Little Bird

First on, this smells like black licorice and powdery vanilla with a bitter, herbal feel that's reminding me of the chamomile that I hated in Sachs. As it dries down, this goes through a phase of smelling sharply of woodsmoke on my skin, and then settles into sweet powder and a hint of something that smells like amber or wood on my skin. I wish that the black licorice smell stuck around longer on me, but there's something about this scent that I find oddy appealing, even with the powder, sharper smoke and herbal tones. A lot of the prototypes don't morph or change much on my skin, but I keep catching hints of sweetness and something almost incensey from this that I enjoy.

I adore Boomslang and its rich, heavy chocolate, so this prototype just seems like a pale, not-as-good version to me. It's lighter, not as rich or chocolatey, and slightly powdery on my skin. It's sort of like watered down Boomslang rolled itself through a tub of baby powder, lol. It's not bad at all, but not better than the released version for me.

I get the creamy, delicately woody, slightly incensey sandalwood note that others have mentioned. It's pretty and calming, and isn't going as powdery on me as bpal's sandalwood notes often do. It smells very delicate and light on me. This only lasts about an hour on my skin and doesn't have much throw at all, but it's a very soothing, calm scent.

This makes me smell like I spritzed on a sharp floral perfume and then rolled around in some grass clippings. It's a little too sharp for me (I prefer green/grass blends mixed with sweeter floral or berry notes).

PEX95 turns soapy and masculine on me. It's like a bar of soap wrapped in dryer sheets with a spritz of men's musky cologne. It's sharp, dry, and soapy, so I guess there must be aquatic or ozone notes in this...

I love some of the other reviews for this, though they made me a bit scared to try this oil, lol. On me, this pretty much just smells like baby powder (which usually means bpal's amber or sandalwood notes). I can't even pick out violet exactly, though there's something sickly sweet and maybe floral underneath the dusty, powdery scent.

I didn't have too much of this blend to test, and it's very hard for me to pick out notes from this. I think I'm getting red musk at first, which always smells slightly fruity to me, and maybe a bit of earthy patchouli. As it dries down, the musk is sharper and more cologne-like, and the blend starts to smell sort of like perfumey floral on my skin. Red musk usually is smoother and sweeter on me, so maybe other reviewer's impressions of black musk are more accurate. This is too musky and sharp for me.

Temple: Angelic smells gorgeous on me. It has a softly resinous quality that reminds me very strongly of Al-Azif, an almost floral sort of incense, with the softly powdery feel of Midnight Mass. In the drydown, I think that I'm smelling a violet note, tucked in behind the beautiful resins. It's so pretty, and surprisingly bright and cheerful for a resin/violet fragrance (which I usually associate with a darker feel and mood). This is hands down my favorite of the Temple blends. I cannot wait to use it and I will be wearing this as a personal fragrance as well.

I'm not sure about this scent. I hate it for about the first hour on my skin, but the drydown is rather nice. First on, I get tons of iris and black tea. Iris is one of my most hated floral notes. It goes sharp and perfumey on me, like a bad, chemically, cheap white floral. And the bitterness of the black tea does nothing to soften it. After about an hour, though, the warm, vanilla-y benzoin and incensey champaca creep in and this starts to smell rather nice. The perfumey sharpness of the iris fades and I catch whiffs of a dry, sweet patchouli. It's nice, but it takes quite a while to make it to its sweeter, more incensey stage on my skin. I'll probably keep my decant and see how this one ages.

Rose is one of those notes that amps up and takes over on my skin, and white sandalwood tends to go creamy/powdery smelling. I get a good dose of warm, slightly fruity sweetness from the marzipan, rum, and tonka at first, though I can't really specifically pick out any of those things. The rose is there, but smothered in the sweetness. After a couple minutes, though, the sweetness dies off and I'm left with mostly rose, rosewood, and powdery white sandalwood. The rosewood gives the rose a darker, incensey sort of feel, and the sandalwood makes it more and more powdery on me as this dries down. I was hoping for more white musk and tonka, but the rose amps up as usual on me, and the sandalwood does its powdery thing. This is a pretty enough scent, but I already own so many rose blends that this is probably headed to my swap pile.

In the bottle, this smells just like dark green ivy poking up out of a bed of dry leaves. On my skin, it's much the same, but the coffee and patchouli blend together in a way that's slightly foodie-spicy-earthy. The coffee/tonka (I think, I can't really pick out coffee or tonka for sure as a note, just a vague sweetness) and patch add an exotic and sweeter feel to the dry leaf scent. I get a sweetness that sort of reminds me of hazelnut more than coffee or tonka, actually. I was a little worried about the Indonesian patchouli, but it's well-behaved here and just smells like a nice, dry, sweet patchouli (I normally love patchouli, but the Indonesian/red sometimes turns to bo and cedar shavings on my skin :/ but it's not doing that here, thankfully). As this dries down, it's mostly patchouli & dry leaves with that hazelnut-ish sweetness. It's a very dark, pleasant scent that feels like slipping into something cozy and expensive. All in all, I really like this, though I'm not sure I'll reach for it over Falling Leaf Moon, which is my perfect fall leaf scent. I do love this blend on my husband as well, so I think I'll be giving the bottle over to him.

The Phoenix in Winter smells like sweet, slushy, slightly vanilla-y snow (that pretty mix of clean and sweetness) and sweet berries in the bottle and on my skin, from start to finish. The berries smell like sweet, smooth, frozen blackberries to my nose. Bpal's actual blackberry note goes sour on me, so it's not that, but that's the impression it gives. It's reminding me a bit of blends like Glasgow and Rosalind. After about fifteen minutes, this is slightly soapy and dryer-sheet-esque on me, but still a very simple and pleasant berry scent.

Something in this scent is a bit cloying and smoky-spicy on me (maybe the saffron?). I can smell the slightly fruity red musk at first, but it's more subdued than usual and the ozone and aquatic keep it from smelling heated and warmly musky. The aquatic/ozone is chilly, clean, and sort of sharp and high pitched. All in all, the notes sort of clash on my skin in an odd and unpleasant way. I don't like the sweet spiciness mixed with the cold, clean notes.

I am so thrilled with this scent. It's a perfect spring fragrance and a floral that I can actually wear. I thought that this had lilac in it, because I really thought I could smell sweet, creamy lilac, especially in the bottle and first on. The dandelion cuts through the sweeter floral and makes it wearable. As it dries down, the breezy, clean wildflower mingles with the sweetness and it just smells so clean, cool, and gorgeous. My husband loves when I wear floral scents, so I'm happy to find one that I like as well. It's so pretty, breezy, sweet, and feminine <3.

Mother Ginger is my favorite foodie scent of this year's yules <3. It's definitely not a gingerbread scent (not like cookies, cake, or spice bread at all), but it's not quite fizzy gingerale either. It's bright, sweet ginger with a kick of unusual, pleasant spiciness. Playing With a Loaded Gun is a fizzy, slightly smoky ginger, and this is smoother and more candied smelling. I can't really smell any of the listed notes, just a candied ginger, but it's lovely.

The Spanish Dance is rather lackluster on me. The chocolate is hard to mix with the rest of the oil, and I can't really smell much chocolate even after it's blended back in. The pomegranate turns dry, bitter, and powdery, as it usually does. And the orange blossom is perfumey and oddly herbal smelling. I was worried that this scent would be too sweet, but it's not sweet enough for me :/. It's very dry and powdery and fades super-fast, only lasting about fifteen minutes on me.

I love Midwinter's Eve, vanilla, sugar, tiare, apricot, and cocoa, but I'm not really enjoying this blend. I was hoping for a creamier, chocolatey Midwinter's Eve with hints of apricot, but it's more like Midwinter's Eve with soapy floral and a dry, perfumey musk. After about fifteen minutes, it's even more dry and powdery smelling. It's practically dusty smelling on me, and I'm not geting any of the other notes or complexity I'll be sticking with Midwinter's Eve for a sugar plum scent.

Leather, coffee, hazelnut, tobacco, and Middle Eastern spices. This blend reminds me pretty strongly of Interfector, especially at first (though it has something to it that I don't enjoy, so it's like Interfector gone rotten ). It's like dark, sticky-sweet, cloying tobacco, a bit of spice, and smoky wood. It has a masculine edge that makes me think of Old Spice cologne as it dries down, and something like smoky bbq, and it's pretty weird. I bought this for the leather and coffee, and can't pick out either of those notes at all. The Arabian Dance is a huge dud on me.

In the bottle, this reminds me of Garden Path with Chickens. It's like sweet, heavy, slightly powdery floral and cool green grass with a bit of an herbal tone to it. I don't think that it really smells like lilacs, other than that the greenery has a bit of that cool, breezy sweetness to it that's reminiscent of lilac. The floral part doesn't smell like lilac to me, if that makes sense. The Lilac Wood doesn't really shift on my skin at all. It's strong and stays the same from start to finish (lasting about 8 hours pretty strongly on me) - heavy, powdery, sweet floral tone with hints of green grass and herbs. It's actually a bit cloying on me, and I'm sad that it doesn't really smell of lilacs. Sort of a cool toned version of Garden Path with Chickens...

I just now noticed this post, but bpal's Sin is very similar to LUSH's Glogg, in my opinion. And I didn't think that the Grass gel smelled like Jungle the last time I was in store. I love Jungle, and haven't found a bpal that I think really smells similar... I don't get the vetiver from Jungle either.

I'm not getting much of a cookie or cakey smell from Kourabiedes, sadly . I get a whiff of something clove-like every once in a while, but this is mostly sweet, sugared cinnamon on me. Spices amp up like crazy on my skin, and that's all I'm getting here...

Fudgey chocolate with a dry spiciness from the gingerbread. This oil makes me think of brownies with a dusting of spices on the top. The drydown has a bit of bitterness to it that I'm guessing is the coffee part, but it doesn't really smell much like coffee on me, and it's no unpleasant at all. This is a nice spiced chocolate blend on me, that lasts about 2 hours on my skin. It's my favorite of the Bag of Coal set.

I get a buttery, slightly plastic-y cookie scent here that reminds me of Sugar Cookie. It dries down to a very light, sweet peppermint and then fades away after only about ten minutes on my skin.

I wish that Princess smelled like The Girl on me, but I get mostly a sharp, perfumey, musky smell from it with a dash of nondescript sweetness. But I have been around other people wearing the scent, and it smells awesome on them . I can see how its dry, sweet qualities could be similar to The Girl on a person with the right skin chemistry.

I already have my bottle of Black Lace out and ready for New Year's parties. Something about it just screams late night adults only parties to me, lol.