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I was so upset when Candy Butcher became discontinued - it was on my list for my next order and then WHAMMO it was gone! So imagine my delight when I received a decant from the lovely GirlinDenial - finally I get to see what it's like!! Well.. I'm not disappointed, I'm delighted. It's exactly like I hoped it would be.. and more. When I first put it on, it's absolutely chocolate and cream, but in a velvety way - not HEY CHOCOLATE like Bliss is, but ccchocoooooolaaaateeeee like creamy and luscious. For the first hour or so, it was all chocolate and cream, and then it started doing the morphing thing that previous reviewers have mentioned.. and that's the part I was worried about. Bah - I shouldn't have been concerned - on me, it mellows out into a lovely soft and nutty kind of creamy chocolate smell that's barely there but every now and then it just catches my nose - it's really quite lovely although different to how it started out, but that chocolate note is definitely still there. Damn you, Candy Butcher - why'd you have to be so good? Now I will have to hunt the galaxy so I can find bottles to hoard!!

Oh bugger.. I'm getting all the 'distilled in toilets' bit and none of the good stuff. I bought this via a sales post here on the forum - I read the reviews first and saw "fizzy orange" and mentions of The Hamptons and I thought ooh.. sounds delicious! Then I get my bottle. It certainly is an eccentric blend of interesting notes, but do I like it? Uhhh.. no. Sadly, this is really sour and rank and nasty on my skin. I left it on for about 45 minutes, hoping it would improve, but I had to go wash it off.. it was actually hurting my nose and making me feel a bit sick - it didn't smell very nice at all. Buh-bye Pruno, I'm sure someone out there is going to love you, but it ain't me.

Ooh yummy.. I just received my bottle of this from the Lab - with new style label even! I can definitely smell the almond here - but on me, it's almost like a boozy coffee kind of smell - it's actually quite strong and it stayed on my skin for ages. A previous reviewer mentioned marzipan.. yup, I'm getting that too. The honey and milk are there, but very much in the background - my skin seems to be amping the almond right up to eleven. Dana O'Shee, to me, smells like Irish Coffee! Yep, that's it.. a rich coffee with vanilla and whiskey in it. I'm looking forward to seeing how this ages.

I ordered two bottles of Candy Phoenix, hoping it would make a suitable replacement for my beloved Pink Phoenix. So my order arrives, and I rip off the bubble wrap like a crazy person. Eek! When I first took the lid off to have a sniff.. very strong and rich, in a cough syrup kind of way. My first thought was "uh oh".. but then I put it on my skin.. Mmmmm - cherries? No wait, it's blackcurrant. Pomegranate? Hello, are you there? Oh yeah.. there you are, hiding behind the blackcurrant. It's still a very strawberry/cherry smell right now. After about 15 minutes, that initial cherry thing has died down and the pear has made an appearance. The apple's definitely there too now. Half an hour later, and all the notes have blended beautifully so that no particular one is really clear. I'm not getting the 'pink' that others have mentioned, this doesn't have that real girlie candy thing going - on me, it's more fruity wine than pink candy - so it's not going to be my Pink Phoenix replacement but that's OK. This is really a beautiful blend - it keeps changing but it's just getting better and better. I've had it on for about 2 hours now, and I think the pear is taking the lead, with the others just hovering around in the background. Such a lovely surprise - I was really worried at first sniff, but now I'm exceptionally happy with this. Edited to add: Just out of curiosity, I put a dab of Sticky Pillowcase on.. and nope, not at all similar on me - Sticky Pillowcase is that boozy rum kind of sugar (like Smut, Sugar Skull etc), very different to Candy Phoenix which is all candy type sugar (white sugar?) so I'm not getting that similarity others have mentioned at all.

Note: this is for BEAVER'VERSARY Ok, so I never tried Beaver Moon '05 because I just couldn't get my hands on any.. but I do have Beaver Moon '07. This new Beaver'versary is just SO DAMN YUMMY - I am thinking of strapping my arm to my face so I can just inhale it all day. Honestly if I didn't think it would cause damage of medical proportions, I would apply it directly to the inside of my nostrils. BM '07 is very strawberry and cupcake-y to me, but this new one is all that plus creamy goodness. It smells like a strawberry milkshake and feels like a pink fluffy blanket. Thankfully it's a sweet cream, not a sour milk kinda cream, it's a thick and velvety enveloping kind of fragrance, not light at all.. and it stays on my skin for hours. I wore it out shopping today and had three total strangers say I smell good and ask me what I was wearing.. one of them insisted on sniffing my arm which was kinda weird but hey, takes all kinds. I'm so glad I ordered two bottles of this. I might even have to get some more before it goes away. I'm also very very happy that I can take Beaver Moon '05 and '07 off of my wishlist, because this is just perfect and I'm gonna hoard this instead. I just need to be more vigilant for arm-sniffing strangers.

Sensual, sibilant, sexual and hypnotic: Arabian musk and exotic spices slinking through Egyptian amber, enticing vanilla, and a serpentine blend of black plum, labdanum, ambrette, benzoin and black coconut. NOTE: this is about Snake Charmer Resurrected, not the original. Oh.. me too, and I have to say I'm really disappointed - I thought this was going to be different. It has all those other notes in it , but I'm not getting any black plum, labdanum, ambrette, benzoin or black coconut. Weird, because with Death Adder the black coconut really dominates on me, but I can't find it in this at all. Plum is also another note that my skin usually amps but here.. nope, nothing. All I'm getting is Snake Oil - actually, to be honest, a weaker version of Snake Oil - it's definitely not as rich and lush as Snake Oil and also isn't lasting long on my skin. I'm not giving up on this, but sadly it just isn't doing it for me right now.

At first, I found the lemon to be really sharp and a little medicinal to my nose - definitely a strong citrus .. but thankfully that sharpness only lasted for about 10 minutes after it was on my skin. Once it dried down, Lolita turned into a beautiful soft and powdery lemon, and now I can sense the honeysuckle like a fluffy carpet under the lemon. I'm not really getting the orange at all, which is a shame because that's the one I was really looking for in this blend. Half an hour later and lemon is still the strongest note, but it has really mellowed out into an earthy kinda lemon - perhaps that's the orange at work, balancing out the sour with a bit of sweet. This is really lovely and light on me, very clean and crisp - something for a nice sunny day - it's definitely one for a flouncy dress rather than jeans.

I only recently discovered this beautiful blend when I spotted it in a sales post.. read the description and thought ayup, that's for me! I have now developed serious hoarding issues with this one. In the bottle: Mmmmmm I feel like it wafts out of the bottle and envelopes me in a velvet cloud of creamy sweetness but that saffron is just poking its finger at me saying "hey, I'm here!" On my skin, wet: This is lush, so creamy, it feels warm and somehow comforting. The vanilla is now all around me but not in a strong "bakery" kind of way, just a sensuous mysterious way. The saffron's tickling my nose. After it's dried: Oh boy, this is really something. My skin must love this - the cream is still warm and velvety and the vanilla has mellowed out to be really lovely - on me it's gone very dry and musky, not too sweet at all. The saffron's definitely there now, just giving the whole thing an edge and beautifully balancing out the sweet creaminess - that's what's making me keep sniffing my skin.. not just sniffing, I'm INHALING this - it's just gorgeous. Love's Philosophy just agrees with me - it stays on for ages.. as it fades, the creaminess and all the notes still stay but it just all softens and mellows out very evenly rather than suddenly disappearing. I love the way the fragrance follows me around - it never takes over, it's just like the feeling that stays with you after a warm embrace. My plan now is to continue hoarding it like a crazy person because I never want to not have some of this near me.

Thank you ivyandpeony and angharad - that makes sense now I definitely don't have anything in my spam/junk folders, so I guess I'm just not receiving the notifications. Thanks also for the advice - I have been watching the CnS thread and I'm trying to be patient (this is quite a challenge for me!!) - it's a bit of a mix but it looks like other people are getting their CnS for orders placed around the same time as mine, so I won't panic just yet. Thanks again!

Can I ask you guys how you do the CnS thing? I never get one of those.. I pay for my Lab orders via PayPal - is it because I'm outside of the US that I don't get a CnS? My PayPal account shows that the money has been sent, but that's all the info it gives me. With my first order, I didn't receive any notifications of any sort.. the bottles just arrived one day. Since then, I've placed one order on 30 October, and another one on November 18. The November order is probably not ready yet but I thought the October order should be here by now or at least on the way.. I don't want to bother the Lab people about it, but I've been reading this thread and you all keep talking about a CnS so I'm wondering why I don't get those - it would be reassuring to know when my order has been sent, especially since it has such a long way to travel. Please excuse me if I'm just totally missing something here, but I did try to work this out for myself before posting here. Any advice would be really helpful - thanks! Louise

I just got a bottle of this via a forum sale from the extremely lovely ClareN - I wasn't really sure what to expect as the reviews have been talking about such a variety of results.. but can I just say OH.MY.GOD. this is awesome!! On me, this smells like bubble gum. That old-fashioned bright pink bubble gum! Who knew I was going to love smelling like bubble gum?!?!? I certainly didn't, but I can't begin to tell you how much I just want to lick my arm. Honey usually comes out really strong in any blend I've tried, and carnation is usually woefully overpowering on me, but not here.. it's all about the bubble gum. Since the official description doesn't contain the words 'bubble gum' - can anyone tell me what that note might be?? Is it the grapes? The plum? The sugar cane? I'm not a connoisseur of these individual notes yet, so I would really love some help here from those of you who know. Anyhow - I just had to come here and rave about this beautiful blend. Did I mention how much I love it??