Little Bird

Smooth, golden, resinous, slightly woody frankincense and a hint of warm cinnamon sugar. Reminds me of Cathedral with a little bit of spice or Faustus with less spice, lol. Soft and fades quickly on me, but that might be because of its age.

Soft, powdery woods, wildflower honey and a surprisingly well behaved cinnamon/cassia. I smell more of the woody, spicy cinnamon bark in the drydown, but it's a light, powdery, clean sort of scent on me overall. I'm not getting the jasmine feel that others have mentioned, but it does have a floral edge to the honey. Doesn't last long on me, in spite of its heavier notes.

I can pick out all of the listed notes in this, but they're all very soft, subtle and well blended (maybe that has come with age, since this is three years old now). I like the lab's fig note, because it smells woody and softly chocolatey, and I can pick it out in this blend, with the woody qualities enhanced even more by the cedar and sandalwood. The sweet orange adds a warm glow to the scent. The benzoin and galbanum add in a resinous incense smoke. And the bitter almond, sugared date and golden honey offer up an exotic, but dangerous (almost poisonous) smelling gourmand in the drydown. I'm glad that the almond doesn't smell like cherry here. Baruch's Phoenix is a bunch of exotic desserts set out on a wooden buffet table with incense burning in the background. Gourmand, woody, incense. Exotic, warm, glowing and lovely. I like this a lot.

Savory herbs, sharp and herbal lemongrass, burnt chocolate and a dry, gritty patchouli. Smells like I randomly threw together a bunch of aromatherapy notes, and is strangely medicinal. Lemony, herbal, medicinal, and weirdly dirty smelling on my skin... I like the foodie and sweet Thirteens, and this doesn't fall into that category for me.

I'm not getting the white chocolate at all. This is a strange mix of sour, yellowy jasmine, cheap fruit flavored candy (the pomegranate going to powdery sweet tarts candies and the strawberry smelling like strawberry bubblegum), and a whiff of peppermint and basil in the drydown. The green, herbal basil and sharp peppermint really throw me off. Sweet fruity-floral with weird herbs and minty toothpaste thrown in...

The sweet pear and honeyed apple smell like a sickly-sweet, fruity mush on my skin (like fruit that's bruised, overripe and soft). The ambrette adds a sharp, clean, musky tone in the drydown, and the over the top fruity sweetness + musk reminds me of Bath & Body Works in a bad, overwhelming way.

I get tons of smoky vetiver from this for about the first hour, and it makes me smell like I've been sitting too close to a campfire all evening. Woody, ashy, black smoke. After that first hour, the smoke starts calming down and I love the spiciness from the carnation, a bit of creamy sweetness from the vanilla, and the earthy, golden sweetness of the tobacco. I never smell any of the lavender, but I'm okay with that, because lavender is an iffy note on my skin. Smoky, spicy, and earthy with a deep, rich thread of sweetness. I like this one a lot.

White lilies gilded by sparkling grey amber, Oman frankincense, pink pepper, raw white clove, and white musk. Perfumey, soapy white floral with golden, powdery amber-frankincense and a glassy, cool quality to it. My skin usually amps up spices, but I can't really pick out the pepper or clove in this. Too much muskiness for me, and it veers too much into powdery and soapy territory for my tastes.

I should love this, because I love every single note in it so much, but the lab's dragon's blood can sometimes take on a strange, sickly-sweet, floral tone, and that's what I'm getting here. No vanilla or coconut at all. Only a hint of creamy orange blossom/neroli. Strangely floral and a bit peppery, and goes a tad soapy on me in the drydown, before fading quickly (I could barely smell this after a half hour).

I expected the red musk to overpower everything else, but the peach is actually managing to hold its own. It's reminding me of the peach wine in Aglaea, syrupy sweet and silky, mixed with the fruity, red wine tone of the red musk. Mmmmm. In the drydown, the dark earthiness of the patchouli and vetiver creep in, and I really love this scent. I love the dark red musk scents with gourmand edges (like Midnight Kiss). This smells dangerous and sexy, like some dark thing luring you in with a poisonous sweetness. <3

Creamy peach blossom (not sweet and vanilla-y, but creamy the way some florals just smell white and soft, if that makes sense), clean and delicately fruity-sweet. As it dries down, the sweet rose and powdery musk settle in. This is more clean and floral than gourmand on me, but it isn't soapy at all, and the natural sweetness of the peach blossom and rose come through nicely. I wish that I got more of the vanilla from it, but it's still pretty.

Rubbery, plasticy scent consumed with sharp, black smoke, sort of like rubber fishing lures set on fire. No peach at all, at least in the aged bottle that I now have. White sandalwood adds it baby powder thing in the drydown. Has a very chemical, unpleasant feel to it. Chemical, rubbery leather, an intensely smoky and dry oud, and baby powdery sandalwood making it even more bone dry.

Strawberry and peach mingle together and smell pretty natural here, all fuzzy peaches and strawberry with a hint of green vine and leaf still stuck to it. It gets sweeter in the drydown, like strawberries sprinkled with sugar. The sandalwood and benzoin add a warm, golden, powdery scent that gets stronger over time. It does kind of remind me of powdery, sweet, scented doll heads, but I oddly kind of like that smell.

The snow note usually doesn't smell soapy on me, but I'm getting a hint of soap here with lots of sharp, bitter grapefruit that smells a bit rancid on my skin. In the drydown, a perfumey white musk note is settling in, but I'm oddly not smelling any peach. Musky, soapy, bitter grapefruit.

I expected this to be perfumey and sharp from the iris, but it starts off with a sharp lime and dries down to a powdery, sweet orange. Reminds me of orange flavored sweet tarts. Chalky and tart. I'm not getting any peach from the aged decant.

Cinnamony gingerbread with an undertone of Lust's perfumey ylang ylang muskiness, like someone dropped a spice cookie into a sharp perfume. I don't really get the red musk, patch or myrrh, but the cinnamon is overpowering in most of the Gingerbread scents on my skin.

I don't get incense from this, and I love bpal's incense-and-cake type blends. I love regular Cathedral too. But this just smells like cinnamon & cassia with hints of lemony ginger and rose perfume on my skin, drying down to nothing but cassia & cinnamon. Too much spice for me.

A sweeter Sin with even more spices and a warm, baked cookie tone to it (almost caramelized and burnt smelling around the edges). Dries down to cinnamon sugar with a tiny hint of patchouli. I think there's too much spice in this for me.

In the bottle, this is a strange, tropical fruit gingerbread. In the drydown, this quickly turns into nothing but a cinnamon & cassia fest on my skin. All spice, all the time. Like red hots cinnamon candies. Sharp and gives me a headache.

Peppermint, as usual, but I find this year's version to be sharper and not as sweet as previous year's. It has an almost musky/perfumey sharpness to it, and is all bracing, cold mint. I don't get vanilla and not much of a sugary scent to it either.

The sour pine, sharp citrus yuzu and soapy-floral dragon's blood make this smell very much like PineSol floor cleaner on me. I'm not getting an incense feel at all.

This scent is basically a collection of my most hated notes. The only thing that I like in it is the frankincense, and I don't get any frankincense from Cryophobia. The eucalyptus and mint go straight to menthol, medicinal Vicks VapoRub, the grapefruit and wormwood are sour, bitter and reminiscent of body odor, and the iris is incredibly sharp and perfumey. It was an immediate scrubber for me.

Buttery, sweet cinnamon, something like maple syrup, and toasted, sugared, roasted nuts. It doesn't smell like a drink to me so much as a pastry scent. I actually find this to be a little too sweet on my skin.

The cake doesn't survive on my skin, as the spices and apple really amp up on me, but this is still a nice fragrance. Cinnamony, spiced cider and sweet apple. I was disappointed at the lack of cake and buttercream for the first few minutes, but I do notice a creamy, rich, buttery vanilla undertone in the drydown. It makes the spices less sharp and more wearable for me. It reminds me of Lambs-Wool.

I love LiberAmoris's review for this with the line: "the smell of a proper Victorian life gone a bit off the rails." Spirit Board reminds me of Crimson Peak. It conjures up images of dark, polished wood, dead and dry roses in a vase of rosewater, cups of bitter tea set out in a dark room, and hints of faded men's cologne. The lilac comes through in the drydown, and I love lilac and the hint of sweetness that it adds. The whole thing swirls together as a woody, gothic, slightly masculine, dark floral on my skin.