Little Bird

First impression of Severin: Sharp lemon. Kind of herbal. Sort of like lemon and black licorice. Reminds me of lemon cough drops. A bit gross. Lemony tea and leather is not a good combination on me. Not a good combination at all. This is incredibly light, but it still smells very off on me. Very medicinal in the drydown, reminds me of band-aids. 15 minutes later. It's gone. I don't smell anything at all. This was probably the fastest disappearing BPAL that I've tried to date. Severin is going onto my swaps list, I hope that someone else will love it.

This smells so dark, smooth, delicious, and decadent. It's definitely a scent that could tempt one to sin. I love black patchouli, but I don't get a ton of black patch from this scent (it just adds an extra hint of darkness to the blend). Bpal's amber notes usually go to baby powder on my skin, but the amber here is rich and resinous, and mixes so well with the sandalwood. Cinnamon usually amps up and kills the other notes in a blend, but the cinnamon here is well behaved, sweet, and sensual. The mix of amber and sandalwood reminds me a bit of Cathedral. It's like polished wood and smooth, sweet, golden resins. There's also something very cool and pleasant about this, like a hint of nighttime air. And then the sweet cinnamon has this warm, inviting quality to it that makes Sin so flirty and sexy to wear. All in all, I love this. It's spicy, resinous/woods, smooth, and sensual beyond belief. Definitely an attention getting, exotic, sexy fragrance. I recommend this if you want someone to try to get closer to you, because it definitely attracts people to me when I wear it.

I didn't get this originally because I usually am not fond of fruity blends... but I recently bought a Mi-Go Brain Canister off of a lovely forum member because I collected all of the SiA bottles and this was the missing link. I was pleasantly surprised when I got the bottle though, it actually smells rather lovely. In the bottle I am definitely picking up kiwi and it's very unique and edible. I hope that the kiwi stays strong on my skin. First on my skin, kiwi and melon . It loses a lot of the sharpness that it has in the bottle, thankfully. I am envisioning juicy kiwi slices and chilled white tea now. This is very fruity, but not that overly sweet sickening sort of fruity that I can't stand. It's very cool and soft. Smooth. I definitely get the 'soothing' part of the description. In the drydown this is very much white tea and musk with a light fruity twinge. I'm getting the sense of an almost dryersheet-like freshness. It's so complex and I'm surprised that I love it. I can't believe that it took me this long to get ahold of the Mi-Go.

I love this. I wish that I could order a bottle of it right now. I'll definitely order a bottle as soon as it gets released. This has the same sweet icy lime-lemon citrus in it that I love and adore so much in Wilde. It smells a lot like Wilde on my skin, actually. Only this has more of a green herbal quality to it and doesn't last as long on my skin. I can pick out something like pine in this, but it isn't the strong pine that I smelled in Dublin. It is very muted and in the background. Val Sans Retour only lasts about an hour and a half on my skin, but it is the most glorious fresh green blend while it lasts.

Florence is beautiful and I am completely and utterly in love with it The oil itself is a pearly golden colour, appropriate for the "pearl of the Italian Renaissance". It is the most lovely oil colour that I've come across yet. The fragrance itself is so unique and amazing. The berries are soft, cool and muted, reminding me of the smell of berry sno-cones. There is a strong burst of almost woody spices after wearing for a few minutes, but it somehow blends nicely with the berries. I tend to hate florals and Florence doesn't go floral on me at all. This is an elegant and cool berry and spice scent on me. Cool berries and woody spices wrapped up in a light amber. It will be a definite 10 ml purchase.

Dragon's Blood strikes again. I've never come across a scent that hates me this much before. My friend described this to me as 'juicy roses', so I was interested enough to try the imp. The dragon's blood still overpowers everything. The wine manages to come through a bit, but I don't like the boozy fruity quality mixed in with the smell of rotting wildflowers. I don't get any rose from this, which is odd because rose usually comes through pretty strongly on my skin. I feel like the dragon's blood got drunk and murdered the roses.

I've wanted to try La Belle Dame Sans Merci based on the descriptions of it being a cold green scent. Unfortunately, that's not what it smells like when mixed with my cursed skin chemistry. On me this is soapy. Soapy in the way that roses sometimes turn on my skin. And it stays strongly rose soap for hours, never changing. ...off to the swap piles we go...

I never would have tried Fire Eater on my own (I know to stay away from perfumey floral blends) but my bottle was a gift. When I first dabbed on some Fire Eater, it was an oddly soapy jasmine scent. Almost a sharp, bitter laundry detergent sort of soapy. After a few minutes, the soapy fades and I think that I'm smelling dragon's blood (which tends to make me ill). I might be smelling jasmine, dragon's blood, and musk. It is very perfumey. It does have a sort of warm and glowing quality to it, but I just can't seem to love it. To me this feels like 'just another floral blend'. My mother, however, loves this one... so it looks like Fire Eater is going to be regifted.

I have no real idea what narcissus is supposed to smell like. Pride to me is just a very interesting (and lovely) rose blend. It's definitely rose, but the rose somehow manages to be soapy, smoky, wet, and sweet... all at the same time. For a few minutes before it dries, it is sharply acidic, almost to the point of making my throat burn. As it dries it takes on a sweet powdered quality that I really enjoy though. I'm not much of a rose or floral person, so I'm not sure that I'd wear this one very much, but it's one of the better floral/rose blends that I've had on my skin.

Much thanks to HoneyHoneyNY for gifting me with an imp of Imp. This is glorious. I desperately want a 10 ml of Imp. There isn't much that I can say about it except that it is the perfect blend of juicy peach and earthy spicy patchouli. I love patchouli, and the peach is pairing up with it wonderfully. I didn't expect to love this as much as I do... but it's definitely on my top 10 favorite fragrances list now.

I hate white florals... they are so perfumey and bitter on me. They make me feel dizzy and my throat feel tight. Ace of Hearts is very much a white floral. It feels almost bubbly or fizzy. A bubbly overdose on flowers. I've had it on for about five minutes and I'm already getting a headache. It makes me cough Half hour later. This has gotten very faint on me, thankfully. It's a light rose scent now. Still causes me to go into a fit of coughing if I put my wrist too close to my nose. After my 10th coughing fit, I had to wash this off. Ace of Hearts has done an amazing job of reminding me why I don't own any white floral blends, lol.

I've been very curious about Wrath because it has three of my favorite scents in it (black pepper, clove, and cinnamon) and one of my most hated scents (dragon's blood). I'm hoping that the dragon's blood will be overpowered by other scents. Wet on my skin... dragon's blood and leather. This is very cool smelling and I'm hating it. I'm praying to God and all that is holy that this morphs into a different scent rather quickly. I hate the smell of dragon's blood, but my skin seems to adore it. Cinnamon is slowly building in intensity and taking over the blend. The dragon's blood is lingering in the background. Still hoping for some clove or pepper to come out. 10 minutes later. The dragon's blood is dominating again. It smells odd and is reminding me of a harsh chemical. The cinnamon seems to have exploded and disappeared within a few minutes. A little over an hour later this is still just dragon's blood on me. Dragon's blood is just so horrible on my skin. Like a sickeningly sweet chemical and rotting wildflowers. It makes my stomach lurch when I smell it. The cinnamon only lasted a minute or so and the pepper/cloves never bothered to show up at all. I'm so disappointed

So far the Carnaval Noir scents have been pretty hit (Midway) or miss (Bed of Nails) on me. Bearded Lady, sadly, is another miss. My skin really amps up the florals in this and drowns out all of the vanilla and amber. I was hopeful for the first five minutes of wearing this. I smelled vanilla and golden amber, with a few sweet blooms in the background (mostly the honeysuckle, and I actually like honeysuckle). Then the jasmine and rose started to come through and overpower everything else. They are very smoky/almost incensey florals, and they are giving me a headache. I had to wash this off after a little over an hour. I'm not sure if the lovely vanilla and amber would have reappeared. I just can't wait over an hour and battle off a floral induced migraine for the hope that a fragrance will turn good, lol.

I was so excited to try Bed of Nails based on the description... but this has been a sadly disappointing blend on me. It never really reminds me of anything metallic or woodsy. It does remind me a bit of Kingsport or R'lyeh, as others have said. A sort of salty aquatic and ozone blend with a splash of dark/bitter citrus. In the drydown I also think that it turns a bit minty... but still nothing metallic and definitely no woods. I'm going to try this out on my boyfriend, but it's definitely not going to be one that I wear frequently.

I don't really like to eat popcorn, but sometimes the smell of it is sort of uplifting. Shill is all buttery and salty goodness. Shill and Midway really are two of the most genius foodie scents that I've ever had the pleasure of trying. For me, while Midway is the scent of my dreams, Shill is more of a novelty than a must-have. I can only wear it layered with something else (I like that I can now add butter to my fragrances, lol), but it is a lovely room scent. I'm glad to have a decant. The layering possibilities will keep me more than happy. ETA: Okay... I have no clue what the hell I was on when I wrote that first review, but I LOVE Shill. I didn't appreciate it and just wrote it off as a novelty the first time that I tried it. Never again. This blend is right up there with Midway for me (did I just say that?). It is very light - that just means that I have to apply more and more and more of it. Muahaha. Ahem. This is such a good smell. It's not like a cheap worked all night on the popcorn machine at the movie theatre smell. It's a lovely popcorn, slight butter, and caramel smell (I am actually getting the caramel now, yessss). More dessert-ish. I don't even like popcorn. But I love Shill. And now I have to venture onto evil ebay to get a bottle of it, since I've been bathing in my decant and it's almost gone. I love you, Shill.

I have never been so in love with a fragrance before in my life as I am with Midway . When I got my first bottle, my boyfriend asked me what I thought of it. All I could say is, "It's heavenly." And it is. The best foodie scent EVER. I already have three bottles of it and I seriously think that I should purchase a few more. I've never made it through a full bottle of anything before, but I'm slathering this on like mad. I'm so addicted. I can actually see myself using 15 mls of this and craving more. Midway smells very heavily of powdered sugar and sugar icing on me. I can definitely smell funnel cakes (ah mouthwatering fried dough) and cotton candy. In the middle stage, I can also pick up a definite hint of saltiness. It's so unbelievably amazing. I am in love... and contemplating the order of yet another bottle.

Santa Muerte, Saint Death, is not a harbinger of doom and symbol of entropy. She is the Queen of Mercy, a source of motherly comfort, and a symbol to all sweethearts that love lasts even beyond death. She is a vision of beauty in her own right: glittering rings adorn every bony finger, she is draped in a cloak of the finest satin, and her grinning skull, beneath her cowl, is crowned by a bejeweled tiara. A deep, resonant scent, both comforting and soft: lovers’ roses, solemn chrysanthemum, dark vetiver and dazzling cactus flowers. Wet this is a very interesting floral. One that I've never come across before (the cactus flowers?). It is a lovely sweet and green floral. As it dries, more of a soapy rose begins to come out. A half hour later, this is faint and very sweet. An almost honeyed sweetness. I'm not getting any vetiver at all. After an hour, this is actually getting stronger and becoming more of a biting floral. The rose is going bitter, I think. Rose. Rose. And more rose. It stays just that for about 5 hours before fading away completely. I liked it much better when I first applied it. ----------- Trying this on again at a later date. I still like the way that this one starts out on my skin. It's a light, sweet, yellowy floral. Then it goes straight into sharp rose, bitter and harsh. A weird 'dirty-feet' smell is also lingering behind the perfumey migraine inducing rose. Santa Muerte and I are not meant to be. I give up on this one now, lol.

I get lots of vetiver from this, especially at first. It smells like dark, charred, smoking wood, dark musk that reminds me of Satyr, and a dash of sweet cinnamon. There's also something strangely foodie in here that's reminding me of coffee or chocolate. I don't like the combination at all, it winds up smelling a bit like burnt coffee and cinnamon with masculine musk. Blech. After about a half hour, it's much the same, but the watery, sickly sweetness of dragon's blood has joined the mix and not improved matters at all... Bloodlust smells rather gross on me.

Absinthe definitely did not agree with me... though I usually am not fond of minty scents anyhow. At first I did get the licorice scent that others were getting, an odd minty licorice scent. Perhaps a bit boozy. I have no idea what absinthe smells like, so I can't say if the oil smells like the drink. In the drydown this is mostly mints and lemon drops. It's very light and completely disappears in about an hour. I think that I'll be swapping this one...

King of Clubs is a definite new love for me... I seem to be favoring more masculine geared scents lately. The King reminds me of a gorgeous shadowy forest. Dark and very green. Earthy and damp. I get a hint of leather at first but then it disappears forever after a few minutes (thankfully). And then the amber and fig start to come out and I am in complete heaven. The fig isn't as strong or sweet as it usually is on my skin, but it offers a fruity wetness to the blend and warms up nicely along with the amber. The golden amber feels like touches of sunlight falling through the forest. It's spicier and warmer in the drydown. Gorgeous. Just gorgeous.

Ugh. Leanan Sidhe wins the award for worst BPAL scent that I've tried thus far. This just does not agree with me at all. It's the most bitter scent that I've ever had on me. It's not floral or anything in particular on me, it just smells like some sort of poisonous chemical that is going to kill me . It seriously burns my nose/throat when I try to smell it. This is definitely one for my swap pile...

I wanted to try House of Night because it was described as green, and I love anything that smells grassy or plant-like minus the florals. For the first few minutes on my skin it was a lovely sort of peppery green smell, like the stalks of flowers. However, it quickly morphed into a sickeningly sweet floral. Like a vase of decomposing flowers. It makes me sick to my stomach, I had to wash this one off...

The Dormouse was definitely a pleasant surprise. I'm finding that I really like BPAL's tea scents. First applied this smells like green tea spilled over lush green grass. I love the smell of fresh cut grass. Then a lovely smell of green apple came through (not that fake candy green apple smell - real tart green apples). The Dormouse reminds me of sitting under the shade of an apple tree in a gorgeous green field. No florals ever come out on me, it's just wonderful, light, and clean smelling. I wish that this would last longer and that it had a bit more throw, but it's gorgeous and I'm still planning on buying a 10 ml of it.

When I first tried this in 2005, it smelled mostly of neroli (sweet orange) and bergamot (sweet lemon). The recent imps I've gotten have been heavier on the patchouli and rose notes. Dry, earthy patchouli, sour neroli and perfumey rose.

Brisingamen mostly just smells like baby powder on my skin, thanks to bpal's amber notes (no other company turns to powder on me like these do). There's a whiff of fruity, soapy apple blossom for the first few seconds on my skin, but that quickly disappears under the powder. I keep thinking that I smell a hint of vetiver (the earthy, dead grass variety) underneath the baby powder every once in a while. Bpal's amber notes are almost always a letdown.