divadienst

i am on a mission to find a good beeswax scent. for easter a friend of a friend went to jerusalem and brought back lots of little beeswax candles, one of which made its way to me. it smells so wonderful that i can't bring myself to actually burn it because then i know it will be gone!, but i will feel better about doing so if i can find a scent which smells the same. this is a very quiet scent that grows and grows; skin musk does very well on me and it feels like it really blooms once it's had a minute to settle. i think that remains the most dominant note throughout for me; there are a few scents here that i don't get (cacao, cardamom, wool), and i can't tell if it's because it's all just too well-blended or if they genuinely just don't seem to come forward on me, but i don't mind because i like it so much (and i don't have to be able to identify everything to like it...). it doesn't have much throw, but it does still last a long time close to the skin and it's a scent i feel happy to keep to myself. as others have said, it's very cosy and comforting. i have a couple of other beeswax scents either to test or winging their way to me, so i don't feel like i can justify getting a bottle of this one before it disappears, but i hope it's not something i'll come to regret!!

delicious!! this was the first gourmand scent i tried, and i have been returning to my imp and really slathering it on ever since. i'm glad in a way that it's so simple, as this was probably the best way to be introduced to the lab's chocolate note. it's been interesting to read others' comments and see what they compare it to (brownie batter, cocoa powder, having a nutty quality, etc). my impressions have been sort of similar, but i couldn't quite put a name to how exactly i experienced it and what i could best compare it to until yesterday. i happened to be wearing this when i opened a bar of vegan chocolate with crumbled cookies and hazelnut paste, and as i opened it and took it out i realised that the smell was absolutely identical to what i was wearing! on me it has good throw for about three hours, and then if i put my nose to my arm i can smell it more faintly for probably another two hours.

if i'd have been asked to imagine what a scent called the witches might have smelt like, i would have thought of something quite different to this; i should have imagined something much darker with fires, cauldrons, and the rest in the way of macbeth's witches. but if these are witches, they are decidedly good witches, à la kiki's delivery service or the fairies in the disney sleeping beauty. the smell of their kitchen and happy times there; baking on a sunny day with the door open to the garden. the way it all plays out is similar to the way others have described: a lot of vanilla, which remains dominant throughout, with the pumpkin coming forward a bit more later. i don't get much honey, though a different kind of sweetness does emerge after a few hours. a good throw, but without being overwhelming because the overall blend is so gentle and soft. i shall have to snag a bottle while it's still available!

when i'm trying something new, usually i re-read the description first because i'm trying to teach myself what different things smell like (matching what i can smell to the description), but this was the first time i did things the other way round. as a sort of test for myself to see how i'm getting on, i didn't look at the description until afterwards, when i matched it to what i had already smelt. i was pleased with how well i was able to identify the different notes and how they come and go by myself! it was quite powdery, but in a pleasant way. i think this must have been the amber. from the bottle and wet, it had quite a lemony quality (the sweet pea? is that sweet pea??), which together with the powderiness made it seem rather soapy, but that settled down as soon as it dried off. then the vanilla came forward a bit more and the amber became warmer and everything got creamier and sweeter, and then stayed that way. i don't think i got much sandalwood. for me it is very quiet and unassuming, but though there's no throw to speak of, it's still very long-lasting; i put some on in the evening and it still hadn't entirely faded when i woke up the next morning. it is a very soothing and cosy scent and now i think i might make a habit of wearing it to go to sleep with. edited 01/05: having let it rest even for an extra couple of weeks has been really helpful, and now it has much more throw. i could smell it for most of the day. hooray!

a disaster for me!! 😭 this is the first bpal scent i have actively disliked - and not only disliked, but had to wash off because it was making me feel so bad. i like musk and honey, but here i got none at all; and i was fine with (and liked!) the clove in madrid, so it must have been the other spices here that didn't work for me. i think it was mostly the peppers and ginger, but in the bottle and wet i couldn't even pick them apart - only that there was a piercing smell right to the back of my head (if that makes sense); i can only compare it to walking into lush and getting hit by all those soapy scents all at once, which gets to me and i find overwhelmingly heady in a similar way. i also had some redness on my arms where i'd applied it 🥹 so i couldn't wait around to see if the scent changed any because i washed it off so quickly. i'm feeling bitter because i've really enjoyed exploring the wanderlust scents so far, and regret choosing an imp of this one over london on ebay. i went for bengal in order to try something new, as i already have quite a few rose scents - but though london would have been a safe or more 'boring' choice, it wouldn't have made me feel bad and i probably would have liked it!

wonderful. i get why so many people seem to start with it (i also ordered an imp as part of my first order) and why it has twenty-eight pages of reviews. i like how many different situations it seems to suit; it is feminine (but? and?) less heavy/voluptuous than other scents i've tried, and one could wear it for a special occasion or every day and it wouldn’t feel out of place. i have worn it now about four times but i think i still need to work out how much i need to apply. in the bottle and when it's wet it smells very faint, and i always have the feeling i haven’t applied enough so put more on, but then as soon as it’s dried all at once it seems to become much stronger and i feel like i’ve applied too much! i seem to do well with rose, bergamot, and honey, so perhaps something must be going on here where they all converge in one scent and my skin really amps the whole thing up. maybe less really is more. or could that be the carnation? is that just what carnation is like? more discernment is required and there are probably a lot of scents i'm just not familiar with. that said, other reviewers have described alice as 'spicy' and, though my skin seems to bring the whole thing forth, that isn't a word i would use for it. i will need to spend more time with it to decide if i could go in for a whole bottle. i have a few other rose scents (othello, the rose, spellbound, etc) and i've really liked them all so far and all feel like 'me' in various ways, but realistically my purse will only ever let me commit to bottles of just one or two.

okay, my project to keep a record of the things i’ve tried begins! let's go! i came cross an imp of this for £5 on ebay and i went for it because i was simply so intrigued; partly by the name (as madrid is a city i have very fond memories of and that means a lot to me), partly by the fact no one else has written about it for so long and i wanted to be able to investigate and report back. in the bottle it was very sweet (not in a bad way per se - just that i knew i'd have to be careful about not putting on too much). i also knew at once that i had to save it for the right occasion and that it wouldn't suit the very dark and wet english february it arrived to me in. then, about a fortnight ago, i finally got to try it out on the first few warm days when the sun finally showed its face. from the bottle there is a lot of red wine - then upon the skin cloves - then as it settles down the wines seems to come back. thankfully i don't find the wine plasticky as some others seem to have. i am not sure about the mimosa; i don’t get much, so either it's simply not a scent i'm familiar with or the wine and cloves are too strong, which may well be the case. it’s quite all-or-nothing; it's not one of those that is strong to begin with and then gradually fades and softens. while it’s on it has a good throw, but then after about five or six hours it seems to disappear all at once. i'm really glad to have this imp and i will enjoy wearing it on spring days or summer evenings sat out on a restaurant patio or at the theatre or anywhere else its boldness and sensuality wouldn't make me self-conscious (!). that said, i don't think it bothers me much that it's so old realistically one wouldn't be able to get hold of a bottle, and there are other imps i've tried that i'd be inclined to save up for and bottle sooner.