Little Bird

I get fizzy lime with a little bit of soapiness. Reminds me of some of the lab's champagne blends (was there a lime one?), but not quite as boozy smelling. Fades very quickly on me.

I put this on and get... burnt coffee and sweet lemon candy? Kind of a sweet incense, maybe, in the background. This doesn't have much throw on me for a blend with vetiver and dragon's blood, but I can't really smell either of those (unless the vetiver is doing the burnt coffee thing). The oil is a pale, almost clear yellow, so it doesn't have the usual red or dark brown color of those oils. Maybe that sweet, lemony tang is the frankincense and chamomile. Faint, lemon candy with hints of burnt coffee, wood and sweet incense. I can't get over that super-sweet lemon sorbet scent. It kind of reminds me of Gobo. Really strange.

Iris is always so unbearably sharp and chemical smelling to me. It's that sharp, artificial, department store white floral smell. Very screechy. Bpal's white tea also tends to be very sharp smelling to me, so it doesn't help matters here, and the bergamot is a sour, sharp lemon. The whole blend smells very cutting, cold and white. Drydown has a hint of soapiness. Gives me a headache.

The grapefruit comes off sour and smelling a little like sweaty BO to me, with an undertone of metallic, white musky men's cologne.

Warm, amber-y labdanum that turns just slightly powdery on me, with thick, animalic musk (like a warmer version of black musk with maybe a hint of civet) and straightup woodsmoke, like standing next to a bonfire. Starts off strong and growly, but dries down to mostly that powdery amber veil on my skin.

If I describe something as smelling like cigarettes, cigarette smoke, cigarette ash or dirty ash tray, that's generally a bad thing, but this isn't bad. It's more like the sweet curl of cigar smoke than the harsh blast of cigarette smoke. It does have a sort of melancholy feel to it, and you smell it and can imagine someone burning sweet incense and smoking cigarettes, lonely and looking out a window with nowhere to go and no one to see. I don't know why it comes off as so somber to me, but it captures the mood perfectly. Sweet frankincense and myrrh in a cloudy room full of cigar and cigarette smoke.

This is one of those rare fragrances that I put on my skin, leaned in to sniff, and recoiled in horror and had to choke back some vomit. It smells maybe like when my uncle came to our house to hunt one summer and was skinning deer in the garage where my father usually worked on cars and did metalwork, and there was just this stench of blood and filth mixed with metal and grime. This is, to me, not like bpal's idealized blood note (not dragon's blood or red musk or blood musk), but like a strange, slaughtered scent and filth. I have a really hard time smelling this at all. Maybe a little minty and antiseptic. A dirty hospital smell. I can't stand this at all.

This is too medicinal for me. The hint of mint mixed with powdery, tart orange just makes me think of vitamin tablets and cough syrup. I don't get the rosemary, but I can pick out a bit of bitter clove in the drydown.

I first tried this without remembering the notes, and thought that it smelled like really good pencil shavings (must be the woody oudh) and melting dark chocolate. Opoponax lends a thick, dark, resinous sweetness. I smell hints of black pepper, but it's mellow and rich rather than sharp, and I don't get much of a patchouli impression, but perhaps it lends to the richness of the cacao. This winds up smelling like a more rich and dark chocolatey version of Velvet on my skin, or a plum-free version of Tarantula Fascinator. I quite like this one.

Goes on very green, pulpy, refreshing, and wet smelling. It smells like the lab's bamboo note and reminds me a bit of the original Banded Sea Snake. Sweet aquatic cologne, wet greenery, and an overall men's cologne feel. This has a huge note list, but I don't smell amber, cinnamon, incense/resin, blood, rose, or honey, and I don't think that it's particularly floral. After about 15 minutes, I agree with the reviewers who mentioned ozone, because the greenery fades and it's more of a high pitched, sharp, dry soapiness.

Reminds me of "Numb." Like the scent of a cold shower (not exactly minty or mentholic, but somehow like cold, refreshing water) and mountains of that fluffy, white, generic men's shaving cream (that my dad always used when I was little, so I love that scent). I think that I will buy a full bottle of this at some point. Simple, clean, slightly masculine, smooth fragrance. This is my favorite clean type scent from bpal.

On me, this smells like honey musk with an extra dose of white musk, very sweet and perfumey and powdery, and a hint of something almost like soapy aquatic, which is perhaps the 'oak leaves.' I'm kind of disappointed that All-Father smells so powdery and sickly-sweet... I wanted and expected something more dark, complex and powerful. This is more girly and tween perfume-ish on me. It's strange.

If you liked the strawberry in Diligent Instruction for the Bridal Night, this is the same thing, minus the creaminess that Diligent has in it. It smells like the original Bath & Body Works' Sun-Ripened Raspberry and Sugar Plum Fairy lotions - a very tart, slightly perfumey/musky, slightly plasticy berry. It's basically the berry single note version of Diligent, and I don't like it at all without some extra vanilla and creaminess to round it out. Simple and reminds me of the girls' lockerroom in middle school. Aggressive and overwhelming fake fruit. I find it to be too strong, tart and sour for my tastes.

Mithras reminds me of the original Chaste Moon. A milky, clean, creamy floral sort of scent. I was expecting dragon's blood and something like Dragon's Milk, but it's nothing like either of those. I keep thinking that I smell dry tea leaf and something like craft store cinnamon potpourri in the drydown, lingering underneath the creamy, sweet, milky white floral. Drydown starts to give me a headache and I'm thinking there's some sort of white musk in this. Overall, Mithras isn't as foodie or sweet as I was hoping for, and leans towards being clean, musky and white floral on me more than anything.

On me, this is herbal, bright, white musky smelling honey (I like a creamy, sweet honey). Sort of an herbal, slightly soapy, wildflower honey. Golden amber always turns into an overwhelming splat of baby powder on my skin, and that's what it does here as well. I can see the cocoa, but I can't smell it, no matter how much I shake up the bottle. A little cardamom spiciness in the drydown. Mostly an herbal honey (reminds me of dried, savory chamomile and honey after a while, which reminds me of the Sachs perfume). Too powdery for me, and I don't like the honey note, and maybe I don't like this bourbon vanilla, because it reminds me of Sachs, which I also disliked.

I full bottled this immediately, because I love cardamom, vanilla and cedar, and it has a cat on the label. Cat on the label will always win (along with bird on the label). Thankfully, this oil is gorgeous and one that I'm going to be wearing a lot. I am absolutely crazy about Solstice Scents' unfortunately discontinued 'Attic' fragrance, because it had the most realistic and beautiful cedar in it, and the cedar in The Small Brown Cat is that type of cedar. It smells like true, dry, spicy cedar wood chips with a tiny hint of green to it. The vanilla adds the creamy, delicate sweetness and the cardamom a hint of spiciness that just makes it more true smelling. I don't get any musk or powderiness that I usually get with 'fur' notes. I think this is a great fragrance, and a perfect kitty scent. Outdoorsy, but sweet and warm.

Nope. This is sickly-sweet and powdery on me. I like a few of the lab's paint and plastic scents, but this is like sweet, maybe lime scented, carpet powder, a hint of cucumber-y freshness, and wet paint. It's cloying, but also weirdly sour and dirty. It smells like someone used scented carpet powder to try to cover up a cat pee smell after a while. Dirty, dusty, horrible carpets and cloying powder...

I like spooky, haunted house, atmospheric scents. The Hall's Foyer at Dusk is one of my favorite atmosphere sprays for this feel. When I wear The Center, I keep thinking that I smell like I'm staying in a hotel, especially when first applied. It does smell like paint and old, cleaned-a-million-times-but-not-enough carpet. I like that smell. It's not dirty or dusty or moldy smelling to me, but it's worn-in and definitely plasticy (like the scent of opening rubber pool toys). Where Roadside Attractions stays as sweet paint, carpet powder and fresh cucumber scent to me, this dries down with a warm, smoky undertone that's something like dry, grassy vetiver and clove with old, warm wood and hints of clean, plasticy paint. I don't exactly get booze or beeswax, but I think they're combining into that softly sweet, glowing, warm, old wooden floors feel.

The pine in this reminds me strongly of Dublin, because it has a misty sweetness to it rather than a sour tone. Kind of like those pine tree shaped car fresheners. The smoke is much less than I thought it would be, thankfully, as I don't enjoy overwhelmingly smoky blends. This smells like it has black musk and incense smoke in it, not really outright woodsmoke or bonfire. I don't get blood musk or dragon's blood at all. Dries down to what smells like black musk (slightly powdery, dark, incensey, masculine, slightly black leathery, musky) and sweet opoponax on me with whiffs of sweet, smoldering incense cones. Only a hint of sweet pine in the drydown, but it's there and gives some life and lift to the blend. "Pitch" usually equals woodsmoke, but this is all sweet incense smokiness. Masculine. Pine-y, but sweet. Mostly warm, but with a touch of coolness from the pine. I'd love this one on a man.

Very dusty, bone dry, splintered, oddly bitter smelling sandalwood, mixed with a dry, herbal, savory sage note. I was curious about the 'sand,' but this is more dusty and baby powdery than sandy/earthy to me. Very faint throw and fades quickly.

… rib cages and fire-eyed skulls stared and stuck and jutted from the flames, sputtering trace-element colors into the night, greens and yellows and blues—was flaring and crackling and burning hotly. Sparks of red peppercorns, blue-white eucalyptus leaf, and daemonorops draco against smoldering red amber and a copper sulfate-green licks of flame. This smells very craft-store-at-Christmas-time to me. I can't really pick out most of the listed notes, and was expecting a warm, peppery dragon's blood type of scent, but this smells like a big blast of cinnamon chewing gum (Big Red!) and plasticy, craft store wreaths. There's a slight, airy chill from the menthol/eucalyptus note, but mostly I can't figure out why this smells so much like cinnamon. I do kind of like the hot cinnamon mixed with that airy, cold feel. Smells like walking into a craft store full of cinnamon candles, cinnamon oils and plastic wreaths, with the frosty outside air following you into the warm store.

I was so disappointed when I first got my bottle of this. It was a dusty, powdery, bland thing. I love American Gods, corvids, Odin, Huginn and Muninn, and really want to love this scent. I put the bottle away for a week and wore it again today and am relieved that it seems to have settled from its mailbox shock or whatever weird skin chemistry thing was happening with me previously. Opoponax and myrrh can sometimes have that thickly sweet, resinous quality that makes them smell like cola, and I'm getting that here, along with an almost fizzy, bubbly violet. So this smells like violet flavored cola, which is so unusual and fun. I like it a lot. I usually don't notice a difference in perfumes from aging, but this is one that I think might become earthier. I love black patchouli, and am hoping that it might get stronger in this over time. Right now, though, this is bubbly violet cola on my skin, and I'm perfectly happy with that

The eucalyptus/menthol note in this is strong and medicinal, like huffing VapoRub, and the aldehydes add a bit of dry soapiness. I don't smell any of the resins.

The grapefruit and blackberry in this are very sour on me, to the point of being unpleasant, and the grapefruit takes on that strange quality that it sometimes has where it smells like sweaty body odor. Mix that with a dry, sour moss and mulchy earth and this is gag-inducing on my skin.

Soapy, sharp, perfumey white floral with an undertone of artificial, screechy, tart berries. Reminds me of a Bath & Body Works fruity-floral. Goes all wrong on my skin...