Little Bird

Pain is one of my least favorite BPAL blends. I don't really like minty smells, and the pennyroyal is mint at its most vicious. Very sharp and astringent. It stays strong for hours before a hint of lavender comes out and softens out. It's a very cool and icy blend to me. I don't really like mint or lavender, so I think that I'll be swapping my imp.

Oh. My. God. I'm completely shocked by how much I love this. :D It smells like the most unique and beautiful blend of juicy green apples, vanilla, and creamed coconut. I want to eat my wrist. The staying power for this isn't much on me, only lasting strongly for about an hour. I only have half an imp and an empty bottle of this (swaps and purchases from lovely forumites). I think I'll start putting in prayers that it is re-released. I need at least a dozen bottles to slather on. Looove...

Much thanks to verbosa for sending me a sample bottle of Jolly Roger I love this just as much as I thought that I would. It reminds me so much of being on a cruise ship and feeling the cool breeze and salty water as you speed through the ocean. I have a deep fondness for cruise ships (ships in general) and the water. Jolly Roger evokes wonderful memories for me. The leather seems to be an always present note in this for me, lingering in the background and holding everything up. At first it is very aquatic and I can practically taste the salt water on my lips when I smell it. Then after about two hours it gets sweeter (bay rum and woods?). It's a wonderful creamy sweetness, like pina coladas and icy mixed drinks. The staying power and throw with Jolly Roger is amazing. It's a very strong fragrance. I don't get any florals out of it and I don't think that it's perfumey at all. This is a wonderful salty aquatic with a firm presence of leather. I can't wait to try it on my boy.

Les Fleurs Du Mal was mostly lilac on me. Unfortunate, because I don't actually like lilac. Some people got more rose than lilac out of it, but you still might want to try it.

I was surprised that I actually like Goneril. I hate lilies and they often come on very strong on me. When first applied, this is mostly cedar. A lovely herbal and dry woods smell. Then some floral starts to come out, but I'm actually enjoying it. It is the same floral that I loved in Phantom Queen. I've come to the conclusion that I absolutely love black orchid. It doesn't go perfumey on me at all. It smells very rich and dark, makes me think of rich dark purples. The combination of the floral and cedar is interesting. I don't love this enough to get a full bottle as I don't often reach for cedar blends, but I will definitely be keeping and enjoying my imp.

I love lilac, wisteria and rose, but don't smell any of them here. Les Fleurs is a sharp, musky, nondescript white floral smell with a powdery drydown. Very bland and generic.

A vital, bold scent, throbbing with sensuality. Essence of dragon’s blood resin, thickened with myrrh and cherry, with a trickle of clove. I love blood. Real blood. As in, fresh from a cut (perhaps I am odd). I find it beautiful and fascinating and for those reasons I feel like I should love all of these BPAL blood blends. I just hate dragon's blood. This fragrance smells so odd to me. Like thick cough syrup with something rotting in it. The cherry is medicinal, the dragon's blood decaying, and the clove bitter. It seems thick and awful. It makes me feel a bit sick to my stomach.

The rose is the main note that comes out on me in Black Rose. I think that the musk and amber might be present, but they seem to go powdery. After a few minutes, that's what Black Rose smells like on me. The perfumey rose dusting powder that my grandmother used to use. I always thought that it smelled very elegant and mysterious. This is a very strong blend and it stayed the same rose powder scent for about 8 hours. If I were a floral/rose person, I would get a full bottle of this. It is a darker more earthy rose. But, as it is, Whip remains my favorite rose blend and the only one that I have a full bottle of.

I really thought that I would hate Katharina, since it has two of my least favorite notes in it (white musk and orange blossom ::shudders:: ). Thankfully for me though, the orange blossom never comes out on my skin and the white musk is very subdued under the apricot. The apricot is very sweet on me, sort of like syrupy canned apricots. The white musk doesn't go bitter and just lends a sort of creamy scent behind the apricot. It only lasts about an hour on me total and I don't really like fruity blends, but this isn't bad if you do like sweet fruity smells. Grand Guignol was a better and longer lasting apricot on me.

At first this is all orange blossom and neroli on me. Ripe citrus and a burnt orange smell. I was hoping that this would be a clove and orange scent (mmm, spiced orange) but I'm not getting any clove out of this. An hour later this has faded quickly. I even forgot that I was wearing it for a while, it is so light. Now if I smell my wrist I can see that the clove has come out and the citrus has faded away. I have a bar of clove soap. In the drydown, that's what Succubus smells like on me. Definitely soapy, but very light and barely noticeable on my skin.

So many floral blends seem to smell the same to me. If they have jasmine, it almost always overpowers everything else. So I get that same floral smell and feel from it, even if the other notes are extremely different. That said, at first I get strong smoky jasmine and an undercurrent of musky white floral. It's not as overpowering as I expected it to be, but it's still very not me and kind of makes me feel lightheaded. After about an hour the fruity plum seems to be coming out and I like that note quite a lot, but the jasmine is choking it and keeping it very far in the background In conclusion, this is too much of a musky jasmine for me to want a full bottle and I will probably be swapping my imp.

I've gotten good variations and bad variations of Hunger over the years. My good imps smell like creamy vanilla and natural, soft orange blossom. The bad imps smell like heavy, sharp, perfumey floral narcissus and waxy, funky orange blossom that reminds me of burning, melting plastic. I'll never order a full size of this one, because I never know which version I'll get.

I'm not well versed when it comes to floral blends (not that I'm really well versed about anything, I am just especially strugglin' when it comes to florals, lol). The only two flowers that I can usually identify are jasmine and rose. I know what those smell like, really! I definitely get jasmine and rose out of this. They seem to be going soapy on me. It's not my sort of perfume, and the jasmine is overpowering as it always is on me. Black Dahlia is another floral soap blend on me.

While Mistletoe was like walking through a snow laden pine forest on a moonlit night, Skadi is like coming in from the forest into a warm cozy house to sit in front of the fire. At first I smell an almost smoky pine. Like sitting in front of a fresh cut Christmas tree and a wood burning fireplace. The pine is very light and I can perfectly envision the green needles and golden sap. Then a bit of spice and cinnamon comes through and warms everything up. Like spiced cider and gingerbread cookies . I love the mental picture that this conjures up. Pine and cinnamon are usually so heavy and overwhelming on me, but they're light and perfectly blended here. I hope that I can find a full bottle of this when I use up my imp.

I'm so torn about this. Part of me wants to wear it, part of me thinks it's better off as a room scent, and part of me thinks that it would be better on my boyfriend. Regardless, I *love* Mistletoe. It starts off smelling a bit too bitter for me, like pine but with a cold bite of minty menthol underneath it. But then a few minutes later that sharp menthol smell fades away and this smells like snow covered pine trees have been stuffed into a bottle . It wouldn't be so amazing if this were just a sappy pine scent, but I can actually smell the snow in there as well. Glorious. And I think that I'll wear this, use it as a room scent, *and* use it on the boy.

Of the several funereal oils that I've tried, I haven't really liked any of them. Haunted wasn't a winner with my skin chemistry either . First on this is perfumey musk and something that smells like dry soil. Dirt and musk. I can already feel a headache coming on. I think that I can smell some amber in the background, but it seems to be going powdery. I love amber. It usually works well on me. The amber in Haunted goes into baby powder mode. Musky baby powder = migraine headache.

I can definitely see what people mean when they say that Namaste is a good meditating blend. It does have a very calming/relaxing feel to it. I thought that I would end up hating Namaste when I first tried it on. It smelled like sharp lemon drops, bitter rose, and smoky jasmine. Too much floral and biting citrus for me. The jasmine and rose actually calmed down after a few minutes and drifted off into the background though. The patchouli came out to play and the lemon seemed to sweeten. After about an hour and a half, the fragrance completely shifted. The jasmine and rose completely vanished and the patchouli & lemon are barely lingering in the background. Out comes a dry and slightly spicy blend of powdery sandalwood and woody cedar. Namaste only lasts about 3 hours on my skin. I don't love it enough to ever get a full bottle... but it is very pretty and I admire the complexity.

Mmm... patchouli... I love patchouli. I would love to have a few dozen 10 ml bottles of nothing but patchouli oil. Anyhow. When I first put on masquerade, it is all wonderful patchouli. So perfectly spicy and earthy and glorious. Then, after about five minutes, the orange blossom creeps in and starts to ruin things. Orange blossom always smells something like burnt orange rinds on me. I can smell a definite burnt orange underneath my lovely patchouli now. The orange blossom has faded considerably after an hour and I can smell the spicy floral of the carnation. It's blending quite well with the patchouli and I love that the patchouli is still the dominant note. This will never be a full bottle purchase for me (thanks to the orange blossom) but I think I can go through my imp on days when I don't mind waiting an hour for the fragrance to settle down.

I love the smell of citrus and lavender. Unfortunately, it never makes an appearance. The minty pennyroyal is all I can smell from this for about an hour. It's very bright and sharp, a cutting mint. After an hour the musk begins to come out and soften the mint. Mad Hatter turns into a perfumey mint. It seems more cold and masculine on me than anything that I would wear. I don't really like mint, so I don't think that I'll try this out on my boy either, lol. It will make a perfect gift for a male friend who needs to get away from axe sprays...

Jasmine is always insanely strong on my skin. Orange blossom always has an odd burnt sort of smell to it. This smells like strong burnt jasmine with an herbal undertone. Very odd and not good at all. It's sickening on me. On my mother, however, this smells heavenly. Sparkling citrus held down by soft pretty florals and comforting lavendar. I envy her skin chemistry.

I wish that I had read the reviews here before even trying on Wicked. My skin pretty much always amps up jasmine notes. At first I do get a bit of powdery rose here, but it quickly turns into nothing but jasmine. Pure, strong jasmine. Headache in a bottle.

I *hate* white musk but I love patchouli, so I was still tempted into trying Vechernyaya. Unfortunately, this is pure white musk on me and not even a hint of patchouli. I'm not sure what poppy smells like (I never noticed it having a smell) but I don't think that I smell any here. It's very perfumey and astringent. The white musk of my nightmares. I had to wash this off after about a half hour, even though it had dried down and was much lighter at that point.

Athens is not one of my favorite scents. I don't hate it, but it's not one that I ever find myself reaching for either. I get the same sort of golden and fuzzy honey note that I get in Hetairae. I don't really like red wine, but it thankfully isn't that strong on me in Athens. It just adds a sort of rotten boozy quality in the background. The overall feel is of a boozy honey. The florals are pleasant, but I can't pick out any floral note in particular. Just a sort of sweet flowery note that comes out more after I've been wearing Athens for a few hours. Boozy honey with a light layer of florals. Not a favorite, but it's okay...

I fell in love with a frimp of Nosferatu that smelled like damp black dirt and a hint of sweet berry. It was oddly clean smelling for a dirt scent, but still dark and haunting. And then I ordered a full bottle and it smells nothing like the frimp. The bottle smelled like sharp, sour, perfumey floral and moss with a whiff of berry markers. So unbelievably different. I swapped for another bottle on the forum and it also smells different (kinda cough syrupy). And this is why I'm getting fed up with bpal. It's such a waste of money when you love a sample and then order a bottle only to find out that it's nothing like the sample. That much variation is ridiculous, and it's happened with so many of their scents at this point that it's just starting to feel like a huge ripoff to me...

I was worried that Love Me would be floral and disappointing on me. I prayed to God and all that is holy for this to not have any jasmine in it, lol. First on this smells like Holiday Spice Cola. Lovely, sweet, fizzy Cola with a touch of cinnamon. Truly a touch of cinnamon, not overpowering at all. I love it. After about a half hour, more of a vanilla smell is coming out to join the above mentioned smells. More and more cinnamon comes out over the next few hours, but it never gets overpowering or sickening as it often does on my skin. It's a gorgeous vanilla and cinnamon blend in the drydown.