Little Bird

I couldn't even stand to smell Zombi when I first put it on. It was the worst sort of perfumey rose on me. Pure overpowering headache in a bottle. After about a half hour this turns colder and greener though. The rose is still there, but softer and in the background. When I smell it, I do get the image of moss clinging to heavy gray tombstones. It's more bearable once it calms down, but I still don't love it. I like my fragrances to be spicy and warm. This is a chilling wet moss sort of fragrance. Plus, I catch whiffs of black dirt every once in a while, and I hate that smell in a perfume. Zombi just isn't me. I like my fragrances warm, spicy, cheery, and edible, lol.

Tamora is one of the most beautiful blends that I've ever had the pleasure of wearing. I don't even know how to begin to describe how amazing this is. I don't really like fruity scents. This is fruity, but not. Sweet, yet not really sugary sweet. On first sniff, I thought of white grapes drenched in dew. This is soft, sweet, and creamy, yet at the same time sparkling. Very girlie. In the drydown this reminds me of when I was little, sitting up in the branches of our peach tree and touching all of the soft, fuzzy fruits. They smelled sweet, delicate, and magical. Tamora smells magical to me. I must have a few 10 ml bottles of this.

I have a deep and passionate love for patchouli, so I thought that I would really love this one. I've liked a few blends with vetivert in them too... so I'm not sure why this went so funky on my skin. For the first 15 minutes or so that I wore this, it smelled like burning wood and something rotten. Very sharp and acrid. In the drydown it started to smell a bit peppery, but also like sweat. Sweat in a bad way. I ended up scrubbing this off after about a half hour. It doesn't smell anything like the earthy spicy patchouli that I've grown to love. This was just foul on me.

... The autumnal scents of gladiola, chrysanthemum, aster, dahlia, anemone, bergamot, marigold, sage and verbena dust a blend of wine-soaked apples, plums, and red pears, mulling spices and brown sugar, the ivy leaves of Dionysus and Janus’ amaranth and lingum aloe. I was so happy to get my latest BPAL order that included a bottle of Harvest Moon 2005 and Beatrice... both of which have completely adorable labels. This one has Harvest Moon 2005 on it, with the cutest little pumpkin picture. I love unique BPAL labels as much as I love the actual perfume oils This reminds me of something that I cannot place. It is definitely the embodiment of fall/halloween. It smells like yummy spiced apples. A hint of cinnamon, a lot of brown sugar, and the sweetness of baked apples. But underneath that warmth and sweetness is a chill that smells exactly like fall air. I have no clue how anyone managed to bottle the scent of air and fallen leaves, but it's definitely here. It's like walking out of a cozy warm house where desserts are baking, into the crisp fall air... crunching leaves under your feet and snuggling down deeper into your jacket. I'm so glad that this doesn't go floral on me and the wine never really comes out. In the drydown it gets a bit earthier, but it retains the spiced foodie quality. I'm just swooning between this and Beatrice. They both smell heavenly and the bottles are so cute.

First thought - this has the most beautiful BPAL label that I've ever seen. First on - Beatrice is now battling it out with Whip for title of my favorite rose perfume in existence. It's a lush, juicy rose. Could there also be black orchid in this? I'm getting the same glorious floral that I got in Phantom Queen. It's so rare that I love florals... but wow Thankfully, this doesn't go powdery on me at all, as some other reviewers have experienced. In the drydown there is a cool, sweet vanilla smell. But mostly it is spicy rose and black orchid on me. This is a great floral, and I normally hate florals. This fades away into oblivion after only an hour or so on my skin, but it is so worth it to reapply. The vanilla smell does get stronger as the minutes go on. It's just so unbelievably good. I'm completely smitten with my bottle. Everything from the label to the scent has charmed me. The boy will love this, he always wishes that I would wear more girly floral blends (alas, they usually give me headaches, not so with lovely Beatrice).

I love O (one of my big bottle purchases <3 ) and Haunted went really awful on my skin chemistry. It turned into really strong musky baby powder

There are a couple BPAL scents that remind me of rainy moments from my childhood. Hurricane (one of my favorites) on me smells like walking around in a raspberry patch after a summer rain. It doesn't smell fruity, it smells like raspberry branches. Brimstone smells like a rained out bonfire at the creek. "It reminds me of the way rain water smells on the sidewalk on a warm summer day." - snippet from my review of Thunderbird. And Glasgow and Thunderbird smelled similar to me. So you might want to give those a try Also, I don't like florals... but I did like the wet/tropical smell of Bayou.

Yay for frimps. Velvet is one that I haven't tried yet for some odd reason. I usually happily grab up anything with the mention of 'cocoa' in it, so I'm not sure what has taken me so long to give Velvet a chance. When I first dabbed some on my wrists I was overwhelmed with the delicious smell of hot chocolate and a sweet buttery vanilla. I keep thinking of hot cocoa with little mini marshmallows in it. 15 minutes later, the sandalwood and myrrh are making their presences known. A lovely warm/spicy woods note coming in under the chocolate and vanilla. This is such a warm and cozy scent. The same sort of cozy you find snuggled up in front of a fire in a log cabin, cradling a cup of hot chocolate and a favorite partner. After about 6 hours this has left a gorgeous buttery vanilla smell on my skin. I love it in every stage. I'll be getting a big bottle of this one to slather myself in when the winter chills start getting to me

This is a nightmare pairing of leather and orange blossom I'm not sure why the smell of leather in perfumes seems to turn my stomach. I like that new car leather smell (in the car) and I like cuddling up to a boy wearing a leather jacket. I just cannot stand that strong 'I'm wearing a leather perfume' smell. It's cold and bothers me. That said, Les Infortunes de la Vertu reminds me of De Sade when it is first on. Sharp, pure leather. Then the orange blossom comes out and it smells like leather and burnt orange peel. This has a lot of throw too. After about a half hour the amber comes out and goes to baby powder on me. Then the rose is bitter and sharp. Everything that could go bad here with my skin chemistry does. I love the leather and rose combo in Whip, but here it just smells funky... mixed with burnt orange and baby powder. I'll be passing along my imp of this one.

I was happy to swipe a quick testing of this one while over at a friend's house. I was not around BPAL when Harvest Moon '04 was released, but I did buy a bottle of '05 and am curious to see how different they are from each other. First on this is a buttery cornbread and candy corns sort of smell. It's very light, but I like it. I wish that it would stay in this stage. I'm really loving buttery smells lately. Unfortunately, in the drydown this is overwhelmingly floral and smoky. It's making me kinda sick. I don't get any fruits of pumpkin or ivy. Just this funky burning wood smell and perfumey florals. I ended up having to wash this off after about an hour. I'm not a floral sort of girl at all. I really hope that Harvest Moon '05 isn't floral like this, or I'll seriously regret grabbing a bottle.

First on, aquatics and pine, and I am in love. This reminds me of being in the pine forest behind my house and looking at the lake there, hidden in the trees. In winter it would be smoky and frosty around the edges. That's what this blend reminds me of, that smell and image. However, in the drydown, this is pure evil on me. Super musky random florals. I can't pick out any sort of specific floral, it just has that headache inducing sickening smell that florals get on my skin... This was so nice when I first put it on. It crushes me that it turns floral and is ruined...

First on this scent makes me think of rain. Light, spring rain. Where it's barely drizzling and the sun is actually out, making the water droplets shimmer. It's not what I'd expect for The Hanged Man... so pretty, fresh, and light. After a few minutes a sweet bubblegum-ish note comes out, and I'm guessing there's lotus in this. I like the mixture of sweetness and soft rain. This isn't really fruity, spicy, or floral on me as some others have said. I'm glad for that though, I'm loving this 'lotus in the rain' scent. Sadly, this fades on me after about an hour. I like this a lot though, so I'll definitely be holding onto my decant. It's a great scent to wear when I just want to relax and be alone, I think. It's calming.

Embalming Fluid is my first love-it scent in the Funereal Oils category. It's the same green tea and lemon scent that I loved so much in Shanghai... only stronger, better, smoother and with more throw. I love green tea. Embalming Fluid is a bit more crisp and green than Shanghai. Not quite as lemony as Shanghai. The aloe and white musk make it smooth, with an almost powdery (but not baby powdery) softness. ETA: This was a smoother scent back in 2005. In the 2016 frimps I've gotten of this, it's very soapy and sharp, like generic, chemical, white soap suds, and the powder is definitely reading as funky baby powder on my skin now.

I don't get the patchouli or amber from this; it's all lavender fougere with hints of cool, creamy tonka and sour rosewood. The lavender fougere is slightly soapy and has an almost bright, tea-like quality to it. Sometimes I get imps of this that have more of the sour quality that reminds me of vomit (like an imp heavier on the sour rosewood), and other times it's a soapy lavender sweetened with tonka. I don't find it to be a very consistently blended scent, but there are lavenders that I like more than this one anyhow.

Mmm. I love Black Opal. I can definitely see the comparisons to Pink Sugar when I first put it on, but it's lighter and softer than Aquolina's version. It smells more like Skindazzles' dupe than the original Pink Sugar. This almost reminds me of Numb in the sense that it is powdery and cool smelling. But there's a lovely vanilla sweetness here. For me, Black Opal is a cross between Pink Sugar, Numb, and Snow White. It's a musk that actually isn't giving me a headache. Yay! Possibly a 5 ml purchase. Definitely keeping my imp.

Chaste Moon starts off as a clean, soft vanilla cream, sparkly musk (not fizzy or anything, just a sparkly impression), and hints of dry, golden, sweet floral. It goes through a brief phase that's sharply musky and then settles down into mostly vanilla and warm florals with light musk. It's a very soft, light, classy, vanilla musk & floral scent on me.

Xiuhtecuhtli goes horribly awry on my skin. I suppose it's for the best though. I couldn't properly pronounce the name of this to save my life. First little disclaimer: I do not like the smell of orange. Or the taste of orange, in most cases. Xiuhtecuhtli smells like sweet orange juice on me for a good 15 minutes into wearing it. I hate that. Then some perfumey white florals start coming out on my skin. I hate white florals. This reminds me of some department store perfume that I dislike. And then after about an hour a smell like burning leaves comes out. Is that supposed to be the incense? I was so excited about the description of South American incense and jungle blooms. On me that apparently translates to white florals and burnt leaves. Blech. I'll be giving this one away.

Mmm... I am definitely loving Thanatos. This might even be a 10 ml purchase in my future. Moss always has a sort of spicy goldeny-dark green smell on my skin. That's definitely here at first, along with a pleasant rose scent. It's not a sharp or perfumey rose, more like rose water. Light and clean. In the drydown I am getting more incense and woods. It's just... good. The rose has faded considerably, I think that I smell faint traces of it every once in a while, but it's not prominent. Mostly I am getting spicy woods, incense, and dark green moss. I cannot wait to try this out on the boy. If he doesn't like it, I definitely have no problem using up the imp myself though .

The Chariot starts off smelling like cherry cough syrup on me. Very medicinal. In the drydown it smells like juicy fruit gum and black licorice. Two candies that I absolutely despise. This one is a definitely not a winner for me.

This is the Tarot Oil of my nightmares. Super strong jasmine and musk. My skin always amps up jasmine, but in this it's even stronger than usual. The Moon = strongest jasmine EVER. After wearing this for about five minutes I got a vicious headache and was nauseous from the smell. Florals have made me sick before, but this was an especially bad experience.

The World might be my favorite Tarot Oil yet. It starts off a mouthwateringly good blend of cinnamon and sandalwood. Woodsy, sweet and spicy. Next a bit of menthol eucalyptus and foresty pine or juniper comes out. There's also some fruity citrus like lemon in the background. And it smells sort of aquatic. Still there's definitely cinnamon and sandalwood here. I think that I might be smelling some beloved patchouli as well. All of that mixed together, one would think, would be disgusting... yet it's not. It's like being outside in the summer, in a fruit orchard, next to a pine forest, after it has rained. The World . Warm spiced earth is the main thing that I get from this. But there are so many other things going on here as well. One second it's fruity, then aquatic, then green, then floral. It's primarily earthy though, and I love that.

I'm going to edit this, now that I have my own bottle ($476 on ebay for a less-than-half-full-partial bottle? why yes, I am insane). Now that I can actually slather this oil at my leisure, sit with it for a while, and really study it, it's not as amazing as I once thought it was. Actually, it's pretty fantastic in the bottle and not-so-great on my skin. In the bottle, it's mostly boozy, and reminds me of champagne, with hints of darkness behind that crystal clear booziness. In the bottle - Champagne (maybe with a hint of sour black cherry in the boozy mix), a hint of dark red, damp rose, and a sense that there is something dark and brooding underneath the scent. When I think of 'cognac,' I think of the awful Imp of the Perverse blend, but I love the boozy element in F54. On me, the booze (which I actually like *a lot*) disappears and the perfumey black musk and tobacco smoke jump to the front of the stage, with the slightly sour rose hovering in the background now. Over time, the clove and tobacco flower seem to mellow into something like slightly spicy, dry tobacco leaves. Mostly it's just perfumey black musk with a dry, bitter spiciness underneath. It's actually an incredibly smoky & musky blend on my skin. I want the rose and cognac to stick around and sweeten things up, but I get nothing but warm smoke swirling around black musk after a half hour or so (and black musk is one of my least favorite bpal notes). Still, I'm really happy to finally have a bottle. It'll be fun to decant out and I'll save the bottle in memory of this rarity

I agree with those who likened this to the smell of awapuhi shampoo. It has that same tropical blossom sweetness with a slight aquatic edge, but definitely smells soapy. In the drydown this gets a bit too soapy and perfumey on me. I'm not sure if I'll keep my imp or not. I think that I like Bayou more for my tropical floral yearnings.

Smells like Vice if Vice were to have a LOT of pepper added to it. Vice smelled like stale chocolate covered gummi bears on me... I'm not fond of it. Queen is peppery stale chocolate covered gummi bears. This gets pretty musky on me in the drydown too. So much musk that it gives me a headache. Queen is definitely off to the swap pile. ETA: 2017 version I just received smells completely different. Like a mix of herbal and sweet floral soaps all covered in dust, with a weird, Sprite-like fizziness. Reminds me of dust covered, generic, hotel bar soaps and that cloying fizziness is just strange...

I don't smell any juniper berry or patchouli in this. Oberon is a feminine, floral, soapy scent on me. The orchid is very perfumey, sharp, and smells of department store white floral perfume, and the bergamot is strangely soapy, like lemon dish soap. Too sharp and soapy for me.