Little Bird

I really like Chrysanthemum Moon, and I thought that this would be similar. I was wrong; Flowering Mums is really nothing like Mum Moon. Mum Moon smells like dry flowers and sultry incense, and Flowering Mums smells like live, wet, slightly green florals on me. I usually amp up cinnamon, and I don’t get any spice from this at all. In the drydown, powdery sandalwood with a slight amber sweetness joins the florals. I expected really great things from this, so I'm kinda let down. I was hoping for dry mums with spiced vanilla and light touches of incense. In reality, this is more like soft, wet flowers with a background of clean baby powder. This does get more of a dry, sweet, golden feel the longer that it sits on my skin, but I'm not crazy about the first couple hours of wear, and it's still a little too powdery for me.

I passed on this originally, because I don't like the lab's red patchouli and I'm usually not fond of sage, smoke, or tobacco notes. Then I wound up buying the bottle off of ebay anyhow, so that I'd have a full set of inquisitions. In the bottle - On first sniff, this is a bitter, astringent fragrance. But underneath that initial impression is a sweet, incensey smoke and dry woods. It reminds me briefly of Bezoar. On my skin, this is a soft, clean smoke. It makes me think of burning paper. Yup. Uncertain Horror smells like paper and clean, white smoke. I expected this to be a much stronger, grittier fragrance. Patchouli, sage, and tobacco are usually pretty serious, heavy, dirty notes on my skin. In the drydown, the smoke fades and this turns into nothing but powdery, light sandalwood on me. It turns slightly sour as well. Uncertain Horror definitely isn't the scary, dark, dirty fragrance that I was expecting, but it's not really great on me either.

I like this blend, but I think that my decant will be enough for me. It's kind of on the too dry and too clean side of things for me to wear all that often. This goes on smelling like dried apricots and dry, polished wood on me. The sake (at least, I think it's the sake) smells bright, almost-citrussy, and clean. As it dries down, it's more dry woods and fruity, clean apricot, and smells a bit more of a soft floral on my skin. It's nice, but I have apricot & peach blends that I like more than this'n.

White sandalwood, dry cedar, and radiant, crisp lunar herbs. In the bottle, this smells sorta incensey, cool and smooth, like Midnight Mass. I wish that it smelled that nice on my skin, but it doesn't. Some versions of cedar don't smell very nice on me, and this is one of those cedars. It smells like sweaty man with horrible BO. Thankfully, there's just a hint of that cedar. Unfortunately, the sandalwood goes unbearably dry and powdery on me, and whatever else is in this is cloying & awful. Something in this smells like cloying floral sweet tarts, if that makes any sense. Too much sweet, dry powder, with that dirty cedar in the background. I keep buying the lunacies, but I've only found six out of the 80+ that I've tried that I'll actually wear. Bony Moon isn't going to be one that I'll wear...

In the bottle, this is all delicious cream and a bit of fruit that smells citrussy to me. It reminds me of Cheshire Moon. I expected the vanilla cream to either fade quickly or go plasticy/powdery, but it doesn't (yay!). The vanilla cream is actually the strongest note here. The blend lasts about 3 hours total on me and near the end, all I can smell is the delicious, soft, sweet vanilla cream. I don't get any florals at all from this blend. For a while, it's just vanilla cream paired with a fruitiness that smells like tropical citrus (the guava?). Then it dries down to just vanilla cream. I wish that I could smell the apple, but other than that, I have no complaints about this scent. It's really lovely, and I'm happy about the strong vanilla cream note.

In the bottle, this smells like sweet melons and fruit - cantaloupe, honeydew, and maybe a bit of citrus. It also has a clean, breezy feel to it that makes me feel desperate for summer. I was so sure that this was going to be a new favorite when I smelled it in the bottle. On my skin, though, this turns into a dry, soapy scent. Dryer sheets. I think that this is mostly bamboo on me (which often turns to sharp soapiness on my skin). After a half hour, the melons start to poke out from underneath the sharpness, but it's too little too late. Earth Ox gives me an awful headache. It's so wonderful in the bottle, and just turns too sharp and soapy when it's on.

I bought a bottle of this unsniffed, just because I liked the description of "tinkling tiny feet." I'm horribly afraid of spiders, but something about this one seems so cute, lol. I generally hate bpal's jasmine and wine notes, and amp up rose, but I couldn't resist the tiny feet. Then again, my tastes have been changing lately, and I've been having better luck with dark florals and wines. In the bottle, this smells like sour roses drowning in sour red wine. It's a very wet, very red, very intense fragrance. It's sexy and scary at the same time. On me, this becomes very hard to describe. It loses all of the sour qualities as soon as it touches my skin, but it's warm and red and still very intense. Something about this smells incensey in a sweet, earthy way (maybe the mix of sandalwood, myrrh, and patchouli). The wine makes this scent so red and sexy. The rose adds a romantic touch that's actually not amping up and overwhelming the other notes. As this dries down, it reminds me a bit of Follow Me Boy (an old favorite and one of the few florals I've loved over the years). Follow Me Boy smells like hot, sticky sweet jasmine on me, and I get that same feeling here. It's like Follow Me Boy swimming in wine, holding on to a rose, and dusted in an earthy-resinous mix of myrrh & black patch. I love the black patchouli note, and the hint of it here is just perfect. This feels like such a heated, sexy scent. I love it. ------------- ETA: Recently got a frimp of this scent from the lab and it smells nothing like the scent that I reviewed above. I've been noticing a lot of differences in scents that I loved years ago versus how they smell now. I'm glad that I got a bottle of this when I did, because my recent frimp (direct from the lab) smells like candied fruit, powdery rose, and a touch of potpourri spice. Smells totally different when compared to my original bottle.

Christine is all soapy floral dryer sheets and baby powder on me. I love frankincense, vanilla, and orchid, but I can't pick them out of this blend. Erik was also a soapy mess on me, so I guess it makes sense that they go together, lol. The Great Duets in Horror series hasn't turned out so well with my skin chemistry. Mr. Edward Hyde is the only keeper for me, and then only if my boy winds up liking it...

In the bottle and on my skin at first, this is mostly opium and vetiver. The opium is sharp, white, and cutting, and the vetiver is dark and smells like wet, rotting wood. As this settles on my skin, the opium dominates. I can smell a wonderfull, incensey sweetness underneath the opium for a while, but the opium smells like cheap hairspray on me, and just gets caught in my throat. I had to scrub this off after an hour, because I just can't stand the opium. And, by then, the other notes had completely faded away and left behind nothing but opium smoke. Smelling it makes me feel like I'm choking on soap & hairspray. It's far too smoky & sharp smelling for me.

I much prefer Mr. Edward Hyde over Dr. Henry Jekyll. They share a certain base smell at first, but the musk and darker notes save this one for me. I was afraid that this would be too dark and bitter for me, because I don't tend to like musk, tobacco, or blood notes (or sweat :/). This isn't so bad on me, though. I get a dark, spicy musk that reminds me of Old Spice at first. The tobacco adds a smoky haze and a wooden sweetness. This has the same feel that a lot of the Dogs Playing Poker scents had for me, especially in the drydown where the musk is softer and the tobacco is sweeter & more mellow. Mr. Edward Hyde is pretty much all musk and tobacco on me, but in a a soft, sweet way that is actually rather nice. This one might be a bit too masculine for me, though, so I'll set it aside and see if my boy likes it.

In their bottles, I thought that Dr. Henry Jekyll smelled much dirtier & less appealing than Mr. Edward Hyde. This scent is sort of flat and bland where the other smells sexy & powerful to me. There's also something very unclean about this to my nose. Jekyll makes me think of rest area bathrooms. It smells warm and makes me think of warm water, and then there's a pale mint & light citrus that makes me think of cleanser. It's a weak, sad feeling scent on me, and it also manages to smell filthy, which doesn't help. There's a dirty, gross note in this that smells like feces on me, and it just gets worse the longer I wear it. This scent makes me feel sick to my stomach.

This doesn't smell like plum blossom on me; it smells like a really tart plum (plum flavored sweet tarts?). It starts off very strong and fruity with a bit of spice to it. The spice doesn't exactly smell like nutmeg to me, but it does smell like a baking spice type of scent. The spice is a short lived stage, and then it morphs back into being a tart fruity smell. Lovers goes strong on me for about an hour and then fades fast, leaving behind just a light trace of sweet plum. This is nice enough, and I really like its brief spicy stage, but overall it's probably too tart for me to wear very often. I like sweeter, juicier fruit fragrances.

Voyeurs, Ebisu, and Burberry Classic all smell so similar on my skin - sweet, clean men's cologne and lightly powdered skin fresh from the shower. Voyeurs starts off smelling almost identical to Ebisu, but with some baby powder added in. After an hour, it has dried down to nothing but baby powder on me. I really wanted to love this, but it's not very unique on my skin. I loved Ebisu when I first got it, but I quickly grew sick of it, and I don't think that I'll find myself wanting to wear Voyeurs either. In the vial, this is a girly, pretty, soft pink cherry blossom, and I wish that the cherry blossom would stick around, but this scent just morphs into that boring clean cologne smell once it touches my skin

I wish that I could get a bottle of just the 'peach wine' note in this, because the peach is perfect. It's refreshing, cool, juicy, and sweet - it made me think of peach wine coolers. I feel like the other notes in Philommeides are just there to mess up the peach. Still, this is mostly peach, but with a light background of something like dry wood, sour citrus, and a sharp perfumey note from the tuberose. The dry, perfumey qualities don't mesh well with the sweet, juicy peach for me. After a half hour, this is mostly gorgeous peach and a bit of dry wood, so I like it a lot more in the drydown. My boy really loves it on me, and I think that Philommeides will be great for summer. It's a full bottle purchase for me .

Morpho is a very loud fragrance. In the vial it's like tangy florals drenched in lemonade, next to laundry drying on a clothesline. Floral, zingy, and a bit soapy. On my skin, this instantly morphs into a red rose. If there is rose in a blend, my skin will find it. Almost every time that I wear a fragrance with any rose in it, within five minutes, it's as though my skin happily shouts up to me, "Look! We found roses! We killed all of the other notes too! Yay!" Wow. Thank you, skin. I was afraid of the jasmine, delphinium, and white ginger in this, but they're nowhere to be found. This is all rose on me - a perfumey, rich, slightly spicy, bold, strong, red rose. I actually like it, but I already have enough rose fragrances to last out my lifetime.

I usually enjoy lavender and dislike bergamot, so this scent could go either way on me. In the bottle and on me, this is just gorgeous. It smells *exactly* like LUSH's Dreamtime bath melt on me at first. It's a milky, creamy, sweet, cool, herbal lavender. It's so soothing, smooth, and lovely. In the drydown, the bergamot adds a sour touch, but it's still mostly a beautiful lavender. I only applied a small amount of this to my wrist and it has insanely strong throw and staying power. I think that my decant will be enough, and I'll save this one for nights when I'm having trouble sleeping.

In the vial, this smells like very strong, clean, white floral and a bit of green stem. It's verrry strong and overwhelming, even as a tiny decant. On my skin, this starts off softer and a bit sweeter thanks to the honey, but the honey fades quickly. Mostly this just smells like white, clean flowers and a hint of green stem. I was hoping that the gardenia would be sweet & creamy, but it's on the verge of going soapy and slightly smoky. Tissue isn't really working for me. Especially in the drydown, something about it starts to smell burnt and smoky underneath the otherwise clean, bright floral. It's just not a scent for me. It's heavy and headache-inducing...

In the vial, this smells like powdery incense and sweet, juicy, dark fruits. On my skin at first, this is on the verge of being too powdery on me, but I like what's going on underneath the baby powder. It smells like baby powder, dry sandalwood and sticky, dark fruits with a hint of sensual orange blossom. Over time, it's more baby powder than anything else. I so love the fruit & orange blossom notes while they last, though. I'm surprised at how light this is on me. It doesn't have much throw and fades within an hour on my skin. I probably won't keep my decant. As much as I love the fruit and floral in this, it's just too powdery overall for me.

The Ugh massage oil makes more sense to me than the perfume oil. I wasn't sure about rubbing straight perfume oil into my sore muscles, and it seemed like I'd go through 5mls pretty quickly doing so. I still don't care for the smell of this at first, like lemon menthol cough drops. After this sits on my skin for a minute, though, it smells like a sweet orange oil, and it's actually very pleasant. I think there's a little bit of cooling sensation as well, though I wish that were stronger & longer lasting. The massage oils leave my skin feeling a bit sticky, so I tend to shower after using them. I think that my favorite is still TKO (and Mineral Ice, lol). TKO helps my sore muscles just as much, and I find the smell more soothing. Mineral Ice is just freezing, numbing goodness. ETA: I actually have had sore muscles and a bruise to test this out on the past couple days. Unfortunately, I haven't noticed this helping at all, and I was mistaken in thinking that this had a cooling sensation. I've been rubbing this all over my sore legs (and not even showering afterwards) and I don't notice a cooling sensation at all. My bruises haven't healed any faster than usual either, and this works just as good for soothing muscles as any plain massage does for me. I'd probably only recommend this if you like the medicinal, sweet orange scent that it has.

I can't wear the lab's honey, ylang yang, or almond notes, but I've realized that what I hate on my skin, I generally love as a room scent. And I do really like Lupanar. This doesn't have quite as much throw as the rest of my room sprays, though it does last quite a while (several days) if it's sprayed on linens/pillows. I can normally do one spritz of atmosphere spray in our guest bathroom and the scent spreads all throughout our house, and is crazy-strong in the room it was directly sprayed in. This one seems to stay in the room that it was sprayed in, and is a lot lighter. It starts off smelling like warm, toasted almonds and slightly earthy honey, and it dries down to mostly sweet honey with very slight hints of toasted warmth and something incensey. The honey is definitely the main player in Lupanar. This smells sweet, exotic, and very pretty. I think that it's a rather inviting home fragrance. And I love the gorgeous pattern of reds on the label. I'm really glad that I went ahead and bought a bottle.

In the bottle, this smells sickly sweet and powdery. It actually reminds me of tropical punch drink powder. Perhaps the nectarine is giving me that fruity impression. I was sure that I would hate this after smelling it in the bottle, but it's actually very pretty on my skin at first. All of the notes swirl together and give off an impression of a sweetly scented rose dusting powder. Honeyed rose scented powder. In the drydown, it's not quite as soft or good on me. The rose goes very sharp and perfumey, and the other notes go into hiding. In the end, Maud is too sharp of a rose for me. I have so many rose blends that I already love; this one just isn't a standout for me (especially since it starts to give me a headache after a while).

In the bottle, this smells like a dark, deep, rich, spicy, gorgeous incense. It makes me swoon. It has the same feel for me as blends like Schwarzer Mond. I amp rose, but this isn't strongly rose-like on me. I get a hint of deep red, sour, spicy rose, and the sour qualities of it somehow smell gorgeous mixed with the other notes. The rose gives the blend a nice 'lift,' if that makes sense. This is spicy, dark, serious, ultra sexy love. I get lots of the delicious, dry clove. It's so different from White Rose's innocent, bright sweetness. I usually amp up rose so that it drowns out all of the other notes in a blend, but White Rose doesn't smell rose-like to me at all, and the rose in Red actually stays in the background & gives the other notes a chance to shine. Layered together ~ I much prefer wearing Red Rose & White Rose on their own instead of layered together. Together, they seem to wash each other out. The sweetness of White Rose is more subdued, but the sexy spiciness of Red Rose disappears. On my skin, the Red Rose is much stronger than the White Rose blend as well. If I layer them together, I have to apply Red Rose with a light hand and slather on more of the White Rose. I can't seem to strike a good balance between the two with my skin chemistry. On their own, each of the rose blends is distinctive, strong, and beautiful (though White Rose can be a bit too sweet for me at times). Together, they morph into a faint, boring, light, sweet rose on me. Still, I adore them separately and I think that this is such a gorgeous set & a lovely idea to offer for Valentine's Day. I wish that I could afford to buy another set or two

In the bottle, this is very light and very sweet. It makes me think of Dorian mixed with gummi bears. On my skin, it's much the same, but stronger & with much better throw. This is such a sweet scent on me that it could be cloying at times. I think that I'm getting all vanilla tea and none of the other notes. It makes me think of a much, much sweeter Dorian with a hint of gummi bears. It's such a gorgeous, innocent sort of fragrance. I may not be able to pull off its sweetness all the time, but I can still see myself wearing this a lot. I usually amp up rose so that it drowns out all of the other notes in a blend, but White Rose doesn't smell rose-like to me at all, and the rose in Red actually stays in the background & gives the other notes a chance to shine. Layered together ~ I much prefer wearing Red Rose & White Rose on their own instead of layered together. Together, they seem to wash each other out. The sweetness of White Rose is more subdued, but the sexy spiciness of Red Rose disappears. On my skin, the Red Rose is much stronger than the White Rose blend as well. If I layer them together, I have to apply Red Rose with a light hand and slather on more of the White Rose. I can't seem to strike a good balance between the two with my skin chemistry. On their own, each of the rose blends is distinctive, strong, and beautiful (though White Rose can be a bit too sweet for me at times). Together, they morph into a faint, boring, light, sweet rose on me. Still, I adore them separately and I think that this is such a gorgeous set & a lovely idea to offer for Valentine's Day. I wish that I could afford to buy another set or two

Giant Vulva smells like clean musk, honey, and dried flowers in the vial. It's not as sweet as I was expecting; it has more of a clean feel. On my skin, this launches into a crazy strong, perfumey musk. It's really sharp on me, and I smell something like sour lemon underneath the musk. The honey, sugar, beeswax, and vanilla seem to have abandoned me. I usually amp up honey, and it's nowhere to be found. After a half hour, this is still sharp, sort of like cheap hairspray. It's all bad musk and strange lemony something. The honey has creeped in a little, and the honey + lemon smells medicinal and makes me think of cough drops. This scent has amazing staying power & throw, but it's too sharp and musky for me.

This smells great in the bottle and in my bath water, but I'm not so sure about the scent that it leaves on my skin after the bath (or if I just rub it directly on to my skin). In the bottle, this is ultra sexy, exotic vanilla. In the bath, the red musk warms up the vanilla and the patchouli adds a gorgeous earthiness. It really is a sexy fragrance. On my skin, though, the fruits make this kind of sour and off smelling, and I get the weird tortilla chip note that others have mentioned. Then, after about ten minutes, it softens again and just leaves hints of red musk and patchouli. All in all, I like this once I get past the sour fruit stage.