Little Bird

Baby powdery, vanillic, light, clean, white musky sandalwood that reminds me of a lighter, sharper Morocco. I never smell any of the incense, plum, or lavender. Most of the RPG series feels very flat, one note-ish, and cheap to me, but I guess that's because they're meant to layer with each other. I just don't like them enough to begin with to bother with layering.

Everything in this is well blended, smooth, and beautiful. I would have guessed that this has red musk and amber in it because it has a deep, sensual, warm, musky quality and sweet, resinous tones. The hazelnut and benzoin are toasty, warm, and lightly sweet. I enjoy the chamomile more than usual in this blend because it smells like a warm cup of herbal tea and feels very calming and satisfying. Red patchouli can sometimes turn to BO on my skin, but the patchouli and cedar here are wonderful. The patchouli smells black and earthy in a way that is so seductive and the cedar is like an antique cedarwood chest, dry and slightly spicy. I love a sweetened patchouli blend and Cat Sitting On A Cushion is a complex sweetened patchouli that's warm and easy to wear. I love this Cat series so much and want to backup bottle most of them. I think that Bpal perfectly captured the paintings and the spirit of being a cat in scent-form.

The tea-stained linen is stronger than I thought that it would be and it does have a soapy, damp laundry scent to the linen. I don't smell any of the resins and this is overall a brighter, cleaner scent than I was expecting. Clean laundry and sugared sweet milk. It gives off a very white impression and has a note to it that reminds me of gardenia after a while, with the creamy floral impression replacing the gourmand parts. Fades quickly on my skin and the sweet milk doesn't stick around as long as I wish it would. Similar-ish to scents like White Rabbit (minus the spices) and also reminds me of Dirty (with sweet milk in the opening).

Mint often smells very discordant to me in perfume, unless it's super gourmand like it is in Spooky, one note-ish like it is in the original Lick It blend where it's just a mint candy cane, or used to intensify snow and pine notes for an atmospheric, wintry illusion. In anything else, it just doesn't blend well to my nose. I tried to like here, telling myself that perhaps it was like a blast of cold air over lilacs on a spring day, but it just doesn't work for me. It smells like someone dumped a bottle of peppermint extract on to some poor lilacs. I wish that I could take the peppermint out of the blend entirely because the marshmallow-y vanilla, honeyed spring sweetness of the lilacs, and the dewy rose underneath the mint smell lovely. An hour in, the mint finally starts to fade to nearly nothing, but the airy, floofy quality of the scent has disappeared as well, leaving me with mostly red roses, resinous benzoin, dark and slightly bitter, masculine leaning teakwood, and a smooth, slightly buttery, not overly sweet vanilla to round it out and soften it all. It's sort of a gentler, smoother Pulcinella & Teresina. I like everything about it except for the mint, but I'm not sure how much I will wear this because I don't want to wait for the mint to burn off every time that I put this on.

The almond is the cherry-almond-extract variety and the woody bitterness of the fig really makes this smell like cough syrup. There's a hint of evergreen from the autumn leaves and maybe some powderiness from the amber, but mostly this is an overwhelming cough syrup scent. It's bitter, medicinal, and woody, with a sour red berry tone. Very strong. I only wore it for an hour before I had to scrub it off.

The electric green mandarin is reading as a strong, intensely sweet lime candy (like lime slushie syrup - just the syrup) mixed with the dry soapiness of laundry dryer sheets. I can smell the sweet chocolate (too much sweetness) and all of the other notes going dry, fuzzy, and oddly musty. It's so strange and chaotic. The candy impression fades away in the drydown and then there's a rubbery, plasticy tone that's similar to the scent of opening plastic pool toys, and it starts to get a little smoky, like someone set that odd, fuzzy, dusty note on fire. It reminds me of some of the houses my family has flipped over the years, like the scent of going into a home where everything is vaguely damp and moldy and the carpets are full of decades of grime and it's just nauseating. The whole thing turns my stomach, and I expected this to be a safe blind buy based on the notes. Something about the dustiness of the black fur note, I think, with the sharp soapiness of the "electric" part, and then the hints of cloying sweetness and powder and plastic and fuzz...

Pumpkin Trash Bag is all dead leaves on me, and unfortunately it is the variety of bpal's dead leaves that smells like a green bell pepper - crisp, green, crunchy, watery, and a little peppery - on a powdery, dry, intensely sharp, white musky base. I'm getting no pumpkin and no orange. I don't like this one at all. Edit to add: I let it "rest" for 3 more weeks and it still smells the same on me 🤷‍♀️ nothing but sharp, green, wet, musky 'dead leaves' note.

On me, this is 80% a delicious, sweet, spicy clove (with a pinch of cinnamon scent to it) and 20% a really yummy, rich, caramelized milk. It's like eating gingerbread cookies dunked in warm milk with hints of caramelizing condensed milk. I love clove and creamy scents, so this is an instant love for me.

Super sweet, super powdery, dark violets. For the first half hour, there's something dark, earthy, and slightly fecal underneath the violets, and then it shifts to all syrupy-sweet violets and intensely powdery sandalwood with a bright, warm, musky, perfumey quality that reminds me of walking into places like Sephora and Nordstrom. I bought Witch Birds for the plum and I'm getting no plum at all. If you like violet candy and bpal's powdery type sandalwood, you will enjoy this, but I'm disappointed in it as someone who was hoping for more of a resinous, slinky plum. Edit: After letting this settle for a couple months, it has really improved. I don't get that fecal note anymore and it's not quite as powdery anymore. I still don't get any plum, though, only sweet, dark purple violet candies with a little powderiness to them.

Sugared, crisp, clean smelling white tea (that smells more like green tea in the drydown) with tart, lemony bergamot, a sharp and peppery bite from the ginger, and a little bit of golden, warm powdery amber. It's sweeter than I thought it would be, like a few spoonfuls of sugar have been added to the tea, but I'm not complaining. Similar to Elizabeth Arden's Green Tea scent because it has a perfumey muskiness to it as well.

Creeper Dragon is made of all things good. The dragon's blood and red musk form a sweet, red, resinous glow and warmth that I just love (like a resinous cherry scent), the leather smells like a snuggly, soft, black leather jacket, and the honeyed vanilla cream is strong and beautiful. A grown up Dragon's Milk scent. In fact, if you told me that this was Dragon's Milk with a little leather and red musk mixed in, I probably wouldn't argue too hard. Amazing throw and lasts all day on me.

I don't like the sharp smokiness of opium, but it's rounded out with other heavy notes here, so I find it very enjoyable. The opium cuts through the thick, resinous, slightly maple-syrup-y sweetness of the opoponax really nicely. The vanilla adds a needed smoothness and cool creaminess in the drydown, and the geranium, patchouli, and musks form a really well blended base that makes the whole scent smell deep, complex, and like a twisted, dark, sexy, vampiric take on a fougere. Wonderful, sultry smoke and resins over a dark, come hither perfume. I am so happy that I finally got a full bottle of this on ebay.

When I first got Kiseru, it had a baby powder and plasticy lipstick scent that I hated, but I kept wearing it on different days to try to get a good impression for a review, and I think it needed a few months to really settle into itself. I noticed it was more vanilla-y and enjoyable every time that I wore it, the powder became more elegant and noticeably of dry sandalwood rather than baby powder, and a lemony tone developed in it while the plasticy cheap lipstick smell completely disappeared. It's sort of an elegant wood glossed with a creamy lemon polish and creamy, but not very sweet vanilla. Quiet and elegant.

I finally got a bottle of this and.. I don't like it. It smells like someone crushed up sweet tarts candies and it's powdery, artificial, chalky, and sour-ish. Nothing about it smells like marshmallow to me. There's also an undertone of something pukey and off smelling about it, reminding me of what bpal's champagne note does on my skin.

Lots of wine and it's similar to the scent of red wine, but not as sweet, and I find myself missing that sweetness. This has a dark, bitter quality to it instead of the indulgent sweetness. Then the rose comes in and smells like someone picked up a freshly cut rose and smushed it in their hands and tossed the petals and greenery into the wine. It's dewy with hints of greenery, but also has a powdery, sharply musky tone to it that I don't love, and unfortunately the powder and perfumey, sharp musk rose is what dominates the drydown on my skin. I never smell anything like resins or incense or clove, not even a hint of them, which is what really talked me into buying this one.

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.'