Tamarinda

In the bottle: Light, fruity, and green Wet: Like guayabas on a tree and some other green things. Other fruity smells that I suppose are the berries. Dry: Like a loaded guayaba tree at night. A beautiful, wet, fruity smell laced with fresh green that fades all too soon. It's so wonderful for about 30 minutes and then it fades to a skin scent. Once it fades, it smells like fruity soap. At no point does the lavender make an appearance, but I'm fine with that. I really wish this had any real lasting power. Hoping more time will help with longevity.

In the imp: Spices, the promise of banana cream pie, and a vague hint of something tart and fruity that gives the idea of blueberry. Wet: No, wait! Come back! Two seconds of realistic banana pie filling reach my nostrils before HOOYA! CLOVE! IN YOUR FACE! The ghosts of blueberries past linger juuust a little longer before they too, vanish. Dry: HI! I'M ALL-CONSUMING CLOVE. IT'S CLOVE O'CLOCK SOMEWHERE AND THAT SOMEWHERE IS HERE. BLUEBERRY BANANA WHO? NOT ON MY WATCH! Holy hell, I thought I was smelling my clove mouthwash that I make from ground up cloves and salt because I tested this at night right before I brushed my teeth. The only difference is that this perfume is sweet, not salty. Don't get me wrong, I love clove. Buuuuuut not at the expense of Blueberry Banana Cream Pie. I've tried other perfumes that have clove and wondered if my skin just eats the stuff, but apparently not. Or at least not where light fruity things can be sacrificed instead. Ah well.

In the bottle: Vanilla buttercream with a dash of earthy patchouli. Wet: Still getting that buttercream sweetness with juuuust a faint hint of earthy, dirt-smelling patchouli. Dry: Ok, now we're getting more patchouli and the sweetness goes into the background. It still reads more as buttercream than marshmallow, but that could just be my skin chemistry and whatever it is, it has an airy quality that keeps this from feeling heavy. I don't specifically smell the benzoin but once dry, there's something in here that is not just the sweetness of the floofy marshmallow/vanilla buttercream scent I'm getting. Lemme just say that I was getting this perfume no matter what because I bloody love the hell out of twitter in spite of everything. I chuckle a little whenever I stumble across a twitter blue account because I am petty LMAO. Back to perfume. I don't have much experience with patchouli so I wasn't sure what I was getting into, but I'm really happy that this is as gorgeous as it is. I definitely spend a lot of time sniffing myself when I wear this. Schrödinger's Checkmark has the added bonus of being very powerful. A little goes a long way and it sticks to clothes. I'm very curious how this will age and am tempted to back this up. UPDATE: It's been a few weeks and this is now a whole lotta POW! PATCHOULI. What was once more vanilla buttercream is now decidedly marshmallow, but it's getting shouted down by the grittiness of the patchouli. After roughly the four-hour mark, the patchouli dials down and the marshmallow dials up. The rest of the day, I get a sexy-foody scent coming off of my skin. Curious what another few weeks of aging will bring.

In the decant: Tart and fruity but not like any pomegrante I've ever had. Wet: Woody and fruity. Slightly sweet, slightly tart, very pleasant and now it's showing itself to be pomegranate. Dry: Helloooooo pomegrante from Heirophantes! Ok. So you know how dried raspberries taste different than fresh? Pomegranate is like that. Like this is freeze dried pomegranate bits without the bitterness of the seeds. It's just a little bit of sweet/tart powderyness like an Emergen-C. This is very lovely and feels like very fancy perfume. I do not know much about oudh other than the one in my decant of Snake's Shadow is very barn yard-tacular. I get just a dash of that version of oudh, but without the fecal funk. It's woody and dry and contributes some dust to the pomegranate Emergen-C powder vibe. I'm really glad I took a chance on this. It is delightful.

In the decant: Dead leaves and fruity things! Wet: Dead leaves, a vague figginess, no booze to speak of, and sweetness. Dry: This dries down to "fruity perfume" with only hints at figs It's very fresh and beautiful. My decant is young, so I expect the notes to become more obvious in time. This is short-lived on my skin, which is a bummer since it is very lovely. Hopefully a little aging will give it more legs.

UPDATE 6/5/2023: Just kidding! Seems like my bottle just took a while to catch up to the decant. It no longer smells like my bottle of Samhain and now has the same scent profile as my decant. I guess those things really do age faster than bottles. The dead leaf note from the bottle is a bit sharper and louder than the one from the decant. The bottle has more of the cinnamon than the decant does, but it's not an overpowering cinnamon. My bottle has a slightly toasty smell that I don't get from the decant and my decant still has the pastry smell that is probably the rice. I only get a vague sense of the pastry smell from my bottle. Wear-time for both is a little bit longer now, about 5-6 hours. Original Review: Ok. So I ordered a decant of this and grabbed a bottle on the secondary market because I lack patience. Now that I have my decants, I'm positive that the bottle I purchased is mislabled Samhain since it smells almost exactly like Samhain 2021. I'm not pressed though. I love Samhain and I only didn't buy it from the lab because it sold out early on. Anyway, this review is for the decant, which landed on December 22, 2022 so it's had some time to sit and settle. In the decant: The dead leaf note from Samhain 2021 that reminds me of autumn in LA and not bell peppers. Bright and composty. Lots of cinnamon and something else that I can't identify probably because I'm mildly congested. Wet: Dead leaves and cinnamon. Dry: Dead leaves, cinnamon, and that other stuff I could smell in the decant. It's a baked pastry smell that I can't put my finger on. I don't get anything distinctly rice-y but since I'm gluten-free, I bake with rice flour so maybe that's the pastry smell? I dunno. It's very nice but rather short-lived. Maybe four hours of wear time. Hopefully a bit of age will let out more notes and a longer life-span.

This one smells really wonderful, primarily of almond with some light, indistinct florals. I made it into room spray for Mondays and if I leave my door open, I can smell it downstairs. As for how it works, I use it to help center love when interacting with children. Amazing for smoothing things out with reactionary pwe-tweens.

I snagged a bottle hoping it would be cologney like everyone mentioned, since I was potentially getting this for my nephew. It was! Not sure what combo of notes gives it that fancy guy cologne vibe, the hay + tonka maybe? But the cacao absolute, while subtle, really makes it unique. I made him put it on and it worked really well with his skin chemsitry. I didn't notice anything that registered as musk and all the other notes just sort of blend into the "cologne" aura. The vanilla adds just a dash of dry sweetness. I've no idea what labdanum smells like but I didn't notice anything unrecognizable. Anywho, if you're looking for an oil that falls under the "masculine" category, this one fits the bill!

In the bottle: LEATHER. And something sweet? Wet: Leather and an unclear sweetness. Dry: A smooth, potent leather with a bit of vanilla and the barest hint of other notes. I expect age will bring them out beautifully. I've had my bottle for a week now and at first it was POW LEATHER but as it has sat, recovering from the trek across the country, it's started letting more of its personality out. This perfume reminds me of a shop I used to go to as a teen. It was one of the places where you would go to in the 1990s in LA county to buy Doc Martins and other quality boots. It was a really lovely little shop somewhere off an unremembered freeway, and they never treated us like we were criminals or hoodlums, which was a nice change to the standard experience of being young and brown in pete wilson's California. I bought this perfume on a whim and I'm glad I did because to me, this is so nostalgic. It's the smell of new shoe excitement and the relief of being treated with dignity. It kinda makes me want to cry. Thanks BPAL 💕

In the bottle: PINE. Some dragon's blood. But no clove. Wet: I get lots of pine needle smell and a thick resinous dragon's blood. It is sweet and heavy. Still no clove. Dry: This doesn't change a whole lot. Like clotting dragon's blood in an autumn forest full of pines where the bleeding dragon has stomped all over a bunch of pine branches. The clove note is faint and fades in short order, maybe after an hour or two. Between this and the faintess of the clove in Final Girl, I'm starting to wonder if my skin hungers for clove. Hmmm. Will have to continue testing clove scents. Anywho, A Torch Steeped in Blood reminds me of Ginny from the Pretty Deadly collection. They don't share scent notes but they have the same attitude. And the dragon's blood in here is reminiscent of the one in Bloodlust, another love of mine. This perfume feels very appropriate for the cause and I love its dark simplicity. Hoping the clove keeps coming out as time goes on.

In the Bottle: Vanilla yogurt with an indeterminate spice note. Wet: The dairy note starts to lean less sour yogurt and more sweet cream, still vanilla-flavoured. The spice is still light and not exactly clove-y to my nose. No currents of any color are available for comment. Dry: Ok! I get the clove now, but it's cold? Almost like menthol or star anise. That's unexpected for a clove scent. The sour yogurt edge is now gone and it is fully a vanilla cream with dusty marshmallow sweetness smell plus that cold, sharp clove. I'll chalk up the sweetness to the white honey, or maybe that adds to the marshmallow's dusty quality. I've had this bottle sitting around for a month now to give everything time to develop. It was very quite when it first landed. This is such a beautiful scent and it reminds me of Volcano in Springtime, which I love desperately. When I first sniffed my bottle of Final Girl, I felt like my silent wish for a companion scent to Volcano was answered. But whereas Volcano is a delicate floral vanilla, Final Girl is a delicate spiced vanilla. Utterly gorgeous. Update: Ok, another two months have passed and boy howdy! This is so unbelievably beautiful. It's one of those perfumes that make you awkwardly sniff yourself in public. It's stronger now and it goes for a solid eight hours. The only scent profile change is that the vanilla cream scent is feels more substantial.

In the Imp: Smells like some kinda purple candy. Wet: Yep. Purple candy and... something odd? Dry: This smells like aspirin crushed with grape kool-aid. Blech. Not sure why this smells really awful on me. Normally, fruity things smell wonderful with my skin chemistry. But smelling this makes me want to scrub my tongue with a napkin, it's so close to the yucky fruity kid medicine of my youth. I was not expecting this to be so bad since the Sugar Plums are so amazing. Doh.

In the Bottle: This smells like Forager's cashew milk vanilla yoghurt. Wet: The sour but pleasant yoghurt smell I get from the bottle is absent and I'm just getting a light, sweet, floral vanilla. Dry: A delicately floral vanilla. Skin close but with excellent sillage. I cannot express how happy I am with this. White sandalwood normally goes bitter celery on my skin but I'm not getting any of that bitterness with this perfume. I don't know what lotus root is supposed to smell like as a perfume note but I do know it very well as a food, and what I am smelling is not like what I've eaten. There's a freshness to it, a light crispness that lotus root food has that I do find during the wet stage, but I don't know if that's my imagination assigning those qualities to the perfume because I know that lotus root is there. The best thing is that this fades into the same vanilla that I get from Vanilla Bean, Marshmallow, and Benzoin.

From beginning to end, this is sexy marshmallows. Very sexy marshmallows. I love it. The benzoin does something magical on my skin and creates a solid base for the floofy, vanilla-y, sexy marshmallows to softly waft off of my skin. Wear time is excellent as well. This lasts a good ten hours. A surprise hit for me since I dislike marshmallows from a food perspective.

In the bottle: Syrupy peaches and sweet vanilla. Wet: Like vanilla peach trifle and something weird, maybe bitter? I've tasted this smell before and it is not delightful. Dry: I'm still getting the vanilla peach trifle scent as well as that undertone of bitterness. It's nice enough that I'm willing to deal with the undertone. It's a wonderful scent and I wish that the discordant note wasn't there. Ultimately, this fades after an hour or so. I still like it and I enjoy sniffing my bottle too much to pass it on. Hopefully, some aging will increase its lifespan on my skin.

In the Bottle: I have no idea what champagne smells like but this smells a little alcoholic and a lot fizzy. I don't understand how that's possible, but it's amazing and I'm a fan. Wet: Fresh bell peppers and the slightly sweet fizziness that must be champagne. Dry: Modestly cologney bell peppers and sparkly sparkly champagne. It's light but present on my skin and lasts throughout the day. Light as in airy, and not faint or skin-close. I loooooove this. It's so different from what I've ever expected to smell as perfume and my mind is blown that any perfume can replicate the smell of carbonation. Happy to have snagged a bottle.

In the Bottle: This smells exactly like how Odense brand marzipan tastes. I've eaten nearly a pound of it over the past two weeks, so I can say this with firm authority, lol! Wet: Delicious, sticky, wonderful marzipan. Dry: This takes maybe 20 minutes to turn into a vague skin scent. I'm hoping a bit of time will help it develop some staying power because I really, really love it. I may start experimenting layering with it before I stick it into a drawer to age. UPDATE 10/25/2022: OK! Time has done wonders for this scent. I still get marzipan but there's also a hint of creamy floral in there making it more than just a marzipan scent. It is no longer a skin scent, but has medium throw and killer longevity. I've had this on for 11 hours now and it still is giving off whiffs of almondy goodness. It's absolutely amazing.

In the Bottle: Tinned cat food. Wet: Tinned cat food with Snake Oil sauce. Dry: Melted plastic and Snake Oil. Well, at least it no longer smells like cat food. Alas, I was hoping for some of the cream from Olisbokolike to make an appearance. But considering how some of my other, beloved Snake Oil variants stopped working for me in recent months, I should be less indignant or surprised that this smells dreadful on me. I'll have to test this again in another few months and see what happens.

In the Decant: Butterscotch candy. Wet: Butterscotch candy with a spicy edge. Dry: Graham crackers? It has a hearty amount of throw and I'm happy about that since I like smelling like food. There's something sitting on top of the yummy graham cracker scent that I can only guess is the acid. It is a little bit of burning in the nose, but not unpleasant and it doesn't sting on the skin. I'm going to thoroughly enjoy my decant.

In the Decant: Wine Wet: Spiced wine Dry: Fig newton perfume. I mean, it's still very wine-smelling, but the end result is that I smell bready fruit, which is probably due to the pumpkin pulp. High moisture fruit cookie perfume. I'm a fan and ordered a bottle. I'd say medium throw and a minimum lifespan of ten hours.

I've yet to try actual Snake Oil but I have a bottle incoming so I'll update later. This is sexy resins and spices with a hint of dark roast coffee. I cannot sufficiently describe what I am smelling, but I have two bottles and I'm not really one for backing things up. This has medium throw and lasts all day.

In the Decant: Woah, booze! Wet: Boozy cherries. Dry: Beautiful, spicy, boozy, perfumey cherries. This is nice and strong on my skin and has lasting power. Very pleased as I feel like Blood Kiss is the only cherry perfume I've tried so far that my skin does not devour. Suffice to say, I've ordered a bottle.

In the Bottle: Kinda boozy. Wet: Very boozy. Dry: This takes a good 15 minutes to dry down. Once it's dry, I get a gently dry vanilla scent over unfamiliar but pleasant smells. This is definitely phantom perfume. If I stick my nose to my skin, I get a barely there dash of dryness plus a few wisps of wood and vanilla. But when I'm not shoving my nose to my arms, I smell a lightly sweet, woody vanilla with a "perfume" background. I get why folks are so excited about this one. If it was stronger on me, I would definitely get a backup. UPDATE: OK! About a month later and this is now all kinds of awesome on my skin. It is much stronger than when I first got it. CSSG leads with the tumbleweeds. There's a boozy, woody, sexy vanilla underneath and boy howdy am I glad I snagged a backup! UPDATE #2: Oh ffs. This last skin chemistry change has so many perfume casualties, I can hardly deal. For a while there CSSG was a "two dots and done" perfume, where one dot from the cap on each arm led to hours of wear-time with excellent projection. This is now muted on my skin, which I could live with except that it dries down with that "didn't get watered enough" bitterness of a crappy stalk of celery. I bloody hate that smell. This skin chemistry treachery is the limit.

This is all powder to me. In the bottle, wet, dry, on a test strip. It's powderpowderpowder and I kinda hate it. Which is nuts cuz I can tell that under the powdery smell is a similar amber to the one in Grey Columns, which I absolutely love. Go figure!

In the Bottle: Purple candy? Wet: Sweet purpleyness and other unidentifiable things that are nonetheless pleasant. Dry: It's more candied plums than purple candy. There's also the miasma of something resinous, but it's not quite identifiable as a Snake Oil variant on my skin. I'm happy to have blind bottled this because whatever it is I'm smelling, I love it very much.