Little Bird

This scent makes me sick to my stomach, and this is coming from someone who didn't mind Gore-Shock and Day-Old Ham. It has an oily, salty, weird overtone that reminds me of canned chicken noodle soup, and a dusty, seasoned quality that really does smell like sour cream & chive flavored instant mashed potatoes (still in the box and dry). I love the smell of garlic, so I thought that maybe this would be fun, but it's so salty and over-the-top. It smells canned, freeze dried, processed and all wrong. Fun to try, but no.

Soft, warm, baby powdery amber and sandalwood with the slightly woody, sweet cocoa absolute. It's kind of a Hershey syrup and powdery woods scent. I didn't try this year's Gelt, but this blend reminds me of previous year's Gelt. Too powdery for me. This lasts for about 4 hours, but has almost no throw on me. Cocoa absolute seems to cling close to my skin.

I don't get the dirt or greenery from this the aquatic and snow amp up too much on my skin. It's minty snow and slightly soapy aquatic. Clean and chilly. There are snow blends that I like more than this one, though, because I don't like the edge of soapiness in this one.

I love the lab's cherry blossom and wisteria notes, but the iced lily turns very soapy on my skin. It's still a lovely, sweet, breezy, creamy cherry blossom and pale, blue, lilac-ish wisteria, all gentle and delicately sweet florals, but with an undercurrent of generic white bar soap. I prefer the cherry blossom and wisteria to be paired with more of a honeyed note that plays up their sweetness. This amps up the clean aspects of those notes, and I'm not huge into soapy fragrances.

The blood orange starts out strong, glowing red and citrusy, but the drydown is all about the apricot on my skin. It's a sweet, fuzzy, dried apricot sort of scent, with a dry, perfumey quality from the chypre and a touch of warm powder from the amber. I don't get the lavender, and I wish the orange stuck around longer, because the dry apricot is a little too one dimensional for me. Still, it's a nice, pleasant, cheerful apricot.

Soft brown leather and crimson musk made me think this was going to work on me, but the glowing embers and coal dust translate into a sharp, smoky, acrid sort of fragrance. I don't get anything like red musk or leather, which are usually quite strong, but a tart, slightly sour orange joins the ash and woodsmoke in the drydown. After an hour, the smoke is settling down and it smells a lot like fireplace ashes and baby powdery amber on my skin. Not working on me at all.

I expected this to be stronger and heavier on the cinnamon, but it's woody and surprisingly soft and light. The fig is velvety, sweet and has a dry, wooden quality to it, that's further enhanced by the red sandalwood. The myrrh and sandalwood have a warm, glowing feel, and the cinnamon is warm, sweet, and lightly dusted over everything. Fades really quickly on me, though, and doesn't have much throw. Fades into a quiet, warm, woody fragrance that's gone entirely by the three hour mark.

Mostly sour pine on my skin, sharp and green, with hints of dry, herbal sage. A warm, golden spiciness from the saffron in the drydown, but it still mostly reads as PineSol.

This is mainly pomegranate and blackberry on me, and it's tart, sharp and a bit cough syrupy. The herbal, minty-cool edge from the mugwort and pennyroyal makes it smell more medicinal. After about an hour, the patchouli is creeping in, but it's very dry and the whole thing turns oddly plasticy. A fail on my skin.

Baby powdery white sandalwood, lemony bergamot and a touch of herbal, green geranium. Very natural and soft. Dries down to a slightly smoky sandalwood incense and powder. Only lasts about an hour and clings very close to the skin.

This smells basically exactly like the Honeyed Apple from the Halloween series did on my skin. "A slightly soapy, perfumey apple that really smells like apple scented salon shampoo to me. There's a definite sweetness, but I can't place it as honey, and the drydown smells rather waxy/plasticy to me, like melting candle wax." Green apple shampoo with a bit of waxy sweetness. I don't get the carnation at all.

I was hoping this would be a moderately spiced myrrh and red musk, but the cassia is so strong on my skin. It's a sharp, woody, red, bold cinnamon smell. I can smell the coffee in the drydown, but it's that powdery, bitter, burnt coffee that I got from Europa (that doesn't really smell like coffee to me much at all, and more of baby powder and sour, burnt metal). This is a scrubber for me. Like Europa coated in cassia.

I love popcorn scents, but this one is a letdown for me. I like a salty, buttery popcorn or or a caramel popcorn. Truly gourmand. This is like stale, popped, fluffy popcorn with no salt, butter or sugar, with a sour, glowing pine note that reminds me of PineSol. I don't get any fruit, but it has a woodsmoke tone to it in the drydown.

I was hoping for a soft, warm, freshly baked gingerbread cookie sweetened with tart, red berry jam. Subtly, sweetly spicy. This is very sharp and spice-forward on me, though. It does kind of remind me of the sharp cinnamon of red hots candies. I can smell a hint of sour fruit in the bottle, but there's no fruit to be found once this is on my skin. It's all amped up, sharp cinnamon.

Roasted, caramel coated nuts that lean towards being too sweet and warm smelling for me, and kind of remind me of cracker jacks (that hard, sugary caramel coating) and pecan brittle, over a snickerdoodle cookie dusted with cinnamon. It does have an overall very dry, hard quality to it, if that makes sense. More crumbly smelling cookie and hard nut brittle than buttery or gooey. The cookie part is similar to the slightly burnt sugar cookie and cinnamon base from the Halloween 'Caramel Apple Cookie' blend. Not much throw or staying power on me, leaving a whiff of nut brittle and cinnamon as it fades away. Lasted about 1 1/2 hours total, leaving behind a whiff of cinnamon, with no cocoa and not much throw at any stage. Nice enough, but not my favorite gourmand.

Cloying, slightly plasticy, raspberry jam that's super-sweet with a tart edge to it. I like the bit of a tart bite to it (almost a touch of green leaf and sour candy), but that disappears in the drydown and it's all sugary raspberry filling. It flips between smelling like sugary raspberry jam and a powdery-plasticy, berry scented doll. Faint, not much throw, and only lasts about an hour total on my skin. I wanted this to have more of a pastry/cake, actual donut and glaze scent to it, but it's all raspberry filling and no donut to my nose.

I love the cool, dark, dry green scent of ivy, and I enjoy the hint of soft, damp earth, sour moss and sharp pine, but I feel like I would enjoy this more as a room scent than a perfume. On me, the beeswax amps up a lot in the drydown and I don't really enjoy the thick, heavy, waxy sweetness mixed with the green notes. I'll try my decant in an oil warmer, though, and hope it's mostly the greenery and earth.

I expected a heavy, spicy leather blend from this, but it's more of a clean, musky men's cologne with a hint of spicy clove (kind of reminds me of bay rum cologne). It's not as green as the dead leaves can be, but has that strange, aquatic cologne vibe. I don't smell leather or vanilla at all, and this doesn't last very long on my skin, maybe an hour total.

Dry, dusty wood and a sharp, metallic, musky men's cologne scent that dries down with a strange, almost rusty smell and a hint of smoky, burnt metal. The woods turn really dry and slightly powdery on me, and I don't like that clean/musky cologne thing happening in this either. It's too sharp and too dry for my tastes.

The lily and rose combine on me into a really sharp, soapy rose scent. I can pick out a hint of herbal carrot and some syrupy, peppery, resinous sweetness from the opoponax, but it mostly smells like a bar of rose soap that's dusty and forgotten in a wooden box...

I like the leather in this, but it's covered in the wool, dust, and baby powdery sandalwood. Dusty, powdery wood, that almost brown musk-ish, warm, wooly note for the carpet, and a hint of brown leather. Warm, very dry, dusty, woody... way too dry and powdery for me.

Kind of a bitter, watery green, and I definitely get the carrot and celery impressions that others have mentioned. This isn't really a veggie scent to me, though (I like the strange Planting Moon type scents), because it has a sharp, chemical undertone to it that makes me think of disinfectant. It's also sharply floral, but reminds me more of a perfumey white floral than violet. Sharp and unpleasantly bitter on me.

What everyone else has said - this is super baby powdery on me. Ambergris accords can sometimes have a powdery amber musk type of scent to me, so I think that's what's happening here. Not really woody or resinous. A warm, super powdery, musky, amber-ish tone. Only lasts about an hour on me, which is fine, because I don't like powdery scents too much.

Baby oil, baby powder, a whiff of lemon pledge wood polish and a hint of warm, toasted nuttiness. Himalia is way too powdery for me, and the weird baby oil scent is off putting. Drydown smells like baby powder and maple syrup on me, which is really gross. I was really hoping that this would smell like the unreleased Sheela Na Gig, but it doesn't at all

Gourmand patchoulis are my thing, so I thought that this was a safe blind buy, but I was wrong. The patchouli is very dry, sharp and ashy, kind of reminding me of the #occupywallstreet patchouli, which is one of my least favorites. Has a sour, dry, cedar-ish quality to it. Nasty Woman dries down to smoky ashes, sour and woody patchouli, and a cloying, super sweet cherry cough syrup smell. I also think I smell burnt caramel every once in a while. It's way too sharp and smoky for me, and I don't like the cherry smell. It's a mess on my skin.