Little Bird

This starts off as very buttery pumpkin on me, but I can't smell any of the pumpkin in the drydown. This is mostly tart, sweet, red fruitiness on me, with a red warmth from the musk. It's also a little bit incensey and has hints of sweet floral that seems to fade in and out. Every once in a while, I'll smell this and be able to pick out the carnation or rose in specific, but thankfully none of the jasmine comes out to ruin the blend for me. I like this. It's rather complex and I like how red it feels to me. I'm glad to have a few decants of this one

Ah'Duno is all cinnamon and dragon's blood on me, in the vial and on my skin. The cinnamon here isn't a pleasant, sweet, sugared cinnamon either. This is a sharp cinnamon. The dragon's blood isn't very sweet here either, but it does its usual rotten flowers thing on my skin. Rotten flowers and sharp cinnamon.

I really thought that I would love this, because I generally love all of the notes that it has listed in its description. In the vial, I could smell hints of the coconut and a fruitiness that reminded me of apple juice. On my skin, this is the most pumpkin-y of the pumpkin blends this year. It's a cloying, buttery, spiced pumpkin that holds its ground against the other notes. I agree with reviews that picked out a weird, maple syrup smell. Myrrh sometimes smells like a spiced syrupy scent on me, but I usually enjoy myrrh, and I'm not liking this blend too much. The fruitiness seems to morph into a sharp citrus in the drydown. Buttery pumpkin spice, 'off' maple syrup, and sharp citrus. I thought that this would be my favorite pumpkin this year, but no. (Pumpkin V is the definite favorite <3)

Sugar Skull and Samhain are both scents that I don't care for on myself, but I really like them as room scents. When I first spray this, it's almost like fruit punch with way too much sugar that's been spiked with some alcohol. The drydown is sexy, sugary, candy awesomeness. It's a little perfumey, a little spicy, a little fruity, and a lot sugary, in that almost-burnt, darker sugar sort of way. I'm glad to have a decant of this, and I might purchase a full bottle if I had the funds (alas, I do not). Even my boy likes this one, and was glad that it was a non-buttery sort of sweet fragrance.

I so hoped that this would be like a pumpkin spiced Perversion on me, but the black musk once again rears its ugly head and ruins a blend for me. On me, this is pumpkin spice candle plus cheap men’s cologne. Black musk always smells like cheap, cold, overwhelmingly musky cologne to me. That musk plus the hint of smoky leather smells like a man I’d never go out with... and now he's offering me a pumpkin spice candle. No thanks. I'm (obviously) not a fan of black musk, so this won't be a full bottle purchase for me. I might keep my decant in the hopes that the black musk mellows down, but I'm not hopeful. The black musk never mellows down for me, lol.

I so love the cute little imp label for this. I'm not really sure what to think about the scent, though. In the imp, it smells sharp and chemical to me (musk? really perfumey floral?), with perhaps a bit of unsweetened chocolate. Maybe a bit of wood or something nutty. I shook my imp up a lot, but the cocoa in it doesn't seem to want to rejoin the rest of the blend, lol. On my skin at first, this is musky, and it reminds me of a sharp, clean, frosty smelling white musk. There's a chocolate lurking in the background, and the oil is thick and dark like it's full of cocoa absolute, but this doesn't smell as amazingly decadent as it does in blends like Boomslang. I'm surprised that this actually isn't a sweet fragrance on me. 10 minutes later, I've got no chocolate and no caramel here (and no patchouli in sight). This is actually starting to smell like white mint and cinnamon on me. It's very pale and clean, and then has a hint of spice to it. Clean, pale, musky mint and a sharp little jab of cinnamon. And that's how it stays on me for about three hours before it disappears entirely. It doesn't have much throw on me, either. I'm not sure if this is something I'll wear again or keep my imp of. It sounds like it worked out better on everyone else.

In the decant, I smell this and my brain latches on to several different impressions (olives, warm wood, soft spice, and bubblegummy sweetness). And even with all of those odd impressions, I do think that this smells good. On my skin, this smells so familiar, comforting, and wonderful. It's also incredibly subtle on me; I have to press my nose up against my wrist to smell it at all. Bezoar is a warm scent that reminds me of some amber oils that I own - the sort of amber that makes me think of dry, aged woods heated in a sunbeam, with a touch of vanilla-like sweetness. And also, yeah, it smells a tiny bit like salty olives on me, lol. Thankfully, I really like olives. I'm glad to have a decant of Bezoar, and I'll have to think about getting a full bottle before the Carnaval leaves town .

I like foodie, sweet blends, but this Pumpkin goes way over the top on my skin. I love the sage and sweetgrass pumpkin from 07; and the original Pumpkin 5 blend with woods, ivy, and galangal might be my favorite fall scent. I had hoped that this would be along those same lines, with the pine, cedar, and sage. This blend is so syrupy sweet and cloying on my skin. I get buttery pumpkin, waxy vanilla candle, and a heavy zap of syrupy sweetness that I guess is the honey and cherry tobacco. It's very rich and overwhelming on me. I don't smell any pine, woods, or sage. This is crazy-sweet and buttery on my skin. I washed it off after a half hour...

Pumpkin with pink grapefruit, lemon verbena, yuzu, lime, parsley, and mint. The mixture of notes in this sounded strange to me, so I just went with a decant of this particular pumpkin. Now that I've tried it on, it lives up to my expectations of smelling strange on my skin. On me, the pumpkin is buttery, the parsley is dry and herbal, and the citrus is sharp. The mint just wanders in and out like it doesn't know quite what to do with itself. And it all just doesn't work for me as a whole. It feels like this wants to be too many different things on my skin (fruity, foodie, herbal, minty, juicy, dry, buttery, sharp, candied - too much). The notes war on my skin for 2-3 hours, fading in and out and back again, before this dries down into a faint, sweet citrus. I don't think that I like this enough to wear it again.

The mention of "flora" scared me into just getting a decant of this and skipping the full bottle. I'm glad that I did. While I love the original Blood Moon, this doesn't really smell anything like the original on me. Where Blood Moon 05 is all dark and exotic with spiced incense, Blood Moon 08 actually seems bright and perfumey. I get a lot of perfumey musk and soapy-clean floral from this. There are hints of sweet incense and a weird, rotting wood smell in the drydown, but my skin chemistry seems to amp up the musk and "forest flora." I'm surprised at how much this doesn't smell like I expected it to. I really expected it to be a darker sort of scent, rather than a bright and clean perfume. My skin chemistry seems to have butchered this scent...

My fiancé thought that this smelled like caramel corn and pumpkin spice, but said that it's far too buttery for his tastes. It didn't smell buttery to my nose, but I love foodies and my hubby-to-be is very picky about them. I think that this smells like the best dark chocolate fudge with pumpkin spice and graham crackers mixed in. It smells like a really dark, chocolate-y pumpkin pie scent to me . I'm still favoring Dungeon and Down the Rabbit Hole as my room sprays, but this will be my go-to spray when I want something foodie .

In the bottle, this is nothing but buttery syrup to my nose. On my skin at first, it's pretty much the same. After a few minutes, the pancakes come forth, giving off a warm, bread-type smell that's very soft and comforting to me. Ten minutes later, I can smell a bit of the berry coming through. The berry note strengthens over time as the buttery syrup disappears. It reminds me of berry scented dolls, a bit plastic-y, but I still like it. I love the pancake smell, so I'm glad that the note doesn't disappear. Something in this goes plastic-y and artificial, though, so it makes me think of cake and berry scented toys. Thus, it seems like a comforting, playful scent to me. I like it a lot. I was worried that this would be sickeningly sweet on me, but it's not. I'm glad that I have two bottles, and I *might* try to pick up a third. ETA: Not picking up a third bottle, lol. This scent has gotten the worst reaction from my hubby-to-be (he actually started gagging and made me get away from him o_O). When I asked him what was wrong with it, he just said that it smelled horribly wrong and made him feel nauseous. It might be too sweet or buttery for him, but he said it's his least favorite of all of my perfumes. In any case, Pancake Breakfast will just have to hang out with me while he's at work, and get washed off before he gets home, lol.

In the bottle, this smells like sharp, green grass and something powdery and sickly sweet. On my skin, this morphs into a sharp, spiky grass smell. It makes me think of sharp, dark purple colored meadow grasses, drying under a fall sun. It's not a green, freshly clipped lawn sort of scent, but darker on me. I'm not sure why I like this so much, but I think it's a very wearable grass scent. I never pick out any other notes except for that impression of dried grass and just a hint of something like a powdery, sweet, floral incense in the background. I'm glad that I have a bottle of this, though I'm not sure how often I'll actually feel like wearing it.

In the bottle, this sort of reminds me of Pinched With Four Aces - peppered coffee and a caramelized, creamy sweetness. On my skin, it's black coffee, cloying-sweet powder, and a sharp grass note. It gives off the impression of being a dry, bitter scent. It's strange on me, and I don't really care for it.

I purchased a little sample pot of this from the forum, and I'm so in love with it. My feet have been feeling tired, sore, and dry lately (lots of working out, plus being sick, plus Canada's lovely winter dryness), and this scrub is such a treat. The consistency is very interesting, and it's not like any other scrub that I've used before, though I generally stick to places like Wylde Ivy for a simple sugar scrub. I was afraid that the mint plus lemon combo would make this too sharply scented for me, but I honestly can't even smell the lemon or neroli. It smells like wonderful, chilly, bracing peppermint with a bit of sweetness, making me think of peppermint candy canes when I use it. I thought that this would be my least favorite scrub fragrance, but it's fantastic. When I scoop some scrub out of the jar, it looks thick and grainy, and then when I start rubbing it on to my feet, it's sort of like a really moisturizing gel with scrubbies in it. I hate oily scrubs of the sort where the oil separates and lays on top of the scrub for me to mix back together, but this doesn't seem oily to me. It's thick and wonderful. It's moisturizing without leaving me feeling like I have a bunch of cheap oils laying on my skin that will never absorb. I lightly dried my feet with a towel after their soak and scrub, and they didn't feel like they had any slippery residue on them at all, they were just super soft. And the peppermint it's such a soothing scrub. The peppermint seems to leave a chill on the skin that just completely relaxes and soothes away my aches. I was unsure about spending $30 for an 8 oz scrub, but I think these are worth every penny. I'll definitely be adding a full size scrub into my next BPTP order (the only problem is deciding between getting more Talaria or trying a different scent).

In the bottle, this is soapy-clean, bright, and green smelling. If I hold the bottle far away from myself, my brain interprets it as a sexy, clean, boy smell. If I sniff it within a few inches away, it just screams SOAP. On my skin, this is sharp, bright soap with a swampy sort of green smell suffocating underneath the soapiness. Meditation in Autumn puts blends like Dirty and Wensleydale to shame. Those are pleasant enough, clean scents. Meditation in Autumn is like being buried alive in laundry soap. It's so crazy-strong on me that it makes me feel a bit sick. Dry soap flakes with a cloying sweetness to them. After several hours, this mellows down to something wearable for me. It smells like sexy, clean, skin with a hint of very faded, masculine cologne. It smells like sexy, clean boy again. I'm not sure if I can handle the first couple hours of this, though, even if I do like it after it has dried down and faded a lot.

I'm not sure what it is in Mictecacihuatl that doesn't agree with my skin chemistry, but this morphs from being something like honeyed rose powder on my skin to rose soap, fake-y floral perfume, and cigar smoke in the drydown. Rose usually plays pretty nice on my skin, but it's almost like there's some sort of other floral in this that goes sharp and perfumey. Mictecacihuatl doesn't smell very spicy or resinous/incensey on me; it's all troubled florals and cigar smoke.

In the bottle, this smells like a pale, watery, cool, fruity-floral blend. It's a little too floral for my tastes. I don't care for most of The Salon fragrances, because they tend to smell like department store perfume on me, and they fade very fast on my skin. Lady Lilith has better staying power than most of the other Salon scents did on me, but it still has a very classic perfume sort of feel that makes it not very unique to me. For the first ten minutes or so, I actually really like this scent. The mandarin is fantastic and seems to keep the florals under control. The zingy citrus is uplifting and makes me happy. In the drydown, though, the citrus disappears and the rose takes its place. It dries down to a faint and unremarkable smell of light rose perfume with powder and some other, unidentifiable floral perfume smells thrown in. It's not as bad as Gladdener and Lilith Victoria were on me, but it's not very exciting or unique smelling on me either. Lady Lilith is just a light, boring floral scent on me.

In the bottle... if you had handed me this oil without a label, I would have guessed that it was The Oblation. It has the sophisticated lavender sweetened with honey and somehow even has the tangy, fruity, herbal sort of quality that I normally smell from the lab's blackberry note. It's much better in the bottle than it is on me. On my skin, this instantly sharpens up. I don't know how to describe it, except that it gives me a mental image of dry, thorn-y, desert weeds with sickly smelling flowers. It sort of reminds me of hemlock. I can still pick out the lavender for the first few minutes. In the drydown, the sickly florals and baby powder swallow up any other notes and start to make me ill. The Gladdener of All Hearts winds up being much like Lilith Victoria was on me. Insanely strong and not very good on my skin, with an overall sense of dry baby powder. It's an overwhelming smell of cloying sweet florals and baby POWDER. Very dry and very not-me.

In the bottle, this smells like soft lavender soaked in Dorian's vanilla tea, with a background of dark smokiness from the Snake Oil. I love the lavender and Dorian combo so much that I think I'm going to start mixing Dorian and a lavender oil together for everyday wear . I digress. On my skin, it starts off smelling like I applied Dorian, but it quickly shifts into a dark, smoky, not-so-good scent. After five minutes, this is powdery lavender with a hint of dark smokiness underneath it. After ten minutes, this is all baby powdery lavender, cloying sweetness, and a weird, sharp smokiness that begins to smell dirty on my skin, like greasy, unwashed hair. It's very dry and powdery smelling. It's also very strong and overwhelming on me, making me feel a bit sick. It stayed the same for an hour and a half until I scrubbed it off. I'll keep my bottle and see how this ages, but it's not very good on me right now.

I tend to really dislike smoky scents, and this is insanely smoky on me. I have a hard time pulling off certain types of tobacco notes or anything with smoke listed. Chant D'Automne is the worst smoky scent I've ever tried on my skin. My skin seems to amp this into a suffocating, cigarette smoke type of smell. It's sharp and suffocating to me, with a gritty, dirty feel that I find very unappealing. This is my least favorite of the Halloween blends.

I didn't have high hopes for The Hessian, but it's not as bad as I thought it would be. First on, I get a slightly smoky, charred wood smell, a bit of powdery sandalwood, and a metallic, rusty, almost red wine sort of twang from the blood note. In the drydown, I get that clean cologne smell that others have mentioned, and I'm not sure where it's coming from. It's still mostly earthy vetiver on me, but with clean, powdery edges and an overall feel of men's cologne. The sandalwood goes more powdery on me than usual. The Hessian is a bit too much for me (too smoky/earthy, too metallic, then too powdery and too clean), so I don't think I'll be keeping my decant or searching out more of this one. It's weird that it's both a bit too dark and a bit too clean for me...

I love the label art for John Barleycorn, but the scent is awful on me. It takes me back to trying on Mad Sweeney, where the whiskey comes on strong and smells like the chemical horror of rubbing alcohol. Blech. In the drydown, it's beer, rubbing alcohol, and baby powder on me. I smell like an awful, drunken nanny... I don't get any of the sweetness or grains that other people have mentioned. My skin chemistry doesn't seem to handle these beer and whiskey scents too well.

I wasn't sure how the mix of dry, spicy cassia and wet, green bamboo would work for me. And, in short, they do not work on me. My skin amps up the almost-cinnamon spice of the cassia (which I like in certain foodie or resinous blends). In the drydown, the cassia mellows down slightly and the bamboo pops up, and it's just too weird and disjointed for me. Bamboo smells green, pulpy, wet, and slightly lemony to me. I usually don't care for it in blends. The cassia and bamboo seem to war on my skin for about an hour, with no trace of lotus or wisteria, and then the whole thing just vanishes. I could see this being beautiful on someone who doesn't amp up spicy notes. Unfortunately, that person is not me

I was afraid of the tobacco and brimstone listed in Hellhound, but I still bought a bottle for the bourbon vanilla, and I'm really glad that I did. This doesn't smell anything like I expected it to, but it's still good. I don't smell anything that jumps out at me as being tobacco or brimstone, which I'm happy about. In the bottle, this smells very cologne-like. It's masculine and has a spicy, herbal quality from the bay rum, backed up by a slightly sweet, musky vanilla. On my skin, I can't pick out any bay rum and this isn't musky at all. This is a hot, herbal, earthy sort of scent with a shot of a not-really-sweet sort of vanilla. Earthy vanilla. I keep thinking that it smells primarily of an herbal, slightly medicinal, slightly powdery lavender on my skin (which may be the life everlasting). Herbal lavender and earthy vanilla, with a heat and grittiness to it that I actually find very appealing. My only complaint with this one is that it fades really fast on me. It only lasts about an hour and doesn't have much throw, but it's really wonderful on my skin while it lasts. My boy really likes it on me too. I probably won't need a second bottle of this, but I'm verrrry glad that I have one bottle, at least