Tal Shachar

A Lab frimp that I would never have chosen for myself, because I stay away from chocolate, mint, and (as much as I can) orange. Surprisingly the tangerine was blown out of the water by the grapefruit, which is a note I do love. I looked it up and zdravetz is just a kind of geranium. Okay, no problem there. This stayed light, feminine, pretty, and not really very weird at all. It reminds me of Arcana's Soft-Hearted, which also has a dominant pink grapefruit note. I can't eat grapefruit anymore because it interacts with a med that I take (for real) so I like having it in perfume--both delicate and energetic, and surprisingly long-lasting. After 7 hours I can still pick it up on my sleeve. I get zero chocolate mint, yay! So I like this? Maybe that's weird after all.

I get wood and...flowers and wood? Usually leather is a note that positively screams on me, so I don't know where it is this time. I know that when I smelled this the other day I could get the plastic and leather, but testing it today on skin, not so much. It's still lovely--something here is behaving like vanilla, possibly the wool making things softer and warmer. I love the fougere element too, a delicate green underlying the other notes. The rosin blends with the sandalwood at first and isn't easy for me to pick out, but then it gradually emerges and evolves. It's a beautiful dark, dusty scent...reminds me of German Expressionism but not nearly as nose-tickling as that one gets for me.

Oh man, I am in trouble. Something in this (and I couldn't guess what) seems vaguely plastic or rubbery on me, not unlike the plastic notes in Adam...but it's in a good way? We have an old antique washstand at my house that my grandfather built, and the drawer is full of miscellaneous weird junk along with old plastic packets of pipe tobacco. When I was a kid I would open that drawer and come out with something somewhere between junk and a toy (an old watch, a tiny horn for a tricycle, army medals, a miniature Bible, any damn thing) and it would have this intense smell of wood, tobacco, and creaky old plastic. Of course there's no tobacco in this, and there shouldn't be plastic, but it smells dark, old, and intensely evocative. On me, the jasmine isn't excessive, but my skin tends to play pretty well with that note. The vanilla, as usual, is barely there for me. (Sometimes vanilla will come back after three hours or so to say hello again before disappearing. My skin is ridiculous.) The hay and ambrette are probably contributing to the memory-overload factor, since those smells are so subtle, earthy, and human. I really love this, in all its strangeness, and I'm getting to be stressed about the OLLA collection in general. I already missed Eve and just barely nabbed Adam in time! What beautiful stuff.

Frimp from the Lab, and I like this a lot more than I expected! The wine note is not shy, but maybe my skin chemistry is changing as I become ancient and withered, because the wine only takes a few minutes to calm down--anything with wine used to be instant Welch's Grape Juice on me. Instead this turns into dark sexy jasmine and myrrh with rose. I could see myself with a bottle of this, as if I need more bottles.

Whoa, yup, lemongrass. Something somehow sugary here too. (Why am I reviewing an herbal scent with no listed notes, I have no hope of cracking this case.) It doesn't really develop anywhere from lemon onward. Like most of the Conjure scents, it smells nice but not so nice that you'd wear it just for the scent, you know? If I'm going to wear a lemon-candy smell it had better be a great segulah for parnossah, as the Orthodox say.

I usually stay away from cinnamon/cassia/anything that sounds like it has cinnamon in it. Not allergic, just find it a boring note that takes over. It doesn't do that here--there's an ash note that I think I recognise from Hellfire, and pine and/or mint giving that effervescent thing, cinnamon for sure, a fresh ginger (I think that's responsible for the lemony bit), and something smoky. I like it, although it's quite odd, mainly because the first blast of heat is so striking when I open the imp. Mission accomplished, that's the smell of a djinn, all right. I don't know how often I'll reach for it, but it's wearable.

Frimp from the Lab. Without looking at the notes, my thought was "wow, single note leather", but I can smell the metal now that I know it's there. No blood, or at least none of the blood notes that often give me pause--this isn't dragon's blood, or wine, or tomato leaf, or the odd barbecue-sauce note I got from scents like Valentine of Rome. So I suppose it smells like actual blood, which is to say like metal and a bit of skin musk. It's a really great leather note, and like SweetEpiphanies just said above, "shoe store" really hits the nail on the head. I love that leather smell. Maybe this warrior just got himself a fresh new jerkin and gauntlets and he's ready to hit the town.

I was very worried about the lettuce in this being weird on my skin. Fortunately, I get coconut/white chocolate that is indeed very frosty (hint of extremely subtle mint there that adds the cooling effect). The lettuce fades in and out as a dewy, crisp bit of green. I get florals but not any lilac that I'm familiar with--I know it's one of those flowers that can only be approximated with accords, but so far I've had bad luck in getting the perfect lilac, soft and dreamy and spring-like. But this is lovely, pale, and very strange while still being pretty. The various components settle together into a whole that can't be divvied up into separate notes, something white and velvety-soft but remote.

As much as I love resins, I never bought this one in years past, but got it this year to remind me of my late father. My dad was highest of the High Church Anglicans, and he used to train the altar servers--incense was one of his favourite things, and he was way disappointed when his church stopped having it (lots of people are allergic, I guess). Anyway, does this smell like the classic Three Kings stuff that I remember from childhood, hanging out in the sacristy with him while he tidied up? Not quite, but close. Unlike a lot of the Lab's resinous blends, this one distinctly smells like smoke and not just the raw unburned grains. It's more fruity and less woody than the incense I remember (which almost certainly has cedar or sandalwood in the mix somewhere), and there might be something creamy like beeswax going on in this too. I like this a whole lot, but it doesn't strike that instant sense memory the way I was hoping.

This was amazing on me, it's the standout of the Yules for me so far. As people have said, the furry musk is similar to Coyote/Ivanushka, and the starry forest resembles the snowy forest of Moon of Small Spirits, a chilly and slightly effervescent note. Same soft pines as in that one too, where they smell like trees rather than pine air fresheners. And yet it's definitely worth having all on its own: the musk is a few ticks more toward the masculine side (still pretty unisex), a little less sweetness and more bite. This is one of those scents where you go OMG I CAN STILL SMELL IT ON MY SCARF MMMM. I may buy a backup bottle just because I don't think it attracted too many people. The fools! I shall take it all!

Nobody else said it yet? Garden Path with Chickens. I had to get that one out to compare, and to me they smell very, very close. Garden Path has the rose and verbena making it sharper and more floral, while the musk in Pa-Pow is very soft and sweet, but the grassiness and the "peppery" smell of the flowers is the same to my nose. I love it, so it's nice to have a Garden Path with Puppies version. I really love this furry musk, which I think is in Faunalia as well (the Coyote/Ivanushka/Hunter Moon sweet-fur-smell), and it's very low-key compared to those ones. Lighter, not as dense and sweet, and it stays close to the skin while the planty notes waft upwards from my wrist. Once the grass goes (grass always goes so fast, sigh) the flowers soften up and it's a quietly sweet outdoorsy-fresh scent, herbal more than floral. I like this a lot.

Moon of Small Spirits has a strangely fizzy quality to me, I think a combo of the snow and cranberry notes.

I bought this solely because I love the whole Year-Without-a-Summer cadre, including the hapless Dr Polidori. Also, hope springs eternal concerning the lab's blood accord--I really want it to work instead of smelling like grape juice (Head of Holofernes) or steak sauce (Valentine of Rome and Mort de Cesar). Lord Ruthven scores because yes indeed, that sullen lurking note does smell like blood. The aqua admirabilis is a very masculine cologne smell in the bottle, but on my skin it quickly gets an oddly sweet and musky-creamy note which I maybe would compare to Hunter Moon--that's the closest thing to leather that I get. (Bear in mind my skin makes a lot of things sweeter than they are.) This note overwhelms the cologne, paper covers rock. It's creamy leather and very subtle blood, the exact metallic-salty smell of blood, and a little strange because of that. I like masculine scents so I approve.

The tonka and champaca are very strong in the bottle, creating an almost foody impression that surprised me, but on my skin the pepper and ginger dispel that--penetrating and gifted, yes, with the softness of the sandalwood and florals adding the vulnerability. I'm very pleased because the poppy/opium smoke note doesn't turn plasticky on me the way it usually does; it's quite muted and well-behaved, not too harsh at all. Not a whole lot of staying power or throw (but I'm sure that would change if I wore it out somewhere, since lately that seems to be the only way to make sure my perfume gets aggressive). I like this quite a bit and I think it will become my benchmark for poppy/opium notes. The ginger is also great on me while it lasts.

I was about to post that I have no idea what people are talking about when they say "tart", because it was initially very smooth and soft when applied to my wrists, but for some reason when I added more on my elbows the ginger and bergamot came right out. So I see it now--in fact when I sniff between the two sites I get two different sides of the blend, the gentle sweetness of the fig and olive blossom on my wrists and the sharper ginger and bergamot on my elbows. Surprisingly I don't pick up frankincense, which is usually not shy on my skin. Pierre Trudeau said, "Justice is to me a warm spirit, born of tolerance and wisdom, present everywhere, ready to serve the highest purposes of rational man." The golden gentleness and clarity in this really does evoke justice and democracy as a warm spirit as opposed to something cold or harsh or cynical, and that's what I love about it. It does have very little throw, so I'll save it for occasions when I don't want to be an obnoxious walking scent cloud.

Small amount frimped by the very generous GoldenRubee. In the imp the sharp effervescence is really remarkable and very true--until I read the ginger ale comparison and yeah, I can see that. It's been awhile since I smelled champagne in the flesh, unfortunately, but as a boozy note it's a great success. The tobacco is definitely of the not-yet-smoked variety, the cigars still in the box, and for some reason BPAL's tobacco notes are always very subtle on me. It's a nice blend of both fun and sophistication.

On me this was a very refined orange blossom with a hint of clove and pine. I distinctly remember a time when musks terrified me because they were all so loud on my skin, but I guess times have changed. Even the mint is nowhere to be found, and mint is usually not shy on me. This feels gentle and warm and not at all masculine, quite pretty, and considering the dangerous orange/clove/pine combo I should be glad it doesn't turn into car air freshener. But...but I wanted the black musk and tobacco! Not fair.

I'm surprised I didn't review this when I got it, which was months back, but it's my Grassy Scent, a more feminine Ides of March. The grass is sharp, no lie, and the florals have a retiring quality--they're there, doing their thing, but even the heavy hitters like rose and gardenia are hard to pick out if you don't know they're there. The grass, though, THE GRASS is so note-perfect that it just makes my eyes roll up. It softens in short order and yet even so I can understand this grass being just too pointy for some people. The ivy is also a notable player and a note that I just love every time it shows up, like a friend I haven't seen in awhile. I like all the Salons I've tried so far but this one is just special. It smells like summer. (Yes, summer, spring smells way muddier and snowier around here.)

First impression: Dammit, Welch's grape juice. I knew it, I knew it, but severed-head/blood/leather/galbanum overcame my good judgement. It was supposed to be musky and resiny, a thing of beauty, not this foul abomination! It does improve on the skin. The purple-Jell-o quality calms way down and it opens up in a pretty awesome way. Galbanum, yay! The monolithic juicy purple scent opens out, the leather note popping and the dried blood accord coming out. The dried blood is essentially metal but...well, it does smell like blood, although I'm not sure I'd make that association without the description. Onycha appears later, which I recognise from Hades. Overall, this is much more interesting than I would initially have given it credit for, but I could still live without the fruitiness. The leather-metal-wine-incense combo means it's quite a bit like The Black Tower, and I like the latter better because the wine there just passes in and out on my skin instead of sitting right out in front.

I loved Chanukkiyah a ton, which is why I bought this, hoping for more of the same mojo even though the listed notes made it look less complex. And it is; the sugar-donut note in Chanukkiyah disappeared as soon as it hit my skin so that blend was all olive oil/beeswax/fig/pomegranate and lo it was good. Hanerot Halalu does with me what it seems to do with most people: orange stage, followed by beeswax and olive and then smoke. When wet it seems to have what I would label musk, something sharp and...greenish but not planty or sweet (unhelpful description). After a lot of sniffing I think it's just the olive getting off to a loud start. The smoke is present for me but after a bit of promising birthday-candle wispiness it becomes a more familiar and less interesting frankincensey scent. I am not one to complain about olive, beeswax and light frankincense, and if there were wood in there (or fig) I would have bought a second bottle in my Christmas Order Mark II. Note that I have never yet bought a second bottle of anything, I'm too greedy for novelty. So Hanerot Halalu is rich and warm and comforting like a candlelit front hallway after you come in from the snow, but it falls just short of being a Chanukkah holy grail (wow mixed metaphors).

I don't know what rhododendron or bellflower smell like, but apparently the answer is "delicate, understated florals." This started out as a gentle aquatic that I really enjoyed, but on the drydown it seemed to...dry up. The impression of water goes away in favour of some odd note that I can't describe--almost scorched. Either that or something's cooking around here somewhere and Danube has just faded so much that that's all I'm picking up. Anything is possible. Obviously one expects delicate scents not to last, but I liked this one and am somewhat disappointed.

Holy crap, how can something so sexy smell so classy? The vanilla musk fades quickly on me as it always does, to my annoyance, because it's a fantastic note. The amber and the spicy carnation are what last on me, with the sandalwood lurking underneath (sandalwood is always the last one off the train). Resinous but classic and womanly. Might be scent locket material since damn, I miss that vanilla musk once it disappears.

This reminds me a lot of Tzadikim Nistarim, which makes sense given the frankincense and hyssop, but it has the same gentle sweetness--not aggressive resins in the slightest. I can just about get the ylang ylang but not the rose geranium, unless I use a bit of imagination. (I can smell the herbal/floral element just fine in the bottle, mind, but my skin loves resins.) Tzadikim Nistarim is one of my all-time favourites, and this has the same calming, spiritual quality.

Bizarrely, even though patchouli and red musk are ordinarily not shy at all on my skin, I don't get them at all. This smells like a sweet, innocent floral on me, which fades quite quickly. I don't dislike it at all, but I'm just surprised since I've never had patchouli go MIA before, and ordinarily anything with musk of any colour will last foreeeeeeeever. The florals are well-blended and not at all piercing or hard to wear, and very feminine. I can even smell the patchouli in the bottle just fine! What the hell? Sorry, still hung up on that. Black currant and orchid had me worried initially, since they can get too sweet and heady for me sometimes, but they're just hanging out in the background. Lotus root is subtle but I always enjoy it, as in Silence and Diwali. This can easily become a favourite just as it is now, and probably will remain that way when my chemistry goes back to normal in a few days and remembers that it loves patchouli and red musk.

Musk and incense both love my skin, so here they are rather drowning out the subtler bookish note. If I really press my nose to my wrist and inhale I can catch the dusty papery smell, but otherwise I will have to be content with the musk--light, but not sharp like the musk in Aziraphale--and the dusty, soft incense. No hard edges in this library, and between this one and Hunter Moon I now have two scents where the musk is actually my favourite thing in the blend. As it dries, the paper note does emerge more, to my delight. It's not as throat-tickly as Aziraphale's dusty Bible accord, but it's just about as dry. (Am I alone in specifically loving the smell of mildewed books? That used-bookshop smell is what I keep hoping for from these scents and I never get it.) A resin/musk scent that's actually subtle, I can get behind that.