Little Bird

I don't think that this is anything like the original Peony Moon, which was a tart, sweet, rose-like floral. It smelled like sweet pink and red flowers, and had an almost edible/foodie quality to it. This version of Peony Moon is very white and soapy smelling. It's like white bar soap mixed with perfumey white floral. It has that clean, watery floral edge that a lot of bpal's Asian inspired lunacy blends have. Way too soapy for me and gives me a headache after a while.

I love this in the vial and on my skin at first, where it smells just like opening up a bag of gummi bears. The drydown is less gummi bears and more a sour lime and powdery orange candy smell, though, which I like a lot less. I also keep thinking that I smell a hint of cinnamon for some reason. Doesn't have much throw on me and only lasts about an hour.

Arana smells similar to Atlas, Antikythera Mechanism, and Haloes.. which all share the oak + vanilla combo. It's dark, dry, slightly powdery oak wood paired with a creamy, sweet vanilla and a hint of what kind of smells like root beer on my skin. It's okay, but it goes a little too powdery on me in the drydown. I prefer Atlas, Antikythera Mechanism, and Haloes to this one, which are all a little more complex and a bit sweeter on my skin.

First on, Love is like a sugar dipped rose with a cakey vanilla and strawberry jam. I love the rose when first applied, but the rose fades into the background rather quickly. The drydown is fluffy, sugary vanilla/marshmallow with a hint of pink, candy strawberry and sugared rose. Very sweet, fun and girly. It might be a bit too sweet for me to wear a lot, but I think I'm going to order a full bottle of this one for when I'm in the mood for a sugary, fun, fruity rose. I think it's a really happy, fun, uplifting sort of scent. ETA: I ordered a second bottle of this after deciding that it was my clear favorite of the Tremulous Song series and it's become one of my pick-me-up scents. And my new bottle smells nothing like the old (one month older) one. The new one is sour, watery rose and a hint of cinnamon. I made a rule that I wouldn't order multiple bottles of bpal anymore because there are always huge 'variations' when I do, and I broke it because this was becoming one of my cheer-me-up scents. So disappointing... My second bottle is not really sweet at all. I don't understand how I get one bottle of Love that's strong marshmallow and strawberry with a hint of sweet rose and then the second bottle is watery, sour rose and no sweet notes. I've worn the two side by side on separate wrists and they're not the same scent. I feel wrong even reviewing bpal fragrances anymore, because it seems like whatever I receive & review is not going to be the same fragrance that other people might get... I think that Love is going to be the last bottle that I purchase from this company. The 'variations' are just too huge for me to ignore anymore.

This is a clean tea scent to my nose. It reminds me of white tea, which always smells a bit citrusy on my skin. The lilac fougere is reminding me of lilac scented dryer sheets and soap. I don't get anything like candy or red licorice, which is sad, because that's the main reason I wanted this scent. Mostly it's a light soap + citrus tea smell. Only lasts about an hour total on me.

Maybe Cockaigne in Wanderlust? "The weather is always mild, the wine flows freely, sex is readily available, and all people enjoy eternal youth. The Land of Plenty, also called Luilekkerland – the Lazy, Luscious Land: milk and honey, sweet cakes and wine."

Madagascan Vanilla Rum single note reminded me of Vanillary.

Bpal's dragon's blood usually turns a bit sour and off on my skin (like a vase full of rotting flowers sitting in stagnant, dirty water), and I get that here, mixed with the herbal-spicy geranium and rosemary. So it sort of comes off as rotting flowers with a dash of herb garden. I can't pick out any coffee, pepper or sandalwood. Soapy in the drydown.

This starts off as a blast of cheap smelling almond extract on my skin (a bit like maraschino cherries, but sharper). The drydown is perfumey, sweet rose, pine/juniper, and a hint of that almond. The mix of rose, almond extract and sharp evergreen is a bit weird and unpleasant on me.

I only had a couple drops of this to test, but it pretty much instantly turns to soap on my skin. A light, floral soap.

I expected this to be darker and heavier than it is. I don't really get any patchouli or cinnamon, and the woods are light and paired with a soft, powdery incense smell. Light, powdery incense and light, dry wood. Fades quickly on my skin.

The lab's pomegranate note never works on me. It's a strong, bitter, powdery scent that's reminiscent of sweet tarts candy, but more bitter and less sweet. I get that note paired with a smoky vetiver and it just smells harsh and odd to me.

I first got into bpal around mid-2005, and I think they switched to the new imp labels around the same time or within a year from there. I remember not having the older labels in my orders for very long.

I feel like I would love this if it had more leather and I could tone down the vetiver and kick out the opoponax entirely. Opoponax always turns way too sweet on my skin, like someone turned a dark resin into a heavy, sugary syrup. The vetiver is very smoky and overpowering on me at first, though it does settle in to let a little more of the masculine spiciness of the bay & clove come through in the drydown. After a while, this starts to turn slightly powder on me (the way bpal's 'dusty clove' notes sometimes go), and I can never really pick out the leather. It's not awful, but probably not something I'll reach for again either.

Something in this turns really soapy on me (the lily, perhaps) and I get a lot of a sharp green feel from the cypress, yew and ivy. It smells like someone crushed up a bunch of dark green things, splashed some sharp floral perfume over them, and rolled them into a bar of white soap. I do get a bit of a lightly sweet, herbal honey in the drydown, but the overall scent isn't sweet enough. Too harshly clean and sharp for my tastes.

I would recommend checking out these from the GC if you haven't already: *The Black Rider (Marchen) - "Black leather, opoponax, tobacco, and black amber." *The Red Rider (Marchen) - "Red leather, red moss and balsam." My favorite for a dark and sexy leather blend in the GC right now. *The White Rider (Marchen)- "White leather and sandalwood." Probably softer and more powdery than what you're looking for, but still.. a nice leather. I actually like these layered together as well. *Perversion (Ars Amatoria) - "Smoky rum and black tobacco with a whisper of steamy leather with a splash of crystalline chardonnay, layered over a sensual, sweet, and deceptively magnetic base of tonka." This one varies a lot (sometimes heavy on the leather, sometimes I get no leather, depending on the imp/bottle), but can be really nice. *Tezcatlipoca (Excolo) - "Deep cocoa laced with patchouli, leather armor, ritual incense, and a touch of Xochiquetzal’s flowers." Might not be quite the feel that you're looking for, but it has a really cool & unusual leather, cocoa and dry floral incense to it. *Hellfire (Sin & Salvation) - "A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass." Another one that varies a lot, but I have version of this that are heavy on the leather with some sweet tobacco and incense smoke. *Liz (Hellboy) - "A light, feminine vanilla floral perfume and a swirl of smoke and leather." Does have a good dose of sweet, powdery vanilla, but the leather and smoke in this is dark, gritty and sexy. *Sara Pezzini (Witchblade) - "A hint of leather and an understated vintage musk layered over the scent of lightly perspiring, honey-dusted skin." Does have a sweet, clean, honeyed note, but the leather is great and this does have the skin musk in it. Layers well with heavier leather blends too. *Captain Cully (The Last Unicorn) - "A cocky light musk with leather, tonka, a dusting of dry woods, and a splash of porter." And, of course, Fetish.Goth has a similar description to what you describe: "Skin musk, slick black leather and wet latex with dark myrrh, patchouli, opoponax." But that's an event exclusive.. the Goth scents show up on ebay a lot, though.

This reminds me a little of The Butterfly (which I guess is the amber & bergamot combo). It has the same baby powdery amber and lemony bergamot, with a little bit of sour, perfumey rose in the drydown. It's light on my skin, but still too perfumey and powdery for me.

On me, this is harsh, smoky, chemical-y smelling opium and rose soap. I was hoping for more orchid and plum, but I don't get anything fruity from this blend.

Sara Pezzini is that sort of scent for me.

Crow Moon 2013 smells like soap, pine, sharp spring flowers and snow. A perfumey and soapy mix that's reminiscent of air freshener... I don't have much to say about this one. I love the artwork, but this scent just gives me a headache and smells really cheap and artificial.

My bottle of this doesn't really smell anything like it's supposed to and it doesn't smell anything like the original Cheshire Moon, even though they share an almost identical note list. The original Cheshire Moon has a nice sweetness to it that's almost like vanilla cake and I could pick out the sweet citrus and cherry blossom. This new version smells like bpal's snow note + soap. Clean, cool and soapy... a huge letdown

This smells similar to all of the other blends in this series (Earth Rat, Fire Pig, Earth Ox, Metal Tiger, Metal Rabbit & Water Dragon). They're all really soapy smelling, tart, perfumey fruity-florals. Water Snake has some extra emphasis on the mandarin and peach blossom on my skin, but is too soapy & sharply perfumey floral for me.

I like this scent, but I don't know if I'll ever really have the urge to wear it or if it's really wearable as a perfume. It's strong, intense and savory. Reminds me of Kinnabari v4, so I wonder if that proto had the caraway in it. Smells like red clay, herbs, a hint of mint, a spiciness, a hint of rye bread... earthy, herbal and spicy. The drydown takes on a bit of a funky quality that reminds me of horses, barns and leather underneath everything else. It's interesting and I keep going back to it, but I probably didn't need a full bottle, lol. ETA: This went bad in record time. Smells really sour and dusty now and reminds me of cigarette ash, menthol, aluminum foil, and body odor. I think that bpal is using lower quality oils as time goes on, because so many of the newer blends have turned rancid on me.

Mayan Chocolate is my favorite of this year's Lupercalia blends (actually the only Lupercalia blend this year that I like at all). I didn't think that this would work for me, because I don't do well with cinnamon scents and Mayan themed blends always seem to be heavy on the cinnamon. But I love the spiciness in this and it kind've reminds me of the sweet and peppery spices of Mother Shub's Pfancy Pfefferneusse. I get a little bit of a cinnamon potpourri feel when it's first applied, but the drydown is like dusty wood and interesting, sweet spices. A little green and a little peppery. It's hard to describe, but I like this one a lot

I like this for the first half hour or so on my skin. The amber turns clean & powdery smelling (which I'd normally dislike), but the orris gives it a delicate sweetness and the ambergris gives it a woody spiciness that makes it wearable. It almost has a little soapiness to it that makes me think of sweet soap bubbles. Then the drydown is a little bit cloying and dark in a way that I'm not sure I love.. it sort of reminds me of play-doh and dry wood. Maybe a bit of yeasty bread as well. Weird, but I think I'll keep my decant of this one.