Little Bird

Drifting low to the ground, this tiny, tough butterfly searches for nectar and mates in vacant lots and coastal flats. Orange blossom and brimstone. I love orange blossom and tend to hate ashy, soot-y, smoky fragrances. I'm really happy that this is about 90% orange blossom on me, and only 10% of a smoky scent that actually isn't that bad. Dainty Sulphur is mostly strong, beautiful orange blossom. Slightly waxy, super creamy, white floral with sweet, ripe orange. Very realistic and natural smelling, and has a tropical vibe to it, like being covered in a wreath of orange blossoms. The smokiness hides under the sweet orange and adds more of a dark, sexy growl than woodsmoke or ash. It reminds me of the way that black musk can sometimes have a smokiness to it. This is one of my favorites of this year's butterflies.

This and Queen Butterfly are the two that smell better in the bottle than on me this year. In the bottle, this is a beautiful scent of earthy patchouli and tobacco, sweetened with a baked blueberry note, warmed up with amber, and made all creamy from the coconut. On my skin, the blueberry and lilac quickly amp up and are a little too sweet for me, and the tobacco note goes smoky in the background. Blueberry candy and cigarette smoke. It also fades really fast on me and stays close to my skin with not much throw, which is strange for all of the deeper base notes.

Cabbage White is a loud, white, powdery, sweet explosion of a scent on my skin. The orris is powdery, silvery, and sweet like powdered sugar covered iris petals, the lily smells clean, but also rich, waxy, and of honeyed pollen, and the vanilla cream just furthers the sweetness. It's quite a bit like Possets' Silver Lily fragrance, only richer and heavier. I like all of these notes, but together they are almost overwhelming on me. Perhaps a bit too sweet on my skin. I do like how this is a bold, heavy fragrance with notes that I usually consider to be softer and quieter, though. It smells like a very aggressive, intense, sugar hyped lily on me, and I'm sure that there will be a time to wear this, but it'll never be an every day, casual scent to me.

I love lilacs. I have over a dozen planted in my yard now, just because I love their honeyed, creamy fragrance so much. They strike a perfect balance between sweetness and a fresh, springtime airiness. Echo Azure is mostly lilac on me, with a bit of blackberry bush peeking out from underneath as a tangy, slightly herbal, super realistic blackberry. The only thing that throws me off about this is that I associate lilac blooms with early spring and blackberries with late summer, and this scent is so realistic that it almost makes me feel lost in time (not a bad thing, just a strange-ness within me, lol). Overall, it has this dreamlike, soft, purple feel to it that I really enjoy, and is a beautiful mix of sweet and clean tones.

I don't like plain Snake Oil at all (aged or fresh), but I love most of the Snake Oil blends (why? some sort of magic), and I loooove patchouli and Dragon's Milk, so I snagged two bottles of this heavenly creature. Dragon-Smooched reminds me of Schwarzer Mond, the original MMe Moriarty, and a bit of Banshee Beat. I feel like they would all hang out and be extremely close, loyal friends who share clothes and take swigs out of the same bottle. Smooched is like Schwarzer Mond's amazingly dark, plush, resins with that cola-like sweetness, and the patchouli turned waaaay up. Then the drydown has the sensual vanilla of Snake Oil/Mme Moriarty, along with the red dragon's blood going all sultry and red-fruity-ish on my skin. The patchouli is gorgeous all the way through. It's dark, earthy, slightly spicy patchouli that's so rich and perfect. A lot of patchouli blends lately have felt flat, too dry, or sour to my nose, but this one is bold and beautiful. It smells like an elegant, sensual, oriental perfume. I would have guessed at red musk, vanilla, patchouli, and a hint of honey if I were smelling this blindly. It is fantastic on my skin. I was trying to be nice by only buying two bottles of this and leaving some for everyone else, but now I wish I had not cared . Smooched has already shot up into my bpal top 10, and I love that the label is a picture of itself. I don't know why I find that so amusing.

On me, this smells like a little dish of rose scented hand soaps next to a dish of old, dusty, cinnamon potpourri. The rose comes off as very sharp, sour, perfumey, and soapy, mixed with very dusty, dry spices. This is a scrubber for me.

I like the GC blend The Knave of Hearts a lot more than this one (for red roses and a pastry scent). I don't really smell anything gourmand, buttery or cookie-ish in Cinq. On me, Cinq smells like a mix of fresh, dewy rose and a sweet-ish rose dusting powder. More and more powdery on me over time. Pleasant and simple, but I don't need more than the decant.

The almond in this smells like that maraschino cherry/almond extract type of almond, which I really don't care for. It starts off all almond extract, but finally starts to fade after about a half hour (which is too long for me), and then I can smell red rose and a hint of sharp black leather. The rose goes slightly soapy on me in the drydown. I prefer Whip in the GC for a black leather & red rose fragrance. I think that Whip is a lot stronger than Six and doesn't have the almond extract or soapy thing happening in it.

Quatre smells awful on me, like someone took a chocolate scented marker and scribbled over a single rose, stem and leaves and all. Chemical chocolate, sour greenery, and sharp rose. Surprisingly sharp and chemical. The chocolate note in this is not agreeing with me, but I usually don't like milk/dark chocolate + rose fragrances (rose and vanilla forever!).

I like orris, but I don't smell any of its sweet, powdery tones in this. Trois is all about rose and ambergris. Bpal's ambergris always smells a bit like hints of clean, salty aquatic mixed into a golden, slightly spicy amber to me. I'm picking up on the ambergris and a dewy, but slightly sharp, musky, and perfumey rose. My favorite roses tend to be very creamy and sweet, and I don't know if this one is quite sweet enough for me. Still, very pretty.

A lot of my favorite scents are vanilla-rose or candied-rose, so I was excited for this one, but I honestly don't smell anything like vanilla or cotton candy here. It's not as sweet as LUSH's Rose Jam is to me either. It's more of a fresh, fruity rose scent on my skin, like rosewater and citrus-y berries mixed into a red rose perfume.

Fortuna Mala is simple and enjoyable to me. The vetiver isn't that charred, smoky bbq variety, and it melds into the patchouli to form a dry, warm, earthy scent that makes me think of dried out potting soil and dead grass. It smells like a dry black patchouli. Earthy and dry, lightly sweet, with the clove coming out more and more in the drydown. It's a sweet, spicy, warm clove that isn't turning to cinnamon on me (a lot of bpal's latest clove blends read more as cinnamon on me for some reason). An hour in, a smokiness has curled up from the scent, and it reminds me of smoky clove cigarettes and spicy dead leaves over an earthy base. Strong on me for about three hours and then fades quickly after that. If I hadn't recently stocked up on tons of clove oils from various companies, I might consider a full bottle of this one.

I have a few bacon scents that I enjoy (bpal's Milk Chocolate, Cassia and Bacon truffle is wonderful, and Possets' Tricky is yummy too), but I think they have to be mixed with sweeter notes to be tolerable as an actual perfume. This is charred, super smoky, burnt bacon and a strange, greasy, oily smell. Dries down like artificial bacon bits (dry, salty, strange) and smoke. Pretty similar to the Bacon oil from Indigo Fragrances.

Sweet, dark brown, slightly earthy tobacco that has a chocolate-y quality on my skin. I just wish that the jasmine note were sweeter and not a sour, soapy variety. The tobacco reminds me a bit of a less spicy Bulgarian Tobacco, which I love, but the jasmine isn't working for me.

Bpal's oud and red patchouli both tend to go funky on me (the first smelling like fecal matter and the latter smelling like sweaty men), and there's enough of both in this to make this smell dirty and wrong on my skin. Other than that, I'm getting perfumey, sharp red rose and the fruity/red wine and slight spiciness of the blood musk.

Another fail from my luper order. It's a kind of animalic/poopy smelling musk, tons of baby powder, and a nag champa incense smell. Headshoppy, too powdery, and has a strange, plasticy edge like walking into a craft store and smelling hints of sharp cinnamon potpourri and the plasticy-clean scent of lots of fake, plastic flowers and wreaths. Strangely clean and way too powdery for me, and the clove is coming off as sharp, dry cinnamon to my nose. I was hoping for sweet, dark resins and Snake Charmer coconut with clove, but this is intensely powdery, clean, and off smelling to me. Very strong and gave me a headache after about a half hour, at which point I just scrubbed it off and gave up. I'm going to be giving away my bottle of this.

I find King Cake to be really cloying and unpleasant. It is one of those very simple foodie scents that make me think of walking into a Yankee Candle store. I was drawn in by the promise of cream cheese frosting, but I'm not smelling that at all. I was worried about the almond, but I don't smell any almond either. This smells like maple syrup, butter and brown sugar. It's too sweet and has a waxy edge to it in the drydown that makes it seem even more like a candle scent. Smells like maple syrup, butter and brown sugar, but waxy and artificial. I love gourmand scents, but this one is just unwearable for me.

This goes very wrong and headache-inducing on my skin, with a sharp, perfumey, soapy white floral and hints of sour, green grass. Nothing like vanilla, woods or cereal for me, just amped up perfume floral.

Powdery, golden amber, a cold and chilly sort of metallic note, and a cold, creamy, clean, aquatic-floral, green stem scent that I'm guessing is the olive blossom. Like a clean, crisp, metallic cologne mixed with a woman's frosty floral perfume and powdery finish. Makes me think of lilies, waterplants, and gleaming, shiny, silver metal. Just slightly soapy and with a slight honeyed note as it dries down. It does give off a powerful, womanly feel to me. I usually hate powdery amber, but the powder isn't overwhelming everything else here. Floral, clean, metallic, pretty, lightly honeyed...

First on, it's blueberry pancake syrup and butterscotch sauce. Super sweet. Dries down like gooey cherry filled donuts with the rum adding a warm, gooey, caramelized glaze. Sickly-sweet and I rarely enjoy cherry fragrances, but it's very much a cherry pastry scent, if you are looking for that. Reminds me a lot of Toothsome Banketstaaf, actually.

I was hoping that this would be like White Pumpkin Extrait, which I still miss, and which was a buttery pumpkin, creamy vanilla and sort of a real, gooey apple pie smell. So warm, vanilla-y and comforting. White Pumpkin Floss isn't really buttery or creamy to me, and it has a huge punch of cinnamon on my skin. Lots of cinnamon with a little bit of creamy and slightly powdery white chocolate/marshmallow scent. Smells dry rather than the decadent, creamy, butteriness of the White Pumpkin Extrait.

On me, this is a dusty, bland, flat clove with black peppery tones and a hot, sour, perfumey something that I think is the rose. I don't get any vanilla, patchouli, cocoa or cherry *at all.* It's strange. Fades quickly to a black peppery, dusty, woody clove scent that is barely there on my skin. No sweetness.

Goes on smelling like tart, berry-citrus flavored pixie stix candy powdery mixed with perfumey Sun-Ripened Raspberry lotion from Bath & Body Works, and an undertone of fluffy popcorn and salty butter. The lotion and popcorn reminds me of watching movies with my sister when I was in high school and she wore B&BW lotion religiously. It's nostalgic. Dries down to that perfumey-berry lotion, spot-on, and popcorn flavored jelly beans, with an edge of tart candy powder. It's tart, perfumey, a little soapy, and very artificial (fake berries, fake candy, fake butter scent) in a way that turns my stomach after a while. I like the initial whiff for the nostalgia, but it's not really a wearable fragrance at all to me.

I expected this to be dark, slinky, and resinous from the Snake Oil and Schwarzer Mond, but I can't really smell either of those blends here. As others have mentioned, this starts off with a chilly, mentholic pine and a very tart pomegranate. Bpal's pom mostly turn to a sour sweet tarts smell on my skin, and that's what I get from this. As it dries down, the currant, I think, is making it more of a sweet berry smell. It reminds me a little of Kool-Aid or Jello, but with a waxy undertone. Goes powdery on me after about the 45 minute mark - sweet, waxy berries and powder. Snake Oil can go powdery on my skin, so that might be the SO coming out. Fades quickly past this point.

Sharp, dry cinnamon and hints of a smooth, golden, sweet frankincense. Too much cinnamon for me. It does remind me of a more cinnamon-y Faustus.