Little Bird

I read an article on the Comics Alliance site that described this perfume as "a breakfast-themed coffee/maple/bacon perfume matching a diner scene death." I thought that sounded awesome, so I was really let down when the scents were finally released and this was described as "house salad" (which is also my reaction whenever anyone gives me an actual salad for eating). Lettuce scents tend to not work on me, because the lettuce goes oddly sharp and perfumey. I get that sharp green perfume smell here. For a while, it sort of smells like sharp green grass. As it dries down, it's like a sharp lettuce and grass salad sitting next to a bar of floral soap. It's perfumey and strange on me. Occurrence at the Diner is really light on my skin and fades away within an hour. I don't love it while it lasts, though.

I love the photos and concept behind these scents, but the perfume oils haven't been very wearable for me (at least not the ones I've tried so far). Floater is soapy on me, which I was kind of expecting. Aquatics & ozones usually go soapy on my skin. Floater feels more ozone-y than aquatic. It smells like dryer sheets and dank water. I don't get earth or dirt notes exactly, but there's something stagnant and murky smelling about this. It's like floral-fresh, soapy dryer sheets sitting next to a washer full of clothes & water that have been sitting for way too long. As it dries down, it's mostly just floral-soapy-dryer-sheets. I don't wear soapy-clean scents, so this one isn't a keeper for me.

I am totally in love with the Pet Magah Bird label...

This smells just like Vicks Vaporub on me at first. It's a medicinal, chilly, menthol/eucalyptus smell. As it dries down, the menthol quiets a bit and it starts to smell like spearmint gum and a hint of soap on me. It makes me feel like I've splashed mouthwash all over myself, lol. It's a clean and cool sort of scent, but it's not something I'd like to wear...

You might want to try The Lady on the Grey. I know a lot of people get a pretty strong tobacco flower note from that blend (the listed notes are: pearly sandalwood, white amber, tobacco flower, orris, castoreum bouquet, soft resins, and pale petals).

This perfume morphs quite a bit on my skin. It starts off smelling green, grassy, and slightly fruity-sweet. My husband said that it smelled like green apple skins, and I can agree with that. It reminds me of crab apples and green grass. I would love this to pieces if it stayed that way on my skin, but it morphs and goes into a really powdery phase on me. It's like a sweet, earthy, powdery, cozy musk + baby powder drydown. After about an hour it's not so baby powdery; it's more of a dusty brown scent, slightly musky, with a bit of smooth sweetness (not sugary-sweet at all, just on the sweeter side of things). I really want to love this scent, but I only really enjoy the first five minutes or so when it's green and grassy smelling. It doesn't have a great drydown on me, and it doesn't have much throw or staying power either. I'll keep my bottle, though, if only for the sweet label and beautiful sentiment behind it.

I don't usually get along well with aquatics or ozone (exceptions: Sea of Glass, Banded Sea Snake, Sea Rat), but I was hoping that all of the other listed notes here would make this wearable for me. Not so much. This is intensely soapy, harsh, and sharp. Worse, it's incredibly strong and overwhelming with lots of throw. I like a few of bpal's soap scents (Dirty and Tony come to mind), but this is incredibly harsh and chemical-y, like I've drenched myself in bleach and rolled around in a factory full of generic bars of white soap before pinning dryer sheets all over my clothes. Bad. Very strong and intense, in a bad way.

This starts off smelling like dry woods (cedar? sandalwood? both?) and something green and herbal-y on my skin. As it dries down, this starts to go soapy on my skin. It sort of smells like an herbal soap sitting in a wooden soap dish with sandalwood incense burning off in the distance. There's a lot going on in this scent, but it's very light on me and seems to shift underneath the soapiness, so I never really get a good picture of what it smells like, other than soapy...

I think that this is the first bpal scent that my husband has ever asked me to buy for him, which is unfortunate, because it's really powdery and turning out to be something neither of us will wear. On me, this smells especially bad. It reminds me of some of the animal shelters that I've been in where the animals were lined up in cages and there was this sickly, sad, sour smell everywhere. I guess that's the 'cat' note. My cat smells like a sweet, sunny amber (I have a single note amber that smells just like her, actually <3), but I'm getting more of a sour, musky smell from this scent. There's that sour note, a little bit of charred smokiness, and lots of baby powder. After an hour, it smells rather like a powdery amber (bpal's amber almost always goes to straight baby powder on me) with a touch of something sour on me. On my husband, this isn't quite as sour, but it does turn to a heavy baby powder smell. And baby powder is not a good, manly scent, in my opinion. I actually wish that this did smell like Old Spice, because I much prefer regular Old Spice to this powdery, sour version...

In the bottle, this smells like sour, slightly powdery resins. On my skin, the sourness backs off, thankfully. I was worried about the black musk (smells like cheap men's cologne on me) and the chili, but I don't smell anything musky or peppery here. Mostly this is dark, resinous myrrh with hints of sweet vanilla and a very baby powdery drydown. I'm not sure what in this is going powdery on me, but the drydown is all dark, sweet resins and tons of baby powder. I don't like powdery scents, so this is kind of disappointing. I'll have to try this on my husband and see if it smells better on him.

Edit: Purchased another bottle of this recently and it's no longer even remotely the same fragrance. The new bottle smells metallic, but in a weird, sharp way, like the metallic smell of cheap hairspray. My husband said it smells, "Really soapy and bad." It's chemical-y and oily smelling. Hairspray, soap, vegetable oil... I don't think it smells resinous or incense-like at all anymore, and it doesn't smell earthy. It just smells like it's gone bad. I hate all of these bpal reformulations nothing smells the same as it did even a couple years ago. My old, now irrelevant review: I wish that I had just gotten a full bottle of this instead of messing around with an imp, lol. El Dorado is amazing. I think that this has the same gold smell in it that I liked so much in Leipreachan. It's like a cool, metallic, hard, golden smell. The gold smell is paired with a very hot, dry something that makes me think of incense on a dry desert breeze. As this dries down, I'm fairly certain that I'm smelling patchouli or something quite like patchouli. It smells like a sweet, golden-brown, earthy patchouli. Earthy, dry, sweet patchouli-something with hard metallic gold and a dry, warm, slightly sharp incense smell. I also get a hint of that men's cologne smell that others have mentioned, but the cologne feel just makes the scent more wearable for me. My husband really enjoyed wearing this one and it smelled sexy on him, but it's a scent that I'd also wear myself (though I usually have no problem wearing masculine scents anyhow). I really like this scent, and it's one that I think would just get better and better with age.

I don't really like herbal scents or most floral scents, so I'm not sure why I wanted to try Thy Godfather's Present. It really is a beautiful, surprising scent, though, and I find it very wearable. This smells like a creamy, sweet, slightly perfumey floral (maybe a bit tropical smelling as well) and a bit of greenery, but the green aspects smell almost sparkly and crisp. I agree with previous reviews in that something about this smells slightly aquatic, but aquatics usually go soapy on my skin, and this smells like clear, cool water. Thy Godfather's Present makes me think of a creamy, sweet gardenia with its green stem shimmering underneath a pool of clear water. It smells beautiful, serene, and a bit magical. The scent doesn't really strike me as being herbal at all. It's more of a beautiful, watery, sweet floral. I like this scent a lot, but it does have a strong floral quality that's slightly perfumey. I imagine that this could give me a headache if I didn't apply it very sparingly.

In the bottle, this smells like sweet honey and a sharp little hint of clean soapiness. On my skin, it's a tooth achingly sweet honey and a little bit of sharpness that reminds me of hairspray. It does smell more like honey than of beeswax to me. As it dries down, the sharp hairspray smell starts to smell slightly smoky and I actually like that aspect of the scent. It's the super-sweet honey smell that I'm not enjoying. It's just too sweet for me. I expected to love this, because I love so many blends with beeswax in them, but this isn't the dark, serious, complex scent that I had hoped it would be. I was hoping for a dark, smoky scent with a little bit of sweetness. This is intense sweetness with a little bit of smokiness. The Lights of Men's Lives is just too sweet and simple. It actually smells like a cheap candle, like I rolled around with and am covered in an unremarkable vanilla-honey scented candle. I don't think that I'll be keeping my bottle of this...

I agree that The Red Rider smells like walking into a leather store, and I love it. It's like the clean, cool smell of a new black leather jacket, and I find it so sexy . On my skin, I can smell a red, slightly spicy woods smell with a little bit of sour moss. The sexy leather stays strong with the other notes adding just a bit of complexity to the blend. As it dries down, this reminds me most closely of the soft leather note that's in Quincey Morris, but I like this even more than QM. I really love this scent. I was sad when De Sade was discontinued, as I've been wearing more leather scents lately, but this blend is amazing enough to make me forget all about De Sade. This is heavy on the leather, sexy, and with a red woodsy touch. I liked to layer De Sade with other blends, but The Red Rider is nice enough to wear on its own. I definitely need a bottle of this one.

I've gotten imps of this where the opoponax was sweet and overwhelming, but the last few frimps I've gotten of this have been more well balanced and reminiscent of De Sade and Brom Bones' dark, slightly smoky leather. In the 'good imps' I have, it's like dark leather and smoky vetiver sweetened with resins. Very dark and intense, but it doesn't have a lot of throw and staying power on me when the opoponax isn't super strong.

Twenty-One is the fizziest scent I've ever smelled, and one of my favorite gin scents. I practically expect it to start bubbling on my skin when I wear it. Any of the scents with "gin" listed in the description have at least a little of that sparkling, fizzy, refreshing quality to them. And Te Po smells like Dr. Pepper and dark spice on me <3

This is definitely a very ozone-y blend. Unfortunately, ozone smells soapy and dry on me (dryer sheets = bleh). This starts off like dryer sheets with something cool and creamy underneath it (white musk, maybe?), but the drydown is all laundry soap on me.

I can slather this on and it's still an incredibly light scent and fades away after about fifteen minutes on my skin. I get a light, dry, dusty incense feel from it. Some of bpal's amber notes smell like dust on my skin, and I think that's what I'm smelling here. There might be some sandalwood in here as well. It's a touch smoky at first and then smells like dusty wood in the drydown before it disappears.

Opium/poppy scents always go all sharp on my skin and give me a vicious headache, but I was hoping that it would be more bearable in a room spray. Unfortunately, this still gives me a headache . I get a lot of opium poppy from this. It's not as sharp as opium tends to be on my skin, but it's still sharp to my nose. It smells sort of like white, sweet smoke and chemicals/metallic hair spray. I don't smell any blood notes or anything garlicy,; it's all sharp, hazy opium with a little bit of extra, resinous sweetness underneath it. If you love opium, you'll probably love this spray. It gives me a headache and isn't a keeper for me, though.

I thought that this spray would be way too perfumey, sharp and floral for me, but my husband wanted this one, so I bought it. And I like it even more than he does . I don't know why, but this smells a bit herbal and earthy to me (maybe the lavender?). It's like meadow grass, a hint of earth, and wildflowers; it reminds me of wandering through a field full of tall grass and daisies. The honey adds a lovely touch of sweetness. I was worried about the rose and iris here, but this doesn't smell really rosy to me and I can't pick out any sharp iris either. Lucy's Boudoir smells like sweet wildflowers, herbal lavender, and a touch of grassiness and honey to me. It doesn't smell at all like any of the other floral room scents I have. It isn't perfumey and really works as a room scent. This is a super-pretty room fragrance, and I love it .

I actually don't think that this smells exactly like TKO, but Erebos would still be a good buy for someone who wants a lavender & vanilla spray. This is more along the lines of Bath & Body Works' lavender vanilla than TKO's sugary vanilla & cool nighttime feel for me (but my skin amps up sweetness). Erebos smells like clean, herbal lavender and slightly powdery vanilla with a touch of sweetness to me, though it does get sweeter over time. For all of the floral notes in this, it doesn't smell floral at all to me. Clean lavender and vanilla. This is really pretty and relaxing, and one little spritz is super-strong and lasts all day & night. I used four squirts of this on my bedspread and it was overwhelmingly strong. When I came to visit my family, I used just one spritz in my room and the scent was strong, but not suffocating. One spray is definitely enough. And this is yet another room spray that I want a full bottle of.

I don't usually enjoy nutty scents or florals paired with food notes, so it's no surprise that I'm not crazy about Cristina. The chestnut smells slightly dry and wooden on me, but also odd and cloying-sweet (brown sugary smelling on me). I get chestnut and perfumey, soapy floral from this at first. As this dries down, this is a chestnut and musky, slightly smoky violet-floral mess on me. It just smells really odd and mismatched on my skin :/

This is all sweet, smooth resins to my nose, and smells dark brown/golden and exotic. I can smell lots of benzoin's sweet, vanilla-y warmth. The scent reminds me of Midnight Mass perfume oil. After a while, this takes on an airy, fresher sort of quality. It's not soapy at all, but it's like filling the room with cool air and sweet resins. I love resins, so I love Alchemical Laboratory. I'll have to buy a full bottle of this at some point

In the bottle, this is smooth red musk (almost a dark, grapey smell to me) with hints of earthy patchouli and a cool, foresty smell that must be the juniper or yew. On my skin, this gets warmer and sharper. The red musk amps up, smelling red, slightly grapey, warm, and smoky-musky. There are hints of powdery amber underneath the red musk, but I can't pick out any of the other notes. I don't smell any rose here at all, and my skin usually amps up rose notes so that they overpower everything else. As it dries down, I get more and more baby powdery amber. Lucy, Kissed smells better in the bottle than it does on my skin. The red musk and amber amp up and drown out the other notes that I'd enjoy more. The amped up red musk makes this smell like a lot of other blends that I already own, and I don't love the powdery drydown. I'm hoping that this gets better with age...

In the imp, this smells like sharp cinnamon and something dark, herbal, and slightly minty. On my skin, this is red hots cinnamon candies beating a stick of spearmint gum to death. My skin amps up cinnamon and I don't like it when it smells like sharp red hots candies. After a while, this smells exactly like Big Red cinnamon gum. When I was in grade school, everyone chewed that gum and the smell of it made me sick. Sharp cinnamon candy. I can't wear this one without getting a headache and feeling like I'm trapped back in school :/ ETA: And this one has so much cinnamon in it that it left a huge, itchy red welt on my wrist. Lots o' cinnamon here...