Little Bird

Wow, I am beyond impressed with the Halloween labels. I am in label heaven . Trick or Treat was my first pick of the Halloween blends, but it's a bit disappointing on my skin. I was horrified when I first smelled this in the bottle. It smells like creamed corn, and it was enough to make me feel ill. Thankfully, it transforms into something less repulsive on my skin On me, this smells like a bowl of candy corns that have been lightly dusted with cinnamon. Light and sugary. There is also a sort of freshly baked bread scent in the background. Very warm and pleasant. It makes me think of bread pudding, but it's very light and not something that I'd really want to smell like. This doesn't have much throw or staying power on me either. ETA: Got a later version of this scent and it smells light like, creamy, candle-ish vanilla (a bit cheap and waxy smelling), a hint of dry leaves, and a hint of spices. Dries down to sort of a creamy brown sugar candle type scent. It does remind me of Sugar Skull. Has pretty much no staying power or throw on me and quickly fades to a vague, waxy sweetness on my skin.

I'm always the odd one out on these things... but this pumpkin blend was very bland on me. It was the last one that I picked out to try. And it was the one that I was least impressed with on my skin. I loved the woods/ivy pumpkin, the apple cider pumpkin, and the cocoa pumpkin (in that order), I didn't like the pomegranate pumpkin, and this one is just boring on me. When trying to describe it, all I can think is that this really smells dry. Like dry woods and dry nuts. I'm actually not smelling any pumpkin or spice. It's rather light and sinks into my skin too. While the other blends in the patch have a lot of throw and last for hours on me, this one disappears within an hour. Oh well. Overall, I am in love with the patch and think it was worth every penny.

I was worried that this one would be nauseatingly sweet on me, but it's so good. I've been so pleasantly surprised with The Pumpkin Patch. I figured that they would be mostly novelty scents, but they are so wearable and wonderful. This one smells like pumpkin pie thoroughly dusted with rich dark cocoa powder. It's more of a bitter dark chocolate than a too sweet chocolate, and it mixes with the sweet pumpkin perfectly. I don't smell the walnut or hazelnut really, but the cocoa gets a bit stronger in the drydown. This is another love for me.

This and the woods/ivy pumpkin were my favorite blends in the pumpkin patch. This is apple cider in a BPAL bottle. I am very tempted to drink it. For everyone who was looking for an apple cider scent, this one is lovely. It's like having a mug of apple cider and a slice of pumpkin pie while sitting outside in the chilly autumn air. This reminds me of The Hesperides and the Pumpkin King, only better.

I figured that this one would be my least favorite of the patch, since I'm not fond of BPAL's pomegranate note. It's not awful, but it actually is my least favorite. Oddly, this smells exactly like the bubblegum flavored medicine that I was given as a child. I actually didn't mind taking the medicine, but it was strange. If I make a conscious effort to smell the pomegranate, I can pick it out... but the overall impression is bubblegum medicine. I'm not sure that I can actually wear this one. I sort of like it when I first put it on, but after a few minutes it begins to make me feel nauseous.

My pumpkin patch set was the most wonderful thing that I've ever gotten in the mail. Ever. I loved sniffing them and trying them all on, and I had so much fun trying to guess which one was which (I guessed right on all of them too, so I feel special, haha). Sniffing all of them from the bottles, this one was instantly my favorite. On my skin, I love it even more. Spicy woods and pumpkin This is the one that screams of being in a real pumpkin patch to me. It's what I would imagine a haunted Halloween forest to smell like, as the leaves are changing and bare tree trunks are standing out. This is the scent of being outdoors in the fall. I don't smell the ivy exactly, but there is a dark green scent underneath the dry woods that I love. In the drydown this gets sweeter and creamier, but the woods keep everything grounded. This is my absolute favorite of the patch. I'm not wearing a costume for Halloween this year, but this is the fragrance that I'll be wearing when I take the little ones trick or treating

I've been trying to find a good lime scent for quite a while now. Detox is delicious, like a fresh cut lime dusted with sugar. It reminds me a bit of limeade (one of my favorite drinks). It stays strong and true to the first impression too. I find this one to be very refreshing and invigorating. It's one of the only Panacea blends that I think I'll get a full bottle of.

I am not fond of orange citrus or grapefruit. Unfortunately, Moxie is very sharp citrus on me. It's like grinding up an orange rind and a grapefruit rind into powder and then snorting it up my nose. Not that I've ever done this, really. I just imagine that it would be the same sort of feeling. Moxie is very sharp and dry on me. I don't get any ginger, just citrus. I'll be swapping my decant.

First on, this smells like almond and cinnamon on me. I'm getting that boozy, syrupy cherry scent that I sometimes get from almond. With the hint of cinnamon, this is rather sharp and unpleasant on me. It's reminding me a bit of cough syrup. 15 minutes later, the drydown is heavenly . I'm getting more of a juicy ripe blackberry and clove scent. It smells just like blackberry pie. It's a lovely warm foodie scent. I'll definitely be hoarding my decant.

Dead Man's Hand smells to me exactly like the store where I buy my brother's work boots. All of the leather and suede. It's somehow warmer and softer on me than De Sade. I envision this as brown and soft rather than black and hard.

Devil's Night was surprisingly good on me. Musk, booze, and smoke... sounded incredibly scary to me. It was the Halloween blend that I hesitated most on... and I think it might be my favorite. This is like trick or treating in a bottle. The dry autumn leaves, chilled air, and sugary snacks. First on it's mostly the dry leaves and a hint of incensey smoke. In the drydown, there's a creamy musk, sugary vanilla, gingerbread, and lemon cookie scent coming into play. I'm not getting any of the booziness, thankfully. Even in this rather foodie stage, the autumn leaves are strong enough that it's not overly sweet. It's foodie without really being foodie, if that makes sense. Hours later there's just a hint of creamy musk and smoke left on my skin. It's just beautiful all the way through. This one is a keeper

First on, Tiphareth is resinous. Sort of like Cathedral, but I like Cathedral more. After a few minutes it starts to smell a bit more woodsy. I'm not getting the pine or cinnamon that many others have smelled. Half hour later. Wow, this is nothing like Cathedral now. It smells more green and herbal with a background of dry woods. Every once in a while over the hours that I wore this, I would smell a spicy resin note. It shifts between that herbal woodsy scent and the resins. I like this. I'll definitely be keeping my decant.

I've been having a horrible time with my insomnia lately... so I decided to give this one a try last night. It smells like lavender and a sort of creamy lemon. It's pretty strong lavender. Sadly, this didn't help me sleep or make me feel any calmer. Maybe my issues are just a bit too much for aromatherapy to conquer This might make a nice room scent, but I don't really like lavender as a personal scent.

I didn't really need a jasmine singlenote to smell this... jasmine amps up something crazy on my skin and pretty much takes over any blend that it's in for me. Basically, almost anything with jasmine in it becomes jasmine singlenote on me, lol. Jasmine singlenote is... jasmine. It makes me think of a bright yellow colour. Unfortunately, this is insanely smoky, sickly sweet, and nauseating on me, as always.

Geburah makes me feel a bit queasy. To be fair though, I do not really like leather scents. It just smells cold and... bad on me. If you like leather, definitely try this one. Strong, smoky leather. That's it. It stayed true to that first impression too. It was still going strong, but I washed it off after about an hour. My decant is going to be a gift for a male friend that I don't see often.

Chesed is not my favorite Sephiroth blend. It smells like light cedar that is sort of dusty. In the drydown it also gets a bit of a lemony smell that reminds me of furniture polish. It's not a green smell or a fresh cedar smell on me, it's very dry and dusty. Overall this one only lasts about an hour on my skin. Very light and faded quickly. I can't see myself wearing this one.

I'm another person who got a rootbeer float sort of smell from this. Sweet vanilla and root beer. In the drydown it does get a bit reminiscent of Snake Oil (not in a bad way, I actually don't care for Snake Oil... but it has a sort of similar powdery/resinous quality). Like a root beer float that I dumped an imp of Snake Oil into. Interesting, I'll be keeping my decant... probably won't be a full bottle purchase though.

First on, this is really sharp lemon. It reminds of the wood polish that I used to use all of the time when I was little (yes, my childhood fun activities included enthusiastically polishing our furniture, as a budding Stepford Wife). After a while though, the lemon gets much sweeter and actually reminds me of Fresh's Lemon Sugar fragrance, which I love. There are also some perfumey white florals, but they aren't strong enough to give me a headache. After wearing June Gloom for an hour, it smells like freshly washed clothes, if you used a lemony detergent. Taking the clothes out of the washing machine when they are still damp. It's actually rather wet, cool, and pleasant. I'll cherish my decant, but it's not something that I need a full bottle of.

In my quest to go through every single note in my possession... today I picked cinnamon. I was actually dreading trying this one because I hate strong cinnamon scents. And I expected this to be insanely strong in that red hots candies sort of way. Oddly, it's not. As others have said, this is more of a freshly ground cinnamon stick scent. Not too strong or overly sharp or candied. It smells like I lightly dusted my wrist with fresh cinnamon and sugar. Surprisingly, I like this. I'm going to keep around a decant of it to layer with other scents. Cinnamon is wonderfully versatile for layering

Rosewood sometimes smells grossly sour on me, and that's all I'm smelling from Dee at first. Strong, sour rosewood with a bit of leather behind it. Luckily, this stage fades quickly. In the drydown, this starts to smell smoother and spicier. Soft woods and a touch of what smells like spicy pine. There's also the warmth of the vanilla-ish tonka. After several hours, this is the softest of woods and light incense. It's lovely and comforting. Dee is a very nice blend. I imagine the man wearing this to be a romantic and sensitive sort, but with a wonderfully witty and passionate side. It actually reminds me of my current boy... and that's who will be getting this imp

Yuletide always seems like it would be more suitable as a candle scent than a me scent. I liked Mistletoe and Skadi much more than this one. It's very green. Piney, but somehow deeper. It makes me think of the colour green... but it's so dark that it is almost black. There's also a bit of cinnamon here, which I like. And there's a tart berry. The overall smell is very green, with a pinch of cinnamon. It isn't as sweet as I had anticipated. It does remind me of potpourri, so my decant will most likely be used as a room scent.

I have a rather troubled relationship with almond. It just smells bad on me. The best way that I can describe it is 'boozy rotten cherries', but even that doesn't accurately describe the horror. For the first 10 minutes on my skin, this is almost unbearably strong and heavy. It reminds me of the way the bathrooms in my old highschool always used to smell. I can't shake that association. After a while though, this does lighten and get much better/creamier. It's a lot like my experience with Dana O'Shee (hated it at first, was fond of the drydown). It reminds me of sugared milk after a while... but it fades quickly into oblivion after that. I think this is another imp that I'll be swapping away.

I have finally managed to get ahold of the Lettuce. I am not a vegetable person... to the point where I would almost rather die than eat a salad. Lettuce has always been especially troubling to me. It tastes, to me, exactly like wet grass (yes, I have attempted to eat both, lol). It also smells similar to grass to me. The scent of lettuce is captured here perfectly. Green, crisp, and heavy with wet leaves. It surprised me by being sort of perfumey at first, but it dries down into a pretty refreshing green scent. I wonder if this singlenote was ever used in any BPAL blends. I'll probably end up swapping my imp of this one. I favor bakery/spicy scents. This is more 'refreshing salad'.

Sometimes I try things on with the expectation that they're not going to work on me at all. Sometimes I am pleasantly surprised because of that. I like all of the notes listed in the description, but generally anything that mentions something like 'bonfire smoke' smells disgusting on me. First on, woods and something oddly sweet and almost fruity. Then the fir and herbs start to come out and I am in love. It smells like a glorious blend of pine saps and resins on me. There is a slight smokiness to it, but it's not ashen or woodsmoke like I expected. It is more like incense smoke. This reminds me of a pine forest on a balmy summer night after a good rain. Laying on the forest floor and gazing up at the stars. Hexennacht is hauntingly romantic to me. I'm definitely going to be keeping my decant of this one and trying to pick up some more when I run out.

Grape SN smells, on me, like grape Kool-Aid that you didn't add enough water to. Very tart and artificially sweet. The drydown smells like grape hard candy and... raisins? It's quite odd. Not my favorite singlenote either. I don't like a lot of fruity scents and there's nothing that I really want to layer with grape, lol.