Casablanca

A pretty and serene red sandalwood warmed with rosy palmarosa and woodsy-pale cedar. The myrrh was a gentle resinous presence suffusing the blend. This was a lovely sandalwood blend, and it lingered on my skin longer than most perfumes do.

Pots and pots of beeswax and honey drizzled over orange flowers and peel. Beeswax and honey were most prominent for me, with the orange-grove things close behind. Very spring-like, very sweet, very pretty, but with an airy-clean astringency, too, from the ti leaf. The ti leaf added intrigue for me in the early stage; without it, this perfume might have smelled less distinct from some other spring blends. But I noticed the leaf and it added a lot. An appealing blend.

This was nearly Orange Blossom SN on my skin. Just a drip of light watery salt around the edges. Some salt notes go wild on me. This one, though, had a sort of salt that I don't amp like mad, kind of like the recent Luper Sad Love in that way. But no other notes made an appearance.

A highly herbal blend to start, Kommt Mit Zacken started as lots of sage and bay laurel on my skin, backed with an odd animalistic musk and a whiff of tobacco. Mostly the sage and bay laurel. After drydown, a sweet golden amber came out on me in droves. At that point the blend was mainly sweet amber, with little whiffs of herbs. The strange beasty-musk put me off a bit during the early phase, here, but the amber dried phase was lovely.

Oh, this. This was deep jade moss and cypress delishusness. Deep, sink-into-it-like-a-bed green moss and green cypress boughs. I'd like to chill some evening with just this blend and some night swamp sounds playing on YouTube. Ambience without the hematophagic distraction of mosquitoes. The other notes blended to add depth and woodiness -- a forest floorness -- but I couldn't make any other note out individually. I'm out of moss-heavy fragrances now. I might replenish that dry well with a bottle of this one.

This was a very Yule-into-spring scent. Sweetly minty -- almost sugary -- snow primarily, with gleams of amber and green conifers.

I got a chance to try my friend's decants of this line today, and they were so good. This blend smelled like the Boss of Druids. A Druid on (Natural, Plant-Based) Steroids. It was dry, crushed grasses and dry woods for me primarily -- especially what I suspect was the ash -- and then strengthening hazelnuts after drydown. The whole blend struck me as quite dry, natural, and rustic. I love forest blends, and I found this unique among those I've tried.

I got a chance to try my friend's decants of this line today, and they were so good. Die Flamme was one of the standouts for me; I loved its smoky-warm nuttiness on my skin, especially the nutty acorns. The nuts were the most potent aspect on my skin, but wreathed in a cozy smoke. This was not the aggressive black, slightly acrid smoke of Midnight Bonfire for me, but rather somewhere between intimate hearth smoke and little backyard bonfire smoke. Under the nuts and smoke, I got frankincense and woodsiness. This was all quite in my wheelhouse. I agree, though, with Lucchesa that it was a little too close to my beloved Chestnuts and Hearth Smoke bottle to warrant a separate bottle. But I want to recommend a try.

This year's Milk Moon is a soft but wholly nourishing blend, a version of a promised land. In the bottle, the blend is mostly a lightly honeyed milk to me, with hints of Mediterranean fruit. Fresh on my skin, the figs and dates come out, rich with cream, a bit warmed with honey, full and round with hot-summer fruitiness. Olive and cedar trees rustle in the breeze around the edges, woodsy and a little airy. This smells like abundance. My skin seems hungry for abundance, because it eats the scent up quickly. Hopefully a little age will add longevity to the wear.

Figgy, other-fruity red musk. Heavy and sweet. Wood adds some solidity in drydown. I could see red musk lovers liking this one. I thought this had a little oudh funk in it when I first sniffed the wand. There is something a bit animalic here, but it's not jumping out.

The listed notes look lovely, but then: Poudh sneak attack for critical damage.

This one is a good bit of fun at first. The star anise immediately amps into Supreme Ruler on my skin; but in the first moment, at least, I can still smell the green tea. This seems to be the pretty green tea note from Cooling Breeze. And then the tea is mostly gone, leaving scarcely a green whisp. The oakmoss is a faint woody hint. The sweet, black licorice-like anise simply stomps everything else out.

Ponderous white gardenia, a nearly equal amount of champaca, and a backdrop of red sandalwood. The champaca and sandalwood lend their light textural, almost spicy qualities to the gardenia. This is still a pretty heady blend on me, though.

This is Red Musk dressing up in a gown of shimmering pink shantung and mermaid pearls. It's kind of Red Musk in Abalone Vulva cosplay. You know it's not the real Vulva, but it's a good bit of fun. The Lab's red musk usually turns sour and bad on me after a while. I get a little of that here, but this iridescent mermaid note -- and the amber that intensifies after drydown -- do a very pretty job of hiding it.

Like some others, I get something off in this. Funky. I catch a bit of it on the wand on the decant, but its funk amplifies into dominance on my skin. When I try to parse around that... I get fuzzy wood and great poofs of orris powder. The funk settles down after a bit, but even without it, the fuzziness and powder here aren't an ideal match for me.