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SINGLE NOTE: SUMATRAN RED PATCHOULI Sexy, dirty, much-maligned and much-loved patchouli… oh, how you get a bad rap. Though some associate you with head shops and Dead show parking lots, you really are so much more: You are utilized in Chinese medicine to normalize the flow of qi. In aromatherapy, you are used to diffuse stress, bring comfort and succor, and alleviate depression. You inspire lust, passion, and carnality, and create a veil of sexual intrigue unmatched by any other fragrance. You correspond with Saturn and Earth, facilitating grounding, stability, and protection, as well as the acquisition of property and money. You form the oft-unrecognized basis of innumerable perfumes, adding a unique depth and sensuality, sometimes imperceptibly. Your olfactory profile is incredibly fluid, ranging from mossy and gritty to wine-rich and voluptuous, and you age like a glorious silver screen goddess. So the next time someone tells you that you smell like an unwashed hippie, Patchouli, just smile your enigmatic smile. The enlightened know how amazing you are. This is an answer to prayer. Red patchouli is my favorite patchouli note in the whole catalogue! I bought three bottles of it unsniffed. In the bottle: Very intense patchouli, very dark oil (can't see through the bottle). Wet: Needs time to settle in; it's dark and tannic right now. This is for patchouli lovers, not the patch-curious. I can tell it's going to be worth the wait for total drydown, but patience is required. Hour and a half: Lovely slightly menthol patchouli, still a little too strong for perfect arm-chewing nomminess, but very nice. On me it's the same as the red patchouli in Anne Bonny. Four hours: Yep, this is the one. Slightly menthol, arm-chewingly wonderful patchouli. I am thinking of diluting this with about 10% carrier oil. It's a little stronger than I want it to be. But the nuances of this particular patchouli note are exactly what I was looking for, and I love it.

The Fraggles raid the Gorgs' garden for the vegetables (particularly the radishes) that they eat. Radishes, freshly-turned soil, and soft herbs. In the vial: The wet dirt note, with a peppery tang. There are green notes, too, but I can't identify them. Wet: Wet dirt still, but paralleled by a rooty note that could be radish or horseradish or something juicy, slightly sharp, and strong. Still the unidentifiable green notes. This has promise, although it's very gardeny. One hour: Hmm. Interesting. More like a very green man's cologne now. It's a bit sweet, almost sugary like some of the Victorian and lace scents. The wet dirt is barely present any more because the herbs have overgrown it. Two hours: Staying in the green cologne zone now, although trending a little toward grassy, still with the slightly sugary top. I still can't identify the herbs involved; they don't smell like basil, thyme, mint, or any of the cooking herbs. Three hours: The sugary edge is rubbing away now, and it's just soft herbs now. I was a little nervous about this scent because I don't do well with the dry dirt notes, not to mention radishes. (Who actually wants to smell like a radish?) But the wet dirt note is good for me, and this was a good expression of it, not overwhelming, just enough to be very evocative. This really does start off smelling like a real garden, but it mutates into something non-earthy and quite normal enough for everyday wear. I have liked all the stages of this.

SOLAR PHOENIX HEAR golden Titan, whose eternal eye With broad survey, illumines all the sky. Self-born, unwearied in diffusing light, And to all eyes the mirrour of delight: Lord of the seasons, with thy fiery car And leaping coursers, beaming light from far: With thy right hand the source of morning light, And with thy left the father of the night. Agile and vig’rous, venerable Sun, Fiery and bright around the heav’ns you run. Foe to the wicked, but the good man’s guide, O’er all his steps propitious you preside: With various founding, golden lyre, ’tis mine To fill the world with harmony divine. Father of ages, guide of prosp’rous deeds, The world’s commander, borne by lucid steeds, Immortal Jove, all-searching, bearing light, Source of existence, pure and fiery bright Bearer of fruit, almighty lord of years, Agil and warm, whom ev’ry pow’r reveres. Great eye of Nature and the starry skies, Doom’d with immortal flames to set and rise Dispensing justice, lover of the stream, The world’s great despot, and o’er all supreme. Faithful defender, and the eye of right, Of steeds the ruler, and of life the light: With founding whip four fiery steeds you guide, When in the car of day you glorious ride. Propitious on these mystic labours shine, And bless thy suppliants with a life divine. A blessing of nobility, leadership, and generosity: Roman chamomile, yellow rose, pineapple, bay laurel, frankincense, heliotrope, and Ceylon cinnamon. I bought this bottle unsniffed. It's got several notes that are good on me, and it sounded very warm and cheerful. In the bottle: Cheerful, faintly fruity, faintly cinnamon. Wet: Unexpectedly powdery, unidentifiably floral, with a touch of fruit and cinnamon. Two hours: Where is the rose? I love rose notes, but I never detected one in this. The cinnamon is very light as well. Nevertheless, this is a warm, slightly prickly soft scent, still a bit powdery. I think the prickly impression is herbal and comes from the bay laurel. This scent is very comforting, the kind of thing I'd like to cuddle up to and just smile about. Four and a half hours: Still soft, warm, slightly prickly and powdery, but the frankincense is more evident now that some of the more delicate notes have fallen back. This one was not a 5 on me, but it's a 4: plenty good enough to keep and wear. As a solar scent, I like it better than Sol Invictus, The Sun (Tarot), or The Sportive Sun.

INTENSITY When the sun is shining I can do anything; no mountain is too high, no trouble too difficult to overcome. – Wilma Rudolph For concentration and clarity of thought. This bath helps you banish distractions, and gives you a renewed strength of purpose. Lemongrass, pink grapefruit, cypress, basil, sandalwood, and ginger. In the bottle: A deep, resonant, green herbal note. I definitely get a lot of basil, but the impression is almost minty as well. Wet on skin: I use these bath oils in the shower as moisturizers. When it hit my skin it became very vividly dark green and powerful. It doesn't smell like pesto, but it smells like the essence of fresh basil leaf, so greenly so that it's almost like juniper or eucalyptus in its intensity. It also has an anise-like flavor to it, although not at all sweet. I didn't get any of the citrus, ginger, or sandalwood at all Rinsing it off didn't seem to do anything to cut the power of it. After shower on skin: Now it smells calm enough to remind me of a growing basil plant. There's not a lot of throw, though, not nearly as much as, say, Ice Prince. It also didn't fill the steamy bathroom with as strong a presence as Ice Prince did. I also got more of a woody note after I dried off. Still no citrus or ginger. After a while, suddenly something woody and gingery began radiating off my skin. It felt almost as if my skin itself were warmed from the bath oil, post facto. This is incredibly powerful stuff However, it doesn't like my skin as much as, or in the way that, I had hoped it would. I think I will keep my decant, but I'm not sure if I need more.

Brian's interpretation of the Blue Moon. A glimmer of hope emerging from a sea of dreams: sea buckthorn berry, terebinth pine, frankincense, hyssop, white sage, Neptune's night-blooming jasmine, cucumber, lavender, ambergris accord, and violet leaf. Of all the blue moons, this one appealed to me the most; it sounded both unusual and full of notes I can wear. In the bottle: Aquatic, evergreen, herb, but somehow also warm. I really like this; it is deep and dark like a pool of water reflecting the moon. Wet: The jasmine note is strong now. Night-blooming jasmine likes me, but so far this one is cooperating with some of the more delicate notes. Still an aquatic vibe, but I'm a little worried it's going to go over to tannin. The white sage is fine on me, but violet leaf is iffy. Half an hour: The cucumber is the perfect anchor for the jasmine here. It fixes the tendency of the jasmine to go strident, adds a lovely aquatic note, and keeps bringing me back to huff some more. This is really nice on me and unless it changes catastropically I'm definitely keeping my bottle. Two and a half hours: It survived a load of dishes! Still a very nice, very soft aquatic jasmine note, but by now it's as much herbal as floral. I'm getting the sage, the hyssop, and some evergreen along with what I think is the violet leaf. Overall it reminds me right now of the early phase of Velvet Cthulhu on me, with the same herb-frankincense axis. The night-blooming jasmine note in this one is very true to the plant, which grows locally to me. Even though I have several night-blooming jasmine scents (notably Faiza, but there are others), this one is very different from almost everything else in my stash thanks to that aquatic tinge. I don't usually have a lot of luck with the eclipse or blue moon scents, so I'm thrilled at how nicely this one works on me.

The house at No. 140 is kept by Mrs. James, and is a very quiet parlor house, devoted to the wars of Venus. Gird yourself for battle: sweet honey, French vanilla, honey myrtle, balsam of tolu, and rose otto. I bought a bottle of this unsniffed because it's full of my notes of love. I was a little worried about the vanilla but figured the preponderance of other ingredients would keep the vanilla in check. In the bottle: Honey mostly, but a very creamy, almost flat floral honey rather than a foody or sweet or herbal one. When I mixed it up into my usual sugar scrub concoction, it turned very dark as some of the honey scents do. On my skin: Surprisingly, I get no balsam or rose at all from this. There's some vanilla, but mostly it's this extraordinary orchid-like honey: soft, smooth, and not in the least sticky. It reminds me of last summer's LE bath oil, Butterfly Nectar, only more subtle and not nearly as sweet. Magnificent! Afterwards: As always, the base oil moisturizes my skin incredibly. Oddly, I am left with very little remnant of the scent on my skin. It's more like an augmentation of my skin's own natural fragrance than anything else. There's a tiny touch of the honey myrtle, a residual orchidy impression, and that's all until I get my nose right onto my skin, at which point there's something resinous. Still no rose, which really amazes me. The scent of the bath oil hangs in the air for hours after my shower, perfuming the whole top of my house. I bought a second bottle because it's so beautiful!

Balsam of Peru, skin musk, and honey are three notes I like a lot. Recently I've had to rethink several of my perfumes in these categories, so I was excited to test Miles. In the vial: Very close to my ideal scent in that category (Giant Vulva, Velvet Nudie, I'm lookin' at you!), but with a noticeable tingle of black pepper. Wet: Very nice! The honey isn't overwhelming, the skin musk doesn't go slightly skanky on me the way it occasionally does, and the pepper's keeping in step. This might finally be what I hoped Giant Vulva would be: the honey-balsam-musk scent of my dreams. One hour: The balsam has taken the foreground, with a pleasantly warm and spicy impression. The honey and skin musk still smell nice together, but somehow less feminine than in Giant Vulva. I'm not getting any noticeable pepper, but maybe that's what's working so nicely with the balsam. I quite like this. I bought a bottle of this.

I love grass and clover notes, so I commissioned a decant of this. In the vial: Magnificent outdoor field scent; I so hope this one works on me! Wet: Heathery sort of scent, reminding me of The Host of the Air and similar field type scents. So far, so good. Hour and a half: Much calmer now, and there's a citrus peel type of note that wasn't there before. I like it very much, but it no longer smells quite so much like grass and clover under the sun. I didn't get any detergent/laundry scent, though.

One or two iffy notes weren't enough to scare me off this one, with its amber, patchouli, and fruit base. In the vial: Wow, this smells great! Lovely round amber, fruit, evergreen, tea, and soft musk. Wet: Wow, this one's hard to describe. I get a lot of notes fighting for supremacy. It smells very pleasant, though, herbal and unsweet florals with patchouli-amber-musk fruit and evergreens all represented. One hour: A gentle, well-blended scent. I get something I think is the mugwort or maybe the yarrow, an appealingly bitter herbal scent over something almost minty in impression that reminds me of white amber. There is patchouli, there is evergreen, there is the darkness of black currant. There is almost no sweet, even though I think I would probably characterize this as a fruity scent. It is simultaneously dark and silvery; fascinating! Two hours: Yep, definitely a matured dark fruit scent with a lot of silvery herbal underpinnings. Although it isn't as elegant now, I can wear it better than an hour ago. It will probably be pretty stable for a while now. Five hours: Dark fruity-patchouli with interesting silvery herbal notes overlaid. I like it enough to keep the bottle.

I wavered over buying this because I have so many honey scents already, but I couldn't resist the promise of white ginger. In the bottle: Inexplicably, this smells quite fruity and tropical, with strong cherry-almond overtones. Wet: More floral and honey now, but it retains that suggestion of cherry-almond. I hope it stays this nice! Hour and a half: Still tropical floral, like tiare only without that foody caramel richness. This is very beautiful, an intensely sweet floral that nevertheless isn't sugary, foody, headachy, or overripe. If this stays this way, I will love my bottle. Four hours: Beautiful tropical floral on a background of honey. This is the nicest tropical floral I think I've tried in the whole catalogue. Definite keeper. Well, I love Honey Moon 2013 immoderately. It's the nicest a tropical floral has ever smelled on my skin! There's honey, but not enough to cloy, overwhelm, or render foody the beautiful floral note which I think must be the Hawaiian white ginger. It doesn't smell like jasmine or gardenia, so it must be white ginger, right? I still have no idea where that initial cherry-almond impression came from; it was pretty, but it went away pretty much immediately. I will treasure my bottle of this!

I've been meaning to try this one for a long time, and I finally secured some. In the bottle I didn't smell much at all. It seemed a worrisome, thin smell, but I went ahead and made a batch of my sugar scrubs with some and then forgot about it. When I found the sugar scrub days later, it still didn't smell like much. I worried more, but as we all know the skin test is everything. In the shower this was more a citrus scent than anything else, but it was still pretty faint. I was surprised enough to wonder if I'd gotten a bad bottle or something; I bought this one second-hand, and it's the old formula that still had some mineral oil in it. But then after I dried myself, the scent started to pop up off my skin. It was my old buddy patchouli! The reason I wanted this one in the first place was to see if it could fill in the gap my old massage oil, Desert Essence Love Massage & Body Oil, left behind when it was discontinued. With patchouli, ylang ylang, and citrus in both of them, the match is pretty good. This isn't as intense and sweet as the Desert Essence, but I love it anyway. It's like the patchouli in Tricksy, only at least an order of magnitude lighter. And even though it's very light, the patchouli was very persistent and stayed on my skin for over 12 hours. So now my love affair with patchouli has been rekindled, and I'm going through my stash looking for things I can layer over this bath oil. I think I need a newer bottle, though; my skin and I like the reformulated, post-mineral oil bath oils better.

Honey and myrrh are two of my notes of love, so I really wanted to try this one. In the bottle: Myrrh, sweet but not sweet enough to be honeyed, and with a slightly tart or astringent floral note. Wet: There's a lot of floral character to this, and it's not a typical floral. It's dry, slightly bitter, like a meadow flower. The honey is in there, but it's slow to show itself. This needs to work for a while. One hour: Medium intensity myrrh, almost no honey, and an unusual floral, not sweet at all, kind of flat. This might need some aging. Two hours: That dampish impression is gone, but the floral remains. Still no sign of honey, but the myrrh isn't too heavy so it doesn't absolutely require honey for lightening. Still think it needs aging. Five hours: I like it, and it has a lot of potential. The floral note is more like a root, with a flat sort of impression like orris or lotus root. I didn't get much honey for the first few hours, but it's getting a bit sweeter now. Overall I do like it and will age it a bit to see what happens.

I wanted to try this one based on the beeswax and musk. Rosewood and labdanum are okay notes for me, not spectacular, so I don't know where this will go. In the bottle: There's something intense and unsettling at the top of this one, something I haven't smelled in any other scent. I am not sure I will like this one. Wet: Whatever that is, it's still there, although it's calming down now that it's on my skin. I really don't know whether this one is going to work out; it's really unsettling still. Half an hour: Oh my, what a change! It's smoky-tannic, but that's just a top note. Beneath is sweet beeswax and musk with some wood in it. This is a little bit woodier than I'd like, but it keeps the beeswax and labdanum from running away with the scent. Two and a half hours: Very much a beeswax-musk scent now, with some wood. This one's not bad at all, but it's a bit more honey-like than I expected. Labdanum doesn't like me as much as some other resins, and it contributes a sort of stickiness here. Five hours: a sweet, almost foody beeswax scent with a bit of wood. I think it is this sweet because black musk goes so sweet on me. The musk hasn't gone to powder, though, which black musk often does on me. I like this phase; the labdanum and other off notes are gone now. But what a ride it was getting there! I might re-home this, depending on how many people fall in love with it, or I might age it for a while to see what happens to that disconcerting initial note. It really bugs me that I cannot put my finger on what it is. But the musk and beeswax at the heart of this scent are very pleasant.

This was the 2013 Bats Day scent that appealed to me the most based on notes. Blackcurrant, rose, and dark musk are all good for me; hopefully the tonka won't be problematic. In the bottle: Well-balanced fruit-rose scent, not too sweet, not too intense, with some nice musk base. I do not notice any tonka. Wet: The fruit-rose has given way a bit before the musk which has an interesting, not quite metallic tinge to it. And I think there's a hint of something citrusy in here too, but bitter, like yuzu or grapefruit peel rather than orange or lemon or lime. Half an hour: Sweeter than before; the fruit and rose have turned a bit jammy, like they've been cooked and concentrated. And for the first time I think I'm getting some tonka, which adds a sort of indistinct richness in the middle register. The impression of citrus is retained, too, but it is milder than before. Two and a half hours: More musk than anything else now, but still a nicely balanced and enjoyable one with that splendid chewy blackcurrant note which is no longer jammy. I like it at least a 4. Five hours: I wonder if there might be a bit of patchouli in this; it's giving me the impression of being a lovely round fruity patchouli blend now. I love this phase even though the impression of rose is gone. Really glad I have a bottle of this!

So far none of the new SNs have captured my heart, but Sweet Alyssum is one of my favorite garden plants. Wherever I encounter it, I stop to smell it. I was thrilled to see it come out as a SN and bought a bottle unsniffed. In the bottle: Really does a good job of capturing the sweet, soapy, almost minty delight that is sweet alyssum flower. Wet: A lot like night-blooming jasmine, only sweeter and less astringent on the back of the throat. There's a bit of sharpness to it, like it might want to veer into headache territory, but even as I sniff it's warming up to me nicely and that sharpness is diminishing. One hour: This has blossomed on my skin into a warm honeyed floral. If it can hold on and not go overripe, this will be quite a triumph. Two hours: I like this quite a lot. It is a little indole-ish, not quite crittery, rather like honeyed musky floral. Some of the nuances I smelled in the bottle are not present, but it is much more wearable this way: no potential for headache. I will try it in the scent locket too and see which way I like it better, but I'm pretty sure I will want to wear this one. It is definitely a keeper. I think this is my new favorite SN!

I've had varying luck with different types of chypres; between that and the orris, I wasn't expecting to like this one at all. In the vial: Orris and something fruity-tangy with a touch of floral. This smells nice. Wet: Yep, that fruity-tangy impression remains. But there's a warmth too, I think maybe the benzoin. One hour: This is pretty. There's a pronounced floral, an almost peppery soft jasmine, but it's kept in place by the benzoin which seems like the dominant note on me. The overall read is a bit tart and herbal, probably from the chypre, but not in a bad way. Seven hours: This stayed pleasant and the orris never bothered me. Now only a tiny bit of something like patchouli is left. So far this is the surprise of the season for me. There's always one Luper that works on me even though it shouldn't, and this may be it.

There are some great notes in this, but I'm wary of the white tobacco. Most tobacco does bad things on my skin. Not too sure about the tuberose, either. In the vial: Roses and jasmine. Wet: Lots of florals in this; I'm getting the tuberose and jasmine first, though. But this is pretty and might be okay on me. One hour: A pleasant floral blend dominated by tuberose and jasmine, with a noticeable vanilla component. Not my style, but nice on my skin. Fortunately, the white tobacco is behaving beautifully; it's contributing just enough tannin to keep the florals in check without being obvious about it. The musk isn't being obvious, either. Six hours: Nothing left but a breath of tuberose. This is a pretty, gentle, reasonable mixed floral, but not for me.

This one's full of wonderful notes -- and my worst note, the dreaded hay absolute. But when I opened up my package of decants, this was the one I could smell before I opened anything, and it called to me. Hay absolute or not, I can't resist trying it. In the vial: Rose, honey, pomegranate, fig; this smells good enough to eat! Wet: Rose and honey, so far. I also get some pomegranate tartness in the background. One hour: This is nice overall, but there's a thick powdery note in it that has a slightly blue cast to it. (Maybe that's an aquatic, the morning dew?) That might break the scent for me. Two hours: Rose and fig, but softer and thicker than expected. It's not as heavy as Lucifer and Hetairae in terms of figginess, but it's still dense. I think the vanilla and soft musk are contributing to that impression. There's a touch of wood about it; I can only assume that's the hay absolute. Normally hay absolute is the kiss of death to me in scents, but this time I'm not getting the rotten-haybale impression at all. Which is great, and a relief, because I'm a big fan of most of the notes in this. Three hours: A very pretty, soft, rather thick rose and fig scent.

This has several notes I love, plus one that dislikes me. In the vial: Bergamot and a little champaca, but not sharp so I guess I must be getting balsam too. Wet: Amber and a floral, possibly the champaca, possibly the rose, not sure. One hour: I like amber-balsam mixtures, and bergamot goes nicely with them. But this one isn't quite in my zone, and I think it's because of the champaca. The champaca smells like a particular type of Indian incense to me, very blue and sharp, not a happy scent. Six hours: This turned quite nice after the champaca burned off, being a mostly balsam, amber, bergamot scent, clean and not too heavy on the amber. Surprisingly, the rose didn't contribute much for good or ill in this one. But the champaca did it in for me.

I was really unsure about this one because brown musk doesn't usually like me at all. But never let it be said that I wouldn't try a scent with honey, myrrh, and patchouli in it, so here goes. In the vial: I think this is going to be too brown. I get galbanum, patchouli, and cumin. Wet: Oh yes, very brown indeed. Brown musk is not good on me, and this one has gone over to animalic already. I'm getting the galbanum too, which smells like green asafoetida. But there is something else going on, something about the cumin, or possibly the cumin plus patchouli, that's actually making my eyes want to water with its intensity. Two and a half hours: This hasn't changed much at all: pungent menthol patchouli with cumin, heavy aromatic galbanum, and brown animalic musk. The musk isn't the tangy weaseljuice ferret musk of the late lamented Frumious Bandersnatch, though; it's less domesticated and more powerful. I never did get any honey or myrrh (two of my best notes) off this scent. Yet although I thought all day about washing this one off, I didn't. I am fascinated by it. It is the smell of the sneakiest, most obnoxious, poo-flinging, cute endangered species monkey you can ever imagine.

Normally I'd run screaming from a scent with most of these ingredients. But a few years ago a Shunga proved to me I could wear scents that smell like the sea. And after falling in love with Blauer Mond, I figured I'd give sea buckthorn berry another whirl, so I tried this one. In the vial: This reminds me somewhat of Velvet Cthulhu, only saltier. I love Velvet Cthulhu, so that's a good sign. Wet: Green, a bit bitter, a touch salty, but with something rich deep down there somewhere that's holding it together and keeping it from turning into salad. It's very vital, intensely alive. One hour: Less tannic and more herbal now. There's a slightly powdery note in it, but it feels like it's turning into a frankincense and ambergris scent now. Two hours: Much less bitter and pungent now. In fact, it's very soft and close to the skin. It's still green and slightly aquatic, but no longer mannish. The frankincense is beginning to come out some more, and I expect it will soon come to dominate the mix. Three hours: This moved continuously away from the initial sea scent towards something muted, a touch tannic, and very green in impression without smelling like fresh, juicy, or dried greenery. Even the frankincense is muted. This crab isn't angry at me at all, and I'm surprised at how much I actually liked it.

I was really looking forward to testing this one on account of the pepper note. In the vial: Fruity honey, but I definitely also get the pepper note. Wet: Less fruity and a bit more spicy now, with the honey the foremost note. It's not thick or heavy on me, though. One hour: A beautiful tangy fruit-honey scent, almost floral. Sometimes the red pepper note reads as floral to me; I wonder if that's what's happened here. Two hours: Sharper than before, but not spicy; it's more like a wood has joined the scent. Right now, I could easily imagine cedar or some other wood that works well on me being in this scent. Fortunately, for me all that does is break the sweetness down into something more sustainable. Three hours: This scent developed into something warm, tangy, and woody with just a touch of floralish fruit. It's piquant and intriguing, and happy-making.

Red currant and honey is one of my favorite combinations, so I was very eager to try this one. In the vial: More floral than I expected, but only because it's not straight-up currant. So floral fruity plus light honey. Not as sweet as I feared (when I saw it had a sugar cane note), and more floral. Wet: Honey and currant, much like Tomoe Gozen bath oil. I hope it stays that way! Half an hour: Definitely in the Tomoe Gozen place, with currant and honey and a splendid Asian floral. Please, please stay this nice! Three hours: On me the ginger smells the same as the "white ginger" note that's in Hua Mulan, i.e., a floral. Good. Done. I like this one a lot: straightforward fruit, a little bit of honey, some floral to soften. Awesome. I will be getting a bottle of this to help console me after my Tomoe Gozen bath oil stash runs out.

Of all this year's Lupers, this is the one that appealed to me the most. It has many of my notes of love plus hemp, a note I've liked in other blends that didn't work out on me. In the vial: The same round chewy note that's in Banshee Beat (which I can't wear) and, surprisingly, U Mutter Museum (which I love). And sweet. But mostly the round note. Is that hemp? If so, then I think there must be some hemp in U as well. (Or balsam/parchment in this? Unsure.) Wet: Great, the round note has subsided some. It would have dominated the scent in a way I wouldn't like, I think. But the beeswax and amber seem to be holding it down. I hope this stays this nice. Half an hour: The hemp note is still foremost. Everything underneath it is still there, and it's not as sweet as I feared it was going to be. I might still like this; time will tell. Three hours: Hemp is still running the show. The fruit, honey, and beeswax have turned soft and waxy rather than sticky and jammy, so that's good. The amber's still in there holding the scent together at the base. Overall this has an almost strawlike impression now, grassy if you will. I like it. It's not the home run I was hoping for, but it's still very nice and I may need a bottle of it.

I have a thing about maple leaves, and I love the Lab's autumn leaf note, so even though I was wary of the ho wood I was eager to try this one. In the vial: This smells like the first mown lawn of spring, complete with tiny snippets of bitter spring herbs. Or maybe it's clove or wood, but I definitely get a very juicy, pungent green scent off this. Wet: Definitely an almost chive-like sort of wood smell and a lot of sappy green. Half an hour: No more chive; now it's definitely got a clove-wood impression, but soft and manageable. I sense the "pickle" impression some have said ho wood gives, but it's not powerful, just a sweet-tart tingle. And there's still some green in this scent. It's really quite pleasant, reminding me a bit of Marquis de Carabas only not as dry. Three hours: Very pretty, very gentle; just a bit of wood and clove. This is the most beautiful clove note I've encountered in the whole catalogue. It's perfectly calibrated to my skin -- not sharp, or pungent, or unkind to my skin, just soft and warm and happy. This scent is not what I was expecting at all, but it sure is beautiful.