Little Bird

I really love this Thirteen. I've purchased three bottles of it on the forum while waiting for my lab package to arrive. Customs basically murdered my first package, so I'm waiting on the generous replacement bottle from the lab. But I loved the smell of the oil-stained bubblewrap so much that I went crazy & bought several bottles on the forum before the replacement has even arrived, lol. I’m very picky about spices. I easily find them to be overwhelming or too sharp. I love the spices in this, though. They’re dark, sexy spices, sweetened with brown sugar, with a background of dry, earthy herbs. I can definitely pick out a very dark ginger note that's just gorgeous. The herbal/earthy qualities of this remind me very much of Hellhound on my Trail. Where Hellhound is white, vanilla sweetness and dry, earthy herbs, this is darker, brown sugar sweetness and dry, earthy herbs, plus sexy spices. They’re similar for the dry herbs paired with exotic sweetness, but I actually like this Thirteen even more than I like Hellhound. This is a darker, deeper, sexier scent. My boy really likes this scent as well. He told me, "Wow. That smells really good. It’s a little masculine, so even I could wear it." I guess that’s a hint that he’s going to be stealing one of my bottles, lol. All in all, I love this blend. It may not top my all-time favorite 13 version (October 06 orange label <3), but it’s a close second.

In the bottle, this smells faint, and odd. I get caramel and something that smells like tobacco. On my skin, this is weird and unpleasant. Pothon Meter smells very dry, and makes me think of potpourri. Dried flowers and gross potpourri spice? It smells like a cheap craft store. In the drydown, it smells slightly smoky and gross, and also gets very perfumey. I picture a woman wearing a cheap, suffocating perfume and smoking a cigarette in the potpourri aisle of a craft store. I had to wash this one off.

The Dormouse is the blend that smells most like spring to me (very green, a bit floral, and a bit of spring rain freshness), but I find myself wearing Tweedledee & Dorian a lot during springtime as well.

Glacies smells a lot like Frenum to me. It has the same sharp, perfumey, bright green smell, probably since they share the lettuce and cucumber notes. I like Glacies more than Frenum, though, because I really like the mint note in this one. It's a soft, sweet, pale sort of mint. I rub these oils directly into my skin while in the bath, and they leave my skin really soft to the touch. Glacies was very fragrant and had a lot of throw. The bath oils aren't really moisturizing in winter (winter where I am in Canada is awful for the skin), but they leave me feeling softer after I pile on more lotion. They're better for me in the summer. I don't know if I'd purchase more of Glacies (or use it again), though. I love the mint in this, but it's overpowered by the green notes that I don't like for some reason. Frenum gave me a headache and after my bath with Glacies, my whole house smelled like Frenum. It made me smell like mint candy and a hint of green, but the house was overwhelming, perfumey, sharp greens. The mint in this is really gorgeous, though. I wish that it were more mint & lavender and less green...

When I smelled this in the bottle, it definitely reminds me of LUSH's Flying Fox scent. It's crazy-strong, smoky jasmine. I can also pick up the vetiver, and it's a very dark, earthy, charred smelling vetiver. Poured into bath water, this is mostly a dark, earthy, cold smell with the heady, sweet, perfumey jasmine in the background. On my skin after the bath, it's loads of jasmine and a hint of rose. I don't normally like jasmine, and I don't love it here, but it's not unbearable. I was hoping for more vanilla, cocoa, sweet orange, and nutmeg, but all I can smell is the vetiver, patchouli, jasmine, and rose. It's an earthy-jasmine that dries down to a classic, perfumey jasmine & rose combo.

Major Andre’s Tree is clean, bright floral, something green, and a sour moss smell to my nose. It smells like a clean, spring fragrance to me, oddly enough. The boy and I aren't really in love with this spray. I still prefer Down the Rabbit Hole & The Queen’s Croquet Ground for floral/clean type scents. Andre's Tree doesn't have enough of a sweetness or earthiness to it for my tastes.

In the bottle, this reminds me of Jazz Funeral. Definitely black dirt and perfumey southern flowers with hints of sour moss. On my skin, the scent is much the same, but gets a bit brighter, warmer, and more moss-y smelling, sort of like Bayou with more of a black dirt note. It also reminds me of The Premature Burial a bit. It's a humid southern floral with black dirt and sour moss thrown in. The drydown is prettier and less earthy (but still heavy on the moss), a little sweet and more rose-like on my skin (like a sweet yellow rose). The overall blend might be a little too bright and sour for me to wear a lot, but I can still see myself reaching for this from time to time.

I've been getting much better at wearing wine & grape notes. I guess that my skin chemistry and personal preferences are changing. I've been able to wear Moriarty, Snake Charmer, Obsidian Widow, & Blood Garden lately, and I've actually enjoyed them. That said, Makhanitis reminds me of why I had an aversion to wine/grape notes in the first place, lol. This goes into a fit of cloying grape candy and plummy cough syrup on my skin. The notes mellow out in the drydown, beat into submission by powdery, soft sandalwood and a hint of smoky champaca, but I still kept catching the smell of this when I wore it, and it kept making me think of grape cough syrup. After about an hour, this is baby powder and tart, not-so-good plum on me. There are a lot of dark fruit/wine scents that I like a lot more than Makhanitis. I won't be keeping my decant of this one.

I really like Chrysanthemum Moon, and I thought that this would be similar. I was wrong; Flowering Mums is really nothing like Mum Moon. Mum Moon smells like dry flowers and sultry incense, and Flowering Mums smells like live, wet, slightly green florals on me. I usually amp up cinnamon, and I don’t get any spice from this at all. In the drydown, powdery sandalwood with a slight amber sweetness joins the florals. I expected really great things from this, so I'm kinda let down. I was hoping for dry mums with spiced vanilla and light touches of incense. In reality, this is more like soft, wet flowers with a background of clean baby powder. This does get more of a dry, sweet, golden feel the longer that it sits on my skin, but I'm not crazy about the first couple hours of wear, and it's still a little too powdery for me.

I passed on this originally, because I don't like the lab's red patchouli and I'm usually not fond of sage, smoke, or tobacco notes. Then I wound up buying the bottle off of ebay anyhow, so that I'd have a full set of inquisitions. In the bottle - On first sniff, this is a bitter, astringent fragrance. But underneath that initial impression is a sweet, incensey smoke and dry woods. It reminds me briefly of Bezoar. On my skin, this is a soft, clean smoke. It makes me think of burning paper. Yup. Uncertain Horror smells like paper and clean, white smoke. I expected this to be a much stronger, grittier fragrance. Patchouli, sage, and tobacco are usually pretty serious, heavy, dirty notes on my skin. In the drydown, the smoke fades and this turns into nothing but powdery, light sandalwood on me. It turns slightly sour as well. Uncertain Horror definitely isn't the scary, dark, dirty fragrance that I was expecting, but it's not really great on me either.

I like this blend, but I think that my decant will be enough for me. It's kind of on the too dry and too clean side of things for me to wear all that often. This goes on smelling like dried apricots and dry, polished wood on me. The sake (at least, I think it's the sake) smells bright, almost-citrussy, and clean. As it dries down, it's more dry woods and fruity, clean apricot, and smells a bit more of a soft floral on my skin. It's nice, but I have apricot & peach blends that I like more than this'n.

White sandalwood, dry cedar, and radiant, crisp lunar herbs. In the bottle, this smells sorta incensey, cool and smooth, like Midnight Mass. I wish that it smelled that nice on my skin, but it doesn't. Some versions of cedar don't smell very nice on me, and this is one of those cedars. It smells like sweaty man with horrible BO. Thankfully, there's just a hint of that cedar. Unfortunately, the sandalwood goes unbearably dry and powdery on me, and whatever else is in this is cloying & awful. Something in this smells like cloying floral sweet tarts, if that makes any sense. Too much sweet, dry powder, with that dirty cedar in the background. I keep buying the lunacies, but I've only found six out of the 80+ that I've tried that I'll actually wear. Bony Moon isn't going to be one that I'll wear...

In the bottle, this is all delicious cream and a bit of fruit that smells citrussy to me. It reminds me of Cheshire Moon. I expected the vanilla cream to either fade quickly or go plasticy/powdery, but it doesn't (yay!). The vanilla cream is actually the strongest note here. The blend lasts about 3 hours total on me and near the end, all I can smell is the delicious, soft, sweet vanilla cream. I don't get any florals at all from this blend. For a while, it's just vanilla cream paired with a fruitiness that smells like tropical citrus (the guava?). Then it dries down to just vanilla cream. I wish that I could smell the apple, but other than that, I have no complaints about this scent. It's really lovely, and I'm happy about the strong vanilla cream note.

In the bottle, this smells like sweet melons and fruit - cantaloupe, honeydew, and maybe a bit of citrus. It also has a clean, breezy feel to it that makes me feel desperate for summer. I was so sure that this was going to be a new favorite when I smelled it in the bottle. On my skin, though, this turns into a dry, soapy scent. Dryer sheets. I think that this is mostly bamboo on me (which often turns to sharp soapiness on my skin). After a half hour, the melons start to poke out from underneath the sharpness, but it's too little too late. Earth Ox gives me an awful headache. It's so wonderful in the bottle, and just turns too sharp and soapy when it's on.

I bought a bottle of this unsniffed, just because I liked the description of "tinkling tiny feet." I'm horribly afraid of spiders, but something about this one seems so cute, lol. I generally hate bpal's jasmine and wine notes, and amp up rose, but I couldn't resist the tiny feet. Then again, my tastes have been changing lately, and I've been having better luck with dark florals and wines. In the bottle, this smells like sour roses drowning in sour red wine. It's a very wet, very red, very intense fragrance. It's sexy and scary at the same time. On me, this becomes very hard to describe. It loses all of the sour qualities as soon as it touches my skin, but it's warm and red and still very intense. Something about this smells incensey in a sweet, earthy way (maybe the mix of sandalwood, myrrh, and patchouli). The wine makes this scent so red and sexy. The rose adds a romantic touch that's actually not amping up and overwhelming the other notes. As this dries down, it reminds me a bit of Follow Me Boy (an old favorite and one of the few florals I've loved over the years). Follow Me Boy smells like hot, sticky sweet jasmine on me, and I get that same feeling here. It's like Follow Me Boy swimming in wine, holding on to a rose, and dusted in an earthy-resinous mix of myrrh & black patch. I love the black patchouli note, and the hint of it here is just perfect. This feels like such a heated, sexy scent. I love it. ------------- ETA: Recently got a frimp of this scent from the lab and it smells nothing like the scent that I reviewed above. I've been noticing a lot of differences in scents that I loved years ago versus how they smell now. I'm glad that I got a bottle of this when I did, because my recent frimp (direct from the lab) smells like candied fruit, powdery rose, and a touch of potpourri spice. Smells totally different when compared to my original bottle.

Christine is all soapy floral dryer sheets and baby powder on me. I love frankincense, vanilla, and orchid, but I can't pick them out of this blend. Erik was also a soapy mess on me, so I guess it makes sense that they go together, lol. The Great Duets in Horror series hasn't turned out so well with my skin chemistry. Mr. Edward Hyde is the only keeper for me, and then only if my boy winds up liking it...

In the bottle and on my skin at first, this is mostly opium and vetiver. The opium is sharp, white, and cutting, and the vetiver is dark and smells like wet, rotting wood. As this settles on my skin, the opium dominates. I can smell a wonderfull, incensey sweetness underneath the opium for a while, but the opium smells like cheap hairspray on me, and just gets caught in my throat. I had to scrub this off after an hour, because I just can't stand the opium. And, by then, the other notes had completely faded away and left behind nothing but opium smoke. Smelling it makes me feel like I'm choking on soap & hairspray. It's far too smoky & sharp smelling for me.

I much prefer Mr. Edward Hyde over Dr. Henry Jekyll. They share a certain base smell at first, but the musk and darker notes save this one for me. I was afraid that this would be too dark and bitter for me, because I don't tend to like musk, tobacco, or blood notes (or sweat :/). This isn't so bad on me, though. I get a dark, spicy musk that reminds me of Old Spice at first. The tobacco adds a smoky haze and a wooden sweetness. This has the same feel that a lot of the Dogs Playing Poker scents had for me, especially in the drydown where the musk is softer and the tobacco is sweeter & more mellow. Mr. Edward Hyde is pretty much all musk and tobacco on me, but in a a soft, sweet way that is actually rather nice. This one might be a bit too masculine for me, though, so I'll set it aside and see if my boy likes it.

In their bottles, I thought that Dr. Henry Jekyll smelled much dirtier & less appealing than Mr. Edward Hyde. This scent is sort of flat and bland where the other smells sexy & powerful to me. There's also something very unclean about this to my nose. Jekyll makes me think of rest area bathrooms. It smells warm and makes me think of warm water, and then there's a pale mint & light citrus that makes me think of cleanser. It's a weak, sad feeling scent on me, and it also manages to smell filthy, which doesn't help. There's a dirty, gross note in this that smells like feces on me, and it just gets worse the longer I wear it. This scent makes me feel sick to my stomach.

This doesn't smell like plum blossom on me; it smells like a really tart plum (plum flavored sweet tarts?). It starts off very strong and fruity with a bit of spice to it. The spice doesn't exactly smell like nutmeg to me, but it does smell like a baking spice type of scent. The spice is a short lived stage, and then it morphs back into being a tart fruity smell. Lovers goes strong on me for about an hour and then fades fast, leaving behind just a light trace of sweet plum. This is nice enough, and I really like its brief spicy stage, but overall it's probably too tart for me to wear very often. I like sweeter, juicier fruit fragrances.

Voyeurs, Ebisu, and Burberry Classic all smell so similar on my skin - sweet, clean men's cologne and lightly powdered skin fresh from the shower. Voyeurs starts off smelling almost identical to Ebisu, but with some baby powder added in. After an hour, it has dried down to nothing but baby powder on me. I really wanted to love this, but it's not very unique on my skin. I loved Ebisu when I first got it, but I quickly grew sick of it, and I don't think that I'll find myself wanting to wear Voyeurs either. In the vial, this is a girly, pretty, soft pink cherry blossom, and I wish that the cherry blossom would stick around, but this scent just morphs into that boring clean cologne smell once it touches my skin

I wish that I could get a bottle of just the 'peach wine' note in this, because the peach is perfect. It's refreshing, cool, juicy, and sweet - it made me think of peach wine coolers. I feel like the other notes in Philommeides are just there to mess up the peach. Still, this is mostly peach, but with a light background of something like dry wood, sour citrus, and a sharp perfumey note from the tuberose. The dry, perfumey qualities don't mesh well with the sweet, juicy peach for me. After a half hour, this is mostly gorgeous peach and a bit of dry wood, so I like it a lot more in the drydown. My boy really loves it on me, and I think that Philommeides will be great for summer. It's a full bottle purchase for me .

Morpho is a very loud fragrance. In the vial it's like tangy florals drenched in lemonade, next to laundry drying on a clothesline. Floral, zingy, and a bit soapy. On my skin, this instantly morphs into a red rose. If there is rose in a blend, my skin will find it. Almost every time that I wear a fragrance with any rose in it, within five minutes, it's as though my skin happily shouts up to me, "Look! We found roses! We killed all of the other notes too! Yay!" Wow. Thank you, skin. I was afraid of the jasmine, delphinium, and white ginger in this, but they're nowhere to be found. This is all rose on me - a perfumey, rich, slightly spicy, bold, strong, red rose. I actually like it, but I already have enough rose fragrances to last out my lifetime.

I usually enjoy lavender and dislike bergamot, so this scent could go either way on me. In the bottle and on me, this is just gorgeous. It smells *exactly* like LUSH's Dreamtime bath melt on me at first. It's a milky, creamy, sweet, cool, herbal lavender. It's so soothing, smooth, and lovely. In the drydown, the bergamot adds a sour touch, but it's still mostly a beautiful lavender. I only applied a small amount of this to my wrist and it has insanely strong throw and staying power. I think that my decant will be enough, and I'll save this one for nights when I'm having trouble sleeping.

In the vial, this smells like very strong, clean, white floral and a bit of green stem. It's verrry strong and overwhelming, even as a tiny decant. On my skin, this starts off softer and a bit sweeter thanks to the honey, but the honey fades quickly. Mostly this just smells like white, clean flowers and a hint of green stem. I was hoping that the gardenia would be sweet & creamy, but it's on the verge of going soapy and slightly smoky. Tissue isn't really working for me. Especially in the drydown, something about it starts to smell burnt and smoky underneath the otherwise clean, bright floral. It's just not a scent for me. It's heavy and headache-inducing...