hkhm

bottle: as imagined, this smells exactly like a pumpkin spice latte. wet: this smells just like burying your nose in a bag full of spiced pumpkin pie coffee beans. and i do mean exactly. dry: as this dries, it smells less like coffee beans and more like an empty latte cup that held a superbly spiced latte with vanilla syrup. the pumpkin scent is not quite as prominent anymore. incredibly realistic.

bottle: pumpkin and tobacco and musk. this almost reminds me of a pumpkin spice version of red lantern. wet: this is a very spicy pumpkin, it doesn't exactly smell like clove, more the feel of clove with heavy pumpkin and smooth tobacco. dry: as this dries, the myrrh slowly warms. this is a very rich pumpkin scent with heavy, dark spice and a smooth musky tobacco feel underneath it all. my favorite of the whole patch.

bottle: pine and tomato leaf with a backdrop of pumpkin sweetness. wet: very strong pine pitch and tomato leaf! there is pumpkin way in the background but whoa! this one is strong! dry: the pine and tomato tame a bit once dry but are still quite prominent. the pumpkin has warmed and balances the sharpness of this scent quite well. very unusual but nice.

bottle: i mostly smell the rosewood. there are other scent in there but i can't quite grab them. wet: there's pumpkin and a nice dash of rosewood and here comes the rose to ruin my party. no... it's staying in check. a rose scent i can actually wear? pumpkin is my magic scent! i knew it! dry: the rose smells pretty spot on mixed with the rosewood and pumpkin. i'm going to let this one age a bit to see if the rosewood deepens.

bottle: honey pumpkin. very sweet. wet: gorgeous! the skin musk is lovely, the honey and almond give this a sweetness that perfectly showcases the pumpkin. dry: pumpkin custard.

bottle: mostly heliotrope. i don't smell any dirt or any blood. wet: very sweet heliotrope. almost like a dragon's blood and heliotrope scent, sweet like dragon's blood is but no florals. where's my dirt? dry: sweet, bright heliotrope. as a dirt lover, i'm a touch disappointed because i thought this would be dirt heavy. but i do really appreciate how brilliant and bright this scent is. far more feminine than i was expecting.

imp: burnt wood and fresh herbs. sort of a green-over-black scent. wet: woods and dry, cracked leather yet with a breezy hint of something vibrant and green right at the last. dry: the burnt wood scent fades while the fresh green, herby scent remains. i never got anything that smell patchouli-ish, but it may have added to the desolate feel of the wood. there is still a lingering feel of leather after all though...

i open my earth phoenix about once every two weeks to sniff or wear and oh my... i think it's become just about perfection in a bottle. why? why did i only buy one back-up bottle?

i'm all excited to get my mircalla, julia stone and perle von mauren now. thanks for the photos!

yorick is my favorite dirt scent lately. i adore penny dreadful and graveyard dirt but yorick has been my favorite this week. though, i have been loving death of the grave digger too. i'm still letting both badger age a bit, i'm looking forward to opening it up at christmas. also: deep in earth. i can't wear it because of the heavy rose scent (which is way stronger than it is in zombi) but it's still a quite prominent dirt note.

i didn't give the death of autumn the love it deserved when i first got it and now i'm getting near the end of my bottle. it's so lovely, my perfect autumn scent lately.

to me, egle has a very similar scent to the snow storm. it's a bit sweeter, i just did a side by side test and the snow storm is definitely tangier/crisper but still similar. death of the grave digger is a far colder, loamier scent.

the unicorn? it's such a pure light scent. fae and aglaea are nice light choices as well.

bottle: sweet, creamy pumpkin. wet: this gets creamier when it hits my skin, not sweet like pumpkin cheescake, just lightly sweet and very creamy pumpkin. dry: with notes like smoke, asphalt and beer i kept expecting this to get sour or bitter on my skin... but it never did. it's kind of a tangy/creamy pumpkin scent. love.

this smells like a dried version of rose red. it's almost a rosewood scent to me. it does not go soapy or cloying at all.

this is a very fresh floral scent. it's rose but not soapy, there is also something creamy-sweet alongside it. lovely.

imp: buttercup and honeysuckle. and hoo-boy, are they ever strong. wet: jasmine. crazy-strong. dry: as this dries it becomes much nicer and far more wearable. the jasmine is there but quite a bit softer and it blends well with the honeysuckle. this smells like the garden at night, when a breeze blows across the jasmine and honeysuckle and you catch a breath of it.

bottle: opopponax with a backdrop of something tangy. wet: the notes belnd so well once this is applied i almost can't tell what i'm smelling. i was afraid this would be gardenia heavy (because i tend to amp it a bit) but it is not. it's dark without being heavy, like there's something fresh and liquid on the underneath. this is precisely what i had hoped this scent would be. dry: there is something vibrant here, it's floral but not cloying. looking over the notes i can't select what it could be... it's just dark and vibrant. scintillating darkness. (edited for spelling idiocy)

bottle: this is cherry candy, there is no boozy scent to my nose. wet: very strong, very sweet cherry hard candies. or lollipops. take your pick. dry: this become much nicer as it dries, it's less bright red cherry and more cherry cordial.

bottle: this is almost all almond to my nose. there is perhaps a teensy bit of cake in there but it's mostly almond. wet: strong, strong almond. almost like huffing a bottle of almond extract, it's that strong. dry: i've had this issue with almond scents before where they take on almost the same characteristics as rose does, faintly soapy. but it is very faint, i need to press my nose to my skin to catch it. otherwise, this is strong almond and faint sugar.

bottle: corn. like sweet corn that's just been sliced off the cob. my bottle of the 2005 version smells just like a snickerdoodle cookie, completely different from this. wet: this smells far closer to my 2005 bottle, just like a snickerdoodle. the corn scent is all but vanished. shame, it was intriguing. dry: as this dries there is a bit less in the way of whatever the spiciness is that makes me think of snickerdoodles, perhaps this is closer to a sugar cookie. whatever it is, it smells great, like the scent of someone getting some halloween cookies baked in a kitchen heaped with bowls of sweets.

bottle: wow. pink, sugary linen. this has a playful, flirty vibe to it. wet: the linen note is very snappy as i apply this, it just leaps out at me. the sugar note is the backdrop while the cream just ties everything together. it's not super-sugary in-you-face sweet, it's soft. dry: this sticks so close to the skin, a very soft sugar and linen scent. if marshmallow poof and plastic pink flamingo don't work for you, this scent might be the answer, the sugar is very subdued but there nonetheless.

bottle: this smells more boozy than the 2006 version. i can barely smell the apple or caramel, it's just a sweet rum scent. wet: this smells more tart and green-apple than richly red apple like the 2006 version. i suspect this may be an aging issue though. the apple is more bright and vibrant, the rum and caramel are the backnotes on my skin. dry: as this dries, it smells closer to sugar-slathered candied apple. my bottle of the 2006 version is far heavier on the butterscotch-caramel. this is a crisp, tart green apple covered in caramel.

i totally remember how i felt after my first order from the lab. i waited and waited and waited... this was back in 2006 and i had not joined the forum (didn't join until a year later) so i had no idea why i had not heard anything from the lab, fulfillment times were so much longer back then. when i timidly sent a note exactly a month to the day after i had placed my order, kathy wrote me right back and told me that next week they would be pulling orders from that time frame. i felt so relieved! just try to hold on a bit longer, the squee will be worth it when you do get the cns.

A few weeks? WOW. I guess that is all well and good, and I'm normally semi-patient, but I couldn't help having a little case of curiosity-kills-the-cat when I see the most recent posts in the CnS thread look like this: Ordered: 8/5, CnS: 8/14, Shipped: 8/14 Ordered: 8/5, CnS: 8/17, Shipped: 8/18 Ordered: 8/5, CnS: 8/17, Shipped: 8/18 Ordered: 8/6, CnS: 8/17, Shipped: 8/18 Ordered: 8/5, CnS: 8/18, Shipped: 8/18 Ordered: 8/6, CnS: 8/17, Shipped: 8/17 Ordered: 8/5, CnS: 8/17, Shipped: 8/18 I know I should at least give it another few days before questioning it, but still... I can't help but be curious as to how it all works. What determines some people getting a CnS before others? while i can't be certain, i think it must go something like this: the lab gets a big batch of orders, harvests them up to a certain date, prepares them, then there's this big heap of orders to be processed with mailing labels. that's why even if you were the very first person to place an order after the update went live, you will likely not be the first person to get a cns. really, you have nothing to worry about just yet. there have been times when i was going crazy waiting for my cns to get to me when people who ordered over a week after i did were getting theirs. i know it's hard to be patient, be strong.