Little Bird

I was hoping that the clove, tonka, and oakmoss would make this more than just a fruity floral on my skin, but I can't smell any of those notes in Lune Noire. On me, this is a subtle floral scent with a hint of pear in the early stages. Black orchid is one of my favorite floral notes, and I can happily pick it out in this blend at first. It smells juicy, exotic, and sultry. The drydown is more perfumey gardenia than orchid, and the pear fades away. The gardenia might be sharp enough to give me a headache (that sharp, white floral scent), but this stays light enough on my skin that it's not really offensive. I like The Premature Burial & Phantom Queen more for my black orchid fix. I was hoping for a complex, sultry, dark floral from this, but Lune Noire just goes to a light, white floral on my skin. I probably won't be keeping my decant.

I used to buy nothing but 10mls <3. I believe they were discontinued in the late summer of 06. This was a July 12, 2006 announcement about them: "To clear up some of the 10ml issues, we had been planning to remove them for about a year now. The only reason it will speed up production is because their sales voulme doesn't warrent us keeping them in inventory, therefore steps were not taken to move them into mass production. If we were to keep them in inventory, most of them would sit on our side for many many months, that is a quality compromise we just aren't willing to make." So... yeah... they are gone now. And I don't think I've heard any mentions of bringing them back.

Smokestack reminds me vaguely of Lenore (charred, smoky, black vetiver), but it's even worse on me than Lenore is. Smokestack is like Lenore dumped into a dirty ash tray. I can't actually imagine anyone wearing this, except perhaps as a layering note to add a bit of grittiness underneath another scent. Even then, I couldn't pull this one off. It's far too smoky, dirty, and gritty for me (and I have enjoyed quite a few vetiver blends, but this ash tray smell isn't for me). To the swap pile with this scent.

First on, Penumbra seemed kinda cologne-y and masculine. It reminded me of black musk with some gritty tobacco and odd herbal notes added in. Weird. Then, in the drydown, the purple musk and pomegranate take over and this is more perfumey & sharply feminine. It reminds me of Purple Phoenix with sweet tarts (pomegranate almost always does this to me) and a little bit of baby powder added in. Ick. This doesn't work on me at all.

In the bottle, this smells exactly like blue raspberry candy - sugary, fruity, and almost sour (in a good, mouthwatering sort of way). On my skin... I'm really loving the blueberry scents, even though they're more candy-blueberry than true blueberry. This isn't floral or musky on me at all, but the currant, green tea, and blueberry all meld together into a fantastic, unique fruity scent. The green tea adds a bit of astringent freshness that cuts the sweetness of the blueberry, and the currant makes it more than just a blueberry scent. I like that this is a tart scent that doesn't go too far and smell like sweet tart candies on me. Overall, the tea, currant, and blueberry seem to meld together into a tart raspberry scent on my skin. This is such a fun, playful blend. I'm glad that I got two bottles (and the label artwork is brilliant)

In the bottle, Sturgeon Moon smells fascinating. It smells swamp-y, sort of reminiscent of Bayou, but it's not as hot or sharp as Bayou is to me. Bayou has hot florals where this has green, watery plants. It's grassy, watery, fresh, and with a bit of swamp-dirtiness. On me, this pitches into a dryer sheet frenzy for about 15 minutes. For a while, the other notes try to save the blend, and it's like dryer sheets that are watery on the edges, sweet, and a bit green. The longer it's on my skin, the more aquatic it becomes and it starts to give me a vicious headache. It's too sharp and soapy-fresh. I think I'll keep my bottle for the label art, but the oil is a headache for me.

Cheshire Cat is in my top five of favorite GC bpal oils, but I don't think that the soap really smells anything like it. Perhaps it has a vague smell of citrus and chamomile, but mostly it just smells like soap. It's a pretty bar, cream colored with flecks of reddish brown (the rosehips?), making it sort of peaches and cream colored. I found it to be pretty drying, and lightly exfoliating. I think that my favorite thing about the soap is the wrapping paper that it came in (checker pattern with paw prints and Cheshire Cat faces & all sorts of cuteness <3). The soaps are wrapped beautifully, but I wish they were more strongly scented and less drying.

Shrunken Heads doesn't really do anything exciting or appealing on my skin. It's smoky leather with dry herbs. Oddly, I don't get the fresh wetness or green pulp that others have mentioned. I guess I'm not picking up on the 'ferns,' because this is mostly smoky leather on my skin, and I was glad that it didn't have very good staying power on me, lol.

This bath oil is my favorite product from the L'Inverno set and my second favorite item of all four inquisitions (my favorite-favorite item is L'Estate atmopshere spray ). In the bottle, this smells like sweet pine and a slushy snow note. I figured that the pine/fir note would disappear in the bath water and on my skin, but it doesn't. This actually smells a lot like Mistletoe to me, but a bit brighter and with something extra adding some complexity underneath the scent. I'm not sure if it's the citron, the musk, or the mint, but there's a note adding a bit of extra zip and brightness to the fir. Unlike the other bath oils that I've tried, I didn't need tons of this oil to strongly scent my water (I like a lot of fragrance). I used about half an ounce and felt like I was bathing in a frosty pool in the middle of a pine forest. Awesome. The oil left my skin feeling silky and with a light scent of sweet, cool pine. I immediately got out of the bath and dabbed on some Mistletoe perfume oil. After the bath, the bathroom still smells strongly of snowy pine and the fragrance is drifting out through the house. So lovely

I don't smell any rose in The Blasphemare Reliquary, which is surprising, because I normally amp the rose in blends. I'm not really sure how to describe this scent. It's sort of a dry, dusty, sweet incense fragrance. I think I can smell a bit of dry woods along with the sweet incense and dust. This is a pretty light, subtle fragrance on me. It clings close to the skin and doesn't have much throw, leaving an impression of sweet incense and dust. I like Rose Cross more for a rose + incense blend, and I like Midnight Mass & Faustus more than this for an overall church-y resins scent. Still, I think I'll keep my decant of this and see how it ages.

I've been loving coconut scents lately, so I was super-excited to try Gwyneth. I like bpal's rose, tonka, orchid, and skin musk as well. Unfortunately, I amp the rose in this enough that it overwhelms most of the other notes, and it goes a little powdery on me. Calla lily is one of the lily notes that I can't pull off, because it just goes soapy-fresh on me. The combination of amped up rose and soapy lily just makes me smell like an expensive bar of rose soap, and I'm not really a fan of soapy or clean blends. I can never smell anything like tonka or coconut with this blend, though it's a faint rose soap and smoky sage after several hours.

I was upset when I first sprayed this, because it had a sharp, perfumey floral quality to it. It mellows down into a soapy-clean floral smell with a cold ozone-y note. The longer it sits in the room or on some fabric, the prettier it gets. It turns less soapy and sharp over time, and more into just a clean chill. It's not the pine and snow scent that I was hoping for, but it's still nice. I wouldn't want this as a personal scent, but it's a wonderful linen fragrance.

Upon first spritz, I thought that this was a little too dark for me, but the L'Autunno spray is definitely growing on me. It smells like wet soil, dry/rotting leaves, and a distant swirl of smoke at first. It starts off rather smoky on my linens and then morphs into more of a clean, chilled smell. I think that the tea gives it a crisp feel. It's like a chilly, wet autumn day, raking up damp leaves with the scent of a burning leaf pile somewhere off in the distance. A day later, the most lovely clean smell is left behind, with no trace of smokiness. I think that the atmosphere sprays are my favorite things out of this inquisition.

In the bottle, this reminds me of blends like Bad Luck Woman Blues and Tiresias. The molasses and cinnamon sugar smell like rich caramel and the other notes add an earthy, herbal, woody quality to the blend. In the bath water, this is mostly foodie sage for me, like caramel with a hint of spiciness and the dry, herbal sage. It's almost too sweet for me when it's in the water, so I'd definitely have to be in a foodie mood to bathe with L'Autunno. On my skin, it's amazing how much this shifts. The foodie/sweet aspects fade to the background and the myrrh & sweetgrass pop out. The myrrh is smoothly resinous and the sweetgrass adds a scent of dry grasses. It's a little bit smoky, like burning sage, but not enough to bother me. The touch molasses adds just the right hint of sweetness. After the disappointment of the spice crazed L'Autunno perfume oil, I'm glad to see that this doesn't have an overwhelming cinnamon note. The myrrh and sweetgrass in this bath oil are gorgeous.

Aelopile is kind of a mess on me. I'm not crazy about sour citrus notes or smoky scents, and this has both of those elements in it. I amp verbena and I really hate it in bpal blends. It's a sharp, tart, sour, lemon-y smell that's hyper at first and then subdued a bit with a smoky woods note in the drydown. The amber lends a light sprinkling of baby powder that doesn't really help matters after about a half hour. Smoky, dry, masculine woods, sharp lemon, and a hint of baby powder. Obviously, not a scent for me.

I wasn't too excited about trying Faeu Boulanger, because I haven't been impressed with mint+violet scents that I've tried in the past. This is a pretty nice scent, though, and I'm glad that it isn't overwhelmingly minty on me. It's the only Wunderkammer scent that I've actually liked (though I still haven't tried Bezoar). I like the watery, effervescent smell to this. I keep switching between thinking it smells of aquatic cucumber, watery honeydew melon, or cucumber & grapefruit. It's a watery, clear, clean smell with a bit of zip to it. There's also a sweetness to this that is pleasant and not overwhelming. It's almost like a mix of candied violet and soapy-clean violet on me, with the background of green, watery, pulpy aquatic smells. The mint is cool, clear, and almost sugary on me. In the drydown, the mint slowly fades away and this is mostly sweet violet and clean aquatic on me. It's a pretty scent, and rather unique... I think I'll keep my decant of this one.

I was completely wrong about these four seasons inquisitions. I thought that I would love L'Autunno, like L'Inverno, like L'Estate, and hate La Primavera. The exact opposite has turned out to be true (love La Primavera, really like L'Estate, am iffy about L'Inverno, and hate L'Autunno - though my favorite thing out of the entire four sets is the L'Estate atmosphere spray, which I've been wearing as a perfume <3). I digress. L'Inverno smells better in the bottle than it does on me, so it would probably be amazing on the right person with the right skin chemistry. In the bottle, this is a frosty plum that reminds me of a less sweet and more sophisticated Midwinter's Eve. Very lovely. On me, my boy said this smells like "cleaning supplies and syrup," which definitely doesn't sound good, lol. I think I get mostly the plum and lily, and they're going wonky on my skin. The plum sweetens and starts to remind me of grape candy, and the lily starts going to baby powder. Over time, this starts to turn plasticy and strange. Grape candy and plastic, which makes me smell like some awful grape scented toy, and I've never cared for the artificial grape smells. I think I'll keep this and see how it ages, but it's definitely not something that I'd wear at the moment.

Hawthorn, fig, myrrh, carnation, toasted almond, red and green apple, patchouli, wood smoke, and Indian musk. L'Autunno is definitely one of my biggest bpal disappointments ever. I LOVE apple scents, and I also love fig, myrrh, and patchouli. I thought that this would be awesome with the red and green apples and no spice notes listed. Unfortunately, in the bottle and on my skin, this is nothing but spice. This isn't a pleasant spice to me either, it's a sharp, astringent type of cinnamon. It's like sharp cider spice without the apple. This gives me a headache, and it smells nothing like any of the listed notes (at least not to my nose or on my skin). I'm heartbroken that this doesn't smell like apple to me at all

Hand of Glory is not what I was expecting. I expected it to be dark and woodsy from the leather, sandalwood, and oak. I thought that it would be spicy from the pepper and nutmeg. And it's nothing but super-strong, sickly-sweet honey musk on me. It stays that way for hours. It doesn't change at all on my skin, except to go just slightly powdery in the drydown. I don't care for a strong, super-sweet honey scent, so I wish that some of the other notes were present on my skin...

I'm glad that I purchased the entire La Primavera set, even though this soap would have scared me away from it. I have the worst time trying to wear white florals and I can't pull off sharp citrus notes. The La Primavera soap & atmosphere spray are headache-inducing and sharp smelling for me, but the perfume and bath oil are gorgeous. Dry, this bar of soap smells like generic, hotel room floral soap. Wet, this is more strongly scented than most of the BPTP soaps have been, but I don't really like it (that figures, lol). It's generic white floral soap with a shot of sharp lemon. And, as with most of the BPTP soaps I've tried, I found this to be really drying to my skin. I just had to try it to see how it compared to the rest of the set...

I've had a hard time reviewing L'Estate bath oil, because I'm kind of on the fence about it. Sometimes I love this, and I love it in stages, but sometimes it's just too much cloying, sickly sweetness for me. It reminds me a lot of Eden, which I have the same problem with. It's a little too much honeyed sweetness and a green sort of smell. In the bottle and in my bath water, this smells *amazing*. I can smell sweet peach, lots of fantastic, fresh spiciness from the cardamom, and all of the other notes rounding everything out and adding a complex smoothness to the blend. It smells like that on my skin for a while, as well, though a bit more crisp and almost lemon-y rather than peach-y. In the drydown, though, it leaves a smell like honeyed green leaves on my skin. Sometimes I like it, and sometimes it's just a sickly sweet smell that I have to scrub off...

Trying on Aeronwen & Knucklebones in the same day has firmly cemented my hatred for black musk. Knucklebones & Aeronwen are two of my favorite carnaval artwork pieces (the dark haired fellow in the art for this actually looks kinda like my ex-boyfriend, lol), I was excited for the orange in both of them, and the black musk ruined both scents for me. The bay rum and lime really try to save this scent for me. The bay rum smells almost bitter-spicy on me, tropical & masculine, with the zing of lime giving it even more of a tropical feel. Like Aeronwen, I never can smell anything even remotely like orange in this, but the black musk is crazy-strong and smells like smoky, cheap, musky-clean men's cologne. Black musk, on me, smells like the cheap and overwhelming cologne of men that I try to avoid, lol. The tobacco makes the black musk even more smoky and unbearable, and a little bit gritty. Cheap, dark, musky men's cologne with a touch of smokiness and a bit of zingy lime and bay rum. I don't smell anything orange-y or any gin. It's masculine, and I'd probably think it was great on the right man with the right skin chemistry. Unfortunately, I can't pull this scent off myself. It smells cheap on me...

Aeronwen is probably my biggest disappointment of the grindhouse, just because I had such high hopes for her and she's only 'okay' on me. She has my favorite artwork of the set, and I love all of the notes in this except for the black musk. I was hoping for delicious fig and sweet orange over a base of resins and amber. The only notes that I can really pick out of this blend at first are the fig and black musk. The black musk gives this a clean, cheap cologne sort of smell, and the fig adds in a dry woodiness with just the barest touch of sweetness. I love bpal's fig notes (Intrigue = LOVE), and I love the fig here, but the black musk doesn't do anything good for me. It has more of a redwood smell and a bit of spice to it in the drydown, but it remains mostly black musk on my skin. Aeronwen is like hints of wonderful smells hiding under black musk, just out of my reach. I might keep my decant and see how this ages, but it's not full bottle worthy for me at the moment.

I was hoping that this blend would be reminiscent of The Haunted Palace + lilac on me, but The Maltese Cross just isn't working for me. First on, I get the watery, salty aquatic smell that other reviewers have mentioned. Then, a bit of sharp, watery orange (not as sweet or rich as blood orange usually is on me) and sweet, buttery lilac creep in. I love lilac when it's a good, natural smelling lilac, but this comes off as too sweet at first, and has a sharp, chemical, hairspray quality in the drydown. As this dries down, the amber starts to turn everything to baby powder. This goes from watery orange, sharp musk, and sweet floral to sharp, fake-y floral and baby powder on me. I usually love lilac, blood orange, ambergris, and frankincense, but this turns too sharp and powdery on me.

On me, this is a sharp rose that threatens to turn soapy and hints of a smoky incense. It dries down to something like rose dusting powder with a spike of sharpness and a hint of smoke... There are definitely rose-and-incense blends that I like a lot more than this one (Parlement of Foules, mainly <3 but I like Rose Cross more than Tabula Smaragdina as well). I prefer a sweet rose and smooth, glossy resins. Tabula Smaragdina's rose is sharp/soapy and dries down to powder on me, and the incense aspects are smoky, so I'm not loving this...