Soupy Twist

2020 Version: More honey on the open than 2016's apple, but otherwise the same deliriously gorgeous blend. Perfumy honey, sweet apple, cycling and blending. Lasts for hours. Fun fact: I did not need to get a bottle of this scent this year, because I already have a bottle and a backup bottle of 2016. Ya know what? I BOUGHT IT IMMEDIATELY ANYWAY, BECAUSE IT IS SO DAMN BEAUTIFUL. This is one of my top five all-time favorites. If my house was on fire and I could only save a handful of bottles, this would be one of them. If someone wants to swap with me and offers me a 2020 backup bottle, I will take that swap. That's how much I love this perfume oil. 😍

An even-more nauseating knockoff of Nuclear Winter, which I didn't like either. There’s no lemon; just stomach-turning menthol. Off to swaps for someone else to enjoy.

Boozy chocolate in the bottle. Goes on as a caramel-tinged whiskey which quickly smells “old,” as in “turned.”

Creamy, cocoa-heavy chocolate. A really lovely chocolate, although no honey. This starts to turn stale as it dries, and when the honey note does come in it’s like a dry honey-flavored candy.

Beeswax and… dammit, lemon floor cleaner in the bottle. Yep, goes on as lemon floor cleaner with beeswax notes, like this is a “natural” floor cleaner. Eventually dries to a slightly perfumy beeswax, but I have other bottles with that note without the Lemon Pledge. No maple, no green, no leaves. 😥

TL;DR: Every single thing about this perfume did the opposite of what I expected. Maraschino cherry juice in the bottle and on the wrist. yum! There’s a slight plastic/Play-Doh note skirting around the edges, and I am getting zero fizz, which is highly unusual for the Lab’s Champagne note. It’s becoming more perfumy as it dries, which is another surprise. I’ve never had cherry turn “perfumy.” It’s a good development, don’t get me wrong, just unexpected. The plastic note has also departed, which is good. It takes a good half-hour before it even starts to fade; normally the Lab’s cherry vanishes from my skin in under five minutes. What’s underneath is pencil shavings (cedar), not Champagne. No almond, unlike everyone above me.

Twenty isn't much, honestly. My database has, uh... close to 1300 entries. You just have to take notes, cross-reference, and keep track. Start a spreadsheet and create a rating system. You should be able to narrow things down after a while.

Honey with something toasty or woody in the bottle. Roasted chestnuts? Anise-touched honey on application. This is… interesting. Definitely licorice. Not much honey, to be honest. Yeah, this is a moderate black licorice candy which wants to have a honey center. But I mean, if you’re going to go black licorice, go hard or go home. This is an off-brand black licorice cough drop. As it dries, it develops a dry-wood note. I should stress this is not a bad scent. It’s a good black licorice. But I like my black licorice at peel-the-paint-off-the-walls strength, and there’s no honey in this blend at all. So perfectly nice, but not for me.

my beloved FIZZZZZZ! in the bottle. goes on as FIZZZZZZ! with some sweetness. Gorgeous. Dries to strawberry Pez. Which, all things considered, is not a bad scent.

this is so incredibly faint on me I had to test it three times over three weeks. All I get is the faintest breath of damp wool. No coffee at all.

something went deeply wrong with this one on me. I tested it three separate times, weeks apart, to be sure it wasn't menopause or hormonal shifts, but no, this is coffee and vomit. I'm very sad. I really, really wanted All The Coffee Things from this line and my skin has just destroyed them all.

Woody juniper in the bottle. Goes on as a sticky pine with definite ambergris notes. Refreshing, actually. That light, pretty note fades by the time it’s dry and it’s just a menthol-y pine. This then starts to sour, and I’m done.

Completely redoing this because Travel Shock Is A Thing. Gardenia in the bottle. Slightly screechy gardenia on application, but once it's dry, it's much nicer. The gardenia note continues to sweeten, with a creamy overlay developing. It's not vanilla per se; just an overall smooth sweetness. I get little wafts of it every now and again as I move my hand. Very pretty.

I have no idea why this was such a fail on me. I searched through my entire perfume database. The Lab's fig and the Lab's vanilla bean both work fine on me in multiple blends. This was gross dry slightly brackish grass with a little Fig Newton in the background. No vanilla at all. The cause is important, so I don't regret buying the blind bottle, but why, skin, why? Why you gotta do me like this?

Starts as butter and cream in the bottle. Goes on as oooh! perfumy honey! This gets slightly more foodie as it dries but doesn't quite turn cloying. Not much throw, but very pretty.