Little Bird

I think that I like White Pumpkin Extrait more than anything else in the inquisition sets this year, including the perfume oils. It starts off smelling like the lab's traditional buttery pumpkin note, but quickly dries down to smelling like the perfect apple pie on me. It's like crisp, fresh, sweet apple and golden pie crust with hints of warm, buttery, sweet pumpkin and creamy vanilla tones. I don't know if this actually has any apple in it, but that's what it smells like on me - lovely and comforting apple pie. I'm tempted to buy another inquisition set just to get another sample size of this.

My imps of this just say "wad of chewed up bubblegum" on them, but I guess it's supposed to be this scent? I'm not really sure, because it doesn't smell at all like strawberry on me. It just smells strongly of powdery spearmint gum and makes me feel sick to my stomach (I hate spearmint). Blech.

This is wonderful, and I love having another foodie room spray to use. I was hoping that this would be like the Horse Chestnut Honey perfume oil (which I've been using as a room scent in an oil warmer), but this is sooo much better. It's like warm, sugared, toasted nuts (slightly wooden nuttiness) with a hint of peppery spice, maple syrup, and maybe a hint of cinnamon rolls. It's sugary, warm, spicy, and gorgeous. I might need a second bottle.

I don't think that this smells similar to Sugar Skull at all. I don't really get a strong ginger feel from it either, though it does have a delicate spiciness to it (reminds me more of cinnamon, though). Ginger Skulls mostly smells like wildflower honey and sweet pear on me, with a light spiciness warming the scent up. I'm not sure where I'm getting that honeyed impression from :/. This scent is okay, but maybe a bit too sweet for me.

Bogle has a lot going on. It's creamy and sweet from the vanilla and tonka, slightly resinous from the frankincense, tart and fresh from the red currant and tea, and oddly warm & foodie smelling from the pumpkin. It smells similar to Monarch, but with much more of a tart and fruity edge. Red currant is intensely tart and sour on me, and it plus the tea smells like smelling a packet of lemonade drink powder. After about a half hour, it's nothing but that sour fruitiness. Bogle is a too tart & dry for me. I have trouble wearing intensely fakey/fruity scents like this, so I'm hoping that the fruit and sharper notes chill out with some aging. ETA: This has changed a bit with age. It now starts off as buttery, spicy pumpkin and a smoky, incensey mix of frankincense and vetiver and dries down to tart red currant and lemony green tea with the smokiness and hints of spice. Very dry and tart on the fruity notes. Reminds me of craft store potpourri and plastic fake flowers... my bottle is going to my sales page.

Slaugh is all sassafras all the time on me; I can't pick out any of the other notes. It goes on smelling like a can of root beer soda and then after about five minutes dries down to something less fizzy and wet and more powdery and dry, like root beer bottle caps candies. I prefer Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener for a root beer type of scent (it's creamier smelling on me, where this is dry and powdery). ETA: This scent hasn't changed much with age, except that it now has a weird undertone that smells like tortillas to me. But mostly it smells similar to root beer oils I've had for soap making. Bottle is going to my sales page.

I don't get any marshmallow from this, sadly. It goes on smelling like uncooked cinnamon rolls (oddly like uncooked dough and cinnamon sugar) and dries down to red hots cinnamon candies. I'm not a huge fan of cinnamon when it's sharper and overpowering like this, so this blend isn't working fcr me at all

In the bottle, this smells dark and spooky, snowy & cool. On my skin, this smells like bpal's snow note (smooth, sweet, cool, kinda aquatic) plus something a little cleaner and sharper smelling, like a hint of ozone. There's also a dark, dry, and earthy note that makes me think of soot and ash (maybe the black musk, which sometimes smells rather smoky on my skin). As it dries down, the red musk makes the scent a bit sweeter and warmer, and the earthier notes fade over time. It's a sexy, clean scent that I think would be amazing on a man. Muilearteach is so interesting. I'm very intrigued by it and keep going back to it. It's an unusual scent and I like it (and plan to give the bottle to my hubby). The snowy/clean ozone notes are really nice and refreshing, and I normally don't like clean scents, while the musk gives the blend a sexier edge and some depth. I can't wait to see how this one ages with all of the musks... ETA: This and Licorice Bats are the only keepers for me from the Halloween 2010 inquisition series. Both have gotten better with age. Muilearteach is so dark and decadent smelling... makes me think of thick incense smoke, dark velvet, and black pen ink. I love it. Bpal's black musk usually doesn't work for me, but this smells resinous and inky in an awesome way. Similar to the dark, resinous muskiness in Lil Menes Feline Entertainments.

Licorice Bats is so cute. It's dark, but totally smells like playful Halloween treats. It kinda reminds me of the chocolate covered blueberries that my family used to buy that were covered in a rich chocolate and a hard shell coating of some sort. It has a dry, rich hint of fruitiness to it somehow and a really decadent chocolate that's sweet but not full-on milk chocolate smelling on my skin. I think that the licorice might be what I'm getting the fruity tones from, because it doesn't smell intensely black licorice-y on me. I love anise heavy scents like Le Père Fouettard, and the black licorice here doesn't remind me of that at all. This isn't the intense black licorice and dark chocolate scent that I was expecting; it's more lighthearted and slightly fruity. Still, I'm really happy to have a bottle of this (it just won't replace Le Père Fouettard for my sexy black licorice scent).

This starts off as tropical, sharp, slightly soapy floral and dries down to something like coconut suntan lotion and baby powder (amber?). It smells very Paris Hilton at the beach on me, in an artificial and perfumey way, lol.

Oddly, this doesn't smell orangey on me (boo skin chemistry) :/. I get mostly a creamy, powdery woods note that smells the way bpal's white sandalwood usually does on my skin, and a hint of smoky incense. There's a little bit of a perfumey white floral quality underneath the powdery woods. It's not bad, but not something I feel the need to track down more of either.

I was hoping for a light, sweet, sparkly, juicy sort of citrus with creamy white musk, but this blend is *way* too tart for me, and dry and powdery rather than juicy smelling. The pom and verbena here combine into this tart, dry (slightly powdery), sweet tarts candy + sour lemon smell. The drydown is a bit better as the white musk adds a creamy, cool touch that softens the blend, but it's still too much for me. Very tart citrus. I can see this being a fun and playful blend on someone else, but it's not for me. Pom II only lasts about an hour on my skin, but is very intense for most of that time. Like powdery sweet tarts candy and sharp, clean citrus.

There are inquisition pics just a couple posts back in this thread. I covet the NYCC exclusives, especially the room sprays and the Elephantine one...

Maybe check out: Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree (The Salon) - "Cherry blossom, blue lilac, lavender monofloral honey, white sandalwood, and Asian pear." Clean cherry blossom sweetened by lilac and with a fruitiness from the pear. This is one of my favorite scents and it's really well blended, and I think it has a similar feel to Blushing Cherry Blossom, depending on your skin chemistry. The Rose (Marchen) - "The promise of a rose: red rose petals, fresh sap, and the sharp green scent of stem and leaf." If Blushing Cherry Blossom had more of a sweet rose & clean linen smell to it on your skin, I find The Rose to be a sweet, fresh & clean rosey scent. Dirty (Sin & Salvation) - "A fresh, crisp white linen scent: perfectly clean, perfectly breezy." If Blushing Cherry Blossom was more of a clean linen scent for you.

I think that I judged this scent too harshly and quickly the first time I tried it, because I didn't like it at first and it has actually become my favorite Halloween blend. It's one of those scents that is very well blended and smells like an expensive, complex perfume. It's something that I could imagine coming out of a major perfume house and being widely appealing to a large audience (though it's dark and rich and not like the weak fruity-florals that clutter up department store shelves). When I first wore this, I applied it lightly to my wrists and smelled it up close and it was perfumey, rose-y, and with vanilla amber tones, and I didn't love it. But this really shines when it's worn properly (slathered on and brushed through my hair, for me, lol). When I apply this right and give it a chance to throw off some scent and work its magic, it envelopes me in this exotic, perfumey cloud that I just love. Dark, resinous amber, sweetly musky ambergris (with vanilla amber tones that remind me of Arcana's Nepalese Amber layering note), and swirls of exotic, rich florals. It smells expensive and womanly. I've worn it out quite a few times now and have actually had a couple people stop me and ask what it was, and my husband *loves* this on me. So, yeah, I'm now a huge fan of this scent after giving it another chance. I'm going to need a couple backup bottles. I love it like I love some of bpal's more complex & darkly exotic perfume scents (like the feel that I get from complex blends like Liz, The Girl, & Black Lace), and it's really unlike any of the bpal scents that I already own. Love it. ETA: Aaand, as seems to be the trend lately, I fell in love with an early bottle of this and ordered two more before the LEs went down, and my two newer bottles smell nothing like the original. Wth bpal My two new bottles smell like tons of baby powder, and a hint of minty rose. Damnit.

The Wild Swans at Coole (current Halloween LE) seems appropriate. It smells very soft and feminine to me, with clean aquatic and creamy, gentle floral notes. The Unicorn also sounds like it might be what you're looking for: "A misty, almost luminous perfume: wispy linden blossoms, white flowers, and a touch of sweet herbs." And Sea of Glass is a clear, bright aquatic. And if you type 'ethereal' into the search engine it comes up with Fae, Moonshine & Mist, and Shadow Witch Orchid, which I could also envision on Odette...

The red musk and pom must amp up like crazy on my skin, because I don't smell any of the anise or cocoa that others have mentioned (which is a shame, because I love both of those notes). The pom smells like sweet tarts candies on me and the red musk is warm, juicy, slightly fruity/red wine smelling musk. In the drydown I can smell a bit of a dry, herbal note that must be the thyme. Mostly this is red, fruity, and tart smelling, and the drydown is too dry and tart smelling for me...

This doesn't smell like beer or alcohol to me at all, which I'm very happy about. Roadhouse smells like beer, but this is girly, sweet, and rather foodie on me. Beer from the Marsh Woman's Brewery is like vanilla cream, toasted & honeyed almonds, and a handful of green grass and girly wildflowers on my skin. It's been a while since I've tried Dana O'Shee, but that's what this reminded me of... maybe a stronger Dana O'Shee with soft, greener notes and an edge of pretty, fresh floral, though the green feel fades away almost entirely in the drydown. It's also reminding me a bit of Sheela Na Gig and The Girl. It has a very soft and creamy quality to it that makes me think of lotions. ETA: I went to wear this again today and it has not aged well. It now smells like celery (including the slightly bitter tone that celery has), powder, creamy lotion, and a whiff of maple syrup. Doesn't really remind me of vanilla or toasted almond at all anymore. It smells clean and strange, and dries down really soapy on me, like a cheap white bar soap smell. So sad

My favorite Harvest Moon is the 05 version, which is sweet & spicy, foodie, and lovely. I also liked 06, which smelled like an exotic fall harvest, not as spicy as 05, but still pleasant and slightly foodie. I didn't really care for 04 (smoky-floral) or 08 (sharp, perfumey, fruity). I was hoping that this would be moving back to the spicy 05 version, but 2010 is my least favorite Harvest Moon so far. Harvest Moon 2010 is so odd and unpleasant. It smells strongly of sour moss (like bpal's spanish moss note), rotten leaves, and perfumey fruit. The overall feel is intensely sour and rotten smelling on me. It's not often that one of bpal's scents makes me feel sick to my stomach (I even liked Gore-Shock), but this is just awful. I love fir, cedar, clove, ivy, apple, and wine notes, and I usually enjoy mulling spices and pumpkin in complex blends like this should have been. I can't pick out any of those notes, though. It's like intensely sour spanish moss, rotten leaves, and sour, rotten cherries on my skin, with an edge of something dark, earthy, and... sweaty? about it. Blech. I'm really hoping that this gets better with age, because it's unwearable for me right now.

I don't think that there's a bpal that smells *a lot* like Pink Sugar. I think that it's hard to smell like Pink Sugar without actively trying to copy it. That said, I think Velvet Unicorn has been the most similar to Pink Sugar for me (notes of "spun sugar, sparkling rainbow candies, strawberries, merangue, and cherry fluff").

My absolute favorite vanilla & violet scent from bpal is Staged Moon Landing, but that one isn't available right now. I'd suggest finding some on the forum sales if you have your heart set on a vanilla sugary violet, though. And, as has already been mentioned, there's Faith for a sugared violet.

This is mostly perfumey floral and vetiver in the vial, and then morphs into a perfumey, sour, spicy rose-floral on my skin. I usually love clove, but the spiciness here smells dry and potpourri-esque. I don't get much of an incense/resin impression from it, but my skin seems to be amping up the floral aspects of this blend. There are definitely rose blends that I prefer over this one...

I was expecting this to smell like rose and smoky cocoa, but I don't get any cocoa or smokiness. This mostly smells like a sharp, perfumey floral with an undertone of watery, soapy, cologne-y men's aftershave. As it dries down, I can smell a bit of sweet rose, but this is mostly a soapy mess on my skin.

This is a sweet, creamy, cool mix of lemon and mint that reminds me of Possets' Fireflies scent (especially when first applied). It's like Fireflies + the sweet, snowy ozone in bpal's Cloister Graveyard in the Snow. I'm happy that the ozone isn't amping up and turning to pure soap like it usually does on my skin. ETA: With age, this has turned into tons of sour pine and what smells like lemonade on me. The mint and ozone gives it a clean chill, but it's mostly pine and verbena on me, which conjures up images of pine-sol... in a scent locket, it smells like chilled lemonade and a hint of pine, but on skin it's very pine-y and sharp.

The Unsavory Grave-Diggers smells a lot like a darker version of Golden Priapus to me at first. It has a similar hint of misty pine and sweetness on my skin. The drydown is a little dustier and warmer, but not in a bad or too-dry way. And something about this smells masculine (but not musky or cologne-like) and rugged, but also very smooth and cozy. It makes me think of a sexy mountain-man coming into an old cabin and dusting the snow off his boots and pine needles off of his jacket as he settles down for a drink. ETA: This has not aged well for me *at all* The booze has a sour quality that reminds me of vomit, and then there's a mix of dry dirt and cedar... like throwing up alcohol in a forest preserve :/ it's a scrubber now.