Shollin

First sniff: Warm, sinuous, slinky coconut. It is reminiscent of Snake Oil, but it’s a little less in-your-face. (And I do like Snake Oil, but it can be a bit aggressive. )

Wearing: Coconut is definitely dominant, but there’s a lot more going on underneath. It’s musky, it’s spicy, it’s oh so sexy.

First sniff: Dark, minty, resinous herbal. I sometimes misread lavender as mint if it isn’t really sharp.

Wearing: Oh yeah, that’s definitely lavender. Lavender and orange. Very pretty! This one was Lab lagniappe and I can’t for the life of me remember why I didn’t order it myself.

First sniff: Cool, mysterious floral. The fortune-teller’s tent is warm, but this chill is more than physical.

Wearing: Veils and smoke and candlelight. Alluringly sweet but still untouchable. The citrus (bergamot and neroli) warmed up beautifully on my skin and I found myself sniffing all night. Good stuff.

First sniff: Ah… beautifully herbal, in a dark way. I have very short plane connections in both directions for my journey home for Thanksgiving; I might take some of this along just in case.

Wearing: Oh, this is… yum. Unexpectedly yum. Citrus-y herbal, much lighter than I expected. Back in August, long before I tried this scent on for review purposes, I broke into it in a moment of sheer frustration, and within an hour the situation had resolved itself. I’d actually forgotten about that until I smelled it again.

I'm actually doing aight in the love and money department at the moment (could always use more money, but who couldn't?) but once I sniffed this I just had to try a bit on, with apologies to Venus...

First sniff: Pure joy. Bubbly bouncy happiness. Spicy-sweet and yellow and YAY.

Wearing: I suspect this is going to be a much better Joy Mojo for me than the Joy Mojo itself. It’s really making me smile. The spice is more carnation-y than anything you’d find in the kitchen – fantastic spicy sweetness.

ETA: And in honour of stalking the update, this is my five hundredth review. I scare myself sometimes.

First sniff: This is pretty… but ice-cold and very much withdrawn. The barest suggestion of musk, frozen flowers and a tiny hint of sweetness that vanishes as soon as I notice it.

Wearing: Ooh. Soft, soft white musk and gentle clean flowers. Could it be… an iris that doesn’t go powdery on me?

First sniff: Wow. Boozey rich vanilla-ness, and a brushing of flowers. The alcohol note is almost too sharp.

Wearing: Jasminey-sweet, but not overwhelmingly so. It’s much softer on me, and very, very pretty.

First sniff: Musk and woods, and that vaguely evergreen note must be juniper. Another scent that smells skin-warm in the vial.

Wearing: I may have mentioned nine or ten times before that red musk and I get along very well indeed. And Himerus is no exception – a glorious red musk aura, a little bit of dry wood, and soft evergreen right on my wrists.

First sniff: …Huh. I’m not entirely sure what I’m smelling. There’s a light note, a milky sweetness, above the deeper base.

Wearing: Oh, lawzamercy. No wonder Eve couldn’t resist. This is one of the most gently seductive scents ever to grace my nose. It’s mysterious, it’s alluring, it’s soft and sweet and… damn. Y’all gotta try this one on, 'cause in the vial it doesn’t smell like much, but damn. There are moments when it smells very much like the lovely White Tropics tea from Adagio – that tiny hint of coconut and greenness. And really… just… wow. *shambles off into drooling incoherence*

And the final Ars Draconis scent I review (at least until Beth adds more!) is the simplest one. Hee hee.

First sniff: I finally got around to ordering the single note DB after loving it in pretty much everything. The color in the vial is just fantastic – bright maraschino-cherry red. And it smells a tiny bit like cherries, too – it’s sweeter than I expected without anything reining it in.

Wearing: Just a couple of seconds on my skin and it goes from pure sweetness to a sweet-resin scent; there’s a deeper-something-underneath that doesn’t show up in the vial.

First sniff: Oh, wow. Baghdad reminds me of an incense-ier Scherezade. It’s very warm and resinous, and I’m betting the musk is red.

Wearing: Sandalwood, red musk and warm florals. This… yeah, this is good stuff.

First sniff: Wet flowers, wet rose, with a tiny hint of mint. The aquatic-ness caught me off guard a bit… but then, of course, Venus was born of the Sea.

Wearing: Rosey rosey rosey! And still that little bit of mint. But it’s primarily rose, and there aren’t many rose scents I can wear.

First sniff: There’s a definite weirdness about this scent. It’s somehow leafy without being overly green. Thick, wet leaves.

Wearing: Holy snark, that’s banana! I’ve never smelled banana in a Lab scent before, and it caught me way off guard. After the initial banana-burst fades, Manila actually reminds me quite a bit of Alecto, that dark leafiness that I don’t quite get along with.

First sniff: Yessirree, that is by God a peach! It’s a little more restrained than I expected – it’s not hugely fuzzy and juicy. This is what peaches smell like in the grocery store or at the farmers’ market, when you’re sniffing them to test for ripeness.

Wearing: It’s very pretty, very true and very quiet. Though truly, if I want to smell peachy, I think I’d reach for Tamora before this one… I like the extra kick of warmth from the vanilla.

First sniff: O frabjous day – I think I can wear this one! It’s floral, yes, but a gorgeous clean fresh-air floral. It’s a wildflower meadow, not a greenhouse packed stiflingly full of expensive blossoms.

Wearing: So wonderfully fresh and clean, and I rarely say that about florals. It’s just sweet enough, with a touch of sunshine, and I’m going to love wearing it on this cold rainy November day.

First sniff: <ahem> SWEEEEEEEEET. And powdery. I don’t know what in here is so sweet, unless the berries have been injected with pure sugar, but I’m pinning the powderiness on the irises.

Wearing: Oh, this is better. Like, a million times better. The sweetness mellows out on my skin and it’s pleasantly sweet, not chokingly sweet. I wasn’t paying enough attention to it over the course of the evening, and didn’t put much on based on the imp-scent, but the one time I rechecked it, the iris-powdery note had vanished and it was a lovely soft amber. This is one I’ll rewear.

The Great Description Weed-Out of 2005 is complete. If you happen to stumble across a Lab description where it shouldn't be, or if there's a page-topper review that doesn't include a description, feel free to hit the report button so we can fix it. (Though if it's less than 12 hours old, please assume we just haven't seen it yet.)

Thanks to all for your cooperation, extra thanks to quite a few folks for changing your review format to stop putting the descriptions in... and a special thanks to folks who notice after posting that you're at the top of a new page and go back to edit it in. I really appreciate all the help.

Finny included this as a generous swap-freebie to round out my Ars Draconis collection.

First sniff: I doubt I’ll be able to wear this, but it’s truly fascinating. Thick, rough leather and the redness of dragon’s blood.

Wearing: The dragon’s blood is far more prominent than I expected – my skin generally makes leather take over, but here it’s staying in the background. At least until it dries, and then it goes just a bit too cowboy... I'm afraid I can't wear leather even when it's combined with my worshipped-and-adored dragon's blood. But what a cool concept.

First sniff: Rosey-pink, big and lush and soft. And just a tiny bit powdery.

Wearing: Very much a powdery floral – but it’s a big soft powdery floral, not the shy, wimpy scent I often associate with powdery florals. Nevertheless, powdery florals are not my thing.

First sniff: Sort of floral, and sort of lemony? I’m not sure what to make of this one.

Wearing: Well, apparently my skin did know what to make of it… soap. Instant lemon soap. Stupid skin.

Thanks to latzoni for the decant of Chaos Theory XXXVII.

First sniff: Whoa. Good chaos. It’s very warm but also very green, and those two things don’t often combine. I think I smell oakmoss, and also… well, my first impression was dragon’s blood, but this oil is absolutely clear, so I’m guessing not. Oakmoss and a light musk, maybe? It’s really nice, in a swoonworthy sort of way.

Wearing: A very soft, green white-musk scent. It’s lighter and almost sweet on my skin. Very, very pretty.

Last reviewed by Gin.

First sniff: How shall I call thee green? Let me count the ways. Twenty-seven, isn’t it? Wow, this is green. Green and woody.

Wearing: Have I said green enough yet? It’s more herbal and less woody on my skin, but still very, very green. It’s pretty nice, but not really me.

First sniff: I was expecting this one to be candy-sweet, but it’s very dark and musky, with just a hint of cherry sweetness brushed over the top.

Wearing: It’s gone pure strawberry… the musk has vanished pretty much completely. Awww. I like red musk.

First sniff: Warm, dark, ripe fruit. Rich and enveloping.

Wearing: There’s a sweetness and a spiciness to this very complicated scent. There’s so much going on I really can’t pick it all apart… but it’s warm and lush and dark, walking through the Gardens on a summer night.

First sniff: Toasted coconut!

Wearing: Toasted coconut perfection. I was afraid of the rum and tobacco – rum often goes way-too-boozey on me and I hate cigarettes – but on me, this is just pure gorgeous toasted coconut. With maybe a teensy hint of mint.