Little Bird

In the bottle, this is a very dark, almost bitter, heavy wood note with a dry, masculine edge from oakmoss and a sweet spiciness. On my skin, it morphs into something vague, cloying, and lackluster, with a baby powdery edge. The spice and woods that intrigued me in the bottle are completely gone within five minutes on my skin. Burning Vulva smells very sweet, but not exactly like vanilla, beeswax, or tonka (oddly, it's something like pineapple on my skin :/). I can't pick out any of the listed notes, just a mishmash of too much sweetness and baby powder. I hated Giant Vulva and Glowing Vulva from previous years, even though their listed notes should have been awesome on me. Burning Vulva is more of the same story

I don't get any cream or honey from this, just the clove and ginger battling it out on my skin. It's like gingerale and a smoky, dry, slightly wooden, slightly bitter smelling clove. I wish that the ginger were spicy instead of that bright gingerale smell, because I never quite feel like this type of ginger blends well with other notes, and it's just weird paired with the smoky clove. After about fifteen minutes, this makes me smell like cigarette smoke, and my husband said it smells like an ash tray :/ no good.

In the bottle, this smells just like Treat #2 - chocolate, spicy ginger, and I even thought I could smell fig :/. On my skin, thankfully, the scent becomes more unique. It's sort of like a gingerbread cookie with a drizzle of chocolate and lots of caramel/butterscotch. The sweetness here smells more like caramel to me, not at all like the butterscotch note that I got from Creepy. After fifteen minutes, I don't smell any chocolate and there's just a hint of ginger underneath the caramel-ish note. This scent makes me feel like I've rolled around in caramel syrup, and it's rather strong on my skin. Yummy, but perhaps a bit too cloying.

I think that Dorian would be a good choice. I always get compliments on that scent and don't think that it's too sexy or outrageous for a job interview. It always strikes me as a pretty, cool, confident scent.

Nymphia is a rather pretty, girly, sweetened rose & lavender sort of scent on me. The lavender and coconut are strongest in the bottle and on my skin at first, with the lavender smelling cool and creamy and the coconut giving it a sweeter, tropical edge. As it dries down, I'm getting more of the soft white rose and spun sugar, and the coconut disappears. It smells like pink roses dusted with powdered sugar and reminds me a bit of Pink Snowballs. I can't pick out the apple blossom, mango, or cucumber at all. Bpal's rose notes amp up on my skin, so I get a good amount of the rose here, but I do like this scent. I probably don't need a full bottle, but I'll keep my decant.

My husband said that this "smells like grape jelly. and soap." I can definitely see that. I get soapy, sharp, slightly tropical smelling florals and tart grapefruit. It's very sharp and perfumey, and gives me a headache. I had to scrub this one off...

This is best in the bottle, nice on my skin at first, and then sort of lackluster as it dries down. The bottle has an almost fizzy mint sugar and chocolatey peppermint patty smell to it, which works surprisingly well. Very sweet and cheery. On my skin, the lime instantly disappears, but the sweet chocolate and hint of mint is still nice. And then five minutes in, I'm left with nothing but clean peppermint that isn't really sweet enough for me. I wish that the chocolate and lime would stick around, but they don't. I doubt I'll even keep my decants of this year's chocolate blends.

This year's chocolate blends aren't wowing me as much as the previous years. This is mostly tons and tons of cloying fig on my skin. The fig has a slight spiciness to it and an edge of syrupy sweetness that might be the tamarind, and the chocolate is mostly absent. I love Intrigue so much more for a fig and cocoa blend.

I almost feel like I have the wrong scent with this one :/. I don't get any leather here and I can't really identify any musk, clove, or sandalwood either. I'm not sure why, but something in this smells very sweet and heavy on me, with a resinous edge, almost like a mix of opoponax and maple syrup. I asked my husband what it smelled like to him and he said "a bit like candy." I wish that I could smell this on someone else, because I don't get all of the love for this blend.

This smells a lot like the BPTP's Castitas bath oil at first, but less sweet and with more of the pale, clean white musk. It also reminds me of cheap perfume, but not exactly in a bad way. It's very simple and perfumey, not complex at all, but a nice vanilla & white musk type of scent that you might find at Wal-Greens for pretty cheap. It gets less sweet over time and more clean, slightly powdery, and musky smelling. I actually like this a lot less than I thought I would. I think it's a little too heavy on the white musk for me and gives me a bit of a headache after a while. But it's not bad or offensive in any way. Clean white musk.

In the bottle, this is mostly rich frankincense and sweet, smooth cedar. It reminded me of Cathedral and, once I slathered it on my husband, it smelled almost exactly like Cathedral for about ten minutes. As it dries down, it starts to smell intensely of woodsmoke with a tiny hint of sharp black leather. It's like I threw a strip of leather on to a bonfire. I like most of bpal's leather blends (De Sade, The Red Rider, The Traveller, Bow & Crown of Coquest, and on and on), but this leather accord doesn't smell good to me at all. I was hoping this would be a clean sort of black leather and sweet violet, but this smoky, perfumey leather isn't working for me at all... Manilus smells very harsh, smoky, and unpleasant to me.

Areia is difficult for me to describe, because it smells so strange on me. I can definitely pick out the cherry at first, something a bit spicy (maybe slightly like a very muted cinnamon, but not quite), and a strange dry wood smell that's a bit salty and a bit smoky. Something about it is almost plastic-y and unpleasant as it dries down. I think I can pick out a hint of red rose after a while, but I'd never notice it if I wasn't actively looking for it. Mostly this is a weird, dry, smoky wood and slightly spiced, plastic-y fruitiness. I was hoping that the dragon's blood, cherry, and red musk would combine into this rich, heavy, super-red, sexy scent, but I can't smell any red musk and I don't get much dragon's blood. The scent is surprisingly light and doesn't have much throw at all on me, even when I slather it on. I don't really this scent at all, so I'm glad it's not stronger...

This is probably the Lupercalia blend that I was most excited for, as I hoped it would be kinda like Harimise (one of my favorite blends ever - such a unique mix of clean & sweet), with its nutty notes mixed with floral and clean tones. Unfortunately, it's nothing like Harimise and I can't really smell the notes that I was most looking forward to. In the bottle and on my skin, this is mostly lavender and bergamot. The lavender is cool, floral, and slightly soapy, and the bergamot is lemony and a bit sour. Not good. As it dries down, I'm getting hints of the herbal thyme, but none of the nutty notes, tonka, or clove. Copulating Mice leans unpleasantly towards being soapy and too sour on my skin . Very crushed that this doesn't work on me... maybe it will improve with age.

The Ring is a really strange scent. I get mostly perfumey skin musk, baby powdery amber, and dusty, dry hay. I can smell whiffs of earthy patchouli every once in a while, but it mostly lends a dirty feel to the hay note. The overall blend is very dry smelling on my skin, and not all that pleasant. As it dries down, I can smell a hint of cool mint, and it doesn't pair well with the hay, in my opinion... everything feels mismatched here to me.

I love amber notes from other companies, but bpal's amber notes almost always turn to baby powder on my skin. The mix of amber + musk here goes very powdery on me. So I get baby powder, rich red rose, and a hint of tart orange and sour red currant. Too powdery and the fruit is too tart and dry for my tastes. Versailles (Wanderlust GC blend) is a lot better, in my opinion, for roses, orange citrus, and a gold feel...

In the bottle and on my skin, this is heavy, buttery, sweet (can be a bit cloying) coconut cream. I love coconut scents lately, so I like this, but I was really hoping for some of the anise and hazelnut, and for the amber to give it less of a foodie edge. And I don't smell any of the other listed notes at all. Not even a hint of anything non-coconut. Harigata II is buttery, intensely sweet coconut cream from start to finish, with no anise, amber, or hazelnut to be found. I'll like this for layering with other scents, but it's honestly a bit of a letdown that I can't smell any of the other notes.

I like red musk (though it's a bit overpowering on my skin), gardenia, and tonka, and the other notes in this are all iffy for me. On me, the red musk instantly amps up and is the dominating note for about a half hour. The narcissus adds a sharp, perfumey, chemical-floral undertone and the chamomile and red patch give it more of a sour, bitter edge that makes it rather unpleasant. The gardenia is there, but the other notes turn it into a sharp floral that I'm not really enjoying. The drydown of The Arbor is just very floral, heavy, and perfumey-sharp on my skin with sour, earthy edges. I usually can't pick out the tonka in bpal blends, and I don't smell it here either. All in all, this isn't a keeper for me. There are red musk blends and floral blends that I like a lot more than this'n.

All of the notes in this sound good to me (leather, violet, and beeswax especially sounded like a kickass girl fragrance), but the scent is a powdery failure on me. It goes so powdery that I was wondering if there was amber or an actual baby powder note in there that I missed, but I guess the violet and Egyptian musk are probably the culprits. First on, the mixture of violet and beeswax is actually a bit cloying on me, like violet candies and honey-vanilla scented yankee candle. Then, as it dries down, I get tons of baby powder, a bit of sweet myrrh, and a hint of violet candies. I'm really disappointed that I can't pick out the leather at all. Time Does Not Bring Relief is sadly just too powdery and cloying on my skin... fades really quickly, too.

I can't pick out the anise that other people have with this blend, which is a bit of a letdown, because I love anise/black licorice. This is more like a really light, citrussy champagne and green tea smell on my skin (sort of like fizzy, boozy Embalming Fluid, but really light and subtle on my skin). My husband smelled this on me and said it smells like "weird lemonade." :/

I don't like bpal's champagne note (either smells like cleaning fluid or it goes cloying and pukey smelling on me) and I usually can't wear opium either (too sharp), so this scent didn't really have a chance with me. I thought that it would be similar to Stardust, which also has champagne and poppy, but this is sweeter and not as sharp as Stardust is on my skin. The champagne is sweet (too sweet) and slightly citrussy & fizzy at first, and the opium is like sharp, hazy white smoke hiding underneath the booze. The scent goes on strong, but is pretty light and subtle by the half hour mark. Not for me...

I only had a tiny amount of this one to test, so I couldn't properly slather, but I'm not really blown away by this scent. I'm not great with a lot of floral blends, and this just smells like a vague fruity-floral blend on my skin. I usually amp up red musk, but I couldn't smell any red musk here. And I usually like lily, but this scent is a bit more perfumey than lily usually is on me. It's like creamy lily + sharp, perfumey white floral muskiness. I get a bit of watery, clean, fruity sweetness as well. And the drydown is clean fruity-floral plus baby powder on my skin. It only lasted about a half hour on me, but that might be more because I had so little of it to actually wear. Parker Lily smells more like a classic drugstore floral perfume to me, and thankfully not something I'll need more of.

This is mostly evergreen and woodsmoke to my nose, with a little extra sweetness from the berry. I don't know if I really like the smoky wood note, and I was kinda hoping that this would be more spicy and foodie smelling. I prefer Krampusumzüge (snow and Christmas trees) and Pete Lala's Cafe (pine, soft leather, and vanilla-like sweetness) for pine scents.

My absolute favorite black licorice scent is Le Père Fouettard. The black leather cuts through the sweetness, but I still get tons of bold black licorice and something like a deep, sweet vanilla. It's one of my go-to perfumes when I want something that smells dark, sexy, and exotic.

The blends that are heavy on the green tea for me are Shanghai and Embalming Fluid, with Shanghai being the more lemony of the two. Nostrum Remedium might be one to try. I get a strong tea smell from it sometimes. And Maiden is good for trying bpal's white tea note. It's a sharp, clean, almost citrussy tea smell on me.

This is all creamy, sweet coconut to my nose. I think I need something to balance the sweetness, because this is kinda cloying on me. Reminds me of coconut scented sun lotion...