Little Bird

Antony is one of the few masculine blends that I don't really like. I like the herbal combination of sage and basil, it gives it a sort of spicy green scent. However, the leather completely devours all of the other notes on me . I end up with a sort of funky/burnt leather smell. I don't understand it at all, especially since a lot of people didn't even smell leather in this. My skin chemistry is being evil. I'll have to try it out on the boy and see if this works on him, but it's definitely one that I can't get away with wearing.

Belle Epoque was not a winner at all on me. At first it smells like a bitter generic perfumey floral. Then it smells very soapy in the drydown. It smells like a bar of sandalwood soap. At times it shifts a bit and smells like something oddly burnt. It makes me feel sick to my stomach

Cairo was not a good scent at all on me. It starts out smelling like honey cough drops and some sort of lemony bathroom cleanser. In the drydown it smells like a charred orange/herbal glaze that reminds me of BBQing chicken . It's sweet and smoky. I can't imagine ever wearing this. This will be one for my swap pile.

Kunstkammer was a surprise love for me out of the CN lineup. I bought it on a whim, even though I hate citrus scents and figured that it would be primarily orange scented. I hate citrus because it is often too sharp and bitter on my skin, but this is sweet and smooth in a powedery/candy sort of way. I agree with previous reviews. Orange Kool-Aid. This takes me straight back to hot summer days, scrambling around my mother's legs and begging her to make some Kool-Aid. It's cool, light, and sweet. In the drydown, I smell strawberry nerds candies mixed in with the orange. This is happy in a bottle. It makes me feel happy in a simple way, like I was able to feel when I was 6 years old. I don't get any pepper here at all (darn it, I'm still looking for a pepper fragrance). Kunstkammer is wonderful. Not as wonderful as Midway, but I'm glad that I listened to that little voice in my head and ordered a bottle. It's an awesome summery scent.

Geek has been quite a disappointment for me. When I first put some on my boy, he said, "Ugh. This smells like potpourri." And I have to agree. I was hoping for a 'true pine forest' scent, and Geek doesn't deliver. I guess the dry grass and hint of cinnamon bark's spiciness is giving this a dried potpourri feel. Over time on my boy this also smells very musky and sickeningly sweet. On me, the leather in this is unbearably strong, hard, sharp, and smoky. I also get that dry, potpourri sweetness. At least this fades really fast on me. It's gone within 3 hours. On the boy, it lasted over 8 hours until we took a shower. My bottles of this will be going up for swaps. It doesn't really work on me or the boy.

At first Queen of Clubs smells a bit like Centzon Totochtin to me. The same rich fruit and dark sweetness. They smell different, but they're in the same vein to my nose. Tart pomegranate and dirt. It has a very strong wet soil note to my nose as it dries down. Soil with a bit of rose and vanilla in the background. An hour later is has dried down into a mostly perfumey rose and light incense scent. It still has an earthy scent to it. This is very pretty and the perfumey rose actually isn't bothering me or giving me a headache as florals often do. I don't know if I'll wear this one a lot (I LOVE its companion, King of Clubs), but I'm definitely glad to have a bottle. I think that I'm going to try this one out on the boy as well... just because.

In the vial, I'm assaulted by a sharp citrus smell. I was shocked to find that there aren't any citrus notes listed. It's possible that I'm smelling the mix of orange blossom and moss to get that sharp, sour fragrance. It reminds me of Shanghai, if Shanghai had more of a cool, men's cologne feel to it. On my skin, I really like this, though it is a sharper scent than I'd normally go for. It smells sexy, confident, and clean. This is well-blended and I can't pick out any one of the listed notes. It smells clean and musky (and not soapy at all), yet it's deep and slightly spicy in that way that men's cologne sometimes smell spicy (not in a foodie way at all). It gets a bit sweeter as it sits on my skin, but it never wanders into that too-sweet territory. It has a bit of a dark, mysterious feel about it too. Vicomte de Valmont is one of my favorites of bpal's masculine geared blends, probably because it does smell very masculine. This is one that I'd happily give a sample of to the men in my life.

I love the fig note that bpal uses, but I like it best paired with the cocoa and wood notes in Intrigue. Carnal has the same rich, woody/earthy, fruity fig, but it's lighter and fades more quickly with a hint of orange oil. I think that it's better paired with darker notes that complement its woody/chocolatey tones. Carnal has a burst of mandarin orange that disappears after about 5 minutes and leaves behind the light fig note that fades away within an hour.

I love bananas when they are fresh. They smell good and they taste good too (/end service announcement). I cannot stand the smell of banana candies or dried bananas or any of that sort though. Manila smells like insanely powdery banana tart candies when I first put it on. I had to hold my wrist away from my nose for 15 minutes until it dried down and that awful synthetic smell faded. The drydown is really very nice. The banana smell is in the background and it actually smells like real fresh bananas. BPAL is the first to capture that smell that I've found. There is a fresh breezy smell here and some nonoffensive floral smells. I can't pick out any notes in particular. In the drydown I do get a sense of warm tropics, light breezes, and greenery. It has a definite fruity sweetness too. It's not me and I'll probably end up swapping my imp, but it's quite lovely nonetheless.

I quickly wrote down my impressions of Silk Road the first time that I wore it. It seems to shift rapidly on me. This is what it smelled like to me: Dish soap, sweet floral bubble bath, bubble gum, a burst of cinnamon, fruity bubble gum. Soapy fruit bubble gum with a sprinkle of cinnamon underneath it all. In the drydown some exotic spice smell comes out more. I don't have any clue what that spice is. Like cinnamon but not as strong or sharp. This is very light. Whenever I smell it my brain rapidly thinks, "Soapgumspiceflowers." Very strange. Unique and pretty in its own right. I'll probably be swapping my imp... it reminds me of something that I can't place, but I just don't love this.

Sri Lanka smells exactly like Whippoorwill when I first apply it. Green, wet, and sharp. So I put Whippoorwill on my other wrist to compare. They're strikingly similar for the first 15 minutes or so. Sri Lanka gets a bit more perfumey and soapy on me than Whippoorwill... but really, they're practically the same scent on my skin. Odd. After an hour, Sri Lanka takes on more of an incensey quality. Still it's cool, green, and wet... this is Whippoorwill's fraternal twin (to my nose, at least).

I've finally found something with dragon's blood in it that I can actually wear! Dragon's Milk is my first and (so far) only dragon's blood scent from the Lab that I enjoy. The oil is thick and deep red, almost glowing, and the smell is so decadently sweet, rich, and creamy. It smells like maraschino cherries and a warm, creamy, honeyed vanilla. Sort of like vanilla icecream with whipped cream and cherries on top. It's wonderfully sweet and I love it. I'm paranoid that it's going to turn on me like dragon's blood always does and smell like rotten flowers, but this dragon's blood is cherry red, sweet, and slightly incensey. It's so good for hours. It dries down into a mouthwatering honeyed vanilla with the sultry incense and deep red tones lingering in the background. Feels warmer and more snuggly-yet-sexy the more it dries down. I'm amazed. I was so convinced that I would hate this blend, in spite of its popularity, because I've hated every dragon's blood scent that I've tried thus far from the Lab... but I want a 10 ml of this one. ETA 2015: This is another GC blend that's changed so much that it's unrecognizable for me. My older bottles were a deep, thick, dark red and smelled sweet, rich and amazing. My latest bottle is pale orange and smells like floral dragon's blood. What a letdown. So many of the GC blends I loved a few years ago are just not at all the same when I've repurchased them. I wish that bpal would at least note when they've reformulated something, because I've wasted a lot of money with blends like this 😕 ETAA: Won a bottle of this in the Lab's ebay auctions in 2024 and there is absolutely no dragon's blood in whatever version this is. The oil is clear and almost watery and smells like only the honeyed cream of Dragon's Milk, which isn't as lovely as it sounds. I am going to keep it to mix with other dragon's blood oils I have and hopefully recreate the OG Dragon's Milk.

I always want to try every blend with leather in it, even though leather doesn't usually work on me. Highwayman doesn't work well with my skin chemistry at all. At first it is intensely smoky. Like burning would chips over a strip of leather. It makes me feel nervous and it's just not a pleasant smell for me. After about 15 minutes the leather fades away a bit and the jasmine comes out in full force. Jasmine is often a very smoky/heady floral on me and adding it to that woodsmoke smell is enough to make me feel like I'm suffocating. I had high hopes for the rose and cinnamon combination, but I never smell any rose or cinnamon. Highwayman is strong and has a lot of throw. A very overpowering and dominating blend. It's not for me though... I don't care for it on my boy either. It's more floral on him (gardenia and jasmine). Odd that it was more masculine on me and more feminine on him.

Aeval starts out very dry and herbal on me, I think because of the sage. Then the sweet pea comes out and this is light, bland, and floral. The tonka is adding an almost vanilla smoothness to it all. It's reminding me of one of my first self tanners. They used a bad floral smell to try to mask the evil self tanner chemical smell. It ended up smelling like wet dog... dog washed with a floral soap. I guess that's pretty much what Aeval smells like on me: wet dog and floral soap.

Boozy/wine notes really do not work well on my skin. The 'deep red merlot' smells like sour rotting berries on me. At least I'm assuming that it's the merlot that smells like that. This starts out all evil berries and leather. It's sickening to me. The smell of leather has been making my stomach churn lately for some reason. It's just too cool for my preference. After about 10 minutes I am getting musky rose and a powdery floral scent (the violets turning powdery?). It gets more and more powdery over the course of an hour and I smell like musky baby powder. Wanda is another love potion for the swap pile in my case.

Darkness is unlike anything that I've worn before. It is thick in an almost syrupy way. Very smoky. Not like a sweet incense smoke. An eerie, empty smokiness. The smokiness lingers for a few minutes but is then taken over by a musky floral scent. It's strange and sharp on me. I'll probably wear this a few more times to see if it grows on me, it's interesting. I just don't know if I'll ever really enjoy wearing it. It's more of a scent that I'd wear trying to figure out what it is, rather than wearing it because I really enjoy it.

Utrennyaya is mostly mint and violet to me. The mint is the strongest throughout the hours that I wore this blend. Very cool and pepperminty. The violets are cool and sweet. It's like violets dipped in peppermint icing. Overall this is a very chilly blend on me. It's dark and surprisingly pretty. I don't really like mint or violet... but I'm enjoying Utrennyaya. This will never be a full bottle purchase as I never really wear minty perfumes, but I'll hold onto my imp and toy around with it on days that I'm feeling adventurous.

I didn't like this at all when I first tried it (spicy, salty weirdness), but I got an imp in a recent lab order, tried it again, and fell in love. I don't know if my nose is different, if my skin chemistry is different, or if this was reformulated, but it's awesome. It's a little like Snake Oil's warm, sweet, red musk plus Hod's sweet, spicy carnation on my skin, with a little bit of the powdery warmth of The Girl. My only complaint is that this is rather light on me, which is odd, because red musk, SO, and Hod are all super-strong on me. Carnation, spicy, sweet, powdery, warm, sensual... I'm getting a bottle of this in my next order

I was really hoping that the promise of fruits and incense in this would keep the florals from becoming overpowering and giving me a headache. Sadly, I don't really smell any fruit and I definitely don't smell any incense. Morgause is all jasmine and violet on me. The jasmine is very strong and smoky, almost strangling the violet. Still, the violets manage to peek out every once in a while in a burst of sweetness. If you like jasmine and violets and you're a floral person, you'll love this. It gives me an awful headache though.

I've pretty much given up on dragon's blood at this point. It always smells like rotting wildflowers on me, sometimes rotting wildflowers mixed with rotting cherries. But it always smells rotten. Blood Amber starts out strongly of rotten florals with a bitter cherry cough syrup undertone. I don't smell any amber until I've been wearing it for about 15 minutes, and it quickly goes powdery on me. Blood Amber smells like rotten wildflowers dusted with babypowder that are sitting in a vase of cherry cough syrup. I give up on you, dragon's blood...

I've really been wanting to try this one, it seems to have so much hype surrounding it. Now I see that it is very well deserved hype . Sometimes I cannot wear Jack because it is nauseatingly buttery. PK is nothing like Jack. This starts out smelling like warm apple cider and fallen leaves on me. Sweet and spicy, the cinnamon actually gives it a warming feeling too. Just like sipping on hot apple cider and watching the leaves change colour into fall. There might be a bit of patchouli here giving it that lovely earthy smell. I've tried 'pumpkin pie' scented oils from a lot of companies and have never been able to wear it. The spices always become overpowering and make me sick. The spices are very present here but they don't turn the blend into a pure cinnamon and nutmeg smell. It really does smell like pumpkin pie cheesecake. I adore cheesecake and this has all of the wonderful creaminess. I love how this goes from smelling like apple cider to smelling like pumpkin pie cheesecake. After about an hour the apple cider scent comes back and the two are coexisting perfectly side by side. I'm so hoping that this will be released this year. I've never smelled anything quite like it before. It is the perfect scent of fall. And I only have half an imp left.

Sekhmet reminds me of a type of candy that my grandmother used to give me when I was little, but I cannot for the life of me remember the name. I didn't really like the candies, because I don't really like the taste of mint or cinnamon. But that is neither here nor there, because Sekhmet smells lovely. Spearmint is one of the only mints that I really like because it seems lighter and softer than, say, peppermint. I smell spearmint here. It is mostly mint with undercurrents of cinnamon. They are both light and subdued and mingle perfectly. In the drydown this is so creamy and lovely. So creamy that I'm wondering if there is vanilla here. The mint is the main thing that I smell, but it is not overpowering at all. And it is all dusted with a bit of cinnamon. I really like this, it's nice and foodie on me... but I don't know if I'd really wear it a lot. I never see myself reaching for minty blends. I'll gift my imp as it was gifted to me and think about ordering a bottle if it is ever available. *ETA: For those who keep asking me... I was given a chance to try this from a friend who won an imp of it in an auction*

I wanted to love Black Phoenix just because of its name... but I don't. I've tried to wear it several times now, and ended up washing it off each time. It's just too thick and boozy. Like cherry cough medicine, syrup, and boozy almond extract. It has a sort of incense like quality in the drydown, but it's just too much for me. Too cloyingly sweet and thick. Sorry, Black Phoenix... it's time to put you up for swaps.

I really enjoy Shroud when I first put it on. It smells of dry woods and an almost green herbal scent. However, it quickly dries down to a perfumey floral scent and goes a bit powdery. This ends up being too floral on my skin. White flowers never seem to work on me...

Of all of the funereal oils that I've tried, Thanatopsis is the only one that I really like. The musk really helps to soften the sharp juniper and pine. I thought that this blend had amber in it, but it is probably just the musk giving it that golden warm smell. The pine and juniper are so sharp at times that I get almost a menthol smell from them. Still, this smells very much like walking through a pine forest and breathing in the smell of sharp needles and resinous pine sap. Another lovely BPAL pine blend.