Little Bird

The mint is sharp and mentholic and ruins about the first 40 minutes on my skin, and then it dries down to a strawberry hand candy drizzled with honey and I start to find the scent to be too cloying and somewhat cheap and childish, like it should be a Lip Smackers scent/flavor. This does nothing good on my skin and smells very disjointed to me with the sharp mint.

Violets sweetened and darkened with a dusting of cocoa powder, an atmospheric and realistic, slightly watery ozone that truly does smell like air heavy with the promise of lightning and rainfall, with edges full of wet soil and incense. Settles into a gourmand floral that's touched with cool, crisp, staticy air and fat raindrops hitting the earth, and curls of witchy incense smoke caught up in that electric air. It's very dark, unusual, and moody and I really like it. It doesn't remind me of any other scents in my collection, so it's very unique. I'm happy to have full bottled this.

I'm unpacking and finding my Halloweenies from last year, but at least they're well aged now. Farfadets is tons of sweet myrrh and I love anything with a strong myrrh note. It's dark, reddish gold, a little spicy like cedar wood, and all syrupy sweet resin. There are hints of warm earthiness and balsam wood and evergreen sap tones, but they melt pretty naturally into the myrrh. In the drydown, the wafts of powdery, creamy sandalwood incense start to come through as well and just make the whole thing feel pretty and snuggly. It's a love for me.

I got a bottle of this beauty on the Lab's etsy page, randomly decided to slather it on today, and immediately went and bought another bottle. Criminal Glamour is gorgeous, well aged and well blended, and it is one of those scents that immediately went on my signature scent list. It's like magic when you put on a fragrance and it just smells so "you." I can smell all of the listed notes and they are perfection. The leather is the dark, black-yet-snuggly, sexy variety, like slipping into a boyfriend's soft, well worn leather jacket. The patchouli is dreamy - earthy, slightly spicy (like how Mugler's Angel patchouli is spicy and complex), slightly chocolate-y. The oudh reads more like the scent of an antique cedar chest. There's a hint of thick, jammy, sweet, black currant and the drydown is like all of those notes over a chunk of melting, warm amber resin and a hint of smoky styrax incense. It's a leathery, patchouli-d, resinous dream with the rich, dark sweetness of currant and amber paste. Criminal Glamour has qualities that remind me very much of Banshee Beat, if Banshee Beat were wearing a leather jacket and had sexy, sweet resins, exotic woods, and darker, more mysterious tones instead of the sweet vanilla. It also brings Angel Les Parfums de Cuir to my mind. Back when Mugler was Thierry Mugler and they were releasing exciting flankers and high quality fragrances and gems that hadn't yet been reformulated, they created a leather flanker edition of Angel. Criminal Glamour is like that spicy patchouli and dark leather and sweet magic, but I feel like this is smoother, slinkier, and easy to wear. The leather is more snuggly. My only issue is that this sticks close on my skin and my hair and it fades pretty significantly around the 3 hour mark, so I have to reapply. I'm going to try putting it into a spray mister as that often helps with throw and longevity for me, and I'm pretty obsessed with smelling like this now.

Violet candy, blackberries, and sugar mashed together into an intensely sweet, gooey pulp type of scent. Something in here smells like soapy dryer sheets and I don't know what it is because none of the listed notes have a history of going soapy on my skin. As it dries down, the clean soapiness melds into a hazy, slightly sharp incense smoke, so it's like burning incense that's supposed to smell like clean laundry? Next to a bowl of purple berry and sugary violet goo. The incense part doesn't smell particularly like dragon's blood or frankincense to me, so it's an odd experience.

Tart, sharp, sour grapefruit and yuzu with the pomegranate coming in through the drydown to give off its powdery sweet tarts candy thing. I get a little bit of sweeter strawberry after a while, trying to smooth out all of the tart, sour tones, but it's overall just too much for me.

Everything in this blend feels delicate and well balanced. The cherry blossom is clean and slightly soapy, but sweetened so prettily with the tart, juicy cherry and soft, creamy honey note. There's a hint of perfumey rose at first, but the drydown settles into an idealized cherry blossom where the cherry fruit and honey just melt perfectly into the springy white floral. The pink cherry note is making me love cherry blends (I hate when they smell like cheap maraschino cherries or cherry cough syrup). I adore the Pink Cherry & Jasmine Sambac from this year as well.

I haven't had many blind buy fails from bpal lately, but this was one of my recent fails. It's all nondescript, intensely sour fruitiness, soapy floral, and sharp white musk on me, very high pitched and strong enough to give me a headache.

I usually don't like bpal's pear blends because they're so sweet, artificial, and candied smelling to me, and I feared that this would be even sweeter and more unbearable with the orris, vanilla and honey. I bought it because I liked the label, but it turned out to be one of my favorite Lupers. Pearl Necklace is the freshest and most realistic pear. It's a true, crisp, juicy, ripe pear with hints of rose and apple. I grew up with an ancient pear tree in our yard and this smells like those fall pears tasted. The hint of honey is seductive and warm, and the vanilla and orris are barely there, but definitely round out the scent into an elegant perfume with a sugared, powdery flair.

Tangy, tart, lime candy dissolving into a fizzy gingerale with hints of cool, sweet, juniper-y gin. I always really enjoy the Lab's gin scents and this is probably my favorite of the candy hearts blends. I don't know how much I'll actually wear this, though, as I overwhelmingly reach for darker blends or vanillic gourmands, but I'm going to tuck away my decant for a 'maybe some day.'

Foreboding Buffalo is one of my favorites of this year's bpal releases and I wish that I'd ordered a backup bottle. I can kind of see the comparisons to Muddy Armadillo, but I like this even more and I think that Foreboding Buffalo is very much its own, unique, more complex blend. The ochre musk reminds me of red musk, but darker and more animalic, with a pleasantly sour yet rich undertone that makes me think of vintage oakmoss in perfumery. It's also sweet with the cocoa powder and warm, chocolate-y patchouli, while the hint of smoke in the smoked patchouli is warm and sexy rather than reminiscent of campfire or cigarette smoke. Galangal is one of my favorite notes and the hint of sweet evergreen and spiciness here is just perfect. It kind of has this drinking an exotic spiced cocoa while hiking in the woods and wearing a vintage animalic and oakmoss perfume feel. It's so wonderful.

This isn't really a sweet scent and I don't smell what I normally would recognize as Madagascar vanilla (a sweet vanilla bean with tropical tones and vanilla orchid - I get none of that here). I get more of the tonka, and it's quite baby powdery and slightly honeyed smelling. The agarwood/oud isn't a variety that I recognize either, smelling more like a powdery, clean sandalwood and hints of cheap, dry, headshop incense, like an undertone of sharp smoke and mall incense. I find it quite dry and sharp overall.

I don't care for this scent on my skin, where it turns to a sour, unripe peach and the sage and citrus take on a sweaty, body odor quality, but I like the scent in the bottle and I've used it in my oil warmer and it's a great room scent. It's a very exotic fruity-floral that makes me think of hiking through a desert and getting spiky plant, fruit, and floral scents stuck to my clothes and hands as I wade through them. It has a sappy, sweet, aromatic sage with evergreen tones to it and I love this sage note (before it touches my skin and gets ruined, anyhow). There's a delicate, papery floral from the poppy and a honeyed sweetness and cool breeziness from the lilac. The peach adds a little juiciness and the citrus reminds me of that quintessential LUSH shop smell. It's magical as a home fragrance and I wish that it performed that way on my skin, but I'll enjoy it in an oil warmer.

I love this so much and I love the Lab for making these scents available on their regular website. This dragon smells like vintage bpal to me, all 2005 nostalgia and heavy and luscious. I could see this being a reformulation of Dragon's Milk, actually, particularly in the drydown on my skin, though it's stronger than Dragon's Milk and feels a bit more grownup to me (a bit darker, heavier, better throw). The first 5 minutes are very incense smoky and I wasn't sure that I was going to like it initially, but the drydown is pure magic and smells like honeyed red musk and vanilla cream, paired with the most wonderful dragon's blood note. It's a resinous, glowing red dragon's blood with no watery floral or powdery tones in it. I wish I'd ordered more than one bottle.

Highest Quality feels like a soft glow of a scent, but it actually has really good staying power and throw on me. I was worried about the almond, but there's no cherry / almond extract here at all. I was also worried that the honey would be too much and too strong, but this has my favorite type of honey and almond combo, where it's like a soft, sweet, grainy, golden gourmand that's cozy and creamy. Vintage Dana O'Shee vibes. The golden amber, vanilla milk, and incense are so beautiful, creamy, lightly sweet, and slightly powdery. It's just an easy to wear, cuddly type of scent, and I love fragrances that are gourmand + incense because they always make me think of an altar stocked with offerings.

A clean, watery, floral-ish, blue, lunar oil scent really dominates this year's Luna Azul. It doesn't smell very much like any of the listed notes to me. The lunar oil scent is apparent, and then it kind of smells like a very herbal lavender, sour sage, and a hint of sour, unripe blackberry. It's one of those disappointing bpals for me where you smell it and look at the notes list and wonder if you got a bottle of a different scent entirely. An hour in, it shifts quite a bit and starts to smell like a heady, spiced floral + those strong, lunar blue notes going a bit soapy, giving off a jasmine and herb scented soap impression. I had to look up motia attar and the google says it smells like jasmine and spice, so at least that part makes sense.

I didn't like this when the bottle first arrived, but it just needed some time to rest from its mailbox shock because now it is absolutely gorgeous. Blauer Mond starts off sweet like cotton candy melting into a pool of refreshing, serene, chilly water (the blue musk) and then the rich, sweet resins and spicy tobacco begin to quickly take over the drydown. The drydown is so sensual and attractive to me, full of dark, sweet myrrh and opoponax, a rich and just ever so slightly smoky amber incense, and a tobacco that's a perfect mix of golden sweetness, sweet clove-ish spice, and warm earthiness. The blue musk gives everything a smooth, polished quality and a little lift to the heavier notes. I want to drench my partner in this scent.

Half Queen smells like she could have been a Halloweenie scent and I can see myself wearing this a lot leading up to Samhain (or even using it as a spooky home fragrance). I almost didn't buy this one because I don't like cigarette, ash, or smoke smells and the Lab's tobacco flower tends to go soapy and sharp on me. The tobacco flower plays really nice here, though, smelling cool toned and amazingly like heavy, misty fog - clean yet hazy. The smoke reads very much like a room full of grey incense smoke with a little extra smolder and warmth. Cold fog, grey incense smoke, and warmth from the coals in a dying fire. Very atmospheric to me. The damp and heavy fog impression is what really draws me to this blend.

Pulpy, juicy, wet greenery that's similar to the Lab's bamboo note, but more like freshly mown grass that's fallen into the edges of a cool, clear pond. I get more cherry than strawberry and it's a juicy, lightly sweet, creamy fruitiness that works really well with the sappy, sweet green and cool water. Fresh, juicy, ripe cherries and marshmallow. It makes me think of spreading out a blanket for a picnic in the shade on a freshly mown, green lawn, next to a decorative pond full of koi fish. It's not wild and swampy like Bayou. It's a carefully curated green lawn and ornamental pond with sweet, creamy elements that make it very pretty overall. I'm glad that I ordered a bottle of this before the series went out of stock.

The cannabis is green and herbal-spicy (similar to the way tomato leaf smells), the ti leaf is strong and sharply green tea with a hint of citrus, the lavender is soapy like a barbershop cologne, and the lime and grapefruit add a bright pop of citrus before the grapefruit does its thing and turns weirdly sweaty and reminiscent of body odor on my skin. It dries down to mostly the funky, sour grapefruit and clean lavender cologne, like one is trying to cover up the other. I usually enjoy white tobacco, but the powdery sweetness of it after a while isn't really doing me any favors here. I was hoping for more of a sugared citrus and creamy marshmallow.

I should have ordered a bottle of this instead of getting just a decant, but I told myself that I have enough Strawberry and Pink Moons to keep me in strawberries forever, and I'm not even a huge fan of strawberry scents. I really love the cool, dark green ivy, the dry earth, and the clean, cold stone note, though. It reminds me of my childhood where my parents actually had a huge strawberry patch in the front lawn and ivy climbed up the stones on the shadowy side of our house. The hint of tart, sweet, sugar musk dusted strawberry is just something fun in the dreamy country cottage scent of it all. It only lasts about 3 hours on me and has lighter throw, but it feels appropriate, like a fleeting summer memory.

I don't smell the OG Embalming Fluid in this one, but it's a yummy, sweet, tropical fruit cocktail on my skin. The pineapple and coconut are strongest on me, but I can pick out the mango and lime, making the scent more interesting. A pina colada with a hint of mango and a generous squish of tart lime. I usually dislike pineapple (acidic and sharply sour), but the coconut mellows it out with creamy, rich sweetness and the mango and lime are fun and unique. I want to wear this on a beach somewhere...

Creamy, realistic lilies on a table set with crisp, clean, white linens (a hint of breezy, slightly soapy, clean laundry). As it dries down, I can smell the tea notes and I get a bright, slightly lemony, green tea and a hint of metallic, smoky, astringent black tea. Pretty and clean yet sort of stark and austere. I think I need more sweetness in my tea, some sugar and cream.

I like the smell of violet, but I find that violet fragrances all tend to smell rather similar to me and so I find them somewhat boring and forgettable. When I do wear violet, it's always Arcana's Tess (violet set in sweet cream and paired with amber). Violet Behemoth is just okay to me. The plum, raspberry, and musk don't stand out the way that I had hoped they would. I just get a violet hard candy with a whiff of tart, slightly sour, nondescript berries. It's pleasant and simple, but probably not something that I will wear again.

In the bottle and for the first 10 minutes on my skin, this is lovely, spiced apple pie goo (reminding me of Lambs-Wool a bit) and warm, sweet pie crust with a super ripe and juicy smelling peach, like you took the ripest peach you could find and baked it in a little brown sugar and now have this delicious, thick, dark peach syrup The bourbon part isn't really boozy to me, but adds to the dark sweetness, I think. In the drydown, unfortunately, it loses the complexity and smells more like sharp fall spices mixed with brown sugar and the fruitiness disappearing under the spiciness. I'm still glad that I ordered this one, though, because I really want to use it in my electric oil warmer this fall and have it as a home scent.