Ondine

This one has a much sweeter note on the drydown than Banshee Beat does on me. Banshee Beat is almost too heavy and if I apply too much, it can become somewhat overbearing. This proto has a somewhat weak throw compared to most BPALs and significantly less throw than Banshee Beat. I still smell patchouli and vanilla but it seems like much less hemp and, like I said earlier, an interesting sweet note that the released version doesn't seem to have. Oddly, rather than find this wilder/feral or medicinal, like several reviewers before me, I find it lighter and sweeter!

I agree with Invidiana's review of a woodsy Banshee Beat type perfume. On me, you can definitely tell it's in the same family as Banshee Beat but it's more like a (slightly) smoky woods and vanilla scent. I smell maybe some of the hemp and patchouli. I really like this one. It has a somewhat weak throw compared to most BPALs and significantly less throw than Banshee Beat. I think this will be a beautiful fall scent as it evokes visions of campfires and smoky leaves in my mind.

Two similarities that really struck me; these scents smell VERY similar on/to me.

Clémence = LUSH Potion (lotion or perfume)

Pirate Moon = LUSH Big (shampoo or perfume)

Now granted, my nose is not the best at notes, honestly, but I am getting something very similar to the Hellion prototype (Hellion v2) which is all smooth and spicy plum. This proto seems to me to be like Mme. Moriarty, one of my favorite scents, but take out the patchouli and red musk. It's no longer dirty and sexy and sultry; instead, it's a ripe and slightly, but not overwhelmingly so, spicy fruit (plum, probably). This reminds me in many ways of Mlle Lilith, Fortune Teller in that it's a more wearable for everyday or hot occasions kind of scent. I don't know about you, but I can't bear to wear my beloved patchouli and musk heavy scents on really hot days (90-100 degrees F) because they amp to high heaven and make me a little sick. This is a great intermediary: fruity, delicious, but not overbearing or overwhelming in the heat.

My husband says it smells "crisp, like a broken sugar cane ... not necessarily like a sugar cane but something freshly broken."

I agree with those who get a nutty kind of note on this one. It's definitely like Snake Oil/Boomslang; I can smell the chocolate. However, it seems to be amped down a little bit. It's not quite as chocolatey and rich as the released version, but then it has this added nutty note to it. I actually really like it and find it different enough from the released version that it's worth seeking out the proto if one likes to try different variations, like the Snake Pit scents.

Husband says this one smells "musky, dark, like shady shenanigans."

I too got pineapple, like a sharp almost-fermented pineapple note. No chocolate or caramel or butterscotch. I used to get pineapple sundaes at Dairy Queen and this kind of reminds me of the pineapple sauce, which I'm pretty sure wasn't real pineapple

Aha, I figured out what commercial perfume this smells like after I sprayed some Demeter Kahala Pina Colada on me this morning. Yep. They smell the same!

This smelled exactly like Honey Moon 2005 on me. Straight up honey, like in O or Mead Moon: all honey all the time.

My unsophisticated sniffer says "This is The Anti-Saloon League!" They're pretty much exact on my skin.

I usually don't like the metallic scents much but this plays out like aftershave or cologne on me. A masculine or possibly unisex fragrance that smells clean, not sharp, and a little herbal.

Evil rose! I get the rose and something underlying it, probably the opium, but it's not dark or resinous as other opium blends are sometimes on me. Just a dark kind of rose scent that reminds me of something like Peacock Queen with a different depth to it.

"Creamy" can sometimes be really good on me and sometimes too buttery. This is one of the buttery times. Scents like Love's Philosophy and Glowing Vulva didn't do well on my skin and this is bordering on "not good" with my chemistry. It's buttery-creamy orange, slightly reminiscent of something like Jingo-Kogo but less orangey, more cream. I'll try this out again in a while but this is a miss for me in this batch of Goths.

Edit: The more I wear this, the more it seems like Bakeneko on me. It must be a similar amber. Bakeneko, as cute as I find the bottle, is a powdery grandma perfume on me and so is Cabaret.Goth, sadly. I smell orange-musty!

So interesting! I can't quite put my finger on it, but it's a slightly sweet-tinged scent, somewhat green, like others said above. I don't know if I'm getting "hairspray" but it's a nice scent.

Very nice! This smells like a lighter, sweeter cousin of Schwarzer Mond 2006 on me. I don't get a lot of leather, but I get clove and musk.

Oh, uh, leather comes out after a bit. Not bad--it's the leather like from Spanked/Spanked Revisited, which is one of the few I can wear. This would be interesting layered with Spanked I think!

Hm, I'm just getting the vanilla/yellow cake powder part. No icing really; no Dorian/Snake Oil. It does smell on me like Beaver Moon 2005 but it's really light. I have to hold my wrist to my nose to really smell it. Nice, but nothing I need to chase after.

Bummer. I was so, so looking forward to this as I love all things lemon. I have some BPAL lemon/lemongrass type scents that work great for me (The Vortex, for example, is lovely and Albedo v5 is very lemony on me) but then others haven't worked as well (Skytyping with Chemtrails was bad on me). Sadly, this falls into the latter camp: There's a bright, sharp lemon with something weird underneath. If it were just the lemon it would be nice, but something funky underneath ruins it for me. Le sigh

Could there be a grape musk? Because that's what this is like on me--a sexed up version of Lady Macbeth or another of the grapey blends. I love this! It's sweet, fairly light, but sexy, fruity and musky but not really resinous or overpowering on me (not at all like Smut, let's say, which becomes really overpowering on me if I put too much on). If you do well with red musk type blends or grapes you might really like this one.

Weirdly waffling between good and not so good on me. This smells like a sweetish vanilla type perfume sprayed on a slightly hot leather seat. I'm getting that chemical edge (which reads as leather on me) but there's still something hovering above it that's pretty. I absolutely can't do leather notes though and what's seeping through is making this not work for me.

Edit: I received a bottle that is nothing like the tester I had which was heavy on the leather. This bottle is sweet and vanilla with an edge (saffron?) Much much better!

For some reason, this ended up smelling exactly like Glade Hawaiian Breeze on my skin I was hoping for something fruity but I got gaggingly cloying floral.

This is the same ginger in Playing with a Loaded Gun or Mother Ginger--bright, sharp, raw. I can't wear it, sadly, and this is all ginger all the time.

This makes a beautiful bath. It smells just like Snow White perfume and is nicely moisturizing in the bath without being slick (I can get up out of the bath without worrying I'll fall immediately ... of course, be careful, but it's not super-slick like some bath oils). I wish this weren't LE and I hope it arrives again next year at Yule!

This is nice enough but given that I have Tokyo Stomp and also How Doth the Little Crocodile, I feel I'm pretty set on minty/chocolatey scents. This smells like what's advertised: Chocolate and a huge burst of mint at first, so it feels like How Doth minus the cedar. Then as the mint settles down (it's supremely minty at first!) I can smell the lime underneath. It's not a discordant scent in any way, unlike (to me) some of the other scents that blend notes you might not think go together very well--like Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat or Tis the Voice of the Lobster. Like I said, nice, but unless you don't have a good chocolate mint scent or unless the lime really jumps out at you, this is probably worth passing on.

Tea and lemon, heavy on the lemon, light on the tea. No anise or honeycomb on me. This is the lemony scent of Crib Girls or The Vortex for me, an almost-sharp lemon that doesn't veer off into Pledge-land. I can barely smell the tea, which is a bummer--I wish I could smell it more.

This is pretty much like what I wished Severin was like; it has some note in it, probably the leather, that doesn't work perfectly on me, but this is like Severin minus leather and therefore much more pleasant for me. (Leather never works on me, sadly.)

I love coconut and this one does not disappoint on me. As Amaranthus noted above, it smells--at least on me--*exactly* like LUSH's Trichomania solid shampoo, which has always been a dry but not dusty coconut on me, like dessicated coconut almost.

I put this on and I smell coconut and anise most predominantly. As the anise wears off, the hazelnut comes out more to play. It's definitely light on me--I have to put my wrist near my nose to smell it, but when I do, it's just beautiful. This is the best of the Shungas this year for me!

When the original box of chocolates came out, my skin chemistry worked great with some (White Chocolate, Marshmallow, and Coconut and White Chocolate and Strawberry being the two major hits). Others, however, were realllllly bad on me. See my review for Milk Chocolate Buttercream, for example, which straight up smelled like blue cheese on me. Blue cheese! I love to eat it but not so much to smell like it.

Similarly, this year's box of chocolates has some that strike a bad note on me, and one of those is most definitely White Chocolate Mango Buttercream. I believe it's whatever makes it "buttercream" because the fruitiness of the mango is actually really nice. However, it's there and then gone within seconds, leaving me with a fake cheesey aroma More for the rest of you!

Though cassia does not play nice on my skin and leaves red welts, I have grown to enjoy MB: Underbed. And when I sniffed my decant of Milk Chocolate, Cassia, and Bacon, I could kind of sort of smell a resemblance to Underbed, like the reviewer above. The chocolate is there and the cassia too but there's a weird burning smell in the distance that is very unlike Underbed.

Then on my skin, it was awful. Not only did it leave a red spot, it smelled awful. Whatever the bacon accord is, it's terrible on me Unlike other reviewers I amp the bacon to the point that it's like Gore Shock took over on me!