ramblingrambler

Mmmm, this is delicious! I wouldn't wear it personally because it doesn't fit my personal identity, but it smell beautiful on me and in the imp (purchased a decant from a FB member). It's soapy upon application, but it dries into a blooming floral, slightly herbal and soft. I wanted to try this to see if I should pick up the full bottle for my mother who is very much into these types of fragrances, and I will be adding it to my purchase list!

Just got this in from the Lab's eBay a couple days ago and made this mistake of wearing it bright and early to start my day.'if. O thing else, this scent is the scent of sleep and dreams—I woke up not too long ago bright and refreshed, and all I want to do is return to bed and sleep the day away... a very bad idea since I have lots of work waiting for me on the first day back to my job after Hurricane Irma came through. I can't make any notes out alone, but this is a cool, relaxing scent, and it feels like what I imagine drinking cool chamomile before bed would feel like.

This is a lovely fruity-creamy blend that blossoms with crisp, shining apple with every sniff. I'm putting this away for aging because I really think the white patchouli will develop beautifully, making this an exquisite blend that will be popular in later years.

Dear me. I want to supercharge my aging on this imp. I don't know how or why I haven't come by Haunted before, as this sounds like the perfect blend, but I haven't... and I've been missing out. On application it is very sweet. I was slightly taken aback at how it read immediately on, wet. How could black musk and amber scream lemon sugar? I was flabbergasted. I love lemon and sugar, don't get me wrong, but it was not what I was expecting at all. Two minutes in and then things started coming together as amber and musk. "Wowie-zowie, this is good!" I exclaimed like a child. Yep. It moved me to become five years old again. Into drydown it's resinous and deep, and my goodness, I can't wait to get my hands on a bottle or seven and stick them away to age. Holy wow. HOLY WOW. Yes, this is perfection.

Jasmine is hit or miss for me, and the jasmine in Nyx is a hit. Wow, this is beautiful. Truly, this scent is evocative of its description: I feel like I'm wandering through fields of flowers a midnight. There's a slight, soft soapiness to it, but it's beautiful, fresh, and clean, not "old-lady"-like at all. Wonderfully apt namesake. Love this blend (she says after writing an "anti-floral" review in her last post...) .

Got as a Lab frimp in a recent order and slathered without reading notes. I expected it to be an aquatic (salty tears of grief is where my mind went), but I can see why it's actually a floral now that I've "read" the scent on and read the notes here. Not gonna lie---I'm not an aquatic or floral fan (on me; I love these on the right chemistry, but that's not mine!), so that's going to come out in my review. Wet, it's a bunch of flowers in my face. There's something extremely sweet in here too.... not foodie sweet, but just... florally sweet. Since I rarely wear florals unless mixed with other heavier notes, I couldn't tell you what it is. As it begins to dry, the flower-power fades some (oh, you can tell it's floral still, most definitely, as those are the predominant notes), but it isn't as... in-your-face. There's a green note that comes out and makes it a million times more wearable for me. Into fade-away, the florals high-tale it out of there and leave the greenery. I'm okay with this stage. If only it were this stage all the way through. Floral lovers will be pleased with this, I'm sure. Stay away if flower aren't your thing.

I just got frimped Shango in my last Lab order and wanted to do a comparison between my original aged bottle and the new, unaged Shango, because BOY ARE THEY DIFFERENT. Aged, Shango is spicy and sweet, like Hollywood Babylon meets a bottle of red pepper flakes. It is glorious. I love it. It's usually a little too sweet for me when I first apply it, but after it hits that fifteen minute sweet spot, magic happens. Not so with the new Shango. All the way through this is a sweet, smooth blend with heavy coconut and dark fruit. I get no coconut in my aged bottle (thank goodness; I truly despise how coconut smells on me), but it's there all the time with the unaged version. This could be an excellent thing for coconut lovers everywhere, but count me out of that group. I wanted to post this to show the power of aging. You'll either really love the aged blend, or you'll prefer the new version in every single bottle. I typically prefer aged blends, but there are some I'm completely fine with non-aged bottles (Morocco, namely. Yum either way!). Turns out Shango's also one of the "must be aged for me to love" fragrances. This lab frimp becomes a frimp for someone else.

I'm torn on this. I want to love it, but the mango--always the damn mango (or coconut)--kills it for me. For some reason, my body does not play well with "tropical" fruit. Wet: Mango and cassia. It's intensely each of these, inasmuch as you can tell that there's a lot of mango and a lot of cassia separate from each other, and then together, they're pretty intensely mingled. Five minutes in, the cassia swells and tempers the mango (thank god), but the mango's still there. Intro drydown, this becomes a slightly dry, fruity scent. I think the musk and cassia makes it read as dry and warm, and the mango, lemon peel, and sugar cane sort of make it... sharp and tart. I wish the cassia stayed for me, but since I love cassia, of course it disappears . Oddly enough, as it moves toward fade-away, it becomes green and grassy. I can only imagine that's my mind playing tricks on me, thinking dodo birds with croquet and mallets in the grassy yard. Or maybe there's some greenery in there... Dodo Bird could be a win if you like mango, but it's a nope from me. This will become a frimp. ETA: I forgot to mention that my BF said I smelled sort of stinky wearing this about midway through, like rotting fruit and garbage. You must believe me when I say that it's just my skin chemistry turning what could be absolutely lovely into something absolutely terrible.

I don't know what's wrong with my skin that all I get is soap after drydown, but... well, all I get is soap after drydown. That said, I actually like it, and I plan to keep a bottle for me and a bottle for my guy, but on him it smells like Dragon's Blood, leather, and smoke, as the notes suggest it should. Could go either way for you, too, I imagine. For me, this soap is perfectly acceptable. It's clean, fresh, and not powdery, so all is well.

Calaveras is Tezcatlipoca minus spice on me. This is a beautiful scent, and well worth aging for more depth. (I used half of my original release when I got it and aged the other half. Despite missing out on its glory—Worth it!) Tezcatlipoca is one of my very favorites because of the spice and the foodie, incensy, resins goodness, so Calaveras comes in on my (long) list of favorites but not at the tippy-top since the spice is lacking. If you're into any of these things, especially if you're into all of them, it's well worth a blind buy if you haven't tried it. The notes are all balanced and weighed beautifully, perhaps with just a hint more chocolatey (cocoa) goodness than the other notes. Love.

For some strange reason, this smells of caramel wet and into first stages of drydown. I wanted to immediately wash it off because caramel and I are not friends, but I decided to stick it out since the listed notes should work for me. Once the caramel fades after a good fifteen or twenty minutes, green notes come forward to temper overwhelmingly sweet, smoky tonka and slightly (sharp? acerbic? I'm not sure if that's the right descriptor, but I'll go with it) lilac musk and lime. As the sweetness recedes, Lysander becomes beautiful: sharp but mellowed, slightly powdery but masculine (I suppose androgyne, the mix), soapy but zingy. It's unlike most blends I own, and I'm sad that I only have an imp. I can see this heavily in rotation during the spring and summer---I think a hint of sweat might make this do even more wonderful things. Truly a find in a handful of imps from the Lab.

Aglaea is bright, sweet, and intense. Throw is huge, lasts all day, and, frankly, overstays its welcome while overstepping boundaries into others' personal space. I knew a peach scent would be a wrongdoing to others around me, but I couldn't resist trying because smell all the smells, right? This fragrance makes no room for any other notes than peach on me. It's essentially a peach SN from wet to complete late-stage dry down. Color association would be apricot (despite its peachy scent ). Anyone into peach, you'll want this. For me, it's one of the fruits I *have* to stay away from.

Wet, I wouldn't want to wear this—it is both innocent and seductive, with its plum and carnation in play, underscored by the musk. But when it dries down, I'm taken with it. Dry, it becomes luxurious, striking. It is drama and pure confidence. This probably very odd, but... Though it doesn't *smell* like Caesar's Palace's/Luxor's/MGM namesake scents, it reminds me instead of the bold, lush interiors of these hotel-casinos and the women who likely find themselves standing next to men throwing gobs of money at the games. I have no idea why it calls forth this association for me, but it does.

In imp, it's more fierce and striking, a warm but crisp scent wafting out at me. On application, wet, it softens only slightly, maintaining a striking, crisp scent. As it dries, softening further, white heady florals come out and the crisp element seems to smooth out into billows. Lovely. Not for me, but I can see my mother loving the hell out of it.

Immediate application yields sweet fruits drizzled with caramel and toffee and cream, but almost just as suddenly the fruits fade and leaves an intense sugared caramel/toffee single note throughout wear. Those who call this a creme brûlée scent are not far off, though I would wager to say the sugar is less toasted and creme more prominent. This would be a foodie dream—but alas, though a foodie lover, I find it is too overwhelming with cream-based foods for me.

Each time I wear this, I am reminded of a jungle scene by Rousseau. I'm not sure how to describe the scent except for heady, dark, and fruity. Utterly delicious, and yes, slightly deceptive.

I haven't the faintest idea why, but this reminds me of a woodsy, herbal Morocco. It's far more masculine than Morocco, but there's still some sort of wispy, blendy, wafty feeling to it, if you have any idea what I mean. Smells green, feels golden. It's beautiful!

This is actually slightly citrusy on me. It's a bright, crisp, airy floral with a citrus background. Perhaps something green thrown in, grassy and somewhat sharp, keeps it from being overly feminine. It's lovely and clean, and I'll be using the rest of my imp now that it's warm weather from now until October... though clearly it wont last me that long.

I just won an eBay auction from the Lab, so I guess it's Lab "fresh," but it's still aged. Unfortunately, though a beautiful fragrance, this simply does not work for me, period. I tend to wear deeply anchoring sents (earthy with dark patchouli or musks) or cutesy (Jailbait), fruity (Yipe!) scents. This is neither. The only way to describe Clarimonde is ethereal. It is light and airy, wispy but very, very present. I can't quite place the notes because they all blend together extremely well. I close my eyes and think of spectral visions. It makes sense, I suppose, since this was a Weenie. Someone will like this a lot. Sadly, that person isn't me. Off to swaps!

This is a beautiful blend, light and crisp but with a smooth leather finish. I can't place my finger on it, but one of the GC scents smells similar, which is why I'm trading this one with another member—I remember finding the GC lovely but not reaching for it often enough. Still, if you're looking for a white tea and citrus Luper, this would be the one.

I was expecting a Guatamalan Coffee note tempered with cream and lots of sugar from the other junk food, but instead I got... honeyed tobacco? As it moves to drydown, it's still predominantly honeyed tobacco but with brown sugar and cinnamon mixed in. As it disappears into nothing, it's just a softer and softer version of itself. ETA: Tested again today and thought "My goth, this is a strong tobacco scent! Is this a mislabeled bottle? I need to go check the forums to see what this was supposed to be..." and here I am, last review, so I decided to update. In the eight months it has been aging, it has not lost any of that honeyed tobacco, and, in fact, I think the tobacco might have even kicked up a notch. It's less a honeyed version now and much more a caramelly tobacco. I used to be a BIG fan of that note, but now it does funny things to me. As much as I wanted this to be a coffee I could love, I just have to swap it out.

Gluttony wears all the way through as Snickerdoodles mixed with craft store in winter on me all the way through. I wish I got the coffee or chocolate note others mention, but there is none to be found on me. While this is a pleasant fragrance for winter, it's currently 95+ degrees outside and makes me want to wash it off. Very much a winter scent to me! I wonder if my bottle is mislabeled...

Brown Jenkin was all wood on me, very masculine and overpowering, so I had to pass it on to my boyfriend, who smells intensely of cherry pipe tobacco (not listed, but still comes out) and suede arm patches---a very "history professor" (or archaeologist, from above? Indiana Jones, mayhaps?) scent for my political science professor partner. This was the first BPAL he was convinced was made with him in mind. <3

Sweet amber and golden honey, cream accord, blue lilac, and a drop of cardamom. In bottle, I smell nothing but honey and lilac. Wet, it's a blast of the same, and it's a heavy heavy heavy cloud of scent around me. Into drydown, it becomes soapy and powdery, soft but still very present and expansive. Cave of Treasures wears with longevity, about eight hours, until it's just a trace of softness on the skin.

Oh! Interesting and so lovely, Yggdrasil is. My nose has been held hostage my its arresting scent: misty woods at first dawn, or maybe dusk. It starts bone chillingly cold, almost a snow note, but warms up surprisingly fast—maybe five minutes—melting the snow and immediately turning to mist in a piney, cedary forest. As it moves toward dry down, crushed leaves and herbs I can't quite place present themselves as the sun seems to warm them more, fading the chilly note (what I assume now to be menthol). By the end of wear, it's day time, and the woods are no longer lovely, dark, and deep, but instead inviting, mossy, and green. It recedes into a light almost citrusy woods finish. This is a forest I would love to live by. Talk about transcendental. I only have an imp, but I am moving this to my DISO list.