Little Bird

I don't really get any almond, honey or sweetness from this. It's a sharp, white musky, perfumey, white floral orchid. Actually makes me think of sharp tuberose.

Powdery, warm, sweet (almost caramel-like) benzoin and sandalwood. Dries down like dusty, warm, sun-baked wood and hints of sweet benzoin. Kit sits very close to the skin and doesn't have much throw or staying power on me, but is a pleasant sandalwood and benzoin mix. I don't get the herbs or ink that others have mentioned, but sandalwood usually overtakes other notes on my skin.

I was hoping that this would smell like one of those green apple lollipops dipped in caramel that show up around halloween, but I'm just getting powdery, warm, sweet caramel from this scent. It doesn't smell like bpal's usual caramel note on me (which is a pretty true caramel). This is kinda reminiscent of Prada Candy's powdery, perfumey caramel tones on me, actually.

I was expecting soapy ozone, but this is a sweet, cool, creamy honeydew melon. Pretty and it does remind me of Fee. I don't get an in-your-face pineapple and coconut, but I think the pina colada is adding to the sweetness and creaminess of the blend. A lovely, sweet, refreshing melon fragrance.

Sharp, salted lime with a woody, sweet fig. I expected this to be soapy, but it's refreshing and clean without turning to laundry soap. The drydown turns warmer, musky and slightly powdery on me, which I guess is the fur. Powdery, warm, musk and a hint of salty aquatic and sweet lime.

Miss Forcible and The Other Miss Forcible are two of my favorite bpals (The Other Miss Forcible being sexy, dark, gourmand and amazing), but there's just something funky and off about the Spink scents to me. Miss Spink is flatout unwearable to me. It's cinnamon cookies, black licorice, baby powder and hints of rotting garbage, melting plastic and dead fish on my skin. I cannot deal with it. The Other Miss Spink is nowhere near that bad, but I still don't really like it. It's like vanilla scented cosmetics dusting powder with curls of cigarette smoke and sharp, cheap hairspray with a cheap tuberose perfume. It smells like a smoker wearing hair powder, cheap hairspray, and a cheap, sharp white floral drugstore perfume. It completely has that ashy, stale cigarette smell that sticks to the clothes and hair of smokers.

Mr. Bobo is a strange, herbal blend. It's taken me forever to review it, because I don't really like it and I don't really feel like I 'get it,' lol. Reading the other reviews, I can agree that it kinda smells like dill, a citrusy rosemary, oregano, and sage. But it also smells kind of funky, damp, and moldy on me in a way that I can't really explain. Moldy curtains and sour herbs?

Ian is my one true love of the OLLA series, but I also enjoy In Templum Dei. I have to remember to shake up the bottle of this one, because it has a blackish, heavy oil that sits on the bottom, and In Templum Dei smells sort of flat and lacklustre on me when it's not fully mixed up. If you enjoy fragrances like Midnight Mass and Cathedral, you should also enjoy this. It's warm, dark gold resins with hints of dry wood, spice and vanillic tones to it. In fact, it's so much like Midnight Mass and Cathedral and my resin Phoenix blends that I'm not sure I'll even keep my bottle, even though I do enjoy it. I need to death match them all at some point.

Smoky black leather and a gritty, ashy sort of earthiness with a sprinkling of really sharp black pepper. I was worried about the jasmine, but I don't smell it at all in this blend, and the other notes are just a little too dark and aggressive for me, with no sweetness to round them out. I really like the lab's leather and patchouli, and usually enjoy vetiver and black pepper, but this just isn't working on me somehow. It's dark, sharp, and oppressive, with a gritty, ashy, dirty quality to it.

I don't get chocolate at all from my bottle of this. It's all candied ginger - bright, spicy, sweet and slightly lemony smelling. After an hour, it smells much the same, except I'm also getting a fizziness that's like a glass of sparkling gingerale next to a bowl of sugar crusted ginger candies. It's good, but I do wish that it had some chocolate in it, and I prefer Shub-Niggurath for a sweeter, warmer, cookie-fied take on ginger.

This smells so very much like Pulcinella & Teresina on me. P&T is labdanum, cedar, teak and red rose. I tried Crucifixion on one wrist and P&T on the other and I can't really tell them apart, even though P&T's oil is a lot darker. Spicy, dark, woody resin with dried, dark red, sweet roses. It's very femme fatale to me, and one of those dry, dark, gothic rose type of scents. Dried rose petals, resins and dark touches. I like it a lot, but I don't know if I need this and P&T...

I love lilac and orris, so I had high hopes for this. Unfortunately, it smells really soapy and generic on me. Unicorn Rushing turns soapy and just has an overall feel of 'fresh spring floral scented laundry soap.' Powdery orris and sweet lilac with a soapy aquatic and kind of a generic, sickly cucumber melon scent to it. I also keep thinking that this has a hint of sour jasmine in it. It makes me think of laundry soap and cheap cucumber melon body splashes. Sickly-sweet, but also weirdly sour, and lots of soap...

I thought that this was going to smell like soapy apple shampoo on me, because bpal's apple blossom pretty much always does that on my skin. But this is so amazingly beautiful and special. Bestiaire really smells like freshly cut grass and torn green leaves, with slices of sweet apple thrown over the greenery. I don't get mint or pine, but maybe they're just adding to the green and cool feel of this blend. I was also worried that the 'watery musk' would be soapy and cologne-like, but I don't get soap or aquatic from this at all either. In the drydown, I get a little bit of powdery sweetness, like a powdered sugar scent. Green grass, green leaves, sweet apples, and powdered sugar. Has an airy, cool feel to it. I really love this blend.

Something about the oud, mahogany and rum comes together to smell like I spilled cough syrup over a dark, polished, wooden table. I can't shake that cough syrup impression, and it ruins St. Clare for me. After a half hour, the cough syrup fades a bit (but doesn't ever fade enough) and the tobacco incense is dominating the scent. It reminds me of cigarette smoke; so it's a bit sharper and more harsh than I like my tobacco notes to be. The vanilla does sweeten it a little, though, and the wood does smell golden and lightly spiced. With a splash of boozy, medicinal, weirdly fruity cough syrup. Cigarette smoke, perfumey vanilla, dark and golden and spicy wood, and boozy cough syrup. Too sharp for me, and then the cough syrup...

I love patchouli, and I've tried so many amazing patchouli fragrances in the 15+ years that I've been collecting fragrances. I wasn't sure that I was going to need a bottle of this, but I do. Such a good, rich, heavy patchouli with nuances of pine needle, forest floor and sap. Agarwood/oud is hit or miss on me, but I love the slightly smoky, rich, dry woodiness in this. The orris is barely there for me, adding a hint of sweetness to the natural chewy sweetness that patchouli can sometimes have. I was worried about the orris turning powdery, but I'm not getting powder from this at all. It's hard to explain different types of patchouli, but this one is a love for me. Forest floor, golden sweetness, black earth and gold, sweet tones, with a dark woodiness to it... just... mmmm. I'm definitely keeping my bottle, and it's going to be hard to resist buying a backup bottle or two.

I like this a lot more than I thought I would. White sandalwood almost always turns to baby powder and pomegranate to powdery sweet tarts candies on me. This is still a powdery sandalwood, but it smells deeper and darker than usual, maybe thanks to the black currant. There's something almost rich and caramelized to the wood part, and the black currant gives it a dark berry gleam and sweetness. The pomegranate takes over after about an hour and I like it less, because the pom is sour, tart and sharp, and things turn a little smoky. I agree with TijuanaBible in that the pom stage reminds me of 7 Word Story: Lust, but that comes in the drydown for me rather than the start. An interesting, fruity sandalwood, but probably not a keeper for me.

Fruity, soft lavender with peony's sweet, fresh, pink spring floral tones dancing around it. The white musk and vanilla mallow give it a sparkly, airy quality on my skin, without really smelling too much like sweet vanilla or marshmallows. De Vos is mainly floral on my skin, not noticeably vanilla-y or foodie. After two hours, I'm left with a nondescript spring floral scent and powdery lavender.

Thick, creamy, pink vanilla rose with a powdery edge that's like powdered sugar, not baby powder. The bergamot and rosehip add a tart, lemony sharpness that I don't love, but that part settles down a bit in the drydown. I was worried about the jasmine, but can't really pick it out in this blend. Sweet, lemony, vanilla-y rose. Fresh, but very sweet on my skin.

Starts off as powdery, cool, clean flowers over a subtle, clean men's cologne smell and dry wood. This is also strangely almost minty smelling on my skin. Orpheus doesn't really smell anything like what I was expecting. It's watery and clean cologne, but with dry wood, and a hint of smoky incense and creamy, powdery blossoms in the drydown. Light, subtle, clean, both warm and cool, and hard to pick out the individual notes... Dry, warm wood with a bit of smoke, but also a clean edge to it... cologne-like, but powdery.

I'm confused by this scent. It's tons of sharp cinnamon and buttery, sweet cinnamon on my skin, with an undertone of dry, woody, sharp amber (that turns slightly powdery in the drydown) and ashy vetiver. The wine and fruit is nowhere to be found for me.

Starts off as misty, true, non-sour evergreen, which surprised me, because 'pitch' is usually tons of woodsmoke on my skin. A King Pursued is like pine boughs covered with the last bits of melting snow and dripping, sweet pine sap. The drydown warms up as the pine falls to the background and the amber and oak come forward. It turns just a little powdery on me, but not to full on baby powder; it feels very warm and snuggy, like a toasted, vanilla-ish amber with only a hint of gentle powder. Warm amber and golden, creamy woods with a hint of misty pine. Pretty and soft. Kind of reminds me of Golden Priapus with more amber and a more subtle pine.

The pine/evergreen to this is bright and sour, where I was hoping for a sweeter, more sappy evergreen note. I thought this might be like Golden Priapus (which has juniper and white pine in it), but this is definitely a lot sharper than Golden Priapus, and I feel like I want something to soften it. As it dries down, I'm getting the sour, red berry that other reviewers have mentioned, and it's reminding me of red currant. I like Golden Priapus more for an evergreen and Elf more for a foresty berry scent. White Juniper SN is more sharp and sour smelling to me than real life juniper.

I tracked down a bottle of this after realizing that it has a bird on the label, and I'm glad that I did. The rum and earthy tobacco reminds me of the rum & patchouli-leather in Ian, which I also love, but Brown Thrasher is sweeter and even more heavy on the rum. It comes off as a sweet vanilla-almond booziness. Silky, sweet, caramelized and gourmand. I keep thinking that I smell vanilla frosted cinnamon buns in the drydown as well. The brown musk adds a snuggly warmth and the tobacco a sweet, dark earthy edge, but it's still primarily a foodie smelling fragrance. Lasts all day and has good throw on me. Warm, comforting and sweet.

The reviews for this are so varied, I wonder if there are batch variations, or if it's just a confusing fragrance in general. On me, this smells like sour orange, sweet strawberry, fizzy grapefruit, sharp salt and something metallic and off... dries down to smoky red musk with a bowl of dry, dusty cinnamon and orange peel potpourri, and just a hint of something more fizzy and effervescent. Also has an undertone of dry soapiness. It's like it can't decide if it wants to be fruity or floral, light or dark, sweet or sour, dry or bright... It's a messed up, orange sweet tarts + fruit punch and hints of cinnamon and musk on my skin.

Smoky amber incense and a clove studded orange pomander. I always like the way that orange plays with amber/resin notes, giving them a warm, lit-from-within, glowing embers sort of feel. Turns slightly powdery on me in the drydown, a little spicier, and a bit less smoky. I love resins, so I really enjoy the Phoenix anniversary scents.