Little Bird

I hated the wasabi & tea combo in Nostrum Remedium, and cedar, sage, khus, and coriander are all iffy notes on my skin, so I wasn't expecting much from Velvet Cthulhu. In the bottle, this smells surprisingly upbeat, fresh, and grassy. It makes me think of grass, dandelions, and lemony herbs. On my skin, this is intensely lemony with a background of green, bright herbs. It smells like fresh sliced lemons and green weeds on me. Unfortunately, this is too much intense lemon for me. It's hard for me to wear lemon scents, and this one is just a bit too sharp and overpowering for me. The longer this sits on my skin, the more the lemon takes over. Within ten minutes, this is all lemon all the time on me, and it just gets sharper and more soured . I wish that some of the green smells had stuck around.

Blue Phoenix starts off super-sweet and cloying on me. It reminds me of blueberry pie filling, sticky-sweet with extra sugar. As it dries down, the berry becomes a bit more tart and a baby powdery vanilla type of note is creeping in as well. Blueberry candy and powder. It stays blueberry candy and baby powder on me for a few hours before it fades. I don't think that I need more than my partial decant of this...

In the bottle, this reminds me of Intrigue minus the darkness and cocoa. It has a similar dry woods & figgy sweetness to it, though. On my skin, the sassafras note quickly rounds up the other notes and takes over. It smells like root beer, a hint of dry wood, and fig's earthy, wooden sweetness. It makes me think of rootbeer bottle caps candies in the way that it smells dry, sweet, and somehow fizzy all at the same time. Rootbeer bottle caps candies laying out on a dry, splintery, dusty wooden table. The sassafras is definitely the strongest note for me, but it has this dry, wooden sharpness to it that starts to smell unpleasant in the drydown. I like Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener a lot more for a sassafras bend.

In the vial, this smells like strawberry jam and a hint of rose. On my skin, I'm surprised at how little throw this has. Bat of Virtue clings very closely to my skin, and it's very sweet. I'm also surprised that I don't amp up the rose in this more. I'm getting a very sweet, strawberry jam scent with a hint of rose and perhaps some powdery violet in the background. As it dries down, it starts to turn more and more powdery. This might be too sweet & powdery for me if it were stronger, but it's very soft and fades quickly on me. All in all, I don't really dislike this, but it's not amazing or all that unique on me. There are many strawberry & sugared floral scents that I like a lot more (Possets' Walter scent is my ultimate in roses + red jam and cakey goodness, lol).

Bat of Longevity is mostly a sugared lemon scent with medicinal undertones. Lemon-heads sour candies with an extra swish of peach sugar, plus what smells like pine, menthol and lavender soap on my skin. Dries down to a sweet lemon with a medicinal pine-y background. Not bad, but I find it to be rather boring and a bit too medicinal to be worn as a perfume.

I think that Strawberry Moon '09 has my favorite label ever <3. I can't wait to get my bottles now

In the bottle: Smoky, burnt caramel? On my skin: AH! It's Monster Bait: Ventriloquist Dummy, but somehow even worse. Bitter, painfully dry woods, sickly sweetness, and the addition of stale cigarette smoke & a hint of burnt, stale coffee. It's bad and unbearably dry smelling on my skin. I had to scrub this one off. I was hoping for smooth tonka, manly woods, and sweet tobacco... but this is burnt coffee left in the pot all night, cigarettes left in an ash tray, bone-dry woods, and burnt caramel. Not good on me. At all.

I don't get all of the love for Gossamer; it just doesn't smell very good to me at all. This smells like an intense, heavy, cheap white floral perfume to me (like something you'd find in the bargain bin at Walgreens) mixed with some cheap, metallic, chemical-y hairspray. I usually love the lab's moonflower note, and I can't pick out any moonflower in this. I get harsh white floral (like bad iris, opium poppy or tuberose) and something like sharp, dryer sheet ozone. It's not soft, gentle, or sweet on me at all...

I was excited to try this, mostly because I love bpal's fig note, but I don't really smell any fig when this is on my skin . Mostly this is just a strange smell on me. It's like a perfumey, sharp, bright green note (the lettuce?) mixed with honeyed cream and a bit of crisp pear. The fruity aspect doesn't last long on me, though. Something about green vegetables and honeyed cream just doesn't sit right with me, lol.

In the bottle, this smells like spiced amber and rose, and an almost golden, perfumey muskiness. On my skin, this reminds me a little bit of Bezoar. It smells intensely salty, like dry wood soaked in salt water. Stomping all over the wood is a sour smelling red rose. As it dries down, it's all sour, perfumey red rose and nothing else. I was hoping for earth, soft lily, and sand, but The Dole is an intensely perfumey rose. I normally like rose (though I do amp rose quite a lot), but this is the sharp, musky/perfumey variety that I can't wear.

In the bottle, this smells like wonderful planty things and cool earth <3. It really smells like a garden. Both of my parents love/loved to garden. Our garden was always filled with at least three things - tomatoes, green beans, and strawberries. Planting Moon smells so much like the green bean section of our garden. It's a green, soft, fuzzy, earthy smell. Really good, slightly damp, happy soil and healthy green beans. As it dries down, I can smell a hint of the spicy tomato leaf creeping in. Love. I am in love. I'm so glad that this is the May lunacy. I can pretend that it's my birthday scent now, lol. Planting Moon is just a perfect, uncomplicated, vegetable garden fragrance. Earthy and awesome. I'm very glad to have a bottle, as this is such a comforting, familiar scent to me. ETA: My bottle of this did not age well at all after a year. Turned to a faint, watery green pepper and plastic-y smell.

In the imp, this smells like gummi bears, or perhaps more like those peach flavored gummis. On my skin... burnt sugar and a sharp citrus, like lemon drops. It's cloying and a bit sickening to me. Other reviewers mentioned chocolate and fig notes, but I'm not getting anything like chocolate, fig, or earthiness. After fifteen minutes, this is just lemon drops with an edge of burnt sugar. It's a very candied smell, but it's too sweet and simple for me. This is a light scent that doesn't have lots of throw, but it's still making me feel a bit nauseous. The Tree is just too sweet for me.

In the imp, this smells like pine trees and ferns - all green and fresh. On my skin, Bohun Upas smells like one of those green pine tree air fresheners that people hang on the mirrors in their cars. Air freshener pine. It reminds me of Dublin. Over time, it gets more soapy-fresh on me, like fabric softener sheets. It's still artifically pine-y as well. Joining the soapy-pine is a hint of spice that smells like cinnamon on me. Air freshener, fakey pine and a hint of spice. This isn't a keeper for me.

I love apple fragrances, but I've come to realize that bpal's apple notes just don't tend to work out for me. It always turns out to be spice instead of apple, or it turns soapy, or it fades within five minutes. The apple in Apple of Sodom seems to be the spice-instead-of-apple variety. It's a sweet cinnamon. I guess that it might want to be apple cider, but there's no fruit that I can pick out. Just spice. And I amp up spices, so that's all I get from this. I was afraid of the ash, but any ash in this is bound and gagged by the cinnamon. So... this is cinnamon on me. That's all.

In the vial, this smells like potting soil and something sweet. On my skin, it's not a black potting soil smell, but a rich, freshly dug dirt. It doesn't smell terribly dusty or dry on me, but the earth is less damp earth and more dry earth, if that makes sense. As this dries down, I might smell a hint of sweet, tropical floral, but mostly it keeps making me think of earth and gingerbread cookies. Something about it is just spicy and warm on my skin. Yorick smells like a frosted gingerbread cookie, trampled thoroughly into brown soil (with some crunchy, dry leaves), with a tropical flower thrown on top to mark its grave. After a half hour, the spice is more like a sharp cinnamon. It sort of stings my nose when I smell it. This isn't awful, but I think that it's going into my swap pile. The floral and sharp spice aspects of this start to smell sour and off to me after a while.

In the bottle, this smells of dandelions with a hint of grass. On my skin at first... dandelions with a hint of grass. I love the lab's dandelion note. It's so perfect and true to real life dandelions - milky sweetness plus that green bitterness. The grass pokes out a bit more, smelling just like fresh, green grass, but this remains mostly dandelion on my skin. After a half hour, this is more floral than grassy. It makes me think of trampled flowers... crushed green stems and a few scattered, sweet smelling petals. The dandelion is still holding strong, though, adding some charming weeds to the proper flowers. I definitely recognize the sweet, rosy smelling heather note from Glasgow. Heather, dandelion, and a hint of green grass. It's gorgeous, girly, and perfect for spring/summer. I think this is a floral that I can actually wear. This is definitely my favorite of the dandelion/grass type scents that bpal has released thus far.

Velvet Panther was the velvet I was most excited about. I love all of the notes in it, except for the dark musk and the sometimes-iffy mandarin. In the bottle, this smells sweet & dark. I think that I can pick out a vanilla, sweet citrus, and some incensey, resinous qualities. On my skin at first, Velvet Panther sort of smells like a soft, sexy orange creamsicle. I get a creamy vanilla, sweet orange, and muskiness. As it dries down, it smells very different, though. It loses its sweetness after a few minutes, and starts to go powdery. It smells like baby powder, a hint of earthy herbs, a hint of sharp citrus, and a good dose of perfumey musk. Over time, Velvet Panther smells more and more like pure baby powder on me. I'll keep my bottle and hope that this is less powdery with age. I'm not even sure what note(s) in this could be going powdery at the moment. Boo...

In the imp, this smells like something clean (soapy herbs?) plus Dee. It's like an incensey, dry tobacco with soft leather. On my skin... dry, slightly sweet tobacco leaves with a hint of smoky black leather. I don't get the floral or greenery that others have mentioned. As it dries down, there's something perfumey and golden about this, and something slightly cloying. Gold, golden musk, leather, tobacco smoke, and a hint of rotting fruit. Leipreachan's leathery-incensey-tobacco qualities remind me a lot of Dee, but this is lighter and more musky on me than Dee is. Something about it keeps making me think of gold when I smell this, which is quite interesting. It really is a cool, metallic, golden smell.

I love these scrubs. I'm not crazy about Olwen's scent, just because I don't like honey, but the scent isn't overly strong or offensive at all. In the jar, it's mostly honey + mint, and it turns into more of a honey + carnation spice scent as I rub it in and wash it off. I hate scrubs that are too oily, and these ones are awesome in that they are super moisturizing, but they don't leave a film of oil on my skin. The scrub almost feels like a really thick, scrubby gel to me. It melts into my skin, is perfectly exfoliating, & leaves my skin moisturized. Love. My feet & hands are so soft & happy whenever I use one of these scrubs. If they weren't so expensive, I'd buy them by the dozens, lol.

Partial bottle CLXIX. This morphs like crazy on my skin, but it does smell really good for the most part. In the bottle & on my skin at first, it reminds me of Sugar Slathered Candy Apple, but darker, richer, and better. I get something crisp and slightly fruity smelling, smothered in sugar (brown sugar, burnt sugar, and not quite caramel-goodness). It has a dry smell that reminds me of walnuts as well. As it dries down on my skin, it has a perfumey apple + musk quality that's keeping all of that sweetness in check. Then suddenly it morphs into smelling like burnt sugar, caramel apple, and coffee for about an hour. My boy hates coffee, so it bothered him a bit. It dries down to burnt sugar and crisp fruitiness for me. It's sort of like Sugar Skull, but not quite as obnoxious, lol. I wouldn't say that this smells anything like Dorian, though. Last reviewed by DangerInRed.

CCXII. In the bottle: Um, I don't know, really. It definitely has an aggressive smell to it, but I have no clue what it is. When I first smelled it, I recoiled & was like, "What the hell?" but after sniffing it a few more times, it kind of grew on me. Perhaps a sweet smoke and overall dark, spooky feel? On my skin... I definitely smell O with its dark honeyed sweetness and powdery amber. But this is like a creepier, angsty O, all dressed up for Halloween and sneaking around in the dark after stealing liquor from its parents. It makes me think of dry leaves and faroff bonfires. As it dries down, it smells like O and sticky, fizzy cola + stale champagne, with a lingering bit of smokiness. I like this, and I don't generally have good luck with Chaos Theory blends. I don't need more than my partial bottle, but I'll enjoy what I do have of this blend. It's an amusing scent.

I'm pretty sure that this is number CXI. The silver pen has issues :/ In the bottle, this smells like banana candies. Oh no. It's that cloying, powdery, sickly sweet banana candy smell. On my skin, it's banana candies and cream? Over time, the banana is less fake smelling and obnoxious. It smells almost like real bananas, vanilla icecream, and pie crust. It's very foodie on me for a while. I can smell the Penitence in the drydown as well, adding a touch of bright, sharp resins. After a half hour, it just smells like Penitence and nothing more.

I don't tend to like pomegranate fragrances. Pom is usually too tart and/or powdery for my tastes. It usually reminds me of sweet tarts candies. So, to my surprise, I really like Proserpina. It smells a lot like Skadi in the bath & on my skin afterwards. I definitely smell some frosty pine & snow note in this. And the pomegranate smells like juicy, frosty berries. I don't get any floral. I'll definitely use up my decant of this, and might have to buy a full bottle if it's ever up for sale again.

In the bottle... I dunno about this. It smells like cherry cough syrup and evil. It's like the kind of cough syrup that they try to mask with wayyy too much sweetness, so it turns into a cloying mess. On my skin, this is still insanely sweet at first. The currant and rhubarb smell like they got drunk and gorged themselves on sugar until they exploded. Thankfully, the champaca and myrrh rush in to clean up the scene. The champaca + myrrh smell like a really sexy, sultry, incense, which is beautiful & interesting over the intensely sugared fruitiness. This is surprisingly lovely on me, and quite a unique fruity-incense combo. All in all, I like and would wear all three of the blends in this set (on their own, not layered together). Mixing Marotte, Coxcomb, & Motley together (I mixed a couple drops of each together in a vial): Smells like musk and fruit. On my skin, the combined musks seem to amp up and this is a very warm scent. There's a hint of pear and redcurrant drowning underneath the musks. As it dries down, it's warm musk and baby powder, which is weird, because neither of the three original scents went powdery on their own :/. After a half hour, this is powdery musk and an earthy, burnt rubber smell. Like the Red Rose/White Rose set, I much prefer the scents separately. Separately, Marotte, Coxcomb, and Motley are all loves for me. Together, they morph into an uber-musk that just smells cheap and strange on my skin.

In the bottle, this smells like gorgeous, sweet, smooth incense and a sweet musk. I have a hard time wearing musk notes; they have a tendency to go sharp, cheap smelling, and headache inducing on my skin. But the musk here is just lovely. It's like a sweet, resinous musk that dries down to a spicy, sweet musk. It's not cinnamon-spice or anything like that, but it did remind me of cooking. It's a smooth, sweet smell rather than a sharp one. I can also definitely smell the red currant, which is always a bit sour on me. Coxcomb is sour, tart, red fruitiness from the currant and a sweet, resinous, slightly spicy musk. It's really lovely. Mixing Marotte, Coxcomb, & Motley together (I mixed a couple drops of each together in a vial): Smells like musk and fruit. On my skin, the combined musks seem to amp up and this is a very warm scent. There's a hint of pear and redcurrant drowning underneath the musks. As it dries down, it's warm musk and baby powder, which is weird, because neither of the three original scents went powdery on their own :/. After a half hour, this is powdery musk and an earthy, burnt rubber smell. Like the Red Rose/White Rose set, I much prefer the scents separately. Separately, Marotte, Coxcomb, and Motley are all loves for me. Together, they morph into an uber-musk that just smells cheap and strange on my skin.