Little Bird

When I saw the "warm and wet" bit, I instantly thought of Bayou. "A lazy, warm deep green scent with a thick aquatic undertone: Spanish moss, evergreen and cypress with watery blue-green notes and an eddy of hothouse flowers and swamp blooms." And the description pretty much sums it up perfectly. It was one of my first BPAL loves, just because it's so unique and interesting. It smells like hothouse blooms and swampy water... but somehow it makes swamp smell wonderful. A lot of the aquatics have more of a chilly smell to them, but Bayou is very warm on me. The Pool of Tears was like cold, salty water and florals on me. The Mock Turtle's Lessons is a more complex aquatic. And Sea of Glass is just a really beautiful aquatic... BPAL makes quite a few interesting 'watery' scents.

In the bottle... this smells like a field of lavender flowers (herbal stems and all) that have been coated in a wonderful sugared vanilla. On me, this has a cool eucalyptus sort of bite to it that reminds me a bit of pine trees. A cool pine-like something and I'm still getting that wonderful vanilla note. It's a sugary, cool, smooth, and slightly powdery vanilla. Perfect for a dream-time blend. After fifteen minutes or so, the pine and chilly menthol note has disappeared and the soft lavender flowers have returned. More than anything, this is an enchanting vanilla smell on me. A nighttime vanilla unlike any of the other vanilla scents in my BPAL arsenal. Sweet and soothing. In a strange way, this smells exactly like what I imagined those cartoon "dream lands in the clouds" to smell like when I was little. After 2 hours, this is a faint spun sugar and powdered milk sort of scent on me. Like cotton candy and vanilla, only not as sickeningly sweet as those two things could be. It's just so wonderfully comforting. TKO is going to give Sleepy Moon a run for its money. This could very well be my new favorite scent for wearing to bed. It really helps to clear my mind and relax me. Love this one

My boy has taken over my wee decant of Crown of Success. And that is fine with me, because it does strike me as a masculine scent (one that is actually even a bit too masculine for me to pull off). This is earthy and dark, smells sort of like a dark vetiver with hints of black patchouli in it. I also get a bit of the peppery bite that a few other people have mentioned. On me, this stays dark and murky and kind of depresses me... on my boy, a smooth wooden note comes out in the drydown. It smells like sexy woods and earth on him. I gave him the decant when people in his life were trying to drag him down... but he's generally pretty lucky and able to shrug off other people's negativity. Now he just smells extra sexy while doing so

Something in this blend goes very sugary-sweet on my skin. It reminds me of some sort of fruit punch drink with way too much sugar added. Thick, fruity, tropical, and hyper on the sugar. In the drydown, the fruity note takes on a boozy quality that reminds me a bit of wine... spiked fruit punch. I'm also getting hints of rose in the drydown, and the rose goes a bit sharp on me. This isn't a favorite smell of mine, but it's an interesting fruity scent with hints of floral.

First on, Seven African Powers is soapy citrus and a grassy herbal scent. Green, a bit sharp, and soapy. After a few minutes, the soapiness fades away and a bit of something like dry cedar begins to come out on my skin. Over time this morphs from an astringent green scent to a dry, almost dusty scent on me. Like the grasses have dried and a warm cedary scent takes over. It becomes more grounded and earthy. This isn't a scent that I'd wear, really, but I found the transition that it went through on my skin to be rather interesting.

I was expecting this to smell more green and damp, since that's what I think of when I think of 'moss.' But this is a surprisingly dry smell. At first it does smell a bit like damp tree bark on me... earthy, musty, and kind of woodsy. In the drydown though, this is the crisp dollar bill smell that I get from Greed. Dry and papery. It smells just like money. I don't know that I'd ever wear this or want a big bottle of it, but it's an interesting little scent.

Light Myrrh on me was a sort of peppery, dry, dusty woods with hints of sweetness. Dark Myrrh is richer and deeper. I definitely can smell the honeyed note that other reviewers have mentioned. In the drydown, this is like smoky, dark incense on me, but with a wonderful sticky-sweetness. It doesn't remind me of woods as much as the light version. This is very strong and has a lot of throw on me for about an hour, but it fades quickly after that. I love this and the light myrrh but, like the light version, I can't see myself ever wearing the single note by itself. It's gorgeous though <3.

La Flamme has a really beautiful scent to it. Definitely dominated by warm red musk, hints of a watery and subtle sweet orange, and what smells like brown sugar to me. In the drydown I can smell a bit of spicy red rose, but I never get any cinnamon out of this blend (and my skin usually amps up cinnamon). It also goes a bit powdery on my skin, but not in a bad or baby powder-ish way. A sultry and warm sort of powder that envelopes me like a cloud. After an hour, this smells like sweet orange and brown sugar on me, with hints of red musk wafting all about. As for the effectiveness... I have a few specific ideas in mind about what I want to do with this oil, so I'll update this after a few weeks ETA. Hrm. This is not as man-magnet-y as I was hoping. It's a warm scent, but it sometimes seems to go oddly off and metallic when I wear it as a personal fragrance. The boy I used to be interested in hated it, and the boy I'm with now isn't overly fond of it either.

Caliph's Beloved is such a lovely fragrance. It reminds me a bit of Voodoo (my all-time favorite scent), but a warmer, spicier sort of version. It has the same cola smell on me, and perhaps a hint of something like a warm, red patchouli and red sandalwood. This reminds me of that holiday spice version of coca cola in the drydown, which was basically just cola and cinnamon. I *love* that smell. Cinnamon bothers me sometimes, but the cinnamon here isn't overly strong or sharp to me. It's just perfectly sweet and foodie. As for the effectiveness... my sexual excitement is pretty much always at a fevered pitch to begin with, so I'm not sure that I noticed any difference that was out of the norm. I do love this as a perfume though, and will probably go through my bottle and buy more. It's very sexy and pleasant to me. Perfect for heating things up during the winter

I almost didn't buy Chrysanthemum Moon. The description of the opium den terrified me. The whole opium/poppy thing is something that I've learned to fear... the smell of it gives me vicious migraines and actual nosebleeds. But I hate to miss out on a BPAL LE, so I decided to face death and buy a bottle at the last minute anyhow, lol. The beautiful description for the Mum Moon fits it so perfectly. Gold-dusted mums, sensual incense, and spicy ginger are all apparent to me... I could really visualize the story that was told along with the scent when I wore this. A strange side note: This has a subtle background note that smells like a man's lime-scented cologne. It's sexy and pleasant, just not something that I was expecting. In the bottle, this actually smells like some sort of lime cleanser on me too. But it's a light (barely there after a half hour or so), gentleman's cologne on my skin... Mainly this is like spicy, dried flowers and sultry incense. There's probably a bit of amber in here too, because it takes on a warm, dusty quality on my skin. There is that opium poppy note here as well, but it was light and faded quickly enough that even an opium-hater like me could wear this without getting ill. I really was fond of this one. It was a wonderfully comfortingly warm, spicy, dry incense on me in the drydown. I'm going to love Mum Moon this winter

In the bottle this smells like apple blossoms, sweet yellow apples, and honey. It's definitely heavy on the apple, but it reminds me more of the delicate, muted yellow apples than the sour green or crisp red ones. On me... wow. I never thought that apples could smell this beautiful. Les Bijoux smells like love to me. Like really making love with someone who means the world and more to you. Given the description, I was really expecting this to be a bold, sexual scent. An aggressive scent. But it's not at all. This is sweetly trusting, delicately feminine, captivatingly vulnerable. It so embodies the idea of love for me that, when I wore this, I thought about my boy and missed him so much that I started sobbing. This is a romantic scent. Romance at its best. Actually describing the fragrance? An old, cozy blanket thrown down in a field at the height of fall. A chilly breeze swirls around you as the scent of your lover’s skin and your girly perfume mingles in the most perfectly sensual blend. Hints of fading blooms and grasses waft about. You can still smell the sweet, faint scent of the apples and muted peaches that have fallen around you. It's sweet, it's a bit crisp, it's warmly sensual, and you are hopelessly smitten. This isn't a throw down the boy and jump on him perfume. This is slowly being seduced by the boy, getting kissed all over and having sweet nothings recited to you like it's just as special as the first time. I don't normally like fruity scents, but this is such a soft, gorgeous scent. Lots of throw and staying power, but not thick or overpowering. I don't pick out any rose, frankincense, or myrrh exactly, this is insanely well blended, but I imagine that they are the enchanting perfumey notes behind the sweet, goldeny fruits and sexy skin musk. I'm so glad that I splurged on a 10 ml of this one, it is going straight to the head of my top ten list. I'm going to slather on Les Bijoux for my next interlude with my love. This the most beautiful, romantic scent that I've ever had the pleasure of wearing. ETA: I still love my 10ml of this, but recent imps I've gotten of this scent do not smell the same at all. The scent seems to be heavy on the skin musk now, which is sharper and slightly powdery. The fruitiness doesn't have that delicate, honeyed apple quality anymore either, but turns a bit sour smelling. I'll cherish my original bottle of this scent, but I don't like the reformulation/whatever new notes bpal is using for it.

I thought that Neroli was the orange hard candy-ish scent that I get from a few blends... but apparently I was wrong. This single note doesn't smell like oranges to me at all, and it's incredibly subtle and fades quickly on my skin. Maybe I've never picked out the Neroli in blends before, because it's so light on me On me, this is a combination of a bitter citrus note and a perfumey white floral. This would give me a vicious headache if it weren't so subtle. As it is, this only lasted about 15 minutes on my skin. It was oddly bitter, dry citrus on me while it lasted... kind of reminding me more of grapefruit than orange.

I really enjoy the tomato leaf singlenote. If you've ever planted and lovingly tended to a tomato garden, it's a smell that you will recognize fondly. This is just like the way that tomato plants smell when they're out in the warm sun and growing well. Tomato Leaf has a pleasant warmth and spiciness to it, just like the distinctive smell of the plants. If you smell a tomato, you can pick up on the spicy hints and the almost citrussy sort of bite. They manage to be so uniquely green and crisp smelling, while at the same time so warm and spicy. This singlenote is just as captivating to me as the plants have been. It makes me think happily of the gardens that my father and I tended to every summer. The only blend that I've seen this in so far is The Jersey Devil (of which I ordered a 10 ml of unsniffed), and I'm hoping that I can pick out this note in that blend as well. It's wonderful

I suffer from anxiety as well (social anxiety, agoraphobia, and other 'fun' stuff)... My two soothing scents that I've been wearing a lot lately are Hand of Hermes and Sleepy Moon. I find them really calming and comforting. They don't end or cure my anxiety by any means, but they are somewhat helpful in beating down my jitters sometimes, or helping me to relax at the end of a rough day.

Hand of Hermes starts off smelling rather like LUSH's Dream Cream (pleasantly creamy, candy-sweet lavender with an herbal edge) and then becomes very cinnamony on me for a while. After an hour or so, it calms down to a fair mix of sweet lavender and cinnamon. And, just because I feel as though I should mention it, this is probably not a good blend to put on sensitive skins. I have very resilient skin and can wear the best of cinnamon blends without an allergic reaction, but this even made my skin a bit tingly and... burning. It only was bothersome for about 15 minutes, but it is something to take into consideration nontheless.

Like all of my temple blend reviews, this is going to be pretty much just a comment on the way that it smells to me. First on, this smells rather icy and earthy to me. Sort of like a chilly menthol/eucalyptus and some sort of aquatic note mixed with vetiver. It gives me the mental image of fallen leaves and mud around a pond, frozen under a sheet of ice. After about an hour, the ice has thawed and this is a warm, sweet incense and vetiver sort of smell on me. This smells thick and a bit suffocating on me after a while. It's like being in a room where there's just too much incense burning, and the smoke becomes a bit sharp to the nose.

Lucky #20 frightened me a bit in the tiny decant vial that I got it in. At first sniff it was like getting beaten over the head with an overpowering floral bouquet. Sticky sweet and FLORAL. A tiny dab on me and this instantly turned into heavy jasmine with a drydown of jasmine and herbal soap. Soapy jasmine. Thankfully this fades and isn't very overpowering or noticeable on me after about 15 minutes.

On me, this TAL Yemayá starts off smelling like watery aquatic notes mingling with mango and honeydew melon. Aquatics usually smell sharp and soapy on me (yay dryer sheets), but this is a lovely watery smell. Watery in the way that cucumbers smell. In the drydown, this starts to get a lot sweeter on me. It begins to remind me of watermelon jolly ranchers, with a twist of tart strawberry. Somehow it still has a sort of fresh feeling though, keeping it from being too artificially fruity or overwhelmingly sweet. I like this one.

Like other reviewers, this singlenote does the disappearing act on my skin. It only lasted for about a half hour on my skin (which is fine, because I don't really like orange scents). While it lasted, this reminded me of orange tang. You know, that tart and powdery juice mix that didn't taste very good. This doesn't strike me as a sweet smell so much as a sour or bitter orange peel sort of scent. A tad powdery, watery, and very subtle on me.

Rosewood is a note nemesis of mine. This has ruined a few blends for me, because it takes on a very sharp rose fragrance on my skin. In the vial it smells innocent enough, a nicely resinous and polished wood with rose sort of scent. On my skin, it becomes a sharp, stinging rose. I don't get any sort of woods note from it at all. The best way that I could describe the way that rosewood smells on me is that it smells like vomit . Sharp, acrid, and nauseatingly strong.

It's interesting how varied the reviews for this singlenote have been. I was kind of hoping that this would smell incensey on me, but it's more of a buttery floral (smooth, light, kinda creamy, and warm). It reminds me a bit of jasmine, but softer... In the drydown, this goes verrry powdery on me. If there were a jasmine scented baby powder, that's what frangipani smells like on me.

This is going to be pretty much just a scent review for Nine Muses... since I dislike the scent too much to actually ever wear this for the intended purpose. On me, this manages to remind me of floor cleanser and medicine at the same time. A mixture of sharp lemony citrus, menthol-y eucalyptus, and maybe some kind of mint... all wrapped with a heavy helping of soap. This is strong, sharp, and soapy. Tons of throw. It's unpleasantly bitter and distracting on me, and doesn't sweeten up or calm down even after a half hour of wear I ended up washing this one off. It would be more of a distraction for me than an inspiration.

This has been one of my most sought after BPAL fragrances ever since I found the site. Unfortunately, by then, this little gem had been discontinued for over a year. So when a friend gifted me with a wee drop of this, I practically did a cartwheel in my room. And it literally was just a wee drop in an imp vial, enough for one glorious use. I love buttery scents. Shill is one of my favorites, as is the buttery toast note in Drink Me. Hellfire is the most perfect of buttery, creamy scents. I wore the wee drop in my cleavage on a day that I spent with my boy. It wasn't terribly strong, but I kept catching sweet whiffs of it for about 8 hours. It smells like smooth butter, ultra creamy vanilla, and a tiny pinch of sweet spice on me. So comforting and delicious. After about the first four hours, it was more of a faint, buttery sweetness with a slightly powdery smell to it. I found it really comforting and very 'me'. The boy loved it as well, and kept nibbling on me. This old Hellfire is nothing like the new one (but I so wish that it was). If I knew someone that had more of this, I might beat them up and steal it

Temple: Greek is definitely an herbal blend to my nose. I'm picking up a strong sage note (and I have a negative association with sage, so I find that unpleasant) that strikes me as spicy and a bit dry. In the drydown... herbal lavender, sage, greenery, and a hint of something sweeter and slightly fruity. There might be a wine or honey note in here as well, sweetening things up. This isn't a bad blend. I don't really like to burn/wear anything with sage in it, so I probably wouldn't use this... but it's a pleasant enough herbal scent with hints of sweetness and spice.

I normally order all of the new BPAL fragrances as soon as they are released; but I've put off trying Dragon's Reverie for quite a while now. I actually laughed when I first read the description... my top five most hated notes from BPAL are poppy, ylang ylang, jasmine, dragon's blood, and amber. Dragon's Reverie is 4 for 5 on that Sniffing this in the imp vial... this has a perfumey, metallic sharpness to it that reminds me of cheap hairspray, and it is already giving me a headache. Wet on my skin... this isn't at all as sharp or overpowering as I thought that it would be. It's actually a very light, sweet floral on me. Very yellow and almost candy-ish. In the drydown (after fifteen minutes or so), this has taken on a musky floral fragrance with a heavy powder note in the background. BPAL's amber usually goes powdery on me, so I'm not surprised. This is a warm, biting, heavily perfumey floral, and it has quite a bit of throw on me now. This is very much not me, and it makes my head pound, but it's nowhere near as bad as I was expecting it to be. The notes meld together rather nicely, if you can wear this sort of perfumey floral scent.