Little Bird

I try to review everything that comes my way, and I've had a decant of Black Poppy for a while now. I really dislike the whole poppy/opium scent. It's pretty much my least favorite note. It makes me ill. Putting that prejudice aside... This actually smells very white to me. White, smoky, and hazy. And it goes all sharp on my skin. It almost wants to be sweet, but I can't get past that sharpness (almost metallic, like cheap hairspray). I suppose it's a warm, smoky, cutting floral. Not for me.

I never used Gainful Employment with a purpose or any intent, so this is a scent review only. To my nose, this was definitely spicy... a medicinal clove and sharp cinnamon. Too medicinal for me to want to wear it, and it gave my wrists that burning sensation that too much cinnamon often brings on.

Huh. On me this smells kinda like lemons and soap. It's sharp and sort of musky... but mostly just soapy on my skin. It lightens up a bit in the drydown, but then it's almost metallic and perfumey. I'll be gifting away my decant of this one.

Temple of the Loas starts off very pleasant on me - a wet, juicy, fruity rose sort of scent. A tropical rose. Then the drydown after fifteen minutes or so just turns into a nondescript floral and starts to get too musky and sharp for me. I wish that it stayed as juicy and sweet as it was initially.

BPAL's fig note is amazing. It has a dull sweetness and an almost wooden sort of smell to it. I like Carnal, but Intrigue was my ultimate fig fragrance. Mmm. But this isn't about fig perfumes, so back to the soap... I wish that the Carnal soap had a bit of a stronger scent, but it's pretty light and doesn't leave any scent on my skin after use. It has a nice, creamy lather and a delicious fig with hints of sweet orange fragrance. It's still a bit drying to my skin, but I generally do need lotion after washing anyhow. Carnal is a good little soap, though I dunno if I'd ever buy another bar. It doesn't wow me enough to justify the price tag. I'm just in the camp of people who like stronger scents, I suppose, lol.

The bottle art has gotten so snazzy lately. I get just as excited wondering about what the labels might look like as I do wondering about what the oil will smell like on me.

Miskatonic University soap doesn't smell much like the actual MU oil to me or the boy (which the boy likes, since he hates the sweet coffee smell of MU). My bar smells like a nutty, milky something more than a coffee. I've found the scents to be very light in the soaps anyhow. This has a nice, creamy lather to it that worked well with its creamy scent... not too drying, though I still need lotion after using it. It's an okay soap. I do wish these had more fragrance to them.

Black Pepper single note barely lasts for fifteen minutes on my skin. At first it's a sharp, aggressive, hot blast of pepper that makes my eyes water. In the drydown, it's softer and smells like dry pepper in the cabinet. I was surprised at how it sweetened up and softened in the drydown though; it was much more pleasant at the end. Still, a very light spice. It's so light that I probably won't have much use for it. The pepper generally doesn't last long on my skin when it's in other blends either.

I was a little afraid to try this on after reading the reviews, but I *love* Galangal single note. This is one of the best spicy scents I've ever tried. On me it smells like a sweet, creamy chai and hints of a dry, spicy wood (sort of like cedar chips). Really warm, comforting, and lovely. I'd buy more of this if it were available.

This has a definite black licorice smell to it, but it smells a lot better than black licorice usually does to me. This is softer, creamier, and more of a subdued sweetness. It sort of makes me think of black licorice smothered in powdered sugar. I'm going to love layering this with some other foodie perfumes that it could add a touch of dark sweetness to.

I have an imp of "White Pine Bark" which I'm assuming is the same as White Pine. I thought that I would love this, since I love the blend Golden Priapus and pine fragrances in general. This single note is really sharp though. For the first fifteen minutes or so, it was sharp and unpleasant. The boy said it smelled like some sort of cleaning fluid, and I agree with that sentiment. After fifteen minutes, though, it calmed down a lot and settled into a very light scent of misty pine and sweet earth. It actually smelled a lot like the Wylde Ivy "Sweet Earth" fragrance for a while, with more of a dusty quality. White Pine single note has really light staying power, only lasting for about an hour on my skin. I probably wouldn't wear this one because the sharp stage is long and unpleasant. I love Golden Priapus for my pine blend needs

This is such a beautiful single note. I wish so much that I could buy a full bottle of Rose Geranium just to wear on its own. It starts off with some of the green spiciness that I get in Kostnice and quickly dries down to a perfect, cool greenery like thick plant leaves & crisp cucumbers. The cucumber-green is paired with a sweet, delicate, rosy flower fragrance. It smells like I've rolled around in a garden - a real flower/plant smell, not a fakey floral perfume. I love this

Calamus started off smelling sort of like Juicy Fruit bubblegum to me - sweet, slightly of tropical fruits, and slightly powdery. It dried down to something definitely more spicy though. The boy said it smelled like "spicy potpourri" to him, with cinnamon and ginger. It reminds me of the sweet clove single note, but more spicy and perfumey.

Snake Oil can smell so different to me depending on its age and what else it's blended with. The soap smells like spicy incense and baby powder... but is still pretty faint. I wish that all of the soaps were more fragrant. There's a light fragrance from this one while I'm lathering up, but it doesn't linger on my skin and it isn't very strong. It had a nice creamy lather and left my skin feeling just a bit dry, but not horribly so. I probably wouldn't purchase this because I cannot justify the price, but it's a nice enough soap, especially if you like something with a very light fragrance.

This has been my favorite of the soaps so far, but I might be bias because I love the smell of Shub so much. This one was definitely the most highly scented of the half-bar slices I received. Warm and spicy. It had a light scent in the water and didn't linger on my skin. I do find it to be slightly drying, but nothing some lotion can't handle... and I always put on lotion after washing my hands or taking a bath anyhow. I might add in another bar of this one in my next trading post order if I have extra money to splurge.

Bliss is probably my least favorite of the soaps so far. It has a verrry light milk chocolate scent when I practically stick the bar up my nose, lol, but not so much when it's in the water. There's no lingering scent on me after I was with it either. For some reason Bliss also seemed more drying than the other soaps. It left my skin with that dry, tight feeling. It was nothing that a slathering of lotion couldn't fix though. I'd like these more if they had more fragrance to them.

Much thanks to C for hooking me up with generous sample slices from her soap bars Dorian is an okay soap. As other people have already mentioned, it is very faintly scented and nowhere near as scented as I like my products to be. I wouldn't even figure it was Dorian if I didn't know better, though it does have a pleasant, sweet tea scent to it while lathering up. The lather is nice and creamy but it does leave my skin feeling slightly dry and tight (which most bar soaps do to me with the exception of Wylde Ivy and some LUSH ones). I doubt I'd buy any more of this, but I'll use up my sample as a hand soap.

I didn't care for the original Pink Moon (from my review: "Like drowning in phlox and getting pelted in the face with strawberry bubble gum"); it was just too sweet and heavy. This new version doesn't smell much like the old one, except that I do get a pink vibe from both and a sort of strawberry/pink cotton candy undertone in the drydown. Pink Moon 2007 is nowhere near as tooth achingly sweet or heavy as the original was on me though. This is a very subtle scent on me, and it clings close on my skin. I usually like BPAL's carnation, but this doesn't smell like a true carnation to me. It's a perfumey, slightly spicy floral more than the smell of a real flower at first. In the drydown, I get a baby powdery floral note mixed with a sweet, sugared note. It smells too much of "musky-perfume" for me to really like it (in that fake, manmade floral sort of way that I can't seem to enjoy). I appreciate that this isn't an overpowering scent, but it doesn't really work for me either. Baby powder, fake floral, and a musky sugar...

Ostara is nothing like what I was expecting. I expected this to be a heavier, sweet scent, but it’s more on the watery, sharp side of things for me. I don’t get any of the ‘honey cakes’ or ‘sweet cream’ once this hits my skin, though it does have a pleasant sweetness in the bottle. It comes off as a light, clean (soapy at times) floral on me. There’s some sharp citrus mixed in with the perfumey florals and the drydown smells of citrus powder and watery flowers. So, yes, that’s my review. Citrus powder and watery florals. Light and clean. It’s very much a not-me scent. I’ve worn it several times now, but the foodie and resinous parts just don’t seem to bloom on my skin. I wish it had been creamy daffodils. Oh well. Sorry Ostara, my skin chemistry seems to dull you

I normally love apple scents, but bpal's apples tend to not work out well on me (they're either perfumey, soapy, or spicy instead of just a refreshing, crisp, sweet apple). I also hate bpal's opium, so I wasn't expecting great things from this blend. In the imp, this reminds me of the apple in Snow, Glass Apples. It's a clean smelling apple, but the apple here is sweeter than the one in SGA. Compared to what I normally get from bpal's apple scents, this one is pretty true and good. Unfortunately, the other notes in this still manage to ruin the lovely apple for me. For a while I get bitter herbs that smell slightly of dead fish on me :/ (but I doubt that'll happen to most people) and then the drydown is all beautiful apple + opium that smells like sharp, cheap hairspray on me. I like the apple, but the 'poison' part is too bitter and sharp for me

I wonder if this would be more like the original Aries after a while with some aging? With the original I couldn't smell any pepper, the ginger was almost a spicy vanilla on my skin, and I got a sweet resin and woods vibe from it. Aries 2007 opens with a blast of scorching, sharp pepper. The ginger amps that up and is more of a bitter, hot spice. Very spicy, but not turning so sweet on me. Over time, the spiciness calms down and more of the floral aspects come out. Dragon's blood goes that sickly sweet way on me, like a vase of rotting flowers, and a perfumey honeysuckle flirts with it. After an hour there's just a hint of a perfumey floral left on my skin. I'm going to save a decant of this for aging, but Aries isn't my friend at the moment. Bottle art is gorgeous for this one though <3

I'm not too fond of Calico Jack, though he smells better to me than his partner, Anne Bonny. First on, this is a salty, murky, intensely soapy aquatic. It smells like sharp laundry soap with a whiff of muddy salt water. As it dries down, I can pick out a slap of dark leather in the mix (and I do like the leather note in this), but it's still mostly soapy, unpleasant aquatic. Not my cup o' tea, and not something that I feel would work well on my boy either. A soapy, sharp aquatic with whiffs of leather.

It finally hit me what this scent smells like. It's like a Thierry Mugler Alien dupe oil mixed with bpal's baby powdery amber. It has Alien's distinctive, sweet, yellowy floral and clean feel. The drydown of 51 is more warmly musky and very powdery. It's like a blah version of Alien. Bpal's "Alien Invasion" LE scent also reminds me of Thierry Mugler's Alien...

In the imp this is a burst of fruity citrus scents all mingled together. On my skin, the citrus quickly becomes the clean, dryer sheet reminiscent variety. It's breezy and slightly soapy with that fakely citrus edge. It gets slightly floral on me after a while (breezy floral-citrus dryer sheets), but I never really get the patchouli or musk that other people have mentioned. Croquet is underwhelming and soapy on me

In the imp and on my skin this is a very musky fragrance. It's a slightly sharp musk that gets caught in the back of my throat and makes me cough when I smell it. A tickly, perfumey musk and slight spice. Like other reviewers, I was expecting this to be really sweet and it isn't. After a half hour, the caramel starts to come out and soothe the sharp musk. When I sniff my wrists, I get an impression like, "Mmm... there's a slight caramel... Ah! Musk! *cough*" The caramel stage is short lived through. After I hit the 45 minute mark, this smells just like sharp, cold musk and dirt on my skin for some reason. Like the soil in one of the Garden's mushroom scents was mixed for a sharp musk. It's much stronger and has more throw in the icky drydown stage as well. I had to scrub this one off before an hour of wear. I can't pull off the musk in this, and it doesn't even smell to me like red musk usually does on my skin. Bien Loin D'Ici is not really warm or sweet as I was expecting/hoping for. I'll be swapping my imp.