Little Bird

Something in this smells soapy and masculine to me, like cologne-y musk turned to men's shaving cream, plus a hint of powdery (amber?) mint...

I usually like the lab's orchid notes, but this proto just has that sharp, generic, chemical, perfumey floral smell to me. This blend is also a bit smoky, like woodsmoke + drugstore floral blend. It has a lot of throw and is really strong on me, but unfortunately just gives me a headache.

I'm actually not getting the mint or candy cane smell from this, which I'm okay with, because citrus + mint fragrances tend to gross me out and make me think of cough drops or cleanser. This is mostly fizzy, tart, bright lemon on me, with a drydown that shifts more to a strawberry hard candy smell. It would probably be too sweet for me, but the lemon has a clean, sour edge to it that cuts through the otherwise cloying strawberry. After an hour, I'm left with a light, sweet strawberry that doesn't have much throw. It smells girly, playful, and nice enough, but I don't think I need to track down more of this, as it's not all that unique smelling on my skin.

Fern Frost goes soapy on me, which makes me wonder if there's ozone in this somewhere. I get a hint of grassy greenery at first, but the drydown is just minty and sharply soapy. After fifteen minutes, I'm left with a light touch of sweet mint and a hint of that clean soapiness. I didn't have much of this to test, but this fades super-fast on me.

I don't have much to add about this that hasn't already been said. This starts off pleasant, sweet, tart, and fizzy, like raspberry lemonade with a splash of gingerale. I'm not getting a boozy smell from it. It smells juicy and fizzy for about the first twenty minutes, and then dries down to a dry, sweet berry candy smell on my skin. It kinda reminds me of a lot of the Atomic Luau scents, but lighter and more simple on me than some of my favorites from that category.

Chestnut Honey has a bit of a smoky/roasted quality to it. The most floral honeys, in my opinion, are Yellow Jessamine Honey (strong jasmine + honey smell) and Oleander Honey (clean white floral + honey). A lot of other people got a fruity-floral feel from Daphne Honey. I definitely found Tobacco Honey to be more of a clean tobacco flower scent that a sweet, smoky pipe tobacco. The other honeys all seemed to be oddly green and/or soapy smelling on my skin.

I tend to like deep, rich, sweet resins. The resins and incense here are more bright, perfumey, and sharply smoky. I would have guessed that there was grapefruit in this, because I'm also getting something bitter, unpleasant, and sort of citrussy (comes off like an undertone of bitter grapefruit peel, sweaty body odor, and soap). The drydown is like that unpleasant tang, sharp white floral drugstore perfume (the narcissus?), and a hint of sweet myrrh. I love most of the notes listed for this, but it just goes all sharp and wrong on my skin. I had to scrub it off after about an hour, because it was making me ill.

I usually get along well with metallic blends, but the metal/iron here is masculine and somewhat sharp and soapy, which I'm not loving. I get a slight green feel from the blend at first, but it's like a bright, high pitched, soapy green. I think that I catch whiffs of the woody oak every once in a while, but it's a dark, bland, dry, wooden smell that I'm not crazy about. Mostly this is like a sharp, aquatic, men's aftershave sort of soapy smell on me...

In the bottle and on my skin for the first couple minutes, this really does smell like chilled white grapes. I'm not getting any booze or wine; it's more like a glass of white grape juice. It's delicate, frosty, and so pretty. Unfortunately, as it settles, the scent starts to smell oddly of a clean jasmine and then like a dusty, cheap, spice potpourri :/. I don't smell the chamomile or balsam, or even anything fruity as it dries down. And after a half hour, there's just a hint of something perfumey-powdery and blah left on my skin. The Chained Phantoms has pretty much no throw or staying power at all on me. I think I'll try this one out in a scent locket...

I can't pick out any apple blossom with this one, which is fine, because apple blossom usually turns to soap on me. I get tons of sweet honey at first with a hint of soft, sweet mint (like peppermint on me, but gentler). The drydown after fifteen minutes is all honey all the time. The honey has a powdery edge to it that isn't quite like baby powder, but just makes this smell like a decadent honey scented dusting powder on my skin. It's very sweet on me, but the powdery/creamy edge keeps it from being cloying, and it's light enough that it doesn't really bother me. Valse Finale et Apotheose doesn't have much throw at all on me, but it's pleasant. This scent reminds me of a lot of Wylde Ivy's honey blends that have a dusting powder sort of feel to them. I'll probably keep my decant of this'n.

I get a burst of citrus and smooth green tea at first, which is really energetic and clean smelling, but the drydown of this is all powdery violet on my skin. This is nice enough that I'll probably keep my decant, but won't really need more of this one. I wish that the tea stuck around for longer and that the mandarin was a stronger note, but I do like the violet. I actually can't pick out any wormwood, which is okay with me, because wormwood does bitter, strange things on my skin.

I was sucked in by the leather, but I can't pick out any leather in this blend. Heroine is mostly fruity, clean, and musky/perfumey on my skin, with a powdery drydown. I get hints of dark, earthy patchouli every once in a while, but it's mostly tart, fruity rhubarb, perfumey musk, apple blossom (which is like a fruity shampoo smell on me) and baby powder on my skin. Heroine is a lot lighter than I was expecting from a scent with amber, patchouli, dark musk, and leather.

This starts off as something like sweet citrus and green grass on my skin, which I liked, but it quickly dries down into sharp white floral perfume smell + tons of soap. After five minutes, it's like sharp floral and greenery crammed into a bar of soap. It's strong, sharp, and way too soapy for me. My throat feels tight when I smell this, like it's choking me.

BTPU2 is kinda reminding me of Whoop at first (though I think I'm the only person who got a heavily cloying, boozy, juniper-y gin smell from Whoop). It has that fizzy evergreen/juniper smell that I get from bpal's gin notes, but this is boozier and cloying on me. I can see where other people picked up on the champagne, because it has that intensely boozy, pukey feel for me. As it dries down, it's less cloying and I get the dust/earth note that others have mentioned. Overall this is just really strange on me, and not quite in a good way...

This smells more lemony than orange to me, though I kept flipping between the two when I wore this oil. It's like fizzy, clean, lemony soda that dries down to lemony soda + lemon dish soap. This doesn't really remind me of the released version of Floating Brain at all. This isn't super-sweet on me; it's more of a clean citrus blend.

This smells like sweet citrus, clean & cool metal, and sharp white florals on me. I don't like sharp florals, but the sweetness of the fruit and smoothness of the metallic notes are really nice, and the sharpness fades on me over time so that I'm left with clean, sweet metallic note. My husband is a fan of fruity-floral and clean type scents, so he really likes this on me.

Released Harlot is in my top three for least favorite bpals ever (soapy, bitter rose, something rotten, and with the added delight of a major burning reaction to the cinnamon). Harlot v2, thankfully, isn't that bad on me. I'm not getting any spice or burning from this. All I can smell here is a perfumey red rose. It's a bit sharp, dry, and cheap-drugstore-floral-perfume, but not something that I need to scrub off immediately. Just a simple rose perfume.

First on, this smells like black licorice and powdery vanilla with a bitter, herbal feel that's reminding me of the chamomile that I hated in Sachs. As it dries down, this goes through a phase of smelling sharply of woodsmoke on my skin, and then settles into sweet powder and a hint of something that smells like amber or wood on my skin. I wish that the black licorice smell stuck around longer on me, but there's something about this scent that I find oddy appealing, even with the powder, sharper smoke and herbal tones. A lot of the prototypes don't morph or change much on my skin, but I keep catching hints of sweetness and something almost incensey from this that I enjoy.

I adore Boomslang and its rich, heavy chocolate, so this prototype just seems like a pale, not-as-good version to me. It's lighter, not as rich or chocolatey, and slightly powdery on my skin. It's sort of like watered down Boomslang rolled itself through a tub of baby powder, lol. It's not bad at all, but not better than the released version for me.

I get the creamy, delicately woody, slightly incensey sandalwood note that others have mentioned. It's pretty and calming, and isn't going as powdery on me as bpal's sandalwood notes often do. It smells very delicate and light on me. This only lasts about an hour on my skin and doesn't have much throw at all, but it's a very soothing, calm scent.

This makes me smell like I spritzed on a sharp floral perfume and then rolled around in some grass clippings. It's a little too sharp for me (I prefer green/grass blends mixed with sweeter floral or berry notes).

PEX95 turns soapy and masculine on me. It's like a bar of soap wrapped in dryer sheets with a spritz of men's musky cologne. It's sharp, dry, and soapy, so I guess there must be aquatic or ozone notes in this...

I love some of the other reviews for this, though they made me a bit scared to try this oil, lol. On me, this pretty much just smells like baby powder (which usually means bpal's amber or sandalwood notes). I can't even pick out violet exactly, though there's something sickly sweet and maybe floral underneath the dusty, powdery scent.

I didn't have too much of this blend to test, and it's very hard for me to pick out notes from this. I think I'm getting red musk at first, which always smells slightly fruity to me, and maybe a bit of earthy patchouli. As it dries down, the musk is sharper and more cologne-like, and the blend starts to smell sort of like perfumey floral on my skin. Red musk usually is smoother and sweeter on me, so maybe other reviewer's impressions of black musk are more accurate. This is too musky and sharp for me.

Temple: Angelic smells gorgeous on me. It has a softly resinous quality that reminds me very strongly of Al-Azif, an almost floral sort of incense, with the softly powdery feel of Midnight Mass. In the drydown, I think that I'm smelling a violet note, tucked in behind the beautiful resins. It's so pretty, and surprisingly bright and cheerful for a resin/violet fragrance (which I usually associate with a darker feel and mood). This is hands down my favorite of the Temple blends. I cannot wait to use it and I will be wearing this as a personal fragrance as well.