Little Bird

This and the Pepper Smoked Caramel were my favorites of the chocolate box when I sniffed them all in the bottles. In the bottle, this is a creamy, frosty chocolate smell, like a chocolate shake topped off with whipped cream. On my skin, it starts off with that same smell, and dries down to smell a lot like Lump of Coal plus sugar cookies (fresh Lump of Coal, not aged). It's insanely rich chocolate that reminds me of freshly baked fudgey brownies. My boy normally doesn't like foodies, but he liked this, and said it smelled like baking chocolate chip cookies and sugar cookies. It smells a bit like sugar cookies to me after a while too. It's like baked goodies, extra sugar, and a creamy edge. Milk Chocolate Buttercream is just amazing, sweet, and comforting. I love foodie scents, and I need at least a dozen more bottles of this

In the bottle, this is like smelling the dry leaves of a fruity flavored tea. It's a clean, light scent. On my skin, it's much the same, except a really pretty honeyed note takes center stage. I don't normally like honey; I find it sickly sweet and strangely metallic on my skin, but the honey here is smooth and clean smelling. After a half hour or so, the honey fades away and I think that I can smell a soft floral from the lilac. It doesn't smell like lilac normally smells on me, though, it's much softer and a touch powdery. I might have guessed that the floral was lily. Overall, this is a soft, clean smelling fragrance on me. It smells pale and watered down. I don't smell any myrrh or resins. I like The Dormouse a lot more for a clean tea type of scent.

In the bottle, this is all scary vetiver. It smells like someone tried to set damp, rotting wood on fire. A dark, cold, smoky, dank sort of vetiver. On my skin, the vetiver smells sweeter and this goes very powdery. It's so strong in the bottle, but very light and subtle on my skin. It's also very not me. Prurience is a verrry dry smelling scent. It's like dry wood, woodsmoke, sharp, dry musk, and baby powder. I can't pick out any carnation or tonka. This one isn't a keeper for me.

The Lady on the Grey is all soap, powder, and smoky floral on me. It's like freshly scrubbed skin that still smells of soap, dusted with baby powder and then splashed with a drop of smoky floral perfume. It's really subtle but it does last quite a while on my skin. It's just not really my type of scent.

My boy likes this scent and said it smells like "pretty pink petals covered in dew." I think that it smells rosy, but not like the fresh roses and green stems of The Queen's Croquet Ground. It smells like a fancy, classic rose perfume. It's not green or fresh at all, but has an overall perfumey, sharper quality. Something about it reminded me a bit of Peony Moon as well. The Fainting Couch made my livingroom smell as though I had spilled an expensive rose perfume all over the place. Every time I relaxed, I'd catch the scent of it and absentmindedly wonder if I spilled perfume somewhere. All in all, I much prefer the fresh roses of Croquet Ground.

I like this in the bottle where it smells like a clean, dark cologne and gorgeous black pepper. On my skin, Ghulheim just morphs into something odd, though. It smells like flat cola and spicy breakfast sausages . Smoked, spiced meat. In the drydown, the cola-y sweetness starts to smell like maple syrup on me, which just makes me even more unable to get rid of the impression of breakfast sausages. This is not a keeper for me.

Daffodil is one of my favorite smells in the world, and I've never found a perfume that really smells like them. I get no daffodil from Owens' Tomb. This is pretty much all dandelion on me at first. Dandelion and a cold, green bitterness, with a sickly-sweet, powdery floral in the background. Over time, the lily takes over the blend, and it's a nice, true lily on me. Cool and slightly powdery. This is okay, but probably not something that I'll wear a lot. I don't care for the opening stages, and the lily is nice, but it gives me a headache... I have a hard time with floral scents giving me headaches

In the vial, this is like a sweet, clean musk and something dirty, like motor oil. Maybe a hint of anise. On my skin... this is weird. It's sort of like an ultra musky spearmint and dirty rest area bathroom plus cleaning products smell. Something reminds me of cigarette smoke in the drydown. Cigarette smoke in a rest area bathroom :/ The Convocation is not the sexy men's cologne that I was hoping for. This just smells all wrong on me.

I love bpal's Eggnog perfume oil, but this doesn't really smell anything like eggnog to me (the real thing or the perfume version). This blend is like sickly sweet, creamy coffee and a gingerbread smell in the bottle, and a sweet, icky spiced goods smell on my skin. I don't think that the oils in this one are really high quality, because they remind me of candle fragrance and soap making oils. A really sweet spiciness that gives off a 'spiced baked goods' feel. I can pick out a hint of sweet coffee if I'm looking for it, but it's mostly spices on my skin. It almost has a weird, waxy, plastic edge to it that smells very cheap and off-putting. Almost dusty and sour. I much prefer Bah, Pinched, or Miskatonic University for a coffee scent, and bpal's regular eggnog yule LE is good for something that actually smells like eggnog.

I don't usually care for white florals, and this is white flowers in the worst way on my skin. It's all sharp, cheap, and perfumey smelling, plus soap. I might get a bit of mint in here as well, but I have to wash this off after fifteen minutes or it starts to give me a vicious headache.

In the bottle, this smells like softly spiced apple cider and hay, and I'm not sure why :/. Rubbed directly on my skin, this is sour bergamot, spiced amber, and a hint of soft rose. In the drydown, it's dry woods and spiced, sweet amber. In bath water, it's pretty much all dry wood and powdery amber to my nose, and that's the scent it leaves on my skin when I leave the bath. It's pretty enough, but I'm not crazy about it. It's a bit too much on the dry, powdery woods smell for me. I was hoping for more blackberry and white rose...

In the bottle, this is perfumey musk and warm, sweet honey with some vanilla. Overall it's like a sticky-sweet, ultra musky, classic, woman's perfume. Underneath that, I can smell a hint of pine needles that reminds me of Golden Priapus. On my skin, the muskiness thankfully mellows down (though it creeps back in full force in the drydown). The patchouli, resins, and tobacco all meld together to create a sweet, rich, resinous earthiness. I can pick out all of the listed notes separately, but they blend together into a great perfume. It's a bit earthy, a bit sweet, a bit ultra sexy vanilla, a bit honeyed sweetness, and a hint of pine. It has an overall feel of resins with sexy, sweet musk and vanilla on my skin. In the drydown, I get a lot more of the honey note and the earthiness fades to the background. This reminds me of LUSH's Honey I Washed the Kids mixed with Givenchy's Pi cologne. Musky pine, honey, vanilla, and a hint of gritty earthiness. I like The Illustrated Woman, and my boy likes this on me. He said it reminded him a bit of my Black Lace perfume, which he loves on me. I might need to get another bottle of this'n before the carnaval leaves town.

In the bottle, I can smell the comparisons to the musk that's in Ivanushka. It's mostly musk and dark, sweet amber with a hint of spiciness. I can smell almond too, but it smells like hyper-sweet maraschino cherries to me. On my skin, this is mostly a soft, powdery musk with sweet, cherry-esque almond and sharp, perfumey spice. In the drydown, this starts to smell weird and goes to burnt plastic on me. Miss Lupescu goes all wonky on my skin. I won't be keeping this one.

In the vial, this smells like powdery, fake-y banana candies and something dirty/earthy. On my skin, this smells like banana candies, warm, musky perfume, and dry hay. In the drydown, it's dry, dusty hay and something sour and pukey. Not good. I had to wash this one off.

In the vial, this smells amazingly dark, heavy, and spooky. It smells so creepy, like a dying meadow near a forest as the sun goes down, and you really don't want to be there alone when the sun goes down. Heavy, slightly burnt, dry grass, dark soil, and a chill in the air. On my skin, this smells cold and earthy, with a little hint of smoke that goes away in the drydown. The Field smells like sitting on a blanket of dry, sweet grasses in the fall, next to a flowing river, with a cold breeze blowing in from the forest across the field. It truly smells like all of those wonderful things to me. And my boy *loves* this on me (seriously, he said it's his favorite bpal). He said it smells very natural and forest-y, and I agree. The Field doesn't smell like any perfume that I've had before. It smells so natural and comfortable to me. I wasn't expecting to like this at all, but I'm going to need a full bottle of The Potter's Field

I had hoped that this would be mostly chocolate and sex (though I’m not sure what exactly I hoped sex would smell like, lol) and not much champagne, but it’s the opposite of what I had hoped for. I get a whiff of dry cocoa powder when this is first applied, but that quickly disappears and I’m left with the champagne note that fizzles out within an hour on my skin. All of the Champagne blends fade really fast on me. I’m not well educated in boozy smells (I don’t drink alcohol); the champagne smells like an odd mix of bright & clean and sharp & pukey, though. It's oddly sour and unpleasant. I think that I was hoping for more of a sweet, fizzy smell. I'm glad to have gotten the chance to try this, but it's not something that I'd ever wear.

In the bottle, this smells like frozen blackberries and lavender. It isn't a minty, snowy, or menthol type of frozen, but the scent just smells cold to me somehow. On me, this starts off with a cool, smooth lavender that I really enjoy, and a juicy fruitiness that's still reminding me of the lab's blackberry note (but I suppose it's the lychee). The drydown isn't awesome on me, though. This dries down to cold snow, citrussy notes, and something like slightly soapy, white florals. I keep getting images of white laundry soap stuck in my head. It's very clean smelling on me. Moon of the Terrible might be too clean and white for my tastes, once it dries down. I'll keep my bottle and see how it ages, but I'm not loving it at the moment.

In the bottle, I can barely smell anything... perhaps a whiff of light sandalwood and soft, musky cologne. On my skin, this initially reminds me of Luperci, but Mole is very light and doesn't have much throw at all on me. It's like sandalwood with a bit of honeyed sweetness. In the drydown, it's dry, slightly powdery sandalwood. Every once in a while, I get a hint of earthy, soft moss, but it's mostly just sandalwood. I slather this on and it still only lasts about a half hour on my skin. It's a nice enough sandalwood scent, but I don't see myself wearing this much. Perhaps it will get better/stronger with age.

In the bottle, this smells sharp, sour, and smoky. The only note that I can definitely pick out is pine, but it smells dirty and sharp. On my skin... This is the smoky, charred BBQ sort of vetiver that I hate, mixed with the sharp, cat pee type of pine that I hate. It's a really sickening, soured fragrance on me. When it dries down, it smells like bathroom cleanser. I have Scrubbing Bubbles that smell just like this, actually. This has those dirty, cat pee undertones, though, so it smells like I'm trying to clean up something nasty... I've deeply loved a lot of blends in the Wind in the Willows series (Sea Rat, Badger, Toad <3), but Rat is awful on me.

In the bottle, this reminds me of Troll and Dunwich. I get something like smoky pine pitch and swampy, cold greenery. It seems too dark and not sweet enough for me. On me, this is very not good. It smells like feces hiding under a dry, bitter wood note and soapy greenery. Over time, the laundry soap smell takes over and it's actually an improvement, though I still don't enjoy it. Nowhere In Particular morphs into strong, headache-inducing laundry soap on me

In the bottle, this smells like sweet, creamy, cool florals. I keep going back to it, because it's such a pretty scent. I can pick out a fresh, soft rose as well. On my skin, this reminds me a bit of a clean rose perfume that came along with one of my Barbies when I was little, but this takes on a sharper, more perfumey edge. It seems like it wants to go soapy in its sharpness, but it never does go to soap on me. Over time, this takes on a strong, heavy, sharp, musky feel on me. It's like one of those musky-floral perfumes that you can find by the dozens at department stores. It's a sharp, serious, woman scent - classic, fakey, powdery rose and sharp, cutting musk (which may be aquatic or ozone going wonky on me). Unfortunately, I can't pull this type of scent off and it starts to give me a headache after a while. I wish that All They Had Seen was as pretty on me as it is in the bottle...

I just got a couple wee drops of this in a swap that I slathered on my boy, since it sounded like a masculine scent. My boy's skin chemistry sometimes amps up the sweetness in scents, and Libertarian mostly smelled like a smoky, sweet clove scent on him. It seemed a bit resinous and cologney in the drydown (maybe a bit of clean citrus and amber that others have mentioned). The boy thought it smelled nice and spicy, but said it wasn't a favorite. I didn't care for the smoky tone that Libertarian took on him, but it faded away within an hour. I guess that's good; I don't have to try to track down more of this for him now, lol.

In the bottle, this smells so pretty. It's a soft, salty aquatic, fruitiness that reminds me of bpal's blackberry note, and a smooth, cool lavender. On me, this goes instantly soapy. It's like I stuffed my head into a box of laundry soap. I kept waiting and hoping that the other notes would drift back into focus, but laundry soap is all she wrote

I wasn't expecting much from Metal Phoenix. I tend to not enjoy musk or verbena, and while I love honeysuckle in real life, it's usually too perfumey and sharp for me in perfume form. In the bottle, this smells scary. It's like perfumey, sharp hairspray and a cloying sweetness that makes me think of home-made popsicles, but too sweet. It starts off the same on my skin. I think that the musk and metal meld together and are just too sharp for me. I smell like I drenched myself in cheap hairspray. In the drydown, I don't know what the sweet note is, but it's making me kind of sick. Metal Phoenix makes me feel like I'm trapped in the girl's lockerroom in high school, a room drenched in hairspray, Bath and Body Works, and cheap, sweet perfume. I think that this is my least favorite Phoenix blend...

Ho Ho Ho is a really dark oil, like it has a thick red musk in it, but I can't really smell any red musk. This is very much a candle and red hots cinnamon type of scent on my skin, so I don't really care for it. It seems more like a cheap room scent than a personal scent. I get lots of sharp cinnamon spice and maybe some woodsmoke. I wish that I got the fruit or pine that others have mentioned, but it's pretty much all spices. In the drydown, Ho is like a dusty, sharp, holiday spice candle. It makes my head ache. My boy just made a face when I made him smell this one and said it smelled like holiday potpourri. I've been liking a lot of spice blends lately, but this isn't a winner for me. Has gotten even spicier with age, but it's the exact type of cinnamon that I can't handle (sharp red hots candy type cinnamon). Headache inducing to the max.