Aveya

Testing: 2006 Source: Forum trade, testing from an almost empty bottle Preconception: Pinesol! Bottle: SUUPER sweet almost vanilla pine. Skin: Jesus why is this beautiful? It all oak at first. Then pine. Then sweet lemony verbena. it's actually surprisingly beautiful. Drydown: There's a woody overtone that takes hold and goes a little bit to cedar-chip / #2 pencil territory. But then the sweetened verbena is amazing and makes it worthwhile. Glad I got to try this one. Verdict: Oaky sweet citrus.

Source: Forum Trade Preconceptions: Figured it'd be too weird to wear, but thought what the heck. Bottle Sniff: Leather, and oiled bronze. Huh. Initial Skin: Mostly leathery cologne. Drydown: The "cologne leather" accord jumps to "dazzling floral" and back again. Kind of confusing for my nose. But ultimately it settles into an ozone-smoke. Which isn't something you run across every day. Verdict: Fits the namesake. Ozone Smoke over-top gently leathered vanilla skin. Unisex, medium-far throw.

Source: Swap from a forumite Preconceptions: Some reason I didn't know this one existed until I saw it in a swap-list. I thought "Huh those notes sounds interesting". I'm attracted to "Skin Musk" scents, after have success a few times with that. Lately I'm realizing Tobacco scents are actually incredible (I always assumed they'd be too masculine for me). And I also recently learned I shouldn't be afraid of labdanum - Dunno what it is exactly but I'm learning. Anyways - educated dice roll. Bottle: Kind of empty to be honest. Skin: I'm not going to bother with the stages on this one - it's dark, musky, warm, nay hot, summer nights. Sweaty with a breeze. Smooth but dirty. Sandalwood-esq in overall vibe. Sweet but salty. God why didn't I try this years ago? This is going to be a slaterer for me. This is incredible. Verdict: Sex in the back of his car at midnight in the middle of a hot summer. With a foreboding breeze trickling through. Strong sillage to start, incredible staying power. It feels feminine to me but honestly I don't know why. Really sexy musty.

Source: Lab Blind-Buy (or rather, impulse buy with my last order for my decant circle lol) Preconception: APPLE please pretty please. Reviews look promising - Apple apple everywhere! Bottle Sniff: Honey apple. Initial Skin: HONEY! HI THERE. Shew so much richer and honey-heavy then the other reviews led me to believe. Really really thick, sweet, dark. I'm thinking it's all Honey and Tar. Drydown: On me, the apple literally got smushed and trampled and I'm left with faint apple background adding crisp sweetness, but the star of the show is this rich rich rich tobacco "tar" - which smells amazing by the way. Thick, sweet, tobacco is more an afterthought adding a smokey edge. I think the black tea is merging into one with this - making it feel fresh and natural, but yet dark and devious. I figured I'd love this scent because APPLES. But no. Apples is a side-show for me. This is all rich, dark, decadent, black, sweet. Think black treacle. Verdict: Forget apple. This is Black Honey Tar. And it's amazing. Don't get me wrong - Apple is there. But to my skin/nose, it's like the friend you have in common that sets you up together - the star is this new friend you never would have thought to like but omg. Dark and mysterious, yes please.

Source: Lab Blind-buy ; Label is song birds. Super cute. Preconceptions: Flipping love the 13s. They're never quite the same, but I've had some life-long favorites come from them. So have to roll the dice every time. This time; hoping for mulled wine. Bottle sniff: Thick, goopy wine with a hint of chocolate spice. Wet on Skin: Brief splash of chocolate then VANISH - nothing. Drydown: So this is the weirdest scent I've reviewed. Usually you can shove your nose into skin and inhale every intimate detail of the scent. NOT THIS TIME. This has like 10% of the scent on my skin, and 90% in the air 3 feet from my skin... Weird one. So in skin, it's a gentle herbal spice blend. In air? and remember I get none of this from my skin itself so it feels like floating magic - it's all red mulled spiced wine. Noseferatu wine, mulled with some new 13 spices. The throw is amazing - I just walk through a hallway, do some stuff, walk back through the hallway and am like OH HI WINE. It's not thick and gloopy wine, it's rich and mulled spice. I swear a hint of creaminess to it as well? Any chocolate in this scent is participating as a spice, and not a main note. Verdict: Beautiful mulled wine with insane magical throw. Crazy staying power. Edit to add : Wore to work today; it lasted 4-5 hours of mulled wine spices then faded back to a skin scent for the rest of the day.

Source: Lab Buy (for a decant circle) Preconceptions: Expected to hate it - assumed heavy florals gone awry. Hopeful best case - Rose with a patchouli drydown. Bottle: Dusty rose Initial Skin: This was much more developed of a scent than I expected. Rose is there, sure. It's dominant but it's not overtaking. It's dark and woody, maybe even dusty. Feminine but strong and badass. Drydown: Mid-way, rose amps up and overpowers into a floral hot mess on me - All I can smell is ROOOOSE. Then this vanishes from my skin in about 2 hours. Just, sucked up dry. Super disappointing. I'm wondering since this was a fresh lab buy if there's any shot with some aging she'll have more staying power? I was really hoping the sandalwood and patchouli would give it a long-lasting cozy hum, at the least. Verdict: Dusty Rose, amps to Rose single note, then vanishes. So depressing for me ;_;

Source: TPP Decant Circle Preconception: More just curious - black pepper leather could be cool. Imp: Sticky manly leather death (what? I don't..) Initial skin: Surprisingly sweet! Wood dominant on me. I'm not as familiar with the notes in this scent, so my brain is turning this into #2 pencil. Drydown: Sadly this sticks with the wood note for me, some reason the pepper add REALLY makes this smell like my old school desk from Elementary. Leftover crayons, books, possibly a newt, grocery-bag-wrapped textbooks, but mostly wood that's been carved into from previous generations. Verdict: Elementary school desk. Wood heavy, masculine-slanted, medium throw. If the leather was a bit more, I think it would combat the desk-vibe I can't shake. Hopefully someone else can enjoy this for me.

Source: TPP Decant Circle Preconception: Unsure about this one, but got a decant for the scent experience. Imp: Dark, dirty, damp? Initial skin: Warm. Fuzzy. Gritty. Dark. Dry spices Drydown: Vibe is super dark, masculine, spiced, lightly sweetened like a vanilla-esq musk vibe. Verdict: Really well blended, very very dark, musky, earthy, masculine-leaning. Sort of feels like a forest at night in the summer. Spooky stories then getting lost. Horror-themed snipe hunts.

Source: TPP Decant Circle Preconception: It's a dog scent come on! Too cute! Imp: ... Lemongrass? Initial skin: ... ... You're lemongrass, right? There's a fizzy happiness from this that's a lot like lemongrass to me. That's cool. More of that please. There's a note like this in a bunch of the Fool's scents. He's a happy dude what can you say. Drydown: Green fresh notes pop out. Something fuzzy and warm. and YOU'RE LEMONGRASS JUST ADMIT IT. I have no idea what Yew smells like exactly, and I mean best guess on ivory-white fang, right? But this scent has a green freshness, lemongrass fizzy sweetness, warm fuzzy clean dog fur, and the gentlest musk backing it all. Verdict: Happy, bright, clean. White or Yellow if it was a color. Slightly citrus to me. There's a general clean-soapy vibe form this scent, and that will prevent me from getting a bottle because it's not my thing. But it's absolutely beautiful and joyful.

Source: TPP Decant circle Preconception: Fig has played weird with me in the past so I'm skeptical, and I'm not usually an almond girl. But was excited about that buttercream note and thought I'd give it a shot. Imp: Milky amaretto. Reminds me of horchata. Initial Skin: It's all wet nutty milk. Drydown: Get these MASSIVE wafts of cloying foody heaviness as it morphs from first stage horchata and into something heavier. It's inconsistent to say the least. Verdict: Bipolar - Horchata vs fig cake with dripping gobs of honey almond buttercream. It's having a cosmic battle on my arm trying to decide it's identity. Rough for me personally, but the foodies should love this scent - no matter which side wins out. Edit to add: It's obviously Horchata WITH fig cake. Gotta wash down that icing somehow.

Source: TPP decant Circle Preconception: I honestly saw Carnation, Vanilla, "Spices", and "Other" and thought heck why not. Little lazy on my part but hey! Imp: Pine anise. I was a bit scared. Initial Skin: Cedar & Pine. Drydown: Balances out wonderfully. I think people waiting for this to be less spicey might be disappointed. Aged carnation will just replace the notes that temper down with time, imo. So early application I was SURE I wouldn't like this scent. But in the drydown something happens and I just... yum. This is RIGHT up my ally. The notes all start to play together artfully and I'm left with this eclectic mix of spices. Some "spice" blends can get dry/incensey, this one stays full bodied. I really like how this plays with the idea of the Fool Juggler. It feels active, dangerous, haphazard, but alive and strangely happy. Verdict: Bengal Light. Eclectic and vibrant spices. Medium throw, strong staying power. Scent likes to dance around from note to note - just like a juggler would. I only wish it had a stronger base note, it's not AS full bodied as I like, but makes it a less enveloping version of Bengal for me. Like it a lot. Going to try out a few more times then probably grab a bottle.

Source: TPP Decant Circle Preconception/Hopes: One of my favorite scents of all time is Phobos. I just love lemongrass. I was really hoping this one would be in that ballpark. Imp: LEMONGRASS and lemon and wonderful sweet lemon. Initial Skin: Oh super disappointing. It's just the faintest lemon curd ever. Faint, soft, creamy lemon. And that's it. 0 throw. Super faint even if I shove my nose into my skin. Is it because I have no faith? Is it the absolute faith that allows me to smell the heavens? I am doooooomed. Drydown: Yeah I'm getting nothing new. This was just eaten by my skin. Soft lemon whispers. Verdict: Super faint, whisper of lemons. No throw. My skin just ate this up. Super sad.

Agree - This is most certainly Bengal's shy younger sister. At first it starts out strong dominant honey - and I can feel the pink pepper tempering the honey. It's rich and sweet and spiced. But on drydown as it starts the vanishing act, it gets closer to skin. And pulls out that Bengal-feel of skin musk and spice. The honey is thin and gently sweet. No cloy. But man does it vanish. Not much throw after the first apply; but you can still sniff it on your skin for hours. And it's flipping beautiful soft sexy honey skin. Has the barest touch of powder in a good way. Just has no lift. Verdict: Really great sex scent. Just saying. Feminine, light, sweet, innocent. Gently spiced, SUPER close to skin. They're only going to smell it when buried in your neck.

Source: Lab bottle buy Bottle sniff: Strong sweet tobaccoo Initial Skin : This was surprisingly sweet to me. Just a gentle backdrop supporting a rich smooth patchouli and gently spiced tobacco. Plum isn't very apparent to me as a fruity note though. Just dark, feminine, smooth patchouli, slightly dusty tobacco. Drydown: The later drydown is when I can actually detect plum proper, as a fruity note. It maintains the dark, warm, gently spiced vibe. Late Drydown: It starts to get an almost leathery vibe on me in the late game. I'm not a huge fan of this late stage. I'll be trying this out a few more times to see how it wears. That sweet mid-late stage I really enjoy. If I can get that 90% of the time this will be a keeper & stockpile for me. But if the leather-vibe sticks around I'll have to swap out.

Source: Lab buy - 2018 version. So first sniff I felt like I'd SMELLED THIS BEFORE I KNOW THIS SCENT. It took me a bit, but this is 100% scent-memory-style for the Atomic Luau line and Velvet Pink Kitty. It's not, by any stretch, those scents exactly. But it has the same kind of boozy fruity vibe I'm always fighting to find. i did NOT expect to find it here. Velvet Pink Kitty, in my brain (it's been so long since I've smelled it) smells exactly like this. Something about the fruit, cognac, and brown bag give it just the right level of fuzzy happy booze. That said I'm usually afraid of Fig (goes gloopy sweet) and I expected a lot more leather. Neither of those are doing a whole lot on me in this blend right now. This is a looove of mine now...

Source: Lab buy. I'm late to the game but I still get irrationally angry about the whole ordeal. So, this was a spite buy. Plus, who doesn't love apple pie? Bottle Sniff: OH MY JEEZE APPLE PIE NO JOKE. This made me think very specifically of McDonalds apple pie. Skin: Beautifully blooms into a more sophisticated cinnamon apple scent. Reminds me a bit of fried apples (still uber american to me). It gets green for me in this stage, but it feels ... right. There's also this faintest background scent of something heavier - like a musky spiced almost leather barest whisper hint. Like, like a football. I'm projecting probably. Verdict: Don't be afraid of the grass note. This is beautiful fried cinnamon apples eaten on the lawn with family.

First sniff on skin: Grapefruit. Then, soap. Then, floral? Then, really nice bath. Then pine. It's a strange sweet, floral, fruity?, soapy scent. Then randomly bubblegum. Weirdo scent, you.

At first - I'm on board with the "Radish" description from earlier. It starts off a sour, sweet, tart, weirdly earthy yet zippy ginger-esq effervescent blend. Like, literally, goblins inside a physical server. Static cling is even in the air. Later drydown it's like a skin musk/leather musk & cinnamon/spices blend. But you can still sniff out the static cling. Like Gremlins legit moved in and set up camp. There's maybe an undertone of something sweet/vanilla. Pretty cool scent. Not one I'd reach for but definitely a cool one to sniff. Will be sending off to get some love.

I'll finish up this review once I do a full test, but had to stop in and give the first bottle-impressions. Cause first sniff? This is 100% stanky weed. I actually LOL'd way harder than I should have about it. Like, Guys- air-freshen the house this was a bad idea. Alright real review: Source: Lab Blind-buy. Preconception: Literally "LOL Pot. *clicks buy* " I did secretly hope it would be warm and incense meets banshee beat with a dash of pot, for no rational reason. Imp Sniff: Stanky weed. Initial skin: LOL POT. I'll clarify - It's sharp, astringent, herbal, and sweet. "Sweat" isn't far off. If you're unfamiliar with weed this is also similar to say ... dirtier wet Sencha green tea? Algae? Somewhere in that astringent herbal realm. Drydown: It gets less astringent and softer - but it sure takes it's happy time getting there. Someone unfamiliar with marijuana might find this stage enjoyable - but literally I couldn't wear this outside because my current State it's 100% illegal. Like, irrationally so (gotta love South Dakota). I'd manage to get my shit in trouble somehow. Late drydown: Keeps sweetening up and gets closer to my "hopeful" preconception. I actually think this one might age pretty well? If the stank calms down with a little time (like other top-notes tend to) then this could be really legit beautiful and just a fun hint instead of full-on pot. Going to keep this and take a gamble on time. If nothing else for amusing summer vacation days.

Got this in TPP's decant circle. Yay! I was doing sniffies of everything, but this one got plopped on skin RIGHT away. Imp: I made audible sounds at how beautiful I thought this smelled. It reminded me a LOT of Gobo (fraggle rock) in the imp. Lemon Gobo. Skin initial: GOBO BUT MORE. Completely entirely a sweet citrus, with an immediate creamyness (push-ups for adults). Drydown: So, the patch took a while to peak out for me. But once it does, this scent is an entirely different game. The lemon-cream sugar of Gobo is still there, but a warmth starts to swell up from under it. I'm going to say it's a red patchouli (with my limited patch knowledge, this is like Sumatran Red. Nothing like East African Black). It's smooth and warm, not sharp and dirty. The moment where it switches from Gobo 2.0 to Sugared patch i got a little nervous - but once it passed the new scent was soooo amazing and delicious. Smooth, warm, gently woody/almost amber-esq in vibe, but then also these bright pops of sugary lemon cream. This is probably going to be a bottle buy/trade for me. Love. Love love love.

Ugh when will I learn? I don't like pumpkin spice apparently. I want to - really really want to. But it always goes sort of funky buttery and just doesn't smell right on me. That's all this is to me. Weird buttery dry spice mix.

Initial : Oh yum. Dirty plump apple being chomped on right in the garden at midnight. Smack dab in the middle of a Halloween party with sexy hippy hipsters. It just makes me feel happy and fresh, in a raw earthy sort of way. Love it. Drydown: The apple fades a while in, and then flips the entire scent over to teakwood vanilla mashup. Which, unfortunately, smells like a #2 pencil to me. Sad face!

Yep this is incense head-shop style proper. Really love it. I love patchouli. DIRTY wet patchouli. This isn't that. Or rather, that isn't the star. This is a solid blend to me of all the listed notes. Making a nice smooth, warm, cozy AF scent. The longer it stays the sweeter it gets as the vanilla is a late-show. If you hate hippy scents you should walk away. If you're like me and could literally bathe in it then have at.

This is surprisingly lovely. It smells like a forest - in the darkest dampest coldest way possible. It's dirty but light. Initially it was lavender men's cologne. But then darkens up quickly. Longer drydown goes much darker, and much more masculine on me. Warm musky fur and cold slick feathers. For me, too masculine (at least this style of masculine isn't for me). But if I smelled this on someone else I would certainly be intrigued. Solid earthy-masculine scent to me.

In Bottle: Fir ginger powder Wet on Skin: Very green. Fir dominant, with interesting backing support. Drydown: Surprisingly "perfumey" to me. Like there's a floral tone in here. I'm thinking it's the white amber - it's acting like amber does on me (that is, blooming at the same times and in the same ways) but instead of that warm yellow embrace, it's light and ... floral-perfume. Kind of nice in a weird way. As it sits it gets these lovely fruity notes popping through. Ginger is NOT the star in this for me; it just adds a nice brightness to the blend. Time must be nice to this bottle - I'm not getting anything screechy or acidic or too in my face like the earlier reviews. This is actually really beautiful and lovely. For me personally I don't like that white amber thing happening - but I know some out there will love this. Verdict; Ends up overall smelling very clean and soapy, in a really good way. Fruity herbal, hinting at floral. Interesting scent.