Soupy Twist

Sour green flower and faint honey in the bottle, but don’t run away. Goes on as clove, but still: don’t run away! As it dries, the honey comes in and smoothes out clove’s rough, sour edges, making this a soft, beautiful pure clove single note. An hour later, it’s more of the Lab’s gorgeous perfumy honey with the slightest edge of clove on top. Swoon. Can I have too many bottles of the Lab’s perfumy honey note? No. No I cannot.

This is what Arthur Conan Doyle’s Tobias Gregson would smell like. A Victorian man, rough-edged but not uncivilized; not outstanding, but dogged; he gets the job done — no matter what. Lime and gin in the bottle. Goes on as a fresh lime cologne. A light tobacco note comes in — is that the snuff? Continues into a masculine cologne and finishes as a somewhat generic lime aftershave. A first cousin to John Watson (the scents, not the characters). This would probably be amazing on a gentleman, but I am a lady.

Ambergris and honeysuckle in the bottle. Goes on as ooh pretty! honeysuckle. There’s a brief creamy foodie note as it dries, which might be the coconut, but it settles as a nice clear aquatic with occasional flashes of honeysuckle on top.

farina with ale in the bottle. goes on as spices. that’s it, just dry spices.

Sweet grass — almost a single note. There’s a breath or two of vanilla as it dries, but basically just the lovely sweet grass note from Nothing Gold Can Stay. I like it a lot! ETA several hours later the vanilla has showed up, and it's very soft and pretty. a tiny bit powdery but not in a bad way — more orchid than foodie. has nothing to do with the grass but it's great all on its own!

every note in this description was made of win for me, so I had high hopes. GINNNNNN in the bottle. Goes on as a soft-edged juniper. A lime note develops on top, which goes with it beautifully. I love love love this. LOVE! 💙 It shifts slightly between pine and more gin, gin, gin as it dries. It keeps the nice crisp edge of real gin and doesn’t veer into the sour sap note which actual juniper can develop. I adore the Lab’s gin note (21 is one of my all-time favorites) and this is equally good. It doesn’t stick around as long as 21, but that might be the weather. This is a bottle for certain. Did I mention GIN? and LOVE? 😍

2018: Sweet menthol-y snow, with hints of juniper and mint. Creamy, not harsh. Just as beautiful as the previous version. When I put both on at the same time, the 2013 version is a little gentler while the opening blast of the fresh one is more intense, but once they’re past the wet stage they smell the same. Snow, minty pine, and something lovely and sweet on top. Still one of my favorites! Thank you so much to the Lab for bringing this back!

I want to eat every note in this, but alas, almost nothing shows up on my skin. Delicious, amazing chococlate cherry cordial in the bottle and on application, but cherry gonna cherry on my skin and do its cherry vanishing act thing. Leaves behind a stale, kinda bloomed chocolate note with some smoke at the end. Literally no other notes.

Mostly a juicy green leaf or stem — dandelion sap, cut grass, cut leaves.

I think I like this a little better than the original! A cozy spruce pine with the sweetness of cranberry.

Sweet green lilac in the bottle. Goes on as a gorgeous lilac, but the green plantiness of the leaves takes over quickly. Ends up being too green for me, alas. Zero blackberry.

HOOOOO CHERRY with a clove dusting in the bottle. Goes on as fuck, cherry, so much cherry. But I have to remember that cherry, like almond, never ever lasts on my skin. And so the resin of the laudanum appears and mixes with the clove until it becomes dental anesthetic, and I’m done. Gotta add this to my list of “stop breaking your heart with this” notes.

2009 version: Oily. How in the fuck do you make something smell oily, Beth? honestly. Oily snow in the bottle. Goes on as the minty snow note (not the Snow White one), but sour — maybe that’s the ozone? It dries into a spruce, but this develops an oily note to it. It smells greasy. No grapes.

Elegba (which is Werther's butterscotch candies on me) plus French Tobacco SN. If you dig the Lab's French Tobacco, this is your jam.

Condensed milk and something slightly sour or off in the bottle. On application I realize it’s toasted coconut. This dries into a honey note which cycles between the Lab’s perfumy and foodie honeys — the foodie one is too cloying for me. A bit of the toastiness sticks around. I absolutely see where zankoku_zen is getting Dana O’Shee vibes.