Hope and Fear Set Free

[biggnerd]

This is a very comforting scent.  The vanilla is very prominent on me (I tend to amp sweet scents).  It's a pure, sweet boozy vanilla extract scent and I'm not.  The frankincense is there underneath it adding a smooth, cozy, resinous, slightly spicy wood scent.  This is eyes rolling back in the head good.  It's a perfect fall/winter scent for snuggling up and getting warm.  It's the type of thing that makes you want to be close to someone so they can enjoy how good you smell.  This is like The Cat's sweeter, calico sister.  

 

ETA: A year later and frankincense is the star of this scent. It's a gorgeous sweet, woody, resin with that lovely vanilla. It's still The Cat's sister, but it's less about the vanilla and more about the resins now. It's a very relaxing sleep scent. 

 

Edited October 11, 2021 by biggnerd

[Little Bird]

I should love this, but I don't.  It's sort of herbal and sour-metallic and reminds me of clary sage with a dusty, sharp cedar undertone.  After a half hour, I can smell the vanilla and sweet, golden resin underneath the herbal, woody tones, but it's very faint and still has a strong, sour, dry, herbal quality to it.

[Amoraexcena]

This is another scent that I had hoped would get a little more smooth and sweet with age, but it's mostly wood-powder frankincense on my skin. A previous reviewer called it birthday cake baked by trees, and I think that's pretty spot-on, though my skin seems to be eating up all but a smidge of sweetness. The Lab's frank note is often very dry and woodsy on me, and I usually prefer their golden amber, grey amber, and labdanum for resins, I think (La Lugubre Gondola being my favourite). 

 

I really have to be in the mood for a woodsy scent to wear this. Maybe it's a good hiking scent for the summer. I also think I prefer Mummies of Mexico CIty - that one, though I think it's also frankincense-based, has something that does the opposite of Hope and Fear and gets sweeter on my skin (it smells really austere-church-y in the bottle). They're all enjoyable still, but I'm still on the hunt for another sweet, syrupy resin scent like my beloved LLG.