Leopard403

This is so pretty when I sniff it straight from the decant: All notes are right there. Sadly, that cream gets me every time and turns salty on my skin. I plan to try this in a scent locket next...

Oh, this is lovely. The sweetness balances that herbal astringency so that this blend feels spoon-thick, like a lavender honeycomb pudding. Yaaasssssss.

Lots of cinnamon spice potpourri.

Surprisingly perfumey on me; I don’t get the creamy notes others are mentioning and there is no warmth to it, rather this is all high-pitched on my skin.

Partly, I wasn't paying attention. But also, everywhere I can see (including here in this review thread as well as on the BPAL main site), this is just listed as Sour Gummi. NOT Sour Gummi Snake Oil. Yes, on the main site it is in the section with the other SO Weenie varieties... but I kinda got overly excited and missed that. The others are clearly Blood Squib Snake Oil or Popcorn Ball Snake Oil or Red Hot Snake Oil. So somewhere along the line my brain seized on the lack of SO in the name and got fixated on Sour Gummi. JUST Sour Gummi. So sadly, I was quite disappointed when I sniffed this and realized the sad, sad truth. I mean, in the end, yeah, I like it quite a lot actually, and I do think it will get even better with age, but it is not at all what I was expecting and my brain can't get over that hump. Phooey.

This is such a weird, wonderful scent. Sniffing my wrist up close there was something almost bitter about it and I thought I’d have to sell my decant. But I kept getting whiffs of something lovely. But no, close up it’s off-putting... but from a bit of distance it’s lovely. WTAF here? So I’ve decided I’m buying a bottle and I just won’t smell it up close. I mean, who does that, right? *looks around at everyone else here who also does that* LOL Anyway: Yes, there is something sparkling and a bit dainty about this. Very sophisticated. No overt identifiable notes but rather an ethereal blend. And the test patch lasted through a shower, so dang.

Yah, I came here to write the same thing. It’s nice and I’m glad I got to try it, but dang, I wish there were more of that real, fresh lime.

I’m surprised this is “yellow carnation” because it has that super duper carnation spice I know and love. This really reminds me of old-school, before-they-were-cool Lush scents, like when the OG Potion Lotion was available in small quantities. It’s happy nostalgia in that way; simpler times.

Blackberry and sugared fig meat. Purple Window HG is very nice, surprisingly similar to Blackberry Sufganiyot if a little less sweet. It really captures “purple”! Moderate to strong throw, and great lasting power.

WOW LEAVES. I mean, whoa, I find this to be more dead leaves that any Dead Leaves blend I’ve tried so far!!!

Wet on my skin that “Day-Glo green lime” is EVERYTHING. As it dries down, however, this scent morphs first into a surprisingly soft floral, and then into something aquatic. Super strange, and not what I wanted.

At first this is all bright herbal lavender, then it becomes All Snake Oil. An ever-slightly sweeter SO than plain SO, but mainly SO nonetheless. I like it, but I don’t need a bottle.

I love this and hope it gets some more attention! That lemongrass top note is the first thing I get upon application, but then a buttery Obatala-like coconut emerges underneath and it’s glorious. Amber can be pretty aversive on me, and I’m not getting it here; it might be giving it a little warmth in the background. No overt lavender, either. Just a tiny tropical party that whispers rather than screams.

It seems like the Lab has released quite a few scents with goat’s milk in recent years, and I love that smell so I want to try them all! It’s creamy dreamy milky buttery goodness. What I’m finding, however, is that the goat’s milk note itself pretty consistently washes out any other notes that might be in the blend, so when these scents settle on my skin they all end up smelling the same. Humph. I do get a hint of lavender and sweet ‘mallow musk here, but only when I sniff closely, and not enough to make me need a bottle.

*Sigh* Doritos. That’s what I smell when I sniff straight from the imp. And sadly, my damn brain latched onto that so the lovely bread note everyone else is smelling continues to smell like DORITOS to me. Ugh. That fades very fast and I’m left smelling like Lush’s Honey I Washed the Kids soap, which isn’t a bad thing, but not what I wanted here.

I too found this to be relatively sugarless, which was a bummer. I could appreciate the effects of the sugar, though, because while those flowers went on with a high-pitched shriek, they mellowed much more quickly than usual. Can’t tell exactly what the white florals are, though. I’d guess mostly gardenia; perhaps the smallest drops of Madonna lily or tuberose (because that tends to last a scarily long time on me and this blend faded early). Likely little to no muguet because I don’t get anything green. Definitely no white rose.

Some apple scents can be, well, too apple-y on me, if that makes sense. I don’t want to smell “like an apple.” But this is lovely and full, so you smell like all parts of an apple’s goodness: the soft wood of the tree, the bright buds in bloom, the crisp fruit, the warm sun shining on an orchard. It’s a simple vision but with complex execution, and it’s brilliant!

I am in love with this! When the lab combines red musk with anything sweet, magical things will happen. This is reminiscent of The Eldritch Dark and Blood Bath BO, though much less in your face and SSVD blends seamlessly with my skin. No single note stands out; never did I have a moment of “that smells like X note.” It’s a musky-sweet scent that isn’t identifiable as a perfume blend, but rather could legit just smell “like me” on my better days. It’s low- to medium throw on me—very intimate in that way—and it lasts foreeeeeeeeever.

There are some blends I find to be beyond description, and Lola Lee Loo is one of them. I don’t smell any particular note and say “ah, that’s the X”; this is much more complicated than that because it isn’t about what it smells like. It’s about the way it makes you feel. There are some blends from Black Phoenix—Lilith blends in particular—that make you feel that powdery, sticky, wholehearted kind of love you can feel for a child. The smells evoke something in you. Lola Lee Loo does the same thing, in that warm, salty-sweet, unconditional and wholly uncomplicated kind of love you feel for a pet. It makes you want to squeeze them tight and gift them with eternal youth and health because you also remember how brief your times together can be, which perhaps makes them all the more special. Sorry I can’t say more than that about what this “smells like.” Plus I have something in my eye, like a stick or a branch...

(ordered from Etsy when the Trunk Show extras were listed) I almost skipped past the description of this scent, because I saw “Overconfident Hipster” and my brain went DO NOT WANT. Something with that name should smell like beard oil, lavash bread and hummus, PBR, all-natural laundry detergent, a warm and un-ironic trilby, and faint disdain. But gardenias? Yes, please! And that’s exactly what it smells like. Strong, too: a little goes a loooooong way.

Kitty is FANTASTIC as a hair gloss. Exceptionally well-blended, it’s hard to pick out specific notes, though I can tell there is something creamy, floral, and slightly fruity to it. It smells expensive. If it were a color, it would be an effervescent rose gold. Lasting power is great, too: Application was 27 hours ago and I just got a whiff!

2018 version Yowza this is sweet! I was hoping this might be a blend of Sugar Plum Fairy and Snow White, but no, this is its own scent. A SWEET scent. I think I’d love it were I twenty years younger, but as it stands it’s too cloying to enjoy. I could imagine it as a bubble bath scent for littlies, and that would be fun, but it’s just not for me.

I can’t believe I’ve been a BPALer for this long and I’ve never before sampled Hanerot Halalu. So, finally, I’m testing the 2018 version. One of my very favorite scents is The Lights of Men’s Lives and I find this eerily similar, if a bit sweeter which is surprising looking at the notes. At times, HH is almost floral in nature, more olive blossom than olive oil. I don’t really get a smoke note here, either, whereas with TLOML there’s a heavy whiff of just-extinguished candle. I really like this, but not quite as much as TLOML.

This is really lovely. It’s a soft, warm lavender added to a gentle vanilla sugar. Not overtly herbaceous and also not identifiably foodie, it could be boring in its simplicity but it isn’t. It’s comfy, it’s comforting, it’s gorgeous.

This was not what I expected: Both sniffing from the decant and on my skin there is no sign of gingerbread. None. No mint, either. I get mostly sugary strawberry, vaguely reminiscent of that sought-after sufganiyot type but also slightly Strawberry Shortcake doll-esque. It sticks close to the skin and doesn't seem to last very long.