Little Bird

In the bottle, this smells wonderfully juicy, sweet, and crisp. I thought of red apples, but I guess that I must be smelling the pear. On my skin, this is still dominated by the pear. I usually amp amber (and bpal's amber tends to turn to baby powder), but all I can smell is the crisp pear and a bit of perfumey musk. With all of the listed notes, I thought that this would be more of a complex scent. I also thought that it would be darker and more earthy, with the mahogany and patchouli. But it's not, and I'm complaining . I really love that crisp pear note (which still smells like red apples to me, lol). 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 is intensely pink. It sort of smells like pink bubblegum to me, and lots of pink, sugary candy. I *love* the lab's gin note and was hoping that it would keep this from smelling cloying on me. Unfortunately, I don't smell much of the gin, and this is overwhelmingly sweet on me. I wanted this to be like Blue Fire, with strawberry instead of blueberry, but the candy is just too overpowering. This is loads of pink candy, sugar, and a hint of gin (which I always recognize as smelling like the blend Twenty-One, lol). And the gin disappears entirely after fifteen minutes, leaving me with crazed pink sugar candy and strawberry candy. It's much too much sweetness for me to handle. I thought that I'd love this blend and that Velvet Unicorn would be too sweet, but it's definitely the other way around. Velvet Pink Kitty is cloying enough to give me a headache

XXV (decant from angelicruin <3). In the vial, this smells like the lab's blackberry note. It's a creamy, almost citrussy blackberry. On my skin at first, it's blackberry and a clean orange smell, I think. It doesn't *really* smell like Dorian, but I can kinda convince myself that there's a clean tea note in here. As it dries down, it smells like orange hard candy and clean tea with a hint of berry (and the berry part now reminds me a lot of Jester). It's a bit dryer-sheet-fresh. Jester, orange candy, and dryer sheets. Not so much on the Dorian.

In the vial, all that I can smell is a sweet, SWEET honey. Bpal's honey notes sometimes smell sharp/metallic on me rather than sweet, but this one is definitely sweet. Lotus usually smells rather nice, sweet, and bubblegummy on my skin, but I don't smell that here. I'm getting more a sharp, white floral smell than the usual sweet lotus smell. As this dries down on my skin, it's mostly a sweet honey, with a sharp, perfumey white floral something in the background. The floral aspect of this gets way too sharp and artificial for me, and starts to smell like cheap, metallic hairspray on me after a while. It's more like tuberose than lotus on me. Honey and cheap hairspray (sort of like honey + bpal's Stardust on me). This is not a keeper for me. It starts to give me a vicious headache after a while.

In the vial, this smells like eucalyptus/menthol/vaporub and a dark green, planty, herbal something. On my skin, this is sinus-clearing, medicinal menthol and dark greenery. As it dries down, I'm getting lots of sharp evergreen/pine, and it's a bit soapy on me. The chilly menthol continues to linger. After fifteen minutes or so, it's clean evergreen, menthol, and something like sweet lavender & smoke (burning lavender scented incense?). It's very medicinal and soothing to me. I should hate this. It doesn't sound like anything that I would ever enjoy. But I must admit that I kinda love Ya-Te-Vo, much to my surprise. It helps me breath easier & makes me feel calm. I'm going to keep my imp, and maybe even get a bottle of this. This is just such a soothing fragrance to me, and I can see myself reaching for it often when I'm not feeling well .

I don't have good luck with cherry fragrances, so I wasn't sure how Velvet Unicorn and I would get along. Thankfully, I don't really smell any cherry in this, and it's not really a fruity blend at all on my skin. In the bottle, this smells sooo good. It reminds me a little bit of Aquolina's Pink Sugar, but with more pink taffy and cotton candy & less musky perfume. On my skin, this is such a pretty, sweet fragrance. It truly smells like marshmallows, cotton candy, pink taffy, and a drizzle of strawberry syrup lingering softly in the background. It sounds like that would be cloying & unbearable, but it's not. It's soft and creamy smelling on my skin. And I'm amazed at the staying power of this one. It stays true and strong for hours, with rather decent throw. Marshmallows, cotton candy, and strawberry. I'm in love. I really didn't think that this would work on me. It sounded too fruity & too sweet. Velvet Unicorn is awesome, though. I need at least a half dozen bottles of this one. :love!:

In the bottle, this reminds me of Dior. I can't remember exactly what Dior fragrance it reminds me of (Miss Dior Cherie?), but it definitely has that fancy, perfumey quality. Perfumey musk and sweet florals. I'm also getting a lemony sharpness, though I'm not sure why... On my skin... lemons. Why lemons? :/. Musky, sharp lemons and a bit of baby powder. And that's pretty much how it stays on me. Velvet Nudie is lemons and perfumey musk, with an overall very dry, powdery feel. I really don't care for lemon smells (unless the lemon is paired with cream, sugar, and cake notes, lol) or dry/powdery scents, so this isn't working for me at all.

Where wealth accumulates and men decay. A scent of opulence, luxury, depredation, and dissolusion: velvety orris root and glittering bergamot, ambergris, red currant, honey, and neroli, with red oakmoss, patchouli, labdanum, and black musk. In the bottle, this smells like intensely salty ocean spray with a tart, sour, citrussy vibe from the red currant & bergamot. It made me recoil when I first smelled it, because it has such a sour edge. Thankfully, The Village calms down almost instantly on my skin into a soft, cologney smell. It smells like a musk + woods men's cologne with a hint of sweet citrus. It reminds me a bit of The Sea Rat, but not as good. The muskiness here is very soft & comforting - a fuzzy, cozy scent. As this dries down, this fades really fast on me, and starts to smell like dust. It's unbearably dry and smells like getting a nose full of dust as you're cleaning off the top of a neglected wooden cabinet. This one won't be a keeper for me, though it isn't bad for the first fifteen minutes or so on my skin.

In the bottle, this smells like musky, tart cherries and reminds me of Monster Bait: Bloody Mary. I also keep smelling something buttery-spicy that reminds me of pumpkin blends like Jack. On my skin at first, this is all cherry, but it smells better than it did in the bottle. It's a softer, sweeter cherry note. As it dries down, the scent briefly gets darker and more complex. I get a bit of smooth, dark chocolate and an unusual woods note. It makes me think of dark chocolate syrup - glossy, smooth, and slithering down the side of something. It's an interesting chocolate note, but I don't love/like it as much as I love Boomslang and most of the Chocolate Box blends from this year's Lupercalia. Unfortunately, after fifteen minutes on my skin, this morphs into something even less wearable for me. The cherry seems to have creeped back in, and is oddly cloying. It smells like sticky, dried cherries. The chocolate slowly dies off and I'm left with cloying dried cherry smell & stale chocolate. This one is not a winner for me, but I have trouble pulling off cherry fragrances.

I have a hard time wearing floral blends (they often give me headaches), so I wasn't sure about this. In the bottle, I can definitely pick out the honey. It's a fuzzy, golden honey, with an almost metallic sharpness to it. BPAL honey notes often aren't as sweet on me as honey notes from most other companies. The floral aspect is a little sharp & perfumey, which is exactly the sort of floral that I don't like. On my skin, this is sharp, clean floral perfume. It makes me think of pale, perfumey white flowers. I get light hints of the not-so-sweet, golden honey draped over the musky flowers. Whenever I smell it, I think that it's a very clean floral smell, but it's not going soapy on me at all. This isn't awful, but it is too much perfumey, fakey floral for me to pull off. The label art is a favorite, though <3

In the bottle, this smells kinda weird. I think it's that vanilla that I didn't care for in Love's Philosophy, plus a fresh, sharp ginger and a hint of earthy oakmoss. It smells a bit sour as well, like soured milk. I was hoping for a bakery, foodie sort of smell with an edge, and this is not. This does seem to have the same vanilla that was in Love's Philosophy, which smells more like chalk & spearmint on me than vanilla. It's dry and powdery in a way that makes me think of chalk dust & beating the chalk out of erasers after school. Bleh. There's a bit of something weird underneath that (burnt rubber? but not quite?), but I would never be able to pick out any of the listed notes from this. It smells nothing like the listed notes on me. Chalk dust

Eanach Dhuin sounded great to me, up until the "cold waters" bit. I really don't have good luck with aquatics. And, as I feared, this does go soapy on me, especially in its drydown. I also can pick out a dry wood note and the bitter clove. It has an overall feel of soap and men's cologne. A soapy man slathering on some spiced-woods scented aftershave. Not for me, and my boy didn't care for this one either.

I thought that I liked all of the notes in this, but it's really not working for me. Mostly I get a sharp, musky perfume smell, like a cheap musk and white floral drugstore perfume. As it dries down, it lightens up quite a bit, but it also starts going soapy & lemony on my skin. I don't care for it at all, but it does lighten up and fade fast on my skin, thankfully. I don't often wear clean type fragrances, and I'm not really fond of lemon, so The Zieba Tree isn't a keeper for me.

I was afraid of falling in love with Jingo-Kogo, because it seems to be so popular. This is really just an okay scent on me, though. It starts off with a soft, floral orange smell, perfumey musk, and a creamy, powdery vanilla smell. It goes more powdery in the drydown and makes me think of sandalwood's powdery smoothness. Baby powder, not-so-sweet, creamy vanilla, and a bit of musky orange. This is a very light scent on me. It strikes me as being innocent and pretty rather than sexy. I don't see myself trying to search out more of this, but I might try it again if it were ever reformulated & released as a GC.

Dorian is my all-time favorite perfume, so I was a bit worried about the 'Chaos' ruining it, lol. In the bottle, this smells like sweet, vanilla-y, awesome Dorian <3 and cool, black potting soil. It also smells sweeter than Dorian usually does to me. Perhaps some extra vanilla or honey in this one? On my skin, this is mostly Dorian with hints of black, earthy, perfumey potting soil. Every once in a while, I think that I smell something like black pepper. Mostly I think that this is Dorian + dirt & honey. It also has a perfumey/musky sort of quality in the drydown that starts giving me a headache after a while. I think that I'll stick with non-chaotic Dorian, lol.

I had a friend send me decants from her Chaos bottles, but she said that she couldn't make out what numbers they were. In the vial, this really smells nothing like O. It's been a long time since I've tried O, but I know that it didn't smell like a mix of dry grass & green grass, lol. There's something like sharp, bitter, dry herbs in here as well. On my skin, this reminds me of some of the MVJBA blends. Dry, grassy qualities with a hint of sweetness. It smells grainy, and perhaps there's a hint of apple in here somewhere. As it dries down, this is soft, slightly honeyed grains & drying meadow grasses. I might be smelling a hint of a clean, springy floral in here as well. It's really pretty, and gets more of a clean feel to it (but not soapy) over time. Surprisingly, this has been one of my favorites of the Chaos decants I've tried so far, though I don't think that it smells anything like O.

I had a friend send me decants from her Chaos bottles, but she said that she couldn't make out what numbers they were. Sooo... I think that I was most hopeful for a Penitence Chaos to work on me. I like resins & incense, but Penitence itself was too bright & simple for me, if that makes sense. I was hoping that some other notes would make it deeper & more wearable, but that it would still be mostly a resinous blend. In the vial, I think that this smells like myrrh with hints of cedar & perhaps honey or beeswax. On my skin, it smells like pure beeswax at first. A honeyed, waxy sweetness. As it dries down, it starts to smell like smoky incense, sandalwood and cocoa. It makes me think of Halloween. It has a cloying quality to it that I'm not loving, and it smells nothing like Penitence once it's on my skin.

I had a friend send me decants from her Chaos bottles, but she said that she couldn't make out what numbers they were. Anyhow. In the vial, this smells like Snake Oil's dark, incensey, smoky vanilla with yellow cake & buttercream frosting. Snake Oil smells a little bit like gummi bears to my nose, and I get a hint of that candied fruitiness in the vial as well. On my skin, it's Snake Oil's dark, slightly smoky vanilla with yellow cake and coconut buttercream frosting. I definitely smell a creamy coconut. Over time, I think that I smell a bit of clean, creamy white musk in here as well. Sooo... Snake Oil vanilla, yellow cake, creamed coconut, buttercream frosting, and white musk? It's nice, but I don't love it for some reason.

In the bottle, this smells like smoky wood (mesquite bbq) and a salty, clean, ozone smell. On me, this is definitely soapy at first. It makes me think of dryer sheets. It's also sort of salty and metallic smelling on my skin. As it dries down, the woodsmoke smell creeps back into the mix, anddoesn't smell like bbq anymore. The soapiness also calms down a bit. Woodsmoke and salty, slightly soapy, cool ozone. It makes me think of a cold spring day, with a dying woodfire near a rocky shoreline and a blanket of fog rolling in. Windy Moon isn't really my sort of fragrance. It's too clean/soapy. I love the label and do think that this is a very evocative scent, though.

In the bag, this smells like a sweet, smooth, dry, golden sort of vanilla. It makes me think of vanilla, amber, and dry, golden flowers. Beautiful. It conjures up thoughts of fields full of dry grain as well. On my skin, this is incredibly light, but very pretty. It strikes me as being mostly vanilla. At first, it's a bit like the buttery sort of vanilla that I get from Snowblind, but that's not exactly it. And when it dries down, it's nothing like the Snowblind vanilla. This is actually unlike any other vanilla scent that I've tried from bpal before. I can smell something that's almost a bit earthy underneath the vanilla. It smells a little like a very muted black patchouli on me at first, but I know there's nothing like black patchouli in this. That earthiness disappears in the drydown for me anyhow. As it dries down, this is gorgeous, dry, sensual vanilla with hints of perfumey ylang ylang & something like grain or dry, incensey flowers. I don't normally like ylang ylang, but it's nice here, smothered by the unique vanilla. It reminds me a bit of the way that LUSH's Shimmy Shimmy massage bar smells. I really wish that I had a bottle of this to slather, because it doesn't have much throw & it's very subtle on me (and my skin is normally good for amping up small amounts of perfume oil). Plus, it's just a gorgeous fragrance. It's rare that I wish that I could get more of an unreleased blend, but I want more of this one (and Cagliostro). Sigh.

I'm not sure what the number for this blend is, but it appears to end in XIV (a leaky decant, so the number is half run off). I do know that it smells just like fresh, zingy limes and honey. It also smells a bit sparkling & bubbly. I've kept my decant because my boy really likes the lime, but it's a little too simple for me (and citrus + honey always makes me think of cough drops).

I recently got a full decant of this and really don't care for the scent. I like orange well enough when it's juicy and sweet (Tweedledee being my favorite orange type scent), but this goes on smelling like orange scented floor cleanser on me. I don't get a strong fizzy/soda feel from it, but there's a sharpness here that translates to cleaning fluid to my nose. After about an hour, the scent is more dry and powdery orange, but still sharp and tart. Maybe an orange pixie stix scent. It's very strong and tart, and gives me a headache if I apply too much. I hate this scent... it does have insane throw and staying power, though, if you like this sort of fakey fruit fragrance.

I think that Invidia is a bit too much for me, scent-wise. In the bottle and rubbed directly on my skin, it's a very sharp lime and something that smells like laundry soap powder & dryer sheets (maybe the tea or grapefruit). Angry limes and sharp, dry soap. I had to scrub this off after I tested it, because it was giving me a headache. I'm afraid to use it in the bath, because it's just too sharp for me. I have trouble wearing a lot of citrus and clean type scents, but if you like that sort of thing, you'd probably love Invidia.

In the bottle, this reminds me of Bezoar, which I guess is the wood + cardamom combo. Woodsy, masculine, and a bit sour, but I like it. Rubbed directly on my skin, it still reminds me of Bezoar at first. It's a dry, smooth woods smell with a bit of warm, amber-y sweetness from the benzoin. I also smell a tiny hint of something cool and slightly menthol-y, which might be the cardamom. As it dries down, it gets a little too sour for my tastes. I wouldn't rub this one directly on to my skin again, but I tested it in bath water and it was all sweet sandalwood and left a mellow, woodsy scent on my skin afterwards. Patientia is nice, and probably the most masculine of the bath oils I've tried. I don't think that it's a keeper for me, though. I tend to favor sweeter scents & vanilla scents for my baths (and the occasional chilly mint scent).

I have a cotton swab soaked in a bit of this. I like the scent of the oil more in its little bag than I do on my skin. In its bag, this has such a rich, dry smell with a nice sweetness to it, like sweet incense. Dry, spicy leaves, sweet incense, something like oakmoss, and an overall feel of sexy, comforting men's cologne. On my skin, this is a bit sharper and dirtier smelling. It's like sharp, animalistic musk (makes me think of blends like Satyr & Czernobog), dry oakmoss, & a mix of feces, soil, and dry leaves. As it dries down, it begins to smell a bit dusty on me, and I start to think that there might be ozone in this as well. Wild Hunt makes me think of a hunt on a cool, dry fall day, with frightened animals & a lightning storm creeping in (that odd, still calm before a storm). It's very dry, animalistic, sharp, and a bit creepy. Wild Hunt isn't a scent that I would wear or need more of, but it's very interesting.