Little Bird

The Gift is so strange. I was surprised that the oil itself is red, and it smells exactly like champagne on me. It's all fizzy, bubbly, bright, white, boozy champagne. Slightly sweet and slightly fruity in the way that champagne is. As it dries down, it's much the same, but a baby powdery amber joins the mix. I don't know what that champagne thing is - maybe the frothed honey? But this doesn't smells like honey, resins or woods on me at all. It's bright, boozy, and way too powdery for me.

I've tried to love this scent, but I really hate it. A lot of my most favorite scents are resins + cocoa (Aelian's Phoenix being one of my recent bpal loves in this category), but the gunpowder in this scent is unbearable to me. It smells like ashes from a wood burning furnace, complete with the weird, burning metal and just... no. It is a bad scent from my childhood, when I was in a bad place. It makes my stomach feel like it's twisting up in knots and I want to gag and run away. The chocolate smells stale and the myrrh sickly-sweet and wrong, and I don't think I've ever disliked myrrh before, but there it is. I love the smell of actual gunpowder, oddly, but this is ashes and burnt metal in the worst way.

I like the lab's blue musk. It smells watery, cool, and still, like staring into a decorative pond on a quiet night. Very calming. A tart lemon splashes around for a few minutes, and I don't really care for the lemon, but it disappears after fifteen minutes or so on my skin, and I'm left with pale wisteria, watery blue musk and a hint of sweet frankincense. This is a very calming, soft, meditative blend to me, pale floral and slightly clean (but not soapy). Cool and pretty.

I'm into honey lately, and I love honey mixed with frankincense, but the pomegranate and dusty/powdery undertone ruin this one for me. I was hoping that pomegranate root wouldn't be so fruity, but it still smells like sweet tarts candy on my skin. Tart, fake-fruit, sweet honey, dry wood, and a dusty/powdery feel overall.

Bartholomaeus Anglicus' Phoenix actually smells very similar to Mandeville's Phoenix, likely because they both share a strong red sandalwood note. This doesn't have Mandeville's sweet myrrh and warm, cinnamon-ish clove, but has a very light sweetness from the honeyed cedar and a hint of warm, actual cinnamon (but those notes are barely there, this is almost a red sandalwood single note on my skin). It does have a quality that reminds me of sandalwood boxes and sharpening pencils, as other reviewers have mentioned. A few of the times that I've worn this, it actually reminded me of the Disappointing Pencil single note. It's all smooth sandalwood and a hint of that honeyed cedar in the drydown, less incensey and without the hint of smoke from Mandeville. I like this blend, as red sandalwood is one of the few sandalwood notes that doesn't turn to baby powder on my skin.

On me, this is waxy gardenia, perfumey white floral magnolia, and loud, slightly sour jasmine. I can't even pick out the earthy notes under all of that floral.

This is a soft, close to the skin scent for me, even though the notes are usually bold, heavy ones. It's a soft, warm, suede-like leather, smoky sandalwood incense, and dusty wood scent. If it stayed like that, I might order a bottle of this, but the cinnamon creeps in during the drydown and gives it a dusty cinnamon potpourri smell that I'm not loving.

I can't do the lab's tobacco flower note. It's like sharp, bright, cutting, cold white floral and laundry soap powder. Soapy, white, high pitched... I also get the cinnamon that other people have mentioned, and no black pepper, which is curious. I really don't like it mixed with the tobacco flower, but I never really like tobacco flower, so take that with a grain of salt, lol.

I love patchouli, but the red patchouli always smells a little off on me. Claudian's Phoenix is lots of woody fig and sweaty patchouli on my skin, smelling mainly like BO and dry wood. I get the ashy quality that others have mentioned in the drydown. No pom or frankincense. Not a keeper for me.

Sweet, syrupy myrrh and sweet clove that gives off a bit of a cinnamon feel with dry, somber sandalwood. It starts off as mostly myrrh and clove on me, and settles into a strong, smooth sandalwood incense with hints of myrrh and clove. The white sandalwood usually turns baby powdery on me, but the red sandalwood isn't powdery at all. It smells of expensive, dry wood. I'll keep my bottle of this, because I'm obsessed with myrrh, and this is a lovely sandalwood incense and myrrh.

Le Clerc's is overwhelming, heavy cinnamon and cassia. Cassia always smells like a dark red, woody cinnamon to me. Tons of that here. It actually smells a lot like the original Red Phoenix, which was also amped up cinnamon. Too much for me to handle, and gives me a headache pretty quickly.

The Avenue is one of my favorites of this year's Lupercalia blends. Maybe even the #1 favorite, in good company with Dark Choco Tobacco, The Imperfect Enjoyment, The Mark, Volcano in Springtime... I love chocolate, vanilla, resins, non-cinnamon spices and earthy blends. The Avenue is like a mix of all of my favorite things. The Avenue has a gorgeous, silky, smooth, dark chocolate and luscious, creamy vanilla with resinous tones and a whiff of smoke (not sharp woodsmoke, but like a burning resin smoke). I was worried about the pink pepper, which is a death note for me, but I love black pepper and I'm only getting the black pepper from this. I think that this could have been one of the chocolate bonbon scents this year. The chocolate and vanilla are so creamy. Those notes keep making me think of chocolate silk pie topped with a heavy whipped cream. The smoked amber, clove and black pepper give it a non-foodie, resinous, spicy, amazing oomph, though. If anyone has ever tried Violette Market's "Veil of the Moon" fragrance (notes of 'vanilla accord, peppered woodsmoke, cedarleaf, vanilla honey and black pine resin'), this smells verrry similar, but I like The Avenue even more. The Avenue is smoother.

The pitch is an ashy, charred, over the top, harsh woodsmoke scent, covered in black musk that's turning very baby powdery on my skin. Sort of like cigarette smoke and dirty as tray in the drydown, with a hint of baby powder and cheap men's cologne.

Sugary, cloying, honey flavored dusting powder and nothing else. Not much throw or staying power. I'm not getting anything like leather or red musk.

I keep thinking 'white chocolate' whenever I wear this, but it must be the vanilla amping up on my skin (and I am not complaining about that at all!). Lots of creamy, sweet, chocolate-y vanilla. The other notes meld together so well into this warm, sweet, golden incense feel that I really enjoy, with a dusting of rich, sweet, dark cocoa in the drydown. There's a little bit of smokiness as well, but it's not harsh woodsmoke or bbq smoke; it's like a light wisp of incense smoke. It really smells magical. White chocolate, golden incense, and a dusting of dark cocoa powder. This year's chocolates are all really amazing.

I can pick out all of the listed notes for this one - a sweet but earthy cocoa, warm and toasted chestnut (same as the wonderful, nutty-woody note in Horse Chestnut Honey), thick honey and earthy patchouli. It all combines into this chewy, earthy chocolate and honey amazingness. The honey is almost reminiscent of caramel on my skin, and I just love the way that chocolate & patchouli always complement each other. I'm glad that I decided to just order a bottle of this one.

I agree with VioletChaos in that this immediately reminded me of Boo, but minus the notes that make Boo a bit off smelling to me sometimes. It also reminds me of Haus of Gloi's Ghost Puffs fragrance, which is a true, buttery, slightly salty, fluffy marshmallow delight. I was worried about the staying power after reading some of the other reviews, but this has been going for 4+ hours on me so far and still smells the same and I keep getting lovely wafts of it. It's not overwhelming or super strong, but it's lasting and doing excellent things on my skin, lol. This is by far my favorite marshmallow scent from bpal. No spice, fruit, or perfumey sugar notes - just realistic, amazing marshmallows. I would also love this in bath oil and hair gloss form.

I really like the sweet & sour quality of this - like sour gummi worms with emphasis on the lime. It smells like I took a bag of sour gummi worms and squeezed a real, fresh, juicy lime over them. Sugary, zesty, juicy, refreshing and fun. I don't normally like fruity/fruit candy scents, but I'm really enjoying this one.

On me, this smells like chocolate, a really powdery honey sugar, and something sharp that is perhaps the metallic/tin foil note. I was expecting a chocolate single note, but this is powdery and that sharp note makes it less foodie smelling on me. I prefer Melty Creme Egg's straightup gourmand chocolate & marshmallow thing, but this is still nice. The drydown's chocolate and metallic cologne feel makes me want to try Earless Bunny on my husband.

I've had issues with bpal's chocolate notes turning powdery or plasticy on me lately, but this one is fantastic. It smells like rich, sweet, melty chocolate, marshmallow, and buttery, salty caramel. Really decadent, warm, and it has great throw and staying power on me. Purely gourmand and smells delicious.

I love vetiver when it's dark and smoky, but not savory like bbq, or when it's like dying, drying out grass. I thought this would be the grassy variety, based on the other reviews, but it's all smoky mesquite bbq type vetiver on me . The steel adds a metallic, clean cologne note, but it's mostly smoky, charred bbq. It's reminding me of a less complex Mutant Hot-Rodders from Hell High...

This is my definite favorite of the Dark Crystal series, though the sweet, tropical, fruity feel doesn't remind me of Dark Crystal or make me think science at all. I really love black currant and myrrh, especially mixed together, so that makes me immediately happy. The combination is sweet, dark and sensual. The passionflower and black viola are big, heady, lush tropical blooms, and the whole thing is rather juicy smelling on my skin. It's very distinctive, juicy, tropical and fruity for about 45 minutes, and then starts drying down into a clean, kind of more perfumey, slightly powdery, tropical floral with hints of fruit. It fades quickly after that, but I do enjoy the opening.

The Ritual Master is mostly opoponax and opium. The opoponax is thick, syrupy resin (always has edges that remind me of maple syrup and black pepper) and the opium turns sharp, dry, and soapy on my skin. They actually smell rather interesting together, even though I don't really enjoy the smell of opium and I can only handle opoponax in small doses. I wouldn't wear this, but it is an interesting mix of the heavy-dark-sweet opoponax and heavy-white-soapy opium.

I so wanted this to smell like leather and spice cake with vanilla cream. This is a strange, metallic, chemical smell though. It reminds me of hairspray in aluminum cans, sort of musky-chemical and brightly, sharply metallic. A weird sweetness creeps in, but it's not foodie, cakey or creamy sweetness. It's like a metallic, sickly rusty sweetness. As it dries down, I wonder if there's vetiver in this, because I'm smelling the variety that's reminiscent of charred mesquite bbq smoke and sweet bbq sauce. Mixed with sharp, chemical hairspray and metal. This is really bad and gives me a headache from the sharp chemical smell... absolutely no cake or cream.

The eucalyptus and camphor give this a bit of a Vicks VapoRub scent, mixed with the citrusy-clean, bright white tea. The menthol edge fades a bit in the drydown and it's more of a clean tea and soft mint. I can't really smell any fir/evergreen. Too clean and the menthol & mint make it a bit medicinal smelling to my nose.