Casablanca

This here be a more whimsical Bobbin.

Well-sugared pinkish apples and musk, what I thought at first was pink grapefruit but may be the lemon mingling with pink musk, and a relatively mellow mango.

Fruity, sugary, pinkish, playful.

I mean, yes. Well, now. This is very much as described in its notes!

The apples are red and do indeed gleam, the whole fragrance is lush --- just a bit creamy and a little more honeyed --- with extra red from cherries, poppies, and wine, and a positively vampiric dose of musk. Clove and vetiver are more blended in, but clear enough once I read them listed. The vetiver, or something, is also a touch grassy and smoky, to the degree of reminding me of Endless Corridors, with its beeswax, candle smoke and vetiver. I definitely notice the vetiver more and more as this dries.

This is sheer, unapologetic (bitch, please) vampire glam.

Bright, jooooocy pineapple floating in a sugar-syrupy Dole can. You know the stuff I mean?

That remains the dominant impression throughout wear. Before long, though, a little opened-up prickly pear joins in, along with something vibrantly green. It's not immediately musky, but the musk emerges with time.

Pumpkin is more of a background warmth than a distinct note at this river, and the grasses are an eventual hint. This is mostly about the fruits, with a little quirky edge of green and whiffs of musk.

Out of the (cat) gate, this is black musk (with that lemon myrtle thing it often has) and hay with fluffy balls of fuzzy brown fur musk. 

After a few minutes, a deep golden amber and cedar creep in, with hints of clove and cinnamon.

This is going to be popular with some (like my friend whose decant this is!), but for me, there's too much fuzzy musk. This definitely evokes the kitty, though, and the art cracks me up.

Pom Turkish Delight brings a candy taffy-like texture and sweetness. This reminds me just a little of Atlantic City boardwalk taffy --- but admittedly, I'm not a big taffy snacker, so I'm probably missing some nuance.

I don't get much pomegranate to this one. It's mostly about the candy.

Bright red, juice-drippy pom and some apple with a bit of blackening to it -- perhaps not as much as Gingerbread Witch had, but it's noticeable.

There's a dusting of spice dryness that reminds me of saffron's dry tone, but without actual saffron. It takes a while to resolve as anything pink peppery, and remains subtle throughout this blend's life on my skin. Which is short, by the way... This one doesn't live long on me.

This is an attractive almond-vanilla-tonka blend, primarily --- but I can find most of the listed notes together with these, all well-blended. While the almond is clearly present, it's a little more relaxed than it sometimes behaves and does not overpower.

Really, Breton Sorceress needs no time to develop before showing much of her glory: an immediate, creamy-yellow swirl of almond, tonka, cedar and oak, golden bergamot and a golden ambrette muskiness, warm vanilla, and a whiff of smoke. 

In a few moments, a mild-spiced patchouli creeps in, as well.

I'm really enjoying this one's beauty... except for its muskiness. There might be a little too much perfumey musk here for me, but I love the other notes. I really hope to see cedar, oak, patch, vanilla, spices, and smoke together again in a less musky situation. ❤️

The image up there says it all.

Atmospheric, smoky pine pitch, and whiffs of greener pine needles and oak. 

Nocturnal Witches is mood.

This DL is the third I've tried from the 2022 Weenies DLs with only a bit of the dead leaves coming across. Which is nice --- I often dig the milder DL blends.

Unfortunately, though, this one is otherwise skin chem-failing on me. I get a hint of toasted marshmallows buried in a scorch note that --- while mild --- still veers close to burnt plastic or vinyl. I've enjoyed other burnt and toasted scents, but this one isn't a match for me.

The horchata DL is a little odd on me.

At the first application, it smelled like dry straw and rice, with a bit of creaminess, all smelling distinct and separate from each other. Then it developed hints of cinnamon and lemon sugar. It seems to have a bit of strange fruitiness, mostly like lemon, but also like a pitcher of sun-brewed lemon tea that's now chilling in the fridge. It's almost Liptony. I can see the Wellerman comparison.

The rice and creamy things do eventually blend into something rice-milky, but I'm not sure the blend as a whole is coming together on me at this time. It may need rest.

For me, the dead leaves are rising up mainly as texture in this one. I don't get the overt DL-bell pepper-cologne thing at all.

What I do get is a warm, cozy ginger mingling with other mellow, but inviting, spices. Ginger can often pierce, or sing out shrilly, but here she smells stove-warmed and softened, like in a chai.

I like this balance of less DL, more warm spice. I may have to cut it, but this is in my cart for a bottle.

Muffinses! The first oven blast on this one is of warm chocolate chip muffins. Specifically chocolate chips, rather than a chocolate muffin.

The pumpkin is more the pumpkin spice than the gourd, and even so, comes out softly ... a mild, spiced warmth that actually reminds me of the ... hey, this is like the spiced rum from Noisy Goose Moon!

I really enjoyed the way that warm, mild-spiced rum played with the vanilla-banana in Goose and I'm enjoying its effect here, with a chocolatish muffin. I think I love Noisy Goose Moon more, but this is a fun, unexpected Weenie muffin.

A whole orchard cart of musk poured into a deeply fruity grape juice-blackberry wine. 

Musk. Lots. Whoa.

Metal heads, look no further.

This one not only visits the forge but plunges right into the fire along with the tempering sword. Forge of Vulcan is metal for days, with a darkening edge of soot and smoke.

Eventually the blood musk tries to assert itself, but it struggles to emerge from the chemical metal cloud. I only find the note briefly in all the metallic sturm und drang.

Aggressively metal, very forgey.

This one packs a punch, filling the room as soon as I apply it.

Early impressions are deeply, darkly cherry, but also surprisingly boozy. I get tones of sweet bourbon along with black musk, dried black currants, and almond (which smells a bit like almond extract, with the boozy impression). And a little anise? This goes through a phase of making me think something like: Cherry Black Licorice Smut.

Sometimes, the blend smells wonderfully like its description; other times, it's more like the most intense Ludens cough drop.

At the least, this is one for cherry lovers.

On my skin, this one is a little odd and chemical for a moment, then poof --- beach-breezy, blue floral musk perfume.

Emphasis on the perfume.

Thankfully the perfumey cloud settles back in drydown. The underlying melange is weightier on ambergris, with whiffs of salt and creamy linen.

I often amp both salt and butter, so let's see how this butter-salt cage match goes.

On my skin, aquatic salt comes out swinging first. Within a minute, though, butter surfaces amongst the tides and washes heavily ashore. Butter and salty ocean go several rounds, but it's clear they are less in a fighting match than in a committed flirtation with one another. 

Gradually, a coy, soft vanilla drifts out, letting it be known that it is really responsible for the affectionate, flirty vibe that seems to make up the undercurrent in this ocean.

So, yes? Buttery oceanic salt and soft, sweet vanilla.

At first, Shells is pearlescent pink abalone, with whiffs of salt and musk.

The musk creeps in more noticeably during drydown:, at first just salty, then shifting closer to its own russet musk thing.

However, sometimes I amp salt, and this is one of those salts. The salt soon overtakes most of the russet musk and pearly abalone on my skin, and the blend becomes mainly a sea-washed-and-dried salt scent. It's a thin outline of salt crusting a shoreline as the tides ebb, though without much of a salt-crystal granular texture.

Gold honeyed-oats and fizz. Oh, it's beer fizz! This is one of the few beer blends in which I clearly smell the beer, but on my skin, it's surprisingly light and fizzy --- borderline ginger ale fizz.

A soft, dry husk quality gives some seasonal texture and I catch a whiff of corn now and then. The amber makes itself known as well. Mostly it contributes to the dedicated golden quality of the whole, but now and then, it seems to stand out on its own as a mild presence.

Lovely, hearty blend for late summer through fall.

Dry, dark coffee beans (definitely the roasted beans, not the brew), dry cacao, and an equally dry, grass-stalky khus behind them. Coffee beans have that bit of roasted husk scent to them, and here that's so well supported by the other notes.

This is deeply comforting and I love it. Bottle, please!

Bright red apples bobbing in a vat of sweet, boozy, musky, slightly spicy apple-slosh. Basically.

The booze (which smells bourbon-heavy) and red musk are a little more prominent for me here than in my memory of straight-up Smut... but it's been a while since I wore Smut solo. They come out swinging heavy (but oh so sweetly), and this is possibly a good time to mention that Bobbing for Smut might not be an office perfume (depending on your office, of course!).

In drydown, I also start to smell some white floral. (It reminds me a bit of jasmine, though it's less intrusive and better blended than jasmine often is.) I'd rather I didn't smell this part, but it's not interfering too much.

For all this seems to have a few notes that I usually sidestep, I do like this one quite a bit for a certain mood. (When the Lab box arrived, I was in that mood --- and I gloried in it.) 

Spiced baked apples open both the scent's description and experience on my skin. Clove soon spikes as the most prominent spice for me, but ground nutmeg and cinnamon stand in ready support. 

Behind these, a warm, autumnal mush of pumpkin and peach fill out the blend --- as in Jack, they smell dimly candlelit. Not that I read a lot of smoke or bonfire from this, but something glows in a small, candle-flame way... rather like how amber may communicate sunlight.

Spicy, apple-peachy, autumn-gourdy, glowy. Happy with this.

First, this perfume name was my favorite.

For the rest: Throughout its wet phase and well into dry, Ball Gags is a bushel of sweet apples further sweetened with honey. These aren't necessarily Honeycrisp, but with the addition of honey, they're in the neighborhood. The effect is essentially very sweet, almost syrupy apples.

The black leather takes its time to appear --- at first, I thought I might be smelling black amber -- and even after a long time, remains subdued on me. On my skin, this plays out as much bobbing, few ball gags. 🙂

Bobbing for Sneks goes on heavy and sweet, and somehow musky even for SO.

The apples are baked rather than fresh, warm and almost mushy, buttery-soft and mildly spiced. Beneath the harvest fruit, the Snake Oil runs deep, its patchouli especially noticeable, like a taproot burrowing into the orchard depths.

Lovely SO blend.

Freshly applied, this offers a hot cup of smooth, richly dark coffee (coffee and a bit of grounds, I'd say). A trace of soft, milky caramel swirls in the background, lending its smoothness. The caramel and oatmilk knock on the door of "creamy" without really going in. Mostly, I'm getting rich black coffee with a little hand wave from caramel. Apple is late to the date.

Oh, there she is. Once this dries, Apple makes an appearance but no strong statement. She's behaving really chill, kind of leaning back into caramel as though into a recliner. She showed up, she lets Coffee know she'll take it from here... But at the same time, she can't really be bothered. She and her spice are soft on my skin, more of an autumnal mood than a fruity personality.

This has only rested a day, so I anticipate some shifting... but I dig it.