Little Bird

First on, this is really sharp lemon. It reminds of the wood polish that I used to use all of the time when I was little (yes, my childhood fun activities included enthusiastically polishing our furniture, as a budding Stepford Wife). After a while though, the lemon gets much sweeter and actually reminds me of Fresh's Lemon Sugar fragrance, which I love. There are also some perfumey white florals, but they aren't strong enough to give me a headache. After wearing June Gloom for an hour, it smells like freshly washed clothes, if you used a lemony detergent. Taking the clothes out of the washing machine when they are still damp. It's actually rather wet, cool, and pleasant. I'll cherish my decant, but it's not something that I need a full bottle of.

In my quest to go through every single note in my possession... today I picked cinnamon. I was actually dreading trying this one because I hate strong cinnamon scents. And I expected this to be insanely strong in that red hots candies sort of way. Oddly, it's not. As others have said, this is more of a freshly ground cinnamon stick scent. Not too strong or overly sharp or candied. It smells like I lightly dusted my wrist with fresh cinnamon and sugar. Surprisingly, I like this. I'm going to keep around a decant of it to layer with other scents. Cinnamon is wonderfully versatile for layering

Rosewood sometimes smells grossly sour on me, and that's all I'm smelling from Dee at first. Strong, sour rosewood with a bit of leather behind it. Luckily, this stage fades quickly. In the drydown, this starts to smell smoother and spicier. Soft woods and a touch of what smells like spicy pine. There's also the warmth of the vanilla-ish tonka. After several hours, this is the softest of woods and light incense. It's lovely and comforting. Dee is a very nice blend. I imagine the man wearing this to be a romantic and sensitive sort, but with a wonderfully witty and passionate side. It actually reminds me of my current boy... and that's who will be getting this imp

Yuletide always seems like it would be more suitable as a candle scent than a me scent. I liked Mistletoe and Skadi much more than this one. It's very green. Piney, but somehow deeper. It makes me think of the colour green... but it's so dark that it is almost black. There's also a bit of cinnamon here, which I like. And there's a tart berry. The overall smell is very green, with a pinch of cinnamon. It isn't as sweet as I had anticipated. It does remind me of potpourri, so my decant will most likely be used as a room scent.

I have a rather troubled relationship with almond. It just smells bad on me. The best way that I can describe it is 'boozy rotten cherries', but even that doesn't accurately describe the horror. For the first 10 minutes on my skin, this is almost unbearably strong and heavy. It reminds me of the way the bathrooms in my old highschool always used to smell. I can't shake that association. After a while though, this does lighten and get much better/creamier. It's a lot like my experience with Dana O'Shee (hated it at first, was fond of the drydown). It reminds me of sugared milk after a while... but it fades quickly into oblivion after that. I think this is another imp that I'll be swapping away.

I have finally managed to get ahold of the Lettuce. I am not a vegetable person... to the point where I would almost rather die than eat a salad. Lettuce has always been especially troubling to me. It tastes, to me, exactly like wet grass (yes, I have attempted to eat both, lol). It also smells similar to grass to me. The scent of lettuce is captured here perfectly. Green, crisp, and heavy with wet leaves. It surprised me by being sort of perfumey at first, but it dries down into a pretty refreshing green scent. I wonder if this singlenote was ever used in any BPAL blends. I'll probably end up swapping my imp of this one. I favor bakery/spicy scents. This is more 'refreshing salad'.

Sometimes I try things on with the expectation that they're not going to work on me at all. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised because of that. I like all of the notes listed in the description, but generally anything that mentions something like 'bonfire smoke' smells disgusting on me. First on, woods and something oddly sweet and almost fruity. Then the fir and herbs start to come out and I am in love. It smells like a glorious blend of pine saps and resins on me. There is a slight smokiness to it, but it's not ashen or woodsmoke like I expected. It is more like incense smoke. This reminds me of a pine forest on a balmy summer night after a good rain. Laying on the forest floor and gazing up at the stars. Hexennacht is hauntingly romantic to me. I'm definitely going to be keeping my decant of this one and trying to pick up some more when I run out.

Grape SN smells, on me, like grape Kool-Aid that you didn't add enough water to. Very tart and artificially sweet. The drydown smells like grape hard candy and... raisins? It's quite odd. Not my favorite singlenote either. I don't like a lot of fruity scents and there's nothing that I really want to layer with grape, lol.

This smells like freshly picked peaches to me, not the kind you'd find in a can and drenched in sugary syrup. I love it. My favorite thing about peaches isn't their taste, it's the way the fuzzy skins smell. Sweet but kind of earthy. Georgia Peach captures that scent perfectly. It does remind me of Tamora, which is one of the only fruity perfumes that I've ever loved. I think that I could wear this singlenote by itself as well. Layering it with something else might spoil it.

Malkuth smells like cinnamon and mandarin orange on me. Over time the cinnamon just gets stronger and stronger until I smell like a bowl of red hots candies. I like cinnamon, but not when it's this strong and overpowering.

I've been getting a lot of winning roses lately (Kurukulla, Beatrice, Love in the Asylum) so I am oddly hopeful when trying on Netzach. This is an almost fruity rose. Tart fruit and the rose is very sharp and bitter. I'm not liking this at all After about a half hour this starts to go soapy on me. Oh well. I know now that I can wear rose... Netzach just happens to be one of the roses that doesn't work with my skin chemistry.

First on this smells like clove and almonds. The almond is doing that weird boozy cherries smell on my skin. After a few minutes, this starts to smell a bit woodsy, but it's a powdery soft sort of woods. After about an hour this has dried down into a very light, warm smell. It's reminding me of warm milk, if you were to mix the milk with baby powder. I can see how this would be a comforting scent to some people, but it's just not me.

I love Cherry Icees, but I'm worried about the aquatic floral drydown that everyone is mentioning with this one. I don't think that I have ever successfully worn and loved an aquatic floral before in my life. First on - Yup. Cherries. They smell kind of boozy on me though. Maybe a spiked cherry icee. After a half hour or so this starts to smell slightly bubblegummy, so maybe there is lotus in this. Cherry bubblegum. I'm actually liking this so far. 2 hours later. I forgot that I was wearing this for a while. It's gone very very light on me, and now it just smells sort of soapy. The best I can say to describe it it 'some sort of floral soap'. I doubt that I'll wear this one much.

Kumiho is intensely sharp and lemony. Bpal's white tea is really clean, sharp and citrussy on me, and the ginger just gives it even more of a lemony sharpness. It winds up smelling like some sort of harsh lemon cleanser on my skin, turning soapier in the drydown.

First on: Wow. Smelling this makes my eyes water. It smells like fig, honey cough drops, and Vaporub. It's the menthol smell that's making my eyes water, and it has completely devoured the lovely fig. This is horribly medicinal on me. I love frankincense, patchouli, and fig. Why is this doing this to me?? I could cry. 10 minutes later. Hm. This smells interesting now, in a good way. It still has that cooling menthol bite, but it's securely in the background. Now I'm smelling something sweet and sort of fruity. It smells like a yellow/golden fruit. There's also something that smells sort of piney. More of a woods note in the drydown. I kind of like this and I'm not even sure why. I'm not getting any of my favorite notes and I have no clue what it smells like, but it's nice. I'm finding it comforting. The drydown is something like what I'd imagine pine trees to smell like if they had sweet yellow tropical fruits on them. I wish that this had more throw, but I'll definitely be keeping my imp. *Maybe* buying a big bottle.

Something in Snake Oil made me feel rather ill. Vanilla Bean reminds me instantly of Snake Oil, but minus whatever spicy something that was making me sick. It's a very light sweet vanilla scent. But it's so good. Whenever I wear this, I get dizzy from smelling myself. I wish that it had more throw, though it does have considerable staying power. 9 hours later I will catch a whiff of something that smells heavenly and then realize that it is the Vanilla Bean.

Coffee Bean doesn't smell anywhere near as sweet and delicious as Miskatonic University. MU was Starbucks (with all the extra shots of caramel and good stuff to mask the smell of straight up coffee)... Coffee Bean singlenote is my mother making a pot of coffee in the morning. Black and bitter. Very interesting with how accurate it is, but I don't see myself ever wearing this. I don't really like the smell or taste of coffee... and it makes my boy sick. I could see this more as a room scent, but I don't want my house to smell like coffee either .

Sweet Clove is easily my favorite single note. I don't generally review single notes because they're pretty self explanatory as far as smell goes (yes, it *does* smell like clove, lol), but this one is just so lovely. It makes me think of pumpkin pie. I was worried that this would smell too biting and spicy. It's really just sweet and warm. A perfect wintery scent. It smells just like LUSH's lovely Skinny Dip shower gel to me too. I wish that it didn't fade so quickly, but it's just while it lasts. Lately I've been using it to make Jack not so sickeningly sweet. It helps to calm down a lot of super-sweet scents. *love*

If there is anything but jasmine in Yesod, I cannot smell it. This is such an overpowering and headache inducing blend for me. Smoky jasmine. I ended up having to take a bath to get this one off of me and popping some excedrin migraine to make the ache in my brain go away.

I really don't care for almond. It smells like sickeningly boozy cherries to me. Port-Au-Prince is all almond at first. 5 minutes later. This is actually reminding me quite a bit of Cerberus. It has that same lemony-sweet biscuit smell, but with sharp clove in the background. This disappears on me after about 2 hours, but it remains a sort of light version of Cerberus with added clove. I also got a darker sort of chocolatey scent in Cerberus that I don't get in this blend. It's okay... but I like Cerberus a lot more. I'll probably swap my imp of this one.

This is a rather underappreciated BPAL blend. I'm a floral-hater, but I love Kurukulla. First on this smells like rose drenched in pomegranate juice. Very wet and sticky sweet. It doesn't smell like fruit or pomegranate exactly, but that's the impression that I get. Then the light bubblegum sweetness of the lotus comes out and blends perfectly with the rose. It's a powdered sugar sort of sweet. The drydown of Kurukulla is just heavenly. I think of pink icing roses on a cake. It's so pretty. Definitely going to be a 10 ml purchase for me

Hod is my favorite of the Sephiroth oils. This is a very warm, spicy scent. It is also slightly foodie on me. And I foodie scents. It reminds me of cinnamon toast. This is like waking up in the morning when I was little and sitting down to breakfast when I was in my cinnamon toast phase. My mother made it for me every morning that summer. It was warm and sunny and sugary. Now I imagine that there was a vase of spicy carnations sitting at the breakfast table in the sunlight. In the drydown, it loses some of its foodiness and I can't really pick out the carnation anymore. It just dries down into something anonymously sweet and golden. I'm going to get a full bottle of this one

This is another Tarot blend that hates me. When I first put it on, it was sharp medicinal lavender. Underneath the sharpness was that cold menthol eucalyptus smell that I'm not at all fond of. Throughout the next hour or so I smelled mostly the cold lavender with whisps of sandalwood flitting in and out. Then it suddenly turned into a lavender and lemon cleaning solution smell . I cannot wear lemon at all as a perfume. This blend just doesn't work for me.

This is one of the lightest and fastest disappearing scents on my skin. Which is ironic, given its name. First on this is lovely green grasses, dripping with dew. I can imagine the sun dripping golden rays over them and little yellow flowers sprouting up. I was already plotting to get a big bottle at this point, but this stage was short lived. After a few minutes, this turned into odd floral baby powder. Then it was gone before I hit a half hour mark. Perhaps my most disappointing Tarot Oil experience.

Cedar and sweet golden myrrh. It's spicy and slinky, but I don't really seem to work well with woods notes. After about fifteen minutes, this suddenly turns into jasmine on me. The cedar lingers in the background, but mostly I'm getting smoky jasmine. So... as with most things jasmine... Binah just gives me a headache