Review: 6 Ten Three Labs Scents

I've been procrastinating on my Ten Three Labs scent reviews since my schedule's been a bit crazy lately. I finally did it! For my past Ten Three Labs reviews, you can go to the Ten Three Labs tag on the right or click here.

After looking at the scent notes (I do my reviews blind until the TL;DRs are written), I realized I should've put my review for Always Carry Roses & In The Kingdom of Shades and Silence (review here) in this review, because all of them except for Brother Sestra contains osmanthus.

I'm not sure if Cara is trying to get me to like osmanthus after I mentioned I didn't like osmanthus from trying it in Conjure Oils scents. I realized Ten Three Labs' osmanthus note doesn't really agree with me and smells kind of like calcium supplement fruit flavours on me. The osmanthus bit is unfortunately going to colour my perceptions of these scents.

Also, I do notice that lately, I'm running into more longevity problems with Ten Three Labs. In my previous review, I stated:

1 1/2-2h, before getting to intimate whispering distance until about 3-4h since initial application. I usually smell faint traces for over 10+h.

Now, several scents don't even get to an hour before fading into faded, faint traces on my skin. Two scents (Chocolate Mint, Miror Twin) even fades from my skin within minutes.

Without further ado, here are the scent reviews:

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324B21

"Amber, patchouli, nag champa, osmanthus."

This is a gorgeous honey scent! It's like honey and tea, with touches of clean, powdery, baby blue soap. It's such a comforting scent in a way. It's a scent I can see on a very elegant, serene young mom. It's beautiful, elegant and yet feels like you're being hugged by your mom again when you were a kid (or nanny if you're Indonesian with an Indonesian mom like me). Unfortunately, it gets cloyingly sweet on me at times, but my skin does tend to amp up sugary scents. The cloyingly sweet part is that chemical sort of sweetness like the smell of markers.

TL;DR: Markers, honey & powdery baby blue soap.

Overview: The patchouli & nag champa may be adding to the bitter bit that makes the sweet part smells like markers.

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Brother Sestra

"Labdanum absolute, petitgrain, smoke, peppered poppies, bergamot."

This is a cross between orange creamsicle and Chinese preserved orange peels. Chinese orange peels are different from how "Western" cooking does it. It looks like this:

Image found on aliexpress

It has this acrid, dusty, salty & sour smell on top of that dried old orange smell. There's also a Chinese medicine bitterness in it, so it kinda smells like the kind of Chinese medicine that someone attempted to sweeten with Chinese dried orange peels and sour plums. After about 5 min or so, there's a sort of cool, soapy scent like the smell of unscented soap suds. Unfortunately, it adds to the medicinal feel of the scent.  This isn't for me.

TL;DR: Chinese medicine sweetened with traditional Chinese dried orange peels & sour plums.

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Corporate Clone 

"Hinoki wood, green tea, cucumber, blackberry, osmanthus."

There's a room spray blue that does remind me of corporate waiting rooms, and tart, melon flavoured bubblegum. I personally like the melon bubblegum scent, but I know it's not for everyone. This is another scent that fades into faint traces in under 1h.

TL;DR: Melon bubblegum with a blue note.

Overview: I think the blackberry mixed with cucumber ends up turning into melon bubblegum.

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Homicidal Soccer Mom

"Merlot, chardonnay, petitgrain, orange blossom, osmanthus."

It starts off smelling like a boozy, spritzy lemonade with something that smells like a cloying artificial grape musk underneath. After about 5-8 min, it starts smelling like a fruity black tea with just hints of that cloying grape hiding in the background.

Luckily after 15 min into the scent, the cloying part goes away and it becomes this gorgeous, fresh fruit tea scent. It's hard to figure out what fruits are in the fruit tea bit, but I'd guess it's a peach-apricot sort of medley.

The scent fades to faint traces on my skin in less than an hour though, and the traces it leaves is back to that artificial grape.

TL;DR: Fresh peach-apricot medley tea.

Overview: The merlot or chardonnay may be behind the grape scent, and I guess mixed with everything, they end up smelling like a peach-apricot medley?

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Mirror Twin

"Almond, oleander, osmanthus, a small dose of dirt, a hint of blood."

Ooooh almond pudding! The Chinese-style that's usually decorated with maraschino cherries and other canned fruits.

And it tastes delicious!
Image courtesy of tokyo5.wordpress

The almond with maraschino cherries bit reminds me of Lathers & Lights' shampoo in Almond Rum Cake, only this scent has hints of other canned fruits.

Unfortunately, this scent has a very low throw on me and within 2 min into the scent, it faded to the point where I have to get up to kissing distance to the spot where I applied it to catch a faint whiff. By  10-15 min, I can only catch lingering traces of the scent, and the lingering traces is Chinese pickled fruits in chilli. The kind that looks like this:

They're sweet & sour with an almost metallic tang.

TL;DR: Chinese almond pudding turning into Chinese pickled fruits in chili.

Overview: I'm guessing it's the blood and dirt creating the pickled in chilli scent, and the osmanthus is behind the artificial fruits scent again.

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Not Beth

"Leather, tobacco, smoke, blood orange, osmanthus."

This takes a while to settle. At first I got Chinese medicine and acrid, dried orange peels. When it settles, there's that cloying grape again, the one I got from Homicidal Soccer Mom. There's smoke, preserved prunes & Chinese medicine. This scent hates me.

TL;DR: Smoke, preserved prunes & Chinese medicine

Review: 5 Scents from Ten Three Lab's Marshmallow Menagerie Collection & 5 General Catalogue Scents

/u/ifweburn and I have been exchanging goodies with each other and here are reviews of the perfumes she sent me. My previous Ten Three Labs scent reviews can be found here.

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Marshmallow Menagerie Collection

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Aussie Rice Treat

"Puff rice covered with butter and melted marshmallows."

Oh wow this is good. It's like a powdery musk sort of scent with buttery caramel. The butter is the salty buttered popcorn sort of butter rather than the milky sort of butter. The scent ends up being a very girly powdery musk smell, but it's all grown up and expensive. The powdery musk is the very powdery type that you either love or hate –the kind that brings up images of baby doll dresses, bows and lace. However, there's this luxurious sort of touch to it that gives it a grown up elegance. Even though it's a heavier sort of scent, it's still more of a youthful socialite in thousand dollar baby doll dresses.

I was torn between this picture or a gorgeous Dior couture dress, but while the Dior dress is closer to the dress I was thinking of, this model has great hair.
Gorgeous photography by Serg Piltnik

It's definitely not as gourmand as I expected given the name, but I still like it.

After about 40 min, it starts drying down to a coconut-ish scent to this. It's a tad sunblock-ish on me, but it's not too bad.

TL;DR: Young socialites in baby doll dresses.

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Chocolate Mint

"Marshmallows flavored with chocolate and mint."

Mint chocolate chip ice cream. YUM. That's all I have to say.

Kinda weird, but this disappeared on me in just 20 min. I have to sniff close to my skin, and all I get is this weird, clay-like smell lingering on my skin. No more mint chocolate chip ice cream. I guess it's not just my stomach that loves wolfing down mint chocolate chip ice cream.

TL;DR: Ephemeral mint chocolate chip ice cream.

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Orange Ginger

"Marshmallows flavored with orange and ginger."

I'm actually getting a creamy orange ginger ale from this. I can sniff out the orange since I'm looking out for it, but if I didn't know there's orange in this, I'd say it smells exactly like a cream soda.

The creamy fizziness unfortunately only lasted about 3-5 min before going flat, so it ends up smelling like a cream soda that has gone flat after being left out for hours. When this scent dries down, it smells exactly like a candy I used to have as a kid, but I can't put my finger on what candy it is.

TL;DR: Creamy orange ginger ale that goes from fizzy to flat.

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Lavender Chai

"Marshmallows flavored with lavender and chai."

Yup, I smell lavender and chai. The chai is they kind without milk, and not the Starbucks' weak version of "chai". It's a a hot, spicy chai. I would still say that it's a more Americanized chai since it smells different from the chai I got from India. It's missing some spices, and I'm not sure what they are.

As surprising as this is, the combination works. The lavender blended in to become more of an icy, balsam-like scent, so together with the chai, it becomes a floral, warm & spicy scent, with hints of a tingling coolness. It smells like a very upscale, massage oil. The kind that's used in spas with names in foreign words that are exotic sounding enough to make it seem like they possess ancient wisdom from far off, "exotic" lands, but not exotic enough to the point that they're unpronounceable for their clientelle. And charges hundreds of dollars per session.

Relax....it'll only cost you half your paycheck.
This is the Thann Sanctuary Spa at Crown Plaza Phuket, image courtesy of aey.me

Kinda off topic but why does wisdom always come from far off, exotic lands? Americans travel to Bali, Indonesia to meditate and listen to Balinese wisdom, Indonesians travel to listen to American mega church pastors preach some prosperity gospel. Surely there's cheaper ways of finding wisdom?

TL;DR: Upscale massage oil from a pseudo "exotic" spa.

Overview: It's very clean and I don't really smell edible bits in here.

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Sea Salt Caramel

"Marshmallows flavored with sea salt & caramel."

At first, I got a blue sort of scent and burnt caramel. The caramel got more and more sweet and burnt to the point where it's searing. For the first 10 min, my brain won't cooperate and I keep getting the feeling that I'm sniffing two separate scents instead of one blended scent. There's the searing, super sweet, burnt caramel and there's the blue scent that reminds me of a feminine, calming blue perfume that I can see on very elegant, poised women.

When the two distinct scents finally melded into one, it becomes pretty nice. It becomes a heavier sort of women's perfume that has a powdery sort of heaviness to it, but there's hints of something delicious that gets you hungry. It doesn't smell like sea salt caramel or anything edible, but definitely smells like a perfume. The heavy, powdery part of the perfume makes me think of lush, sensual women, but the edible part just makes me think of comforting things like lounging in pyjamas all day. I guess the closest picture I can find to capture this scent will be this:

Ok, I know those aren't pyjamas, but searching for "high fashion pyjamas" only gave me pictures of pissed off looking runway models, dudes, ethnic clothes racistly tagged as pyjamas, and women looking like they're about to braid each others' hair.
Awesome photography by Ikenna Douglas

TL;DR: Seductive, lush women lounging in pyjamas.

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General Catalogue Scents

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Always Carry Roses 

"Victorian rose, vanilla, blackcurrant, osmanthus." 

I just got very sweet, powdery, candied rose. It's the kind of powdery rose that always makes me think of people who love explosions of lace and frills and will buy this dress in a heartbeat:

This is definitely a scent for rose fans. My skin loves amping up sweet scents on me, so this went crazy sweet on me. I can see it working well for other people though. The sweetness does calm down after about 40-45 min on me, but it's still a bit too sweet for me. 

TL;DR: Very sweet, powdery, candied rose.

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In the Kingdom of Shades and Silence

"Vanilla, bay rum, tobacco, bergamot, osmanthus."

Starts off as a candied Pepsi but about 10-15 min in, it becomes more of a sweet, slightly heavy musk that still retains the candied Pepsi tinge. The musk has a suede-like quality that I smelled in Superstition's Willing Victim, but there's also something going off in the background like searing caramel going too sweet. The combination is definitely interesting –it becomes a kiddy grown up scent. Not a grown up kiddy scent. It makes me think of little girls dressed up as middle aged women and looking too old for their age. 

Think pageant kids, only less trashy and more old lady.
Pretty photography by Skaiste Vingilys

TL;DR: Kiddy musk.

Overview: After comparing the notes of Superstition's Willing Victim and this scent, I think it's the bay rum causing that suede-like musk sort of scent.

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Organic Blueberries 

"Blueberry, patchouli, nag champa, cannabis flower."

Patchouli & blueberries. Very strong patchouli.  This disappears crazy fast on me though, and in less than 5-10 min, it becomes diluted blueberry flavoured water with that old, musty smell from patchouli. I have to get close to the skin to catch a whiff.

TL;DR: Dank blueberry flavoured water.

Overview: On second sniff, I can definitely smell that game-y incense note that NAVA loves using (and often calls "Kashmir"), and I'm guessing it's the nag champa.  

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Where the Glory is in the Crowning 

"Blood orange, clove, cherry, myrrh."

It starts of as a fruity cough syrup marketed to kids, and morphs into a fruity bubble gum. It'll be one of those fruity bubble gum in green & yellow packaging and vaguely marketed as "tropical fruits" flavoured.

Someone recently told me gums are bad because the more you chew, the more jaw muscle you have and therefore, the fatter you look. I'm expecting to hear news of her choking on food because she didn't chew properly in the future.
Image courtesy of kellys-expat-shopping.nl

At moments, it starts taking on this sharp, spritzy pineapple-orange soda that has gone flat scent. The sharpness is more of a woody sort of sharpness rather than a room-spray sharpness. Eventually, it has that flat sort of sweetness that's like a bubble gum that's been chewed up and is a few chews away from going flavourless.

TL;DR: Tropical fruit bubblegum as it gets chewed up.

Overview: The myrrh and clove are probably the ones responsible for the searing scent.

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Superstition's Willing Victim

"Bay rum, peppermint, tea, lime, coconut, and sugar cane."

Well, for this one, /u/ifweburn used the description I gave her so this will probably sound familiar...

(I can't remember what I sent her but I swear she edited it to make me sound smoother)

There’s a suede-like musk smell, with mint. The suede-like musk smell often smells heavy, and sometimes even gets suffocatingly heavy, but mint balances it perfectly and keeps it light without making it smell like a toothpaste. This makes me think of rich ladies shopping in high-end boutiques…willing victims of conspicuous consumption and corporate marketing.

I never get the obsession with shoes. Don't get me wrong, I lust over pretty shoes and had fun in the Ferragamo museum, but I rather wear something I don't mind getting mud and poo on.
Amazing photography by Maja Topčagić

TL;DR: Shopping in high-end boutiques in winter.

Review & Swatches: Ten Three Labs Eyeshadows, Salve Sticks & Smudge Sticks

/u/ifweburn and I have been chatting and I ended up sending her stuff from Indonesia, and she sent me some stuff from her store, Ten Three Labs.

So here's what I got!

Those are seeds! I have no idea how to grow them but they're cool!

• Smudge Sticks: Vylette, All Vamp Everything
• Salve Stick: Flawless Victory -Ridiculous Strength Peppermint
• All 12 Eyeshadows from The Grand Reopening Collection: Bells Bells Bells Bells, Capoeira, Electric Love, Ehhhhuagh, Hello Blondie, It's Your Funeral,  Kuchi Kopi, Night Butterfly, Oil Spill, Thank You For Loving Me, The Butler, Zombie Butts

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Salve & Smudge Sticks Review

So these came shrinkwrapped:

And here's another plus for me, the top bit's pretty smooth!

It's a small thing, but messy balms always makes me sad, so I'm happy these are pretty neat.

Formula-wise, these will easily be my favourite lip balm formula if not for the flavour. I'm not saying this because I'm Cara's friend. I'm honestly incredibly impressed with these formula. First of all, they're very moisturizing. Secondly, it's solid, yet not oily. If we're putting lip balms on a spectrum from the oiliest to the waxiest, it'll sit in between Notoriously Morbid's Coffin Kissers and Haus of Gloi's lip balms. It's perfect for me.

Now here are my not-so-happy reviews of their tastes:

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Flawless Victory -Ridiculous Strength Peppermint

Ridiculous strength is right. It's so minty. To the point where it feels uncomfortably cold....and I'm in a tropical country. I'm not sure how this would feel in cold weather.

When I first tried this, in a moment of sheer genius (not), I thought, "Hey, my lips are burning cold! I should rub this chilli on my lips to neutralize the coldness!"

Turns out your lips can burn hot and cold and the same time.

All Vamp Everything

This is the flavour I'm most ok with out of the lot. It's an artificial cherry with mint but I'm ok with artificial cherry so it's not too bad. This has the perfect level of mintiness in my opinion –no more than a subtle, fresh tingle.

Vylette

This was the worst flavour for me. Artificial grapes. I HATE artificial grapes. There's also the perfect level of mintiness in this but gahhh SCREW YOU ARTIFICIAL GRAPES!!!

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Still, I love the formula a LOT, so I'll still highly recommend these. Not only are the formulas awesome, check out the swatches for All Vamp Everything & Vylette:

These are meant to be tinted balms, hence the slight "streakiness". From afar, they look great:

Cara really picked the perfect colours for me!

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Eyeshadows Review

Under natural light, swatched over Darling Girl's glitter glue

These formulas are definitely legit and contain bases. For a guide on identifying ingredients in your eyeshadows & why bases are important, click here. Here are the swatches:

Over Darling Girl's Glitter Glue
Left: Under artificial yellow-toned light to show the shift
Right: Under natural light

Over UDPP
Left: Under artificial yellow-toned light to show the shift
Right: Under natural light

Left: Under artificial yellow-toned light to show the shift
Right: Under natural light

Left: Under artificial yellow-toned light to show the shift
Right: Under natural light

For the mattes, I only did swatches over bare skin and primer, and under natural light, since there aren't any shifts to show off:

Both under natural light

I like these eyeshadows, but I noticed that I have a lot of problems with the lighter matte colours (Zombie Butts, Ehhhhuagh, Hello Blondie, Kuchi Kopi) –they end up being really streaky. Hello Blondie was the worst and you can see it kinda flaking on the swatch. The darker colours were perfectly fine though.

For the shimmers, everything was great except for Night Butterfly. It's rather streaky and definitely a struggle to put on.

Oil Spill is supposed to be black with holographic sparkles, but it's mostly a matte black with a bit of holographic sparkles. The holographic sparkles show up best when you're foiling it with water.

If I had to pick one favourite out of the entire collection, I'd pick Bells Bells Bells Bells –it applies so beautifully, even on bare skin! Thank You For Loving Me is definitely a close contender for favourite!

Oh yes, you can wear them over bare skin. Not my favourite or recommended method of using them, but yes, they stay on for a while. Here's a picture of my eyeshadow on bare skin after 2h (it could have lasted longer, but I forgot to take a picture before I ruined it by rubbing my eye):

Ehhhhuagh & Zombie Butts over bare skin

They are harder to blend and do cling on to your pores that way, but I ran into this problem with most indie matte shadows. They do perform slightly better than Blackbird Cosmetics' eyeshadows (old formula) over bare skin though.

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So here are some looks I did with Ten Three Products:

Look #1: The mattes

Over Eccentric Cosmetics' primer. I just tried to squeeze in as many products as possible. Here's Kuchi Kopi, It's Your Funeral, Ehhhhuagh, & Hello Blondie

Sorry for the crap quality..it's been cloudy and rainy the past few days.
Lips: OCC Lip Tar (Metal Black Dahlia) & OCC Stained Gloss (Mein Herr)

Look #2: The shimmers

Bells, Bells, Bells, Thank You For Loving Me, & Oil Slick

Lips: All Vamp Everything

Review: Ten Three Labs (all 7 scents!)

Sometime ago, Cara (/u/ifweburn) gave me a bunch of her scents to test out to review privately before her store, Ten Three Labs, opens. I gave her my brutally honest review and she took it like a champ and told me I can publish my reviews, both good and bad. I didn't censor anything, except for leaving out some scents didn't make the cut because they're better for other seasons.

Perfume Oils General Review

The 7 scents now out and 4 fragrances not out yet!

I was honestly impressed with their qualities. Cara was so nervous in the beginning, I got nervous too and started wondering what I would have to say if I didn't like the quality at all. Both of us didn't need to worry because the quality's great. One thing I noticed is that there's a mix of sillages.

Certain scents (Artificial Angels, Exorcist of Malignant Devils, His House of Fear) start off at a casual conversation distance, where people will surely notice once you walk into a lift. However, others (Dark-Eyed Daughter, Fair Season, Men Who Walk As Trees Among Their Fellows, Sinister Reputation) starts off at faux whisper distance. Unless otherwise noted, the scents usually stay at their initial strength for 1 1/2-2h, before getting to intimate whispering distance until about 3-4h since initial application. I usually smell faint traces for over 10+h.

Another thing I noticed is that most of these perfumes open up with a very scary fruity liqueur/cough syrup sort of scent. I was so sure I had to scrub off every single scent at first, but then the intimidatingly artificial fruit smell mellows out and the smell that blossoms on my skin is awesome. So before you toss your perfume into the swap pile, definitely do more than a cold sniff and let the perfume settle & bloom on your skin for at least 5-10 min.

I didn't know the notes until /u/ifweburn opened shop, so all the reviews are done blind. If there's anything unexpected in the notes, I discuss it in the overview.

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Artificial Angels

"A somewhat cloyingly sweet scent. Maybe TOO sweet…Nothing good can come of such sweetness. Apple, black cherry, sugar cane, olive."

This smells like a gourmet cotton candy that comes in a fruity floral flavour. The scent is girlish, but not overly artificial candy scents that's usually marketed to pre-teens. It's definitely a more grown-up candy scent, I'm a fan! The tartness in this gets stronger while the sugary, flossy cotton candy scent get upstaged after about 20 minutes. I actually found a picture that'll make such a perfect ad for this scent:

Fun, flirty, makes you want to giggle but still so seductively grown up.
Photography by Anny To

 This one has lower longevity than the rest and starts getting faint after about an hour -you have to get to kissing distance to catch a whiff. It's better than a lot of other perfumes, but noticeably lower than the scents in the collection. It stays this way for about 3h though, and stays on your skin for 10h+ (had to take a shower so can't test how much longer it'll last).

TL;DR: Gourmet, tart cotton candy

Overview: On reddit, some people mentioned they got scared off by the "TOO sweet" description. My skin tends to amp up sugary notes, but this didn't end up too sweet on me. It's also a fun scent, but not a teenager/pre-teen sort of scent. I'm 26 and the scent still smells age appropriate on me.

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Dark-Eyed Daughter

"My writing informs a huge variety of other things in my life. With this scent, I wanted something to represent one of the first characters I ever created–a weird little redhead named Shaina. And for her–something sweet, but also dark. Brown sugar, almond, gardenia, lotus, cranberry and plum."

Oh dang! I don't know why my skin is hating this! This starts off as cordial smell that's a lot like cough syrup. After about 10 minutes, there's a scent that smells like slightly medicinal burnt caramel at the bottom and a green/yellow scented room spray trying to break out. The room-sprayness did calm down and it becomes a but there's still a burnt caramel coffee smell that overpowers it. This has lower throw than the rest too, and goes to intimate whispering distance within 10 minutes. It stays this way for 1 1/2-2h though. The good thing (for me) is that by 5h, it's completely gone from your skin.

TL;DR: Burnt caramel coffee with a hint of something green.

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Exorcists of Malignant Devils

"Exorcists probably smell kind of spicy, right? Dragon’s blood, star anise, fig, oleander, apple, black raspberry, and poison berries. Er. Boysenberry."

Starts off as a green roomspray sort of scent, this may be scary. The roomspray part faded after about 5 minutes and the scent becomes a honeyed green sort of scent with a fruity tartness, and it just keeps getting better. At about 10 minutes it's a very fresh & cool sort of honeysuckle scent with a very well-blended fruity tartness at the base that I can't identify. Honeysuckle and honey smells almost the same to me, but there's just something cool and fresh in this that makes me think of flowers more than sticky, gooey honey. It's so very wearable. This has one of the highest throws for me, and the scent easily filled my entire cubicle.

TL;DR: Fresh & cool honeysuckle with a fruity tartness.

Overview: I think Ten Three's apple notes tend to blend into the scents for me, creating a fruity tartness that can't easily be identified as apple. The smell is surprisingly not spicy at all on me, but ends up cool and fresh instead. I'm definitely a fan of this.

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Fair Season

"It’s fall! Fall’s great. And fall means fairs all around America. Funnel cakes and giant turkey legs and rides with people getting sick…You know, fun! Cola, beer, candy corn, cotton candy, caramel, buttered popcorn, firewood, pumpkin, brown sugar, amber."

I bet there's caramel in this, because I'm getting that sugared plums smell, that's often a caramel note going weird on me. That's the most dominant scent and I can't really pick out anything other than some edible carbs in the background. Eventually, after about 10-15 minutes, the sugared plums calmed down a bit. Now the scent is a slightly creamy sugared plums scent, with a light, clean touch to it. I bet this would smell awesome as caramel. The scent I got makes me think of someone sweet and elegant, who'll have a bedroom that looks like this hotel room I once stayed in:

Hotel Der Kleine Prinz - a Le Petit Prince themed boutique hotel. Maybe it's because I'm a fan of the book, but I thought this was the most gorgeous hotels I've ever stayed in.  If you're ever in Baden Baden, check it out.
IPhone photo I took...my hard drive got stolen so I only have iPhone pics of my trip :(

TL;DR: Light & clean sugared plums (that was probably caramel)

Overview: I knew it. It was the caramel going sour. /u/ifweburn was worried about that being a sign that there's something wrong with her oil. It really isn't. Off the top of my head, Violette Market's & Solstice Scent's caramel notes do the same to me. The smell is definitely lighter than what you'd expect from the notes though!

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His House of Fear

"A scent inspired by a character of my sister’s. A darker, devious scent with a hint of sweetness. Absinthe, pear, tobacco, smoke, vetiver, bay rum and brimstone."

It smells a bit scary in the bottle and on the first application, but it gets better. It smells like an old decaying building. Not exactly a house and more of an apartment building since there isn't anything woody in this smell. There that scent of metallic decay that's sharp, bitter and usually is a sign to nope the crap out of there if you're in a horror movie. For some reason, underneath this, I get the smell of kacang ijo, an Indonesian dessert that's basically mung bean soup, and usually seasoned with gula melaka, santan (coconut milk, but it's not the kind of coconut you expect in western cuisine, and it lends more of a slightly savoury creaminess to the dish) and ginger.

This one has ketan hitam (black glutinous rice) in it.
Image courtesy of kitabmasakan.com

After about 5 minutes, everything mingles together and the scent is so unique! The mung bean soup smell is the strongest, especially the gula melaka part of it. If you haven't tried gula melaka before, it's delicious -it tastes like a watery caramel before it's burnt, with a richness that I just can't describe. There's still the hint of metallic decay in it and also a cool, almost clinical scent floating above it. If I'm in a horror movie, this is the point where I go, "Creepy dude in a lab coat all alone in a creepy, abandoned building? RU-oooh! Kacang ijo? You're awesome! Of course I'll stay! Can I have 2 bowls?"

After an hour the smell is a sweet, almost musky smell of decaying plaster. As you can expect, the scent it leaves on your skin is bittersweet decay.

It's not something I'd recommend to everyone because it's pretty odd, but it's definitely a unique scent that's worth sniffing even once. Even though this scent isn't for me, I'm impressed with it.

TL;DR: Decaying apartment building with kacang ijo.

Overview: The coconut-y santan smell is definitely the bay rum, since some rum notes end up smelling like coconut on me. I'm not quite sure what causes the kacang ijo smell on me, but I've had other perfumes end up with the same green bean sort of scent, both from Deep Midnight and the notes are:

• Catriana's Cauldron (very slight mung bean smell and more dessert-y like this scent):

"Sweet frankincense, a concoction of rare spices, and a warm creamy vanilla, all topped off with a whiff of cauldron smoke. A personal favorite… of course."

• Garden & Graves (strong mung bean smell):

"Melancholy notes wrap you in a blanket of flowers and damp earth. Be at peace with the scent of rose petals, vetiver, and a handful of fresh dirt."

The only thing I see in common is the vetiver, so maybe certain vetiver notes turn into mung beans on me. I'll definitely need to try more vetiver scents from both perfumers to be sure.

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Men Who Walk As Trees Among Their Fellows

"Trees probably wouldn’t really blend into a crowd very well, but at least they can smell nice. Pipe tobacco, leather, amber, hinoki wood, firewood, cherrywood, pine, and cedarwood chips. Basically all the wood ever."

There's a pine-like green scent that's cool and slightly dry. There's also a bit of a dirty, bitter smell that smells like dirt on leather boots. At about 30 min, the smell starts smelling like detergent on me and just keeps getting closer to detergent. The unscented kind that just smells like detergent. I'm not sure why.

TL;DR: Unscented detergent.

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Sinister Reputation

"The people your mom warned you about. You should probably stay away. And yet there’s some pull toward them…Frankincense, amaretto, black cherry, grape, black pepper, pomegranate and magnolia."

This starts of smelling like a red pixie stix, with a hint of Nyquil. About 10 minutes in, the smell settles into a scent that smells exactly like these "fruity" flavoured chewable vitamin pills my mom used to make me take. There's even that chalky graininess to the scent. I personally had bad memories with those calcium pills since I hated the taste, so I'm not too fond of this scent.

They do NOT taste like candy.
Image courtesy of http://wlsvitagarten.com

TL;DR: Fruity flavoured chewable vitamin pills.