Little Bird

Sniffing this in the bottle, I immediately wanted to dump it into my oil burner. It's warm, cozy, perfect apple cider. I figured that my skin would amp up the spice in this and give me a headache, as I'm pretty sensitive to spice notes. This is definitely a spicy cider, but somehow I just love it. It stays warm and soft on my skin. The spices don't overtake the apple and hint of orange, they just simmer warmly underneath the fruitiness. I seriously want to lick my arm when I wear this. I never get my hopes up about apple cider scents. Before Fearful Pleasure, every apple cider scent I've ever had just went to cinnamon mess on my skin. With this, the apple actually sticks around. I love this. I'm definitely going to purchase a couple bottles of Fearful Pleasure. I can see myself wearing this constantly for fall and winter

Brom Bones smells better in the bottle than it does on me. In the bottle, it's sexy, dark leather, with almost a touch of spice to it. My skin chemistry sometimes warps leather scents into a smoky mess, like leather on fire. Brom Bones is insanely smoky on my skin, in a suffocating sort of way. It smells like black, new car leather, set on fire. This isn't even particularly masculine on me. It's sort of perfumey and warm. I'll have to try this on my boy before it heads to my swap pile, but it's not something that I think I'll ever wear. I like a little more complexity to my leather blends, and a little less smoke (though the smokiness is more the fault of my skin chemistry, I think), lol.

In the bottle, this is red apple goodness, and perhaps a hint of something smoothly nutty. On my skin, this is spicy apple, and I'm not sure where I'm getting any spice from. There's also something of a musky, perfumey quality here. As it dries down, the nutmeat returns and the perfumey sharpness backs off. It's apple, a mix of nuts and dry leaves, and a cool twang of night air. 15 minutes after first application, this is mostly a clean, ozone scent on me with a very faint suggestion of nondescript, dry, harvest foodiness in the background. Salt ozone and fruity spice. And then it disappears before it hits a full half hour on my skin. I like "To Autumn," but it fades so fast on me and morphs into a salty sort of ozone rather quickly. I guess the "mist" takes over the blend for me.

In the bottle, this is like peppered cream with a hint of musty wool. On my skin, it's canned milk, a bit of warm tea, and a sweet, honeyed quality from the beeswax. This actually smells a lot like the original Milk Moon did on me, but not quite as sweet. There's also a hint of perfumey floral in the drydown, which I suppose is the muguet. I'm not as crazy about Ichabod Crane as I thought I would be. It's an okay, milky scent on me, but I have similar scents that I like more than this one.

The Witching Time of Night is an odd, forgettable sort of scent on me. It goes rather powdery on me, with a bitter, dark greenery that I don't really care for. The florals are a little bit sweet, and the sweetness seems out of place. Mostly, though, this is baby powder and just gets more powdery over time. I don't like powder scents, so this is a dud for me.

There's not much to say about Katrina Van Tassel, as it's a pretty simple scent. I love the white rose in Parlement of Foules (one of my all time favorite blends), and it's just as pretty here. I don't get much of the cream or honey, but there's just a touch of honeyed cream rounding out the edges, like an extra sweetness to the rose. This is a soft, sweet rose. I love it, and I'm glad I have a bottle.

When I read the description for this, all I could see was 'cocoa leaves.' I love chocolate scents. Unfortunately, this isn't really a chocolate or cocoa scent, lol. In the bottle, I'm not really sure what this smells like... something like exotic florals dressed up in tobacco and cocoa leaves, grounded with honeyed beeswax and slightly powdery sandalwood. It has a nice sweetness to it, and I'm pretty sure that I smell cocoa, but it might just be wishful thinking on my part. On my skin, this is very floral. A dry, warm, perfumey sort of floral. It has that musky sharpness to it that makes me think of cheap drugstore perfumes and gives me a headache. In the drydown, a bit of sweetness creeps in under the florals (and smells a little bit like suntan lotion on me for some reason, like honeyed coconut, though it morphs into honeyed baby powder after a while). Day of the Skulls is mostly just an overwhelming, heavy, sharp floral on me. It's the sort of floral that I can't wear without getting a headache, so I had to wash this one off and add it to my swap pile.

I agree with previous reviewers that describe this as a green-white scent. It does smell very much of a pale green to me. I like bpal's dandelion note, but I don't get a ton of dandelion from this. In the bottle, it's soft greenery, a hint of dandelion, and a touch of smoke. On my skin, this is like clover single note at first. It's a sweet, clean, pale sort of smell. I thought that it would go soapy at first, but it doesn't. After about fifteen minutes, that woodsmoke smell returns and I'm not crazy about this. The School-House is like pale clover and the scent of pine logs being burned while they're still green. Over time, I can definitely smell the fir. I'm not sure if this is a blend that I'll want more of. I like the clover and the fir, but I'm not sure I'd go through a whole bottle of this. I'll definitely keep my decant, though.

The 'chilly night air' in this worried me, as ozone always turns to dryer sheets on my skin. The Goblin Rider doesn't smell soapy or at all like dryer sheets on me, though (yay!). Mostly I get a crisp, clean pine smell from this, mixed with the dry cedar and a smooth, resinous quality that reminds me of Cathedral. Cedar sometimes smells awful on me, but I like the dry, almost spicy type of cedar that's in this (reminds me of clean hamster bedding, which is a smell that I actually like). I tend to really like blends of woods, incense, and resins, so The Goblin Rider smells great to me. The resins are smooth, the incense is a bit sweet, the pine adds a great chill, and the cedar adds a warmer, spicy sort of quality. I only have a decant of this right now, but I'm definitely going to get a couple bottles of this before the Halloween blends leave town.

In the bottle, this smells very evocative of an old, secluded church with an overgrown and not-often-visited graveyard. It somehow smells like cold stones to me, overgrown with dark green plants and thorny, dark roses. I also smell a hint of the fruity blackberry leaf and something incensey. On my skin, this instantly goes sharply perfumey and soapy. I had hoped that this would be my ultimate dark floral blend, but I get high-pitched, bright, happy, laundry soap. Thankfully, the drydown is a lot better. Fifteen minutes after first applying this, The Churchyard is awesome. It's not at all what I was hoping for or expecting, but it's great in its own, surprising way, lol. I get mostly the rose and blackberry from this. The rose is soft and clean (less outright soapy and more just an overall clean, soft scent), and the blackberry adds a touch of dark sweetness. I like that this smells both clean and a bit dark to me at the same time, and the overall touch of sweetness really pulls it together and makes it wearable for me. I'm glad that I bought a full bottle, even though the initial soapiness is a bit scary. I have a lot of rose blends, but I don't have one that smells anything like The Churchyard, so this is one that I'll definitely keep .

The foodie pumpkins wind up being way too sweet for me to handle (and I usually love foodie blends), but I tend to love the herbal, woodsy, earthy pumpkins, so I was super-hopeful for The Shattered Pumpkin. Unfortunately, there's just something 'off' about this blend. In the bottle, this smells like lightly spiced pumpkin rolled in black dirt and dry leaves. It smells pretty wonderful. On my skin, it smells weird. I amp up the spices (my skin always does), but they're actually not that bad. The spice is warm and fall harvest-y, but it never overwhelms or threatens to give me a headache, and I'm very spice-sensitive. The spice is gorgeous, but there's something very funky about this blend. It has an aquatic plants and seafood sort of smell, and something that's a tad lemony. Perhaps the water weeds are to blame. One of the notes in this just goes very weird on me, and it doesn't mesh well with the spice and leather. On my skin, The Shattered Pumpkin dries down to smell just like someone smacked Quincy Morris in the face with some spicy pumpkin pie filling, and maybe a drop of lemon (why? I do not know). That alone might be pretty good, but the weird, aquatic something keeps popping back in and mucking things up. After 3 hours, I do like this blend of soft, foodie, lightly spiced pie filling and soft leather, but it's hard to get through the hours of aquatic weirdness... This probably isn't a blend that I'll wear ever again, but I *love* the label artwork <3 so I'll keep my bottle anyhow, lol.

Crushed violets, red currant, patchouli root, and Spanish moss. I think that I would love this blend if it didn't have the moss in it. I think this smells so unbelievably beautiful in the vial, and it's nowhere near as good on my skin. In the vial it's dark, bruised, perfect violet with the best red currant smell evah - juicy, dark, tart, and delicious. I would be so happy if I could get just the violet and currant. On me, I would never guess that this even has violet in it. It's mostly moss, of a sour and bright green sort of variety. Wet, swampy moss rather than dry moss. There's the tiniest hint of earthiness from the patchouli root. And it's all rounded out by a tart fruitiness. Over time, the patchouli perks up and teams up with the moss to get rid of the currant. I'm left with hyper, psychotic, sour moss and the patchouli. I can't pick out any violet. It smells rather spooky and interesting on my skin, but it's probably not something I'll find myself wanting to wear that often. I keep sniffing this in the vial and wishing it were that good on my skin. I might keep my imp and age this and hope the moss chills out (or disappears). Bruised Violet Compound is fantastic, but my skin chemistry just butchers it

I was afraid to try Lucifer, because I remember reading that it had red patchouli in it, and red patchouli hates me. On me, Lucifer doesn't really smell like it has any patchouli in it at all, though. It goes oddly powdery and sickly on me at first, reminding me a little bit of the nasty woods and vanilla powder smell that I got from Glowing Vulva. I don't smell any patchouli, fig, or vetiver. The initial drydown is like baby powder, dust, a sickly smelling sweetness, and rotting wood. The amber and woods are going very bad on me. Lucifer isn't the sexy, dark, earthy fig scent that I was hoping for. It's more like baby powder and a plasticy vanilla that doesn't agree with me, with some rotten wood thrown in . The weird sweetness makes me kind of nauseous (after a half hour, it's reminding me of play-doh, if play-doh were amped up to a scary degree with sickly undertones)... Unlike most of the salon scents, this sticks around on my skin and has decent throw. I'm glad that I tracked down a decant of this before springing for a full bottle, because it really doesn't agree with me. Lucifer is not something I'll be keeping around.

In the vial, all I can smell is bpal's wonderful carnation note (smells like true carnation to me, with its hints of spicy sweetness) and a lovely, sweet clove. It reminds me of LUSH's "Potion" fragrance, but better. On my skin, the patchouli makes a light and brief appearance, adding a touch of earthiness to the clove and carnation. It fades quickly, though. I love the mid-stage of this where it's mostly carnation, a sensual heat from the pepper, and a hint of clove. The carnation and pepper combo is gorgeous. Black pepper in perfume always intrigues me, and I find it wonderful and wearable here. After a half hour, this is still good, but not quite as good as it was. The pepper disappears and a slightly astringent tea note pops in. It morphs into mostly tea with a background of carnation and a hint of clove on me. Clémence is a heavy scent on me with a lot of throw. It clings to my skin and amps up like crazy. It's a scent that would give me a headache on my sensitive days, but I'll like it on days when I'm craving a warmer, spicy, heavy sort of floral. I really do like the carnation in all of its stages. I wish the pepper would stick around, though.

There's a soft musk, pulpy greenery, and slight herbal tone to this that always reminds me of Buck Moon whenever I first use it. If I guess at the notes in this, I'd say it smells like honeydew melon, soft musk, and some type of earthy, slightly smoky, dry tobacco leaf. Maybe some dark, green herbal notes and teak popping out in the drydown as well. It also comes off as very masculine to me. I love the initial spray and first few minutes where this is sweetly green and softly musky, but the initial drydown loses a lot of its sweetness and charm for me. It turns darker, sort of bitter-herbal, and smells more strongly of tobacco and teak. After several hours, the soft, lovely musk and sweeter green notes make a reappearance and leave a light, pretty smell on my linens, though. Still, it smells pretty manly. I might purchase a full bottle of this if it's ever available, though I'm not sure if I'd need a big bottle. It's a nice scent, though - exotic, sexy, masculine, rainforest-y sort of goodness. I'm just not completely crazy about the earthy/wood notes that I get, and it might be too masculine to get a lot of use from me. It strikes me as a scent that would be great in a bachelor pad, lol.

I've tried this a couple times now, and Galvanic Goggles just doesn't seem to agree with my skin. I think that I smell soapy, dryer sheet ozone and the sharp musk, drowning out the other notes. This also comes off as very masculine to me, in a cheap cologne sort of way. In the drydown, this gets really musky on me, and I don't care for the musk in this. The musk bothers me in the same way that cheap, drugstore brand white musk bothers me. It sort of smells like sharp hairspray & chemicals on me. After a couple hours, this softens and is a clean, soapy muskiness, not quite as sharp as it is in its earlier stages, but it's still not that great on my skin... I think that Galvanic Goggles goes a little too sharp and soapy for my tastes. I have a hard time pulling off certain musk scents & ozone, so the Indian musk plus ozone in this is probably a little too much for me...

I love apple scents, so I was super excited about having a frosty apple fragrance. In the bottle, SGA smells fantastic - just like chilled apple slices, crisp & juicy. I think I can smell a bit of crisp mint underneath the apple. On me, this doesn't smell like apple at all . This quickly morphs into something like an earthy mint scent. It's sharp and makes me want to cough when I smell it. It reminds me of Envy's herbal, earthy mint. After fifteen minutes, this is sharp mint devoid of any sweetness. It also smells a bit like burnt rubber on me. Snow, Glass, Apples is heartbreak for me. It really smells awful on my skin, with no apples to be found.

I was hoping that the clove, tonka, and oakmoss would make this more than just a fruity floral on my skin, but I can't smell any of those notes in Lune Noire. On me, this is a subtle floral scent with a hint of pear in the early stages. Black orchid is one of my favorite floral notes, and I can happily pick it out in this blend at first. It smells juicy, exotic, and sultry. The drydown is more perfumey gardenia than orchid, and the pear fades away. The gardenia might be sharp enough to give me a headache (that sharp, white floral scent), but this stays light enough on my skin that it's not really offensive. I like The Premature Burial & Phantom Queen more for my black orchid fix. I was hoping for a complex, sultry, dark floral from this, but Lune Noire just goes to a light, white floral on my skin. I probably won't be keeping my decant.

I used to buy nothing but 10mls <3. I believe they were discontinued in the late summer of 06. This was a July 12, 2006 announcement about them: "To clear up some of the 10ml issues, we had been planning to remove them for about a year now. The only reason it will speed up production is because their sales voulme doesn't warrent us keeping them in inventory, therefore steps were not taken to move them into mass production. If we were to keep them in inventory, most of them would sit on our side for many many months, that is a quality compromise we just aren't willing to make." So... yeah... they are gone now. And I don't think I've heard any mentions of bringing them back.

Smokestack reminds me vaguely of Lenore (charred, smoky, black vetiver), but it's even worse on me than Lenore is. Smokestack is like Lenore dumped into a dirty ash tray. I can't actually imagine anyone wearing this, except perhaps as a layering note to add a bit of grittiness underneath another scent. Even then, I couldn't pull this one off. It's far too smoky, dirty, and gritty for me (and I have enjoyed quite a few vetiver blends, but this ash tray smell isn't for me). To the swap pile with this scent.

First on, Penumbra seemed kinda cologne-y and masculine. It reminded me of black musk with some gritty tobacco and odd herbal notes added in. Weird. Then, in the drydown, the purple musk and pomegranate take over and this is more perfumey & sharply feminine. It reminds me of Purple Phoenix with sweet tarts (pomegranate almost always does this to me) and a little bit of baby powder added in. Ick. This doesn't work on me at all.

In the bottle, this smells exactly like blue raspberry candy - sugary, fruity, and almost sour (in a good, mouthwatering sort of way). On my skin... I'm really loving the blueberry scents, even though they're more candy-blueberry than true blueberry. This isn't floral or musky on me at all, but the currant, green tea, and blueberry all meld together into a fantastic, unique fruity scent. The green tea adds a bit of astringent freshness that cuts the sweetness of the blueberry, and the currant makes it more than just a blueberry scent. I like that this is a tart scent that doesn't go too far and smell like sweet tart candies on me. Overall, the tea, currant, and blueberry seem to meld together into a tart raspberry scent on my skin. This is such a fun, playful blend. I'm glad that I got two bottles (and the label artwork is brilliant)

In the bottle, Sturgeon Moon smells fascinating. It smells swamp-y, sort of reminiscent of Bayou, but it's not as hot or sharp as Bayou is to me. Bayou has hot florals where this has green, watery plants. It's grassy, watery, fresh, and with a bit of swamp-dirtiness. On me, this pitches into a dryer sheet frenzy for about 15 minutes. For a while, the other notes try to save the blend, and it's like dryer sheets that are watery on the edges, sweet, and a bit green. The longer it's on my skin, the more aquatic it becomes and it starts to give me a vicious headache. It's too sharp and soapy-fresh. I think I'll keep my bottle for the label art, but the oil is a headache for me.

Cheshire Cat is in my top five of favorite GC bpal oils, but I don't think that the soap really smells anything like it. Perhaps it has a vague smell of citrus and chamomile, but mostly it just smells like soap. It's a pretty bar, cream colored with flecks of reddish brown (the rosehips?), making it sort of peaches and cream colored. I found it to be pretty drying, and lightly exfoliating. I think that my favorite thing about the soap is the wrapping paper that it came in (checker pattern with paw prints and Cheshire Cat faces & all sorts of cuteness <3). The soaps are wrapped beautifully, but I wish they were more strongly scented and less drying.

Shrunken Heads doesn't really do anything exciting or appealing on my skin. It's smoky leather with dry herbs. Oddly, I don't get the fresh wetness or green pulp that others have mentioned. I guess I'm not picking up on the 'ferns,' because this is mostly smoky leather on my skin, and I was glad that it didn't have very good staying power on me, lol.