Little Bird

Green Phoenix is the sort of fragrance that torments me. Half of it is made up of notes that I *love* (papaya, grass, cucumber, and lime), and the other half is notes that I hate (sage, mint, bpal's amber notes, and green musk). First on, this is a teasing burst of a scent that might actually work on me. It has a bit of juicy fruitiness to it and the refreshing, cool scent of watery cucumbers and green grass. Then the Green Phoenix quickly morphs into a refreshing dryer sheets and men's cologne sort of fragrance. The green musk mixed with green tea keeps making me think of a very crisp cologne. The amber lends its powdery hand into the mix in the drydown. There are hints of fruitiness and an herbal sage every once in a while, but the musk ruins yet another blend for me

Sea of Tranquility takes on a cheap, drugstore, floral perfume smell on my skin. The poppy and other floral notes are sharp and chemical-esque, making this rather harsh to my nose. The amber and sandalwood try to calm it down in the drydown, but they just add a dry, powdery edge that I don't care for either. Sea of Tranquility is probably pretty if you can stomach white florals, but I unfortunately cannot

My initial review of this was not glowing. It's just not the sort of scent that I would normally wear. It starts off with a sharp, cutting musk that I really don't like. However, my boy *LOVES* this on me. For that reason alone, I have to go back and edit this. Black Lace seems to be quite the man magnet, lol. I still don't care for Black Lace the first few hours that it's on me. It's just too musky for me. However, when it dries down and settles, it has crazy staying power and smells like the sexiest vanilla ever. It's a bit clean, a bit sweet, and just has an overall feel of an incredibly sexy date perfume (the sort of date where you spend a few minutes making your date crazy and then spend the rest of the night in bed). So now I have to track down more of this. My man is rarely fanatical about my perfume, but he loves Black Lace and Boomslang on me. His attraction to the scent and the lovely drydown have made this a winner for me.

I wish I'd gotten a full bottle of Capricorn in my latest order instead of bottles of Tanuki and Hony Mone. I always do the wrong thing, lol. I was afraid that the tobacco and hemp in this would overpower everything and turn this into a dark, gritty, dirty sort of scent on me. I think I can pick a bit of earthy, gritty tobacco out in the drydown, but it's not overwhelming on me. On me, this is a very lovely little pine scent. It makes me think of icicles melting off of pine needles. It is crisp, a bit watery, and a bit sweet like pine sap. The pine manages to stay at the center, and it doesn't go too sharp on me. Yay. I think that this would be an awesome room scent, but I'll probably hoard my little half-decant to actually wear from time to time.

I was grateful to get a frimp of this in a swap package, but it sadly doesn't work on me. I get a strong almond note from this at first, and it's a boozy, super-sweet maraschino cherry sort of almond. In the drydown, Fruitcake becomes spicier. I have a hard time wearing spice scents because they sometimes make me think of cloying candle fragrances, and the spice here is like sharp cinnamon and hyper buttery sweetness. This reminds me of an incredibly cloying, foodie candle. The spicy cake, boozy sweet fruit, and nutty something are just way too sweet. I couldn't pull this off in perfume form, but I would love it in an oil burner. I probably won't search out more of this, but it'll be lovely as a room scent while it lasts.

Tanuki is definitely a floral scent on me. It has a dark, sweet sort of floral note to it that makes me think of violet, but this is more musky-perfumey than violet. I can smell a fruitiness as well, but it's artificial and reminds me of sweet tarts. Overall, this blend is too much perfumey floral and too tart for me. It's sharper and has more tartness to it than I was hoping for. My bottle is headed for my swap pile...

I think that the bottle/label art on this is so cute, and I love most of the notes in here. In the bottle, the oil actually smells wonderful. It's a sweet, rich, creamy, slightly foodie sort of scent. On my skin, it's the same for a few seconds and then starts to smell quite a bit like The Organ Grinder. It has a similar honeyed almond scent with a bitter edge. I love fig, carnation, apricot, and tonka, which is why I bought a bottle of this one. Unfortunately, within a minute, Hony Mone has turned into nothing but a stong, overwhelmingly perfumey floral. I don't think that BPAL's jasmine has worked on me in any blend, but it's usually not this sharp and perfumey on me either. Hony Mone is a sharply perfumey white floral to my nose. I asked my boy to smell this on me, but he just made a face and said, "Smells soapy." Not a winner for me

I forgot to review Pollution, perhaps because it strikes me as a more department store smelling fragrance. It's also hard for me to review anything with amber-musk in it, because they tend to go so wrong on my skin. I picked it out of my imp box yesterday and dabbed some on myself and the boy. At first this reminds me very much of a men's cologne fragrance, but I can't place which one it reminds me of. It strikes me as more unisex though. It's musky and the sort of thing I'd expect marketed as a men's cologne, without striking me as being particularly manly. I think it reminds me a little bit of Versace Man - a bit on the femme side, especially in the drydown, if that makes sense to anyone, lol. A men's cologne for men who wish to smell a bit feminine? I get a hint of something slightly sweet and citrussy for a while, and I wish that impression would stick around. On me, this goes a little soapy and then morphs into a baby powder phase, thanks to the amber. Unisex musk, a bit aftershavey for a while, and then morphs into slightly musky baby powder. On my boy, it smells much the same, only (oddly enough) smells a bit more feminine on him. I get a sort of sweet floral scent on his skin that might be the davana. Overall, Pollution probably isn't one I'll be keeping.

I snagged a decant of Dupin for my boy, because lavender & lime are two of my favorite scents and they smell dreamy on him. Unfortunately, this seems to be a pretty heavy leather scent. I tried it out on the boy and on myself, and all I can smell is leather. A dark, sharp, smoky sort of leather. It fades really fast on my boy's skin, but seems to stick around on mine. Too much leather for my tastes, and my skin really amps up leather.

I seem to amp up tobacco notes like mad, and Hastur has the sort of tobacco that I hate in it - gritty, dirty, slightly smoky. It doesn't really smell sweet on my skin at all, though it does have an almost caramelized stickiness to it. It's almost as though it wants to be a sweet tobacco, but it's overtaken by a smokier something on my skin. All I can smell is the tobacco at first. I love black patchouli when it's paired with something sweeter (such as fruity notes or caramelized notes), because it has such a dark, leather-esque scent on my skin that I need something to soften its edges. The dark and smoky tobacco plus dark and dirty patchouli is too much for me to pull off, lol. This strikes me as smelling very masculine, but it's too harsh to my nose, so I wouldn't want it on my boy either. People who can stomach tobacco better than I would probably like this one.

Blue musk tends to smell watery to me, like a frost tinged pond and frosty stones. It also has an *almost* fruity sweetness to it. I can definitely smell that and the moonflower in this blend. The moonflower has a chilly, almost powdery sweetness to it. I like Long Night Moon's sweetness, but one of the flower notes starts going a bit soapy and sharp on me in the drydown, trying to muck things up. I agree with the review that said this was reminiscent of shampoo. It has a sweet, clean, slightly aquatic smell to it that, when mixed with the soapiness, smells like shampoo on me as well. I kinda like it though. It's a nice, clean fragrance.

The reviews describing Ivanushka as powdery had me frightened, I hate powdery scents and dry fragrances (I like that pickle smell though, so I wasn't worried about that, lol). I was so sure that Ivanushka was going to be a flop on me and that I'd regret buying a bottle. In reality, my only regret is not getting more than one bottle. Ivanushka is such a soft, beautiful fragrance. My boy gave it an 8 out of 10 and I agree; it's definitely in a top spot for me. Sometimes frankincense smells like dill pickles to me, so I wonder if that's what other people are smelling. I get a strong dill pickle scent from blends like Kostnice. I get a twangy resin when I first put this on, but it doesn't smell full out pickle-y to me, and it quickly settles into a softer resin. This starts off with a soft, sweet, coolly resinous quality to it that reminds me of blends like A'Arab Zaraq and Midnight Mass. It's soft and powdery though, but not baby powdery or dry, it's as though someone took the resins from similar blends and crushed them into a fine powder form. So lovely. In the drydown, it's a powdery musk, which I would normally despise. Somehow this really does bring up an impression of warm fur though. And it settles into a clean, enchanting sort of scent on me. This reminds me quite a bit of Destroying Angel in the drydown (paper thin, soft, a bit earthy), but it has a bit of something special that makes it so much better for me. I love this and I'm so glad I got a bottle. The label art is gorgeous too.

I love Sagittarius and so wish that I had been smart enough to get a big bottle instead of a decant. It's like a single note dandelion on me - cheery, sunny, and reminds me of being a little kid. This blend captures the milky smoothness, unique sweetness, and cool herbal qualities of the dandelion perfectly. This is pure dandelions on me. And it's fantastic. I love the quality of bpal's dandelion oil. Dandelion oils I've tried from other companies never managed to capture the scent so perfectly. Sagittarius is a perfect dandelion.

Aw, I love the Fairy Wine label. It makes me wish that the oil worked on me well enough to warrant a full bottle purchase, lol.

My first thought when sniffing this in its vial was that it smelled strangely of smoky, honey bbq. Sweet, smoky and odd. On my skin, it's thankfully not so odd. Ligur actually smells really wonderful to me. This smells like dry wood planks, spicy in the way that cedar can smell spicy. There are also smoky resins dancing about, but they're not so smoky that they bother me. They're sweet, dark, and a bit earthy. This gives me a wonderful impression of being at a campsite and sitting underneath a wooden structure at a wooden picnic table while rain falls down and floods out the nearby campfire. It has a cool earthiness that makes me think of warm earth just starting to get its first tastes of a chilly spring rain. Ligur surprises me. Dry woods, warm earth meeting cold rain, and a slight smoky, ashiness from a rained out campfire. It has a sweetness to it that I love, and I love the woods impression that I get from this. I really want to slather this on my love, as I think it would smell even better on a man (where I can enjoy it on someone else too, lol).

I was hoping for more black tea and lilac from Famine, but I get a very strong tobacco note and hints of resins. I tend to hate anything with tobacco notes in it, but I actually don't mind it in this blend. This smells almost leathery and masculine to me, like a worn, soft leather pouch with dry, spicy tobacco leaves inside. It's a simple scent on me and I don't like it enough to ever wear it, but I don't mind it either. It's not a smoky, gritty, or dirty tobacco on me, but it is masculine and dry. Famine is something of a single note tobacco scent on me. Masculine, dry, and a bit spicy.

The only note that I'm not really familiar with in Madame Tracy is the 'ume blossom,' but something in this goes very high pitched, fakey, and chemical on my skin, like soap and cheap hairspray. It reminds me a bit of the sharpness that I get from opium poppy. I smell hints of a sweet, lovely tea rose but it's smothered by something very bad. This really smells like the metallic twang, almost alcoholic, that I find so suffocating from cans of hairspray. On me this is a soapy, sharp, chemical-laden, bad floral. It's not light on me either, my skin chemistry seems to amp this up into a horribly perfumey mess. Not good. Maybe this is just more floral than I can pull off, but I usually really love tea rose, heliotrope, and violet...

In the bottle... this smells like a tea party. Honeyed, refreshing tea and spiced teacakes. Yummy. On my skin, the green tea and vanilla bean seem to dominate at first. This is a very soft, subtle scent on me, clinging close on my skin. Crisp, cool green tea sweetened up with vanilla and honey. I can barely smell a hint of sweet spice, and I don't get any fruitiness/blackberry leaf from this that I can pick out. Within five minutes, this has almost disappeared on me though it fades into a powdery-honey-muskiness and then just disappears. It almost turns a bit sour on me before it fades away completely, sour green tea and powdery honey musk... it has hints of sweetness that I do enjoy, but it's too dry and musky, and it fades far too fast. I wish this smelled as good on me as it does in the bottle.

I love this scent when I first put it on. It reminds me of being little and making "soup" in the yard with my cousins. We lived in the country and would mash up blackberries, raspberries, polk berries, and wildflowers all together. Fairy Wine smells like sunny dandelions mashed into fruitiness. It is definitely boozy, but it doesn't smell bitter, dark, or rotten as wine notes usually do on me. It smells more like a berry vodka spritzer with a low alcohol percentage than wine. Berries, lovely dandelions, and booze. I think the dandelion smells so awesome paired with sweeter, fruity notes. Unfortunately, this scent loses a lot of its charm for me after 15 minutes or so. This reminds me a lot of Harvest Moon 06 for a bit (which I love), in that it has a sort of dying field grasses/wildflowers & fall feel to it. This is a lot sharper than HM06 though. It gets a dry, sharply perfumey, slightly powdery, musk-like presence that dominates the scent. The sweetness fades away and I get a soured wine note too, smelling like unripened, unsweetened fruit. The sweet fruits and dandelions disappear completely. After wearing it for 2 hours it's nothing but a dry, high pitched, sharp sort of muskiness. I love the whimsical, cheery opening of this, but I hate the sharp drydown. I won't be keeping my decant...

I put off trying on The Fruit of Paradise because my skin chemistry seems to do awful things to bpal's pomegranate notes. It goes on as a bitter, tart pomegranate. The note tends to smell like sweet tarts on my skin (even slightly powdery and dry), which I don't really want to smell like. It actually does seem a bit juicier and chilly in the drydown of this scent, but it's still an overly tart scent for my tastes. After ten minutes or so it starts to get perfumey and I wonder if this has some sort of musk in it? The Fruit of Paradise, on me, is tart pom and hints of sharp musky-something. I wish I knew what was actually in this. Other reviews mention pine and spice, but I'm just smelling tart fruit and musk.

I'm really sensitive to floral scents. A lot of them give me headaches if they're a bit too perfumey/musky or just too strong. When I wear Hairy Toad Lily, it is enough to give me a headache for the first hour or so, but I still really like the scent. It starts off a bit too sharp/perfumey and smelling like some sort of weed - astringent, herbal, and green. Weeds and a musky floral perfoom. After about 45 minutes, this really calms down into something lovely though. I can still pick out hints of greenery, but it has sweetened up a lot. It has a soft, creamy quality to it. Creamy lilies coated in purple sugar, perhaps. I really love the drydown of Hairy Toad Lily, but I don't think that I could stand to wait through the first hour every time I want to smell the drydown.

I was hesitant to try Havana because I generally hate anything with tobacco in it and have a hard time wearing leather notes. Leather tends to smell smoky and odd on me, as it does in this scent. This is actually a rather nice blend though, and I think I might like it on a man (though my boy doesn't like it on himself). This is a dry scent without being dusty or powdery, so I actually don't mind the dryness. I suppose it's the dry tobacco actually smelling spicy and pleasant to me. There's also a slight element of dry woods (snakeroot?). I think the date palm is what gives it a pale green, grassy, fresh sort of smell to my nose, but it's very light. In the drydown, a smoky leather begins to dominate the scent, with the spicy, dryer notes lingering in the background. This has a very desert/western feel to me. I like it, especially at first, but probably wouldn't wear it much, if ever. The smoky leather note puts me off a bit in the drydown. If this didn't have any leather in it, I think I might get a bottle.

I read the notes for Event Horizon and thought, “Ugh, poppy, I'll pass on that.” But then it started manipulating me. “You have to try me, Tania, you love black orchid and just look at my list of notes. I'm going to be such a rich, resinous fragrance. Smell me. Just sniff me in my little imp vial here...” So I was like, "Well, I suppose I will sniff you just to show myself that you are an evil poppy demon from hell. It's not like you can hurt me from inside your container. Haha." I sniffed my imp and exclaimed, “Wow, you are really good. You kind of remind me of Midnight Mass. Those are some deep, rich, smooth, sweet resins you have here.... hey, wait a minute, I smell poppy in you. It's just trying to hide so that it can ambush me later when I've slathered you on.” “No, no, no,” Even Horizon shook its head, “The poppy is barely here. It'll be good. You love those sweet resins, don't you?” So, because I am forever optimistic with perfume, I slathered on some oil. I could practically hear the opium laughing as it swung forward to beat the crap out of me - a bit soapy and a lot sharp and cutting. The other notes in this do manage to restrain it slightly and make it a bit sweeter and deeper on me, but it's still a strrrong, razor sharp opium note that manages to give me a migraine I really do think this smells a lot like Midnight Mass. Er, rather it smells like OPIUM on me with a bit of Midnight Mass thrown in. Anyhow, if you like both of those things (or you don't amp up opium like mad), I'd definitely recommend giving this a go.

First sniff in the vial, I see that this has the type of vetiver that I hate in it. Smoky vetiver that smells like charred mesquite bbq. It's too sweet and makes me think of burnt bbq chicken. And it's the same on my skin. I don't get the patchouli or blood orange at all, this is allll vetiver on me. Burnt, woody, bbq-ed vetiver. The ylang ylang pops out a bit after a while, but it's just a perfumey and metallic essence underneath the vetiver. I'm ushering this imp of vetiver straight to the swap pile.

In the vial, something funky and dark green underneath an aquatic note (smells more of rain than snow to me). The dark green almost smelled like spinach or mushrooms to me, dark and not very sweet. On my skin, this smells like sweet slush and something vegetal. Sweet slush and celery? It's watery and a bit sharp. Over time, this starts to smell like sweet dryer sheets, a bit of mint, and celery. Odd, and probably not something I'll ever wear.