Little Bird

Ugh. I'm so upset that this was discontinued before I got my decants. I love Mr. Fezziwig's Ball and would have stocked up on the perfume oil and the room spray. It sort of smells like dark, boozy, sexy apple cider on me at first, but without that bad potpourri spiciness that a lot of apple cider type scents have on me. And the wood notes just make me swoon. This dries down to spicy (sweet clove-ish?), masculine, dark, insanely sexy wood with hints of booze and spiced pie with anise. It makes me think of dark, polished wood in a dark pub, lusting after the sexy, mysterious musician playing in the corner... after an hour, it's back towards more of a sweet, boozy cider again. I'm sad that I can't get more of this one; I'll have to hoard my decant for special occasions.

The First of the Three Spirits has an incredibly creamy, decadent sense about it. It's cool and powdery, and a touch on the sweet side, though the vanilla definitely isn't of the foodie variety. This mostly smells like very dry, delicate woods on my skin (which I'm guessing is the amber), a dab of powdery vanilla adding some sweetness, and a mix of creamy white musk and soft, dry floral giving the whole blend a womanly, sophisticated feel. It's a little like bpal's The Girl on me, but more powdery and not as sweet. This is definitely pretty, but it goes a bit too dry and too much to baby powder on my skin after a while. I prefer The Girl and Perle von Mauren for similar type scents. This does have really great throw and staying power on me, though.

My favorite version of Lick It is still the 05 version, which had enough mint to be cooling and soothing on my skin, and enough of a sugared hard candy smell to still be pleasant enough to wear. This year's version is like Lick It 05 on steroids. It's very peppermint-heavy and cooling and tingly on my skin, which I like. I don't really get the sugar side of it, though. It's all sharp, frosty mint on me, more medicinal than candied. I might get a bottle of this one, as I like that tingly, cool feeling.

I thought that this was going to be instant top ten material for me, because I like red musk and LOVE vanilla, tea, leather, and foodie scents. Unfortunately, the red musk here seems to devour the other notes. Leather is usually super-strong on me and I can't smell it here at all. I wish that I got the anise/black licorice that others have mentioned, but this is all red musk and hints of sharp black pepper on my skin. The red musk here has that slightly fruity/wine-like, heated scent that it always does on my skin, but something about it is slightly more earthy/incensey than usual. I get more of a sweet, creamy, foodie feel from The Infernal Lover (which I have hoarded several bottles of). I hope that The Soldier gets better with age, because it's pretty 'meh' on me at the moment.

I was excited for this scent, because I love the lab's French vanilla note. Unfortunately, I'm not getting any vanilla from this blend . It goes on smelling like sharp, bright evergreen and then dries down to lots of sour fruits on my skin. Bitter, dry, slightly powdery, artificial fruitiness that reminds me of sweet tarts candies. After a half hour, this is like sweet tarts and wood chips, which I'm not enjoying at all...

I use bpal in oil warmers all the time and have put them in humidifier type things before as well, and they work great and have lots of throw. My favorite for use as a room scent right now is Horse Chestnut Honey, which is a good mix of crisp & outdoorsy and foodie. Versailles is a very pretty, decadent mix of jasmine and rose. I've used Follow Me Boy as a room scent before as well, and I find it to be very jasmine-y and sensual. The Rose is (obviously, lol) a really good, fresh rose blend that makes a great room scent. If you want something earthy and sexy with rose and jasmine, there's The Obsidian Widow. I haven't used it as a room scent yet, but I love it as a perfume. Voodoo, Sin, Zombi, and Hetairae are also favorites of mine for sensual-earthy room scents. If you like spice, I'd also recommend trying Bengal, and Cathedral or Faustus for a calm, protective scent if you enjoy resins at all.

Blood Moon 2010 is closer to Blood Moon 05 than the 08 version, with the dark spiciness and incense qualities. What this really smells like, though, is Interfector. I tried them both on at the same time (on different wrists, of course) and I could barely tell them apart after five minutes. The only difference is that Blood Moon 2010 starts off spicier and has a hint of spice to it in the drydown that Interfector doesn't have. It smells mostly like dry wood, heavy, sweet, dark, slightly smoky incense, and a hint of cassia spice.

I love the released version of Snow White, so I'm glad that this proto didn't make the cut. Snow White v2 actually reminds me more of Ded Moroz. I get a powdery mint and pine tree smell mainly, and not so much of the vanilla or almond that others have mentioned. It gets a bit sweeter and creamier smelling after about a half hour, but it disappears quickly after that.

I was hoping for something similar to blends like Harimise and Horse Chestnut Honey (both blends that I love), but this isn't so good on me. I get a pine/spruce note at first, but it fades within five minutes. As others have mentioned, there's something smoky and sharp about this that dominates on my skin. It's like perfumey, sharp, white floral tuberose plus woodsmoke . The chestnut adds a hint of warm, toasted sweetness, but not enough to soften the blend for me. It's kinda just a sharp, perfumey mess on me

Everything about this scent smells very dry and sweet to me. The rose smells dead, sweet, and dry, the patchouli like bone dry earth and needles (makes me think of dead, brown pine needles without smelling like pine, really), and the resins almost dusty and sickly sweet. Like all of the Dawn scents, this one goes slightly to rose soap on me in the drydown (which is really weird, because bpal's rose notes don't often turn soapy on me), but not as soapy as the others. Between the myrrh and opoponax, this is intensely sweet and resinous, and almost goes a bit cloying on me. I can't really pick out jasmine or sage. After about an hour, the dryness is like a mix of baby powder and dust that I'm just hating underneath the super-sweet, resinous rose. None of the Dawn blends are good on me, sadly though Maiden is nice in my scent locket... I much prefer Rose Cross, Parlement of Foules, and Saint Foutin de Varailles for resinous rose blends.

Dawn: Maiden and Mother both turn to rose soap on me and this turns to manly, piney, herbal soap on my skin. The juniper and pine and strongest in the vial and on my skin at first. It's a cool evergreen scent that dries down with more of an herbal, dry green feel that starts to go soapy. I can imagine a masculine evergreen scented soap studded with dried green herbs. I expected this to be heavier, but it's rather light, green, and clean smelling on me. It only lasts about an hour. I prefer Golden Priapus for a manly pine with some more depth and sweetness...

Much like Dawn: Maiden, this is mostly a perfumey rose soap smell on my skin . I was hoping that the honey would sweeten up the rose and the frankincense would give it some depth, but I can't really pick out either of those notes. This is sharper and more perfumey smelling than Maiden. As it dries down, I get a hint of something like old potpourri spice underneath the rose soap. It goes all sharp and smells cheap on my skin...

Evening Star is my favorite moonflower scent from the lab; it's very strong and heavy on the moonflower. It's an older LE, though, so might be a bit harder to find. I get a strong moonflower smell from Midnight on the Midway as well, though that one has also just been discontinued...

Hurricane has a strong, interesting, woody, sweet vetiver to it that's not as dark or smoky as some of the other vetiver blends to me.

This reminds me of the wood/twigs in Down the Rabbit Hole. This obviously doesn't have the floral, dirt, or marmalade of Rabbit Hole, but it has a similar outdoorsy feel and makes my linens smell like I've rolled them through a garden and they should have twigs and bits of leaves clinging to them (which is a good thing, in my opinion). I don't normally like green scents, and this is very green, but it's sort of pulpy and sweet smelling and I really enjoy it. I don't get a strong dry leaf smell, but definitely a woodsy, crunchy dry twig scent. I like this one a lot <3. Autumn Grove smells great mixed with the sweetness of Nut Crack Night as well.

Sibyl is kind of like the tea from Dorian mixed with the tobacco stained linen of Black Lace, sprinkled with a sour rose perfume and then tossed into an ash tray. It has a sour, dirty, gritty quality that I'm not liking so much. I'm not sure what is giving me that sour tobacco quality, unless it is the 'prussic acid.' I expected something sweeter from the tea rose, vanilla, honey and tea, but I don't smell any honey here and the rose is more sharp & sour than tea rose usually is on my skin. This is definitely not the girly vanilla, tea and rose scent I was hoping for. I guess the cognac and prussic acid are giving this a sour, gritty, pukey quality on my skin.

I ordered two bottles of this directly from the Trading Post and they both smelled different from each other, and that difference has gotten even more pronounced as they've aged. When I first got them, they both smelled more like tart green apples and almost like vanilla-y popcorn, though one was sweeter and smelled more like candy (like apple jolly ranchers versus crisp, real apple). Now my one bottle has aged into spicy apples and the other smells like sickly sweet strawberry gummis. I'm tired of the huge variations between bpal scents, so thought I should mention this, and also that my bottles don't seem to have aged well

On me, this smells like a very dry, not very sweet gingerbread with a hint of black pepper. Maybe more like a biscuit smell than a cookie smell. I don't get any of the citrus that others have mentioned, but I can kinda pick up on the tea feel (a warm, clean quality underneath the spice and biscuit scent). It's okay, but definitely not my favorite foodie type scent from bpal.

This smells sooo pretty in the bottle. It's like a cool, sweet, sort of fruity smelling rose and cool cream. Bpal's milk notes sometimes smell sour or cloying on me, but this is like creamy, honeyed vanilla. Yummy. I wish that it were that good on my skin, but the vanilla cream fades quite a bit on me and the scent turns perfumey and slightly soapy. The honeysuckle comes in and makes the blend warmer and sharper, and the rose has a soapy tinge to it. The longer I have it on, the more this smells like an expensive bar of rose scented soap. Boo. I think that I'll try this one in the scent locket, because it smells lovely in the bottle, but lackluster when it's actually on my skin...

I think that Sea of Glass is a must-try of bpal's aquatics. It's so bright and pretty, and it's one of the few aquatic scents that doesn't turn to soap on me. Banded Sea Snake is similar, but a bit sweeter/more vanilla-y and more complex in feel. You also might want to check out: *Dirty - fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy. (not really ocean or aquatic, but crisp & clean and has a feminine edge) *Obatala - milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water. *Olokun - glorious, unknowable gloom of the ocean floor. *The Pool of Tears - a sea of salty tears drowning out Alice's light floral perfume. *The Sea Foams Milk - milk cresting on an ocean wave.

I don't really get any red musk from this, which is weird, because that note usually amps up like crazy on me. This doesn't smell like Midway or Snake Oil on me either. When I first put this on, I actually had to re-check the oil, because I thought that I put on Eat Me. It smells like Eat Me with all of the fruit/currant removed, sort of an incensey, unusual, dark, dry, cakey scent. As it dries down, I get a tiny hint of root beer. Something about it is perfumey-incense and keeps it from being outright foodie, though. I'm interested in seeing how this ages, because it does seem to have some depth to it, and I think I'll like it more with a stronger, aged red musk.

White Chocolate, Black Raspberry, and Apricot Cordial Truffle has a strong, tart raspberry note. It was an LE from earlier this year, but still pretty easy to find.

I'd suggest trying: *Bengal: skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger. Very pretty, honeyed, sweet spices. *Plunder: tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg. More intense spiciness with some tea and woods. *Shub-Niggurath: A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices. Darker gingerbread scent. *White Rabbit: black tea and milk with white pepper, ginger, honey and vanilla, spilled over the crisp scent of clean linen. More heavy on the milky tea and clean linen with a backdrop of spiciness. And maybe Bakeneko if you can find it (notes of amber musk, tangerine, black tea leaf, cardamom, cherry blossom and cinnamon).

I expected this to have a dark, smooth, waxy sweetness to it, but I don't get any of the candle wax or beeswax smell from this at all. This mostly smells like dusty, old, black leather, masculine, sharp, black musk cologne, and bpal's perfumey, cold, slightly damp stone note. I was hoping for beeswax and incense, and I don't really get either of those things from this. It has a bit of a dry, earthy, woody, galangal quality to it that reminds me of Badger every once in a while, but mostly it's a cold and sharply musky blend on me. All in all, this is a little too sharp, perfumey, and masculine for me. It's really strong and long lasting, though.

I wish that aquatics would work on me, because they always sound so pretty on the people who don't have problems with them going soapy. This isn't as soapy on me as some aquatic blends, at least. I get the dry, delicate smelling sweetgrass and a clear, watery, cucumber sort of smell that I actually like, but the drydown has a quality that reminds me of expensive floral bar soap. I can't really pick out the wood or resinous elements that others have mentioned. Watery cucumber, dry grass, and floral soap... I didn't have too much of this to test, but it seemed to fade really fast on me and didn't have a lot of throw.