Little Bird

Veronica is a strange scent. Blackcurrant is usually a note that I love, and it's very sweet and dark on me, almost like a dark, fruity jam. Bpal's pomegranate usually smells like sweet tarts to me. But Veronica smells like a dark, bitter wine and heavy, perfumey/ musky/ hairspray floral with a touch of soap. I can't pick out any of the listed notes and there's not any sweetness in this scent. My husband said that this smells 'like darkness and soap.' Veronica also doesn't morph on me at all, which is unusual. It clings close to the skin, but is bitter and strong for about four hours. It's too dark, bitter, and sharp, and the lack of any sweetness makes it unwearable for me.

I second Tombstone and Slaugh, and I agree that Slaugh is like a less buttery/creamy version of SSS. You might also try to track down The Elephantine Colossus and The Anti-Saloon League, though those can be a bit hard to find. Spicebush Swallowtail is a bit easier to find for a LE, and it has sassafras.

Anthesteria isn't as dark and heavy as I thought it would be. The wine goes on smelling like a glass of cool white grape juice, but dries down to more of a fakey, sweet, grape flavored candy smell on my skin. The honey is golden and sweet. The grape is strong at first, but within ten minutes this has dried down to mostly a creamy, slightly powdery, golden honey with hints of grape bubblegum. It's surprisingly light on me and only lasts about an hour before fading into a vague, nondescript sort of sweetness. I don't smell any of the thyme or oregano, or anything herbal at all.

I love Sakura, and I can kinda see some similarities between this and Sakura, but The Path of Dreams is more sharp and perfumey, and a little too floral for me. It's sort of like the perfumey jasmine that I didn't enjoy in Cathouse, mixed with some cleaner floral notes. I'm not a big fan of perfumey/sharp florals, so I probably won't get much use out of this one.

This goes on smelling like peppermint toothpaste and fruit on my skin, but thankfully dries down to the softer, more natural mint smell that other reviewers have noted. The fruit smells sort of like watery honeydew, citrus (slightly soapy tangerine?), and wafts of pineapple to me. It smells like a summery fruit salad garnished with mint leaves, but also slightly soapy on my skin for some reason. It reminds me a little bit of Fruit Moon as it dries down. A refreshing, summery, fruity blend.

I'm really happy to have gotten a bottle of this from the lab's etsy page <3. Dead Man's Hand v8 reminds me a bit of a darker and more badass Dee - like black leather, a hint of soft, musky, slightly sweet, men's cologne and incense, and something that's a lot like black peppery dry wood on me (and I looove anything like black pepper). I love this and might even try to get a backup bottle. This plays very nicely on my skin, and smells great on my husband too.

I really like Thunder and Blazes. It smells like well worn leather, mud, and hints of trampled, dry, dust covered grass. I don't smell anything like dragon's blood or lemon candy, and I'm okay with that. I really like that the dirt here smells like mud, sort of wet and awesome, and not like that black potting soil smell that I get from most earth blends. The leather reminds me a bit of the feel of the leather in The Traveller. Thunder and Blazes makes me feel like a cowgirl - very strong and very realistic leather-on-a-riding-trail. I don't know how often I'll wear this, but it's a fun scent for a certain mood .

In the bottle and on my skin, this is cool and a bit powdery and sharp. The absinthe, lemon, and mint are combining in a way that's making this not really sweet or foodie. I love the bourbon vanilla in Gypsy moth, so I had high hopes for this, but Knockout Drops falls kinda flat on my skin. It's a lot like baby powder with sharp lemon and a hint of something strange and slightly green smelling that must be the absinthe. It's not unpleasant at all, but it's not what I was expecting, and it probably isn't something that I'd wear all that much. Knockout Drops isn't really sweet enough for me, and goes a bit too powdery on my skin. It's light, subtle, and clean-ish.

I like this a lot more in the bottle than on my skin. In the bottle, it smells like fun, sweet, lemon gummi bears and real marshmallows. I haven't enjoyed bpal's other marshmallow scents, as they never smelled realistic to me (Marshmallow Poof smells more like fruit punch to me), but this smells like real, fluffy, vanilla-y marshmallows. On my skin, the lemon amps up and this starts to smell too sour and tart for my tastes. The marshmallow fades far into the background. I'm left with lots of sharp lemon and hints of warm sugar. I don't smell anything like pie crust, blueberry, or hemlock at all. Just lots of strong lemon and sugar. A warmer and sharper scent than Sticky Bat. My husband said that this "smells like lemon cake and something I don't like." I much prefer Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat for a lemon sugar fragrance, as Bones Trombone is a bit too sharp for me. I'm going to get a backup bottle of Sticky Bat and pass on getting a full bottle of Bones... ETA: After letting this age for a few weeks, I now get almost no lemon from the scent, and tons of sickly sweet, cloying, candy blueberry smell. I actually like the scent even less now. Sugary blueberry candy. Too sweet.

I don't get the citrus or fruit from this that others have mentioned, but my skin tends to amp up spice notes. This mostly smells like a dry, spicy, gingerbread cookie on me. It lasts for about an hour and doesn't have a ton of throw, but is spicy and cozy while it lasts.

Gloss Flamboyant flamingo pink. I really like this color, though I normally wear reds and gray-black shades. Most of the pink shades that I've tried have either been too sheer and milky baby pink or they're an obnoxious hot pink. This sort of falls somewhere in the middle for me (like an amped up baby pink that packs a lot of punch and looks really solid). The polish itself is on the thicker side of things and was a bit hard to spread over my nail evenly, and didn't quite cover the tips of my nails as well as I would have liked. Still, it's a good polish and an interesting color. I used three coats, but I probably could have gotten away with two. I tried to take some pictures to show the color, but my camera isn't the best in the world: Depending on the lighting, it sometimes strikes me as being a lighter pink and sometimes darker... hopefully those pictures help somewhat, lol.

I love the smell of a florist fridge. There aren't any bpals that perfectly capture that smell for me, but you might want to try The Rose (Marchen) for a fresh, cool, dewy sort of rose, and Maiden (Ars Amatoria) for a true, fresh carnation smell. I also get a bit of that green, cool, floral + sweetness feel from Snow White.

I'd definitely recommend giving Tweedledee and Polynesian Pop a try, and second the recs for Kuang Shi and Lilith vs the Giant Crab. You might also try to find Thoos (Lupercalia LE with notes of 'tangerine, cypress, and white musk). I don't get orange at all from Sudha Segara.

You might want to try to find an older LE here on the forum. You might like these: *Gypsy Queen - "Romany incense and candle smoke mingling with an alluring, body-warmed whiff of bergamot, neroli, Bulgar rose, carnation, and amber musk." *Hod - (spicy, dry, creamy carnation) *The Masque - "Honey and carnation, rich incense and rose accord, myrtle, red sandalwood, amber, jonquil and clove propel you through the revel, finally seating itself in the final, patchouli, tobacco and labdanum drenched darkness of the blood-tinged western chamber." I get something of a dark, spicy carnation smell from Scherezade (Bewitching Brews) and you might also want to try Morocco (Wanderlust).

I don't like a sharp, sour lemon, but I love lemon when it's paired with some serious cake, sugar, or creamy vanilla notes. Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat is the sort of lemon that's sweet enough for me to love it . It smells like lemon gummi bears + a hint of frosty lemon popsicle. I'm not sure how it manages to smell cool without being minty or anything like that, but it does. This is incredibly fun, sweet, and refreshing. I wasn't expecting to love this as much as I do, but I am charmed by it and can see myself picking up multiple bottles of this. I'm going to love wearing this blend over the summer.

Toasted sandalwood, vanilla, and patchouli sounded good to me, but I can't pick out any of the woods or vanilla that are supposed to be in this blend. This is pretty much all tobacco flower all the time on my skin, and I hate the lab's tobacco flower note. It smells like sharp chemicals, white smoke, and laundry powder soap to my nose. This is too perfumey, too sharp, and too soapy for me. The drydown after about a half hour is a little softer and more baby powdery, but not really an improvement. Not a good blend for me.

In the bottle, this smells like sweet tangerine and dryer sheets. It reminds me of the Metal Rabbit/Metal Tiger/Earth Rat/Fire Pig/Earth Ox series of blends. The drydown is like sweet, bright tangerine, soap, and hints of a clean, vegetal pepper. I can't pick out the red musk (surprising, because red musk is usually very strong on my skin) or anything like candied fruits. The blend doesn't really smell red to me at all, more of a clean soapy-citrus.

I like blue musk, but I don't get a strong or really noticeable musk from this scent. Surprising a Fox Ghost is pretty much all gorgeous incense/resin on my skin. It's like a mix of syrupy sweet resins and a dusty-dry, warm incense smoke with a drydown that smells as though it added in some dry herbs of some sort. It reminds me most of blends like the original Midnight Mass, but is somehow lighter, like incense caught on a cool night breeze (which might be the blue musk giving it more of that airy feel). Very pretty, and I might have to track down another full bottle of this.

I love this blend. It reminds me of a lot of my other favorite blends (Voodoo, Doc Buzzard, King of Clubs - with a drydown that reminds me a bit of Port Royal). It's dark and foresty, but has a sweet edge to it. It's masculine in a way that's both sexy and cozy, like cuddling up to a good, strong man that you feel safe around <3. I love it and would love this on a guy, but it's sweet enough that I'm going to be wearing it myself. If I had to guess at the notes in this, I would have guessed that it's sweet pine, dry wood, spicy, masculine bay rum, and a touch of lime. It's complex, dark, woodsy, sweet, and spicy. I worried that the amber would go powdery on me, but it doesn't at all. I'm happy to have a bottle of this .

This blend reminds me a lot of Pink Phoenix in the bottle and on my skin at first. It's hard to pick out any one note and the whole thing sort of melts together into one big swirl of creamy, pink smelling sweetness with slight fruity tones. I was thinking that the blend was a bit too sweet for me, but the drydown is really gorgeous as the hints of tropical tiare and spicy carnation start to come forward. Within a minute on my skin, it starts morphing into pure awesomeness. The drydown here is like a dry, warm, sugar dipped carnation that reminds me a lot of Very Slightly Haunted Dollhouse and Hod(which I love). The warm, sugary qualities remind me of blends like Midway. I think that I'm also picking up on the golden incense here, because there's something exotic and hazy giving the scent some lift and making it really sparkle on my skin. I don't normally like pear or fruity notes and was expecting this to be way too sweet and cloying, but this is surprisingly lovely. It's like dry carnation and cotton candy with a sprinkling of gold dust and hints of sensual incense. Beautiful. ETA: I wound up swapping my bottle of this away, because it got intensely cloying with age. It started to smell like sickly sweet pink bubblegum and pear syrup that didn't change or soften at all in the drydown. I couldn't pick out any of the carnation or incense anymore.

Red Lantern wound up not working for me as a perfume, but I do love it as a room spray. It reminds me of slightly spiced caramel apples, thick with sweetness and a touch of coconut, but hints of tobacco smoke and golden amber give it more of a dark, sensual edge that wafts around like some sort of magical, exotic, tropical incense. Love it

Virginia reminds me of the Snake Oil blends at first, with its dark, musky, incensey qualities mixed with sweetness. As it dries down, it's like dark, polished, clean musk with incense smoke, juicy orchid, and only a tiny hint caramel sweetness. The drydown reminds me of the Dark Delicacies blend. Virginia is my favorite of the Courtesans that I've tried so far. Perfumey, dark, sexy incense smoke and musk...

I ordered a bottle of Celeste from the Post when the collection first went live and then a second bottle right before it went down. The two bottles smell nothing alike (as is all too common lately). The first smells like golden, crumbly, dried flakes of shimmery honey and sugar. Very much a sexy honey dusting powder type of scent. The oil color is a light yellow and the second bottle has clear oil. The second bottle is like a dry, clean, sharp musk, actual baby powder, and maybe floral honey (but barely any honey and mostly just clean floral). Ridiculous. These 'varations' happen so often and it really makes me feel like I'm being ripped off. You shouldn't be able to buy a bottle or sample of something and then order a second bottle and have it be completely different. If you can't consistently produce a single scent, then you need to just discontinue it or not sell it in the first place...

I wore this side by side with the original Spanked to compare. The two smell similar, but are really very different from each other. The original Spanked has a lot more throw and staying power and is much stronger on a sexy, dark, slightly smoky leather. It's a darker and sexier blend all around. Spanked Revisited is lighter, doesn't have much throw, and only lasts about an hour on my skin. It's also much spicier. It goes on like cinnamon red hots candies and dries down to a light, sweet spice and only a tiny hint of leather. I really hope that this gets stronger and more leathery with age.

I was hoping that this would be the juicy strawberry of White Chocolate & Strawberry with orchid and some creamy vanilla, but the strawberry smells a bit plasticy and sort of like the bubblegum flavored medicine that I had when I was little. I can't pick out most of the notes, just a plasticy strawberry that's a bit too sweet with the addition of the honey. I hope that this gets better with age, but it's not really wearable for me at the moment. The throw and staying power aren't very good either. ETA: I've only had this for a couple weeks, but it has already mellowed and is a lot more wearable for me. The strawberry is still a little like creamy bubblegum flavored medicine, but also a bit like strawberry flavored taffy as it dries down. But the other notes keep it from smelling too sweet. The bergamot gives the scent a bright, summery lift and the vanilla and orchid make it smell more like a fancy perfume. Very creamy and makes me think of dancing through a wild strawberry patch littered with wildflowers and sunshine. It is much improved and I think I'll be wearing this a lot this summer