Little Bird

I'm really surprised at how much I like This Bible. It doesn't smell like books or a library to me, but it does have a really wonderful, clean leather smell to it. I was riding around in my brother-in-law's new truck just last week and commented that I'd love to have a scent that captured that new car smell, and this does capture that scent for me. It smells like new car rather than bibles or books, but I'm really glad to have a bottle of this. I can definitely smell the leather, and I normally don't enjoy leather (and normally *hate* tobacco), but this is a clean, smooth leather on my skin, with hints of a sultry incense creeping around in the background, popping out every once in a while. I smell like sexy new car, and I like it. ETA: After having my bottle of this for a month, it's much less leather and much more tobacco. It doesn't smell like new car leather at all anymore (boo), but more just a slightly sweet, damp, brown tobacco leaf with a hint of brown leather. ETAA: I've had my bottle of this for a couple years now, and the tobacco just kept getting stronger. This scent now smells *exactly* like my mom's purses when I was little. They were always leather purses filled with a mix of things, but I always hated the cigarette smell in them (as the ash and little flecks of metal wrapper would fall to the bottom of the purse and mingle with that metallic smell that coins have). That is exactly what this smells like... leather purse, cig ash, and dirty metal. I'm finally giving up on it and have the put the rest of my bottle up for swaps.

I like the original Dragon Moon, but this 08 version doesn't really work for me. On me, this is a sharp pine-y smell with a soured undertone and a dirty, smoky something. Smoke, sour, astringent pine, and something else that's very off and dirty smelling underneath it all (stinky feet smell? with gunpowder?). I love the label art, but this oil is a major disappointment for me...

Tiki King goes through two phases on my skin, both reminding me of LUSH products. It starts off smelling exactly like Avobath, very sharp, bright, refreshing lemongrass. When it dries down, this smells like I Should Coco soap. It's like a mix of something dry and wooden (almost smells like cardboard) with dry coconut shavings. This isn't quite the dark, masculine coconut blend I was hoping for, but I do still like it on myself and on my boy. The sharp, lemony start isn't my thing, but the coconut drydown is interesting and makes me feel very summer-y

Desert sand, red musk, blackened ginger, dragon's blood resin, black pepper, cinnamon, and tobacco. I had high hopes for The Ifrit. I love red musk and the spices appealed to me, but this goes all wrong on my skin. At first there was a sexy burst of cinnamon and it reminded me a bit of Priala, but then it went sharp and a little soapy, making me think of opium. In the drydown, I think the tobacco completely ruins this for me. It's smoky, sharp, gritty, and smells sort of soured and off. All of the lovely spices disappear and I'm left with sour, smoky tobacco . This isn't a keeper at all for me.

I was hopeful for Phoenix Steamworks because I've liked quite a few of bpal's metal/glass themed scents (Mechanical Phoenix was a recent love for me), but something about this doesn't work on me. Some incense/resin blends go sharp, warm, and perfumey-musky on my skin, so I'm wondering if that's the case here. I get a sharp, musky, hairspray smell that dries down to sharpness with something like warm baby powder and a touch of something dusty/dirty in the mix. This is one of those scents that just goes to baby powder in the worst way on me... not a keeper.

Normally I dislike fruity-floral blends and think they all smell the same, but April Fool is a fruity floral that actually smells unique and wearable to me. I love a lot of the lab's roses, and this is another favorite. At first, this was sharply herbal with a jab of sour citrus, but it quickly mellowed down on my skin to a soft, sweet rose with hints of juicy, sunny citrus and a background of dark herbal greenery. In the drydown, it gets even sweeter and more berry-ish, which I guess is the huckleberry. The herbal greenery seems to keep it from getting too sweet, and the soft rose and citrus add a complexity to round out the edges. I like that I can pick out most of the notes and they're still meshing together so well. I slathered on some more of this one when my boy came home for lunch and he said it smelled "really beautiful." I might have to search out a full bottle of April Fool...

I thought that I would love Golden Wave, but it doesn't really live up to my high expectations. I've been loving orange citrus scents lately, I like guava in bpal blends, and I love a lot of the gin scents (Blue Fire and Twenty-One are both favorites for me), so Golden Wave sounded like a heavenly combo. The reality of it isn't so great on me though. I wanted Golden Wave to be a juicy, fizzy citrus scent, but it's surprisingly dry and tart smelling on me. Something in this actually smells similar to what bpal's pomegranate note does on me (dry, bitter, sweet tarts sort of smell). I'm wondering if the passion fruit is the culprit. Anyhow. First on, the gin is crisp and lovely, smelling slightly like juniper and fizzy ginger ale, but it is short lived. The gin quickly fizzles out, leaving me with a touch of sweet guava, a hint of dry tangerine, and an overall impression of sweet tarts with an edge of bitterness. It's disappointingly dry, tart, and a bit sour on my skin... Golden Wave is very subtle and light on me. I'd like to smell this on someone else, because it seems to go all wrong the second it touches my skin. It's not an awful scent or something I feel the need to run and wash off, but it goes all dry and artificial on my skin, and I like my fruity blends to have a juicier quality to them. I wish I'd gotten an extra bottle of Blue Fire or Te Po instead of this'n.

Oddly, I don't smell flowers or fruit from this at all, and I tried it on my skin and my boy's skin. It smells like damp earth with some rotting wood thrown in, and perhaps with a bit of sour, dry moss in the drydown. My boy really likes Worm Moon on himself, but it doesn't have great staying power on either of us. It leaves a hint of light, earthy, almost incensey fragrance on the skin for a half hour or so, but it disappears entirely before it hits the full hour mark. I'm not crazy about Worm Moon. I'll probably let the boy keep the decant, but I don't feel the need to search out more (except maybe an empty bottle, because I do like the label art).

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.