Lucchesa

Lovely! It almost had to be, with these notes (I am getting better at this...) Only the saffron had the potential to ruin things, and it has reminded a subdued earthy note grounding the high-flying citruses. The sweet mandarin plays beautifully off the bitter neroli, and the honey and vanilla remain in the background. Citrus blends (and things with evanescent names like Cheshire Cat or Phantasm) have often disappeared quickly on my skin. Like the Flashing of Light seems to have excellent staying power and even a little throw. I can imagine wearing this year round -- it's bright and warm and would cheer up a winter day beautifully.

I have to respectfully disagree with the reviewers who find cake or pastry in Zarita because the Lab pastry note is a disaster on my skin (Eat Me, Halfling, Feeding the Dead, etc.) and this is a delight. So if anyone else has that issue, you need not fear it here. Instead, it's something like an orange blossom pudding. I think the berries are a slightly sharp note that keep it from getting too sweetly foodie and gives it a more grownup quality. I'm not getting much carnation, and I'm not sure I would recognize iris if it hit me over the head with a hammer. This is mainly a sweet creamy citrus that, unlike most citrus blends, does not disappear on my skin within an hour. It is going strong after two hours and I wouldn't be surprised if I can still smell it on my wrist tomorrow morning. I'd love to try the original, for comparison's sake, but this is a win for me.

Rose, carnation, jasmine, amber, mmm. There's really only one thing that could go wrong here. And tragically, it does. The patchouli stomps all over the flowers, as it did recently with the rose and jasmine in For Each Ecstatic Instant. Maybe it's the same patch. Maybe it's the patchouli floral combination that doesn't work on me. Patchouli and I get along in some spicy blends, like Uruk and Sin, and some fruity blends as well. But here... well, I'd like to be able to smell some rose and carnation, without having to wait for an hour of drydown. Is that really too much to ask?

I love reading other people's reviews partly because I'm fascinated by the diversity of responses but also because often someone will pinpoint for me exactly what it is I'm smelling. When I put on Coin Trick, my response was "fancy perfume." But the reviewers who said it smells like the scent samples in magazines or catalogs nailed it. That is my experience -- it smells like a 1980s copy of Vogue. Which is a coin trick of sorts. It has pretty good throw and wear length on me, too. I'm just not sure I would ever wear it.

This was a very cheery and upbeat lavender on me -- not soporific at all. I think the hops and yarrow added to the bright, sharp herbal feeling. I was hoping that the drydown would reveal the chamomile and a touch of vanilla, but Once Upon a Time really didn't last long on my arm very long. It was gone within an hour. I will try it again as a bedtime scent, as it may affect me differently at night than it did in broad daylight. I so wanted to love this one!

Exactly! Sadly I'm not getting much in the way of carnation or lily, but a very well blended warm rosy floral that reminds me of the perfume my mother wore in my childhood. So it smells like a grownup, in the best possible way. I will wear this when I want to wear Perfume with a capital P.

I amp certain tobaccos, and this is one of them. So when I first put it on, Flickering Lantern was a little beeswax and a LOT of tobacco, and no rose at all. And strong -- I expect scents with names like flickering or ghostly to be very quiet on me, but Flickering Lantern was loud. Two and a half hours later it has calmed down considerably and there is just a trace of rose perceptible. I put on Lights of Men's Lives, which I love, to compare it with, and Lights is quieter and warmer, without the strong dominant tobacco note. So although after drydown they are both lovely, and Lantern seems longer lasting on me, I'm going to stick with Lights as it's easier to come by and lacks that initial blast of tobacco.

OK, don't laugh, but when I bought this in a batch of imps from a forumite recently I was thinking it was an RPG scent. And I want to try them all. Even the nonexistent ones, apparently. Once my order arrived, I realized my mistake and read the notes, which I was sure would be dreadful on me. So today I was putting together some imps for the member in Portland who is collecting for a domestic violence shelter, and I grabbed Troll. Opened the imp. Sniffed. Thought, yep, awful. Vetiver Pine-sol. But I have this policy of skin testing, so I put on a dab and went about my culling. Strong stinky vetiver, smoky pitch, not me at all, safe to give away. I sealed up the package, started making dinner, and about an hour after application got a whiff of my wrist. What was that smell? Could it be... Troll??? Oh, man, Troll had morphed into something really interesting and, dare I say, beautiful. It finally made me understand why some people love vetiver. It was dark and smoky but not obnoxious; the pine had receded and the spices had come into play, smoky and sexy. My husband still wasn't crazy about, but I liked it a lot. I can't imagine using a whole bottle, but I definitely plan to get my hands on another imp.

Sometimes three-letter searches weird out the search engine -- I've had the same problem searching for Hod. Are you looking to buy a few imps rather than take a chance on a bottle? I really like trying things out before buying a bottle, and the lab does 6 for $22 and of course throws in a couple of frimps as well. If your friend likes the cinnamon spiciness of Sin in addition to the sandalwood (I get a lot of cinnamon from Sin, without skin irritation), Plunder might be a good choice. Defututa has the smoky spicy feeling I get from Sin with more flowers. I think Fallen is really beautiful, despite the fact that vetiver is not usually a good note on me. I haven't tried the Little Wooden Doll, but it has rose with amber and sandalwood instead of the patchouli and cinnamon of Sin. Rakshasa is lovely -- rose, sandalwood and patchouli, no amber or cinnamon. Another really beautiful soft sandalwood and amber blend is Vasilissa, which on my skin reads like a white floral. I haven't tried Scherezade but Belle Vinu is very different from Sin on me -- a fruity vanilla sandalwood. Marvelous, just different. Good luck!

These are all notes I adore, with the exception of saffron which can be problematic on me. And yet somehow, though I've tested The Phoenix at Midday twice, it doesn't work. Is it the saffron? Is my imp just past its prime? The blood orange fades right away, and I don't get a lot of the sharpness of either lemongrass or geranium, the warmth I was hoping for here. So disappointed.

Oh my, this is beautiful. I never got much cinnamon, but the scorched honeyed cedar was much lighter than I was imagining, not campfire like at all, and no pencil shavings from the cedar or sandalwood. On the whole there was an airy feel to the blend. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long on me at all. Stupid middle-aged skin soaking another lovely oil into oblivion.

In the imp, cocoa is the note I smell most prominently, with some vanilla and woods in the background. (I never get the Lab's pepper note! I seem to be scent-blind to it.) But on my skin, my experience was similar to that of LizziesLuck: the cedar and patch took over. It's still very pretty, but the lovely array of notes is drowned out by cedar in particular, with patchouli enabling the cedar. I may still wear the imp, but I definitely don't need a bottle of this.

I received Lights of Men's Lives in a swap just as I was about to go watch my son in a production of Mary Zimmerman's play The Secret in the Wings, which is all about dark fairy tales. I slathered some on as I left the house and could not stop smelling my wrists as I watched the brilliant young actors as kings and queens and ogres and frightened children. I love this scent -- warm beeswax with a faint touch of vanilla. It will always remind me of the play, but I can also see it becoming one of a handful of everyday scents for me. And it's GC! Almost certainly a bottle in my next Lab purchase.

Delight in Disorder looks, and in the imp even smells a bit, like cherry cola. The cherry recedes in drydown and I get a long-lasting and lovely red musk. Sexy and good staying power. I like red musk, but I was hoping for more cherry. I will use up the imp, but I don't think I need to seek out a bottle of this one.

Rose! Big, fleshy, and yes, damp red rose. Wet, Whip was all about the rose. I hesitated on this scent for a long time because leather can be such an an iffy note on me, and when I first put it on, I couldn't even tell the leather was there. But as it dried down, a warm, gorgeous leather began to make itself felt. This has become an instant favorite. It may be the most beautiful BPAL rose I've tried, and then the leather emerges and the pairing is just luscious.

Wet, this is not good on me at all. Sharp leather, sharp gin, sharp tobacco. No pretty rose, no mellow boozy vanilla. The gin gets the upper hand, but it's quite a battle. I never get the rose, and the interesting thing is that I have Whip on my other arm, and it is all rose at first. It's as if all the roses in both blends fled for my left arm while all the leather ganged up on my right Ultimately, after a couple of hours it settles into an interesting and unusual gin-dominated scent that I could bear to wear, but not when it takes two hours to get there.

In the imp: Juicyfruit! On my skin, there was a bubblegum quality and I thought, I wonder if this has lotus in it? Lots of sniffs of a fruity floral in between then and now, 4 hours after application, when I am checking the notes. Roses and lotus, no apples or other fruit. Wow, lotus is really fruity on me. This is quite nice if you like juicy smells. A terrific scent for this gorgeous summer day.

Testing Namaste blind, I got lemon and floral. But the lab's lemon note so frequently goes into lemon pledge territory for me that I should have guessed it was lemongrass. The patchouli stays in the background, thankfully; the rose and jasmine settle under the lemon, and the sandalwood becomes more apparent in drydown. It is really upbeat, a pretty summer scent that could probably be worn year round as a pick me up. I wasn't using this as a meditation scent, although I will definitely be experimenting with it in the future, as I can always use joy and peace in my life.

Wilde is beautiful - I love the lavender and bergamot pairing - but it's just too masculine on me, too "cologney" in my husband's words, and he is profoundly uninterested in ever wearing scent of any kind. I'll need to pass this one on.

I should have looked at the reviews more carefully or I might have avoided Penny Dreadful. Wet, I'm getting the baked goods note that is so terrible with my skin chemistry, and I see other reviewers mentioning cookies and gingerbread. That is never going to go well on me. Once it dries down completely it is actually quite nice, with a sort of spicy soil scent (I really like the Lab's earth notes), but I will probably pass this one on to avoid the wet phase.

The Black Tower is unexpectedly pretty. On me it reads as much more feminine than unisex and is not terribly smoky or leathery. I'm getting a lot of ambergris and I would have guessed there were roses growing along with the ivy and grasses. Low throw and average wear length on me. I will definitely use up the imp, and I will keep it in mind for a bottle depending on how future wear goes.

In the bottle, I get the smell of tree sap and pine needles. Wet, it has the feel of a deciduous forest for some reason, but as it dries down I get more and more of the evergreens coming out, pines and spruces and cedars. There's a sharpness in the drydown - not unpleasant, just a woodsy tang, almost citrusy. Once it is dry, it morphs yet again, exchanging the sharpness for a sweetness, still redolent of evergreens and woods, growing softer and softer each hour. Lovely. I think this will be a beautiful holiday scent, but it's perfect for everyday wear year-round, especially here in the Pacific Northwest. I imagine this would be similarly excellent on a man.

Irish Coffee Buttercream smells exactly as I expected it to, which is wonderful. I like Miskatonic U, so I expected this scent to work well for me. It is creamier, more buttery than Misk U. The whiskey is most evident in the bottle and wet and recedes on drydown, which is fine, it makes it more socially acceptable. But really, this is not a go out and party scent. Maybe a go out for breakfast with friends scent, but I really see this as a curl up with a good book on a crappy Seattle November day kind of scent. This is comfort food in a little amber bottle, with no calories. I am going to be cozying up to this little gem all winter long.

Covfefe is not what I expected -- and indeed, perhaps I should have expected it to be out in left field. Or right field. Or whatever. It is really like no other scent in my collection. I thought it would be much, much sweeter, along the lines of Jiggery Pokery. It is not. There is a gin and tonic sharpness to it, and maybe the pepper too (I never seem to pick up the lab's pepper note), which keeps the orange marshmallow creme from overwhelming fluffiness. And it does smell like "orange marshmallow creme" to me - not blood orange or navel orange but commercial orange flavoring, obviously not the real thing (as suits the scent's namesake). Only as it dries down do I get the spicy carnation note, and it's not the same one I love in Alice. All in all, this is an interesting scent experience, though I haven't fallen in love with it. Maybe I can wear it in the mornings before I shower as I am youtubing last night's Stephen Colbert and Seth Meyers and Trevor Noah...

I hesitated quite a while before trying this because did I really want to smell like apricot brandy? Yes, as it turns out. In the imp this is sweet, fruity and boozy. Wet, the distinctive flavor of both the apricot and the brandy come to the fore. This isn't tart, not-quite-ripe apricot; it's deep, luscious apricot, and it has a little throw, more than most blends do on me. As it dries down, the sweetness recedes, and so does the booze: as the very first reviewer so brilliantly put it, the apricot becomes the designated driver. It becomes a gorgeous rich apricot-preserves-with-a-hint-of-brandy smell that I could definitely wear to work without smelling like I'd just hit the bar. So this was a surprise win.