Convallaria

If you like Lutens' Tubereuse Criminelle, you might like Circus Bear. It's a cousin, not a sibling, and those confectioneries are most definitely there if only at the opening; but since styrax-heavy scents are rare, to say nothing of the combo of styrax and sweetness, it's good enough for me. And it does go florals-styrax after a while.

Love it, it's all I imagined it would be. Not a fan of really edible gourmands, but I hoped resins would balance them out well, and I love styrax, so I took a risk and it paid off. The opening, after first few seconds of soft Oreo, is just the blend of sugary treats and styrax with a dash of (unburnt) frankincense. After a while, flowers come out, gardenia stronger than rose. Styrax still very noticeable and balancing the floral sweetness as well. Sadly, just like a circus, it goes away all too soon.

I love Bliss, but I can't wear dark chocolate note from Lupers' Bonbons. (Haven't tried the milk chocolate note from that collection.) That dryness just feels weird on skin. Wulric is okay, but the cocoa there isn't that prominent on me. I did like hazelnut+chocolate "Nutella" effect in O The Joy Of My Spirit!, but, again, didn't get so much cocoa after it settled. I liked the chocolate note in How Doth The Little Crocodile on its own, but other ingredients drowned it out. I think I'll pass on The Candy Butcher unless I can find a convenient decant offered along something else. I'm not that into most of other Lab "foodie" notes, so I'm not confident about the vanilla. How do you think I will feel about Boomslang and Baby's First Krampuslauf?

I thought I got a mislabeled frimp for a while. Overall effect of the opening almost smells like leather on me! (Well, there's that crocodile in the title...) Oakmoss and cedar are very strong at the opening. I wonder if there's been a reformulation or if it's just chemistry. Chocolate note is similar to Bliss, and it keeps playing hide-and-seek in the woods. Mint's in there, too, but it's mixed with the other greens, not producing chocolate mints like I expected. Then the chocolate vanishes and it's pretty much just greenery, with fresh mint contrasting musty oakmoss.

Opening: Nutella indeed! After it settles, the roasted hazelnut is in the foreground, with tonka and cacao spicing it up but pine preventing it from being edible. Latter drydown is mostly pine and spicy tonka on me, though, and long-lasting.

So I decided to take a leap of faith and blind-bottle, too, and wow. It's worth it. Might need backup. The opening is a blast of lavender. There's something in the background, but lavender keeps distracting me. After a while, it's tempered and it becomes a whirl of lavender, woods and musk - masculine, cologne-y and almost like leather. Cocoa is really only a spice. As usual, lavender vanishes from my skin first and the rest is cuddly musk and cologney vetiver. If I had a boyfriend/husband, this is the one I'd be pushing on him. (In the meantime, dad will do? )

The opening is a blast of pure sweet peach, soon settling down into a blend of peach and lavender. When dry, lavender vanishes and it's pretty much straight sweet, juicy peach all the way. Okay, but not my thing.

The opening is a lovely blend of woods, sandalwood and something very much like a smooth resin/candlewax (lemon balm?). Sadly, sweet mix of sandalwood and amber overpowers everything once it starts going dry, and is pretty much all that's left eventually. Not sure if it's worth the effort of procuring the full bottle. If there was something more to amber/sandalwood blend in latter stages, definitely, but it's pretty much generic once it arrives to drydown, and that's relatively fast for Lab, too...

I got a frimp with Lab purchase. Would have never thought about getting it on my own based on Lab description, so I'm glad I got lucky to try it! The opening is bitter - reminds me of bitter almond essence, but when I sniff closer I get the herbal bitterness under it too. It settles down after a minute or so, into a neutral herbal concoction. The herbal bitterness is gone and there is something fresh I can't put my finger on - bit too sweet to be eucalyptus, but similar? Dry, it becomes sweeter - I think there's rose involved. Medium wear length, low throw.

The opening is all sweet resins, unlit. Dry is a blend of resins and yew tree, still feeling balmy. Rose joins the mix later on. I like it, but I can't help wishing it was a bit more complex. It also doesn't last very long.

Really well blended. When wet, it's mostly rum and salt, dry it's predominantly rum, but I can sense the other ingredients behind it. Coconut from rum+sarsaparilla do edge close to sunscreen, but not too close. I love it on its own, but I'm not fully convinced it's wearable in public around here - it has a decent throw for BPAL and it's a bit unusual. If I spent more time at the seaside, maybe.

It's been a while since a scent made me sick. There are a lot of notes I dislike smelling, or don't like on me, but I almost never get a negative physical reaction. I love vanilla on its own, I can deal with honey even if I'm not that into it, and while I'm not fond of overall effect of dragon's blood (particularly when gone floral) save a few exceptions, I don't have an instant negative reaction to the note on its own. But combined, they are a nightmare. I'm not fond of certain kinds of "sweet", but most of the time it's preference. Milk is the exactly wrong kind of cloying. It's kind of almond-y, and I know I was fine with this note before (sometimes presented as bitter cherry, but it's pretty much the same thing), but I can't deal with it here. It's too potent and there is something there that's giving me a headache - probably the floral component. The drydown is standard lovely vanilla, but I couldn't handle sniffing out more subtle nuances before it, I'm afraid. Overall long-lasting and intense if close to skin.

The opening is the swirl of listed notes. This will probably remind you of candy, cleaning agents and/or various other lemon-scented products. I don't mind but if it's a nope for you, best reconsider this one. (I have the same problem with cinnamon - no matter how elegant the rest of the blend is, it will never not smell like scented candles, cookies and cheap lip balm gone "creative".) After citruses evaporate, it has an awkward phase that smells kind of like a tree with bark just striped off (raw, watery, a little bitter), before going into pure lilacs. This, too, might not be everyone's jam - it's very close to lilac SN, I can practically smell the pollen. After that, it morphs into animalic musk, ultimately becoming typical perfumey sweet powder that slowly fades into the skin. It lasts relatively long overall, as do all respective phases. I'm torn about this one. On one hand, it feels unfinished - citrus and lilac seem like they belong in separate perfumes, and then there is that transition phase. On the other hand, some too well-blended mixes fail to hold my attention - I like to be able to smell something recognisable. So I'm actually moving this to "to-buy-bottle" pile. Simplicity isn't a bad thing, I guess. Still can't figure out how it connects to Whitechapel, though. Not very wicked on me, all gentlemanly, if a bit temperamental. Maybe my skin terrified it into obedience?

Seconding St. Clare and Conjunction of Mars and Saturn! I had bad luck with few initial experiments (The Top, In The Time Of Plague) that ended up too much like an actual ashtray on me. I'm not a fan of literal cigarettes either. The intensity in these two just right and the rest of the blend balances and supports without drowning it out or adding to the heaviness of ashes. (Unlike Elegba, which is actually coconut and sugar and little else most of the time on me, particularly fresh. I got a sample of aged, and it's better balanced, but not sure it's worth the wait.) St. Clare is on the sweet side overall - it says "incense", but it's not smokey like a cigarette. Conjunction is herbal, which makes it even less cigarette-like for me. I found the note even milder in Paysage.

Opening: dirt and moss. Mmm. The moss comes out gradually, making it smell like a herbal tea or poultice - not for everyone, perhaps, but my grandmother was into traditional medicine and so to me strong-smelling herbs=good. I hadn't realized it wasn't a very popular opinion until I saw the faces my friends made when we sampled a body cream that was a bit heavy on chamomile. (And I was like "if you think that's stinky...") Copal amps up the effect later on. Sadly, the patch in the drydown starts to go a bit wonky. Not the rancid note it tends to go on me sometimes, but still a bit questionable. I'd say it would need several more tests, but it also doesn't last long on me, so the imp is going on the back-burner.

The opening is very sweet, feels almost berry-like to me. Ylang ylang+honey, I suppose. I'd have never expected this effect from the notes. The sweetness lessens gradually into...still sweet but without juiciness. Not very long-lasting on me, probably thanks to my skin's musk-eating tendencies.

This one is a morpher on me. I get the stalks, not the flower, at the very opening. Then there is a very sweet rose (not candied, but as sweet as it can get without) for a while, before it goes into atmosphere essential oil territory, with not much flower left in sandalwood-patchouli blend. It reemerges again in the latter stages of powdery drydown, that is still kind of aromatherapeutic. Overall, depending on the stage, the scent reminds me more of crushed plants or clay pot diffuser than sexytimes.

Not much snow on me - just aggressive, potent woods. It's almost like Lab's pungent leather note - I thought I was testing one for a few moments before I remembered what I placed on the wrist. Probably thanks to vetiver. I find a lot of "masculines" unisex on me, but not this one. Being devoid of quirkiness, it's a good pick for a Lab newbie who's into really butch stuff, but not for me.

I got a secondhand decant and at first I wondered if something didn't go wrong along the way, but since there have been people with similar experience...first few seconds smell like alcohol, then it settles into a weak cologne. Of listed notes, I can only pick up opium. Frankincense crawls out at the start of the drydown, but everything mellows down again into something nondescript - it could be hay, but it's not singed. Very weak overall for a "parliament of monsters". Pity because I love all the notes, but glad I got to try out a decant rather than making a blind buy I'd regret.

Frimp from lab. The cinnamon at the opening is dry and not very sweet. A lot of Lab cinnamon ends up reminding me of cookies, but not here - thanks mostly to sandalwood, I believe. It's what the name implies, red, hot and sensual. After a while, the cinnamon settles and sandalwood takes over. Well-blended, but doesn't last long on me. Throw is moderate, strongest in the cinnamon phase.

Wet: honey, smokey cognac? For me, myrrh comes off as spice rather than balsam in this combination. I thought I was wearing one of cookie scents for a moment until I checked out notes and reviews. Maybe it's the patch - it did something similar on me in A Countenance Forboding Evil and The Wild Men of Jezirat Al Tennyn (paired with orange and cloves, respectively). No flowers. Initial drydown: even sweeter honey with a side of cognac. Myrrh only if you sniff close. Still no flowers, but musk appears. Late drydown: honey. Floral notes are no-show, patchouli in the background, low throw, moderate wear length.

On me, this is one of scents that has two phases that don't feel very connected: first phase, straightforward dry myrrh; second phase, cinnamon bark. There's some incense lurking behind the spice if you sniff close, but it's still too much cinnamon for my taste. I'm just not a fan of the note when it's dominant, I guess - probably thanks to over-saturation in various other scented products.

I feel like I can smell candles, for some reason. If you sniff closer, it's that "clean" musk, with a bit of incensey edge. Afterward, though, the smoky edge goes away and it settles into something close to a neutral body cream. I love the opening, love the concept, but it lasts so short I'm not sure it's full/partial bottle-worthy.

Very stereotypical fruity floral, intense but staying close to the skin. The pear is very potent on me. Might be a good starter scent for a person used to drugstore or mall counter fare - pretty much standard currently popular juice, with added bonus of low sillage thanks to the nature of the oils. Office- and possibly date-friendly. To the point I'm actually considering a purchase for when I need an inoffensive scent - most of my great loves too quirky and/or not very...environment-friendly.

Classical rose got eaten by a dragon? The rose is very Goldilocksy, not too musty, not too clean. Dragon's blood is business as usual on me - sweet, berry-like, amped. Pretty, but too sweet for my taste, and nearly all dragon's blood-heavy scents end up samey on me.