Little Bird

I originally purchased this one just because I think that the label art is so beautiful. For the last few days it has been sitting on my desk and I just studied the artwork and admired. Today I decided to try it on... and there is a very sharp, jagged edge on my bottle lid. I sliced my palm open when I tried to open the bottle and was bleeding everywhere. That said, Evening Star smells beautiful enough that I forgive it for trying to kill me. This is a very enchanting sort of fragrance. It is very potent, so I dab this one on carefully. A few strategic swipes on the backs of my knees and collarbone makes me feel like a princess though. For me, this is the embodiment of a romantic night on the town. The expensive candlelit dinner, slow dancing, and star-gazing on the terrace... it makes me feel like the submissive, elegant young lady that deserves the protective adoring male and... yes, very much a fairy-tale romance scent for me. I am awful with floral notes, they usually smell horrible on me and I have trouble identifying one flower from the next. When I smell this, I think of beautiful creamy flowers that are shimmering and glowing in the moonlight. Rays of moonlight are filtering down into a beautiful garden and it looks like everything has been dusted in diamond powder. It's elegant and beautiful. I'm really surprised that this floral blend is working out well on me. It's not going soapy or giving me a headache. It is powdery, but it's a good sort of powdery. Best way I could summarize this one: Powdery night-blooming flowers with a sweet edge and cool night air. I love it ----- ETA. I cannot get over how much I am loving this one lately. I wore Evening Star again today and my mother complimented me a million times on my fragrance (she is a very picky woman). I'm going to buy another two bottles of this one, another one for me and one for my mum. I hope that more people will give this blend a try, because it is surprisingly lovely, even for someone like me who normally hates florals.

Spirits of the Dead is definitely my favorite of the 'A Demon in My View' scents (next to The Evening Star, of course). BPAL does such beautiful things with tea scents, and this is a very smooth green tea fragrance. There is a burst of tart lemon after a few minutes, like slicing into a fresh lemon, but it fades within the first half hour on me. Then for an hour after the lemon fades, it is wet green tea and what smells like creamy white musk. Nothing about this really smells dry or woodsy on me at all, just chilly and green. This one has completely faded on me within two hours, but it is a wonderful green tea scent while it lasts. I'll use up my bottle (it's one that I'll really have to slather on) and rely on Shanghai or Embalming Fluid for a similar scent.

Herr Drosselmeyer was very odd on me. It reminded me of one of those candy shops that is trying to look sort of old-timey, with wooden barrels and classic hard candies and such. I definitely smell cherry pipe tobacco, and that stays constant over the hours that I wear this. I never smell anything that I would call clean linen though. I actually kept thinking that I could smell red licorice and lemon drops when I was wearing this one. 2 hours later this had faded into a sweet cherry pipe tobacco smell, with that candied lemony/licorice tang in the background. There is a light, sweet leather in the background as well, but it's so subtle that I forgot it was there. I didn't realize that I was smelling leather until I reread this description and thought that it *should* be there. So it's subtle, thankfully. This only lasted about three hours on me, but it had a lot of throw for the first couple hours. This fragrance really isn't something that I can see myself wearing very often. It has a sticky, tangy sweetness. Maybe I will pass it on to one of my male friends.

I thought that Snow Bunny had the cutest label of the yule blends, but The Rat King is my new favorite . I am also very pleased with the way that this one ends up smelling on me. My first thought was that this smelled like an expensive men's cologne, but with a cruel/chilly edge, more autumn than winter chill. It doesn't smell overly perfumey or generic at all, a unique men's cologne. It also reminds me of a specific place from my childhood. My family owned a lot of land in Missouri when I was younger, and there were several old barns on the property. There was a field behind one of the barns where the grass was always strangely soft and dry. I can smell those grasses here. There was also a small stagnant pond in that area, with acres of pine forest behind it all. The Rat King is that entire area in a bottle. The barns, the meadow, the pond, and the pines... the pine isn't very strong at all though, as it has been in a lot of this year's yule blends. It's just a lingering whisper in the background. In the drydown, I get more of a dusty woods scent mixed in with everything else. The Rat King has a lot of staying power. I had it on for ten hours before I took a bath and washed it off. It's not an overwhelmingly strong fragrance, it's rather soft, but it does have a good deal of throw. It's the sort of scent that I would want to put on my boy if we were going to spend an evening just cuddling on the couch. I really like this one. It's probably not something that I will ever need more than one bottle of... but I'm definitely happy to have my one bottle

I love patchouli when it is paired with something sweet (as in Imp or Depraved) and I enjoy vetiver in small doses, but Typhon is definitely more patchouli and vetiver than I can handle. Typhon smells dark, earthy, dirty, and smoky. Vetiver has been smelling cold and ashen on me lately, and I'm getting that scent here. After about ten minutes, the dark musk comes out a bit in the background. Unfortunately, black musk also tends to go bad on me. It smells sharp and smoky. This blend is very strong... it continued to cling to my skin even after repeated hand washings and intense scrubbing. Overall it is just too earthy and cold for me. It's the sort of perfume that makes me feel like I got beat up and dragged across a dirt road, then my clothes were set on fire. The scent of earth and ash. And I'm not fond of it.

Mint and grapefruit are usually awful on me, and I don't usually do well with boozy or aquatic scents either. That said, Shattered isn't as bad as I imagined it would be. This starts out as a very chilly aquatic. Like mint, menthol, and snow slush. It tingles a bit on my skin and makes my eyes water if I inhale too deeply. After a few minutes the grapefruit comes out a bit, and I'm getting that dirty sharp citrus scent underneath the mint. Shattered is sharp, chilly, and energizing. After an hour this has softened considerably and lost a lot of its bite. Smells like sweet tarts (grapefruit?), bubble gum (lotus), and light spearmint. Sort of like a boring candy shop. It's interesting. I wonder how well this would layer with a chocolatey scent like Bliss.

I never really got any of the pepper in White Rabbit. It was more of a clean linen and used teabag sort of scent on me, with a light honeyed drydown. A lot of the reviews say that they didn't note any pepper either. It's a really soft/comforting scent to me... one that I actually bought a 5 ml of yesterday .

Has your friend tried any of the tea/herbal blends? Some of the green herbal blends have characteristics that make them smell both clean and spicy to me. Maybe something like The Dormouse, The Apothecary, Mantis, or Kumiho...

Scorpio is a very odd blend. It mixes a lot of notes that I wouldn't imagine would be good together. First on this is what smells like violets and cedar on my skin. Cool, powdery florals and spicy woods. Perhaps a bit of mint in the background. It feels cold and tingly for a few minutes. Then this morphs into a sweet floral and spice blend on me. Perhaps jasmine, cinnamon, and clove? It's a smoky, spicy floral. Has anyone else gotten jasmine from this? It's doing weird things on my skin. And after about an hour this is powdery violets again and sharp musk on my skin. It's sort of bitter and giving me a headache (musk sometimes gets a funky cheap hairspray smell on me). I haven't gotten any of the herbal/green fragrance that others have mentioned either I'll be swapping my decant away to a loving home, this one seemed to wreck havoc with my skin chemistry.

You would have probably *loved* Skadi... I love Skadi. It was a wonderful spicy pine. I just ran out and haven't been able to get ahold of another bottle though Anyhow. I would recommend Mistletoe after that. Mistletoe is one of the best BPAL blends ever (in my humble opinion, lol). It's wonderfully green and snowy, but sweetens up quite a bit in the drydown.

Saturn was very heavy on me and had a lot of throw for about three hours and then it just disappeared. It was a dark, strong presence in my life for those three hours... and when it faded, I felt like something was missing from my life. I'm not sure if I like this, but it was an interesting scent. It was comforting in the way that an overprotective father figure can be. First on this is heavy incense with touches of what smelled like patchouli and sandalwood in the background. After a few minutes it gets a bit more woodsy, with something that smells like cedar, only not as gross as cedar usually smells on me. Smoky incense and woods. After about an hour this has a spicier resinous quality to it that might be myrrh. I'm sadly not smelling any of the civet that other reviewers have mentioned. Very dark and perhaps a bit overbearing, while still being warm and comforting. It's the sort of fragrance that I would get for an older, male family member.

I don't generally like mint, citrus, or florals... so Gemini and I didn't get along too well. First on this is sharp lemon and herbal mint. It made me think of cough drops. The lemon fades away after a few minutes and a watery/aquatic floral comes to the front. It's not as sweet as sweet pea usually is on me. Mint leaves and watery florals. It's a very light scent on me and only lasted about 3 hours. This is very not me. Glad that I got a chance to try this though.

Baneberry is intensely perfumey and headache inducing on me. It's like thick overripe blackberries hanging on thorny stems. Fruity and green. But the background is very sharp and generic perfume on me. It was strong and long lasting on me too. After two hours and a migraine, I scrubbed it off of my wrists.

Melpomene starts out sharp and cutting on me. The mint is a loud, herbal sort of mint, and the cypress is green and bitter. A bit of orange blossom comes out for a few minutes on me, smelling citrussy and way too harsh on my skin. Then after about 15 minutes this has completely morphed into a generic soapy smell on me. The sharp first application and the drydown of soap... is just not working for me.

After reading everyone else's reviews, I am quite depressed that Lurid isn't working out so well on me. On me, this smells like the bathroom of a busy household after everyone has gotten ready for school or work in the morning. Baby powder, shaving cream, soap, and hairspray I'm not getting any fruitiness, this just gets a bit soapier in the drydown. After an hour, still light soaps and powders. This one isn't working for me at all. I'll be swapping my imp.

I'm really going to have to rethink my position on boozy scents. I thought that I hated them, but I've been really impressed with Jazz Funeral, Twenty-One, and now The Hamptons. First on this kind of reminded me of sweet tarts, very fruity and, well, tart. The drydown is something like a limeade slush with cranberry juice. It has a slightly boozy edge, but it's not bad at all. It's boozy without making me feel like I got something spilled on myself at a drunken party. Very refreshing and sweet. It's a sweet, zingy sort of fruity. This is another one that I'll need a full bottle of. My paypal weeps.

I really like Twenty-One... I've been surprised by liking a lot of the boozy scents lately. Odd because I hate alcohol in real life and never drink. I have no clue what a real martini smells like either. First on this is strongly juniper, but it's not really harsh or biting. It's fizzy and bright. As others have said, it's as if this is a juniper flavored soda. It gets more citrussy in the drydown and makes me think of ginger ale and lime juice. So carbonated that you almost expect it to start fizzing on your skin. At the same time that it's fizzy and soda-like, it also has a sort of pleasant dryness to it. I wouldn't say that this smells like Pine Sol or any cleaning fluid at all. Sadly, this fades on me within an hour. I like it enough to buy a full bottle and reapply frequently though . I can imagine wearing this one all the time in the spring too.

I was so certain that I would hate this one. Boozy scents and the smell of dirt in perfumes usually make me sick. I also expected this to be sickly solemn, as most of the funereal oils have been on me. Surprisingly, this is very lively and pleasant. It's like Zombi and Penny Dreadful got drunk and threw a wild party in a graveyard. The sort of party that is going to be hell to clean up in the morning. I think the bay rum is stronger than the bourbon on me (I don't drink and haven't really had any personal interaction at all with booze, so I have no definite clue). This smells rather lemony on me (in a spicy cookie sort of way), and the florals are heady and spicy. Jazz Funeral has the sort of warm floral and dampness in it that I found so pleasant in Bayou. The dirt smell isn't strong on me at all. This is very nice. One of the first funereal oils that I've been really happy with. I might even get a 10 ml.

Mmm... this is quite a sexy blend. It is a fiery golden sort of scent, starting out with the honey, myrrh, and patchouli. I normally don't like honey, but it is rounding out the blend nicely in this case. I also normally don't like musk, but it is just so seductive in the drydown of Sed Non Satiata. The honey fades away within the first hour for me... but this is still amazing. For some reason, this makes me think of dark dance clubs... pulsating bodies and flashing lights in the darkness. It makes me feel very warm and energetic as well. Perhaps a 5 ml is in order?

Wearing this makes me a bit nauseous. It reminds me of something that wasn't exactly good from my childhood, but I can't seem to place it. It just gives me an anxious feeling. It smells very buttery in the bottle and on my skin at first. But it is also rather nutty and woodsy. Maybe it is the cedar smoke that is making me feel so sick? Wood smoke, butter, and a hint of pine. It's... not working well on me. An hour later, the smokiness has calmed down a bit... this smells like I melted butter and added a bunch of brown sugar to it. I like more complex/rich foodie scents, so this one isn't really working for me. I think this one would make a better room scent than a personal one.

This is some hyper peppermint at first, a chilly, sinus clearing burst. It mellows down into a rich, cheery, perfect candy cane scent within a few seconds though. It doesn't just smell like a candy cane, it almost manages to smell like eating a candy cane. Crisp and chilly. In the drydown I can smell a bit of a creamy vanilla underneath the peppermint. The vanilla is barely there and just rounds out the blend, making it a bit smoother. This reminds me quite a bit of Snowblind, but this is more peppermint and less sweetness & vanilla, where Snowblind ended up being the reverse on me. It's a perfect candy cane. ETA: I've been hoarding my few bottles of Lick It and loving them. This makes my skin cool and tingly (in a good way) wherever I apply it, which is really soothing whenever I've had a fever or some sort of muscle ache. Plus, it doesn't smell like a plain peppermint oil (which I hate), it's a pleasant, candied peppermint. Love it.

With Black Hellebore, I cannot pick out any one note in particular. It smells like an overgrown garden to me. A mess of vines, ferns, and greenery, with delicate little pink flowers poking through here and there. It gets more sweetly floral after an hour or so, and loses the green herbal edge. Soft, girly florals are not my thing (this one gave me a headache after a while)... so I'll be swapping my imp.

This is the only Rappaccini's Garden blend that I want a full bottle of so far. Surprisingly, given the description, it is one of the few that hasn't gone sharp or vicious on me. It's actually very soft, bright, and pleasant in my opinion Cobra Lily smells like sweet honeyed lilies and hard orange candies on me. It's lovely and sweet, the sort of scent that you feel like you could get drunk off of. It gets a bit spicier in the drydown, but I'm not sure what sort of spice it reminds me of. After a while, this begins to take on a slightly bubblegummy scent and made me think of lotus. Overall this is a very cheery floral though. And one that I can actually wear without getting a headache. Yay!

I recoiled in horror when I sniffed this one from the imp. It is insanely sharp and cold. On me, it stays pretty much the same. It's like Pine Sol cleanser, only not as sweet as the cleanser. I grew up in the middle of a pine forest in Missouri... and this doesn't smell like the real thing to me at all I had Yew Trees on for three hours before I just washed it off. It didn't sweeten or change much at all. It stayed astringent and continued reminding me of some sort of harsh 'pine-scented' cleanser. It got a weird suntan oil-ish scent in the background for a while, but no change other than that. I'll be swapping my imp. I can't imagine ever wanting to wear this one. It's very not me.

Mmm. Rose can either be lovely or completely horrible on me, and I am loving The Peacock Queen. This is a rich, heavy, expensive sort of rose. Strong and thick, blood red and beautiful. It starts off smelling like a dried rose on me, but morphs into a truer blooming rose scent in the drydown. It reminds me quite a bit of the rose that is in Whip. I've actually never tried Rose Red, but I have a bottle on order and I cannot wait to compare. The Peacock Queen is entirely swoon-worthy, and it knows it ETA. The Peacock Queen has become one of my top ten fragrances, and one that I'm wearing constantly. I've bought several bottles of this one to hoard. It really is the perfect rose, and I notice that it gets a lot sweeter in the drydown, which I love. People should definitely give this one a try. I'm finding it much more pleasant than Rose Red, which was wet and went sour on me.