artisjok

I usually don’t enjoy the Lab’s champagne note, though I had a hunch this would be good. I’m glad I scored a decant, because it is really good! I think there’s a sharpness that usually accompanies the champagne scents I’ve tried. Here, the pumpkin cheesecake smooths out that hard edge. It’s like a spiced Italian cream soda, or something like that…. lightly spiced, gently creamy, sparkling brightness… intriguing! Also, it lasts really well, and I always appreciate scents that can hold up on my thirsty skin. I can’t stop sniffing. I’m tempted to get a full bottle, since I don’t know if I’ll find another champagne scent that works so well for me.

Yep. This might be my first encounter with the “burning plastic” phenomena…. Thankfully, it only strikes upon application! The scent, once it settles, in is unremarkable light vanilla on me, though I think that’s my skin on the Lab’s cheesecake. Eggnog Cheesecake was similarly disappointing. Sadness. Glad I got to try it, though, and someone will love the bottle I’m sure!

Wow, just searching stone on the Lab site, there are quite a few LE scents featuring stone right now! Maybe you can find some secondhand decants floating around… An Enchanted Cellar with Animals A cacophony of feathers and fur, cracked clay and moist stone, scattered rushes, upturned herbs, red sage, and frankincense smoke. A Summer Night Salt-crusted stones, azure moonlight on pale sand, ambergris clinging to cream linen, driftwood, and rose-tinted sandalwood. Columns of the Temple of Neptune at Paestum Cypress wood and dry grasses, sun-baked stone, faded incense, and olive leaves. Night’s Bridge (Stone and darkness) is the one that immediately came to mind, though I haven’t tried it. Should be plenty of reviews to peruse. Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Paris is my favorite stone-featuring scent, though might be hard to find. stone and ancient incense, beeswax and lavender smoke I’ve got a decant of Summer Rain to test, looking forward to see how concrete features!

Definitely a popcorn scent, Ticketed is! In the beginning I got a decent dose of soda, even cola-ish. I wasn’t expecting the cola type, reading other reviews. Pretty quickly, though, the soda dissipates, and I’m mostly getting buttery popcorn sweetened by the cotton candy. It’s highly reminiscent of Mouse Circus, though stronger on my skin (yay!). I can’t be sure how much I’ll reach for this one, though it’s delicious. I have a bottle of Popcorn Ball SO that I love, and still don’t wear often…. May see if my littles enjoy the scent and add it to their stash.

SO GOOD I have been waiting on a chonk to be shipped to me, but caved and grabbed a full bottle in the meantime. Totally worth it. A spiced sugar cookie, but spiced with lovely carnation. Simple and unique. I don’t get rose, yet, but maybe it’ll come out more with some aging? If not, I’m not mad. I’ll be wearing this spicy sweetie a lot.

Pom Tiramisu was one of the scents I was looking forward to the most of this year’s Weenies…. Sadly, it’s so faint on me. I slathered 3 times and no real impact. I do think it dries to something like Ghost Milk, though that’s just the tiny whiff I can grasp. Ghost Milk itself was also too faint on me, so if a fruity version of that sounds appealing, you might find some success in this scent.

Traded for a bottle of Brown Sugar, Cream, & Earl Grey Tea, and still felt it was a gamble…. Turns out, it was a well-played gamble! Opens quite smokey, disconcertingly so. Fairly swiftly, it shifts into this clean tea note, lovingly embraced by brown sugar and an echoing cream. The overall effect is brown-toned, yet feels like I just stepped out of the shower. At the same time, it feels like a classy scent that my alter ego living in New York, and frequenting fashionable bars and restaurants nightly would rock. It also works as me now, wandering through the backyard jungle garden, cleaning the kitchen, reading and daydreaming next to the window…

Ut Ameris, Amabilis Esto is a fairy-touched wonder blend. I keep comparing it to Rose-Tinted Mirror, since they are both sweet roses with compassion-centric vibration. ~Rose-Tinted is definitely that inward-focused love. It’s melting into your skin to coat a hardened heart, to gently take your face in its hands and kiss you with tenderness and a little heat. You can face yourself again, and thus face anything. Each wear opens the heart a little deeper. ~Ut Ameris is shining outwards, a twinkling in it’s eyes. There’s an uplifting sense that pulls you outside to bask in the sun, and, in turn, attracting the attention of the other. The glimmering shimmering feminine (we’ve all got it) invites everyone to break into smile. Before we even know what’s happening, we’ve joined together and are moving through space with grace, our hearts synchronizing beats. So lovely! The scent is excellent. I am glad to have a bottle. It was instrumental in getting me through the recent Libra Full Moon weekend.

Here to join team “love this” and “this is beautiful”! Shadow Self is sultry smooth smoked lavender and sandalwood and myrrh on me. There are complex gems hidden beneath, waiting to be dug from their earthen house, to be seen in the light, washed and polished. I cannot sense the identity of these gems, I can just feel the power and complexity they impart to this lovely scent. A humming beneath the primary notes. Movement behind the theater curtain. It reminds me a lot of A Noiseless Patient Spider, but that one was too faint on me, and it was a sadness. This one has throw! Shadow Self is a gladness. It is glamorous and comforting. I would wear it anytime, all the time. Embrace the shadow and you will find the light hidden within~ 🖤💜🤍🖤💜🤍🖤💜🤍🖤💜🤍🖤💜🤍

The Thirteen from March 2020 has it going on! And from the reviews, Lights, Camera, Something may also have that lemony aspect.

Shelter-in-Tomb is potentially amazing, yet the fig goes really green on me. Vegetal in a way that works in some blends, yet not so much right now. I really wanted a sultry red incense-y scent with a touch of sweet fig…. It does smell like that on my hands. Will the fig calm down after a while? Is it better in dry hair than the damp I applied to? Will keep sniffing to see if it shifts. Maybe I’ll try it as a body spray & see if it’s more appealing to me that way.

Flickering Lights, Fluttering Curtains gives me the visual of walking towards an open window in the night, layers of sheer curtains flowing into my face as the wind enters the room. The moon is shining outside, and no matter how close I get to the window, I never seem to arrive. Stuck in a bedroom full of dried flowers and antique face powder, aching to see what in just beyond the windowsill, I continue wading through the floating fabrics until I open my eyes in another reality. Which one is the dream?

My most recent “dry” love is Pyramid of Skulls (A blend of four sandalwood oils stained by tobacco absolute.)! Real good.

I was having a Sugar Cookie Cathedral kind of day recently (fun and laughter with sprinklings of ritual and internal emotional work), and I was so pleased to have this blend with me to wear! I enjoyed the mix of resins & sweet, though it was hard to explain the overall effect. Definitely get some frankincense and wood, sugared up in a tasteful manner, as in it didn’t make me hungry or feel too youthful for profound occasions. A little after I applied (and forgotten), someone in passing commented “mmm smells like palo Santo in here…” I shrugged and looked around, realizing an hour later that I was the smell bearer. If you need some coziness during your spell working, or a reminder that you are supported in times of trial, if you want to be purified with loving laughter or feel sparkling under scrutiny… this blend does the trick. Feels appropriate for Aquarius season, too! Very glad I got decants of the full Sugar Cookie set, or I would have skipped this beauty.

I was wary committing to a bottle of Pinched with Four Pumpkins, because coffee rarely stays on my skin. There was the chance it would feel… hollow, unfinished. Yet, I’m over here rejoicing at my leap of faith! 🙌🏻❤️‍🔥 I can’t quite tell if the coffee bean husk actually sticks around, actually. My dearest beloved Pinched with Pumpkins bottle is both rich and dry on me. Syrupy pumpkin tobacco (not as syrupy as Pumpkin Snake Latte) and strong woods backing it up and lifting it out of complete gourmand territory. There’s an almost chocolate feel to it (coffee husk, is that you?) It’s regal and snuggly, disciplined and extravagant. It’s pure unadulterated yum!