Little Bird

I'd definitely recommend checking out the Rappaccini's Garden series, especially Squirting Cucumber & Strangler Fig. Squirting Cucumber is cucumber and green grass. Strangler Fig smells like crushed green leaves, sap, and bark.

I think that Good Death is my favorite of the Bats. I love chamomile's warm, golden, herbal smell. I find it so soothing. I can pick out the chamomile here, hanging out around the edges of the dry cedar, creamy, sweet coconut and resins. The coconut goes through a strong, sun tan lotion phase on me at first, but it quickly calms down and the cedar takes over. After about fifteen minutes, something in this goes a little powdery on me and a sharpness pokes through, but it's still nice enough. This doesn't have a ton of throw on me, but it sticks around for 6 hours or so, smelling mostly like warm herbs, wood, & a hint of coconut. It's the sort of scent that I'd dab on my wrists so that only I could smell it, and I'd enjoy it & find it soothing. I really like Bat of Good Death. It goes a little more powdery & sharp than I would love in the drydown, but I'm still going to keep my decant. I find this scent to be very comforting and soft.

Oak King smells strange on me. It goes on smelling like someone spilled cherry cough syrup on a very dry oak table, and then smeared minty herbs through the mess. It's medicinal and just not good on me. As it dries down, this goes a little smoky and sweet on me, like burnt sugar and burning wood. There's also a little bit of spiciness here. The longer this sits on my skin, the more it's very dry wood and a bit of sweet spice. All in all, I doubt I'll wear this again. It's too dry smelling and the beginning stage is just strange and unpleasant on me.

Awww, the Stinky label is so cute.

There's not much to add about this scent that hasn't already been said. This smells like tons of sweet clove and a little bit of dry wood on me. Sometimes I think it smells like sandalwood and then other times I think it's cedar, because it smells like more of a spicy wood, but perhaps I'm smelling some sort of other spice in the mix. Cloves and wood. I like it, but I have other clove-heavy perfumes and don't really need more.

My skin chemistry absolutely murders this scent. The blackberry on its own is pleasant enough, but a bit bitter & funky on me. The bergamot makes it even sharper and more sour on me, though, and the pomegranate smells like bitter sweet tarts. So, I get an overall feel of bitter, sour fruit with an extra shot of sour lemon. Heliotrope smells like sweet vanilla powder on me, so I was hoping that it would come in and soften the blend, but heliotrope is nowhere to be found . As this dries down, I get a bit of earthy, funky patchouli. I normally love patchouli (except the red variety), and this one isn't working on me. Something about the mish mash of fruit is just going all wrong on me. My boy told me that I smell like spoiled fruit when I wore this :/

Akuma is very sweet and fruity, and I don't think I've seen that one mentioned yet.

I got this bottle in a swap. The numbers are rubbed off & smudged, but I think it says CCXXXII or maybe just CCXXX with some smudging :/ In the bottle, this smells a lot like Eat Me mixed with Snake Oil. I get a strong vanilla cake note, a bit of sweet, dark fruitiness and the incensey Snake Oil. On my skin at first, this smells like musky, incensey Snake Oil + foodie vanilla. As this dries down, this smells like musky baked goods (kinda reminds me of peanut butter cookies) with lashings of vanilla, and an overall dark feel from the Snake Oil.

I like The Obsidian Widow for a black dress & red lipstick combo. It doesn't give off a black feel, though, more of a dark red, sexy feel. Intrigue smells dark and shadowy to me. Whip makes me think of black and red because of the leather and rose combo. Voodoo is also a sexy, mysterious, dark scent to me, and it's described as "a midnight scent."

Some scents that might be good for conjuring up a hot desert feel: *The Ifrit (desert sand, red musk, blackened ginger, dragon's blood resin, black pepper, cinnamon, & tobacco) *Morocco (the intoxicating perfume of exotic incenses wafting on warm desert breezes: arabian spices, warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood, and cassia) *Scarecrow (the scent of a hot wind blowing through desolate, scorched, barren fields) *Ozymandius (dry desert air, dry and hot, passing over crumbling stone megaliths and plundered golden monuments, bearing a hint of the incense of lost Gods on its winds -- though this is more classical-perfumey & soapy on me, personally) You might also want to check out Australian Copperhead in the Carnaval series, though. It doesn't smell like hot desert to me, but it does smell lovely, and it has Australia right in the name, lol.

First on, this smells green & damp on me, like cucumber and grass clippings, with sharp, perfumey florals dancing around the greenery. As it dries down, I get a lot of clean, soapy rose. Greenery & rose soap with a bit of white floral perfume spritzed about. It's too soapy and too sharply fake-floral for my tastes.

I amp up spices, so I was happy when so many reviews said this wasn't too spicy, but The Greatly Revered Ones is intensely cinnamony on me. It has some extra heat to it as well, which kinda smells like chili pepper on me. There's a weird something in here that smells sort of gross and off underneath the spice (the maize? agave?) - it's just sickly sweet. Sometimes I think I catch a whiff of a dark chocolate smell in here somewhere, but it's not strong or constant on my skin. All in all, this is just a bit too spicy for me, and the other notes don't seem to be fitting in well.

In the bottle, this smells like the richest, blackest, muddy soil. It really smells somehow soft and muddy. On my skin, this immediately turns perfumey-clean & sharp (smells like a warm aquatic note more than the snow note I'm used to, because this isn't chilly or sweet at all). As this dries down, it's all mud, sharp aquatic, and dirty smelling cedar. It's also a bit soapy. Season of the Inundation smells fascinating in the bottle, but it goes all sharp, perfumey, and off on my skin

In the bottle, this smells like dryer sheets - sharp, dry, and soapy. On my skin, this has that familiar, soapy, doing-laundry scent that I get from most aquatic & ozone blends. Festival of Anuket is very sharp and soapy on my skin. It's sort of like smelling cleaning chemicals, in that it smells sharp in a way that makes me feel like it's something I shouldn't be smelling. Eye-watering, nose burning sharpness... I had to wash this one off, because it started to make me feel sick while I was wearing it. This is probably my least favorite of bpal's aquatic blends (my favorites are Sea of Glass & Banded Sea Snake <3).

It's funny to read the mixed love it or hate it reviews for this spray. Luckily, I am in the love-it camp . I get frankincense, beeswax, and olive leaf from this, mainly. The beeswax and frankincense are wonderfully smooth and sweet, but not too sweet or just a sweet fragrance. The olive leaf has this sort of slightly clean, slightly herbal, exotic smell to me. It's just wonderfully incensey and exotic smelling, and a very smooth fragrance. There's nothing sharp or out of place about it. I'm happy to have several of these sprays. I'll probably use it to spray on my jackets, since I love the smell so much.

Semiramis bath oil is definitely my favorite thing from the warrior queens series. I wish that I could get a couple big bottles of this stuff. In the bottle, this smells like a mix of red cherry and orange popsicles - sweet, juicy, smooth, cool fruitiness. I don't normally really like cherry or orange (the cherry tends to be too sweet and the orange not sweet enough, lol), but they smell perfect here, perhaps thanks to being blended with each other. If I rub this directly on my skin, I get lots of warm, earthy, sweet red musk and myrrh, and the fruits just disappear. I like how this scent plays out in the bath more than directly on my skin. In the bath water, I can pick out all of the listed notes except for the pomegranate. The orange smells decadent & almost sparkly in the bath. It makes me think of rich blood orange. And it leaves the most wonderful scent on my skin afterwards, where I can still pick out the red musk, orange, myrrh, and a hint of cherry. I find it to be such an uplifting scent. The red musk & myrrh make it smell sexy, expensive, and royal, and the sweet, fruity aspects make it cheery, playful, & fun. This is just a beautiful fragrance. The best bath oil ever...

Bpal's amber notes often go powdery, and heliotrope is a sweet, powdery floral, so Labores Solis goes very powdery on me. I get a little bit of something like a sweet floral incense underneath the baby powder. I like parts of this a lot, but it's too powdery for me to actually wear. I like all of the listed notes, but this sadly is not for me

Red currant is sour & tart on me. In the Tomoe Gozen perfume oil, the red currant mixed with the blackberry became unbearably sour. The bath oil isn't bad on me, though. The honey here really mellows out the red currant for me. It still smells like a tart red fruit, but the honey adds a sugary edge to it that smooths it out. It kinda smells like some sort of berry smoothie. In the water and on my skin, this smells like a tart, cool berry. Very simple.

I wasn't crazy about this when I first got it, but Boadicea seems to have aged well. It was initially very piney and smoky to me, but that has calmed down into just a hint of soft earthiness. The vanilla is still slightly buttery and powdery smelling to me, but it has sweetened up some. Much to my delight, the fig note is actually rather strong now. It smells like a sweet fig, almost berry-like. Actually, this oil smells a lot like Monster Bait: Closet in my bath water, with the mix of almost-berry-like, sweet fig and buttery, cakey vanilla. It layers really well with Closet . On my skin after the bath (or applied directly to my skin), this leaves a hint of sweet fig, cakey vanilla, and warm, powdery amber. It's really lovely. I'm glad that I kept my bottle of this to see how it would settle. It's much better now that the pine/vetiver notes have chilled out and the vanilla has sweetened.

I like the Ysabel bath oil a lot more than her perfume oil, though I have trouble picking out the listed notes for this one. When I wear this, I keep thinking that it smells like bees (I know, I'm strange). Ysabel bath oil smells sort of like honeyed wildflowers, carnation-spiced wood, and a sharp, pleasant little something that I cannot place. Overall it smells dark to me. It has an herbal/incensey quality along with the honeyed something, reminding me of pollen and wildflowers, if that makes sense. I love this bath oil, and would definitely wear it as a perfume.

Like everyone has already mentioned, Metallic Pinwheel reminds me of Blue Fire in the bottle and on my skin at first. The juniper smells like fizzy gin on me, the blueberry takes over & is the strongest notes in the blend, and the other citrus notes add a bit of zest underneath everything. The blueberry is very sweet and candied on me (like blueberry bubblegum), so it's nice to have the citrus and juniper to cut through its sweetness a bit. As it dries down, this is actually more fizzy and effervescent smelling on me than Blue Fire was. Where Blue Fire got sweeter on me as it dried down, this fades quickly into an explosion of sharp fizz. It's like the perfume equivalent of seltzer water on my skin. I don't know if this works so well on me. It might be nice for layering with other fruity scents, though.

In the bottle and on my skin at first, this smells like Milk Moon '05 - like canned milk with extra sweetness. A little too sweet and a bit milky-sour. After 5 minutes or so, this dries down and has a lot of figgy goodness to it. It smells like the dark, wooden sort of fig that's in Intrigue, but with an edge of sour milk instead of Intrigue's cocoa. I don't get any myrrh from this at all. The goat's milk doesn't smell any different to me than the usual milk notes. Nonae probably isn't going to be something that I wear a lot. It smells rather similar to Intrigue, but not as good. I kind of like bpal's milk notes, but they tend to be too cloying & strong for me to wear for any real length of time. I suppose that I just get sick of smelling the milk notes pretty quickly. Intrigue is one of my favorite fig scents, and I'd reach for that blend over Nonae. This is strong fig, a drizzle of Milk Moon '05, and no myrrh on me.

Zenobia starts off smelling like spiced cola and dry wood with smooth, dark resins. In the drydown, this smells like deep, purple, sweet, slightly powdery violets with clove and an overall dark, incensey feel. Sweet violet incense with clove. This smells a lot like LUSH's Bathos fragrance on me.

In the bottle, this is loads of red musk and a hint of red fruitiness (almost smells like red wine, but I suppose that's just the pomegranate giving me that impression). It reminds me of the Mme. Moriarty blend. On my skin, this is pretty much all red musk. I expected this blend to be lighter, juicier, and fruitier thanks to the melon and orange blossom, but I get absolutely no trace of either of those notes. Red musk smells like heated skin, sweet, dark, pulsating reds, and a little bit earthy on me (maybe like tobacco flower or a very light patchouli). It's a very dark, sultry, sweet musk on me - not sharp or perfumey as some musk notes can be. And that's all I smell for about an hour, before a tiny bit of pomegranate manages to make its way through the musk. Pomegranate smells like bitter sweet tarts on me. This is tons of red musk and a drop of bitter pomegranate on me. No melons or orange blossom. I really wanted this to be more complex and unique than it is. Semiramis is probably my biggest disappointment of the warrior queens series.

In the decant vial, this kinda smells like soapy cologne. I was worried that it would be soapy on me, but it's not. Oddly, this isn't smoky on me at all either. Smoky Moon is mostly powdery on me. Light, smooth, powdery sandalwood. That's all that I can pick out of this scent, and this one fades insanely fast on me. I'm glad I just went with a partial decant of this'n, because it's rather blah on me.