Little Bird

My absolute favorite vanilla & violet scent from bpal is Staged Moon Landing, but that one isn't available right now. I'd suggest finding some on the forum sales if you have your heart set on a vanilla sugary violet, though. And, as has already been mentioned, there's Faith for a sugared violet.

This is mostly perfumey floral and vetiver in the vial, and then morphs into a perfumey, sour, spicy rose-floral on my skin. I usually love clove, but the spiciness here smells dry and potpourri-esque. I don't get much of an incense/resin impression from it, but my skin seems to be amping up the floral aspects of this blend. There are definitely rose blends that I prefer over this one...

I was expecting this to smell like rose and smoky cocoa, but I don't get any cocoa or smokiness. This mostly smells like a sharp, perfumey floral with an undertone of watery, soapy, cologne-y men's aftershave. As it dries down, I can smell a bit of sweet rose, but this is mostly a soapy mess on my skin.

This is a sweet, creamy, cool mix of lemon and mint that reminds me of Possets' Fireflies scent (especially when first applied). It's like Fireflies + the sweet, snowy ozone in bpal's Cloister Graveyard in the Snow. I'm happy that the ozone isn't amping up and turning to pure soap like it usually does on my skin. ETA: With age, this has turned into tons of sour pine and what smells like lemonade on me. The mint and ozone gives it a clean chill, but it's mostly pine and verbena on me, which conjures up images of pine-sol... in a scent locket, it smells like chilled lemonade and a hint of pine, but on skin it's very pine-y and sharp.

The Unsavory Grave-Diggers smells a lot like a darker version of Golden Priapus to me at first. It has a similar hint of misty pine and sweetness on my skin. The drydown is a little dustier and warmer, but not in a bad or too-dry way. And something about this smells masculine (but not musky or cologne-like) and rugged, but also very smooth and cozy. It makes me think of a sexy mountain-man coming into an old cabin and dusting the snow off his boots and pine needles off of his jacket as he settles down for a drink. ETA: This has not aged well for me *at all* The booze has a sour quality that reminds me of vomit, and then there's a mix of dry dirt and cedar... like throwing up alcohol in a forest preserve :/ it's a scrubber now.

This is my least favorite of the Pom scents. Jasmine is an iffy note for me. I love it when it's a sweet, gentle floral note, but hate it when it's a sharper version of jasmine. The jasmine note here reminds me of why I hate jasmine. It's so intense, sharp, slightly smoky, and unpleasant smelling on my skin. The pom comes out in the drydown and adds a sour aspect to the jasmine that just makes it worse. The intense, sharp, perfumey jasmine + sour pom is awful and headache inducing for me. I had to scrub this one off.

I really wasn't expecting to love this, as I don't tend to wear bpal's green scents or amber scents (bpal's amber usually turns to straightup baby powder on my skin). This is really unique and gorgeous, though. I don't get a green grass smell from this; it really does smell like green leaves and not grass to me. I can remember climbing trees when I was younger and plucking their green leaves, and this has that green, sweet, cool, sappy smell exactly. As it dries down, it's like green leaves and golden-yellow fall leaves (with that hint of warm, spicy smell that dead leaves get) all mixed together in a pile. Nothing Gold Can Stay makes me smell just like I've spent hours rolling around in leaf piles. I love it.

This is pretty much all apple blossom and pom in the vial and on my skin. I usually don't like either of those notes, because apple blossom smells like fruity, soapy shampoo and pom is like bitter, dry, sweet tarts candies. But somehow they seem to be balancing each other out in a way that is actually kinda nice. The apple blossom smells clean, but doesn't go soapy, and the pom smells tart and juicy. It's like a clean, crisp, tart fruit juice smell. It's still a little too tart and fruity for me, but it's not bad, as I thought it would be. I don't smell any fig or wood-y type notes, unfortunately.

Doing a side-by-side comparison, I like this more than the released version of Lust. This doesn't have the sharper, perfumey, floral qualities that ruined Lust for me. This smells like sweetened red musk and an earthy side in the drydown that smells like a dry, rich patchouli. I agree that it does kinda remind me of Snake Oil, but SO itself turns awful on me and this is like a nice, earthy, sweet red musk. There are so many red musk blends available that I probably don't need a bottle of this, but I think I'll hoard my partial decant for special occasions wearing.

Titania and Lampades both kinda remind me of Fae, and Cheshire Cat's sweet grapefruit reminds me of Night-Gaunt.

O, Bordello, and Hunger are all really strong and long lasting on my skin. Of the ones on your list, I find that scents with red musk, black musk, vetiver, rose, red wine, and dragons blood all tend to have decent throw.

My first thought for cocoa + red musk was the LE Midnight Kiss, with notes of red musk, cocoa absolute, Nepalese amber, red sandalwood, aged patchouli, nicotiana, and blood wine. I think that it might still be available? http://www.blackphoenixalchemylab.com/shojobeat.html There's Pomegranate IV available now with pomegranate, cognac, red musk, cocoa, tobacco, anise, and thyme. Countess Willie has notes of chocolate plum musk, red musk, amaretto, candied fruits, and red ginger.

This scent only lasts about an hour on me, and it's mostly pomegranate while it sticks around. I get that bitter, tart, dry, sweet tarts note from the pom. As it dries down there's a dry spiciness from the mix of carnation and black pepper, and I think the amber might be making the pom more powdery and dry smelling than usual. I can't pick out the vetiver or opium at all, which surprises me. I'm not a fan of the lab's pomegranate note, so this isn't awesome on me...

AlphaB1tch: *Florence - "The pearl of the Italian Renaissance. Elegant iris, bright berries, gilded amber and velvety spices." Because I feel like someone with a love for travel should have a Wanderlust blend, and Florence reminds me of beautiful old cities. *Voodoo - "A midnight scent, evoking images of flickering golden firelight reflecting off the sheen of glistening skin and the jerking shadows of bodies suffused with spiritual ecstasy. A deep, powerful, resonant blend of myrrh, patchouli, vetiver, lime, vanilla, pine, almond and clove." Voodoo is always what I think of when I think of 'a dancer's fragrance.' And it's very sensual and fits with your love of the woods as well. And some scents that I think of as passionate, rebellious, and womanly: *The Illustrated Woman - "Skin musk, smoky vanilla, pine pitch, patchouli, Indian resins, golden honey, and tobacco." *Liz - "A light, feminine vanilla floral perfume and a swirl of smoke and leather." *Countess Willie also sounds like a potentially good fit: "Sophisticated, dramatic, well-traveled, glamorous, and worldly, Countess Willie V. Piazza, owner of the French Studio, was a trendsetter in style and fashion. Countess Willie was an educated woman, a patron of the arts, and possessed an impressive library of rare volumes. She featured many historic jazz musicians in her House, including Tony Jackson and Jelly Roll Morton. Unlike many of her counterparts, she was known for having a kind heart and a generous, loving nature. She was fiercely protective: when a patron of her establishment, the nephew of a prominent New Orleans cleric, committed a heinous act of sadism against one of her ladies, Countess Willie shot him dead. Chocolate plum musk, red musk, amaretto, candied fruits, and red ginger."

Victorian Garden is herbal lavender (not the milky, creamy, sweeter variety that I prefer, but a more medicinal, mentholic lavender on my skin) with soapy greenery. I can't really pick out the honey, though it might be making the blend a tad sweeter in the drydown. The drydown is less green and more generic floral on my skin over time, which I'm not loving. I think that I'll still reach for TKO when I want a lavender aromatherapy blend...

The Decrepit House isn't as dark and earthy as I was expecting it to be. It's more of a woods blend than an earthy one (I can't smell much of the oakmoss, leaves, or patchouli, especially as it dries down) and the black musk gives off a smoky feel. I would have guessed that there was teak and pine in this, but that's probably the mahogany and cypress that I'm smelling. It's a dark, slightly sweet, slightly powdery woods scent. It reminds me of The Antikythera Mechanism a bit, if AM were less sweet and more smoky. I like this, and my husband really liked it as well and is probably going to steal the partial bottle from me...

San Francisco has a green note in the bottle, but that disappears on my skin and I'm left with a nice, cool, aquatic cologne. It smells similar to Sea of Glass, but lighter and simpler somehow. It makes me smell clean, but it doesn't turn outright soapy like most aquatics do on my skin. It's not bad, but I prefer Sea of Glass for a similar scent with better staying power...

I had to have this, because The Yellow Wallpaper is my very favorite short story. Then I read the 'urine' descriptions and was kinda worried. But I actually think that this smells really good, even in the bottle. It reminds me of sweet, honeyed, slightly herbal wildflowers warmed in the sunshine. It makes me think of picking flowers when I was little <3. I can't really pick out the honeysuckle or balsam. The scent just smells very sweet and very yellow in a way that I can't quite explain. It 's floral, but not perfumey or fake-floral like I get from most floral perfumes. It's natural florals, heavy sweetness, and sunshine in a bottle. I think that it fits the story very well too. I love rereading the story and wearing this perfume... and this is something that I can actually see myself wearing a lot. Very sweet, very warm floral.

Los Angeles smells smoky, dark, and sweet. It's like smelling coca cola, a pile of burning leaves, and pine. I usually don't like smoky scents, but this isn't sharp or heavily smoky, and the thick sweetness keeps the smoke in check for me. Of the Halloween scents in this series, this is the one that smells most like Halloween to me (growing up in the middle of pine forest in Missouri), reminding me of bonfires, pine forests, and heavy sweetness...

I ordered two bottles of this (directly from the lab) after liking my decant, and both bottles smell different from each other. One is similar to my decant, with a creamy, sweet, almost vanilla-y sandalwood and delicate, clean white floral. The other is herbal smelling (a bit like dill pickles, but more dry) with a dry, soapy smell that's like laundry soap powder. With age, the difference has become more pronounced. The herbal/soapy bottle has turned even soapier and now gives me a headache.

I thought that I would like this scent a lot more than I do. I was expecting a complex, rich scent, but it falls sort of flat on my skin. The only note that I can pick out for sure is the lavender (which has an odd menthol/medicinal edge to it) and a fruity note that doesn't smell as sweet as blackcurrant usually does on me. As it dries down, the amber lends a dusting of baby powder over the weak, fruity lavender. This has a lot of notes in it that are usually really strong on my skin (rose, black musk, myrrh, geranium), but I don't smell them at all. Weird. Odd Portents is a light, baby powdery lavender and a hint of fruitiness on my skin. Not for me... ETA: This has gotten stronger on me with age, but not necessarily better. It's even more baby powdery now, and I mainly get the black currant and myrrh (which I normally love), but they're just sickly sweet paired together in this blend. Like fruit syrup and syrupy resins poured into a tub of baby powder. The rose, black musk and geranium are still nowhere to be found.

I think that pink pepper might smell like spicy pink bubblegum on my skin :/. Very sweet, very pink bubblegum with a slight, spicy zip to it. I smell a light, bitter chocolate note way underneath the bubblegum. Something about the whole thing smells chemical-y to me as well, like scented markers. I expected this to be darker and to have more depth to it. I expected honeyed tobacco and wood notes. What I get is a mix of bubblegum scented markers (pink!) and a chocolate scented marker. It doesn't smell like a good perfume scent on me. I think that this is my least favorite Thirteen ever

Somehow this smells like peach & sweet lemon to me at first. Juicy, tangy peach (not candied or canned, but the actual fruit), a hint of sweet lemon, and slightly sour, slightly aquatic, bright green Spanish moss. On my skin, the scent warms up over time, turns perfumey, and starts to give me a headache. It's like sweet peachy something with perfumey white floral or aquatic and a sour edge from the moss. Sweet fruity-floral with a cheap, sharp edge that I'm not enjoying. New Orleans is headed to my swap pile...

I like red musk, but it's usually really strong and overpowering on me. It smells like a warm, dark, juicy, fruity (almost red wine-like), animalistic musk on me. The red musk here is strong at first, but settles down after about 15 minutes. And I actually don't get a strong honey note. It smells like vanilla cream with a dash of honey on my skin, and a background of sultry red musk. I'm pleasantly surprised at how creamy and gentle the blend is. I expected intense red musk and super-sweet honey, but this isn't aggressive or heavily sweet at all. It's creamy, warm, cuddly, subtle, and lovely <3.

Sabir, hiding your emotions and being hard to read made me think of Intrigue, as people who are a bit guarded always seem mysterious to me. Your description also made me think of Ogun, since you are loyal and others see you as strong and courageous. Also, The Lion, just because I see that as being a strong, quiet scent with a loyal warmth to it...