Soupy Twist

Sherlock Holmes (221B Baker Street): A high, clean pipe tobacco. I don't smoke and I rarely drink and two of my favorite scents are tobacco and gin. Twenty-One (Bewitching Brews): Gin and tonic and mint and FIZZ. Amazing. Dana O'Shee (Bewitching Brews): Sweet grains, which is surprisingly comforting. Sea of Glass (Sin & Salvation): the perfect hyacinth.

Musk in the bottle with a little stinky jasmine (is that the magnolia?). I had to slather twice to detect anything on my wrist. Neroli wet, which dries to a cloying honey rather than the lovely perfumy honey of Honeyed Apple.

Dammit, I really wanted to like this. The fresh juice of apples in the bottle and on application; I love the Lab's apple juice. It stays there a while through the drydown, but then it becomes a rounded mango, which is okay, until it turns into a sickly-sweet guava. Damn damn damn.

Complete opposite of Caity's experience. Sweet hazelnut and lokum in the bottle and on application. Opens with some rose notes and almond extract, continues into rose candy with powdered sugar. I get some burnt tobacco as it dries, which is maybe supposed to be the wild fig? Finishes as the rose candy with powdered sugar. Dammit, I wanted the hazelnut. I don't like rose. The cause is so important, so I don't regret buying the blind bottle, but why, skin, why? Why you gotta do me like this?

Bamboo and green in the bottle and on application. I really like this! The green stem note is sweet and grassy. Not a lot of throw but very fresh and soothing. I agree with ZZ; this would be a fantastic shower gel or BATH OIL, HINT HINT

2018 release: Sheer vanilla in the bottle. Goes on wet as the vanilla from Antique Lace, which I LOVED wet, and turns a little powdery as it dries, but not in a bad way. I like this! It continues more into Antique Lace's musk, but not all the way. I think this is what Antique Lace was supposed to be but never materialized on my skin. No almond, no florals. Not a lot of throw either, alas; it's very close to my skin. But on my skin it's ooooowee baby!

Honeyed Apple is the most gorgeous perfumy honey I have ever smelled. The vanilla in Antique Lace is beautiful too, until the drydown when it turns to complete musk on me.

GC London (Wanderlust) is pure rose on me Grief (Märchen): gorgeous hyacinth Sea of Glass (Sin & Salvation): the most magnificent hyacinth ever. One of my all-time favorites. Lilium Inter Spinas (Ars Amatoria): Lily of the valley and sandalwood, with a little apple blossom LE Humanite (Luper 2017): floral, hyacinth, peach Vanilla Orchid Single Note Swans on the River (Luper 2018): spectacular white floral, gardenia, honeysuckle

Mango hard candy. Sweet and sharp, but doesn't last very long.

A pure spicy single-note ginger with a touch of fizz. A blessing for me because I don't care for a bunch of the other notes!

I can't actually smell anything in the bottle! I had to sniff the wand to get an impression. Tropical florals, which is how it goes on, but it's so so faint. There's some ginger, and it gets too sweet as it dries, but honestly it's gone so fast it's hard to tell. Kinda bummed because this sounded quite exciting on paper and in the reviews.

Wood in the bottle with tea trying to get out from under it. Goes on as wood with grapefruit trying to get out from under it, and by the time it dries, the tea and grapefruit have won. Both vanish on me shortly because that's what the Lab's tea and citrus do on my skin, but nice until then. I will say there is nothing which says "Manhattan" about this scent to me — the city is electricity and asphalt and ozone and fizz and energy. I like this scent, and I love the city, but these don't match up for me. Separately, I was worried about the amber and leather and wood, because I'd wanted this before I found out those notes were a problem for me, but fortunately this worked out. However, I have Kumiho and Baoban Sith for the tea and grapefruit notes, so I'm not sweating this one.

A really nice single-note fir. Sits right between the actual White Fir SN and Take the Moon. Not getting any of the other notes, but I have that lovely dandelion elsewhere, so I'm okay with this.

The gorgeous dandelion note plus a little grass. Divine. I adore this note.

another vote for Swans on the River and Against Idleness!

The fresh juice of apples in the bottle. Goes on as a perfumy apple which quickly becomes Salon Selectives. I like it, mind you. I do think it's hilarious how many of us are getting hair care and body products from this.

this is the first time I have had so many bottles that they won't all fit onto one rack, so I had to separate them into cold-weather and warm-weather scents. I brought out all my planty bottles (Sag 2006, Nothing Gold Can Stay) and florals (Sea of Glass, Humanite) because early spring is the only time I really wear them.

Results not guaranteed. Ginseng root, crushed ginger, damiana essence, cubeb berries, and horny goat weed accord. in the bottle: tart WTF is THAT green cut root. On application: Ginger? Ginseng root? Definitely a woody, freshly-cut root scent, sharp and somewhat unpleasant. The finish is much better, as something more citrussy, like ginger root — and it's clearly the fresh root, not powdered and not the spice. I feel like I'm slicing up ginger in my kitchen for a recipe. This dries as practically a ginger root single note. Beth is just amazing. Her skill repeatedly astonishes me. She does such an incredible job of creating these scents!

Took a chance on a blind bottle because it was a Lunacy (and I am so into Norse mythology right now, particularly Loki and jötnar) and it paid off for once. Mint in the bottle, which goes on as catmint with a breath of menthol. It's definitely not juniper — juniper has a harder, more sour edge, and this is sweeter to neutral and softer. It's mint leaf. I don't get the actual fuzziness of catmint, but that's the one it is (and we know that Beth can do fuzzy if she likes, so this is purposefully not fuzzy). This fades as it dries and the minty snow note develops (the one from Unmanageable Snowdrift, not the Snow White one). There's a tiny bit of sweet spearmint overlaying the snow, which makes it even better. This is fantastic. A sister of Öndurdis, if you liked that. I can't have too many bottles of the Lab's snow note, so that totally works out for me!

okay, first off I have to say how completely excited I am to have gotten one of these exclusives/LEs live, because so far I've only ever gotten them after the fact or not at all. So yay and thank you Lab! Achievement unlocked! :wub3: Pine/juniper in the imp. Goes on as juniper and the black pepper note from that one Yule Lad, with a touch of... old chewing gum? Yeah, it's old chewed-up spearmint gum. This continues into something... stinky. And somehow soft. Rubbery? I'm smelling rubber or maybe vinyl. Jeez, this is hard to describe. "Gremlin hide" is probably what the description would read. Green leather? ozone? possibly. It's delightfully vile and absolutely what a computer gremlin would smell like.

Tonka and brûlée in the bottle. Goes on promisingly as tonka and rum, but the rum soon scorches into burnt brûlée. This finishes as dry spices and rum dregs, what similar to Apple Butter Rum and Spiced Rum Buttercream Coffee did on me. Goddammit why can't I just find a nice bourbon vanilla which lasts?! Apparently the Lab differentiates between "sweet rum" and "rum," and their plain ol' rum doesn't work on my skin. Elegba is great. This is the morning after Elizabeth Swan burned all the rum for a distress signal.

Pear nectar and honey in the bottle. Goes on as pear nectar with a touch of the Lab's gorgeous perfumy honey I love from Honeyed Apple. Stays true, but not a lot of throw. also, that poem is fucking creepy.

Like a precursor to RPG Halfling. It's the same buttery pastry note, with brief flashes of ginger and clove. (And I swear there's a moment of menthol, but my kiddo also put on a pine scent at the moment I was testing. Still not sure if it was me or her I got.) Zero throw and quickly dissipates.

A refreshing scent! GET IT?! Aloe, white musk, lime peel, fresh mint, seaspray, verbena and green tea. Sea spray and mint in the bottle. Goes on as a pure aquatic note, which continues into the mint which the Lab uses in their snow note (which I LOVE). Dries as a minty green tea. This is delightful! Definitely in the Shanghai family, which is great because I love Shanghai too.

Blackberries and the Lab's snow note, which I love and are awesome. but practically no throw. Like this wants to be Skadi when it grows up.