Lethran

Really, I'll take any excuse to recommend Crowley.

In Bottle: This is a whole lot of scent. I’m calling it peat dominant with strong musk support and a kiss of minty ice. The wood grounds it and the more delicate heather wreaths the peat. Except for the heather, everything here is strong and distinct. This is well designed, but overwhelming to me. Wet: The Mint and Wood really sing. I’m calling the Mint dominant. The musk is second, and the wood third, but again, everything is so strong it overwhelms both me and the peat. It’s simply tpoo much with all the amping, t6hough it would likely work on someone with gentler skin chemistry and different sensitivities who really likes minty ice accord. Dry: Mostly Peatand musk with a touch of ice. I like it best on the dry down.

In Bottle: This is a lot sweeter than I expected, as I was not previously aware of Scottish Tablet as confectionery. Given the recipe, I’m calling this Scottish Tablet dominant as creamy, sugary vanilla not quite fudge is exactly what I smelled when I opened the bottle that sent me to google to figure out what was going on. (Me: This smells like fudge without the chocolate!) The flowers are delicate and compliment the confection well. I’m calling them marginally stronger than the lovely parchment smell that blends really well with both stronger notes. Normally, leather stands out, but here is is soft and very appropriate support to the paper. Wet: It’s still Tablet dominant, but barely. The parchment is now a strong second. There is a hint of frost on the pale and unusual choice of flowers. As it warms, the leather quickly moves into dominance over all. My skin really amps leather, so YMMV. I was fascinated by how unusual it was in the bottle, it is much less unusual on the skin as it turns into a classic leather furnished library scent, with a kiss of sweetness and the ghost of frosted flowers. This is exactly the sort of thing I like, but I mourn the delicate beauty of it in the imp. Dry: Powdery Scottish Tablet.

In Bottle: Brightly currant dominant with wine support on a canvass of mahogany. The mahogany is understated, but lovely. Wet: I really love the current. It’s so bright and cheerful. The wine is still in support and goes really well with it, but is more distinct on the skin. I’m not generally good with wine notes, but I might just be able to carry this because they go so well together. The mahogany is gentle but absolutely lovely with the currant. For my taste, I’d rather more mahogany and no wine, but I really like this and it’s a good design. Dry: Red Currant, mostly.

Normaslly their aren't that many Lupers that interest me (except for the year they did all the Ares scents), but there are so many exciting looking tea scents in the Shungas this year. Damn!

In Bottle: Lots of the minty snow note, beautifully blended with it’s apple support, with touches of vaguely dusty burlap. This is way too much mint for me, and it’s very likely peppermint. The dominant mint is way too strong for me to skin test, but it really does go well with apple.

In Bottle: Strongly gingerbread dominant, with a bit of citrus bite, and a touch of musk giving it an unexpected roundness. The lilac goes well with musk and fougere to give an unexpected hint of sex appeal. Wet: The ginger really pops on the skin. The scent is incredibly well blended, the rest of the foodiness and supporting the delightful ginger, and the sexiness winding around the edges. Dry: Fast fading, alas!

In Bottle: Caveat: I am not familiar with all these notes. Balsam and wood dominant, with musk in well blended support. The poisons have a delicate green, herbal feel to them, but I can not tell you which is which. They do have a dangerous feel to them in aggregate. Wet: Really rich and interesting on the skin. The musk become dominant with the balsam in close support. The herbal poisons twine all through it, greeting a wild, green, over grown witch’s garden feel to the whole thing. It is beautiful and fiercely untamed. It is not a comfortable smell. There is a component here that reminds me of the lab’s fizz note or possibly their ozone. I am wondering if one or more of the notes I am less familiar with is in or related to something in those accords. Could this be the starlight in the description, mayhap? Dry: Woody balsam, with musk and an herbal edge.

Something must be reassuring to the almond, in the evening star, and the snow-wind, and the long, long, nights: almond blossom, hoar-frost, and snow-wind. In Bottle: Extremely Snow dominant with a kiss of almond blossom to sweeten it. This is way too much mint for me just in the bottle, so I won’t be skin testing. This snow note is very mint and ozone, and does give a snow-wind and frost impression

In bottle: I have no personal experience with sugandh kokila, so this review is a touch speculative. I can think of no other blend like this. It’s unique and distinctive the pimento leaf and ink are sharp and strong, working together beautifully with what guessing is a partnership of sugandh kokila and vellum. There is a parchment spicy woody feel to that leads me to guess that’s what’s going on. The leather and sandalwood are soft support to that partnership. This fig is soft, and ties things together. I have no words to describe this fragrance properly, but am mesmerized. Wet: Even inkier on the skin. The pimento leaf separates out and softens, though it still plays beautifully with the ink, paper, and woods. It is more steampunky now, with an industrial edge to it. The vellum strengthens, moving to second strongest behind the ink. I think I like it better in the bottle, but I love the old library feel of this, with the woods forming shelves for the scrolls, and leather bindings of old books. The fig winds sinuously through. Dry: Mostly ink and the woods, with a touch of parchment.

In bottle: A particularly salty iteration of the ocean note common in many BPAL aquatics, with dark green kelp and gentler willow lending the sea salt volume and depth. Wet: Much sweeter on the skin. The ocean accord breaks down so that bits of it do lovely things with the willow, while other bits join the salt and kelp to lend a hint of briny darkness. The willow really sings here. Dry: Mostly salty ocean, with a kiss of willow.

In bottle: Minty snow dominant, supported by soft cardamom. The comfits are pervasive. The currants lend a soft juiciness. Wet: Mostly the snow note, mildly sweetened, with the mint and cardamom making a sharp green edge. I thought it might be to much at first, but it settles nicely given a few minutes. Dry: Minty snow dominant still, but the cardamom really pops on the dry down.

In bottle: That is very much cranberry cider. The cranberry is strongest, a slash of bright red over apple fizz. Wet: It is extremely cranberry on my skin, with the fizz softer than in the bottle, which suits my taste. This is beautifully tart. Yum! Dry: Christmas spices and cranberries.

In bottle: Very sweet and surprisingly cherry. No really. This seems to be mostly cherry with a rich, caramel underbelly and a hint of salt. I am starting to wonder if there was some sort of decanting accident, though it could be a parsing error where my brain is masking accidental accords out of bits of the accords in the blend, which happens. Wet: I’m still mostly getting lots of cherry now with whipped cream. Now and then I can get it to resolve into salted caramel, so I’m thinking this is a scent my brain doesn’t parse well. It’s lovely when I concentrate enough to make it work, but mostly, it’s sundae toppings. Dry: Ah! There is the caramel. It’s gorgeous on the dry down and nothing like cherry at all. If it smelled like this to me the whole time, I’d be in love, but it’s a bit intense in the early stages.

In bottle: This smells pretty much as you’d expect. The pumpkin and treacle go together beautifully. The pecans give it some extra pop. The crust it a gentle background tying it all together. Wet: Oddly smoky on the skin. I think it’s the strengthened nut note doing odd things with the pumpkin and crust accords. This is strangely compelling. I am likely mis-parsing this, as happens to me with some accords, so YMMV if you have a more typical sensorium. I love the way the accord elements separate and recombine here. It does smell much more like pecan pie than in the bottle and it reminds me of the scent of colonial style fireplace cooking, as if Mother Shub was baking in a colonial fireplace and just pulled the pies out of the oven on one of those big paddles. Dry: The pecans have surprising staying power, I think because they are floating on some bitas of pumpkin accord and a lost fragment of pie. This blend fascinates me because it does so many weird things with my brain.

In bottle: This is weirdly delicious. The skin musk is strong. The wax note gives it body. The leather is soft, dancing in and out of view. There is a honey sweetness to the “rot” which is second strongest. There is a kiss of ash and stone. I really like this. It’s a honeyed, more dangerous cousin to Chanukah. Wet: The ash really comes out on the skin. The leather and the sweetness come together and become strong su8pport for the ash, with the skin musk bringing the sexy and the wax softening all the edges. It’s not like Chanukah on the skin much at all. Dry: Mostly leather with sexy skin musk and sweet wood in support. This really grew on me. I like it best after the ash burns off.

In bottle: This is lovely is a very pink sugary sort of way. It’s a tiny bit like play-do, but in a nice way. Pink spun sugar snow really is a good description. There is a touch of the snow note that works best of the lab snow scents for me, but it’s all about the sugar really. Wet: The sugar is still strongest, but the snow is a bit stronger and the mint in the snow accord does a dance with the sugar. There is something a bit plastic as a result. I loved this in the bottle, but my skin chemistry starts to curdle it to my great regret. Dry: Settles down to the spun sugar note with a kiss of mint.

In bottle: This is almost entirely the ozoney snow note that I prefer among the lab snow scents. There may be too much mint in this one for me, what with the cold stone being so delicate and there being so little it mitigate it. There is a sharpness I suspect represents “unholy fire,” though it’s also delicate and mostly lost in the snow to the point I’m not sure if it’s just part of the snow accord. Wet: Way more complex on the skin. There is now a strong evergreen note of some kind which is likely part of the snow accord. (Pine isn’t right. It’s one of the others in that family, I’m guessing). The mint in the icicle accord blends better here now that the evergreen balances it. The stone stays soft, but is more noticeable. There is some extra body to the scent now, an eleme3nt I can’t quite identify which might be the u8nholy part of the fire, so my in bottle guess might be wrong. Either way, this is pretty much the snow note from Death of a Gravedigger with some hints of other things. Dry: Snow Accord.

I've got to add Knight in Shiny Armour to the list. It's got this sexy dandy knight thing going on.

In bottle: Strong black soil with a hint of smoke. I suspect there is a touch of pine and/or moss in there. Wet: The smoke really expands on the skin, to the point it may be too much. Smoke dominant with soil in support. It really does smells like the remains of a fire in loamy pine forest. Dry: Fire i9n a pine forest after the rain. The soil is twined with smoke.

In bottle: The Internet tells me vasilopita is a king cake, but recipes vary pretty wildly, so I’m going to lump it with the other baked goods under “cake.” This fragrance is fascinating. The strongest notes are cake and white chocolate, with almond and coconut in support. The peas and greens are understated and ground the sweeter elements. The rice wine gives a touch of bite. The grapes and pomegranate fill out the baked goods with a juicer feel. Wet: The grapes, pomegranate, and wine are a bit more noticeable and the cake is now supporting a dominant whit chocolate note, with the almond and coconut more prominent, yet still in support. This is delicate, but interesting. Dry: Mostly white chocolate with some pomegranate and coconut tinged cake.

In bottle: Pine resin with lots of musk. There is something woody and something like polish with a hint of the sweet. Wet: The dominant pine resin softens on the skin while the rich woody scent moves into mild dominance. The musk is one of the gentler ones, but rich enough to blend beautifully with the wood and rosin. I am now suspecting a touch of incense tying things together. This is lovely and on the slightly masculine side of androgynous. Dry: Fast fading to wood with a touch of rosin.

In bottle: (Aged sample). Cocoa and incense over Snake Oil, with sugar, probably nuts and extra musk, and maybe a touch of berry. The incense is strongest with cocoa second. Wet: Cocoa dominant with incense a strong second with musk and snake oil in general in third. It is less complex on my skin. As it warms the musk and insence move into first place. Dry: Incensey Snake Oil.

In bottle: Strongly orange blossom dominant grounded by a hint of sexy patchouli, This is lovely, but there is no chance of this working on me. Iof you love orange blossom, this is your scent.

In bottle: This has a hint of bubble gum about it. The grapefruit lends the strawberry accord some bite and they do go surprisingly well together. The musks infuse everything with a bit of sex appeal. The combination looks a bit odd on paper, nut makes perfect sense to the nose. Wet: Very strawberry bubble gum, with the other notes dancing in the background. This scent is way too young for me, but would be excellent on a young woman. Dry: Smells like rose. Is rose part of the strawberry accord maybe?