Little Bird

I was *so* happy to get my Whippoorwill fan pack today. Everything is even better looking in person (the shirt? best.shirt.EVER.), and I really love this oil. In the bottle, it smells like a cross between Shill and Mitzvah, like buttered, slightly salty popcorn drizzled in caramel cream. The caramel and vanilla cream sort of smell dominates on my skin, but still with the salty, buttered popcorn in the background. In the drydown, this takes a darker turn on my skin, almost like the boozy, dark sugar sharpness of Kill-Devil is added into the mix. My hubby-to-be hates this oil (loves the shirt on me though, the babydoll shirts really cling in all of the right places ), as 'buttery' is one of the qualities he hates most in my perfumes. I love buttery-foodie scents though, so MVJBA makes me verrry happy. It's like Mitzvah with a darker, more adult edge on my skin, but still completely foodie and fun. The scent actually has great throw and staying power on me too. I've been wearing it for five hours now and it's still going strong. I'm definitely pleased to have two bottles of this. I'll wear it when my hubby is at work, lol.

The original version of Beltane turned into a soapy mess on my skin. I actually kinda like this 08 version though. Initially, I thought that this was going to be way too minty for me. The only mint I really like is the original Lick It, which is a wonderful, candied mint. The mint here is sort of soft and herbal to my nose, which I hate at first. It's a strong mint in the vial and on my skin initially, but it mellows and fades away entirely after about an hour. There's a perfumey quality here that I don't like in the opening stages, probably thanks to the iris going sort of sharp and almost musky, but the ivy really seems to take over in the drydown, and I love the lab's ivy notes. The drydown is green, herbal, and slightly minty with a touch of powdery sandalwood and jasmine. I don't love jasmine, but it's herbal, sweet, and light enough here that it's not really off-putting. This isn't really resinous or incensey on my skin, but I do get the greenery, herbal qualities, soft woods, slight earthiness, and touches of floral. It's not something I need a full bottle of, but I think I'll hold on to my decant. This is something I'd actually like to have around when winter returns and I'm wishing for spring again. It's a lovely spring blend.

Moai reminds me of an exotic mix of Djinn, Brimstone, and Caliban. It's far too smoky for my tastes, and I agree that the opening stages of this one are pretty awful, but my husband-to-be actually loves this blend and I don't mind the drydown too much. He really likes smoky/campfire-esque scents. It starts off way too sharp for me to handle, but it mellows down into an exotic smokiness over dark, leafy greenery and something of a humid, warm, aquatic smell. It seems to smell nicer on my man than it does on me, so he has taken custody of our decant. I did not fight him for it though, lol.

Marae and Tiki Queen were the surprise floral-favorites from my Tiki orders and decants (which is surprising and impressive, because I tend to hate floral blends). While Tiki Queen is strong and candied on my skin, Marae is lighter, softer, and more incensey-sweet. It's like creamy, slightly perfumey gardenia with a sweet, floral incense wrapped around it. It almost smells a bit smoky or powdery without smelling like smoke or baby powder, if that makes sense. It fades a lot after an hour on me and clings closely and sweetly to my skin. My boy really likes it when I wear florals, so I'm happy that this works on me and doesn't give me a headache . I'm glad I have a bottle of Tiki Queen and I'm glad to have a decant of Marae, though I'm not sure if I need to search out a full bottle of this one or not. It's a really lovely, light floral...

I'm always hopeful for blends with currant in them, so I wanted to give Mad Kate a chance on my skin, even being wary of the floral notes in it. In reality, I don't get any currant from this at all. I get a hint of honeyed sweetness that tries to calm down the florals, but mostly I think the freesia and gardenia are amping up on my skin. Mad Kate is honeyed white florals initially, but the florals quickly take over the blend entirely. In the drydown this smells like a perfumey/musky, breezy, white floral, drugstore perfume on my skin. I get a generic musky-white-floral smell from a lot of floral blends, where I'm not sure that I could even tell them apart, and Mad Kate falls into that category for me. Leaving this blend on my skin, 3 hours later I'm left with a light dusting of powdery vanilla and musky white floral smell. This is too much white floral for me to wear, so it's not a keeper for me.

The 'seaweed' note doesn't seem to work well on my skin, because Moana goes just as soapy/shaving cream-esque as The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife went on my skin. That seaweed note mixed with the clean sweetness of the awapuhi reminds me so much of an awapuhi shampoo that I had when I was little. It's clean, sweetened shampoo on my skin. I probably won't keep my decant of this one, just because soapy/clean scents aren't really something that I ever find myself wearing.

Tupapau is nothing but sharp floral soap on my skin, from start to finish. I can't pick out any one note, just a mishmash of perfumey florals crammed into soap...

I love the original Hex, but this 08 version seems to be entirely different, and it doesn't work with my skin chemistry at all. First on, I was slightly hopeful, as it did have a very green, pine forest-y smell, if a bit artificial. In the drydown, this just goes all haywire on me though. I get hints of something like pine cologne, sickly sweet florals, and baby powder that just gets less pine and more soap the longer I wear it.

This smells a lot like Holiday Moon to me, which was one of my least favorite lunar blends. The bamboo just never seems to work on me. It smells sharp, green, and citrussy, like unripened oranges and soapy lemons. Sour citrus. Boo Bam is just too sharp for me.

I bought a bottle of Tiki Queen figuring I would love the label and hate the scent. Tuberose is one of my headache-inducing notes and I tend to dislike ylang ylang, hibiscus, monoi, and white musk. Something about this is really just fantastic on me though. I thought that this would be an overwhelming, sharp, perfumey floral on my skin, but it's not at all. It's rather sweet, like an ultra-creamy, tropical, lush gardenia (the monoi), mixed with hints of sweet tarts and bubblegum. It's very creamy and tropical with an overall touch of sweetness on my skin. Tiki Queen is a floral that I can actually wear with no sign of a headache forming. A perfectly tropical, summer floral with candied edges. And a tiny drop just lasts forever on my skin and has tons of throw (I wore a wee drop of this to the amusement park/carnival last night and it was still going strong when I went to bed). My boy loves this on me too. I'm so glad that I have a bottle of this

Of the four current room sprays, I really love Dungeon & Down the Rabbit Hole (and Cathouse was too musky/floral for me). When I tried The Queen's Croquet Ground initially, I sprayed it on the throw pillows for one of our livingroom couches and sort of forgot about it. I thought "it smells like roses, meh, nothing fantastic about that." Then I moved on and forgot about it. In the bottle, it smells like bpal's Rose Red or Possets' Silver Roses before they're on the skin, sort of sour, pickled roses to my nose. Rose Red remains pickled, sour roses on my skin, but Silver Roses sweetens and smells like true roses with sugar. I figured that Croquet Ground would remain sour roses, but it really transforms on the linens to the smell of true roses and fresh cut greenery. I didn't really appreciate the scent until last night (after it had been on the couch pillows for over 24 hours). The boy and I had all of our windows open and were watching a movie, and I kept thinking in the back of my mind that I smelled roses. In an absentminded way I started wondering if there were any roses in the bouquet in our kitchen or if something in one of my new perfumes had rose in it. Then I realized that it was the linen spray; with the windows open, the scent seemed to bloom and flutter all throughout the house, and I didn't even use that much of it. It's amazing how well these work with just using a small amount, and how well they fragrance without being overwhelming. A lot of the room sprays that I own are suffocating when I first use them and then they fade rather quickly after that initial burst, but these bpal sprays are never overwhelmingly strong *and* they're long lasting. My initial reaction to this was "meh, whatever, roses and greenery, nothing unique about that," but now I'm thinking I might need a bottle of this one too. The greenery made the whole house smell like spring (and it smells like green flower stems to me), and the rose smelled true, refreshing, and romantic. My house smells so pretty

I expected this to smell juicy, but Screeching Parrot is surprisingly dry, tart, and flat on my skin. First on, the grapefruit and pink lime combine to make a zingy, tart, pink grapefruit scent. I like this beginning stage, but then something strange happens with the Parrot. In the drydown, all I smell are very dry apricots (sticky-sweet, dried apricots) and, for a while, something like stale cigarette smoke. After an hour, this has almost entirely faded, just leaving behind a hint of bitter pomegranate. I love the label for this blend, but the scent doesn't work on my skin.

I was afraid that I would fall in love with Te Po and that my decant would arrive just in time for me to not order a full bottle, lol. It smells just like fizzy, refreshing Dr. Pepper on my skin at first (and my boy sniffed me and said it smelled just like Dr. Pepper too). Then there's something dark and almost resinous about the way this smells on my skin. I kept thinking that it reminded me a little bit of blends like Voodoo, Doc Buzzard, and Schwarzer Mond for some reason. It takes on a spiced quality in the drydown, but it's a pleasant spice on me, like LUSH's "Christmas Kisses" bubble bar scent. It makes me think of Christmas time. I was expecting cherry limeade and a light, fruity blend, but this is Dr. Pepper and dark spiciness on me. I love it, and I wish I had ordered a full bottle.

I normally love vanilla and orchid, and I like ginger, so I'm not sure why Opuhi is so bad on me. Love's Philosophy also went funky and bad on my skin though. In the bottle this smells like baby powder and... buttermints? I also got a powdery, minty quality from Love's Philosophy. I don't care for whatever vanilla note is popping up lately. On my skin, this morphs into funky floral (my boy actually said it smells like "flowers... that got peed on") and something like cherries. In the drydown, this is baby powder, dust, and sweet tarts. It's just dry and bad on me. I'm glad I resisted the urge to buy a full bottle of this and just waited on my decants, because this isn't a keeper for me.

Cathouse is a nice, sultry scent, but not a scent for me or my home/linens. I have trouble with florals and bpal's jasmine is an old nemesis of mine. The florals in this are like smoky, honeyed florals with enough of a musky, perfumey, sharp edge to give my floral-sensitive brain a headache. I can definitely smell the jasmine and pick out a honeyed quality. It has a sweetness to it, but also a clean and perfumey edge. I actually do kind of like the scent, but it still gives me a headache. It would make a unique, sensual room fragrance if you can handle heavy, honeyed, musky florals, I think. It smells very rich, assertive, and womanly to me. I really love how these sprays linger but aren't overpowering. On the pillows and linens, the scents cling in a subtle way that makes you want to snuggle into them, and a spritz on the curtains by an open window has the fragrance wafting throughout the house. They're all wonderful performance-wise, even if this particular fragrance doesn't work for me. Cathouse reminds me a bit of the way that Hony Mone smelled in the bottle, but Cathouse is better on my pillows than Hony Mone actually was on my skin. I think it's just too musky/perfumey to get any use from me. It's okay though, because there wasn't anymore room in my current love triangle with Dungeon and Down the Rabbit Hole anyhow, lol.

Rangoon Riptide is heavy, sticky sweet, and cloying on my skin. I love to eat pineapple but am realizing that I hate its scent in perfume-form. The pineapple here is strong, sickly sweet, and a bit plasticy. The rum is somehow even more sugary than it usually is on my skin, like butter-soaked brown sugar and butterscotch. The drydown is something like pineapple fruit punch with an extra pound of sugar. I can't even say for certain that I smell the raspberry or orange at all, which is what I was hoping for. I seem to amp up the sweetness in this to an extreme, and the pineapple note just doesn't work for me.

I was actually afraid of the pineapple listed in this. The pineapple really mucked up Drink Me & Rangood Riptide for me, and I was hoping that this wouldn't be overwhelmingly fruity & sickly sweet. The pineapple is barely noticeable on my skin at first though. The rum does its usual thing and smells sort of like boozy, almost bitter butterscotch on my skin, but with an addition of something sharp and cinnamon-esque. I kept hoping that the coconut and vanilla would come in and mellow everything out, but all I get is loads of spicy, boozy, butterscotch-y something and the occasional waft of sickly-sweet pineapple. Rum and pineapple just aren't favorites for me, and they seem to be the main players in this blend. I really wish the vanilla and coconut would come out on my skin and soften everything, but they're nowhere to be found on my skin.

Down the Rabbit Hole was the room spray that I was initially most excited about, but then I kinda pushed it to the side while I fell madly in love with Dungeon. All of the throw pillows in our house have now been graced with a touch of BPTP linen spray. Dungeon is a perfect, 10 out of 10, instant love for me, and when I managed to tear myself away from it, so is Down the Rabbit Hole. It's amazing me that fragrances that would smell awful on my skin smell so wonderful on my pillows. I'm kind of jealous. This is a soft, clean scent without being soapy or reminiscent of dryer sheets at all (most 'clean' smells remind me of dryer sheets). The pillow that I sprayed with this smells like I took it outside after a spring rain and rolled it through a bed of daffodils. I half expect the pillow to have dewy flower petals, a few stray twigs, and rain soaked black dirt caked on to it. Perhaps the orange marmalade adds a hint of sweetness that makes this really smell like true spring flowers to my nose. There's nothing going 'off,' nothing smelling blatantly artificial. It's a gorgeous scent (a perfect scent, really). I worried that it would be too earthy or dry, but it's just the right amount of all of its parts and it actually smells dewy and refreshing to me. While Dungeon is sexy goodness and probably too sexy to use all over my house, Down the Rabbit Hole is something that I want to spray all over our couches and curtains for our guests to enjoy. I love the lingering fragrance... I thought that these were way too expensive at $40, but now that I've smelled them, I'd definitely pay that much for the quality and unique, evocative fragrances. I'm definitely getting a bottle of this and Dungeon.

I signed up to get decants of all of the current room sprays and I'm so glad that I did. I should mention that I generally hate leather, musk, and wine notes (rotten fruit), so I was pretty certain that I would hate "Dungeon" with a passion. Apparently I just hate those notes on my skin though, because the smell of this on my pillow is making me swoon. This actually reminds me slightly of "Perversion," with an added dark, plush, fruity note. A darker, fruitier "Perversion" for your home, lol. On first spray, this was harsh and made me think of nailpolish remover (I was disappointed and worried, but not for long). Then it quickly dries down to something fantastic, decadent, and ohmygodsexy. I would hate this as a perfume, but it's easily the sexiest linen/room smell I've ever owned. There's a touch of leather swirling around all of that dark fruitiness that smells almost plum-like to me, but with such a sensual twist to it all. It makes me think of dimly lit rooms all done in black and dark purple with hints of blood red. 'Dark' and 'sexy' are the two words that keep popping into my mind over and over again. I don't want to tear myself away from the pillow that I sprayed with this. My boy and I are actually building an adult playroom in our house (TMI? ) and this is what I want that room to smell like. This is what that room and sexy, bondage-y fantasies smell like in my dreams. I thought there was no way that I'd pay full price for a full bottle of these, but I was wrong. I'm definitely getting a full bottle of this in my future (and I didn't think I even liked any of the listed notes!). This is such a sexually charged scent for me. I want to spray it all over our, um, special room and perhaps use it to make people uncomfortable when they come over for parties at our house, lol. If you ever wanted a home fragrance to express a desire to tie someone up and take advantage of them, this is an excellent choice. I'll stop rambling now. I always ramble when I fall head over heels in love with something. "Dungeon" is just amazing.

I've been hoping for a fragrance with blueberry in it, so I knew I had to get a bottle of Blue Fire even though it has my nemesis (evil lemongrass) in it. Thankfully, I don't get lemon in any way, shape, or form from this blend. It is definitely a fantastic, unique scent with blueberry as the main player (yes!). I love this so much and it just gets better and better the longer it's on my skin. At first, this reminds me a lot of Twenty-One (one of my favorite GC blends) with a good dose of blueberry added in. I get an impression like fizzy, bright juniper and for a while I thought it even smelled a little bit earthy. It's like juniper, ginger ale, and a touch of earthiness underneath a sweet blueberry that almost smells like blueberry bubble gum but doesn't go quite that artificial on me. After about an hour, this sweetens up *a lot* on my skin and actually starts to remind me of Midway, but a stronger Midway with more throw and some fruitiness added in. I keep thinking of powdered sugar, cotton candy, and a pinch of blueberry syrup. It's still not overly sweet for me though, thanks to the hints of fizzy coolness. I love how sweet and playful this smells on my skin. If I had extra money right now, I'd definitely buy a backup bottle or four.

I love peach and lily of the valley, so I'm insanely happy that those are the two notes that I smell the most in La Vague (though I am sad that the cream note never seems to survive on my skin). This is a really light, subtle, soft scent on me. The light fruitiness and clean, slightly powdery floral that I get from the lily of the valley actually reminds me a bit of Ebisu. The jasmine and iris poke around in the drydown and make things a bit more perfumey/musky on my skin, but they don't succeed in ruining it for me. I think the grape sweetens things up a bit too. This fades really fast, but I do like it while it sticks around. It's a sweet, soft, fruity-floral. I'll keep my decant and think about getting a bottle...

I *love* the parrot on the Screeching Parrot label. It's just what I was hoping for. I'm so glad that I ordered a bottle

I was hoping for woods, patchouli, spicy bay rum, and a hint of sweet tea rose and fruitiness. So, of course, Frederic spites me and smells like cheap men's cologne. The "seaman's chypre" is a fresh, masculine cologne smell, and that combines with the masculine spice of the bay rum. On me, the amber musk gives it an unpleasantly powdery, dry, muskiness in the drydown. It doesn't go powdery on my boy, so your skin chemistry may vary (mine hates bpal's amber). On my boy, this is slightly spicy and slightly clean, but he said he thought it smelled sort of cheap, like a teenage boy's body spray. I did like that more of the patchouli came out on his skin, but my man wasn't taken with it. Frederic isn't a keeper for our household.

Clove, red sandalwood, orris, rose, opoponax, benzoin, and patchouli. El Amor y la Muerte also reminds me quite a bit of Mama-Ji. Mama smells like a dry, spiced floral potpourri arrangement on me, and I get that same dryness and room-scent quality from this as well, but El Amor strikes me as more earthy, complex, and biting. At first, the clove dominates on my skin and is a bit sharp, but it mellows down into the warm woodiness and a hint of grounding earthiness from the patchouli. The overall feel is spicy and warm, like dried woods and sharp, dried spices mingling together. After a few minutes on my skin, the rose pops out, also smelling dry and a bit sharp. This is an interesting blend, but I'm not sure that I love the clove + rose combo. The rose seems to hover just above going sour or soapy on my skin, so it kept me feeling nervous while I wore this, lol. I've had a hard time pulling off clove lately...

The Black Swan starts off green and vegetal smelling with a smush of sweet floral and a sort of sharp, cold aquatic bite. In the drydown, this is intensely soapy floral. Sweet floral and cheap, overwhelming soap. Perhaps I cannot handle the lab's 'seaweed' note, because The Dream of the Fisherman's Wife also went crazy-soapy on my skin