Little Bird

I snagged a decant of Dupin for my boy, because lavender & lime are two of my favorite scents and they smell dreamy on him. Unfortunately, this seems to be a pretty heavy leather scent. I tried it out on the boy and on myself, and all I can smell is leather. A dark, sharp, smoky sort of leather. It fades really fast on my boy's skin, but seems to stick around on mine. Too much leather for my tastes, and my skin really amps up leather.

I seem to amp up tobacco notes like mad, and Hastur has the sort of tobacco that I hate in it - gritty, dirty, slightly smoky. It doesn't really smell sweet on my skin at all, though it does have an almost caramelized stickiness to it. It's almost as though it wants to be a sweet tobacco, but it's overtaken by a smokier something on my skin. All I can smell is the tobacco at first. I love black patchouli when it's paired with something sweeter (such as fruity notes or caramelized notes), because it has such a dark, leather-esque scent on my skin that I need something to soften its edges. The dark and smoky tobacco plus dark and dirty patchouli is too much for me to pull off, lol. This strikes me as smelling very masculine, but it's too harsh to my nose, so I wouldn't want it on my boy either. People who can stomach tobacco better than I would probably like this one.

Blue musk tends to smell watery to me, like a frost tinged pond and frosty stones. It also has an *almost* fruity sweetness to it. I can definitely smell that and the moonflower in this blend. The moonflower has a chilly, almost powdery sweetness to it. I like Long Night Moon's sweetness, but one of the flower notes starts going a bit soapy and sharp on me in the drydown, trying to muck things up. I agree with the review that said this was reminiscent of shampoo. It has a sweet, clean, slightly aquatic smell to it that, when mixed with the soapiness, smells like shampoo on me as well. I kinda like it though. It's a nice, clean fragrance.

The reviews describing Ivanushka as powdery had me frightened, I hate powdery scents and dry fragrances (I like that pickle smell though, so I wasn't worried about that, lol). I was so sure that Ivanushka was going to be a flop on me and that I'd regret buying a bottle. In reality, my only regret is not getting more than one bottle. Ivanushka is such a soft, beautiful fragrance. My boy gave it an 8 out of 10 and I agree; it's definitely in a top spot for me. Sometimes frankincense smells like dill pickles to me, so I wonder if that's what other people are smelling. I get a strong dill pickle scent from blends like Kostnice. I get a twangy resin when I first put this on, but it doesn't smell full out pickle-y to me, and it quickly settles into a softer resin. This starts off with a soft, sweet, coolly resinous quality to it that reminds me of blends like A'Arab Zaraq and Midnight Mass. It's soft and powdery though, but not baby powdery or dry, it's as though someone took the resins from similar blends and crushed them into a fine powder form. So lovely. In the drydown, it's a powdery musk, which I would normally despise. Somehow this really does bring up an impression of warm fur though. And it settles into a clean, enchanting sort of scent on me. This reminds me quite a bit of Destroying Angel in the drydown (paper thin, soft, a bit earthy), but it has a bit of something special that makes it so much better for me. I love this and I'm so glad I got a bottle. The label art is gorgeous too.

I love Sagittarius and so wish that I had been smart enough to get a big bottle instead of a decant. It's like a single note dandelion on me - cheery, sunny, and reminds me of being a little kid. This blend captures the milky smoothness, unique sweetness, and cool herbal qualities of the dandelion perfectly. This is pure dandelions on me. And it's fantastic. I love the quality of bpal's dandelion oil. Dandelion oils I've tried from other companies never managed to capture the scent so perfectly. Sagittarius is a perfect dandelion.

Aw, I love the Fairy Wine label. It makes me wish that the oil worked on me well enough to warrant a full bottle purchase, lol.

My first thought when sniffing this in its vial was that it smelled strangely of smoky, honey bbq. Sweet, smoky and odd. On my skin, it's thankfully not so odd. Ligur actually smells really wonderful to me. This smells like dry wood planks, spicy in the way that cedar can smell spicy. There are also smoky resins dancing about, but they're not so smoky that they bother me. They're sweet, dark, and a bit earthy. This gives me a wonderful impression of being at a campsite and sitting underneath a wooden structure at a wooden picnic table while rain falls down and floods out the nearby campfire. It has a cool earthiness that makes me think of warm earth just starting to get its first tastes of a chilly spring rain. Ligur surprises me. Dry woods, warm earth meeting cold rain, and a slight smoky, ashiness from a rained out campfire. It has a sweetness to it that I love, and I love the woods impression that I get from this. I really want to slather this on my love, as I think it would smell even better on a man (where I can enjoy it on someone else too, lol).

I was hoping for more black tea and lilac from Famine, but I get a very strong tobacco note and hints of resins. I tend to hate anything with tobacco notes in it, but I actually don't mind it in this blend. This smells almost leathery and masculine to me, like a worn, soft leather pouch with dry, spicy tobacco leaves inside. It's a simple scent on me and I don't like it enough to ever wear it, but I don't mind it either. It's not a smoky, gritty, or dirty tobacco on me, but it is masculine and dry. Famine is something of a single note tobacco scent on me. Masculine, dry, and a bit spicy.

The only note that I'm not really familiar with in Madame Tracy is the 'ume blossom,' but something in this goes very high pitched, fakey, and chemical on my skin, like soap and cheap hairspray. It reminds me a bit of the sharpness that I get from opium poppy. I smell hints of a sweet, lovely tea rose but it's smothered by something very bad. This really smells like the metallic twang, almost alcoholic, that I find so suffocating from cans of hairspray. On me this is a soapy, sharp, chemical-laden, bad floral. It's not light on me either, my skin chemistry seems to amp this up into a horribly perfumey mess. Not good. Maybe this is just more floral than I can pull off, but I usually really love tea rose, heliotrope, and violet...

In the bottle... this smells like a tea party. Honeyed, refreshing tea and spiced teacakes. Yummy. On my skin, the green tea and vanilla bean seem to dominate at first. This is a very soft, subtle scent on me, clinging close on my skin. Crisp, cool green tea sweetened up with vanilla and honey. I can barely smell a hint of sweet spice, and I don't get any fruitiness/blackberry leaf from this that I can pick out. Within five minutes, this has almost disappeared on me though it fades into a powdery-honey-muskiness and then just disappears. It almost turns a bit sour on me before it fades away completely, sour green tea and powdery honey musk... it has hints of sweetness that I do enjoy, but it's too dry and musky, and it fades far too fast. I wish this smelled as good on me as it does in the bottle.

I love this scent when I first put it on. It reminds me of being little and making "soup" in the yard with my cousins. We lived in the country and would mash up blackberries, raspberries, polk berries, and wildflowers all together. Fairy Wine smells like sunny dandelions mashed into fruitiness. It is definitely boozy, but it doesn't smell bitter, dark, or rotten as wine notes usually do on me. It smells more like a berry vodka spritzer with a low alcohol percentage than wine. Berries, lovely dandelions, and booze. I think the dandelion smells so awesome paired with sweeter, fruity notes. Unfortunately, this scent loses a lot of its charm for me after 15 minutes or so. This reminds me a lot of Harvest Moon 06 for a bit (which I love), in that it has a sort of dying field grasses/wildflowers & fall feel to it. This is a lot sharper than HM06 though. It gets a dry, sharply perfumey, slightly powdery, musk-like presence that dominates the scent. The sweetness fades away and I get a soured wine note too, smelling like unripened, unsweetened fruit. The sweet fruits and dandelions disappear completely. After wearing it for 2 hours it's nothing but a dry, high pitched, sharp sort of muskiness. I love the whimsical, cheery opening of this, but I hate the sharp drydown. I won't be keeping my decant...

I put off trying on The Fruit of Paradise because my skin chemistry seems to do awful things to bpal's pomegranate notes. It goes on as a bitter, tart pomegranate. The note tends to smell like sweet tarts on my skin (even slightly powdery and dry), which I don't really want to smell like. It actually does seem a bit juicier and chilly in the drydown of this scent, but it's still an overly tart scent for my tastes. After ten minutes or so it starts to get perfumey and I wonder if this has some sort of musk in it? The Fruit of Paradise, on me, is tart pom and hints of sharp musky-something. I wish I knew what was actually in this. Other reviews mention pine and spice, but I'm just smelling tart fruit and musk.

I'm really sensitive to floral scents. A lot of them give me headaches if they're a bit too perfumey/musky or just too strong. When I wear Hairy Toad Lily, it is enough to give me a headache for the first hour or so, but I still really like the scent. It starts off a bit too sharp/perfumey and smelling like some sort of weed - astringent, herbal, and green. Weeds and a musky floral perfoom. After about 45 minutes, this really calms down into something lovely though. I can still pick out hints of greenery, but it has sweetened up a lot. It has a soft, creamy quality to it. Creamy lilies coated in purple sugar, perhaps. I really love the drydown of Hairy Toad Lily, but I don't think that I could stand to wait through the first hour every time I want to smell the drydown.

I was hesitant to try Havana because I generally hate anything with tobacco in it and have a hard time wearing leather notes. Leather tends to smell smoky and odd on me, as it does in this scent. This is actually a rather nice blend though, and I think I might like it on a man (though my boy doesn't like it on himself). This is a dry scent without being dusty or powdery, so I actually don't mind the dryness. I suppose it's the dry tobacco actually smelling spicy and pleasant to me. There's also a slight element of dry woods (snakeroot?). I think the date palm is what gives it a pale green, grassy, fresh sort of smell to my nose, but it's very light. In the drydown, a smoky leather begins to dominate the scent, with the spicy, dryer notes lingering in the background. This has a very desert/western feel to me. I like it, especially at first, but probably wouldn't wear it much, if ever. The smoky leather note puts me off a bit in the drydown. If this didn't have any leather in it, I think I might get a bottle.

I read the notes for Event Horizon and thought, “Ugh, poppy, I'll pass on that.” But then it started manipulating me. “You have to try me, Tania, you love black orchid and just look at my list of notes. I'm going to be such a rich, resinous fragrance. Smell me. Just sniff me in my little imp vial here...” So I was like, "Well, I suppose I will sniff you just to show myself that you are an evil poppy demon from hell. It's not like you can hurt me from inside your container. Haha." I sniffed my imp and exclaimed, “Wow, you are really good. You kind of remind me of Midnight Mass. Those are some deep, rich, smooth, sweet resins you have here.... hey, wait a minute, I smell poppy in you. It's just trying to hide so that it can ambush me later when I've slathered you on.” “No, no, no,” Even Horizon shook its head, “The poppy is barely here. It'll be good. You love those sweet resins, don't you?” So, because I am forever optimistic with perfume, I slathered on some oil. I could practically hear the opium laughing as it swung forward to beat the crap out of me - a bit soapy and a lot sharp and cutting. The other notes in this do manage to restrain it slightly and make it a bit sweeter and deeper on me, but it's still a strrrong, razor sharp opium note that manages to give me a migraine I really do think this smells a lot like Midnight Mass. Er, rather it smells like OPIUM on me with a bit of Midnight Mass thrown in. Anyhow, if you like both of those things (or you don't amp up opium like mad), I'd definitely recommend giving this a go.

First sniff in the vial, I see that this has the type of vetiver that I hate in it. Smoky vetiver that smells like charred mesquite bbq. It's too sweet and makes me think of burnt bbq chicken. And it's the same on my skin. I don't get the patchouli or blood orange at all, this is allll vetiver on me. Burnt, woody, bbq-ed vetiver. The ylang ylang pops out a bit after a while, but it's just a perfumey and metallic essence underneath the vetiver. I'm ushering this imp of vetiver straight to the swap pile.

In the vial, something funky and dark green underneath an aquatic note (smells more of rain than snow to me). The dark green almost smelled like spinach or mushrooms to me, dark and not very sweet. On my skin, this smells like sweet slush and something vegetal. Sweet slush and celery? It's watery and a bit sharp. Over time, this starts to smell like sweet dryer sheets, a bit of mint, and celery. Odd, and probably not something I'll ever wear.

I love The Snow Storm in the bottle, but it's less amazing on my skin (boo skin chemistry). On my skin, this isn't the chilly pine scent that other people have mentioned. In the bottle it's a frosty mint layered over a crisp fir note. On my skin, it warms up for some reason and smells less appealing and dry. The mint doesn't retain its chilliness, it just goes all sharp and wrong. Something about this takes on a bit of a body odor funk too... dry woods or evergreen notes sometimes turn on me this way. After a while, this kinda smells like I rubbed one of those Christmas tree car fresheners on my skin to cover on some body odor. Not good. This isn't a foresty blend that I can pull off. I don't think that this reminds me of any of the other BPAL blends that I've tried either.

In the vial this is milky and sweet smelling. I can smell the almond milk's silky sweetness and perhaps some coconut in there as well with hints of a light, pleasant incense. On my skin, the sweetness kicks up a few notches and I get hints of something fruity, without being able to pick out any one fruit note. It goes a bit softly powdery on me before it takes a turn into a stage that makes it unwearable for me. Diwali is a hard blend to describe because it melds together pretty well, making it hard for me to pick out any notes, though the almond milk is strong and makes its presence known above everything else. Something about this gave me a vicious headache when I wore it though. It turns a bit sharp and smoky after a while, but still has a heavy smack of sweetness to it and the almond milk screaming for attention. Perhaps this is just too heavy of a scent for me, and a bit too smoky with my skin chemistry.

First sniff in the vial, I could definitely smell a zesty orange citrus bite from the nectarine, a sweet touch of honey, a quick flash of something that reminded me of vetiver, and then a finish of perfumey floral. On my skin, there's an earthiness to this that I don't like. It doesn't strike me as smelling like any of the patchouli notes I've tried from BPAL before though. It smells dark and a bit ashy. As the earthiness quickly fades, I'm left with a citrus zest and perfumey floral note. The gardenia goes eye stinging sharp on my skin. Angeronalia's sharp floral note dominates on me (smells rather musky too), but I can see how this could be a pretty blend on someone else. The hints of citrus and sweetness are rather nice. Overall, though, this is too musky-sharp-floral for me.

I'm not sure why I wanted to try this one out. I tend to hate sage and tuberose is one of my perfume kisses of death. Plumeria also tends to be perfumey and headache inducing on me. At first on my skin I was surprised at how nice this smelled. It was sweet and juicy with a hint of dry sage or chrysanthemum lingering in the background. Within a minute, though, this morphed into exactly what I was afraid it would smell like on me. Perfumey, sharp, white floral mishmash with an herbal sage note in the background. White florals seem to turn into something reminiscent of cheap, sharp, drugstore white musk and hairspray. That sharpness is strong for me in this blend. Noche Buena is definitely not for me. I can't pull off perfumey florals; they just give me headaches.

BPAL's roses are often either love it or hate it on my skin. The Peacock Queen is one of my all time favorite scents and I cannot stand Rose Red, for example. In the bottle this smelled powdery-sweet, almost like pixie stix. I'm not really sure that I would ever guess that there is even rose in this. Reading back over the reviews, I do get that bubbly, champagne like twist that other people have mentioned. Champagne with pixie stix powder thrown in? In the drydown the sweet powder gets a bit more baby powder-esque, but it's so sweet and odd that it makes me sort of nauseous. I had to wash this off after 15 minutes. This is so cloyingly sweet on me that it really made me feel like I was going to throw up. I could almost smell a soft woods and colder notes creeping in, but I can't handle whatever notes are in this blend as top notes. I was hoping for something like The Peacock Queen with snow notes for a Christmas Rose scent, but this powdery, overly sweet mess is a definite no-go for me.

I love Chanukkiyah when I first put it on. I get a clean olive oil that reminds me of some of the olive oil hair products I have, and a strong scent of something like jelly donuts. A sugary pastry and fruit (it smells kind of like raspberry to me, but I guess it's pomegranate playing nicely on my skin for once, lol) with hints of a clean, sweet olive oil. After a half hour or so, this isn't so good on me though. The amber makes it a bit baby powdery and the other notes in this have gone perfumey and sharp. The sweetness has all faded away, leaving me with something cold, perfumey, powdery, and odd. I think that the beeswax and olive oil need to be paired with something sweeter to be bearable for me.

The Shivering Boy has bpal's usual snow note (which is a lovely, cool, slushy note). At first there's a bit of sharp ozone that I don't really like, but it doesn't smell like dryer sheets on me at least. In the drydown this gets spicy on me for some reason. It smells kind of like sharp cinnamon and snow. I had hoped for more of a grape vineyard in the snow backed up by some resins, but this smells like it should be a winter candle fragrance to me. Snow and spice, but too much on the sharp/potpourri side for me to enjoy it.

Archangel Winter reminds me of a slushier Numb at first. Men's shaving cream and snow. In the drydown, this smells almost identical to Sea of Glass or House of Mirrors to me. A clear, cool, crystalline sort of ozone/aquatic note. I'm not sure I could tell this and House of Mirrors apart, except that Archangel Winter has a bit of soapiness to it. It goes a bit off on me after 15 minutes or so. Something in this starts to smell like burnt rubber on my skin. This isn't a keeper for me...