Little Bird

I love resins and sugar, but usually find cassia and cinnamon notes to be really overpowering and headache inducing. In the bottle, this is cassia. Cassia, to me, smells darker and a bit more wooden than cinnamon does (like a darker version of cinnamon crammed into wooden barrels, perhaps). When I imagine them as colors, cinnamon conjures up the image of a light brown to me (or, when cinnamon is bad, it conjures up images of red hots candies and big red gum), where cassia is more of a burnt, dark red. On my skin at first, Egg Moon is all spicy, heavy, slightly sharp cassia. After a half hour, I smell like I've rolled around in red hots candies and smashed cinnamon sticks potpourri all over myself. It's exactly the sort of sharp, heavy cinnamon spice that I don't enjoy. I can't pick out any other notes at all. Egg Moon is a very strong scent that lasted four hours until I scrubbed it off my skin. It also made my skin red and itchy for those four hours. I probably won't wear this ever again :/

My first thought was that Reptoid Dominion reminds me of Hay Moon. It starts off like a dry, dusty hay smell with hints of baby powder and something like orange citrus. As it dries down, it takes on more of a musky, sour men's cologne feel and the citrus-y qualities morph from orange to something like lemon drops on m skin. Something about it is too baby powdery and too much like dusty hay for me. The overall mix is really gross and dirty smelling on me, and I found myself wanting to wash this scent off after a half hour...

I don't normally like mint scents, so I'm surprised at how much I like this. It's mostly a creamy, sweet mint on my skin, but something about this is really awesome. It might be the dazzling metals and shining wires, but something in this smells so ethereal and magical to me (reminds me a bit of the lab's moonflower note), like a night sky full of stars. There's also little hint of dry sage adding an herbal, slightly masculine touch that I love here. After an hour, there's a soapy-clean edge to this, but I still like it quite a lot. I like this, but I think that it's a scent that I'll enjoy even more on my husband. It's much better and more interesting than the powdery amber, sharp mint, and metallic cologne that I was expecting from the listed notes.

I think that Staged Moon Landing is my favorite of the Black Helicopters series. It's pretty much all vanilla and what smells like sweet violets on my skin. The vanilla smells just like the cold, sweet, slightly powdery vanilla in Black Opal, mixed with sugared violets. It reminds me of Possets' Silver Violets or LUSH's Bathos scent, actually. Very sweet and pretty. After an hour, I can also pick out a bit of the smooth white sandalwood, but it's still mostly a sweet vanilla and violet smell.

In the bottle and on my skin at first, this smells like black potting soil, mentholic herbs, and pine forest after a cold rain. The eucalyptus/menthol feel usually makes blends smell medicinal to me, but here it just makes the blend smell chilly and herbal. The Montauk Project is like taking a walk through a pine forest right after a cold rain when everything is still frozen and the sky is still dark and cloudy <3. I like it and find it very evocative, but not very wearable as a perfume at first. After about a half hour, something of a dry, yellow-y, floral edge starts to creep in and I find this much more wearable. It's like taking a walk through the forest and suddenly stepping out into a field of sunflowers. It's hard to explain, but the blend morphs into something delicately sweet and sunny smelling for me. It even smells slightly dry, papery, and wooden, making me think of dry sunflower stalks and seeds. The hint of rain and pine forest lingers in the background. ETA: Just under two years later, this hasn't aged well for me. Now it's sooo much like the scent of PineSol... sour, piney, intensely chemical-y, almost lemony. Blech. I actually feel like this is burning my nose and throat when I smell it

Aliens at high tea: Earl Grey, biscuits, Battenberg cake, and strangely-glowing cucumber sandwiches. In the bottle, Teatime in Roswell reminded me of Cheshire Moon (citrus-y tea mixed with warm, cake-y notes), but with more of a crisp, watery green smell from the cucumber. On my skin, I thought that I'd love this scent, but I really don't care for it at all. I normally love tea scents, but this has a dry, warm, perfumey-floral quality to it that I'm not crazy about. I would have guessed that there's some sort of blossom note in this. I can't really pick out the cucumber or tea, but there's a spring-y freshness to the scent that's probably coming from those notes. I expected tea + foodie, but Teatime in Roswell reminds me of some of bpal's asian lunacy blends more than anything. Perfumey floral freshness with a bit of citrus. Sweet, fresh, and perfumey. After a half hour, it's strongly reminding me of the sweet, generic, musky-perfumey floral scents that a lot of celebrities are churning out these days. It makes me feel like I'm choking on bad perfume (has lots of throw on me, unfortunately) and starts to give me a headache :/. Not good. This definitely isn't working with my skin chemistry, and I thought that it would be so awesome based on the notes... I'm glad that I didn't go for multiple bottles of this unsniffed, because it's not working on me at all.

Some blends that don't have a lot of different notes: Akuma - blood orange, neroli, and raspberry. Baron Samedi - bay rum. Bliss - chocolate. Carnal - mandarin and fig. Death Cap & Destroying Angel - dirt scents. Depraved - black patchouli and apricot. Dirty - linen. Dragon's Blood - dragon's blood. Dragon's Claw- dragon's blood and sandalwood. Eat Me - vanillas and currants. Glasgow - blackberry and heather. Hurricane - rain and vetivert. The Lion - amber. Penitence - frankincense and myrrh. Persephone - pomegranate and rose. Grand Guignol - apricot. Grog - rum. London - tea rose. March Hare - apricot and clove. Pain - lavender and pennyroyal. The Rose - rose. Sea of Glass - aquatic. Sloth - vetiver and myrrh. Squirting Cucumber - cucumber and grass. Twenty-One - the lab's gin note. Whip - rose and leather.

It makes me think of Black Lace, I think because the colors & pattern sort of look like the label for Black Lace...

This smells better in the bottle than it does on me. In the bottle it's spicy clove and vanilla-y sweetness with a hint of dry wood. On my skin, it goes slightly rancid and sour. It actually smells like bitter orange and sharp clove with a sour, dry woods smell. As it dries down, the sandalwood goes to baby powder and something smells hot and cologne-y-sharp. I love leather, vanilla, and patchouli, and I usually enjoy sandalwood and clove, but this blend is just going all wrong on me. All of the notes seem to go sour, bitter, or sharp, and then they roll around in the powdery sandalwood together. Female is lovely, but Male is not working for me...

Leather, golden amber, vanilla orchid, Spanish moss, Oxford clay, and tonka. I thought that maybe this would improve with aging, but my bottle is still underwhelming. I don't get the leather, moss, clay or tonka at all. It's perfumey vanilla orchid and bpal's baby powdery amber. Not very sweet at all, but perfumey and powdery enough to give me a headache. For a better girly-vanilla and leather scent, I'd suggest picking up Liz. Liz is sweeter and you can actually pick out the leather in that one.

On me, The Priestess is mostly a creamy, slightly powdery, dry wood smell from the sandalwood. As it dries down, I get a lot of sharp, musky, perfumey floral that's probably the iris, and a hint of something sweet and fruity that must be the juniper berry. There's a bit of an herbal edge to the scent as well, which strikes me as being slightly bitter or sharp at first. Over time the perfumey qualities die down and this is mostly soft sandalwood, a hint of sweet fruitiness, and something dark and herbal smelling... This blend doesn't have much throw on me. The scent clings close to my skin, though it does last all day. This is okay, but probably not something that I'll want to wear again. It has an edge to it that I don't care for here (that herbal-something).

The GC version of Maiden smells like true, fresh carnations on me, green stems & all (and no rose or tea). Maiden v2 smells more dry and slightly more spicy, and I can definitely smell the rose in this version. The rose is sweet and slightly fruity smelling to me, but mostly gives off an impression of dark red, dry, crushed rose petals. The carnation adds a hint of spice and it does smell like real carnations, but it doesn't have the freshness and green stems quality that the released version does. The warm, spicy carnation is reminding me of Hod. Spicy carnation and dry, sweet rose. It smells very proper and elegant to me. I'll definitely keep my decant of this one, at least, to wear when I'm in the mood for a heavy, sweet floral.

I thought that I would love this scent (vanilla, beeswax, and incense = sign me up), but something in this turns to heavy baby powder on my skin (sandalwood? amber? actual baby powder note?). It's like baby powder lightly scented with sweet honey. I agree with the comparison to Stinky...

This smells like spice cookies on me at first, but it somehow smells like raw cookie dough more than warm, baked cookies. As it dries down, it smells like spice cookie dough dunked in butter and rolled in cinnamon (reminds me of bpal's buttery pumpkin note a little). My skin is amping up the spice notes in this, but it's not unpleasant. My husband hates the buttery qualities of this scent, though. I kind of wish that the scent were less spicy and a bit sweeter. I might use up my decant in an oil warmer, as I think it might make a better room scent than a perfume for me...

I love that dress, wvgemini. It looks like a dress that wants to smell like plum, dark wine, berries, and black currant to me, lol. Bordello, Eat Me, Mme Moriarty, or Bewitched, I'd say...

This looks like melted milk chocolate sprinkled with a bunch of gold dust in the bottle and in bright lighting. It has a bit of a reddish tone to it as well. It's very pretty and very unique. It looks sparkly in bright lighting and elegant and soft in dim lighting. I find that it reminds me of the color of an old penny. I wore this polish to soccer a few nights ago and got a bunch of compliments on it (2 comments from men and 1 from another girl). My husband really likes this color on me as well. I've had mixed experiences with the claw polish formula. I found Croquet to be sort of thick and hard to spread over my nail, and Midnight on the Midway was almost too runny and applied streaky, but this one goes on smooth and covers my nails easily. I've been wearing it for four days now with no protective top coat or anything and it hasn't chipped at all. I'm pretty in love with it.

When first applied, this is like boozy, sickly sweet vanilla extract plus something fruity/berry/currant smelling. The drydown is boozy, dark, sweet vanilla with hints of something clean and powdery. It gets a bit of a sharp, perfumey edge on me after a while, so there might be white florals or a sharp musk in this. I can see the comparisons to Antique Lace. My husband really likes this scent on me, but it's too-much something for me (too sweet, too powdery, too perfumey, all at different stages).

I didn't have too much of this to test, but it smells just like orange sweet tarts on me. I'm not getting any of the fizz or complexity that others have mentioned. It's fakey-sweet, candied orange and that powdery candy smell. It's slightly bitter at first and then more powdery in the drydown. The whole thing fades quickly (lasted about an hour on me), but I only had a drop to apply and thus could not slather, lol.

I agree with the coconut + lemongrass reviews. The lemon is sweet and slightly herbal smelling on me and the coconut is creamy and kinda reminds me of sun tan lotion. It's creamy, sweet, refreshing, bright and cheery. As it dries down, the scent goes slightly perfumey, sharper, and floral smelling on me, but it's still pretty good. I think that I'll keep my decant of this, because I can see myself wearing it quite a bit this summer.

This is an odd scent, and not at all what I was expecting from "hellfire and blackened bone." It's also a very light scent and fades quickly on me, so it has been hard for me to get a clear impression of the scent at all. I think that it might have dragon's blood and/or almond in it, because it has that maraschino cherry sweetness that bpal's almond notes have on my skin, and a sweet fruity-floral smell that reminds me of dragon's blood. Those notes are usually really strong on my skin, though, so I'm surprised that this doesn't have better staying power. As this dries down, I can smell something that smells slightly of wet ashes and a little bit of smokiness. Still, it's mostly a sweet, fruity-floral thing. I don't care for this one...

I was hopeful for the violet, tea and oakmoss, but The Harlot's House is all sweet, perfumey, sharp florals and a bit of sandalwood on me. The scent goes a bit soapy on me at first, but the drydown isn't soapy. It smells like a sweet, warm floral perfume with a bit of creamy, powdery sandalwood in the drydown. It's not awful, but it's not something that I really want to wear either. Too much on the perfumey floral for me...

This reminds me of Glowing Vulva at Ryogoku Bridge perfume oil (which I hate the smell of, so I didn't like this spray at first). I imagine that I get that impression from the teakwood and vanilla-y notes. The teak always smells dark and a bit bitter and powdery to me, and I get that strongly here as well. The vanilla notes are lovely and sweet, though, and I love the hints of earthy patchouli in this. I get a little bit of spice from the cardamom as well, but it's mostly woods & vanilla with hints of patchouli. It smells very powdery, warm, and a bit cloying to me sometimes. I think that it will be too heavy for me to use over the spring and summer. Magohany Hall isn't a favorite for me (I just don't seem to like the teak note), but my husband loves this room scent and I can see it being very popular.

Ides of March 2010 isn't as sharp or soapy on me as the 09 version was. I find this to be masculine like the older versions, but a bit sweeter and smoother overall. The dark musk adds a cold men's cologne background and the lemon is really strong and sharp at first. In the drydown, the lemon & bergamot soften a bit and something in the blend starts to sweeten up (benzoin?). Musky, cold men's cologne, citrussy-clean lemon & bergamot, and a bit of powdery sweetness from the benzoin and amber. The blend goes more powdery on my skin than it does on my husband's, and I think I prefer this scent on a man anyhow. I'll keep my decant, but I'll be giving it to the husband to wear.

The Traveller reminds me of the small town in Missouri that I grew up in. It's dusty gravel roads, leather stores, and tobacco shops. It makes me think of brown leather and soft cowboy boots <3. The scent is mostly leather and tobacco on me. It's not a gritty tobacco, though, it's a sweet, smooth tobacco note. I don't smell the herbs or dirt at all. I am crazy about leather scents lately, and I might need multiple bottles of this one. Soft, brown leather and sweet tobacco.

I really wanted to love The Little Bird (for the obvious reasons, lol), but was afraid that it would be too floral, too sharply grassy, or that the ozone would go sharp and soapy. I have trouble wearing any floral and ozone notes, so I tried not to get my hopes up. Thankfully, the scent is awesome and definitely something that I will wear and love. This blend reminds me of Rosalind and Glasgow, but it's like a sun-warmed, summery take on those. I can smell sweet berries (reminds me of blueberry or blackberry), but they're not fake-sweet or candied smelling. The berry note smells like real, ripe berries that are waiting to be picked. The scent is a little bit green and floral, but it's a soft, light, sweet greenery that doesn't smell exactly like grass. The floral isn't sharp or soapy at all, but adds a sweet, warm, girly touch to the blend that makes it more wearable for me. The Little Bird is sweet, delicate, and sun-warmed. It really has all of the smells and warmth of a perfect summer day outside. Everything about it is subtle and beautiful. I'm very happy to have a couple bottles of this one, though I do wish that it had better staying power (lasted about 2 hours on my skin with decent throw).