mxtine

Thanks to the fabulous cfrancesca, I get to review this (and silently cry that I will never find a bottle...) The chocolate note is the most realistic dry cocoa scent I've ever tried. The vanilla is coconutty with spices like nutmeg and definitely cardamom, because I always get a faintly dusty, sometimes plasticky spiciness from cardamom. This makes me think of a coffee cake...a much less foody Underbed. I also get oak-aged bourbon, and smooth sandalwood...the lovely one that's in Anne Bonny. I'm going to start padding the paypal account to fight to the death for a bottle of this next time it's on ebay. It's that good to me.

Initially, this smells like evil green herbs and anise. Almost like a shot of absinthe mixed with anisette. On my skin, it's a very light herbal-dark plum scent. I love how this herbaceous-ness keeps the plum from turning into prune juice like some of the Lab's plum scents do. I'm getting a very faint spearmint note from this, but it's only something I notice when smelling up close. Ultimately, it's not something I would normally reach for but it's strangely alluring. It doesn't have a lot of throw, sadly.

First of all, I'd like to thank cfrancesca for the opportunity to test the almighty original Spanked. Although I hated the 2011 version (chemical leather and Red Hots), I still wanted to try the original. This one is soft worn leather, smooth expensive bourbon, and a dash of patchouli gives it that "I just got some" naughtiness. The cardamom is perfect in here. It gives your nose a little spanking but it's not OMG cinnamon! like Spanked revisited. I would probably sell a kidney for a bottle of this one.

I'm a sucker for candy scents, (pun not intended LOL), so naturally this has been on zee olde wishlist and I finally got a decant to try. This smells exactly like a tin of citric-acid spiked sugar-coated blackcurrant pastilles I had years ago. Sometimes it smells like grenadine syrup, but all in all it's a bomb-ass candy scent. It doesn't go plasticky at all, either. I can see the comparisons to Sticky Pillowcase, but it's so much better because it lacks that awful "lint" note that amps on me. This could be better if only it had a base of pink musk, but regardless it's bottle-worthy.

This is gorgeous! This is one of those perfumes that I would have dismissed just by looking at the notes. I figured it would smell like a forest, and while I love that smell, I don't want to smell LIKE it. After seeing a 1/2 bottle for cheap, I quickly read the rave reviews and loved the story behind it, so I took a chance. It smells like vetiver in the bottle, kind of like the vetiver I love in aged Blood Kiss. Once it's on my skin, there's no vetiver at all, but for a minute I get a "dirt" smell that quickly disappears. It's blended incredibly well, or maybe it's the fact that it's over 5 years old, so I can't pick out specific notes other than it's incense, deep, dark woods and smooth velvety musk. I suppose there's a bit of fir in here, but time has aged any "piney" scent away. Once it's dry, it's the best damned skin musk I've ever smelled. I definitely need to track down multiples of this one.

I've had a decant of this for awhile now and never tested it. Maybe because it had leather and I hated leather, until I found out that Fetish.Goth worked for me. It smells very similar to The Elephantine Colossus in the vial, so I'm thinking it might work. On skin, its a sweet red musk with peppery spice. It's so sweet that for a couple minutes it gets "grapey", which scared me. After it dried, its red musk with a whisper of pepper and leather. It doesn't last at all, and I'm not fond of the grapey phase, so I'll be frimping this decant away to someone else who'd love it

This had real promise in the imp. It was a bright, refreshing grapefruit. On my skin, it turned into grapefruit soap or laundry detergent. Damned snow-dusted florals! This would have been perfect if it was grapefruit-citrus blended with a shimmering white musk rather than florals.

I have no idea what year my decant is. At first sniff, I was thinking this was going to turn into the sickeningly sweet mess that Cockaigne was. There is initially a fresh-baked sugar cookie smell so realistic that I could taste the warm cookies right as they come off the sheet, with their golden brown bottoms. It turns into Snickerdoodles with butterscotch chips and a glass of egg nog. This is one of those scents that can go plasticky, but it doesn't. I love that it's just barely spicy, because I really dislike smelling like cinnamon baked goods. Very well done~

I remember when this went up, I thought about buying a bottle. I think I had too many other things going on and I forgot about it. The only note that worried me was the Bulgarian rose, because rose can either be really great, or headache-inducing on me. It smells pretty medicinal in the imp. On my skin, rose is basically non-existent, and if there is honey in here, it's a very clean white version. Mostly, I get a smooth balsam, ambergris, vanilla and light/blonde woods scent. I'm thinking the vanilla is the same one used in Celeste because it's very similar to her in the dry down, but it lacks the sometimes sickeningly sweet cotton-candy note. I'm pretty sure I'll need to hunt down a bottle or partial.

I can't say anything other than "it smells like a buttered popcorn jelly belly". Interesting, but not for me.

Ahh rose...you're so beautiful to me in dark, resinous blends, but you give me a headache otherwise. This is one of those times when rose is blended with lighter notes, turning it into rose soap on steroids. I can't even enjoy the golden musk, amber, red currant and blood orange. sunshinedaisybliss said this would be better with the rose extracted, and I have to agree.

I love coconut scents and this has been on my "to try" list forever but I tend to prefer coconut scents which are foody and/or tropical-floral, so I was a little iffy on the combination of rum and tobacco with coconut. It smells a little plasticky in the imp. On my skin, I get a faded, plasticky coconut that soon morphs into a boozy spiced rum cocktail, with a hint of fresh pipe tobacco. I really don't want to wear this, but it smells like it would be a yummy drink.

This definitely doesn't smell as scary as it sounds. It's a syrupy sweet orange rind that has been soaking in black tea. There's also chocolate and tobacco, and possibly cloves. The clove doesn't smell very spicy, so it's more of a faded clove note. Surprisingly, I'm not getting much saffron or red musk. Dry, it smells like either potpourri or orange tobacco.

I've been intrigued by this scent for quite some time. While I like patchouli and rose, pomegranate and plums are hit or miss with me, and gardenia only works in tropical scents. I was thinking this would smell like a weird floral Dionysia with plums and incense for some reason, which is why I never tried hard to find a decant. I'm pleasantly surprised by the scent from the decant. Shiny red berries and pepper. I get the barest whisper of a dried up rose and maybe gardenia. On my skin, the bright red berries die down and I'm left with a scent that is slightly fruity (plummy?) with dry cracked coffin wood and a hint of fir or juniper berries, and it's a little smoky once it's dry. I happened to get some of this in my hair, and it smells so much more intense, because the notes are clearer. While this may not be a wearable scent for me, it's beautiful enough to keep to wear in my hair when it's cold and I'm out for a walk on some trails. It would make a fantastic atmosphere spray, too.

Has anyone noticed a batch variation with the CD023 prototype? I bought decants of this from 2 separate people and they smelled completely different. The first one was like plain old carrier oil with a few drops of a "sweet foody" scent in it, and the other smelled like the candy store/foody/cake olfactory orgasm that the reviews described. I figured the first one was stale or adulterated, but I recently saw a sales/swap post where the seller mentioned their bottle smelled nothing like the reviews. Either there's a batch variation out there or a there's shady bottle floating around...

Fetish.Goth is a wonderful leather blend that should work for those who don't typically like leather scents. It lacks the chemical smell I got from Spanked revisited, it's very smooth and light.

Fetish.Goth smells like what I wanted Spanked to be! Leather sex! I wanted to like leather but the type of leather in Spanked smelled like chemical soup, and the cinnamon cardamom was the rotten cherry on top that ruined it for me. This, however, is a masterpiece. In the bottle, I smell shiny black leather, glorious dark resins, patchouli and clove. It's pretty much the exact same on my skin. The myrrh note is young and sharp right now, but I can tell it's going to get better with age.

I took a chance on this bottle, because leather hates my skin. I figured I'd give it a shot because I love rose and resins together. It smells like dark roses in the bottle, and dark roses and opium tar on my skin. The leather is behaving itself, and surprisingly gives this blend a "sophisticated perfume" smell. The final dry down is a mildly sweet black rose with opium. It's beautiful, but it doesn't beat my favorite bpal rose Spellbound.

Love at first sniff! A creamy amber note reminds me of Glowing Vulva, I know this is going to be good. I don't get much gardenia on my skin. I can tell it's there, but it's more of a support note rather than a starring one. The "sweet spices" are non-existent, but maybe I don't realize what I'm smelling. I agree with cfrancesca, this is like a creamier version of Sybil. Cabaret.Goth is a super-feminine, golden perfume and I'm lucky to have had a fairy snag this for me.

This smelled almost as bad as Banned in Boston in the decant, like stale booze. On my skin, it transformed into a glorious black currant and vanilla oak with a wine note that wasn't grapey at all, but rather like a fabulous aged tawny port. Of course, now I need a bottle...and this is not something I ever see for sale or swap.

2006 version: The Lab's usual grape note is my mortal enemy. I would have never tried this if it wasn't frimped, and I'm pleasantly surprised at how beautiful this scent is. It smells like cake with juicy dark fruit, warm resins, and golden olive oil. The olive note is what smoothes this blend out so well.

I think this is the only bpal lavender perfume that hasn't smelled awful on me. It's very smooth in this blend, and I love the lime note.

Smelling this is like biting into a juicy red Sour Patch Kid. It's tropical fruit candy drizzled with grenadine syrup and citric acid. Super tart and juicy. There is a strange "green" note that smells familiar but I can't place it. I'm glad I got to try this but since there is no coconut, I don't feel the need to hunt a bottle down.

This smells wonderful in the bottle. Blackberry jam and brown sugar with a hint of buttery crust. On my skin, a generic "spice" note comes out making this smell a bit like an Autumn candle. It kind of reminds me of what the Blue Pumpkin Floss proto would smell like if the cinnamon note wasn't there. Hmm. I'm not sold on this, so I'll have to test further and possibly put up for swaps.

I smell lemony cream cheese in the decant. On skin, flaky crust blueberry pie with lemon curd topping. The lemon note in this blend is very creamy and fluffy, kind of like a lemon flavored marshmallow. It's really fun and Springy but I'm not sure if I'll need more than this decant.