Little Bird

I *love* this scent. I wasn't sure about the musk, and iris is usually sharp, perfumey, and awful on me, but this blend is awesome. It's creamy and sweet, but also clean and fresh smelling. It gives me an impression of very pale pink. Loli.Goth smells like a creamy strawberry smoothie mixed with clean, breezy peach and a pink, girly edge from the pink musk at first. It smells like a very well-blended perfume. The drydown has the soft, dry, pale woods base to it that I love, and that makes the scent smell a bit more sophisticated to me. There's nothing sharp or cloying about it at all. I think that this is a perfect scent for spring and summer. It smells clean, feminine, and gorgeous on me. The touch of sweetness makes it wearable for me, but it's definitely not a sugar, candy, or foodie scent to me. It's not as cutesy-sweet as I thought it might be. It sort of reminds me of Castitas bath oil (not as sweet, and more perfumey and complex) and like what I had hoped Vasilissa would smell like based on the reviews. I'm SO happy to have a bottle of this.

This soap was a disappointment for me and my husband. Port Royal is his favorite bpal oil to wear, but neither of us thought that this soap smelled like Port Royal. It mostly smells like a generic soap base scent. If I really focus on it, I can smell hints of something manly-cologne-like and maybe a hint of dry wood, but I would never recognize it as being Port Royal scented. It mostly just smells like soap. As far as bar soaps go, I didn't find this to be as drying as bar soaps usually are to me, but it's not something that I'll buy again...

I don't get the resins or vanilla that other people have mentioned (unfortunately, because I *love* resin scents). I do get the soap that people have mentioned, though. I think that there might be some sort of ozone in Nagarjuna, because I get a strong, soapy dryer sheets impression from this. I also can smell a hint of something woodsy (cedar?) and cologney. So... this smells like someone spritzed a manly woods cologne on to some dryer sheets for me.

I didn't have much of this oil to test, and it's very light and fades quickly on me, but I'd definitely agree that it smells orangey while it lasts. It starts off a bit bitter on my skin, but quickly dries down to a juicy orange smell, with perhaps a bit of a sugared edge. It's very nice and cheery, but only lasts about 20 minutes on me...

This reminds me a bit of a not-as-sweet Garden Path with Chickens - herbal, green, slightly floral, and slightly lemony - but it's like Garden Path with Chickens in soap form. Something in this goes really soapy on my skin (reminds me of dish soap) and then takes on more of a sharp, perfumey floral note in the drydown. It's not awful, but there are definitely green scents that I like a lot more than this one...

Hmm... why does this smell like sour pine on me? :/ I put this on and it's like I dumped pine-sol on to my arm. Exactly like pine-sol. I thought that I loved all of the notes in this, but the combination is doing something awful on my skin. After about 20 minutes, it starts to lose the heavy pine-sol smell and morphs into a dry, slightly powdery woods scent with sweet, dry, spicy saffron. Helios, as it dries down, is a warm, powdery, dry woods and spice scent. It's all cedar and saffron on me, it seems. I wish that I got more of the frankincense & copal from this one. I might keep my decant, if only to see if it gets better & more resinous with some aging. As it is now, though, I hate the early pine-sol stage and don't love the powdery drydown either...

I thought that I would hate this scent, because tuberose is awful and sharp on me and bpal's amber usually goes to baby powder, but it's actually not so bad. Something about this smells fruity and sweet (perhaps the orchid?), almost like a hint of gummi bears on my skin at first. I get that sweet fruitiness and a smooth, creamy base from the sandalwood. It's really light and subtle on me, but pleasant enough. As it dries down, the sharp, perfumey tuberose takes center stage, but the fruity sweetness and creamy sandalwood keep it in check for a while. The drydown after about 45 minutes does get a little too sharp and perfumey for me (starts making me think of sharp, chemical-heavy hair spray), but I do like the initial stages of wearing this... Echo is like a light, tropical smelling fruity-floral on my skin, with a more aggressive, perfumey floral side in the drydown. It's not awful, but I doubt that I'll ever wear this scent again. I have a lot of tropical floral scents that I like a lot more than this one...

I usually love heliotrope, frankincense, and neroli, but I can't pick out any of those notes in this blend. It has an overall sweet, soapy, watery floral smell, but nothing that really smells like heliotrope or neroli to me. It also has a really weird spiciness to it that I thought was black pepper, but after reading the reviews, it does kinda smell like chili powder to me as well. Very weird. Soapy, watery, slightly sweet, perfumey florals and a touch of pepper/chili powder. And something about this keeps making me think of dried flowers and fake flowers in a craft store. It's too perfumey-chemical-floral for me. I had to wash this one off after a half hour, as it was starting to give me a headache...

Narkissos is like a sickly sweet, cloying floral with a touch of smoke on my skin. The narcissus adds a heavy, yellow floral feel to the blend while the opoponax and vanilla go intensely sweet. Something is lending a dark, sharp smokiness to the blend as well that reminds me of burning leaves in the fall. Every once in a while, I find that the scent also smells sharply soapy to me. All in all, this smells so sweet that it makes me feel a bit sick to my stomach, and I don't like the soapy-smoky-sharpness to it either. It has stages where it smells kinda similar to LUSH's Vanillary scent (which I lovelovelove), but even then it's still way too sweet and there's something a bit off about it. Narkissos is very heavy and sickening on my skin. It's like it's overly sweet and overly sharp on me at the same time

I smell dry woods and a bit of sweet tobacco from this at first, but it's mostly a sharp, acrid, ashy, smoky scent. It makes my throat feel tight when I smell it, like I'm having trouble breathing. I don't really get a cologne feel from this and don't think that I smell anything like "neon discharge," whatever that is. As it dries down, this is mostly a really sharp, heavy smokiness and hot ash smell on my skin. I catch whiffs of a sweet tobacco, but it's barely noticeable underneath all of the smokiness. I find this very heavy and unpleasant. ETA: Trying this again, now that it has aged. It still has a good dose of smoke and ash to it (reminds me of cigarettes and full ash trays), but there's more of a caramelized, sweet tobacco to it now, and I get hints of a sharp, cold, pine-y cologne as well. Like smoke, ash, caramel, tobacco, pine and snow (which turns towards dryer sheets soapy smell on me in the drydown)... Time for me to give up on this bottle and put it to swaps, I think.

This mostly smells like fancy, expensive soap on me at first. I imagine a creamy looking bar of soap scented in perfumey, sharp, white florals and a drop of herbal sage. I smell this and think of bars of white soap sitting in clean hotel rooms. I normally don't like soapy scents or sharp florals, but something about this is oddly appealing to me. After about fifteen minutes, this smells much the same, except it's also starting to smell smoky, like someone lit a cigarette in the otherwise clean hotel room. Something about it also strikes me as being very strong and womanly (perhaps that strong, sharp, sure-of-itself floral perfume scent). I should hate this scent, but I actually find it interesting and keep coming back to it... I don't know if I'd ever wear this, but I'll keep my decant and dab this on every once in a while. I like the images and feelings that this blend conjures up for me.

This smells like a cross between Wilde and a clean, metallic/aquatic cologne (like House of Mirrors or Sea of Glass). It's not soapy exactly, but definitely smells clean and I kept worrying that it would go soapy. I get a lot of the cool, lemony sweetness in this that I get from Wilde, so I'm guessing that there might be bergamot in here as well. Tin Foil Hat smells like a lot of the masculine blends that are widely available today. It's a clean, cool, masculine scent with touches of smooth, citrus sweetness. I kept thinking that I was wearing Wilde when I had this on, but it does have a cleaner edge to it than Wilde does.

In the bottle, this smells a lot like Planting Moon with less vegetables (damp potting soil and green, garden things). On my skin, I get that lovely, realistic, comforting (for me) dirt note and something that really does smell like sweet corn, with a hint of grassy greenery. As it dries down, it's much lighter on the dirt note and mostly a mix of sweet, unique, outdoorsy goodness. It smells wonderfully summery and comforting to me. ETA: Most of the black helicopters blends haven't aged well at all. This is super soapy on me, just like a bar of creamy white soap with a hint of dirt. I don't know why it has gone so soapy :/

When I first smelled this, I thought that I had picked up a bottle of Midnight Mass by mistake. It has that smooth, dark, sweet, resinous scent. On my skin at first, this still smells a lot like Midnight Mass. I'm surprised that the rose isn't stronger, because my skin usually amps up rose notes. I can't smell any rose for the first 15 minutes or so of wearing this, and then it's just a hint of sour rose that comes in underneath the blanket of sweet incense. I can't really pick out any of the tobacco and this doesn't have a strong woods feel for me either. I like this well enough. I like sweet, resinous scents. I don't know if I'd ever reach for this over Midnight Mass and Cathedral, though...

In the bottle, this smells like warm, musky, slightly masculine ambergris with sweet, resinous benzoin and a hint of spicy red rose. It has an overall soapy men's aftershave quality to it. On my skin, this instantly morphs and settles into smelling like the soapy shaving cream that my dad used when I was little, with a layer of rose scented baby powder over it. The drydown is creamy and lotion-y smelling. It's a very fresh-from-the-shower with baby-soft-skin scent. Clean and soft, and it reminds me of Shadowless like Silence a bit. ETA: This is one of the better scents from the Black Helicopters series, I think. The spicy-musky ambergris has gotten stronger with age, and it's less soapy now. It's mostly a rich, red rose with ambergris and a baby powdery finish. It turns a bit too powdery for me in the drydown, and fades quicker than I would like, but I do love the lab's ambergris note...

I have an odd relationship with Snake Oil. I like the way that Snake Oils smells in the bottle and on other people (and I can wear and love a lot of Snake Oil blends like Boomslang), but plain ole Snake Oil smells like greasy, dirty hair covered up with baby powder on my skin. That said, I also love this soap, because it smells like in-the-bottle Snake Oil and my skin chemistry doesn't get a chance to ruin it, lol. I didn't care for the Silk Road Trading Co soaps (I found them very drying and they didn't hold scent well at all), but I'm really loving the Villainess soaps. This very obviously smells like Snake Oil, and it has *a lot* of fragrance to it. I love the fudgey dark chocolate topped with cream look of the bar as well. A lot of bar soaps are way too drying for me, but this one wasn't so bad (made my legs a little itchy after the bath, but some lotion quickly fixed that, and I would have put on lotion anyhow). The soap feels really creamy and has great lather, and the scent is just so amazing and sensual <3. The scent doesn't linger on my skin at all, but it's very strong while lathering up. It definitely made me want to get out of the bath and slather on some Boomslang. All in all, I'd definitely repurchase this, and I think it's a great, romantic sort of scent for the shower.

I usually don't like lemongrass or lemon notes (too bitter and sour), but this smells really pretty on me. Skytyping with Chemtrails is mostly lemongrass, but I think the extra sugar is keeping it in check for me. It starts off a bit herbal, but quickly dries down to a sweet, pleasant lemon that's more on the candied side of things. I think of lemon popsicles and lemon gummi bears when I smell this. It's a fun, playful, sweet, smooth lemon that's a bit cool and refreshing. I actually really like this, much to my surprise. I think that I'll wear this a lot over the summer. ETA: My bottle of this hasn't aged too well. It's more of a sour, faint, watery lemon, and the staying power isn't very good on me anymore. I'd recommend Lemon Scented Sticky Bat over this for a chilled lemon sugar scent. Sticky Bat has stayed true/sweet smelling and has really good throw and staying power.

I love resins and sugar, but usually find cassia and cinnamon notes to be really overpowering and headache inducing. In the bottle, this is cassia. Cassia, to me, smells darker and a bit more wooden than cinnamon does (like a darker version of cinnamon crammed into wooden barrels, perhaps). When I imagine them as colors, cinnamon conjures up the image of a light brown to me (or, when cinnamon is bad, it conjures up images of red hots candies and big red gum), where cassia is more of a burnt, dark red. On my skin at first, Egg Moon is all spicy, heavy, slightly sharp cassia. After a half hour, I smell like I've rolled around in red hots candies and smashed cinnamon sticks potpourri all over myself. It's exactly the sort of sharp, heavy cinnamon spice that I don't enjoy. I can't pick out any other notes at all. Egg Moon is a very strong scent that lasted four hours until I scrubbed it off my skin. It also made my skin red and itchy for those four hours. I probably won't wear this ever again :/

My first thought was that Reptoid Dominion reminds me of Hay Moon. It starts off like a dry, dusty hay smell with hints of baby powder and something like orange citrus. As it dries down, it takes on more of a musky, sour men's cologne feel and the citrus-y qualities morph from orange to something like lemon drops on m skin. Something about it is too baby powdery and too much like dusty hay for me. The overall mix is really gross and dirty smelling on me, and I found myself wanting to wash this scent off after a half hour...

I don't normally like mint scents, so I'm surprised at how much I like this. It's mostly a creamy, sweet mint on my skin, but something about this is really awesome. It might be the dazzling metals and shining wires, but something in this smells so ethereal and magical to me (reminds me a bit of the lab's moonflower note), like a night sky full of stars. There's also little hint of dry sage adding an herbal, slightly masculine touch that I love here. After an hour, there's a soapy-clean edge to this, but I still like it quite a lot. I like this, but I think that it's a scent that I'll enjoy even more on my husband. It's much better and more interesting than the powdery amber, sharp mint, and metallic cologne that I was expecting from the listed notes.

I think that Staged Moon Landing is my favorite of the Black Helicopters series. It's pretty much all vanilla and what smells like sweet violets on my skin. The vanilla smells just like the cold, sweet, slightly powdery vanilla in Black Opal, mixed with sugared violets. It reminds me of Possets' Silver Violets or LUSH's Bathos scent, actually. Very sweet and pretty. After an hour, I can also pick out a bit of the smooth white sandalwood, but it's still mostly a sweet vanilla and violet smell.

In the bottle and on my skin at first, this smells like black potting soil, mentholic herbs, and pine forest after a cold rain. The eucalyptus/menthol feel usually makes blends smell medicinal to me, but here it just makes the blend smell chilly and herbal. The Montauk Project is like taking a walk through a pine forest right after a cold rain when everything is still frozen and the sky is still dark and cloudy <3. I like it and find it very evocative, but not very wearable as a perfume at first. After about a half hour, something of a dry, yellow-y, floral edge starts to creep in and I find this much more wearable. It's like taking a walk through the forest and suddenly stepping out into a field of sunflowers. It's hard to explain, but the blend morphs into something delicately sweet and sunny smelling for me. It even smells slightly dry, papery, and wooden, making me think of dry sunflower stalks and seeds. The hint of rain and pine forest lingers in the background. ETA: Just under two years later, this hasn't aged well for me. Now it's sooo much like the scent of PineSol... sour, piney, intensely chemical-y, almost lemony. Blech. I actually feel like this is burning my nose and throat when I smell it

Aliens at high tea: Earl Grey, biscuits, Battenberg cake, and strangely-glowing cucumber sandwiches. In the bottle, Teatime in Roswell reminded me of Cheshire Moon (citrus-y tea mixed with warm, cake-y notes), but with more of a crisp, watery green smell from the cucumber. On my skin, I thought that I'd love this scent, but I really don't care for it at all. I normally love tea scents, but this has a dry, warm, perfumey-floral quality to it that I'm not crazy about. I would have guessed that there's some sort of blossom note in this. I can't really pick out the cucumber or tea, but there's a spring-y freshness to the scent that's probably coming from those notes. I expected tea + foodie, but Teatime in Roswell reminds me of some of bpal's asian lunacy blends more than anything. Perfumey floral freshness with a bit of citrus. Sweet, fresh, and perfumey. After a half hour, it's strongly reminding me of the sweet, generic, musky-perfumey floral scents that a lot of celebrities are churning out these days. It makes me feel like I'm choking on bad perfume (has lots of throw on me, unfortunately) and starts to give me a headache :/. Not good. This definitely isn't working with my skin chemistry, and I thought that it would be so awesome based on the notes... I'm glad that I didn't go for multiple bottles of this unsniffed, because it's not working on me at all.

Some blends that don't have a lot of different notes: Akuma - blood orange, neroli, and raspberry. Baron Samedi - bay rum. Bliss - chocolate. Carnal - mandarin and fig. Death Cap & Destroying Angel - dirt scents. Depraved - black patchouli and apricot. Dirty - linen. Dragon's Blood - dragon's blood. Dragon's Claw- dragon's blood and sandalwood. Eat Me - vanillas and currants. Glasgow - blackberry and heather. Hurricane - rain and vetivert. The Lion - amber. Penitence - frankincense and myrrh. Persephone - pomegranate and rose. Grand Guignol - apricot. Grog - rum. London - tea rose. March Hare - apricot and clove. Pain - lavender and pennyroyal. The Rose - rose. Sea of Glass - aquatic. Sloth - vetiver and myrrh. Squirting Cucumber - cucumber and grass. Twenty-One - the lab's gin note. Whip - rose and leather.

It makes me think of Black Lace, I think because the colors & pattern sort of look like the label for Black Lace...