torischroeder9

In the decant: Peaches and sweetness. Likely the honey in addition to the peach cream note. Evocative of canned peaches in heavy syrup. 

On my skin:

Wet, the peach recedes. I get the honey and the tang of the sandalwood -- not a sharp note overall, but it plays that role in with the peach cream and honey. As it dries, the peach cream reemerges, though the honey and sandalwood both now remain detectable. The sandalwood here is behaving a lot like the sandalwood in Matthew 18:6 does for me, providing grounding and just a touch of grit. 

It settles down to a rich, honeyed peach with a tiny bit of sandalwood bite. Very pretty. Close-wearing, but at least the peach doesn't disappear on me. 

In the decant: White musk, florals, and a hint of vanilla. The flowers are pleasant and not overpowering so while I can't detect that they're specifically carnation and jonquil, the note I get is very much in agreement with those two flowers. 

On my skin:

Wet, it's mainly white musk and jonquil. I'd call it more floral than furry, but it's got a lovely subdued quality. As it dries, the musk fades back a bit, and the carnation becomes a discernible floral note, smoothed by vanilla and maybe spiced the tiniest bit by clove. Once it has time to develop, it morphs into a delightfully soft carnation and clove blend. It's fuzzy in the same spirit that Fledgling Raptor Moon is fuzzy, though in scent, Wan Wan is currently the more delicate for absence of a more prominent grounding note (compared to FRM's sandalwood). 

The scent is sweetish, but I never do get any hay absolute outright. And I can't detect the myrrh at all. Still, it's adorable, and I like it a lot. 

The throw on my elbow is a little shorter than average, but I might try wearing it for a whole day and see what happens. 

In the decant: Very clean tobacco leaf -- so clean it's almost tea -- and opoponax and leather. 

On my skin:

Wet -- such tobacco! My skin tends to amp tobacco anyway, but this is beautiful and not nauseating. As it dries, it softens a bit, and the leather and opoponax peek out -- though the scent is still tobacco-dominant. 

Yep. A tobacco scent that is very clean, very expensive, and slightly subdued on me. (To be fair, tobacco on me is generally more like, "I WILL ACCOST YOUR SENSES AND RIP OUT YOUR CONSCIOUSNESS THROUGH YOUR NOSE HOLES!" so it makes sense that I'm still getting mostly tobacco from this.) Tobacco hits the stereotypically masculine button for me, but it's very easy for me to read this particular scent as unisex. 

Medium throw. Will update with wear length estimate. 

Edit: After a few hours, this does settle down so that the cashmere becomes evident, but it's still expensive tobacco leaf in an expensive cashmere sweater. I can detect both notes, but the tobacco is the more assertive. Also, while it stays tobacco-dominant to the end, its wear length is pretty average on me. 

In the imp: Merlot, leather, and floral. 

On my skin:

Wet, it's completely rich, fruit-forward merlot. It's so fruit-forward, in fact, that I had to double check the note list to make sure there wasn't an outright fruit note in it. As it dries, the merlot dials way back, and the leather comes forward. I can't tell you there's no musk in the leather, just like I can't swear there's no floral in the wine's sweetness. But none of those notes are super clear at the moment. Given even more time to develop, I can pick out violet and myrtle from the floral notes -- but I really have to sniff for them. 

Overall, it's a very sophisticated scent. There's a lot of complexity, but it doesn't feel too busy. That said, it also feels colder and more aloof than scents I usually like. 

In the imp: Iris and grounding resins. 

On my skin:

At first, it's just the same as in the imp. As it dries, the grounding notes fade back, and the iris amps up. I am honestly not loving this phase. 

Which is a shame since this is where it stays. I can detect just a hint of grounding underneath, which mostly serves as a platform to amplify the iris. It is just... not me. 

In the imp: A swirl of fresh scents. I can pick out neroli and white musk. 

On my skin:

Wet, yep -- neroli and white musk. As it dries, it becomes the 100% Neroli Show -- which is a little odd since I tend to amp lemon and so was expecting Lemon Takeover. 

Aaaand it stays the Neroli Show. I don't mind, but I have a feeling this Lab-fresh imp might need to age.  

Dang it. I cannot remember if this is a Lab imp (received 3/13) or an imp from a swap (received earlier that week but no known age of imp). 

In the imp: Dry cocoa, most like Dia De Los Reyes. 

On my skin:

Wet, it's the same as in the imp. As it dries, I get a lot more patch and leather, with the cocoa keeping things sweeter and smoother. 

Eventually it mellows and fades so it's almost like... fig wood... on me. It's a little drier, and if I sniff carefully, I can make out cocoa and patch and leather. But that's not really the essence it gives off on me. It's soft and almost fuzzy and skin-close but not faint. 

I'm intrigued by this one. The scent is very nice though I'm not sure I'd reach for it regularly as a perfume. But I'm interested enough that I'm going to put it in my "keeping" imp box to see what happens. 

In the imp: Much almond. 

On my skin:

Wet, the throw is vanilla, but the skin scent is still all almond. Then, in a bit of a strange turn for my skin chemistry, the almond disappears, and I'm left with soft, fuzzy, vanilla. That's a weird way to describe it, but -- It's very vanilla-y but not super foodie. 

Ack! Sadly, fuzzy vanilla is not this scent's final form. The almond comes back... less strong than almond can be on me, but almond nonetheless.  

In the decant: Red musk. The end. 

On my skin:

Wet, it's Red Musk: The Sequel. (I also sploshed some of my decant, so it's now Red Musk: Back with a Vengeance.) Fortunately, I like red musk, and it likes me, so I am totally good with this stage. As it dries, I can pick out the lavender and the black patchouli as well -- though from a distance, this is still the Red Musk Show. There's something giving it a slight sweetness, which I am attributing to the wildflowers. Given even more time to develop, the red musk falls back further (boo!) even as the patchouli steps up (yay!). So it's now this patchouli-lavender blend with a memory of red musk. It's quite nice but very different from the perfume's initial stages. 

Eventually, the red musk does come back a bit, so it's red musk, lavender, and patchouli in equal parts, tempered by just the faintest floral sweetness. It's very "me," and very vampire, but not a lot princess. Or if it's princess, it's princess in the way that Princess Leia is the young woman who grows into General Organa. 

The throw on this is almost overwhelmingly strong in its initial stages and still pretty strong once it settles back. 

A keeper on my end. 

In the decant: Vanilla-soaked lavender. 

On my skin:

Wet, the vanilla recedes, and jasmine comes forward, so it's predominantly jasmine and lavender. As it dries, vanilla reemerges, along with linen, softening the scent. I'm also getting whiffs of airy amber. Eventually, the honey also comes out,, which makes a world of difference in this blend for me. It's honey and vanilla over lavender and jasmine -- an incredibly well rounded scent that is nothing like a nightmare. 

In the decant: Soft musk, sweet currant, and a touch of flowers that don't overwhelm (probably ylang ylang). 

On my skin:

Wet, the currant and ylang ylang become much stronger, and the musk recedes during this initial stage. As it dries and settles, the currant fades back a bit -- so it's no longer overshadowing everything -- allowing the ylang ylang and musk to come forward a bit more. I get a touch of jasmine and rose otto, along with the traces of grounding notes that are indistinct. 

When it settles into its final form on me, it's a deep, musky fruit and floral. For folks for whom florals can sometimes be too heady or headachey (like me!), the infusion of currant and musk is a lovely way to tamp some of that down without drowning out the essential floral. I don't know how much I love this as a personal fit for me, but it's certainly a well crafted scent and an excellent embodiment of its name. 

In the imp: Predominantly rosewood, with other notes swirling around behind it. 

On my skin:

Wet, I smell rosewood, but I sense rosewood with the addition of red musk. As it dries, the red musk shows UP, powered by the throw amber gets on me. The sandalwood emerges as a grounding note, with the rosewood holding everything together. 

It's a very powerful scent on me, not sweet, but more traditionally feminine than unisex or traditionally masculine. It's got a lot of throw on me and is probably too sexy for either professional situations or very close quarters. 

In the imp: Dry grasses, soft leather, and wood. 

On my skin:

Wet, the leather note turns to something slightly astringent, a quality that is slow to die down. After about an hour of wear, though, the leather does soften back down to the quality it had in the imp, and the dry grasses reemerge. It's still a sparse and dry scent on me, but it's much more wearable now. 

That said, I miss the amber and musk that never quite seem to come out for me. I don't know that this is a keeper for me. 

I've definitely reviewed this before several times IN MY HEAD but apparently never in an actual post. 

In the imp: Black tea with milk, honey, ginger, and vanilla. 

On my skin:

Wet, the tea fades back a bit while the honey and vanilla come forward. As it dries, the balance shifts so that it's a vanilla cream softened honeyed black tea. There's a bit of pepper and ginger giving an extra kick, but not so much that they stand out as notes of their own. Ultimately, it settles down to a very honeyed ginger and vanilla tea scent on me. White pepper is only there as a whisper, and no trace of linen. As a honey and spice lover, this suits me just fine. It's a very enjoyable blend on me. 

Average throw.  

In the bottle: Smoky labdanum over honeyed patchouli and sandalwood. 

On my skin:

Wet, it's all smoke and new patch stank, and I mean that in the best sense of the term,  on me. There's just enough honey and benzoin to keep Dalliance from feeling harsh. As it dries, it becomes more sultry sweetness over patchouli and sandalwood. I can see where i could be called masculine, but I think anyone who appreciates patch can appreciate the way that this patch is both smoothed out and sexed up. 

And it doesn't take very long for Dalliance to become very patchouli forward on me. The sandalwood lends an extra layer of depth, and there's a combined and multilayered sweetness from the honey, labdanum, and benzoin. But at its core, it's patch. It doesn't smell the same, exactly, but comparisons in essence and feel to Banshee Beat and Revenant Rhythm are apt. 

10/10, would dally with this bat.  

Well, poop! I did not expect to be the first to review this. 

My bottle arrived Friday, so it's been resting just over 3 days. 

In the bottle: Amber and beeswax dominate, but having just acquired an amber and beeswax Yule, I can say that there is some additional busy-ness going on in The Sun Rising's background. 

On my skin:

Wet, it's mostly amber and beeswax at first, but threads of myrrh smoke soon put in a whispered appearance. As it dries, I can just pick out hints beyond the amber and beeswax. Myrrh smoke continues, interspersed with tinkles of jasmine, peppercorn, and neroli. They're each identifiable, but just for an instant. Amber and beeswax remain constant. 

It never does quite settle down for me. All the stages are very pretty, but I have a feeling this one's not yet in its final form. 

Edit 3/19 -- Tried this again just after a shower. There's something in it that makes my skin prick and redden in this circumstance. I'd bet the peppercorn. It's not enough to be bothersome, but I thought I'd note it for others.   

Received from the Lab on Friday, so bottle has been resting for about 3 days. 

In the bottle: Sweet vanilla cinnamon clove, with just a touch of carnation. 

On my skin:

Wet, the vanilla and spices dominate, so the initial effect is almost that of spiced vanilla frosting. As it dries, the frosting aspect retreats a bit, and the carnation begins to peek out; so does the sweet patchouli, grounding the spices without being harsh or getting any of that "fresh patchouli stank" that can happen. 

After quite a time, it develops into a clovey carnation. It's still grounded by the patch, rounded by the vanilla, and given depth with the cinnamon. Of the carnation-clove blends I've tried, I'd say this is closest in actual scent to Ganymede's Junk, though it feels much softer. It's not as sheer as Pericardium. While it feels cuddly like Fledgling Raptor Moon, it doesn't have the toasted sandalwood, making There Is No Bliss Like This much more about the clove. 

As my skin ends up eating a lot of the vanilla, the throw on this is fairly close to the skin. That said, the clove and cinnamon make sure it is not a faint scent there. 

Edit 4/7 -- Wore again, this time as more than a skin test, and after aging. It could be hormonal skin chemistry changes, but I just wanted to note that the sweet patchouli makes a much stronger appearance this time around. Not until well into the drydown (an hour or so on skin?), and it's still acting as a base to hold up the carnation and spices -- but this patchouli is substantially more than the "peek" I noted in my initial review. 

Acquired via swap. Bottle has been resting at my house for something like a week. 

In the bottle: Hay absolute and grasses. 

On my skin:

Wet, the grasses immediately spring forward, with hay and honey emerging a bit more slowly as supporting notes. As it dries, the grass settles back, the hay comes forward, and the mallow starts to come out. The more it dries and develops, the more the mallow, honey, cardamom, and amber come out on me. It's not really what I expected from a Hay Moon perfume oil, but it is absolutely lovely, so I'm not disappointed. 

My Luper order arrived today, so I tested this one straight out of the box. (It had rested at least a few hours.) It's predominantly clean aloe and bamboo that's softly woodsy and almost creamy. It tinkles with bits of ti leaf, lemon peel, and eucalyptus. I can't smell sea salt in it. While it's definitely a clean and refreshing scent, I wouldn't call it "light" in the sense that it's faint as the scent itself is plenty noticeable. But full of notes that feel clean and fresh. 

I think this would be an especially good blend to use around folks who don't typically like traditional atmosphere spray smells. 

Also, it's a good fragrance to use as an after-poop spray, if you do that sort of thing.  

Received in the Leap Year Swap!

In the bottle: Sandalwood and amber first, but softly, followed by honey, carnation, and a touch of rose. 

On my skin:

Wet, it's a soft flurry of scents -- rose, carnation, tobacco, and incense. After a few minutes, the honey comes out, warming everything up. The throw I'm getting from it suggests the honey is wafting on the amber. Up close, rose accord dominates, so I'm hoping that will settle. 

And after several more minutes, the other very loud and favorable notes on me sweet talk the rose into submission. At this stage, the scent feels like all honey carnation incense on me, and it is marvelous. It is, however, very softly grounded, which makes me want to credit the sandalwood, amber, and/or patch for that (but the grounding is so soft and well blended that I cannot pick out a single note here). 

When all is said and done, the rose does creep back in just a tad, so it's a significant part of the skin scent (though not a Rose SN), but it doesn't reach all the way to the throw. 

In the decant: Honey and incense. 

On my skin:

Wet, it's honey and soft baked good, with amber asserting itself a few seconds later. As it settles, I get incense over a bed of honey with an undercurrent of amber. I do get a more honey note than beeswax, but it's not quite as "in your face" as some BPAL honey can be. 

Half an hour or so after application, the amber has started to go ever so slightly powdery, though the honey and incense are still divine. Fortunately, the powder phase is fleeting on me, and I'm back to honeyed incense over amber in no time. 

This is amazing, and I need a bottle to wear all cooler weather long. 

In the decant: Very amber-forward. I can detect a hint of smooth, round fruit behind it. 

On my skin:

Wet, it's amber so deep I understand the comparisons to leather. As it dries, the deep, rounded fruit of the pomegranate comes out just a little, almost as if shards of amber were reflecting pomegranate back at someone. The pomegranate might be the reflection on the surface, but the solidity of the scent is the amber. 

It doesn't morph on me after that. My personal jury is out on this one. It's great and darker than I expected. Will need to test it again to decide if it warrants a bottle.  

Edit: Just about an hour after I finished writing this, the scent has started to fade rather quickly on my skin. If this holds true next time I test it, it will likely rule itself out of bottle contention on account of wearlength -- but not because the scent itself isn't fabulous. 

In the decant: Fig and buttery pastry and cranberry. 

On my skin:

First, the cranberry leaps out at me. As it dries, the cranberry dials back a lot, and the pastry comes out more, along with the fig note. At this point, the "fig and pastry" are much more coherent a blend, with the cranberry sort of vacillating separately from that. The more the scent develops, however, the more the cranberry fades and the fig comes forward. About an hour application, it's very figgy, with an undercurrent of pastry, and just the barest pinch of tartness from the cranberry. 

I'm a little sad that I get so little cranberry from this. It's a very nice fruity baked good scent, but my skin chemistry apparently eats one of the notes I was so excited for.  

In the decant: Jasmine and rose, tempered by mallow and vanilla. 

On my skin:

Wet, while I do get a lot of rose and jasmine, the mallow is also very prominent, rounding out the scent and keeping the big floral notes from being overwhelming on me. As it dries, the rose amps somewhat, but that's mostly evident near the skin, not in the scent's throw. 

This is ultimately where it stays on me, a rose and jasmine floral that's very creamy and just a touch grounded by amber. It's very pretty and very wearable. Maybe not so much that my very patchouli-and-resin-loving self needs a whole bottle of it, but it's definitely not like the rose and jasmine are running away on me or anything.

In the imp: Pineapple and amber. 

On my skin:

First, it's pineapple and apricot, followed by something that goes slightly soapy on me. I'm hoping it's just the notes' initial confusion. 

Okay, so, it takes a while (the better part of an hour), but the soapiness does dissipate, and I'm left with pineapple and a touch of apricot over amber. There's something else adding a touch of depth to the scent -- likely not tobacco (as it tends to amp on me), maybe one of the flowers?

This is actually really nice -- fruity and almost perfumey but not quite. It's a little deeper than most of the fruit scents I try and not as resin-forward as my typical scent profile. I could see it being really nice, though, on days in between spring and summer -- where I want something with just a hint of summer in it.