Little Bird

This smells exactly like a jelly donut filled with raspberry/strawberry jam and covered in a sweet glaze and a dusting of powdered sugar. Exactly. It makes me feel like I just opened up a big box of jelly donuts. It sounds like it should be cloying, but it's not on me. Golletes is what I wanted Zombie Apocalypse to be. I get the same sort of fruity note here that I get from ZA, but ZA was too fruity for me (like pure jam), and this smells like jelly donuts instead of just jelly. It's a warm, sugary, foodie, heavenly scent that has vanilla-like cake&glaze tones on my skin.

I had high hopes for this, because I love apple scents & the lab's moonflower note and I usually like evergreen blends. In the bottle and on my skin at first, this is bright, sharp evergreen (more an impression of yellowy-green than dark green). It dries down to a cool evergreen and gentle floral smell that's a bit on the clean side of things. It smells like jogging past a misty pine forest on a crisp, foggy morning. It's very pretty, but it has awful throw and staying power on my skin. It's only strong for about 10 minutes and fades away entirely before a half hour is up. Brooklyn is a pretty, cool, clean, evergreen & soft floral blend. I wish that it had better staying power and that I could pick out the apple or moonflower notes, though. I think my decant of this will be enough when I want a quick vision of 'pine forest in a park'...

In the bottle, this has an earthy vetiver type of note to it that conjures up images of wet, rotting leaves. There's a bit of sweet aquatic as well. On my skin, the sweet aquatic takes over. It's slightly soapy (but not as bad as most of bpal's aquatics) with a perfumey, clean quality to it and hints of sweet earthiness that turns slightly smoky, like someone is burning piles of leaves off in the distance. Sweet, clean aquatic, a smooth & white perfume (like creamy, white petals and white musk), and sweet, smoky leaves. It has a soft & sweet quality to it that smells very feminine to me. I doubt that I'll reach for this much, because I'm not too into clean scents, but I do find this to be wearable, pretty, and unique.

First off, I feel like I should mention that I don't actually enjoy the lab's pomegranate note. It smells bitter and dry on me, like really bad, artificial, sweet tarts candies. So I wasn't too hopeful about the bunch of Pom scents this year. In the bottle, this smells spicy, dry, and fruity, in a way that reminds me of cheap potpourri. On my skin, Pom III dances around between smelling like cider scented potpourri/candle and sweet tarts candies. I was hoping for more of a woods blend, but it's oddly waxy and blandly spicy smelling. It doesn't really smell like clove on me either, more of a dusty cinnamon type of smell. Weird. The drydown is just like old, dusty, cinnamon scented potpourri flakes (and I think the pom note is what is making this smell so dry/dusty on my skin). I'm not getting any of the woods, lavender, myrrh, or really any of the notes that I was hoping for. So, yeah, this isn't working for me at all .

In the bottle, this reminds me of Kumiho, which must be the white tea at play. The white tea isn't as smooth or sweet as I find the green tea to be, and it's not as herbal as the black tea. It's more of a sharp, citrussy, perfumey-clean tea note. It has a sharp, sour quality that reminds me of cutting into a lemon. On my skin, thankfully, The Unsteady Governess sweetens up a bit and the sharpness fades away to a sweet, vanilla-y sort of floral swimming in a clean, bright, citrussy tea note. It's still mostly white tea/citrus, but not quite as sharp. I think that previous reviews summed it up nicely for me with "sweet, clean, and refreshing." It smells youthful, girly, innocent, and charming to me. I'm not sure that I would identify the floral in this as violet, exactly, and I don't get a leaf scent from it. I don't know if I need a full bottle of this, but I'm happy to have a partial bottle.

Your description made me think of Versailles - "Grand, courtly and robust: a glittering, golden scent that would do Louis XIV proud. Gilded red and gold citrus with amber, ruby roses, jasmine and orris." I definitely get sensual and beautiful from it, with a touch of the historical & old fashioned rose perfume feel. The colors for me really pop with this blend too, I get that glittering gold, citrus orange, and shining ruby red from the description very vividly whenever I smell Versailles. And I second Lyonesse for trisj .

Signior Dildo (Lupercalia LE) smells a lot like LUSH's Daddy-O/Bathos line of violet scents to me. Staged Moon Landing also has a similarity. And, of course, there's Faith for a sugared violet scent.

Maybe: *Lambs-Wool (just for the name, makes me think of sheep things) *Ichabod Crane (was a Samhain LE with the horror edge, and has a wool note for the sheep connection) *Shango (for the aries temper and your sense of philanthropy and desire to keep learning new things) *Wrath (spices for a fiery temper)

I'd recommend Philologus (notes of "ancient books, crackled parchment, faded incense, and candle wax") since you like museums, libraries, vampire novels, and light and airy scents. I found it to be clean with a slightly bookish feel. And VILF for the darker, sexier, pin-up side of vampires (notes of "patchouli-infused honey, red musk, red sandalwood, red ginger, pink pepper, Peru balsam, dark Eastern florals, Himalayan cedar, smoky vanilla, bitter clove, and leather"). The Unicorn is light and airy and has an approachable, casual feel to me that I think works well with jeans and a t-shirt. Dorian also has a light and airy feel, but also a touch of sweetness and a darker, sexier edge to it. It smells confident and quietly sexy to me. I think that Dorian is awesome and works for just about anything, though, lol.

Amber notes always remind me of the smell of my cats.

I agree on trying out The Traveller if you can find it, and maybe De Sade for an intense black leather, but those can both be a bit hard to get now. I think that The Red Rider is bpal's most intense leather that is currently available. Liz is a gorgeous black leather and sexy, dry vanilla-floral mix.

I hate how short my review for this is, but it's a sharp, perfumey, white floral soap on my skin. Chemical-y floral and dry soapiness. I can't pick out any one floral note, because it just smells generic on me, and this probably has ozone in it, because it's turning to dryer sheet soapiness on my skin. I had to scrub this one off, because I can't handle sharp scents or overwhelmingly soapy blends, and this is both...

I like this more than Amaterasu v2, but unfortunately this has even worse staying power and the drydown is slightly baby powdery. I get a warm, golden, powdery amber type of feel from this, and it smells a bit sweet (vanilla?) and slightly golden and incensey as well. I'd probably like this a lot if it were stronger on my skin.

I didn't have too much of this oil to test, but it's a perfumey sort of scent on me (like that sharp drugstore perfume muskiness). The drydown is like perfumey, musky floral and a base of creamy sandalwood. It's light, but still a little too sharp for my tastes. I don't get the vanilla that other reviewers have mentioned, sadly.

I haven't personally tried it yet, but you might want to try some of the current LE offerings if you haven't already. Halloween San Francisco in particular is "Rain falling on rain-soaked leaves," and Nothing Gold Can Stay has been compared to A Blade of Grass and more of an autumn grass scent. Falling Leaf Moon smells like fall leaves and fresh rain to me, but not so much on the green grass note. You might want to try October and Autumn Coolness as well. For a GC, Hurricane has a rain & earthy wood quality to it, though I don't get a green feel from it at all. The Black Tower is complex and good for autumn, with a bit of a green edge from the ivy note.

I could see her smelling like the LE Stardust or maybe: *Blood Kiss ("Lush, creamy vanilla and the honey of the sweetest kiss smeared with the vital throb of husky clove, swollen red cherries, but darkened with the vampiric sensuality of vetiver, soporific poppy and blood red wine, and a skin-light pulse of feral musk.") *Hollywood Babylon ("The essence of innocence shattered: glittering Egyptian amber and heliotrope, infused with the sweetness of strawberry and vanilla - dragged into debauch by lusty red musk and a dribble of black cherry.") *Manhattan ("Sexuality, power, confidence. A meeting of modern, sleek elegance and rich, passionate history: sheer amber, black leather, white mint, lemon peel, white tea, grapefruit, kush, teakwood and orchid.") *The Obsidian Widow ("Pinot noir, dark myrrh, red sandalwood, black patchouli, night-blooming jasmine, and attar of rose.") *Serpents with Glittering Eyes ("Serpentine green herbs, glistening red currant, sparkling yellow lemon rind, green musk, lime, and snakeskin.") Perhaps Lolita or one of the champagne blends as well (Bon Vivant, Thalia, or Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat).

I don't have much to add here. The honey is a golden, sweet honey with a raw, bitter edge (which is pretty much what I've gotten from all of these honey blends), with a backdrop of dark green, plant-y something (reminds me of dark green, waxy leaves). The mix just doesn't work for me or smell pleasant to me...

Some woods recs: You might want to try Aureus for a warm woods with an emphasis on the cedar. Magus is a lighter cedar with a softer, smooth woods feel from the sandalwood. If you get more of a smoky wood scent from Burl Wood, then there's Rumpelstilzchen. Ochosi is a bright, sweet woods with spruce listed as a note. Black Forest is more of an evergreen woods blend, as is Troll. Hurricane's vetiver has a dark, sweet woods scent to it (like rained on raspberry brambles, I think)

Maybe try these for more Egyptian musk + floral: *Bastet (notes: Luxuriant amber, warm Egyptian musk, fierce saffron and soft myrrh, almond, cardamom and golden lotus) *Salome (notes: almond with star jasmine, oakmoss, red sandalwood and Egyptian musk) *Mr. Ibis (notes: Papyrus, vanilla flower, Egyptian musk, African musk, aloe ferox, white sandalwood) And I think that Morocco is kinda similar, with the light, golden, powdery floral & warm musk type of feel, but that might be a skin chemistry thing...

I second (and third) Gypsy Moth, Lyonesse, & Dorian for great non-foodie vanillas. I also really love the vanilla in Liz and I don't find that to be a gourmand sort of scent... Hellhound on my Trail had a great bourbon vanilla in it, but that one was a LE.

Thanks so much for taking the time to post all of those, TwilightEyes. I think that Lambs-Wool has my favorite label of the Halloweenies this year (followed closely by Punkie Night).

I've had a bottle of Red Rider since it came out and I think that it's just an intense leather blend (which is why I love it <3). I haven't really noticed it chilling out with age, lol. Red Rider is one that I have to apply with a very light hand as well, because it gets overpowering really quickly. The Bow & Crown of Conquest is more like Tezcatlipoca, in that it has other notes at the front and a backdrop of leather. Dee is a nice, soft leather that's a bit more complex too.

Other than what's already listed here, I'd suggest Interfector. It's hard to describe, but it's a rich, sultry, deep, sweet sort of smoky...

I haven't tried the released Blue Pumpkin Floss yet, but this doesn't smell blue to me at all. I get a sharp cinnamon (red hots candies) that burns my wrist where I applied this oil. The drydown softens and is a bit more warm and sugary, but it's still screaming CINNAMON... I don't even smell the lab's usual buttery pumpkin note here. Just spice.

I really like the released Tiki Princess; it's all spicy floral and frosty coconut love. I'm really glad that Tiki Princess v3 wasn't the released version, because this isn't as unique and just falls into a blah fruity-citrus scent on me. I don't get any coconut from it at all (booo). In the bottle and on my skin, it smells like a mishmash of different fruity perfume scents, heavy on a sharp/clean citrus note. It dries down to something of a berry lemonade with a very tart citrus note. I think that there's grapefruit in this, because I'm getting a bitter/funky-sweaty smell that some grapefruit notes turn to on me. I don't like these sort of vague fruity blends or the sharp citrus in this one.