Little Bird

On me, this smells like a very dry, not very sweet gingerbread with a hint of black pepper. Maybe more like a biscuit smell than a cookie smell. I don't get any of the citrus that others have mentioned, but I can kinda pick up on the tea feel (a warm, clean quality underneath the spice and biscuit scent). It's okay, but definitely not my favorite foodie type scent from bpal.

This smells sooo pretty in the bottle. It's like a cool, sweet, sort of fruity smelling rose and cool cream. Bpal's milk notes sometimes smell sour or cloying on me, but this is like creamy, honeyed vanilla. Yummy. I wish that it were that good on my skin, but the vanilla cream fades quite a bit on me and the scent turns perfumey and slightly soapy. The honeysuckle comes in and makes the blend warmer and sharper, and the rose has a soapy tinge to it. The longer I have it on, the more this smells like an expensive bar of rose scented soap. Boo. I think that I'll try this one in the scent locket, because it smells lovely in the bottle, but lackluster when it's actually on my skin...

I think that Sea of Glass is a must-try of bpal's aquatics. It's so bright and pretty, and it's one of the few aquatic scents that doesn't turn to soap on me. Banded Sea Snake is similar, but a bit sweeter/more vanilla-y and more complex in feel. You also might want to check out: *Dirty - fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy. (not really ocean or aquatic, but crisp & clean and has a feminine edge) *Obatala - milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water. *Olokun - glorious, unknowable gloom of the ocean floor. *The Pool of Tears - a sea of salty tears drowning out Alice's light floral perfume. *The Sea Foams Milk - milk cresting on an ocean wave.

I don't really get any red musk from this, which is weird, because that note usually amps up like crazy on me. This doesn't smell like Midway or Snake Oil on me either. When I first put this on, I actually had to re-check the oil, because I thought that I put on Eat Me. It smells like Eat Me with all of the fruit/currant removed, sort of an incensey, unusual, dark, dry, cakey scent. As it dries down, I get a tiny hint of root beer. Something about it is perfumey-incense and keeps it from being outright foodie, though. I'm interested in seeing how this ages, because it does seem to have some depth to it, and I think I'll like it more with a stronger, aged red musk.

White Chocolate, Black Raspberry, and Apricot Cordial Truffle has a strong, tart raspberry note. It was an LE from earlier this year, but still pretty easy to find.

I'd suggest trying: *Bengal: skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger. Very pretty, honeyed, sweet spices. *Plunder: tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg. More intense spiciness with some tea and woods. *Shub-Niggurath: A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices. Darker gingerbread scent. *White Rabbit: black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen. More heavy on the milky tea and clean linen with a backdrop of spiciness. And maybe Bakeneko if you can find it (notes of amber musk, tangerine, black tea leaf, cardamom, cherry blossom and cinnamon).

I expected this to have a dark, smooth, waxy sweetness to it, but I don't get any of the candle wax or beeswax smell from this at all. This mostly smells like dusty, old, black leather, masculine, sharp, black musk cologne, and bpal's perfumey, cold, slightly damp stone note. I was hoping for beeswax and incense, and I don't really get either of those things from this. It has a bit of a dry, earthy, woody, galangal quality to it that reminds me of Badger every once in a while, but mostly it's a cold and sharply musky blend on me. All in all, this is a little too sharp, perfumey, and masculine for me. It's really strong and long lasting, though.

I wish that aquatics would work on me, because they always sound so pretty on the people who don't have problems with them going soapy. This isn't as soapy on me as some aquatic blends, at least. I get the dry, delicate smelling sweetgrass and a clear, watery, cucumber sort of smell that I actually like, but the drydown has a quality that reminds me of expensive floral bar soap. I can't really pick out the wood or resinous elements that others have mentioned. Watery cucumber, dry grass, and floral soap... I didn't have too much of this to test, but it seemed to fade really fast on me and didn't have a lot of throw.

I don't often enjoy jasmine or perfumey florals, so this didn't have much of a chance on me. I recognize the tobacco flower in this, because it always smells dry, white, and slightly soapy & sour on me. The tea makes it even more of a sharp, clean scent and the jasmine amps up the sour aspect. So it's a perfumey, soapy-clean, sour floral smell on my skin. I like my floral blends to be sweeter, creamier, and more natural smelling, so this doesn't work for me. I was curious to see how the cacao would work here, but I don't smell anything chocolatey at all. This just smells a lot like the traditional, sharp, department store floral perfumes that I can't pull off at all. I wound up scrubbing this off after a half hour, though it was pretty light and didn't have too much throw by that time.

This smells of a medicine cabinet full of cheap toiletries on me - bars of creamy, white, generic soap, cheap perfumey floral cologne, and a filthy layer of baby powder and dust. I like some clean blends (I loved the sweet, creamy soapiness of Tony, for example), but this is too sharp and dry smelling for me. It doesn't really smell green on me at all either. After an hour, it just smells like I rolled around in dryer sheets... my skin turns most aquatic or ozone scents into a cheap soap smell, sadly.

I'm not a huge fan of Mabon 04. It smells sharp and cough syrup-like on me. I actually prefer this 2010 version. I definitely smell the "wild nuts" and English ivy, and I looove the ivy note (smooth, cool green). The nuttiness adds a sweet touch and a bit of a wooden smell to the blend. There's also a hint of something that reminds me of dry, spicy-earthy fall leaves. It smells great in the bottle and then goes a bit sharp and perfumey on my skin at first. I'm not sure what note in this is going sharp and perfumey, but it has that chemical, musky floral edge that a lot of department store perfumes have. I don't get any fruitiness at all. I don't like the sharper stage, but it sort of calms down after about a half hour and smells great again. It's like sugared smoke, fall leaves, wooden, sweet nuttiness, and ivy. It's a really interesting fall blend with good throw on me. I like this now (and like it more than the 04 version, for sure), and I think that it might be awesome with some aging.

I agree with Hunger over Paramatman for an orange blossom scent. Hunger is rich, gorgeous orange blossom and has lots of throw and staying power. Paramatman is more of a sandalwood incense blend.

Both of my bottles of Anne Beany have a weird line in them where the oil has separated. In one the separation is at the top of the bottle and the other the separation is near the bottom. The one with the line at the top smells more cheesecakey and the one with the line at the bottom smells like tons of butterscotch and rum. I rolled them carefully to mix the scent back up, but they still smell different from each other and separate again pretty quickly. Both bottles are directly from the lab and came from the same order. Anyhow. The butterscotch-heavy Anne Beany reminds me of Creepy 06 at first (which was almost all boozy, sharp butterscotch on me) and then MVJBA Spring Training 2008 in the drydown (warm caramel popcorn and a bit of salt). It's an intensely sweet, heavy, warm, caramelized scent. Over time the scent starts to calm down and I can smell more of a vanilla-y cheesecake tone to it. It's prety strong and has good staying power (lasts about 5 hours on me). My cheesecake-heavy bottle reminds me of the original Beaver Moon. It's like vanilla-y cheesecake, maybe a touch sour, and a warm, buttery, graham cracker crust. The oil in this bottle is really light and doesn't have a lot of throw on me, only lasting about an hour.

I don't get orange or orange blossom from Sacred Whore at all. I find that the floral in that is more like a heavy, sweet, creamy gardenia. It's like gardenia with honeyed almonds and light spice on my skin, but very unique, dark, and unusual. Sacred Whore is one of my favorites. I find it really sultry and exotic. No orange blossom, though, lol.

Bpal scents have a very different feel when compared to department store perfumes. Fleur d'Oranger, if I remember, went soapy on me and had a heavy, perfumey floral feel. With bpal, if you're looking for a clean & floral scent, I'd recommend Dirty. For orange blossoms, I'd recommend: *Hunger. With black narcissus, vanilla, and orange blossom, this is a heavier, sweeter, more perfumey sort of floral with great throw and staying power. *Tweedledee. Kumquat, white pepper, white tea and orange blossom make this is a juicier, fresher, sweet smelling orange scent with that clean blossom edge. Lolita, Katharina, & Jezebel also had rather strong orange blossom notes, in my opinion.

My first thought was that this smells like powdery spearmint and sweet honey on me. It has a soft, natural smell to it that makes me think of fuzzy mint leaves. It doesn't sound bad, yet it has a quality to it that's rather awful on me. It makes me think of the way that rest area bathrooms smell and more of a dentist office's smell in the drydown (sickly sweet, disinfectant cleanser, maybe). It goes more powdery in the drydown as well. The overall feel is just not good at all to me.

I love this in the bottle and on my skin for the first half hour. It goes on with lots of the fresh, ripe strawberry, hints of whipped cream frosting, and a girly, sweet rose. It smells like the realistic strawberry note that I love in White Chocolate & Strawberry. In the drydown, this is much less awesome, as the strawberry disappears and the floral takes over. It's all sweet, perfumey rose with hints of a clean, sharp tea. It has a lot of throw and lasts about 6 hours on my skin, but I wish that the strawberry and foodie sweetness stuck around longer. I'm sad with how floral this one turns on my skin over time, but I'm going to love wearing this in my scent locket, and it does have the cutest bpal label ever.

Maybe check out some of these: *Croquet - Pink lime, pink grapefruit, white nectarine, wild rose, sage, woody patchouli, bergamot, and ornery hedgehog musk. *Ehecatl - Hibiscus, matcha, white musk, and lime. *Kuang Shi - Mandarin orange, white musk, mango, and white sandalwood. *Night-Gaunt - something akin to yuzu, white grapefruit, and kumquat mixed with the snow-dusted flowers of Mount Ngranek. *Rosalind - Dew-covered berries and fresh green grasses with a faint breath of spring flowers. *Serpents with Glittering Eyes & Forky Tongues - Serpentine green herbs, glistening red currant, sparkling yellow lemon rind, green musk, lime, and snakeskin. *Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat - green tea, melon, mint, lime rind, and champagne grape with lemon balm, mullein, and toadflax.

I really like the released version of this and use it for layering with other blends. It was sort of like red wine gums candies and cranberry wine coolers on my skin. This prototype has a darker, earthier edge to it and more of that heavy red wine feel at first. It's not as light and playful as the released version was on me, and the prototype seems more complex and wearable on its own to me. The drydown is a little sweeter and less earthy on me, and sort of reminds me of a lighter spiced Gluhwein with a side of grape jelly. I like it, and it has decent throw and staying power on me (lasted about five hours pretty strongly).

This kinda reminds me of Gaueko more than TKO at first. I get a sweetened lavender feel, but also a dark resin and dry woods undertone. As it dries down, it's less sweet and goes slightly powdery and has a bit of a soapy, musky feel to it. Looking over the other reviews, I guess I can see the tropical floral feel as well. I wish that I had more of this one to test, because I kinda want to try it on my husband...

Two recent-ish LEs that were coconut & floral: *Paper Kite (coconut, white sugar, angelica, and black pepper) *Tiki Princess (frothy, cold coconut perfume with gentle wafts of plumeria, pikake, and ala ala wai nui) Older LE: *Velvet Tiki (Gold-washed frangipani, vanilla flower, vanilla bean, coconut, hibiscus, papaya, pineapple, bouganvilla, passion fruit, and three orchids) For GC blends, Obatala is a nice, creamy coconut with cool aquatic tones, but not really fruity or floral. But maybe you could layer that with a tropical floral or fruity blend from the Luau Lounge for more of the feel that you're looking for (maybe something like Pele, Machu Picchu, or Manila for tropical floral).

I like this more than either of the released versions of Strawberry Moon. It's not as artificial and cloying as the original and it's not green like the 09 version. I agree that it's closer to the realistic strawberry note in the Truffles (which is a strawberry note that I happen to love), but maybe a little sweeter and more candied. It's mostly a lovely ripe strawberry smell on me, though. The drydown is a little like strawberries dusted with baby powder, so there's probably some amber in here turning powdery on my skin. The powdery edge gives it more of that strawberry scented dolls feel for me, but I still like this. It's girly and pretty... I'd probably try to get more of this if I didn't already own a dozen bottles of White Chocolate & Strawberry <3, which I still prefer for a strawberry scent.

This is a tropical fruity-floral mishmash on my skin, with a bit of green grass thrown in. I can't pick out any one note; it sort of reminds me of Shango in that it just smells like a swirl of different, fresh fruits. It smells like waking up on a resort on a tropical island and opening your suite window to a cool breeze infused with flowers, fruits, and green grass. Very pretty and refreshing. I might try to track down a bottle of this, except that it fades incredibly fast on me (only lasts about an hour and is pretty light & subtle).

I usually love cake, vanilla, cream, tea, gardenia, and leather notes, so the reviews for this sounded promising. This is all floral on me, though. If there's any vanilla to be had, it's the sort that turns chalky and powdery on my skin. I might be able to smell a clean, sharp white tea in here as well. But AFI is mostly like perfumey, sharp white florals and cool powder on my skin. It's a bit sweet for the first minute or so, but all perfumey floral as it dries down. Not my thing.

Some potential recs: 1. Eat Me, Polynesian Pop 2. High-Strung Daisies, Comforting Plush Companion 3. ? dunno for this one... maybe Witchblade for the metal/axe 4. The Obsidian Widow, VILF, The Witch Queen 5. Nanny Ashtoreth, Loviatar, De Sade, Black Opal (womanly, cold, and dark, in an odd, vanilla-y way)