Soupy Twist

Took a chance on a blind bottle because it was a Lunacy (and I am so into Norse mythology right now, particularly Loki and jötnar) and it paid off for once. Mint in the bottle, which goes on as catmint with a breath of menthol. It's definitely not juniper — juniper has a harder, more sour edge, and this is sweeter to neutral and softer. It's mint leaf. I don't get the actual fuzziness of catmint, but that's the one it is (and we know that Beth can do fuzzy if she likes, so this is purposefully not fuzzy). This fades as it dries and the minty snow note develops (the one from Unmanageable Snowdrift, not the Snow White one). There's a tiny bit of sweet spearmint overlaying the snow, which makes it even better. This is fantastic. A sister of Öndurdis, if you liked that. I can't have too many bottles of the Lab's snow note, so that totally works out for me!

okay, first off I have to say how completely excited I am to have gotten one of these exclusives/LEs live, because so far I've only ever gotten them after the fact or not at all. So yay and thank you Lab! Achievement unlocked! :wub3: Pine/juniper in the imp. Goes on as juniper and the black pepper note from that one Yule Lad, with a touch of... old chewing gum? Yeah, it's old chewed-up spearmint gum. This continues into something... stinky. And somehow soft. Rubbery? I'm smelling rubber or maybe vinyl. Jeez, this is hard to describe. "Gremlin hide" is probably what the description would read. Green leather? ozone? possibly. It's delightfully vile and absolutely what a computer gremlin would smell like.

Tonka and brûlée in the bottle. Goes on promisingly as tonka and rum, but the rum soon scorches into burnt brûlée. This finishes as dry spices and rum dregs, what similar to Apple Butter Rum and Spiced Rum Buttercream Coffee did on me. Goddammit why can't I just find a nice bourbon vanilla which lasts?! Apparently the Lab differentiates between "sweet rum" and "rum," and their plain ol' rum doesn't work on my skin. Elegba is great. This is the morning after Elizabeth Swan burned all the rum for a distress signal.

Pear nectar and honey in the bottle. Goes on as pear nectar with a touch of the Lab's gorgeous perfumy honey I love from Honeyed Apple. Stays true, but not a lot of throw. also, that poem is fucking creepy.

Like a precursor to RPG Halfling. It's the same buttery pastry note, with brief flashes of ginger and clove. (And I swear there's a moment of menthol, but my kiddo also put on a pine scent at the moment I was testing. Still not sure if it was me or her I got.) Zero throw and quickly dissipates.

A refreshing scent! GET IT?! Aloe, white musk, lime peel, fresh mint, seaspray, verbena and green tea. Sea spray and mint in the bottle. Goes on as a pure aquatic note, which continues into the mint which the Lab uses in their snow note (which I LOVE). Dries as a minty green tea. This is delightful! Definitely in the Shanghai family, which is great because I love Shanghai too.

Blackberries and the Lab's snow note, which I love and are awesome. but practically no throw. Like this wants to be Skadi when it grows up.

Just burnt tobacco ash. Apparently "blackened" anything from the Lab doesn't work for me.

Grass (not sweet grass) in the bottle. Goes on as cut grass and dandelion leaves. Definitely a more direct "take a blade of grass and cut it" and not the "sweet grass succulent" of Wild Dandelion and Sagittarius 2006. No flowers, no honey. Pleasant enough.

You know, I see these lists of notes and I keep thinking "Oh, I would totally have blind-bottled that LE Lunacy if I'd been around when it was available." And then I try the decant, and 98 times out of 100 it goes to bleargh on my skin, and I am reminded once again why I've tried so hard to swear off blind bottles. Sour honey and spice in the bottle, which goes on as dry spices and never really improves. The sourness eventually fades, and I can get a sense of the Lab's perfumy honey, but it's just not there.

in the bottle, oh, gorgeous rich realistic maraschino cherries. Like a snootful of the jar. Wow, I hope this has some lasting power on me. on the wrist: oof! an explosion of chemical plastic/vinyl. Not cherry at all. It's not medicinal, it's artificial. Might be related to what the Lab's current French vanilla note is doing on my skin. This is probably what actual fake blood packets smell like, though, so yay to Beth for that. off to swaps to find a more loving home.

Cherry... something, maybe candy? fruit punch? and menthol in the bottle. Goes on as a menthol-heavy snow note with a sweet edge, but the sweetness fades as it dries, and it becomes just a piney menthol. It's a nice menthol, not too harsh, with juniper overtones and maybe with a bit of the wisteria smoothing it out. No other cherry or flower notes, though.

in the bottle: Oooh! what a pretty white floral! I feel like I have my face in a vase of flowers. Wet: WOW! holy shazbot, I am not a floral person and DANG this just about knocked me over it's so gorgeous! magnificent soft sweet white floral. Gardenia? Tuberose? I don't even know. I love this. There's still snow on the ground and suddenly I'm transported into spring. Dry: ...well shit. The green comes out, like a cut plant stem, and for a minute or two it's too much. Very planty, like I stumbled into the working end of a greenhouse. It's not a bad note, but it's too intense and too green. This eventually calms down and a little of the lovely white floral returns, with more of a honeysuckle focus now, but there's no throw. Crap, if only it would stay in that amazing wet stage. So so pretty.

Almond cookie in the bottle. Goes on as the lovely light lemony tea from Embalming Fluid, which rounds a little with cookie sweetness as it dries. Vanishes from my skin in half an hour, but YMMV on that. Just beautiful. No currants, no rice, but I'm okay with that.

In the bottle: cocoa and wood. Cocoa on application, and then a slight coffee bean note develops, but it shortly turns to wood. A beautiful, realistic, polished wood, which becomes almost perfumy as it continues. It's like standing in a gorgeous new library. I can't bear wood perfumes, so this is turning my stomach, but it's another in a long line of extraordinary technical accomplishments from Beth, so if you like woods, you will adore this.

Sour candy and candy powder. Delicious. I'd mainline it, but I don't think I want to wear it.

Brûlée. Just the perfect smoky crunchy brûlée note from Sugar Skull. nothing else. which is fine, because I love that note.

a tremendous, intense aquatic. Almost too much. no milk notes at all.

A sour, nasty plant note — is this the neroli? I can't tell. The Lab's jasmine hates me, so maybe it's related. There's a little menthol from the snow note struggling to come out, but whatever this plant thing is just smothers it. Scrubber. Which is heartbreaking, because the Lab's snow note is one of my absolute favorites.

BAAAANAAAAANAAAAAAAAAAA in the bottle and on application — just slightly artificial. A little mint dances in and out as it cycles through the various notes through the drydown: too much honey, pineapple, too much honey, neroli, musk, too much honey. woo! It's almost exactly like the Starburst fruit roller coaster ad. It's up! it's down! It's pineapple! it's mint! It's honey! It's WHAT IS IT I DON'T KNOW IT'S EVERYWHERE AT ONCE WAAAAAAA

Dark chocolate, coffee absolute, sugar cane, caramel, and tobacco. Cocoa in the bottle — the same as in the Milk Chocolate etc. from this year's Box of Chocolates and from El Dia de los Reyes. Goes on as cocoa with a touch of dusty cinnamon. Continues to dry into the dusty, spicy cinnamon, not cinnamon oil, although there's a wee burn for a bit. No coffee, sugar cane, or caramel. The tobacco note which develops is the smoky, burnt tobacco of French Tobacco, not the high "white" note of Sherlock Holmes or the foodie tobacco. If you like French Tobacco, this is for you. I was hoping for something more foody, and I'm disappointed that I didn't get any of the middle notes. I will say this is a great draconic scent, so kudos to the Lab for coming up with something dragony which didn't involve "dragon's blood" for once!

Creamsicle in the bottle and on application. The sugared grapefruit appears as it continues — this is just gorgeous, but my skin eats citrus, so I have no hope it will last. There's a wave of cream as the grapefruit departs, which is really nice, and the tangerine makes a brief, slightly bitter appearance before it finishes as the amazing soft rounded vanilla from the Lick It series. I really like this! Not a lot of throw, but I'll try slathering and see how it sticks around.

Linden, linen, and fresh laundry. I would probably love this as a detergent scent, but I can't see wearing it. Honestly, it's a great laundry fragrance. I'd even consider this as an amto. to add my comparisons: Wensleydale was such a strong,"pure soap" scent it made me nauseated. Dirty smells like fresh grass to me. This is in between them, on the nicer side, but not for me, I think.

Opens as pomegranate, flirts with juniper, and dries as a clean, soapy, slightly menthol mint.

Fear of Kissing Under the Mistletoe Pale, sickly flaps of vegetation looming over gaping archways, flaccid lips wet with hunger: cucumber and spearmint curling against the edges of dry, crumbling mistletoe. All I get is slightly dried cucumber peel. It's not bad; sort of the seasonal opposite of Squirting Cucumber. No mint, no mistletoe.