Little Bird

When I did my initial sniffing of all of the new scents in their bottles, Dr. John Seward was my favorite. It surprised me by smelling like a masculine version of The Candy Butcher (minus the weird plastic smell that I get from The Butcher). If I didn't know what was in it, I would have guessed that it had vanilla cream, cocoa, and black musk. I can smell the lovely sandalwood as well. I was afraid to try this on myself, because my skin amps up opium poppy and I have a really bad reaction to opium (migraines and nose bleeds - very weird). On me... smoky opium poppy and pepper. Dries down to smoky opium and creamy tonka. The tonka has an almost foodie vanilla smell. I like the tonka, but I had to wash this one off after 15 minutes, as the opium was too strong and overwhelming. If you were looking for a good opium and sweet vanilla combo, John Seward is for you.

I love myrrh, resins, and currant... but Wilhelmina Murray quickly dries down to a light, bland sort of floral. It's a nice scent. There's a spicy sort of tea rose and hints of something that smells grassy and green at first. There are several rose and resin scents in the BPAL lineup that I like a lot more. I don't even really get any resin from this one. After about 10 minutes on my skin, this is just a light, plain rose note on me, and it goes slightly sharp and suffocatingly perfumey (odd, because tea rose usually is sweet and lovely on my skin).

In the bottle... smells rather sweet, like blood orange and honeyed flowers, with a hint of something powdery that reminds me of the way my mother's makeup drawer always smelled. A very red and feminine fragrance. On me... this is sharply perfumey (like the musky 80s perfume my mother always wore) with a mishmash of notes that are sweet and powdery. Still making me think of my mother's makeup drawer, but so sharp and perfumey that it's like a bottle of cheap musk got dumped out in that same drawer. I love rose, frankincense, blood orange, and white musk on most occasions... but Lucy Westenra ends up smelling like a cheap, overwhelming musk on me. MUSK and powder. Bleh.

Yha-Nthlei is my new favorite aquatic blend (my only favorite aquatic?). I don't particularly like any of the listed notes, yet this is somehow so stunning. Actually, I don't necessarily smell any of the listed notes either. I was expecting this to be sharp, but it's not at all. Chilly and fresh. An aquatic that doesn't actually go soapy and smell like dryer sheets on me. This blends together to make something so smooth, and just a touch sweet. It's not soapy and it doesn't have the usual sharp citrus note that I get from aquatic blends. Another beautiful Arkham scent.

I was excited about a blood musk and incense blend; The High Priest does not disappoint. Blood musk, on me, always makes me think fondly of cinnamon or cassia. If cassia had a type of musk, it would be blood musk. With it's darkly sweet qualities. Spicy and warm. This blend has such a sexy vibe, because it makes me feel warm inside whenever I smell it. The incense is rich and has something of a smudged, soft vein to it. Almost thick and powdery (without being at all baby powder-ish). I don't exactly smell any of the notes besides the blood musk and incense; but I catch hints of leather and woods dancing around the background every once in a while, with more of a dry woods after an hour or so of wear. Very lovely and warming. I'd recommend trying this if you liked any of the other blood musk blends.

Bpal makes the best leather scents. The leather base in this is so sweet and soft. Worn in, warm, soft leather. Then there's a creamy vanilla and the sexiest musk *ever* resting on the leather base. It smells like a strong, outdoorsy, protective man... comforting and sensual at the same time. I thought that I would hate this when I sniffed all of the new scents in their bottles, but this might need a top ten spot on my favorite LEs list. It really reminds me of my boy and the way that he smells naturally (manly yet still so warm), so that's probably why it makes me feel like swooning.

In the bottle... spearmint and juniper. Minty and reminding me of chewing gum. I'm not really fond of mint, so I'm hoping that this will morph on my skin. On me... chewing gum. Or toothpaste. In that powdery, light green spearmint sort of way. I was hoping that this would be more of a natural forest/mountain scent... but it's all fakely sweet mint in a way that reminds me of bathrooms (maybe that toothpaste association, but it also reminds me of some cleanser that I hate). Not what I'd want to smell like.

In the bottle... clingy skin musk and sticky-sweet honey. There's also something almost fruity here, kinda reminding me of peach. On me... not good. This instantly morphs into a blend of jaggedly sharp musk, soapy florals, and pain. Sharp, strong, soapy floral. This is an instant migraine inducer for me. I scrubbed it off after about 15 minutes, when my throat started to feel tight... like being smothered. I normally like skin musk, but something about this is just awful on me.

I expected this to be mostly dry woods and incense from the description, but it has more of a wet and mossy quality in the bottle, and a hint of something that reminds me of soil (sort of that papery soil note that I also get in Destroying Angel). On me... dry/thin soil, a sudden blooming of pine notes, and a waft of cedar and incense. In the drydown, the dusty cedar dominates and the fresh pine notes disappear. There are hints of sweet incense in the background that get stronger with time. This reminds me more of The Pit & The Pendulum as far as incense blends go. Carfax Abbey is another interesting, unique incense blend. Unfortunately, I think it's too much of a dry and dusty scent for me to get away with wearing it.

In the bottle... I can definitely smell the dragon's blood and leather. It also smells musky to me, like warm red musk. On me... dragon's blood and pepper. The sweet warmth of the dragon's blood is coated with a biting pepper note. This fragrance definitely has a sharpness to it that I'm finding rather unpleasant. And it almost wants to go soapy on my skin, but never quite makes it to the full dish soap comparison. Soapy dragon's blood and biting pepper. The Bloody Sword actually prompted me into a sneezing fit

I'm definitely wearing Creepy. Actually, I might wear Creepy every day anyhow, lol. It's the caramel apple of my dreams (or, I suppose it's more a butterscotch apple - but heaven either way).

In the bottle... the verbena is hyper and bouncing around. Intensely lemony. On me... strong, sharp lemons. I was expecting to hate this, because I don't like lemons, but this really mellows after about five minutes. A smooth, crisp tea note emergest, along with a delicately sweet floral note. The tea dominates on my skin in the drydown, and it's really lovely then. Crisp and cool. Like having tea near a frostbitten garden on a chilly afternoon... with just a hint of lemon in the tea.

Samhain and I didn't get along at all, so I was hoping that Samhainophobia would be more my style. And I just want to say that the Halloween labels are all so amazing this year. I love this one in particular (child being scared by a jack-o-lantern while reading a ghost story... it's just so mean, lol). This smells very much like Samhain in the bottle, but with a sweeter spice to it than Samhain has. Something in Samhain ended up smelling dirty like cigarette ash on me. On me... this is a smoky, earthy blend. But not smoky in a bad way, it smells more like a sweet incense to me. Dry leaves, sweetly spicy cloves, and hints of earthy patchouli are dominating this one for me. Samhainophobia is like a Halloween incense... dark, smoky, and sultry. I'm glad that this doesn't turn on me like Samhain does.

In the bottle... there might be some vetiver and/or dragon's blood in this one. It's earthy with a spicy, woodsy note, but with the tang of dragon's blood and some sort of sweetness that makes me think of white chocolate. This actually is reminding me a bit of the way The Tell Tale Heart also smells in the bottle. It actually smells rather foodie. On me... this is foodie like Dragon's Milk . Vanilla and spicy dragon's blood. In the drydown, this is like Dragon's Milk with a hint of woodsy incense. I've layered Dragon's Milk with various other incense blends and loved the result... so I'm liking this one. The Castle isn't at all what I was expecting. I'm not getting any pine, moss, or dry leaves? This just goes very sweet and foodie on my skin (which I like, so hey...).

In the bottle, this is mossy with an almost salty sharpness, and very woodsy. I love scents that smell kind of swampy (yay Bayou & Whippoorwill), and this falls into that category for me. It's colder and not as floral as Bayou, and not as crisp or watery smelling as Whippoorwill. On me... moss and dry, spicy woods. Renfield very much makes me think of playing in the woods in the fall, when everything is dryer, climbing on moss-laden rocks and weaving through barren trees. I get hints of a very light citrus in the drydown. The patchouli isn't strong for me, but is a grounding element in the background. Renfield hasn't been getting much love, but this is a new favorite for me. I love blends that remind me of the forest settings that I grew up in... and the moss notes here are wonderful. I'd love this on a guy, and will be wearing it myself when I want to be transported back to the forest in fall

I have to leave shortly (class from 2 - 9 PM, wee I hate college), but I just wanted to say that even the whole 'she was using us for market research' thing sounds pretty far-fetched to me. H&EE is a small company, more of a hobby for Michele than anything. She's not planning on doing hostile takeover of the perfume industry. And, quite frankly, if she were using BPAL for market research... I'd expect her to have some similarities to BPAL. And she doesn't. What could she get from this forum? Everyone here has different tastes. So far, Michele has done a lot of custom scents for people on HER forums. She hasn't been feverishly trying to recreate BPAL fragrances. H&EE mainly has a lot of blends that are vanilla/tonka, use her antique patchouli stock, or are foodie. Which BPAL doesn't have a lot of. Her fluffy fairy scents don't strike me as being very similar in concept, feel, or scent component to the lab at all. She sells a lot of bath products, which doesn't even compete with the lab on any level. There are definitely more etailers on the retail therapy forum that remind me much more strongly of BPAL.

Thanks for that, PilotKitten. You made a lot of really good points that I agree with. It’s the obvious double standards here that have really been upsetting and disheartening to me. The mods quite honestly seem to watch the H&EE thread, hoping for a potential legal issue or complaint to arise, so that they can escalate it. This has happened so many times, it’s obvious and plain as day if you just read through the thread. It’s almost like the mods and a few people are literally trolling that thread and looking to start drama/suspicion at any available point. H&EE gets jumped on more than companies that have actually robbed customers and copied BPAL's scent descriptions. And for what, really? And, like PilotKitten has just pointed out, there’s even a double standard with how the customers of H&EE are treated on this forum. On the H&EE thread (before the lab posted an announcement about using the term imp), the mods came in and started a huge debate on the H&EE thread, publicly calling out and embarrassing one of the H&EE customers for innocently using the term frimp in reference to a free sample oil. The mods noticed this slipup a day after it was posted and jumped at the chance. Several of the mods came in and were actually very defensive and rude, making everyone involved feel like morons for daring to be stupid enough to use the lab’s term “frimp” on anyone else’s oils. It was *very* poorly handled and unnecessary. And… yet… olympia301 referred to her own blends as frimps in her own etailer thread on the bpal.org retail forum. And the mods didn’t say a word, and no one cared. No one cares. The mods rudely told us that it was important not to use the term frimp/imp and that we should be more considerate of the lab’s feelings. We said that it was an honest mistake, and the mods acted like we were idiots. Yet… they didn’t care when an actual perfumer used the same term in reference to her own products. That speaks volumes to me. Do I think that the mods are bad people or even bad mods? Definitely not. For the most part, I love how this site is handled. But I think that the drama and picking on Michele/H&EE/and customers of H&EE is wrong and uncalled for and has been rather underhanded at points. I love BPAL. I love and like many people on bpal.org (and don't hate or dislike a single person here). But I also love H&EE and like Michele. I've been around for and noticed all of the same things that filigree_shadow has mentioned. I didn't see any of those events in the same light. If you're trying to find something wrong or you want to believe that something is wrong, you can always find it. Maybe there were communication issues between Michele and the mods... that have obviously been blown out of proportion and escalated. But Michele really isn't the manipulative monster that she has been painted out to be, and H&EE obviously hasn't ever stolen anything from BPAL, which is clear to anyone who has looked at the site or tried the products. BPAL & H&EE just aren't anything alike.

Light white musk... two that haven't been mentioned yet: Ode on Melancholy - Lavender and wisteria, heart-wrenching pale rose, desolate white sandalwood and thin, tear-streaked white musk. Urania is great for white musk and moonflower (a sort of nighttime sky and white musk).

Subtle. Clean. Sweet. Floral. White Moon actually reminds me a bit of Dragon Moon, with its sweet and delicate blossoms. Only, where Dragon Moon had a warm and spicy sort of edge, White Moon has more of a clean and watery quality to it. This isn't a really remarkable or unique scent on me. It only lasts about an hour and is very light, but it's pleasant enough. Delicate, pretty blossoms. I can't pick out any one note, but it's definitely cool and flowery.

Shanghai and Embalming Fluid both smell strongly of green tea... Embalming Fluid is stronger/had more staying power and was more of a 'green' scent on me. They both make me want to grab a glass of green tea with lemon though. White Rabbit is an awesome, authentic black tea with hints of honey. A nice, clean fragrance. The Dormouse was also tea... but this one always struck me as being more herbal.

Much thanks to one of my scent cousins for a wee sample of this . Unfortunately, Arabian Nights isn't really my cup of tea. It starts off smelling like spicy florals (maybe carnation, maybe a spicy red rose, but it's not exactly reminding me of either of those particular flowers) and then dries down to a very powdery spice. This probably has one of BPAL's amber notes in it, because those often go powdery on my skin like this. Spicy baby powder. Not for me

I wish that I had held on to my imp of French Lavender so that I could compare it with this one. Bulgarian Lavender strikes me as being less herbal and medicinal then the French Lavender was on my skin. And, where French Lavender went a bit powdery on me in the drydown, this lavender becomes sweeter and more velvety. A cool, smooth, sweet lavender on me.

In the bottle, I'm mostly detecting a chilly skin musk that reminds me of night air and a very sweet, honeyed floral note. It's much more smooth and chilly in quality than I was expecting. I don't get any patchouli or leather at all from Trick #1, and this isn't as complex on my skin as the other trick or treat blends. It pretty much stays the same on my skin, even after several hours. On me... this is a strangely cold, watery musk. The only way that I could describe it is that it makes me think of water. I also catch hints of soft, sweetly perfumey floral. I thought that this would be my least favorite of the trick or treats, and it is. I don't really dislike this though. It's just soft, light, and simple musk on me. Not at all what I was expecting. It actually smells kind of like Silence on my skin only more watery.

Trick #2 and Treat #2 were my most coveted blends this year. In the bottle, this smells lightly of the fragrance that I get from Dixie Love Perfume (um, it reminds me a bit of the way that marijuana smells ((kinda spicy and leafy?))). Anyhow, I get that tobacco smell along with a gorgeous vanilla note and hints of pine. I fell in love with the fragrance in the bottle. Tobacco notes are usually awful on my skin, but this one holds some promise. I love pine blends, and this one is awesome. Voodoo is my favorite scent ever, and this is in the same category with its patchouli, pine and sweet vanilla . The spicy tobacco and pepper are also lingering about, and the earthy patchouli comes out in the drydown. I was worried about the pomegranate, but I don't detect any in this blend. I catch hints of a sugary berry fragrance every once in a while, but there isn't a strong fruity note on my skin. Trick #2 is a sweet forest blend. It has a pleasant sweetness from the vanilla and berries, so it isn't as dark or overly earthy as I was expecting. This makes me think of playing in an unspoiled forest as the sun sets, with golden shafts of sunlight filtering through the leaves of huge oak trees. The tobacco note is still spicy and reminding me slightly of marijuana, but it takes on a smokiness in the drydown (I normally hate smoke, but it's very sexy here).

Treat #2 was the blend that I was most looking forward to. Buttercream, chocolate, coconut, fig, spices? I am all over that. I was a little worried about some of the notes that don't typically love me (mainly the mint and orange). In the bottle... this smells like a very exotic truffle. It smells like a fig drenched in milk chocolate, sprinkled with warm, spicy ginger. On me... this is so strange. The hints of mint are warring with the warm spices over a backdrop of sweet chocolate and fig. I love BPAL's fig notes. They're sweet in a dark, wooden sort of way. After a few minutes, hints of a sharp citrus start to poke their way in. I'm not really smelling any coconut though. After a half hour or so, I'll have to agree that SueDonym summed this one up very well; it's something like smelling an empty box that used to contain exotic mixed truffles. The chocolate fades to the background and the spices come out more. They're slightly sharp, dark spices more than they are sweet though. The fig remains pretty constant and faithful on my skin, clinging for all it is worth. This is a dark and (surprisingly) not overly sweet scent on my skin. After wearing this for 2 1/2 hours, it's a light, toasted coconut and milk chocolate. ETA: I'm going back to edit some of my inquisition reviews, just because my bottles haven't seemed to age very well. I bought up three bottles of Trick #2 on ebay, since I was pretty fond of the scent. Over time, though, all of them have grown unbearably sharp. They're now dominated by sharp citrus and bitter spice with a nauseating sweetness lurking underneath. Perhaps the spice and buttercream didn't age well while some of the other notes faded away. Just smelling these in the bottle makes my stomach turn, and they're not much better on my skin. I can't pick out any of the chocolate, coconut, or fig that I liked so much initially. I'm selling all of my bottles