomes gentle sweet apples over cedar, vanilla, and honey. The cedar has almost a spicy edge to it, and it's overall a very golden scent that manages to be almost sunny and ethereal rather than dark and warm. I agree with the reviews that noted that this faded quickly, it went from wet to drydown to where did it go in less than an hour.

Apple is definitely the loudest note while wet, but it settles into a caramel-apple vibe with clear booze. I would definitely drink this, it's a caramel apple martini, but I'm not sure I'm as interested in wearing it as perfume as I thought I would be. There's a bit of tartness to the apple as it dries that might be the cranberry, but the cherry never peeks its head out for me.

This one is heavy on the pastry note for me, with soft cinnamon. I don't really smell cardamom but it might be in there. This is a nice pastry note, but I was hoping for more blackcurrant. This is like a breakfast pastry with a smear of jam, rather than a juicy pie bursting with fruit. It's definitely reminiscent of the sufganiyot blends, but less sweet and fruity. Overall I wouldn't call this scent especially sweet; the jammy fruit is soft and tart and the pastry is more spiced than sugared.

I keep trying the cozy linens and laundry scents even though they rarely work for me, they tend to get all ozoney/dryer sheets. This one, however, actually behaves pretty well. It stays nice and fluffy and soft, like a freshly washed sweater. However, the apple cider is nowhere to be found! If I sniff really hard and think about it, I get a breath of apple, more like a soft airy apple blossom note. This is truly a "dribble" of apple cider over laundry, but I'm disappointed because I wanted more of the cider to give it a really cozy, seasonal vibe. A clean, comforting laundry scent with a tiny hint of apple, which is nice but not quite what I was looking for.

I'm surprised this one doesn't have more reviews! It's probably my favorite of the Liliths I tried this year. The cake in this one is a yellow cake, the same kind of cupcake from Pink Lovebird. Instead of the cardamom in that one, this one is topped with clouds of lavender buttercream. I agree with the other reviews that said this was a stronger lavender than you might expect! A lot of "lavender" baked goods have the merest hint of lavender, and that's absolutely not the case here. This is a strong, bright lavender mixed into sweet rich vanilla buttercream. The lavender keeps this from being one of the Lab's excellent "this is basically just cupcakes" scents and makes it more interesting and wearable. It's like TKO + Cupcakes and I didn't realize I'd be so into that but apparently I am!

On wet, this is a vanilla marshmallow cupcake. Unlike the slightly richer "yellow cake" note in some of the cake scents, this is definitely a white cake, light and fluffy. I'm surprised to see so many reviews noting the cardamom is strong! I found it very light on the spice, and I like cardamom so that was a little disappointing. This reminds me of both Pink Lovebird and My Little Grotesque, but I liked both of those scents better! The cardamom was more present and the scents felt a bit richer and more complex. This is a nice foodie scent, and if you want fluffy vanilla marshmallow cupcakes it definitely delivers, but it's a little paler than I would like.