Little Bird

I'm confused by the buttered popcorn and comparisons to Shill, because my two bottles are nothing like Shill. I wouldn't even guess that this is supposed to be popcorn if I was handed it without knowing the name. My two bottles are super caramel-y, like a super-sweet, salted caramel with lots of brown sugar tones. It's very cloying to me. I am sad, because I wanted just pure, buttery, salty popcorn. This is brown sugar overload, caramel and a hint of saltiness.

The El Segundo Blue butterfly is endangered, and only three colonies remain: one at Los Angeles International Airport, one at an oil refinery, and one on a tiny patch of SoCal beach. Sand and sea salt, murky beach water, a gust of peony, and a drop of petroleum. Bpal's aquatics tend to go soapy on me, and this one does too, but the sharp salt and dark, murky notes are keeping it interesting for me. I smell this and can't help but think of "Duma Key," which is my favorite Stephen King novel. It's like a haunted beach along the ocean, with a storm rolling in and the twang of sharp, salty ozone in the air. The peony, I think, adds a rich, round sweetness to the scent, sort of a juicy, heady floral in the storm. I'm actually shocked by how much I've been enjoying El Segundo Blue. I think this is my favorite bpal aquatic ever. It manages to feel beautiful, but dark and creepy, at the same time.

First on, this smells like green grass. It's like a freshly mown lawn that was full of grass and honeyed wildflowers, now all chopped up and sappy in the sunshine. As it dries down, I can smell the apple-y components, and it reminds me of the scent of a crabapple tree, which is more of a green, fresh, tart scent (but not sweet tarts candy - this all smells very natural and realistic to me). It's not going artificial or air-freshener apple on my skin at all, which is pretty amazing. It smells like my actual yard, full of grass, native wildflowers, and prairiefire crabapple trees. The green musk, I think, smells like a hint of pulpy, green bamboo in the drydown, and every once in a while I catch whiffs of tart pomegranate or a whisper of dark incense, but those things are barely there and ephemeral. This is truly beautiful on my skin and a green scent that I will actually wear. It reminds me of the green and grassy scents that LUSH often comes out with, that smell very true to nature. I love this and I'm glad I took a chance on a full bottle.

I love bpal's black currant, and this is tons of delicious, sweet-yet-sour black currant. It smells like dark, ripe, sweet berries, bursting with juiciness, and that musky, sour hint that currants have. It's about 90% currant on my skin and 10% a dry sandalwood and warm amber. I'm perfectly happy with it

I don't really tend towards ozones or aquatics (as they often turn to soap on my skin), but something about this one was calling to me. For the first half hour, it smells of cold water full of soap suds, the ozone gives it an electric sharpness, and there's a hint of earthiness (like black potting soil) and a warm, nutty amber. It's soapy, but it also really does smell like black clouds, cold rain, and a storm rolling in. It comes off as pleasantly clean, but with an edge of darkness and a sharp jolt of electricity. An angry, feisty sort of clean. After a half hour, this is less soapy and smells very much like the scent of cold raindrops falling on to a hot summer sidewalk. Clean, slightly green, a hint of citrusy ozone, and that earthy-industrial concrete smell. I really thought that this was going to be a bad blind buy for me, but I love it.

I love every note in this blend, but was worried about what the 'blue' in the blue cotton candy might be. Luckily, I smell nothing blue, lol. Game Over goes on as a sweet cherry, like cherry hard candy with a hint of creamy floral, and there's this fluffy, sweet, sugary vanilla something that must be the cotton candy. The clove comes out more and more as it dries down, and the cherry fades away to just a hint of freshness. I love the clove note in this so much. It's a perfect, spicy, sweet clove. The cotton candy is a vanillic, warm, dry, sugary note on my skin. I own a lot of vanilla-clove fragrances, and I'm happy to add this one to the collection. Clove cotton candy!

I like this even more in the perfume oil than in the atmosphere spray. The floral doesn't come off as sharp on my skin as it does in the atmo; it's like sweet, honeyed jasmine flowers with only a teensy bit of perfumey sharpness (that I actually enjoy, as it cuts through the sweetness of the beeswax). I don't get any smokiness or blood, but it's a decadent beeswax scent. It smells like pressing jasmine flowers into melty, golden, sweet beeswax, and it gives off this beautiful, softly glowing, candlelit feel. I find this scent to be very comforting and calming.

The reviews for this were scaring me, because I often find bpal's oud notes to be fecal and off-putting (which is weird, because I've never gotten that impression from any other companies' oud notes). I don't find this to be anywhere near as rough as some of bpal's other oud blends, though. I can see how this has a certain animalic dirtiness, but it's more of a dark brown, feral muskiness than.. poo. On me, at least. And I'm really enjoying the fossilized amber and white musk. On my skin, this reads like a deep, resinous, warm, only slightly powdery amber, with a feral, dark, animalic muskiness and an interesting, clean, glittery gleam from the white musk. It reminds me of an old fashioned chypre, the sort that is full of labdanum, oakmoss, spicy civet musk, and earthy woods. The oud has a hint of gray smokiness and pale, gray wood feel, and the white musk makes me think of shiny, mirrored glass. I actually enjoy this a lot. It reminds me of a heavy vintage chypre perfume with some oud and creamy white musk added in. I usually find white musk to be too sharply musky, but sometimes it's creamy and pleasantly clean with a hint of sweetness, and I'm getting that lovely white musk in Hot Ghosts. Cat Event Exorcist is a horror show on me, but this one actually smells great on my skin.

Hm. I'm not getting much of the listed notes. On the label, the cat is vomiting up some electric green slime, and that's the color impression that I get from this. It's like a sour, unripe, lemony, chemical scent. Over some woods. With a hint of green. It's sort of like polishing a wooden table with lemon pledge, but more chemical and not as sweet as pledge furniture polish is. I had an aversion to it for the first two hours, and then it faded into a barely there, warm, powdery, musky thing with a hint of that weird chemical, clean, lemony something. I bought this for the label art, but I'm not really enjoying the scent at all.

First on, I'm getting mostly a warm, cozy, honeyed, roasted chestnut type of scent from this, which I really like. Almost smells of gourmand woods. As it dries down, I'm getting a lot of the gingerbread cookies, and it turns very spicy on my skin, but still pleasantly sweet and honeyed.

I don't really get pancakes, mascarpone, or a fried or jam type scent. This is all sharp, spiced apple on me, and unfortunately reminds me of a waxy holiday candle. Sharp cinnamon potpourri and air freshener apple to my nose.

I usually enjoy the 13 blends, but this one is very chaotic and jumbled smelling on me. The 'smoky cacao' is very smoky indeed, with the bitter coffee and boozy whiskey making it smell like a burnt chocolate and spilled liqueur accident in the kitchen. I can smell the spicy carnation and powdery, sugary, silvery orris as well, but they just don't fit in with the rest of the scent for me. It comes off as a very strange, burnt chocolate with some booze and floral perfume wafting about.

Fresh, springy, clean, cheerful, rather tart, and slightly soapy. The lab's white tea tends to have a sharpness and a sour, citrus edge to my nose. The cherry blossom adds a sweet creaminess that settles down some of those sharper tones, though. Pretty, sweet, creamy blossoms floating in a cup of lemony tea. As it dries down, the cashmere wood is adding a powdery, slightly white musky, clean sweater to the mix, and I don't like the dryness that it brings in. An undertone of laundry soap.

No peach for me, and this turns soapy rather than milky on my skin. A very clean, perfumey musk with an extra jolt from the clean, powdery sandalwood. Hints of woody, sweet fig, but mostly this is having a 'clean laundry left out to dry' kind of feel to me. Breezy, soapy, powdery woods.

Bpal's amber almost always turns to baby powder on my skin (except the black amber, sometimes), which is sad, because amber is one of my favorite scents. This one is very powdery and dry, with a hint of sour, tart red currant. I can't pick out any honey.

I'm not really a fan of tuberose, but was hoping the supporting cast of rich, heavy, sweet notes would be enough to drown it out. The red musk is the main player, smelling of heated skin and deep, red wine fruitiness, and I do like the extra creamy sweetness of the beeswax, but the blood chypre seems to be adding a metallic note that I'm not loving, and the tuberose still comes off as a screechy white floral to me. It's not as sweet or heavy as I was expecting overall. It sort of smells like a sheer, faded red musk with metallic, sharply floral nuances, and only lasts about an hour on my skin.

No labdanum, patchouli or oakmoss to my nose, but I do like the lab's bamboo note. It's wet, pulpy, intense green, a little soapy and spa-like, with something like an edge of sharp lemon verbena.

This smelled strange when I first got it (or else my medication was messing with my skin chemistry and my head), but I like it now that it has aged. It reminds me of the German chocolate cake that my dad always requested for his birthday. Crumbly, moist chocolate cake with that nutty, caramelized, gooey frosting, only this has an extra dose of real buttercream frosting to it as well. Sweet and cheerfully gourmand.

My bottle has zero traces of vanilla anything in it. It smells like a slightly soapy green grass oil and a little dustiness in the drydown. Disappears by the two hour mark. Really sad about this one.

I agree with milo's review in that this smells quite similar to bpal's Stinky fragrance. I no longer have a bottle of Stinky to directly compare, but it's the same 'white honey and baby powder' thing to my nose and memory. A dry, powdery, lightly sweet honey that doesn't have the creaminess of milk or butter to my nose. Honey and powder. Sadly, I actually really wanted goat's milk and butter, and this doesn't remind me of either.

I was hoping that this would be Midnight Mass in room spray form, and it does share similarities to Midnight Mass and Cathedral, but this is sort of warmer, dustier, and evocative of candles in an old church. Sweet church incense, powdery amber, and a scent like burning thousands of beeswax candles, lightly sweet and smoky in a way that's velvety and not acrid. It is the scent of being in an old church with amazingly high cathedral ceilings, old wood, and lots of lit candles. It's sort of amazing to be able to have this in a spray bottle.

Ungh. I love this. I keep trying to find eggnog perfumes that smell like cold, creamy eggnog with just a teeny tiny hint of spice, but they tend to be tons of nutmeg and no cream. This is that cold, creamy, sweet, vanilla-y gorgeousness of actual eggnog, perfectly captured, with a barely there dusting of nutmeg and just enough sweet, velvety cocoa powder to be charming. I wasn't sure I wanted cocoa in my nog, but I do. I was also worried about the longevity of this, because bpal's Eggnog perfume oil, while lovely, has very low throw and staying power on me, but a little spritz of this fills a room for hours. So good.

Surprisingly, I get no chai spice or anything tea-like from this. It's also missing that vanillic sweetness of old books and aged paper. It's really not a sweet fragrance in any way. I'm surprised that there's no tobacco listed, because it has a persistent, gritty tobacco and slight smokiness that is like cigarette smoke and a hint of ash on my skin, which must be the 'roaring fireplace.' Then there's something like a nip of whiskey and an overwhelming presence of black leather recliners saturated with cigarette smoke. It's the scent of a man's smoking room to me. I wanted something warmer and more cuddly, with some milky chai tea. The leather dominant drydown isn't awful, but I'm not loving the ashy, smoky parts, and I do like at least a little sweetness in my fragrances. I probably won't wear this again, but I do love the free book that came with it.

I like this much more than the Sugar Cookie perfume oil (which had lots of cinnamon - I get no cinnamon from this hair gloss). It smells like super sugary, store bought vanilla frosting, sticky vanilla cake batter, and coconut sunscreen to me. Heavy, super sweet, creamy, foodie. The scent that it leaves on the ends of my hair is very much a vanilla frosting and coconut suntan lotion fragrance.

I usually enjoy skin musk and that clean skin type of scent, but the musk here is reminding me of screechy, sharp, drugstore white musk, and the sandalwood is doing its usual turning to baby powder thing. I can't smell any vanilla or resin. Dry, powdery and sharp.