Little Bird

Scorpio is a very odd blend. It mixes a lot of notes that I wouldn't imagine would be good together. First on this is what smells like violets and cedar on my skin. Cool, powdery florals and spicy woods. Perhaps a bit of mint in the background. It feels cold and tingly for a few minutes. Then this morphs into a sweet floral and spice blend on me. Perhaps jasmine, cinnamon, and clove? It's a smoky, spicy floral. Has anyone else gotten jasmine from this? It's doing weird things on my skin. And after about an hour this is powdery violets again and sharp musk on my skin. It's sort of bitter and giving me a headache (musk sometimes gets a funky cheap hairspray smell on me). I haven't gotten any of the herbal/green fragrance that others have mentioned either I'll be swapping my decant away to a loving home, this one seemed to wreck havoc with my skin chemistry.

You would have probably *loved* Skadi... I love Skadi. It was a wonderful spicy pine. I just ran out and haven't been able to get ahold of another bottle though Anyhow. I would recommend Mistletoe after that. Mistletoe is one of the best BPAL blends ever (in my humble opinion, lol). It's wonderfully green and snowy, but sweetens up quite a bit in the drydown.

Saturn was very heavy on me and had a lot of throw for about three hours and then it just disappeared. It was a dark, strong presence in my life for those three hours... and when it faded, I felt like something was missing from my life. I'm not sure if I like this, but it was an interesting scent. It was comforting in the way that an overprotective father figure can be. First on this is heavy incense with touches of what smelled like patchouli and sandalwood in the background. After a few minutes it gets a bit more woodsy, with something that smells like cedar, only not as gross as cedar usually smells on me. Smoky incense and woods. After about an hour this has a spicier resinous quality to it that might be myrrh. I'm sadly not smelling any of the civet that other reviewers have mentioned. Very dark and perhaps a bit overbearing, while still being warm and comforting. It's the sort of fragrance that I would get for an older, male family member.

I don't generally like mint, citrus, or florals... so Gemini and I didn't get along too well. First on this is sharp lemon and herbal mint. It made me think of cough drops. The lemon fades away after a few minutes and a watery/aquatic floral comes to the front. It's not as sweet as sweet pea usually is on me. Mint leaves and watery florals. It's a very light scent on me and only lasted about 3 hours. This is very not me. Glad that I got a chance to try this though.

Baneberry is intensely perfumey and headache inducing on me. It's like thick overripe blackberries hanging on thorny stems. Fruity and green. But the background is very sharp and generic perfume on me. It was strong and long lasting on me too. After two hours and a migraine, I scrubbed it off of my wrists.

Melpomene starts out sharp and cutting on me. The mint is a loud, herbal sort of mint, and the cypress is green and bitter. A bit of orange blossom comes out for a few minutes on me, smelling citrussy and way too harsh on my skin. Then after about 15 minutes this has completely morphed into a generic soapy smell on me. The sharp first application and the drydown of soap... is just not working for me.

After reading everyone else's reviews, I am quite depressed that Lurid isn't working out so well on me. On me, this smells like the bathroom of a busy household after everyone has gotten ready for school or work in the morning. Baby powder, shaving cream, soap, and hairspray I'm not getting any fruitiness, this just gets a bit soapier in the drydown. After an hour, still light soaps and powders. This one isn't working for me at all. I'll be swapping my imp.

I'm really going to have to rethink my position on boozy scents. I thought that I hated them, but I've been really impressed with Jazz Funeral, Twenty-One, and now The Hamptons. First on this kind of reminded me of sweet tarts, very fruity and, well, tart. The drydown is something like a limeade slush with cranberry juice. It has a slightly boozy edge, but it's not bad at all. It's boozy without making me feel like I got something spilled on myself at a drunken party. Very refreshing and sweet. It's a sweet, zingy sort of fruity. This is another one that I'll need a full bottle of. My paypal weeps.

I really like Twenty-One... I've been surprised by liking a lot of the boozy scents lately. Odd because I hate alcohol in real life and never drink. I have no clue what a real martini smells like either. First on this is strongly juniper, but it's not really harsh or biting. It's fizzy and bright. As others have said, it's as if this is a juniper flavored soda. It gets more citrussy in the drydown and makes me think of ginger ale and lime juice. So carbonated that you almost expect it to start fizzing on your skin. At the same time that it's fizzy and soda-like, it also has a sort of pleasant dryness to it. I wouldn't say that this smells like Pine Sol or any cleaning fluid at all. Sadly, this fades on me within an hour. I like it enough to buy a full bottle and reapply frequently though . I can imagine wearing this one all the time in the spring too.

I was so certain that I would hate this one. Boozy scents and the smell of dirt in perfumes usually make me sick. I also expected this to be sickly solemn, as most of the funereal oils have been on me. Surprisingly, this is very lively and pleasant. It's like Zombi and Penny Dreadful got drunk and threw a wild party in a graveyard. The sort of party that is going to be hell to clean up in the morning. I think the bay rum is stronger than the bourbon on me (I don't drink and haven't really had any personal interaction at all with booze, so I have no definite clue). This smells rather lemony on me (in a spicy cookie sort of way), and the florals are heady and spicy. Jazz Funeral has the sort of warm floral and dampness in it that I found so pleasant in Bayou. The dirt smell isn't strong on me at all. This is very nice. One of the first funereal oils that I've been really happy with. I might even get a 10 ml.

Mmm... this is quite a sexy blend. It is a fiery golden sort of scent, starting out with the honey, myrrh, and patchouli. I normally don't like honey, but it is rounding out the blend nicely in this case. I also normally don't like musk, but it is just so seductive in the drydown of Sed Non Satiata. The honey fades away within the first hour for me... but this is still amazing. For some reason, this makes me think of dark dance clubs... pulsating bodies and flashing lights in the darkness. It makes me feel very warm and energetic as well. Perhaps a 5 ml is in order?

Wearing this makes me a bit nauseous. It reminds me of something that wasn't exactly good from my childhood, but I can't seem to place it. It just gives me an anxious feeling. It smells very buttery in the bottle and on my skin at first. But it is also rather nutty and woodsy. Maybe it is the cedar smoke that is making me feel so sick? Wood smoke, butter, and a hint of pine. It's... not working well on me. An hour later, the smokiness has calmed down a bit... this smells like I melted butter and added a bunch of brown sugar to it. I like more complex/rich foodie scents, so this one isn't really working for me. I think this one would make a better room scent than a personal one.

This is some hyper peppermint at first, a chilly, sinus clearing burst. It mellows down into a rich, cheery, perfect candy cane scent within a few seconds though. It doesn't just smell like a candy cane, it almost manages to smell like eating a candy cane. Crisp and chilly. In the drydown I can smell a bit of a creamy vanilla underneath the peppermint. The vanilla is barely there and just rounds out the blend, making it a bit smoother. This reminds me quite a bit of Snowblind, but this is more peppermint and less sweetness & vanilla, where Snowblind ended up being the reverse on me. It's a perfect candy cane. ETA: I've been hoarding my few bottles of Lick It and loving them. This makes my skin cool and tingly (in a good way) wherever I apply it, which is really soothing whenever I've had a fever or some sort of muscle ache. Plus, it doesn't smell like a plain peppermint oil (which I hate), it's a pleasant, candied peppermint. Love it.

With Black Hellebore, I cannot pick out any one note in particular. It smells like an overgrown garden to me. A mess of vines, ferns, and greenery, with delicate little pink flowers poking through here and there. It gets more sweetly floral after an hour or so, and loses the green herbal edge. Soft, girly florals are not my thing (this one gave me a headache after a while)... so I'll be swapping my imp.

This is the only Rappaccini's Garden blend that I want a full bottle of so far. Surprisingly, given the description, it is one of the few that hasn't gone sharp or vicious on me. It's actually very soft, bright, and pleasant in my opinion Cobra Lily smells like sweet honeyed lilies and hard orange candies on me. It's lovely and sweet, the sort of scent that you feel like you could get drunk off of. It gets a bit spicier in the drydown, but I'm not sure what sort of spice it reminds me of. After a while, this begins to take on a slightly bubblegummy scent and made me think of lotus. Overall this is a very cheery floral though. And one that I can actually wear without getting a headache. Yay!

I recoiled in horror when I sniffed this one from the imp. It is insanely sharp and cold. On me, it stays pretty much the same. It's like Pine Sol cleanser, only not as sweet as the cleanser. I grew up in the middle of a pine forest in Missouri... and this doesn't smell like the real thing to me at all I had Yew Trees on for three hours before I just washed it off. It didn't sweeten or change much at all. It stayed astringent and continued reminding me of some sort of harsh 'pine-scented' cleanser. It got a weird suntan oil-ish scent in the background for a while, but no change other than that. I'll be swapping my imp. I can't imagine ever wanting to wear this one. It's very not me.

Mmm. Rose can either be lovely or completely horrible on me, and I am loving The Peacock Queen. This is a rich, heavy, expensive sort of rose. Strong and thick, blood red and beautiful. It starts off smelling like a dried rose on me, but morphs into a truer blooming rose scent in the drydown. It reminds me quite a bit of the rose that is in Whip. I've actually never tried Rose Red, but I have a bottle on order and I cannot wait to compare. The Peacock Queen is entirely swoon-worthy, and it knows it ETA. The Peacock Queen has become one of my top ten fragrances, and one that I'm wearing constantly. I've bought several bottles of this one to hoard. It really is the perfect rose, and I notice that it gets a lot sweeter in the drydown, which I love. People should definitely give this one a try. I'm finding it much more pleasant than Rose Red, which was wet and went sour on me.

Jacob's Ladder reminds me quite a bit of The Lion at first. Then it sweetens up a bit and I'm enjoying it. Then... In the drydown this smells like dust on me. It's very strange. It's like leaning over the top of a book shelf that hasn't been cleaned in years and inhaling. It is the dryest scent that I've ever tried. It's enough to make me feel sick and make me sneeze. Thankfully, it is a very light scent. Dry dusty amber. BPAL's amber so rarely works on me, and Jacob's Ladder definitely doesn't. I'll probably be swapping/giving away decants of this one.

EDIT: This smells NOTHING like it did in 2005. This is an incredibly sharp, herbal blend now with almost no sweetness on my skin. The mint is sharp, cold, and mentholic, and the rosemary comes in savory and herbal. As it dries down, there's sour lemon and a sharp, nondescript white floral smell. No sweetness, no grape, no orange flower, no rose... Menthol-minty herbs and sour lemons with a hint of powdery, musky white floral. I wish that bpal would just discontinue blends when they have to be reformulated this heavily, because Bess 2016 smells absolutely nothing like Bess 2005, and it's really confusing when you go to repurchase old favorites and get stuff like this happening to you. My 2005 review: I've been having quite a love affair with Bess ever since my imp arrived. It's not something that I expected to like at all (I'm not particularly fond of any of the listed notes), but I am really enjoying it. The grape is the first thing that I notice, but it is a very lovely grape. It's not artificial or sweet to me at all, it's more of an herbal-grape. The rosemary lingers in the background and, after a few minutes, the sweet orange flower comes out. I normally hate orange anything, but this is soo lovely. It's sweet and soft, not at all sharp or really that fruity. I expected Bess to be really sharp because rose, orange, lemon, and mint are generally sharp and bitter on me... but this is all so amazingly soft and sweet. After about an hour the rose and lemon come out and join the grape. I never smell any mint at all. This is like being in a rocky garden on a slightly cool day as the sun sets, leaning up against a fence where bunches of grapes are hanging down around you. It's very refreshing and pleasant to me. I like the mental images that Bess conjures up for me. I can see myself getting a 10 ml of this one in the future

I had to form an impression of this one pretty quickly, because it seriously disappears within about 5 minutes on my skin (I *really* slathered it on too). I carry around a notepad and take notes whenever I'm trying a new scent. Here are my notes: 'Ode on Melancholy is a very light scent, it clings close to my skin and smells very subtle. Subtle enough that it could just be the way that my skin smells out of the bath, if I didn't know better. I can smell light, powdery lavender and some sort of pleasant, soft floral. It smells very clean, but not soapy. It smells like clean skin (perhaps the white musk?). I really like this one a lot, so I'm hoping that it gets stronger in the drydown. It's gone.' I wish that this would stick around a bit longer on me, because I was actually enjoying it. My skin just completely devours this one.

Midnight Mass was the Yule blend that I was most excited about, though I have no idea why. I am nondenominational Christian, so I have no real association with church incense or the midnight mass ceremony. As it is... I don't even really love a lot of incensey blends. Still, I've been having dreams about this one for the last month, so I'm excited to finally give it a try. When I first put this on, I actually said "wow" and swooned a bit. This is possibly the most beautiful scent that I've ever tried from BPAL. It's not my all time favorite or anything, but it's beautiful. Soft, sweet, and gorgeous. Sweet incense, powdery golden warmth, and just a hint of sweet polished woods in the background. My boy sniffed my wrist and said that this smelled like moonlight. This is really and truly amazing. If the idea of an incensey blend appeals to you at all, I'd recommend getting a bottle of this one. Of all of the yule blends, this is the one that I feel the need to buy multiple bottles of. I'm so glad that I went along with my unfounded love for this blend and ordered a bottle. I can actually see myself wearing this one quite frequently. I love it.

Talvikuu, Mistletoe, and Snow Bunny all smell like they'd be in the same family to me. In the whole snowy foresty blend aspect. I like Talvikuu a lot more than Snow Bunny (which was sharp and kinda dirty smelling on me), but nothing can match the wonderful chilly greenery of Mistletoe. Anyhow. Talvikuu is insanely hard for me to describe, but I'll give it a try... First on, I think that I smell eucalyptus here. It has a very chilly/menthol scent. This doesn't go soapy on me at all as it has on a few other people, but it does have a sort of perfumey quality. It makes me think of bare tree trunks and fir trees in the forest. This is very aquatic, but not in the way that BPAL aquatics usually smell to me. It has that pure wet smell of melting snow. So... the best way that I could describe this is aquatic, yet not... and wooden, yet not... it also has a pleasant sweetness to it, but that's not really a sugary sweetness either. It's very hard for me to pin down at all. I'm not getting any mint (thankfully, I'm not fond of mint). It loses the perfumey qualities after an hour or so and this was something that I really enjoyed catching whiffs of throughout the day. Sweet, chilly, and pleasant. I'm probably going to decant a few imps out of my bottle, but keep enough for me to wear every once in a while. I think that this would be heavenly on a man as well.

In the bottle, I am smelling pine and aquatics. It smells sort of soapy to me, so I'm a bit worried that this isn't going to work on me... This is pretty sharp on me. It's like running through a pine forest and getting covered in sap and needles... and then biting into an orange peel. 5 minutes later. Ugh, I think this might have grapefruit in it. I am getting that dirty, bitter citrus smell that I always get from grapefruit. I was really depressed that Skadi wasn't revisited this year, because I ran out of my previous year's supply. This does remind me of Skadi, but it's lacking all of the spiciness and warmth that made Skadi so wonderful to me. An hour later. Still smells sharp and a bit rancid on me, but it is softening up considerably. I'm getting a sweet floral-ish smell coming in past the piney scents. Oddly enough, I am also starting to smell snow in the background. That wet, clean, cold fragrance of melting snow. It it weren't for that lingering grapefruity sharpness, I might start to like this. Final conclusion. Snow Bunny just isn't working on me. It has a dirty sharpness that just doesn't go away... on a more positive note, it does have my favorite label of all of the Yule blends though.

I want to love Beaver Moon, but something about this seems really 'off' and soured to my nose, like cheese gone bad. Beaver Moon is spicier than I thought it would be at first (I was expecting more of a pure, creamy frosting and cake scent). It smells like a cinnamon graham cracker crust and rich cream cheesy frosting. It's pretty strong and has great throw, but the soured undertone is really off putting and takes over in the drydown. On me this is oddly spicy and soured (almost smells like mustard). It's strange and kind of gross. I'll try aging it and hoping the sweet frosting notes and cake come out more. ETA: This is one of those blends that didn't age well for me at all either. The cake and frosting disappeared and this got even sharper, like it continued to go bad the longer that I had it. I ended up selling all of my bottles of Beaver Moon on ebay, hoping they're not as bad on someone else. There are so many better cream cheese frosting, cheesecake and foodie cake scents out there for me. These sort of scents normally work out so well on me, it's surprising how bad Beaver Moon smells to me.

*I'm editing my review now that I have a bottle of this scent and can really slather it on* In the bottle, this smells like a very clean, floral dusting powder. Green flower stems, clean, sweet floral, and powdery amber. On my skin, this is a soft, warm, golden amber with a spicy, resinous lift from the myrrh, but the myrrh is verrry light. It's a touch powdery and very subtle, and the floral is just a pretty, sweet, girly touch to the blend. In the drydown, it just smells like clean, girly skin, like I'm fresh from the shower and dusted on a light layer of sweet floral powder. This doesn't smell like lilac to me at all, but it's still a pretty scent. Bruja is so light that it's barely there. I'm glad to have a bottle of this, though. I'll wear this on days when I want a light, clean sort of girly fragrance.