highgarden

We never robbed widows and we made no false representations. White patchouli, sage, and benzoin gleaming with tea leaf, green tobacco, cognac, polished rosewood, and bourbon vanilla. Disclaimer that I'm still recovering from a cold so this might not be quite accurate! Patch and benzoin right off the bat, which is almost giving it this chewy fig/dried fruit feel. Two hours in, I'm getting sage and tea which is lending a slight bitter note but not an unpleasant one. Going on four hours, I'm getting a hint of what I think is the cognac but it's still very faint. The rosewood and vanilla start to make their presence known later and right now I keep catching whiffs of it and it is absolutely lovely. Medium throw, good longevity.

The most disreputable district in early 20th-century Chicago. Blackened patchouli, smoke, and sorrow painted by sweet sugar and thick honey. Disclaimer that I'm still recovering from a cold so this might not be quite accurate! Immediately, I get the patch, which isn't all that hippie/gnarly but sweetened by the sugar. About an hour in, I started getting a hit of cade smoke and it's still lingering but not overpowering an hour after that. The honey is starting to show through more, mellowing out the entire scent. Light/medium throw, and about four hours in, I can barely detect it on my skin.

I'm LOVING this. At first, I could pick out the warmth of a candle and the pumpkin, and then the beeswax starts to come out, bringing this wonderful creaminess to the scent. 9 hours later, it's a bit more spicy and even warmer, if that's even possible. Such a glowing, beautiful scent.

This is just so fun. In the bottle, I get kicked in the face with blueberry bubblegum that reminds me so much of my childhood because I always had gum on me, was always chewing gum and often got in trouble for it. On the skin, I can pick out the vanilla more and the bubblegum is more the sugar sweetness of gum and less the pink Dubble Bubble stuff. There's a tang from the blueberry that makes it just sing. It gets creamier as time passes, the blueberry stepping way back and the bubblegum and vanilla blending until it's this comforting sweet vanilla. Surprisingly, this one is lasting a long time on me. It's been about 8 hours since I put it on and it's still going strong! Love.

Freshly applied, it was gorgeous dark chocolate and spicy caramel. The spice got stronger as the day went out until sometime after lunch and I started wondering who was eating curry near my desk at work. SURPRISE, it was me. I smelled like curry. Alas, this is going on my swaps/sales list...

Sign of Sekkusu hair gloss or as Puddin’ affectionately likes to call it, I’ve got your nose!!! Bourbon vanilla, cardamom, fossilized amber resin, blonde tobacco, tonka bean, and labdanum. This one has some strong throw! Immediately, I got hit by the resins and tobacco, but not in a smoky, overpowering way. The tonka and vanilla temper the heady resins with their sweetness, and I think the cardamom added a bit of spice. It was difficult to pick out notes because they blended so well. I sprayed this on before bed and could still smell it when I woke up about 9 hours later.

Kukui nut, dried mango, hay absolute, and brown sandalwood. This is absolutely lovely. Right away, I pick out the dried mango and get hit with a wave of nostalgia for eating dried mango slices when I was younger. I can't really pick out any of the other notes as they all seem to blend and take away the tartness that can sometimes overpower the nose with dried mango. I'm guessing that the hay and sandalwood temper everything with sweetness and the kukui nut grounds it. The scent is light and not remotely overpowering, so it shouldn't compete with any oils one might be wearing. Light throw, lasts a few hours. I'm really glad I got a bottle of this!

Freshly applied, I can pick out the cassis liqueur and the sandalwood, the former being a bit more dominant. It definitely smells boozy. About 30 minutes in, it's suddenly all sandalwood, all the time. It smells a bit burnt, which I'm guessing is the caramelised part, but it softens about an hour later. The tonka starts to come out then. I'm five hours in and it's this beautifully sweet, complex sandalwood-heavy scent. Aging will likely make it even more wonderful!

I have this on one wrist right now and holy hell, is it gorgeous. A light pear with a hint of white musk, so far quite constant. Wet and an hour in, the lemon is more apparent and the scent is so light I almost don't smell it, but now that it has been more than 3 hours, the throw has amped up a bit. Very office appropriate!

This was absolutely lovely. Wet, it was largely a citrus-y sugar with a bit of darkness from the Snake Oil. As it dried, the honeycomb came out, but it was much lighter than either honey or beeswax, and it lasted about 30 minutes on me. I usually amp honey/beeswax, so for those of you who are wary of those notes, don't be scared of this! After about an hour, it was back to being a sweet, sugar-y Snake Oil. The throw wasn't huge and it lasted about five hours on me before I had to stick my nose against my wrist to smell it.

As someone who gets massive headaches due to florals, I was worried about the rose in this, but thankfully it was only really present in the bottle! When wet, it was still there, but balanced by the myrrh and patch, but by the time it dried, it was all myrrh, all the time. It got to the point where about an hour later, I was smelling like incense and soap and so I had to wash it off, and an hour after that, I got a sweet vanilla residue on my wrist. Alas, I think I have to age this a bit more and test it later so hopefully that vanilla has more of a presence.

Fortuna Conservatrix from Hymn to Fortuna really reminds me of LoM! The notes are: black peppercorn, bitter almond, patchouli, and benzoin. It's LE, but just testing it today, it matches the shower gel. I wouldn't agree. The spiciness of the black pepper stands out way more than the patchouli. It's definitely got a drier edge to it, whereas LoM has a sweeter patchouli side with a hint of green. LoM's vanilla does sweeten everything up quite a bit, but I think Conservatrix is still a decent comparison--my shower cream is older though and my sister is the one using it, so I end up smelling whatever lingers in the bathroom, which is far more black pepper to me than patch. The throws seem to be different since LoM has some crazy sillage, but that might just be because I didn't put all that much of the oil on! The benzoin acts like vanilla would, though it is definitely milder. Also, I never knew that LoM was supposed to have gardenia! I'm glad I never smell it because otherwise I never would have bought it. Heavy floral notes give me headaches.

Just tried Avenger since I bought it a while ago, before even knowing about LoM. I can definitely see the comparison. The pepper and patchouli are present, but the clove, pikaki, and amber bring a sweetness you don't get from LoM. If you wanted a more feminine version of LoM, this would be it. For me, the tuberose gets amped just enough that I get it screeching over the rest of the lovely scents. Just a tad too floral for me. Fortuna Conservatrix from Hymn to Fortuna really reminds me of LoM! The notes are: black peppercorn, bitter almond, patchouli, and benzoin. It's LE, but just testing it today, it matches the shower gel.

I love BPAL's beeswax note (sweet, creamy, lasts forever) and blind bought a bottle. Wet, it's definitely heavy on that sweet waxy scent, but there is a hint of dust there that almost makes me want to sneeze, but that sensation fades as it dries and blends so well with the scent a few hours in that it's hard to pick out. There is definitely something resembling vanilla here. It's been over 9 hours since I applied it and it's still going strong.

While it's still wet, I get vetiver and the smoke--cade, is that you? The smoky vetiver is very strong until 30 minutes into the drydown, where I start picking up patch and a bit of the dead leaves note. About two hours later, the smoke and vetiver fade and now I can smell a hint of vanilla. This is absolutely lovely, as all of the anniversary scents I've tried have been!