Little Bird

I've worn this blend a lot over the past couple days, trying to decide if it's a keeper or not. I'm still not sure. I get the similarities to Sloth at first (which is a blend that I enjoy), but I think that this is more vetiver-heavy on me where Sloth's sweet myrrh note takes over more fully on my skin. The Last of the Spirits is sort of like dying grass, dark earth, and a hint of smoke, sweetened up with the myrrh. I can't pick out any fruity tones in the vial or on my skin. As it dries down, there's something almost green and herbal lingering underneath the sweet resins and smoky earthiness. It's a very heavy scent, with a good dose of sweetness on me. I think that I have vetiver and myrrh blends that I like a bit more than this one, though.

On me, this is like dry wood, a bright, sweet, slightly masculine sort of metallic-aquatic smell, and a drydown that's more and more like a whiff of woodsmoke in the distance. It's sort of like a pale version of Port Royal that has been set on fire (but not all that intense, because that wood smokiness isn't super-strong on me either, and sort of fades in and out, and PR has more depth). Mostly this is light, dry wood and a hint of masculine clean smell on my skin. My husband likes this and will probably get my decant, but we both prefer Port Royal on him for a 'woods & clean' blend...

Incessant Torture of Remorse smells a lot like Misericordia on me (opoponax, lavender, and black currant) and a bit similar to the yule blend On Darkness, but not as good. I mostly get the dark, cloying, sticky-sweet incense feel of the opoponax (which is like some sort of heavy incense syrup on my skin), and a cool, sweet lavender. The blend gets a little black peppery in the drydown, which opoponax usually does on me. I was intrigued by all of the other notes, but I can't pick them out here. This is all dark, heavy lavender and opoponax on my skin, and has a deep, cloying sweetness to it.

Woods in Winter is very blah me, with nothing really sticking out as good or interesting about the scent once it touches my skin. It's a bit of sharp evergreen, a bit of medicinal menthol (the icicles?), and a slushy, slightly soapy snow scent. It dries down to cool, clean, and slightly soapy... I still much prefer Dirty when I want a soapy-clean scent.

Use this oil in dark love spellwork to gain the affections of someone that is already spoken for. I don't really want to air all of my dirty laundry... so to make a long story short, there is this girl that keeps popping up and causing issues between myself and my boy. Sort of an ex-girlfriend that will not ex herself out of our lives, and she keeps finding subtle ways to majorly hurt my feelings. I wanted Siren to use along with some other steps that I'm taking to hopefully cut ties with her, get her claws out of my boyfriend, and encourage my boy to quit feeling sorry for her and tell her to get lost once and for all. The smell of Siren isn't great to me. My first thought was that it reminded me of The Imp of the Perverse... nice, rancid rose. After a while, it smells like perfumey rose and the way that hay smells in a used barn, sort of dusty, sweet, and herbal. It's not great or a good perfume to me, but hopefully it will work along with my intention. I don't plan on really wearing this as a perfume for any of my rituals anyhow. Whether or not this helps or works for me remains to be seen, but I am hopeful. ETA. Since I've been using this in a ritual, it is as though the ex-girlfriend has disappeared from mine and my boy's life. He doesn't even get the random phone calls from her anymore... and, in her blissful absence, we're getting even closer with each other. NOTE: This review thread is for the Twilight Alchemy Lab blend. Reviews for the BPAL Love Potion of the same name can be found here. --Shollin

I wish that my skin didn't amp up spice notes, because I love the sounds of other people's reviews for this one, but all I get is spice. I don't get any sensual smokiness, wood, or fruity wine from this. Bob's Hearth is all cinnamon all the time on me. It's like sharp cider spices with emphasis on the cinnamon and not much in the way of actual fruitiness. My husband said I smell like potpourri when I wore this :/

Which one embodies Christmas/Yule the most? The Second of the Three Spirits is the one I've been using as a room scent lately, and it feels like a perfect yule scent to me. It's like a fresh Christmas tree, sugary treats baking away in the oven, and hints of spice and fruit. Very cozy and Christmassy. Best foody scent from this year's Yules? A lot of the foodies haven't worked on me and went more to cinnamon potpourri or candle smell on my skin, but I haven't tried The Kingdom of Sweets, Sugar Plum Fairy, or Mother Ginger yet, so I'm still hopeful for those. Best snowy/wintery scent? The Waltz of the Snowflakes <3 which is all vanilla, snow, and a hint of pine on me. Super pretty. Best scent that you'll enjoy wearing in warmer weather? Probably The Waltz of the Snowflakes, Midwinter's Eve, and The Clock Strikes Midnight. What's this year's sleeper scent? I think that Klara will be popular, though it doesn't work on me personally, and Waltz of the Snowflakes for those who like Snow White and Snowblind. And do you have an overall favorite yet? Ebenezer Scrooge, Shadows of What May Be, The Clock Strikes Midnight, The Waltz of the Snowflakes, and The School are the blends that I'm most enamored with at the moment.

I don't smell anything fruity or currant-like here; it's more ozone and smoky, murky, dry leaf smell on my skin. Ozone tends to go intensely soapy on me, and I'm definitely getting that here, mixed with what smells like damp, molding leaves and a whiff of smoky, burning leaves. It's an odd mix of soapy and dirty/smoky notes on my skin, and has a sharp, harsh feel that I find really off-putting. I like the smell of fall leaves and loved Falling Leaf Moon, but this blend is going all wrong on me. I wound up scrubbing this one off after a half hour, as it was intensely strong and soapy.

Nothing about this really smells golden to me. I get tons of smoky, earthy, dark vetiver to start with and slowly, over time, a sweet and powdery rose note creeps in and takes over. It smells very dry, smoky, earthy, and powdery on my skin. Rose is a note that tends to be overpowering on me, so I'm left with rose and baby powder with a hint of smoky earth after about an hour. It fades quickly after that hour mark into a faintly sweet powder scent. My decant is off to the swap pile.

The Nutcracker smells better in the bottle than it does on my skin. It smells like Cathedral and the fig from Intrigue in the bottle (both blends that I adore), but the fig is barely noticeable at all once I actually apply the oil. I'm surprised that there isn't any cedar listed in the notes, because I get a strong cedar chip smell from this, with a bit of sweet resins. As the scent dries down, it starts to get really smoky in a way that I'm not enjoying (sort of smells like bad cigarette smoke and actually keeps making me cough when I smell this). I wound up scrubbing this blend off after about an hour, because it makes me feel like I'm having trouble breathing. I like a little edge of smoke in fragrances and I normally love incense smoke type scents, but the smokiness here is really bothering me :/.

I usually have decent luck with metallic blends, but Marley's Ghost morphs straight into lemon dish soap on my skin. It's slightly sweet and pleasantly clean, but I can't really see myself wearing this much at all. It lasts for about three hours on me and has decent throw.

Wormwood and bpal's chamomile note both tend to smell pretty bad on me (very bitter, herbal, slightly wooden, and medicinal), and that's mainly what I'm smelling in this blend. As it dries down, this has a weird spiciness (medicinal spiciness, not a foodie one to me) and the patchouli & myrrh add a sweeter, earthier edge, but not enough to calm down the bitterness. Something in here starts going smoky on me after a while and it's sort of like burning medicinal herbs, but very bitter and dry on my skin. Not good times.

Whoop is a bit of a disaster on me. I was intrigued by the mention of pie and pine cones, but this is mostly juniper and sharp cinnamon on my skin, with hints of too-sweet honey and perfumey cranberry. The overall feel is so much "cheap Christmas candle" on my skin. I'm really surprised that this doesn't have gin listed as a note, because I'm getting that sweet, slightly fizzy, boozy juniper scent as the strongest smell here. It has a boozy quality to it that makes me feel like I've had way too much to drink at a Christmas party and it has left me nauseous and ill... blech .

Changing the Shadows smells rather simple on me. First on, this is like orange blossom single note. It's creamy, perfumey, sharp floral with a little edge of sweet orange. It's reminding me of the perfumey orange blossom that I get from Hunger, minus Hunger's decadent vanilla. As it dries down, it's much the same, with the addition of a sharp lemon note from the red tea. I thought that I would love this, but it needs something that it doesn't have to make it wearable for me (I probably would have liked this if the vanilla were noticeable to sweeten up the blend and make it a bit smoother). As it is, Changing the Shadows is too sharp and perfumey for me. Perfumey floral and sharp citrus tea just gives me a headache. I was hoping for a sweeter, creamier sort of floral.

I'm not getting the Alice feel that others have from this (which makes me sad, because I love Alice, especially aged). The rose in Klara amps up on me instantly, so I get a strong, red, sweet rose. As it dries down, something in this is turning to pure baby powder smell on me . Sweet rose + baby powder.

This smells delicious . This is exactly what I like my house to smell like around Christmas - sweet evergreen, warm & sugary treats, and just a hint of spice and fruit. I definitely smell the pine, sugared chestnut, berries, and cinnamon-ish spice. I don't know if this really works on me as a perfume (the spice amps up on me over time and I feel like a Christmas candle), but I'm going to love using this to scent my house <3. I used a little drop in my oil warmer today and it's mostly pine and sugared chestnut with a hint of berry & spice. Lovely.

I usually like the snow note in a lot of blends, so I thought that this would be a cool single note type of thing. It doesn't really smell like the snow blends on me, though. I get a hint of mint for about 10 seconds and then this is a rather dry fragrance. It smells like soapy dryer sheets and a spritz of very powdery vanilla musk perfume. It's intensely dry smelling on me and just gets worse over time, almost like breathing in dust. Weird.

I agree with the reviews saying that this has similarities to Snowblind and Snow White. It's like Snowblind's buttery vanilla mint that dries down to Snow White's frosty, creamy vanilla, with just a hint of freshly cut Christmas tree and an extra drop of snow for good measure. It's complex for about 3 hours and then fades off to just a creamy, sweet, delicate vanilla. I think that this is a perfect yule blend <3 and it makes a great room scent and a great perfume. The Waltz of the Snowflakes is so pretty, both the scent and the label . I'll probably try to get another bottle or two of this one before the LEs disappear.

This smells like the spiced wine of Gluhwein with a little more of a candied, grape bubblegum smell to it in the bottle. On my skin, it has that boozy, red, maraschino cherry smell that I get from most of bpal's almond scents. As it dries down, this is more and more just a blah spice scent on my skin. I usually love the lab's wine notes and I've loved the marzipan scents that I've tried from other companies, but this smells like some sort of generic cinnamon potpourri for a holiday spice scent. It's sharp, smells cheap, and starts to give me a headache after a while. I had to scrub this one off

This smells like sweet lilac/wisteria on me with a pale, dreamy quality from the blue musk. I'm not getting the watery feel that I usually get from blue musk, and it's not perfumey, but it's almost a shimmery scent, if that makes sense. I can't pick out the frankincense or black currant exactly, but the scent feels like it has a hazy depth to it, like it's some sort of magical incense that's lulling me to sleep. The black currant just adds to the rich, blue, sweet feel of the wisteria. The Clock Strikes Midnight is so pretty, dreamy, blue, and sweet, but also rich and heavy... it smells like a fairy tale.

In the bottle and on my skin, the sweet beeswax note dominates this blend. It's a realistic honeyed wax smell that's warm and dark in feel. Beeswax can go cloying on me pretty easily, but the hints of dusty wood and something like dry incense here are keeping it in check. As this dries down, it gets an oddly cool feel, almost like a hint of sweet mint in root beer, but it's very pretty and makes me think of candles flickering away on the balcony of a seaside palace at night. I like this a lot, and might have to track down some more decants to fill my partial bottle. The throw and staying power are excellent on me as well. This is one of the few bpal blends that lasts over six hours on me and stays rather strong.

I wasn't expecting much from this one, because I hate tuberose (it goes to sharp, cheap, chemical smelling white floral on me), but it turns out that I don't really get any floral at all from this blend. A lot of bpal's snow type scents all smell very similar to me, to the point that I couldn't pick them out individually from a lineup, and Winter Day is like that. It's sweet, creamy, slushy snow note with an edge of something like clean, sharp, slightly soapy ozone. Pleasant, but a little too soapy for me, and it only lasts about an hour on my skin.

Mommy Fortuna is mostly sweet honey on me at first, with a clean, citrussy edge, and the combo sort of makes me smell like cough drops :/. As it dries down, I can smell something oddly rusty, sweet, and slightly spicy here, that might be bpal's gunpowder note going wonky on my skin. I don't know what the magic part is supposed to smell like, but it's not saving this blend for me, lol. I have trouble wearing honey, and this one isn't really working on me at all...

Ebenezer Scrooge somehow smells a lot like Depraved on me. I always think that black patchouli smells a bit like leather, and this is like a rich, warm, earthy, dark leather that has been very well worn. And I don't know where I'm getting a fruity sweetness from, but this is like Depraved with a muted apricot note and a smooth, masculine cologne edge as it dries down. I can pick out hints of the black pepper if I try, but overall this seems very well blended and works really well with my skin chemistry. I love the Scrooge. This is strong, masculine, sexy, and swoon-worthy. I don't know why it smells like a more manly version of Depraved on me, but it's gorgeous, and something I need a full bottle of asap.

I'm fond of earthy scents, and I really like this one and find it different from all of the bpal earth blends that I already own. This is darker, heavier, and more intense, I think. It smells like clawing your way up under an overturned tree and getting covered in all sorts of dirt, rocks, and roots, with a little hint of dying grass in there somewhere. There's also a hint of something dry in here that smells like dust-incense and stone (and reminds me of Villainess's Cobwebs perfume). It smells deliciously dark and creepy. I feel sort of intense and dangerous wearing this, which is awesome, lol. I wasn't expecting too much of this (was just expecting to like it and enjoy my decant), but this might actually be my favorite of this year's Yules, and I'll probably get a full bottle or two at some point.