Casablanca

Exceptionally cozy apple laundry. When this first arrived, I hardly got any apple or fabric scent from the blend, just cozy dryer sheets. But a few days of settling has shifted the balance. When applied, this smells like slightly powdery apple laundry with faint cider spice. In drydown, I actually find angora! Not just wool but, somehow, specifically bunny-influenced angora. It has a soft, fiber-yarn quality, like I'm sniffing inside a bag of yarn (as someone does somewhere, I'm sure). As this dries, it loses much of its apple, but the yarn-like laundry scent lingers. It also grows more powdery, the one aspect leaving me on the fence about a bottle upgrade. This will be a decant to enjoy, regardless.

This is my third test of Woman at the Edge of the Woods and, each time, it reminds me so much of The Earth Mother from the Tarot blends (I miss those -- good times). I thought this was a more patchouli but less dirty/pitchy version of Earth Mother. They are different enough that I'm happy to have both bottles, yet they're equally evocative of the forest floor and mood. Looking at the notes now, they list patchouli, mandrake, and sage in common. So I just put on Earth Mother as well to compare. Earth Mother has the burgundy pitch, vetiver, and hay adding some weight, and it brings to mind the very bottom of the forest: the tattered, mulchy leaf layer and rich earth beneath, where the roots nestle. Woman is cleaner, and more airy with sage, yet still woodsy and herbal enough to remind more of the next layer up from the forest floor: the scrubby plants, the bramble thorns, sparse wild roses and berries, the woody trunks. The roses and berries are scant occasional whiffs, barely there; mostly I get patchouli and other woods, and sage-led herbs. Woman is softer on my skin, but it's also two years younger. They go well together but also stand well alone.

Opens with a burst of herbal lavender, vanilla buttercream frosting, and a slightly odd, waxy note that I think is the sprinkles. The lavender is potent to start, but it settles back into its seat before long, present but relaxed. Lavender is chilling because it smells lavender. I don't smell cake from the cupcakes, just lots of sugary buttercream frosting. Happily, the sprinkles lose their slightly chemical oddness as they settle. They smell waxy and candy-like, and even multicolored, and bring images of themselves to mind. The blend fades quickly from its early potency on me. After about 10 minutes, it's a soft vanilla buttercream with faint hints of lavender and candy.

One for the beeswax lovers. Sweet bourbon vanilla beeswax, a bit honeyed. In drydown, some warm cedar emerges. It adds a reddish-brown woodiness to the vanilla beeswax, but doesn't blend as closely as the other two notes. At least, not at this age. This has rested a week and the throw is good enough that I would only wear a little dab to work.

This needed several days after arrival to settle and become a thing. It still doesn't smell like much on me for the first minute or two, just the odd whiff of grapefruit. But, coming into the drydown, it comes into its stride. The deep black currant comes out, backed by a soft, woodsy patchouli. The grapefruit adds a bright citrus lift to the trio, so that it reads like a top, middle, and base note harmony. Soprano, second soprano, and alto... The currant is wonderfully dark and rich. The patch, softest of the three, becomes more noticeable later, but never takes over. I've been looking for a black currant-strong blend for a while and, of all other notes, patchouli is the dream pairing. I never imagined grapefruit with it, but I'm grapefruit-friendly and happy I jumped on this menage. 💕

Fudge made with Hershey's Kisses. (I'm all up in the brand naming today...) Chocolate, straight up. After drydown, the musks finally make their way out of the chocolate jungle. Unfortunately, when they do, it's mostly the red musk turning off on my skin, as it often does. I had better luck with some other Smut variants in this line, though.

This is light during the early phase, but settles into sugary Good & Plenty candies at the movie theatre when I was a kid. 😊 The licorice-anise blend is finer than that, though, so perhaps a gourmet version. Despite that, this isn't especially gourmand. The backdrop of almost-boozy sugar-musk puts this closer to gourmand-adjacent or gourmand-twisted. I haven't been a licorice person as an adult, but I find myself drawn to this. It's very Weenie.

Boozy pumpkin. The Smut booze is really coming out on my skin in this one, but the pumpkin also smells off... And in short time, the off-ness resolves itself into something like butter. But it's one of the bad butter notes on me, like in White Larry. Then the Smut sugar comes out, and improves things. But this one is still rather a mess on me.

Sour, candy-orange bubblegum lolly. It's like an orange Dum Dum you grab from a teller counter at the bank, but with a massive doop of sugary bubblegum inside.

The sugar-crunchy honey from O meets a beeswaxy taffy candy in the haze of musky booze at a party. That's pretty much it. Chewy O-honey beeswax candy party. This doesn't change on me during its life. Good party.

Lemonheads joy! It seems I can even smell the bit of white powdery sugar you could find on those lemon candies to keep them from sticking together. In drydown, I get a little honey from this on my skin, so that it's sugary lemon-honey hard candy. I don't notice any Smut musks; the blend stays all honey Lemonheads on me through its life.

A mildly tangy green apple in warm, syrupy sort of gentle brown toffee. The toffee goes from warm and syrupy to creamy. After drydown, the apple settles a bit and I get whiffs of boozy musk as Smut peers out. After a while, though, this turns a bit weird on my skin. Red musk doesn't play usually nice on me, but this smells more like the apple went off. Starts pleasant, but not for me.

My best friend hates candy corn. Like... hate, as in there isn't a dark enough, filthy enough ring of hell to house the conical, candy-striped demons. On the approach of each Halloween, we used to play a clip of Lewis Black ranting about them for annual candy corn catharsis. Candy Corn Smut came out; I perversely convinced her to get a sample. She got a Smut set (we do know she likes Smut) and I'm writing about this set today. On both our skin, Candy Corn Smut was black coffee out of the gate, like others describe. As it warmed on me, I got the Smut musks and a creamy, faintly fruity candy note that is candy cornish. As the blend warmed on her, she fell for it. She kept huffing it, as though it were the room's only supply of oxygen, and looking chagrined. "I can't believe this is my favorite of the lot." Later: "One bottle might not be enough." I have glee. 😊

Faded leather and cedar, faint touches of rose and vanilla porcelain -- all covered with a layer of dust. This is very soft on me, but I get mainly dust, soft leather, and cedar on a background of long-forgotten things.

Strange and highly chemical. Certainly unsettling. Soft mineral turpentine, canvas, and wet clay -- oh, no, there is the lampblack. Acrid, chemical black Sharpies. This is the smell of a workshop for making something unwholesome.