Little Bird

I don't get apple anymore, now that my decant has aged. It's all red, deep, wine-like red musk with a little vanilla creaminess and a dark, murky quality that I think is from the tobacco. Red patchouli smells funky/sweaty on me, but the red musk completely overpowers everything else in this scent, especially now that it's aged.

Spiced rum does its usual thing and smells like dark cinnamon on me, but I love it paired with the dark, smoky leather, hints of sharp clove, and sweet tobacco. The smoke is a bit much when first applied, but it tones down and lets the leather and tobacco come through in the drydown. This is more complex than Spanked is on me, and has that touch of smokiness that Spanked doesn't, but I can definitely see the similarities. I really like this on my man, and he was amused by the name "Miss Fanny Phippany," lol.

I like gardenia when it's sweet and creamy, like monoi oil, but these are perfumey, heady, white floral, musky smelling gardenias. I get a hint of green stem and the gunpowder smells strange on me, sort of like rust, black pepper and smoke. But this is mostly a sharp white floral that goes slightly soapy on me in the drydown.

The aldehydes make this soapy and dry, like smelling laundry soap powder, and the sharp citrus notes completely overwhelm the peach on my skin. It winds up smelling mostly like a lemon scented soap powder. Very tart and very not me.

The narcissus gives this a strong, sharp, clean, perfumey floral vibe on my skin. Very floral with a hint of sweet peach. I don't get the dark amber at all. I don't like clean, musky florals, so this one isn't working for me.

I can't pick out most of the notes listed for this one (no peach, no tobacco, no hay, no vanilla). I do get a candy-sweet, syrupy pear note, mixed with the red rose musk. I don't smell red fruits either, but maybe that's what gives the rose in this a sweet, glistening, deep red, rose jam feel. The perfumey musk keeps it from being sickly sweet. It kind of smells like rose jam and pear jelly with a musky perfume spilled over them.

Bright, juicy mandarin with a creamy, baby powdery white sandalwood and a hint of dry, herbal chamomile. I'm not smelling the tobacco at all, and the orange goes a little too sour/bitter on me in the drydown. It smells like I peeled an orange and got the bitter peel scent on my hands, then dusted them with baby powder.

I like the sweet, syrupy myrrh and sweet tobacco in this, and the dry, woody undertones. I do get a woodsmoke scent from it as well, but nothing like olives or greenery (and I like olives, so this wouldn't have been bad for me, lol). I usually don't care for smoky fragrances, but this isn't overwhelming smoke, and it doesn't smell like charred bbq the way that some of bpal's vetiver notes do. The drydown is like someone set sweet myrrh, sticky tobacco leaves, and a few planks of dark, dry wood on fire. No spiciness to the tobacco and it's not as rich and heavy as French Tobacco single note is on me. I'd consider getting a bottle of this one, but I already have a hoard of French Tobacco and Bulgarian Tobacco single note to satisfy my tobacco needs. The sweet myrrh does make this lean towards a sweet tobacco on me, though.

This review is about to be useless... I know there were a lot of mislabelled bottles and batch variations with this update, and I keep wondering if my bottle of Maiko is Cave of Treasures or something (but my bottle of Cave was soapy lilac)... I get a strong, sweet lilac undertone throughout the whole life of this fragrance, and nothing like carnation, sugar, or coconut. And it smells more like butter than any type of milk. My bottle of Maiko is intensely buttery, spicy and infused with sweet lilac. Super creamy and like it's swimming in a puddle of melted butter. I often go to a fresh seafood restaurant that boils shrimp and coats them in tons of butter, cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, and garlic... and Maiko smells so much like that steamy shrimp and buttery sauce. With super-sweet lilacs. It's so weird, but I like it.. but I think my bottle might be not-the-right-scent, because it doesn't sound like the other reviews at all.

I was a fan of the lab's leather notes (love The Riders in the GC, Brom Bones, The Manuscript, Spanked, Quincy Morris, Liz, and so many others), but the Luper leathers this year have been a huge fail on me, with the exception of Snake Skin. They smell harsh, cold, and chemical. While the other scents smell like actual leather, these smell like cheap, chemical interpretations of leather, if that makes sense. Sharp and harsh. Riding Crop was the worst leather for me. It smells like black, harsh leather (maybe an air freshener interpretation of raw leather to hang on a car mirror?), someone blowing cigarette smoke in my face, a hint of dirty ash tray, and a weird, bitter, watery-green overlay that smells like celery. I wish I'd just gotten two bottles of Snake Skin and passed on the other leathers in this update. Riding Crop smells so much like cigarette smoke in the drydown that I had to scrub it off after an hour, because it was literally making me cough and feel like I couldn't breathe. Chemical, raw, not-sweet-at-all leather, cigarette smoke and a dirty ash tray, and celery...

Sharp, citrusy/lemony white tea and sour evergreen. It's very fresh and bracing. I get nothing of the other notes, and it winds up being too sharp for me.

I wanted spicy carnation and warm incense, and this is not that. Overall this is a very plasticy, clean, cold, watery fragrance on my skin. It's like fresh, watery, white florals and green stems laying in a pool of water. I'm not getting anything like incense or carnation. It's very strong, but not what I was hoping for based on the notes.

I expected this to be sweeter, but it's mostly a clean, yellowy, soapy jasmine on my skin, with hints of the powdery/chalky vanilla that reminds me of Love's Philosophy. I get a little anise for the first couple seconds and then it's 90% clean jasmine and 10% powdery vanilla. The jasmine is slightly herbal & sharp, and very soapy. I was expecting a heavier, sweeter jasmine and a sweeter scent in general. This isn't really wearable for me.

I had high hopes for this and every note in it should be a love for me, so I risked the blind bottle buy. Lilac is my favorite floral ever and I've never had trouble with it going soapy or sharp, but it's sharp and soapy here. The amber also immediately goes to baby powder on my skin, giving me a dry and powdery floral rather than a sweet and creamy one. It stays soapy, sharp and powdery for about three hours and then shifts into a honeyed lilac and baby powder, with the soapiness starting to fade off. Too little too late, though, and I still don't like the powder. I get no cardamom at any point. Baby powder, soapy, sharp lilacs and a hint of honey...

Almost identical to the Dark Chocolate, Whiskey and Cognac Truffle, which makes sense. The Cognac one even had a similar spiciness to it on my skin. This one is just a little bit sweeter from the caramel, though I don't get a lot of caramel. The whiskey a little too sour for my tastes. Like biting into a creamy, sweet, dark chocolate truffle and getting a mouthful of sour, thick liquor.

No cream or coffee, and only a whiff of chocolate for the first 15-20 minutes. This is a really loud, sharp, heavy, intense cinnamon. It reminds me of a more cinnamon-infused El Dia de los Reyes, which was already too strong on the cinnamon for me. I'm really disappointed in the chocolate box scents this year

This is my least favorite Pink Moon I envy anyone getting strawberries or sweetness from their bottle. Goes on like men's shaving cream, intensely sharp and screechy white florals, and the weird, burning dust smell that you get when you turn on a heater for the first time after summer. As it dries down, it's still soapy and sharply white floral, with a very hot and peppery carnation coming in. It's very harsh and sharp with no creaminess or sweetness that I can discern. Not playful or sweet, but very perfumey and cutting. Fades into a sharp, perfumey white floral and harsh industrial soap.

This is what I wanted 7 Word Story: Gluttony to smell like with the similar notes of salty aquatic, lavender and incense. The aquatic doesn't go soapy on me here and has that salty, tangy cologne scent to it. The lavender comes in cool and creamy, and smells like a nice lavender cologne. After about a half hour, the red musk takes over and reminds me of fruity, deep red wine and incense. The lavender cologne adds a cool, airy edge to the red musk, though. The decant is probably enough for me, but I do like this blend.

I get no incense or lavender it's all salty, soapy aquatic and floral osmanthus. I like the edge of saltiness, but the drydown is too soapy and makes me smell like a floral scented laundry soap.

I don't really enjoy the lab's oudh and iris is a death note for me, so this was pretty much a guaranteed fail. As has already been said, the oudh has a fecal quality to it, along with a strange ashiness on my skin, mixed with the sharp, perfumey white floral iris and bright, sharp metal. I don't get the frankincense. It's like a bad drugstore cologne spritzed in a dirty restroom with a handful of ashes thrown in somewhere. A total scrubber.

I wish that this smelled like pine sap on me (I grew up in the middle of a pine forest and have been trying to find a scent that captures that sap smell for over 15 years now with no luck), but this is a really sour evergreen and sharp, soapy ozone on my skin I had to scrub it off after an hour, because the evergreen note is so unpleasant.

The honey in this is bright and has a perfumey/musky edge to it. I'm also getting the fruitiness that others have mentioned, which almost smells like a hint of cherry on my skin. I don't get the herbs, but the whole thing is sort of clean smelling on me, like a honey and metallic cologne in the drydown. I like thicker, heavier, sweeter honeys.

Minty evergreen with an edge of powdery black musk and resinous opoponax. It reminds me of a darker Ded Moroz.

This smells like Vicks VapoRub and spring floral laundry soap on me. Very soapy, cold, and medicinal.

I get no vanilla or sugar from my bottle. It's all cherry cough syrup all the time, with a slightly dry smelling soapiness in the drydown that I'm guessing is the fog note. Fades really quickly and doesn't have much throw.