Little Bird

I feel bad when I write short scent reviews, it makes me feel sort of lazy. There just isn't much that I can say about Rome. Juniper is usually pretty strong on my skin (nice, I like juniper), but this was all roses on me. A very strong rose with lots of throw and a slight soapy twinge. Rome turns into just a rose perfume on me... I don't pick up any of the other notes. And it's so strongly floral that it gave me a bit of a headache.

Brimming with native fruits and flowers, but also imbued with the power of native earth magicks: apricot and pomegranate with deep plum, wild roses, two Middle Eastern pale musks, white orchid, iris and sweet roots. First on I am getting nothing but apricots. Very heavy, sweet apricots. Like the kind that come in a can and are smothered in thick syrup. This is the exact sort of fruity scent that I cannot stand for some reason. I love sweet foodie scents... but I usually hate sweet fruity scents. No clue why. After a few minutes the pomegranate comes out and this takes on the tart bitter edge that pomegranate always smells of on me. Curse my skin chemistry. And then in the drydown I smell like musky canned apricots. It's a light scent with very little throw on me, so at least the musk isn't giving me a headache. I'll be swapping my imp as I do not really like fruity scents or musky scents. Fruity musk is just not me.

Lear is a very dry, simple scent to me. It's more cedar chips than cedar trees. Almost dusty in its dryness. After a few minutes, the sage comes out and makes me feel a bit ill. I have a bad association with the smell of sage that I won't go into. Overall it's not something that I want to smell. Cedar chips and dried sage. Very woodsy. I could definitely imagine this working better on a guy than a girl... but I don't like it enough to make my boy test it out.

I normally hate fruit scents, so I passed on ordering a bottle of Fruit Moon... and now I'm kicking myself. I hate fruits that are too sweet, or that smell like fruity gum or candy on me. Fruit Moon smells like a genuine juicy tropical fruit salad to me. In the drydown it smells like it has a bit of sugar sprinkled over it, but it still isn't fakely fruity or too sweet. This smells like all of my favorite fruits. At first I'm getting the pear, peach, and apple... it smells a bit boring to me at that point. I like tropical fruits and berry scents a lot more. Luckily for me, this is all lush and wet tropical fruits in the drydown. Kiwi, mango, passion fruit, lime, and various melons... I love this . I feel like such an idiot for not getting a bottle. I'll use up my decant and probably try to get a 5 ml off of evil ebay.

Loup Garou smells very strongly of Vicks VapoRub on me. I don't necessarily dislike that smell, but it gives me a headache if I'm forced to smell it for a long period of time. For a while in the drydown I smell mostly juniper, before it morphs back into Vicks. It's a very cold/menthol sort of scent. I normally really like foresty/piney/green scents... but I don't like the sharpness of this one. It reminds me of a pine forest that needs a good rain, but the weather is just dry and cold. Sort of depressing.

First on this smells very odd. I keep thinking of melons that have been very watered down. Honeydew melon? Over the next few minutes the watery note fades and it gets more candy-like. I'm not getting watermelon jolly ranchers (it isn't that sweet on me), but I could see this as a sort of melon hard candy. I forgot that I was wearing this and ignored it for a while, until suddenly I smelled a very perfumey musk and started to get a headache. Then I realized that it was Eris. This goes from melon candies to perfumey musk on me. Off to the swap pile it goes.

Somnus is a sharp, clean, cool, white-smelling lavender. It almost has a bit of a soapy edge that reminds me of cleaning fluid. I like my lavender notes to be sweeter & creamier/milkier smelling, so this isn't working for me. After about a half hour, this smells like a weird, perfumey floral soap (maybe jasmine-y). This is way too sharp for me and gives me a headache after a while. I love a lot of lavender blends & single notes, but this isn't a keeper for me.

This is all Marshall Fields floral on me. That cliche overly perfumey white floral that gives me a headache. The lilies here are going sharp and perfumey on me rather than soapy as they usually do. In the drydown this gets a bit more of a smokier smell to it, but it's still mostly still just department store floral on me. Very blah and makes my head pound.

Umm... add me to the list of people that Czernobog went very, very badly on. First on this smelled like sharp medicinal menthol and maybe a hint of lime. I really like lime, so I thought that maybe it would be okay. It was luring me into a false sense of security. Slowly this begins to take on a bad smell. Reminding me of, um, feces. Dirty and nauseating. I wanted to wash it off at this point, but I was only five minutes into wearing it. I waited it out for 15 minutes before washing it off. It started to smell like a mechanic's shop. Oil, grease, car parts. And still feces in the background. This is so odd. My friend said that it reminded her of Satyr, but Satyr is one of my favorite BPAL blends...and it didn't smell anything like Czernobog does on me. This is awful, so awful that I don't even want to swap it to anyone. I think that I'm going to send this to a guy that I don't like anymore with a note about how sexy it smells. I'm sadistic like that. Retrying an imp of this in 2016 and it is (or I am) completely different. I smell misty, cool evergreens, like rained on juniper bushes, paired with a black musk and sweet myrrh combo that's really quite nice and conjures up blends like Snake Oil and Snake Charmer. Slinky, sexy, musky, dark, resinous, forest blend.

I was hoping that this would smell like some of my other favorite churchy incense blends (Kostnice and Cathedral - 2 of my favorite BPAL scents)... I love spicy resiny scents. Unfortunately, this isn't much in the same vein as Kostnice or Cathedral in my opinion. In the bottle and first on my skin, this has an almost buttery caramel smell to it, held down by a smokiness that reminds me of a campfire. Burnt buttery caramel. That quickly fades away and this takes on a soapy floral smell, most likely thanks to the lilies. I hate lilies... they always turn to dish soap on me. 15 minutes later this is a *very* light floral incense smell. Like walking into a room where incense was burned an hour or two ago. Over the course of a few hours this gets to be a sweet powdery flower smell. It's too light and too floral for me to love it. I'm going to try the remainder of my imp as a room scent and see how that goes.

Reading all of the reviews about tobacco and chocolate and incense had me really excited to try Dia de los Muertos. Unfortunately, I am one of those unlucky people that this went floral on . Jasmine is my most hated floral, it seems to always give me vicious headaches... and that's actually what I'm smelling here. I can't believe that this doesn't have any jasmine in it, I would have betted my life on it... I digress. On me, this is all heady headache-inducing florals. Smoky jasmine and other nameless florals swirling around that I cannot place. Maybe I am smelling some incense smoke here in the drydown. Either way, this is way too strong and overwhelming for me.

I'm glad that I managed to snag a imp-size decant of this one, since I cannot justify purchasing another sugar-foodie scent (with the 7 bottles of Midway in my room ). First on, Sugar Skull reminds me of the treat my mother always makes for my brother for breakfast. It is basically pancakes smothered in butter and brown sugar, and then rolled up and sliced into pinwheels. It's odd. She calls them brown sugar pancakes. I can smell the brown sugar and butter here, and the whole thing has been drenched in maple syrup. They make me sick when I eat them because they're just too sweet. And that's how Sugar Skull smells to me too, just a bit too much sugar. In the drydown the maple syrup edge dies down a bit and a hint of rum comes through. Boozy brown sugar. It's rot your teeth out sweet. I'm glad to have an imp, but I don't think that I'll need a bottle.

I've put off trying Cordelia for a while now because the only notes that I really like in it are the lemon and green tea... and I already have a bottle of Shanghai (the best green tea scent ever). Cordelia smells nothing like Shanghai. I don't get tea or lemon here at all, sadly. First on I smell a sharp smoky cedar and then this dries down to something floral. I can't pick out any individual flowers, it just smells floral. The musk comes out after about a half hour and it's a light musky floral. Not much throw, I forgot that I was wearing anything after a while... but I didn't really like it when I was smelling it either. Cordelia is just another floral blend that doesn't stand out on me. 2016 frimp review: I can definitely pick out the lilac in this now. Sweet, true, honeyed, blue lilac. The drydown turns sharper with clean musk, spiky, dry, slightly bitter cedar, and a sharp lemon & green tea. Goes just a little bit soapy. Lilacs swirled into lemony green tea on a cedar table, with a sharp musk perfume wafting about.

First on, this smells like grapejuice and cherry cough syrup. That medicinal cherry smell quickly fades and the grape moves to the background. Now I'm smelling a sort of honeyed myrrh scent with a touch of clove. Golden and spicy. The grape smells sort of off and boozy, but it's covered up mostly by the spice. I don't know if I really like this one. Grape and spice is an odd combination for me... I'll probably keep my imp and try it a few more times to see if it grows on me. I don't think this will ever be a bottle purchase though.

First on, this is slightly aquatic and slightly green floral. Kind of cool and reminds me of spring. In the drydown... this is sharp white floral and a slight twinge of soap to me. It's not as bad or strong as florals usually are on me, but it's not something that I would ever choose to wear. My mother really likes this one though. She says that it is very ladylike. ...I don't know what that indicates about me, lol.

Othello is very perfumey and acrid on me (I'm blaming the musk). It smells sort of like burnt roses, cheap hairspray, and an oddly dirty spice. It makes my stomach churn. I've had bad experiences with "arabian musk" in the past. Musk usually just makes me think of cheap hairspray when it hits my skin. And it's *so* strong. Othello, sadly, is another Illyria blend that just doesn't work on me at all...

None of the notes in this blend are scents that usually work on me. Lily and white musk are especially evil towards me. As I feared, this is mostly a lily blend. And the lilies go very strong and soapy on me. Paired with the bitter white musk, this blend gives me a quick and lasting headache. I'm not getting any pear or honeysuckle here, though I think I catch whiffs of the sweet pea every now and then. Another note that I'm not fond of. Juliet is off to the swap pile.

Medicine Show reminds me of my dad. To start with, it smells like tobacco and something green and woodsy. It has a hot, damp feel to it, like you would feel in a misty greenhouse filled with tropical plants. My dad used to chew a very sweet tobacco. The tobacco here smells sweet and golden like that. The smell of rose comes out for a while in the middle stage of this. It's rosewood though, so not bitter or overpowering as rose usually is. I really like the way it smells mixed with the tobacco too. In the drydown it smells like tobacco, a hint of spicy rose, and something else. Overall it's reminding me of a spicy man's cologne. This is where it reminds me of my dad. Wearing a slightly rugged spicy/musky cologne and chewing tobacco. I like this a lot. I'll probably wear it as a comfort scent...

I have trouble with minty fragrances. I don't like the smell or taste of mint unless it is paired with something else that is very sweet (like vanilla). Nine Mysteries is one of the harshest mint blends that I have ever tried. It smells like I snorted mint toothpaste up my nose and then drank some mint mouthwash. It all smells very... dental to me. No florals come out at all on me, I just smelled like insanely crisp minty toothpaste for about 4 hours. This is one that's headed straight for my swap pile. Mints are just not me.

Lucy's Kiss is a nice rose blend on me. The rose is light and sweet, not bitter as rose usually is on my skin. The spices remind me of another BPAL blend that I cannot quite place. I think of lemon/cream spiciness everytime that I smell this. Perhaps it reminds me of Van Van? Pretty. But not me. Most floral perfumes give me this same feeling. I don't feel like myself when I'm wearing them. I feel like a little girl trying to play elegant with her grandmother's old perfume.

Antique amber frames a series of distorted, eternally warping clear crystal and glass notes. House of Mirrors was one of the CN blends that I was looking most forward to. I've never tried Sea of Glass, so I can't make any comparison there. I don't smell any citrus or any amber here. Oddly, the first thing that I think of when I smell this is glass. It's not a lot of ozone or a lot of aquatic. It doesn't smell soapy. It doesn't smell like anything that I've ever tried before. It's a soft clear note that reminds me of pressing my face up against the window after a cold rainstorm. A sort of cool, fresh feeling. Overall, House of Mirrors smells very pretty and clean. For me it's the most accurately named CN blend. It really conjures up the image of glass or mirrors in a pristine 'fun house'. Elusive and cool. I love this one.

Wow, this is sharp at first. A very dark blue and ominous scent to me. It starts out as very strong mint and dries down to a sweeter mint, juniper, and a berry that I cannot quite place. It's a berry that I've eaten before (perhaps one that I shouldn't have eaten?). It's conjuring up a memory in the back of my mind that I cannot quite put my finger on. It's driving me insane. The mint stays true to this blend for hours, with the juniper coming out more in the drydown. I don't normally like mint, but I like this. In the drydown is a cool, sweet mint. The hint of berry-fruitiness in the background is still familiar but I can't place it. Very interesting. I can't see myself wearing this, it's too cool... but I still like it. I'd probably love this on a guy.

I'm hesitant to try this. I love the second half of the description. It sounds heavenly. I'm worried about "five roses with soft jasmine". Anything with jasmine in it just turns into pure jasmine perfume on me. May as well be a singlenote. On my skin... smells like coffee. Not like a yummy Starbucks coffee smell with all of the spices and vanillas and extra goodies. Plain black coffee. The jasmine is peeking through under the coffee. Like I just spilled a cup of coffee over a vase of jasmine flowers. Weird. The jasmine and coffee are perfectly balanced... and I'm not so sure that it's a good pairing. After fifteen minutes... oh my God this is the most vile thing that I've ever experienced. Jasmine gives me awful headaches and I hate it more than any other smell in the world. Now it's gotten viciously strong and sort of rotten. Dirty jasmine that likes its coffee black and bitter. I hate this. I've practically bloodied my wrist trying to scrub it all off

Yggdrasil is a really hard scent for me to pin down. It reminds me a bit of Hamadryad... in that craft store sort of way. I smell it and think instantly of potpourri and dried flowers. But this has a spicier (sort of peppery?) and slightly greener edge to it than Hamadryad did. And it has a slight fruitiness to it after about an hour that reminds me of powdery juicy fruit gum. It's not bad... but I can't see myself wearing it. It gives me a bit of a headache in the way that being in a craft store and around too much potpourri makes my head feel stuffy. I think that I'll be swapping my imp.

I've wanted to try Rose Cross for a long while now, on my quest to find a nice incensey rose scent. I was pleasantly surprised to get this as a freebie from the lab today. It was good timing too. Today was my first day of college... the long classes were kind of overwhelming and I came home feeling dazed and oddly depressed. So, thankyou lab! I digress. This is such a happy/playful scent to me. I'm not really sure why, I smell it and imagine a young red rose, splashing about and laughing happily in a bath of frankincense oil. When I first put it on, I can smell both the rose and frankincense equally and it is gorgeous. A sort of spicy incense rose. After about 15 minutes, the rose strengthens and takes over. I was depressed that I couldn't smell the frankincense anymore. But it came back after about an hour and the two merged beautifully once again. The frankincense really takes away the sharp/bitter edge that I usually get from rose. This is very strong on me and has a lot of throw (maybe the strongest BPAL that I've tried to date). The only rose scent that I've liked this much is Whip... and I'm contemplating getting a full bottle of Rose Cross. Rose scents don't work on my skin very often, but this one does and it is *gorgeous*...