Little Bird

I've wanted to try the Gardenia singlenote for a while now, just because Sacred Whore of Babylon is one of my all-time favorite fragrances, and I don't really pick out any gardenia in it. In the imp vial, this is a bitter and pungent floral, and I'm a bit afraid of it. On me, it quickly calms down to more of a creamy, tropical floral scent. Warm and a bit reminiscent of coconut milk. It smells nothing like what Sacred Whore of Babylon smells like on me (honeyed vanilla, almonds, and spicy-sweet dragon's blood). But this is pleasantly warm, sweet, and strong on my skin. I might get a 5 ml of this one if I could...

For some reason, I think that's one of the best quotes ever, lol. Anyhoo. Some quick thoughts: If you're looking for strong scents with a lot of throw and staying power, BPAL is great for those . So many of their scents are wonderfully strong and clingy on me. I'd definitely recommend Dragon's Milk for a candied/sweet scent (and it layers well with Snow Fairy). Dorian is a strong musk and vanilla tea. Snake Oil is intensely strong and one of BPAL's most popular blends. Eat Me is a strong sugary/foodie scent. The Hanging Gardens and Gomorrah were both very strong on me as well, and heavy on the fig. If you can get ahold of Snow White, it's my favorite sort-of-sugared floral scent and it has amazing throw and staying power. Dragon's Eye gets good reviews for being a very strong lilac floral, so you might be interested in that one. Envy is a pretty strong, dark mint scent that remins me a bit of Demon in the Dark. If this is your first order, you should try to get a good variety of scents. And you should get Voodoo (I pretty much always recommend that one), because it's strong and rather complex and gorgeous. Hope that helps somewhat

The Death of Sardanapal was the last of the current The Salon blends for me to try. I saved it for last because it smells kind of promising in the bottle, and so far none of The Salon blends have worked on me. The boy is mildly fond of a couple of them, but I haven't found a blend for me yet. Maybe this is it? I love cassia, and I can definitely smell it in the bottle, mingling with sticky-sweet honey and some dark wine notes. It smells dark and has a very sexy, heady quality to it. On me, The Death of Sardanapal reminds me of the way those "old-time country" stores smell. You know, the country stores where you can smell the wood foundation, along with the homemade jams and wines and honeys and spices. It has that yummy, comforting smell. Cassia is one of my favorite BPAL notes. I don't like cinnamon, but I love the darker, more woodsy smell of cassia. This is a wonderful blend of it and the fruity red wine, with the other notes swirling in the background. In the drydown it gets more of a sweet, sugary note to it and starts reminding me a bit of cinnamon toast (cassia toast?). After an hour, the spice has calmed down and the honey is getting stronger. Honey usually doesn't work on my skin, but it's silky, golden, and perfectly sweet here. I love it. It does remind me a bit of apple pie and honey after a while (and that's a delicious thing, in my opinion). This is my winner of The Salon. It's the only one that has been full bottle worthy on me. Kinda foodie, definitely spicy, and with a mingling of pleasantly sweet and comforting notes.

In the bottle this smells like rather sharp/metallic ylang ylang and (perhaps I am insane) plum. On me... the only note that I can definitely pick out of the blend is ylang ylang. Then the ylang ylang fades away into the background and this is a warm, slightly powdery, sweet blend that makes me think of vanilla, without smelling like vanilla exactly. After a half hour, this is a rather cliche smelling rose perfume on me . Slightly powdery and very perfumey-sharp. This is the sort of perfume that disappoints me when I test out department store blends at the mall. None of The Salon blends have wowed me yet. ETA 2016 frimp review: This smells completely different when compared to the 2006, but it still doesn't smell much like its listed notes to me. I'm still getting something dark and fruity, like a sweet red wine note, under lots of golden, powdery, sweet resins. So sweet that it leans towards cloying, and too powdery for my tastes. The drydown has a perfumey/musky, sickly floral feel to it, like sweetly rotting flowers.

I think that it's benzoin that always smells like very powdery amber on me. In the bottle this is a sharp orange blossom note smothered in a powdery amber-like fragrance. I do not like. Unfortunately, it smells the same on my skin. In the drydown... sharp orange blossom, powder, and something that smells sickeningly like burnt rubber on me I had to wash this one off after a half hour. It was way too sharp on me.

Bat-Woman is very, very light on me. I have to press my nose up against my wrist to smell anything after about a half hour. That said, this is still a lovely fragrance, even with my hatred of jasmine (which I thankfully do not detect). This one actually reminds me of a slowly blooming flower. It starts off all soft lavender and hints of citrussy verbena, then the sweet honeysuckle comes into play, and it finishes off with a gorgeous moonflower and crisp air sort of smell. I love moonflower, it's such an airy, cool, elegant floral with a slight sweetness on me. I'm not sure if this is full bottle material, because I don't love it (none of The Salon blends have been major hits on me, sadly)... but I like this one a lot. It's just not something that I would normally wear, with it being so light on me.

Mostly this is a very heady floral on my skin, with wafts of vanilla musk and burning sage every once in a while. This is a very purple fragrance. The iris is an almost spicy floral, adding some oomph into the background of the dark, sickly sweet violets. This is primarily a strong violet perfume on me, but they don't go soapy or powdery as they often do. The other notes swirl around the violet and pop up every once in a while to lend a more exotic feel to them. It smells like a very expensive, rich violet perfume. ETA 2016 frimp review, as I find most of these scents are composed completely differently over the years as components get discontinued and replaced: Buttery iris that reminds me of Prada's Infusion d'Iris, baby powdery, clean musk, and a hint of sharp citrus mandarin and powdery violet. A powdery, clean floral-citrus that's just slightly sweet from the violet and vanilla. Has a warm, dry woodiness in the drydown and more of a powdery vanilla feel. Warm, powdery, buttery, vanilla-iris with the other notes adding a hint of sweetness and dry, warm wood. Too baby powdery for me, but very pleasant, soft and easy to wear. This smells like a completely different fragrance to me when compared to the 2006 version. More iris than violet, and overall a warm, pale, white fragrance.

Orpheus really does smell like crushed green stems on me, but with a sort of musky/perfumey edge. It's a very clean scent, but also a very green and bitter one. It makes me think of the taste of unripe fruit and fresh herbs. In the drydown, a sweet and slightly powdery lavender starts to come through. It becomes almost sickly sweet after an hour. I never recognize any of the citrus notes or cedar. After about a half hour, this becomes nauseatingly sharp on me. So much sharp musk that it makes my eyes sting. I won't be able to wear this one at all.

Hee, I love the label for this one. In the bottle, this smells very herbal. Sort of a green fragrance with hints of a sweet grapefruit in the background. On me at first, the Hungry Ghost kinda smells like green meadow dryer sheets. Very clean. I was hoping that this would be foodie on me, but it's not really. It does sweeten up a bit more and I get the 'sugar' in the drydown, but the clean dryer sheet smell is dominating on me. Sugar + dryer sheets is not good on me. This one is a bit too musky dryer sheets on me, but the label art is cute. I never get any of the ginger candy, vanilla, woods, or resins that were mentioned. Hungry Ghost Moon isn't one that I'll wear much.

All of my Chaotic Children... My first Chaos Theory III . It's number CCCXXXIII (333) that I ordered on 6/10/06. I wonder if it's somehow lucky, with all of those threes. In the bottle... this smells strongly of clove and some sort of creamy vanilla-ish note. Awesome. On me, this is beautiful. I know that these don't have cinnamon in them, but if I didn't know that, I would guess that this is cinnamon, clove, and foodie-creamy-sweet vanilla. This is spicy, creamy, foodie, and sweet. I love it ETA: After wearing this for 2 hours, the drydown is even better than the initial stage. The spice has calmed down and a softly woodsy or resinous note has popped up underneath the creamy vanilla and hint of spice. It makes me think of sandalwood and the velvety resins in Midnight Mass. This is like the best sandalwood-spice-vanilla ever. Summing it up: Best Chaos Theory ever. Foodie vanilla, spice, sandalwood, and velvety resins. Personal Rating: A definite 5/5 on the loveliness factor. ------------ Chaos Theory DCCCLXXXI (881) ordered on 7/30/06. In the bottle and on me, this bears a very strong resemblance to Eat Me, only not as sickeningly sweet as Eat Me was on me. It smells like fruity currants, tart strawberry, and lashings of creamy vanilla with a stickier, incensy sort of sweetness added in. This one also has a ton of throw and insane lasting power. A tiny drop on my wrists had the scent wafting around me for over 12 hours until I took a shower and washed it off. My very picky mother, who usually isn't highly impressed with my perfume oils, said that this smells "absolutely wonderful... seriously very good." Summing it up: This is like Eat Me, if some of its hyper sweetness were taken away and wonderfully tart strawberry was added in its place. Personal Rating: 5/5. I don't normally like fruity, but the tart berries and sugary vanilla-incense is amazing. ============ Adopted Theory... Chaos Theory CCXLI (241) adopted from visualworlds (previous review here: CCXLI) After reading the previous review, I had to try this one out. I am attracted to anything that may be unloved in life (which is how I end up with all of my pets). It intrigued and fascinated me. In the bottle... this smells like raisins. Raisins and medicine and maybe... poo. I am actually afraid to try this on. Tania: I should just leave my review at that, lol pilotkitten: you can always wash it off you know... < pokes > Tania: it might be a clinger pilotkitten: lmao pilotkitten: got any steel wool lying around? Tania: probably pilotkitten: lol then go for it Tania: I'll eat some Special K first... lol pilotkitten: lol chicken So, after my bowl of Special K and some other avoidance tactics... Gods, this is awful. If I had to compare it to a BPAL fragrance, I'd say this has a resemblance to Czernobog, with the addition of that weird, raisiny musk that I get from Smut. The comparison to zinc tablets is also pretty accurate. If I had to guess at what horrible notes are in this, I'd guess for mullein, since that's always a fun note to blame things on. I get a musty, metallic, medicinal, biting, horrible note from mullein. Mullein and musk. Drydown... reminds me of vomit. Summing it up: This smell makes me want to die

In the bottle this smells like perfumey florals and lashings of musky vanilla. A bit too sharp and perfumey for my tastes. On my skin... the same. Then it starts to dry down to a slightly powdery sweetness that really reminds me of La Fee Verte. The same musky powder and sweetness. And Et Lux Fuit stays that way. I can't pick out any one note, but it's a sweet powder and musk on me. Too much powder and too much musk for me, sadly. This one gives me a headache

White Musk, when it's good on me, has a sort of chilly, clean, vanilla-ish quality to it. When it's bad, it smells sharp and reminds me of hairspray. I was surprised that this singlenote actually has a warmer, buttery vanilla smell to it. It's still clean, airy, and rather faint, but sweeter and not as icy as the other white musk notes that I've sampled (and enjoyed) from other companies. I'm used to white musk being a good skin scent, clinging close and not having a ton of throw... but this one is especially light on me. It only lasts for about 15 minutes before I cannot smell anything at all. Very pretty, but I like the white musk singlenotes that I've found from a few other companies a bit more.

Eleggua in its imp vial smells very similar to the way that Spooky smells in the bottle that I have. On me, Spooky is bracing peppermint with chocolate and coconut, and a drydown of buttery rum cookies. Eleggua seems to have a softer mint on me, more spearmint than peppermint, and none of the chocolate that was in Spooky. Spearmint and coconut, with perhaps a bit of the buttery rum thrown in as well. It's very light on me and fades away entirely after about an hour, but it's a rather pleasant, sweet scent while it lasts .

Swallow's Blood is another blend that I tried out at a friend's recent sniffie party. It's also another blend that didn't work out at all on my skin (which is good, I suppose, because it meant that I didn't have to rob my friend ). I think that the two main notes that I got from Swallow's Blood were dragon's blood and jasmine... two notes that are notoriously bad with my skin chemistry. It was a very strong and overpowering floral with a horribly cloying, almost rotten, sort of sweetness. After about 15 minutes into the drydown, this also starts to go soapy on me, settling on a sort of spicy dragon's blood soap. I'm always a bit relieved when the discontinued blends don't work for me, just because I won't have to track some more of this rarity down.

I tried this one out at a friends sniffing party a few days ago, forgetting what the notes were. Azazel is definitely very heavy on the lemongrass. Piercing, sharp lemongrass with a bit of a spicy herbal undertone. Even without a list of the notes, I easily picked out the lemongrass. In the drydown, this is still heavily lemony, but with a soapy lavender and sort of dirty/funky herbal smell coming in. Sage isn't so great on my skin, and it might be what mucked this one up so badly. I don't much care for lemon, so Azazel is a bit off-putting to me... and this isn't even a good lemon for my skin chemistry. Too herbal and sharp.

Black Phoenix has a really awesome label that transferred over just fine from 5 ml to 10 ml size... it looks like the red and pink phoenix labels, only with a black phoenix on an orange/red background. Actually, I like the detail on the 10 ml of that one even more than I liked the 5 mls . It's probably my favorite label.

You should definitely try Dorian & Snake Oil... two of the most popular vanilla blends. You also might want to take a look at: *Velvet (sandalwood, cocoa, vanilla, and myrrh... although your issue with Bliss makes me hesitate to recommend a chocolatey scent, the sandalwood-vanilla-myrrh might work for you). *Eclipse (almond, vanilla, frankincense, heliotrope, and cinnamon... a spicy, nutty vanilla). *Dragon's Milk (the only dragon's blood scent that really works on my skin... a sweet, honeyed vanilla with spicy-red tones). *Eat Me (white cake, vanilla, and currants). *Drink Me (cherry, pineapple, custard, and toffee... just because it has some of the same dark foodiness that I got from Hellcat, though this one does have some obvious fruity notes). *Tweedledee (if you liked the orange blossom in Hunger, Tweedledee if one of my favorite orange blossom scents). *Mouse's Long & Sad Tale ("vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood" ... I love this one... I hate powdery scents, and this one does go a bit powdery, but it's a very pretty sort of sweet vanilla and sandalwood powder). If you're worried about things going powdery (I assumed that's what you meant by baby's bottom, lol), it helps to know what notes might often go powdery on you... BPAL's violet, amber, and sandalwood notes have a tendency to smell like baby powder on me.

I'd really recommend Sleepy Moon if you can get ahold of it... it's the most gorgeous lavender blend that I've ever tried. But, for GC, you might want to look at Temple of Dreams (lavender and lemon-ish), Baku (lavender and eucalyptus), Somnus (kinda medicinal lavender) or Cheshire Cat (which was mostly lavender and chamomile on me, with some sweet fruitiness, I would call it a gentle lavender).

Oddly, in the bottle, Litha reminds me quite a bit of an orange soda. I get something sweet, effervescent, and citrussy. On me, this still smells like orange soda with, perhaps, a bit of lemon. This reminds me strongly of Sundew. Sweet, bubbly citrus. In the drydown I am getting the slightest hints of very sweet honey and sweet wild flowers. It's a very bright, happy fragrance.

So far, The Salon blends have been kind of disappointing for me (after trying Carceri d'Invenzione, The Isle of the Dead, and Two Monsters). They smell bland and aren't really what I would ever personally want to smell like. I was hoping that And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt would be a *me* scent. In the bottle, I can pick out a faint honeyed sweetness, some spicy cardamom, and a slightly sharp frankincense note. It's spicy. Still kind of too sharp and perfumey for me though. This could be a warm and sexy scent, on the right person. It gives me a bit of a headache. There's a definite warm musk and sweet honey here. After a half hour or so, the sandalwood and cypress come out to join the other notes, lending a dry woods to the warm musk and honey. I'm also picking up a bit of the amber, but only a tiny bit, and it's making the blend go powdery on my skin. Overall, this is a warm and exotic blend. Slightly spicy, slightly sweet, musky, and with a drydown of powdery woods thrown into the mix. This isn't something that I'd normally wear. I'd recommend it if you like honey or musk scents though, or if you like classically perfumey fragrances.

In the bottle, this smells like an incredibly sexy, musky men's cologne. On me... this manages to be both sweet and cleanly musky, while also being very dark and heavy on the incense. In the drydown, I'm getting even more smoky sweetness. There isn't any one note that I could pick out of this blend, other than the sexy black musk. It's very complex and well-blended. This is mainly a smoky black musk scent. Dark, clean, and perfumey. Definitely too masculine and too simple for me to wear, but I could see a man pulling this one off much better than myself.

My computer has crashed three times now and deleted my review of this one. Here goes try number four. This is nothing like the Freesia from Bath & Body Works (the perfumey, fresh smelling floral that gives me a headache). It's a lot better than that though, and not at all what I was expecting. First on, this actually reminds me of gummi bears. Tropical gummi bears with more of a pineapple-y smell to them. Very sweet and fruity. In the drydown, some of the sweetness wears off and this begins to smell more like crisp apple and some ozone notes. This is clean and fruity and (surprisingly) not very floral smelling on me. I like it.

The only time that dragon's blood has worked really well on me was in the Dragon's Milk blend, where it's sweet and sort of creamy. Normally, dragon's blood has a sickly sweetness to it that reminds me of rotten wildflowers and rotten fruit. I'm definitely picking up on that sickly sweetness when I first apply this, mixed with some sharp woods notes. In the drydown, the dragon's blood is barely noticeable and this is almost a pure sandalwood scent on me. A very dry and slightly powdery sandalwood. Dragon's Claw isn't awful on me, but it's a dry woods scent, which isn't something that I really like to wear either.

I don't normally like florals, but I do have a few favorites that you might like. Marie is one of my favorite florals... and it's just simple violet and tea rose. Maiden is carnation, tea, and rose, but I get mostly spicy carnation. London was more of a classic, dry rose perfume. Versailles is a beautiful rose and jasmine with citrus (I like it and I normally don't get along with jasmine or citrus). Those are my favorite roses and a good carnation scent .

I've read that the smell of oranges are great for increasing a man's arousal... I don't know if that's really true, because my boy tends to love anything that smells like vanilla or sweet food... but Tweedledee might be a really wonderful/casual orange-ish scent that you could wear to work. I normally hate the smell of orange, and I found that one to be really feminine and pretty Scents that I wear that my boy finds especially sexual... Monster Bait: Underpants, O, Lump of Coal, Sacred Whore of Babylon, and Dragon's Milk. Those are the ones that he can now recognize and remember by name, lol.