Little Bird

Lots of pulpy, green, clean bamboo and sweet, juicy, tropical fruits. I also feel like I can smell the plum blossom more than usual in this lunar new year blend, and it has more of an actual plum fruit scent to it as well. The fruits are all syrupy sweet and juicy, but the fresh bamboo and creamy blossom notes help to cut through all of the sweetness. Definitely one of my favorites of the lunar new year series. This one isn't soapy like many of the others are on my skin.

This lunar new year blend is more dry and sharp than many of the other variations. Dried out, sour citrus peels, laundry soap powder, a realistic kumquat note trying to sweeten things up, and a good deal of smokiness that smells like a recently blown out candle, wax and all, with a hint of incense scent. Dry and crisp. It doesn't sound that great the way I've described it, but I do like it. Its clean citrus and laundry + smoky thing is actually working for me and it smells joyful to me. It leans towards a dry and sophisticated incense in the drydown.

The blood musk is metallic, but in a silvery, cool, cologne-like way instead of smelling coppery or like iron. Metallic cologne, a hint of red musk, amber that comes off like dry woods and dust, and an odd drizzle of sweet honey and savory saffron. I actually find the overall combination to be really off putting and dirty smelling. I normally enjoy all of these notes, but this blend feels really disjointed to me and the thick dusty/powdery quality of the amber isn't working for me here.

Goes on with lots of powdery, sweet orris and a bubblegummy-yet-clean floral scent that makes me think of the High Strung Daisies blend. I also keep catching whiffs that smell like brown sugar. As it dries down, the rose comes out and it's a lovely mix of fresh and sweet, touched with that toasty brown sugar type of scent that I would normally dislike, but I'm loving it here with the floral notes. The orris also sticks around as a shimmery, powdered sugary, silvery veil. I love sweet, gourmand florals and this definitely leans into that territory. It's a scent that makes me think of a shimmery unicorn lazing about in a fairy garden full of fat bumblebees. I didn't expect to love this as much as I do, but I wore it while gardening this morning and it really put me in a planting flowers mood and it was strong and long lasting even in the heat and is still going strong 4 hours later. A beautiful, gourmand floral.

I usually hate root beer / sarsaparilla scents, but Native Gold conjures up this old Western vibe that I really enjoy, transporting me to an old, dusty mining town in the West of old Hollywood movies. It somehow really does smell like dusty minerals and the scent of standing just inside of a cave, this chilled, rocky, ancient scent that I love. The dry cedar and sweet tobacco conjure up the images of an old wooden saloon. The sarsaparilla smells like root beer, but leans more towards dried herbs and old apothecary than a root beer float, which I prefer more than the impression of the sugar drenched drink. As it dries down, this is also reminding me of Essence by Reminiscence Paris, which is one of my favorites.

The first minute on my skin is delightful with the burst of realistic, juicy, tropical guava and a vanilla sugar and cognac that reminds me of Black Lace's flankers. It quickly fizzles out, though, to a loud and baby powdery white sandalwood and warm vanilla sugar. Bpal's white sandalwood has ruined more blends for me than any other note over the years.

Sweetly floral in the best way, like realistic daffodil and honeysuckle flowers, wrapped in an elegant, perfumey bow. Creamy, sweet, pollen-y, and full of sunshine. A little of a slightly powdery vanilla and clean musk undertone. Very strong and long lasting. I keep thinking that this smells like something that Marc Jacobs would come out with (somewhere between Daisy, Perfect, and Decadence). I got this as a free bottle in one of my latest huge lab orders and I really love it.

I got a bottle of this on the lab's etsy and it's such an odd scent for only having two notes. At first, I was sure that I wasn't going to like this, because the first 10 minutes are all mahogany and it's a dark, bitter, sour wood note until it settles in on the skin. After about 10 minutes, all of a sudden, a charred sweetness pops up and it seriously smells like roasted marshmallows on my skin. Roasted marshmallows and glossy, dark wood that starts to smell more cologne-like than bitter. Something about the deep sweetness and incense-y character of the myrrh reads as blackened marshmallows on me. Once the sweetness comes through, I find this scent really addictive and attractive.

I like Jaunty Tater a lot more than Dapper Mandrake. This one is a smoky vetiver cologne. Like blackened meadow grass set on fire with plumes of black smoke rising into the sky and a generic, musky, watery men's cologne that's unpleasantly dry. It reminds me a little bit of Dee, but I much prefer Dee's complexity and subtle sweetness, which it feels like Dapper Mandrake is lacking.

I recently picked up a partial bottle of Amor To Show and I absolutely love it. I wish that this vanilla cream showed up in more fragrances because it's like a strong, gorgeous, lightly sugared cream that's cool toned and sweet without being cloying at all. Like whipped cream, but the best whipped cream ever. The honey cakes smell like perfect, dainty, yellow cakes topped off with honey flavored sugar, all deep gold and warm. I don't get any lemon or floral and that's fine for me. Yellow cake topped off with the most gorgeous whipped cream and dusted with dark gold honey sugar. All gourmand and creamy and I love it.

I love the lab's wild plum note because it smells like a perfectly ripe, juicy, dark, sweet plum. Very deep purple. The tea here starts off screechy and lemony, but quickly mellows out to a scent that smells delicately green and grassy, more like green tea, with a pinch of white ginger to give off a little spiciness and heat that dries down more tropical floral to me. In this stage, it's like slicing into a perfect plum with the juices running over your fingers, sitting next to a steamy cup of green tea with hints of tropical florals coming in through the windows on a cool breeze. If it stayed in this stage, I would be in heaven, but around the half hour mark, the whole thing starts to go very powdery (probably the red sandalwood) and loses all of its complexity and more interesting notes. I prefer the "Wild Plum, Green Tea, and White Jasmine" trio for my wild plum and tea fix.

Reminds me of the GC blend Imp at first. I have trouble wearing a lot of bpal's peach blends (tend to go plasticy or sour), but this is a juicy, sticky-sweet, ripe peach that smells delicious. It might be getting its sweeter, juicier qualities from the lychee because it does have a tropical edge to it. The black oudh, to me, is giving off black patchouli vibes (this part reminding me of the GC blend Depraved), something like fruit juice soaked black leather, but it's more noticeable in the opening stage and barely there at all in the drydown. Bergamot is also barely there, though I catch whiffs of its citrus cologne sometimes. The auburn musk takes over the drydown and smells similar to golden musk to me, sort of powdery and warm, but more sophisticated and slightly spicy, not sharp or baby powdery. The overall effect is very elegant, even though it has sweet, fruity notes.

I got a bottle of No Pls from the Lab's etsy page. First on, it's a big dose of creamy, sweet orange blossom that threatens to go soapy at the edges, but in a pleasant way, like orange blossom turned into a luxurious, creamy bar of moisturizing soap. As it dries down, it starts to shift and pick up a sweet cigar tobacco and dry cedar that's super smooth like a good quality sandalwood. The honeyed orange blossom in the drydown stage actually starts to read as a really beautiful jasmine tea type of scent on me, losing the soapiness and going more dry alongside the cedar note to make me crave a cup of jasmine tea. I expected this blend to be more spiky, chaotic and odd than it actually is. It's very mellow and pretty to me. The dry woods, sweet cigar tobacco, and beautiful orange blossom go really well together and are delicately sweet, smooth/creamy, and easy to wear.

This is a lot like the French Tobacco single note, but not as sweet, more washed out, shrill, and sharply smoky. The tobacco is almost like dead leaves - slightly spicy, dry, lightly sweet. I don't get vanilla or amber from Snaky Hair'd, but the incense smoke comes out more like actual cigarette smoke to me. I'll probably never reach for this over any of my sweeter tobacco fragrances.

Dry, musky, powdery white floral that's lightly sweetened with the honey. The musk reminds me of white musk more than ambergris. I get zero plum and zero tea. If there was ever any plum, it does not exist anywhere in my aged bottle. Powdery, clean, lightly sweet, musky floral.