Little Bird

I like this more as a room scent than an actual perfume. It's clean (slightly soapy), sweetened by the honey, watery like melons & cucumbers, and has some fresh florals playing about. On me, the florals or something turn sharp and overwhelming (chemical-esque like cheap hairspray), but in the oil burner they seem to stay calm and just add a crispness to the blend. In the burner it reminds me of clean laundry just taken out of the washer and not yet dried. I like it well enough to use up my decant as a room scent, but I don't like it enough to try to find more of Selkie. I wish that I were getting the leafy greenery that others have mentioned.

To be fair, I generally dislike BPAL's tobacco and black musk, so I wasn't hopeful for this to begin with, lol. On me at first this is black musk and lavender. It's very herbal and very cheap, musky men's cologne. Dark, herbal, musky. In the drydown (after about an hour) the tobacco comes out smelling thick and smoky. It's very masculine to my nose and very not-me. I was excited about the dark vanilla, but this is just musky and herbal on my skin.

I went with a half decant of this blend, just because I can't wear BPAL's amber notes and I'm not a fan of ozone. I don't know why, but BPAL has the only ambers I've come across that turn to pure, heavy baby powder and dust on my skin. The amber makes this unbearably dry and powdery for me, and the ozone lends its usual dryer sheet presence. Oddly, this doesn't strike me as aquatic or rainy because it turns so dry on my skin. Thunder Moon smells like dusty dryer sheets on me .

I get dragon's blood, a warm musk, and way too many florals from this blend for the first half hour or so. I really don't like the lab's dragon's blood note because it smells sickly sweet on me, like flowers rotting in a vase of old water. I get that impression strongly from The Unheavenly City – lots of rotting flowers. In the drydown the floral aspects of this seem to calm down, and I'm left with a slightly spicy, warm musk that goes more powdery over time. I'm kind of glad that I don't love any of this year's convergence blends, saving myself from hunting them down on ebay, lol.

I was so excited to try this, since a few people have described it as a wet stone smell. I'm always looking for something that smells like wet stones or wet pavement. Unfortunately, I don't get that impression from Shanghai Tunnel, so my quest for wet pavement scents continues. I digress. In the imp I can smell a sharp, almost metallic aquatic and the chill of eucalyptus/menthol. In the drydown it's something of a dark, chilly, menthol & juniper on my skin, with more of green, sharp moss and dry woods coming out over time. Shanghai Tunnel is cold, sharp, and masculine on me. Not a favorite.

Temple: Goetic smells very floral to me. Primarily, this smells like jasmine and lotus. The jasmine here is sweet, heady, and has a slightly herbal edge, backed up by the bubblegummy lotus. The jasmine has an almost smoky quality to it. This is a sweet floral. Unfortunately, jasmine is one of my least favorite floral notes, and it gives me a headache in this blend.

I'm crap at picking out floral notes (perhaps because they often turn to crap on my skin, lol) so I'm at a loss as to exactly what flowers are in this. Lots of people have mentioned jasmine, but this doesn't do the usual strange turn that jasmine does on my skin. It has that unbearably sharp, headache-inducing, chemical scent that I get from 'white floral' blends. In the drydown, Lydia becomes a bar of unbearably sharp, floral soap. Not a blend for someone who doesn't like sharp florals.

On me, Crumpet Rebellion is like the blackberry cobbler of Closet (but sharper, more dry, and tart smelling) with the addition of Eat Me's hyper-sweet currants, and more of a buttery-caramel-crust smell to it. It is *very* buttery on me for several hours, and thus my boy hates this oil. I like buttery fragrances, but I don't like the strange twist this takes on my skin after an hour or so. The fruitiness seems to disappear and a heavy, caramelized-sugar note is popping out, but there's a sharp note underneath it all that doesn't seem to be meshing on my skin. Almost a sharp, dark muskiness or a perfumey resinous note? This is an okay scent. It has great staying power on me, but not a lot of throw. I wish I were getting the spice or cream that other reviewers have mentioned, instead of that weird muskiness. I guess I'm thankful that I'm not in love with this (I don't even want to know how much I'd have to pay for a bottle on ebay ). I own a lot of similar enough scents that are much better on my skin. I love Closet, and Eat Me has also grown on me a lot with aging (becomes less crazy-sweet and more creamy). My ultimate blackberry pastry scent is still Child Star's Berry Best from Starring Fragrances though. I'll be passing along my half-decant so that someone else can try it.

I'm terribly afraid of spiders, but I love bpal's spider-themed scents (this, Arachne, and The Obsidian Widow are all favorites). This is gorgeous, and it's especially amazing as an aged scent. I don't generally care for the black musk note (smells like cheap men's cologne on me), but I don't get a lot of musk from this. I get tons of sweet, spicy clove and a bit of dry, spicy wood. It's very rich and warm. It's a sexy, deep sort of scent, but it's also sort of cozy, like a warm hug. This smells dreamy on my husband, but he also loves the scent on me.

(First of all, I just want to say that I adore abejita's review for this blend, it had me laughing out loud ) I agree that the lavender is strong and dominating in this blend. Sadly, it's a sharp and astringent sort of lavender to my nose. I like lavender when it's sort of cool, creamy, and has a sweeter edge. After a half hour or so, this does calm down a lot and get a bit creamier. The orchid gives it a bit of a smoother, juicier edge, I think. The resins also creep in and give this a slightly darker feel. Unfortunately, I am fond of the drydown (resinous orchid = yum) but this fades really fast on me. It's very light and only lasts a couple hours. I'm glad that I got a decant of this one. I wouldn't need a full bottle, but I'll wear it every once in a while to experience the drydown stage again

This is another pretty nondescript floral for me. I can't pick out any of the listed notes. Usually I find myself liking 'skin musk,' but there's a sharp muskiness about this blend. In the drydown, it takes on a creamier aspect... but mostly it just goes to baby powder on me pretty quickly . After 15 minutes this is all baby powder, probably thanks to the fact that I have trouble wearing BPAL's amber notes.

When I first got this, it was perfumey rose with powdery violet and soapy lily. After aging, this has gotten a lot sweeter & warmer smelling. It almost kinda reminds me of hazelnut or chestnut and rose with a bit of powder and violet candy. It's okay, but not my favorite rose scent.

Hm. Am I the only person who *didn't* like Hungry Ghost Moon? lol. It ended up smelling like musky dryer sheets on me. Tamamo-no-Mae fairs much better on my skin than HGM did. Like everyone else has already mentioned, this does smell rather peachy on my skin, but it's a dried peach or candy peach sort of scent on me rather than a juicy one. Over time, this scent gets very musky on me, but I generally enjoy the skin musk blends. I get that light, dry fruitiness, creamy musk, hints of florals that I can't identify, and swirls of a light, spicy ginger popping up every once in a while. This is a nice, pretty blend... I don't normally wear these fruity-floral type of scents, but I'll keep my decant around.

I am fond of BPAL's rose blends (especially The Peacock Queen & Parlement of Foules), so I was saying for months that the only way I'd pass on Rose Moon would be if it had opium poppy in it... and lo and behold, lol. I also love BPAL's blue lilac and patchouli leaf notes. Of course, my skin totally amps up the opium poppy. Rose Moon is all sharp, harsh opium poppy with hints of soured roses in the background. I'm glad I trusted myself and just went for a decant of this'n.

I can barely remember trying out the original Blue Moon. I do know that I was rather fond of it (though it never fell into total LOVE for me, thankfully). I do know that this new version smells nothing like that old one. I remember the original starting out with a lot of crisp juniper and then drying down to something of a sugared floral, juicy melon-esque something, and lots of fresh cucumber. In the bottle it smells of crisp, watery juniper and some sharp florals. On me, Blue Moon 2007 starts out a sharp, intensely soapy floral and then dries down to a light baby powder with hints of soap. Thankfully, this doesn't have great staying power on me either. My decant is already getting packaged up and moving on to a new home.

In the bottle, Tokyo Stomp smells like wintergreen toothpaste and dry chocolate cookies to me. The boy said it smells like toffee... but he is possibly insane, so we'll ignore him for the moment. On my skin... yup, this smells just like those chocolate-mint girl scout cookies. It's definitely more a chocolate-mint than a vanilla-mint on me. It's a dry sort of chocolate and a crisp mint, with the mint taking over more in the drydown. Tokyo Stomp has poor staying power on me, but it's a nice, simple, happy scent while it lasts.

In the bottle and on my skin at first this seems to war between wanting to smell like cherry pie and wanting to smell like strawberry bubble gum. It smells hyper sweet at first, and then more tart and cherry pie-esque for a while. The comparisons to scented My Little Pony & Strawberry Short Cake dolls are pretty accurate for me. It does smell like cherry/strawberry scented dolls. It's simple and cheap smelling (almost plasticy or musky). This is definitely a fakely sweet cherry and cream rather than a true or decadent one on my skin. And I do find that strangely appealing, though I'm not sure I'd ever wear this. After a half hour or so, this takes on an especially cheap, trashy, musky sort of smell. Bloody Mary really makes me think of dolls. It kinda makes me want to put on some over the top makeup, wear something cutesy and doll-like, and sit around smiling like a mindless pretty-something. I don't know if I like this or if it's just scary.

I was so sure that I would love this. I adore anything puppet-inspired, I love the lab's apricot and black patchouli, and I'm generally pretty fond of woods. Unfortunately, the apricot and the patchouli don't seem to survive the blending. In the bottle this is cringe-worthy. It's sickly sweet... too much brown sugar, hyper caramel, and sugary butterscotch. It's like someone had too much sugar and then threw it up on a pile of pencil shavings. On me, it's thankfully not that tooth achingly sweet. It just makes me smell like pencil shavings. Definitely dry woods. Unpleasantly dry and a bit dusty. I hoped that this would morph into something fantastic if I just wore it for a while, but it smelled lightly of pencil shavings for about a half hour and then disappeared. My skin eats this. I'm going to keep my bottle around for aging and re-try it, but for now I'm just sad.

I had to try this after all of the rave reviews, but I'm not really crazy about Minotaur. In the imp vial it smells like a not-as-lush and more perfumey version of Priala. On my skin, it's perfumey-sharp and powdery. I love the smooth, sweet resin blends like Midnight Mass. I love Priala's dark, thick qualities. Minotaur is sharp and musky more than resinous on me. In the drydown, it even turns intensely soapy, which I'm not used to resin/incense blends doing. If I had to guess at the notes in this, I honestly would have figured it was a perfumey floral blend with some powdery incense in the background at first. The drydown is sharp floral soap. Not for me. This one is headache inducing.

Florence is my ultimate spicy-fruity scent. It's really beautiful with the berries and spice. I definitely recommend trying that one if you haven't already .

(First off, I love the kitties in your avatar ) And... this isn't BPAL... but if you love the smell of fresh, true orange, have you tried Masaki Matsushima's "Mat; Orange" fragrance? It's really the most perfect, true, freshly cut orange scent I've ever found. I love it. For perfumey BPAL... you might want to try Faiza, Black Mamba in the LE Carnaval section. It had a classic perfume smell to me, and it also has orange pulp, vanilla, blackberry and florals in it that you might enjoy. Tweedledee is one of my favorite fruity-floral scents from BPAL. The orange blossom & citrus in that one really shines. I actually found Tweedledum to be a more perfumey citrus too, so you might want to try that one as well. Also, I'd have to recommend checking out some of the blends in "The Salon." Almost all of those have have a commercial perfume feel for me. Good luck!

I used a sample vial of this in my oil burner. It's a very clean scent to me... almost like lemony dish soap. Bright and citrussy. The boy really liked it as a house fragrance.

Lady Luck Blues is my favorite out of the recent Friday the 13th update. It is also my boy's favorite (on me; it's a very girly-pink scent that he wouldn't ever wear, lol). When I asked him to smell it, he said, "It's nice. I like it. It's a little baby powdery though... you hate it, don't you?" And it is a touch powdery, but it's not powdery enough for me to dislike it. I wouldn't have even noticed it was powdery at all if he hadn't pointed it out to me. This is definitely a rose scent. The rose note dominates and stays strong... and it smells rich, red, and a bit spicy to my nose. It's the only note that I can definitely pick out, though there is some fruitiness to this blend as well. At first it smelled like that rich rose and sweet tarts, though the fruity aspects became more juicy in the drydown. It is definitely a tart fruit in this blend. There is also a creamy sweetness here that lingers and pops up every once in a while (perhaps the honey and tonka?). I really like this. It's an excellent rose blend, and a girly scent that I can actually pull off. I love how sultry the roses are. The touch of tart fruit and creamy honey-tonka-vanillaflower make this especially beautiful.

I have mixed feelings about this scent - it's very interesting and intriguing, but I can't pull it off as a perfume at all. In the bottle and first on my skin it smells strongly of green moss and caramel. The combination of foodie, edible caramel and... moss... is a little strange for me. I feel like those two notes shouldn't be together in my mind. The caramel and the addition of the 'dust' ruin this for me, but they're also what make it intriguing. Over time, the caramel of this fades and the scent gets much darker and deeper. It smells like earth (literally like dirt) and the wood of trees. I don't really like black musk, and it is very strong and perfumey in this blend during the opening stages... however, it's bearable for me. The dark musk is like a chilly, man's cologne wafting on a breeze through the forest. After fifteen minutes or so, the 'dust' note in here really is very, very dry. The dust keeps it from feeling like a lush forest to me. This feels like a forest that hasn't seen rain in years and is literally drying up and dying slowly as the dust takes over. It's very interesting because the dust note comes out for me gradually; it's like I can literally smell the forest drying up and turning to dust. Dark, earthy, foresty, and incredibly dry... I keep getting images of The Dust Bowl where fields literally dried up and just blew away in the wind. Bad Luck Woman Blues is too dry for me to wear. It becomes almost painful to smell, like it's getting caught in the back of my throat and suffocating me. Still... it gets points for being very interesting and giving me some vivid imagery.

It's weird how everyone seems to have a different amount of cocoa in their bottles. My bottle has little brown smears on the sides and then stuck to the bottom, like the cocoa ran down the sides and is now plastered to the bottom. Plus, my bottle isn't even full up to the shoulders. If I shake it up, a few solid looking bits of cocoa float up, but they don't seem to blend with the rest of the clear oil. In the bottle this smells like heavily spiced cocoa. Cardamom and clove with a hint of hot chocolate. On my skin, the spices take over. This actually reminds me slightly of Treat #2. The spice is dry and perfumey on my skin, and something in this is rather sharp on me. Sharp, perfumey, dry spice. ETA: And my boy doesn't like this one either. He sniffed my wrist, made a face, and said, "Sharp. Wash it off." Which is fine, because it is giving me a bit of a headache anyhow. Sad. I loved the first two Thirteen blends.