Little Bird

Wow, this is spicy. Spicy like pepper, but it definitely isn't pepper. It's delicious and I want to season something with it. In the drydown I can start to pick out the hint of rose that other have mentioned. Rose and pine. It has faded quickly into a light cool scent. I'm surprised by how much I like this. The rose doesn't go powdery or soapy on me (a miracle!). This is a wonderfully crisp and rosy floral on me after about an hour. Light and not overpowering at all. Not really me either, but I still like it a lot.

I was extremely lovestruck upon first sniff. This smells like wet, green stalks of a lovely bamboo plant. It screams of lush green wetness. Then, after about 5 minutes, this starts to go bitter and perfumey on me. NO! >_< I cannot stand that smell. It's the same way that a lot of the Dior poison perfumes smell on me. Overpowering, should've been left in the 80's sharp bitter musky sort of scent. Kind of like hairspray. That's what I mean by perfumey, that throat clogging bitter hairspray smell. A half hour later. Still hairspray. I had to wash this off... and it started off so good too

First applied, this smells like Eternal, but with a big helping of dry dirt added in. Then I think that I start to smell jasmine, but it never comes out as strongly as jasmine usually does on my skin. 15 minutes later. Perfumey florals and something medicinal. I can still smell dirt, and I'm not liking this. A half hour later. Gah. This is turning really bitter, sharp, and perfumey on me. No more dirt, just disagreeable florals. I'm feeling the beginnings of a headache coming on. And then it suddenly softens. It is a light floral that reminds me of wilting flowers. An overturned vase. No incense though. Crossroads disappointed me...

Simply cool, the essence of Lounge: the scent of a crisp pomegranate martini. It's so hard for me to fall in love with boozy scents... I've never drank alcohol and have never even been in the presence of a martini, so I'm not sure if this smells like one, lol. On me this smells like beer mixed with fruit punch. Verrry boozy and tart. After about an hour it fades quite a bit and smells like boozy soap . It's definitely not a winner for my skin chemistry.

I really hated strawberry scents before I tried BPAL's interpretation of strawberry. I'd been turned against the fruit thanks to lines like Dessert Beauty, where the strawberry is sickeningly sweet and plasticy. But BPAL's strawberry is just lovely. The fruit is somehow richer and reminds me more of the actual fruit, rather than bad candies. This does have a sweet candy smell to it, it's just not a gross and overwhelming sweetness. And the champagne is fizzy, alcoholic, and oddly clean smelling on me. The champagne amps up after spending hours on my skin and I dislike how boozy it becomes. In the end, I love Hollywood Babylon a lot more as a strawberry scent. Bon Vivant is still lovely though and I plan to keep my imp.

Hm. Kathmandu was an odd experience for me. I expected it to last longer, since the cedar was so strong and potent initially. I didn't expect this to smell kind of minty (didn't read reviews before trying). Minty cedar, I now know, is not really my thing. Cedar just doesn't seem to agree with me. It either reminds me of BBQ or smells dry and dusty. It smells sort of dusty in Kathmandu. It's all gone within an hour though. This is one for my swap pile.

In the imp vial, something smelled wonderfully fruity. I normally hate fruit scents with the exception of blackberry... and that's what I smelled here. It reminded me a bit of Glasgow (a favorite of mine <3). On my skin this became a wonderfully wet fresh water and ozone smell with a hint of citrus. The citrus wasn't bitter or overpowering as it usually is on my skin though. It reminds me of the way rain water smells on the sidewalk on a warm summer day. As it dries down I begin to smell the blackberry that I loved in the vial . And for hours this reminds me of Glasgow. A wetter Glasgow with a light charge of ozone and a hint of green grasses. Glasgow somehow improved. My skin chemistry LOVES this. I love this. After about 4 hours this is very light and faint, it has gone back to something light citrus dryer sheets. I want to reapply, but I'm afraid of using up my imp. I wish that I'd gotten a bottle of this along with Cerberus...

laochodia (my hero ) sent me a bottle and an imps worth of milk moon. I was a BPAL newbie when milk moon was for sale at the lab and didn't realize how quickly the moons sell out... so I missed my chance, and have been upset about it ever since, lol. But I now have a precious and much coveted imp. This is such heaven. It might be my all time favorite BPAL scent (maybe even better than 13). It starts out a wonderfully rich vanilla cream drizzled with caramel on my skin. Foodie and surprisingly strong. I'm not getting any mint, which is good because I don't like mint. I can smell this strongly on my skin for about 6 hours before it starts to fade. In that time it stayed mainly vanilla cream, but with a swirl of caramel, honey, and marshmallow scents coming out around the cream. It's so rich and amazing. I don't know what I'll do when my imp is gone. I hate myself for not ordering a dozen bottles of this. I love you, Milk Moon

Pannychis most definitely hates me. I thought that it had a lot of interestingly combined notes (currants, florals, frankincense, sandalwood, everything). Unfortunately, when first applied, this is just floral. Jasmine to make my brain throb. It has a lot of throw too. Putting on a sweater and tucking my wrist behind my back did not help the headache to cease. After about an hour a sort of fruity note comes up under the loud jasmine (the currants finally coming into play) and I think I smell an odd note that is the ylang ylang. Ylang ylang always turns an odd (but not unpleasant) metallic note on my skin. In the end I scrubbed this off of my wrist... it was just too much jasmine and too much floral for me.

When I first applied Tempest, it smelled like crushed lemon rind with a sort of salt water twinge. As it dries it begins to smell more soapy and I start thinking about dryer sheets. 15 minutes later the citrus starts to come out and is stronger, along with something that could be pine. It's sort of green and sharp. Not as much ozone or aquatic as I had anticipated. After about 2 hours... all dryer sheet. 5 hours later it was gone. I am not amazed with this one, probably wouldn't ever buy a full bottle.

Orange blossom pretty much always goes rancid on my skin... either smelling like burnt citrus or something like dirty baby powder. Catherine's orange blossom was no exception. Only in this the rose also goes soapy. When first applied, this smelled like soapy rose and citrus, very sharp and bitter. It dried down to soapy rose, a smell of burnt orange peel, and baby powder. I had to wash it off when it started to give me a headache

I knew that I would hate Nuit just by reading the description. White florals, jasmine, and white musks are all great for giving me migraines. Still, I tried it on because sometimes jasmine blends do surprise me. Nope. The jasmine is smoky/screeching and overwhelming... the musk is perfumey... the white rose is going soapy. And they're all fighting with each other to make their awful presence known . This reminds me of some awful Dior perfume I had once that I can't place at the moment. Very department store perfumey. If you like white florals, perfumey musks, or jasmine, you would probably like this. Definitely not for me though... everything that could go wrong here, does, lol.

I've put off reviewing Dunwich out of all of the SiA scents because it is my favorite and I don't know how to do it justice. I didn't think that I would like this either. It was only by accident that my boy and I got into a fight right before the scents were taken down and he felt bad so he bought me this out of guilt... lol. This is kind of green, kind of salty, kind of grapefruity. This isn't really floral or soapy on me. No ozone. No rotting flowers. Not even a really wet/aquatic fragrance. Perhaps a swampy forest. Mostly hanging mosses and mud. But it's pretty, really. It isn't what I expected Dunwich to smell like. It isn't dark or threatening to me, moreso a comforting, quiet forest with rays of sunlight peaking through the moss clad trees. So... yes... Dunwich is my favorite of the series and I am so glad that I have a bottle of it

I'm sad to say that the pepper never comes out for me in this blend (I'd kill for something that smells like pure black pepper, lol). I don't really like mint, but I was hoping that this would dry down into a mostly cucumber and pepper blend. At first this is nice cool spearmint. Spearmint is my favorite of mints, so it wasn't too bad. Then the cucumber lingers and offers up a nice clean wet smell in the background of the mint. Then it goes weird and smells like wild onions on me . I've worn Tulzscha 3 times now (light and slathered on like mad) and it always goes to this faint wild onions scent on me. It's weird and I don't really want to smell like onions. Throughout the day it changes from wild onions to cucumber to wild onions and back. It's great as cucumber, weird and sort of sickening with the onion. This is probably going to be another SiA blend that I decant away for the most part.

When I first applied this, it was nothing but sweet spearmint. Actually kind of warm, with a green mossy scent underneath it. After about 15 minutes, a sweet powder and pepper scent came out around the mint. It was pleasant and golden. Then, within an hour, this was nothing but baby powder. I don't really like mint... and mint apparently does not like me either, lol.

I thought that I would love Azathoth since people were describing it as masculine and I have a history of happily wearing men's colognes. The cedar in this is the main note on me and it is a very smoky cedar at that. All I can think of when I sniff this is 'BBQ' . This is probably a result of my father BBQing with cedar planks... I now have an association with that smell. The citrus comes out on the cedar as well, like a nice citrus marinade. This isn't really masculine on me either. It smells surprisingly sweet and smoky. Azathoth might be my least favorite blend in the SiA series, sadly.

First on I get very strong clove and jasmine. I also feel like there's patchouli in this, it's a very strange mix of overwhelming sweet and overwhelming spicy. I was intrigued by the clove and bourbon vanilla in this blend. Unfortunately, it did exactly what I feared it would. This smells like nothing but jasmine on me after about two minutes. Giving me yet another jasmine induced headache. Boo. All of the other notes sounded so lovely... but jasmine is a ruthless bully

Yog-Sothoth was another SiA winner for me, I am happy to report . It's a rather dark scent... reminding me of crisp night air. I can imagine this being heavenly on a guy. When first applied, I was very unimpressed. It smelled like dryer sheets and citrus. It was mostly the citrus sting that was bothering me. But that quickly faded away and Yog-Sothoth reminded me a bit of Brimstone. It smelled like Brimstone did on me in that it smelled like just cooled ash from a forest fire that has been recently rained on. Pine ash and rain. But there's still that cool/clean dryer sheet sort of scent underneath it all. It's a dirty dryer sheet though. Try to imagine this. A forest fire has just been put out by a cool spring rain and the sun is setting behind the trees. The night air and rain is cooling and simmering against the ash. Someone throws in a dryer sheet. Odd. But beautiful. I wish that it lasted longer on me (only about an hour and a half of staying power).

This reminds me of LUSH's Avobath. It's like a mix of lemongrass and bergmot - very lemony and slightly herbal. Unfortunately, I think this makes for a better bath scent than a perfume scent. It's too simple and slightly sour as a perfume.

Phantom Queen. Wow, this is such a powerful scent. It's floral and heavy, but I'm liking it (yes, me, the floral hater). It seems very dark, I see royal purple and black when I close my eyes and smell this. At first it had a harsh perfumey quality and even then I liked it. As it dries down that perfumey note goes away though and I'm left with strong dark orchids and apple slices. There is something dark and sinister here though, undearneath the floral meadows and apples. I would expect the woman wearing this to be strong, independent, and never taken advantage of. She is always calm, collected, and in control. She sees through everyone's garbage and doesn't take crap from anyone. I love her. And Chloe (my furry purring child) also loves the Phantom Queen. She followed me around even more than usual (didn't think that was possible) the day that I wore this. In conclusion, phantom queen is a perfect and powerful night time scent... I might even have to get a bottle of this.

I try Dana O'Shee again every two years or so, because I forget how bad it is and I'm like, "Milk, honey and grains! It'll be amazing!" But no, it's foul. The almond is the sort that has that high pitched, sour, maraschino cherry edge to it, and there's some powdery funk in this as well. It smells like a dirty rest stop bathroom where they tried to cover up poo & pee smells with that almond scented soap. Disinfectant over feces. I hate this one.

At first this is a citrus-herbal scent on my skin. Not terribly unpleasant. But it quickly turns into a soapy floral nightmare. Bitter rose and soapy violets. Still maybe a hint of citrus lingering in the background. The overall impression is bitter and harsh on me. It gets more generic-soapy scented over the course of an hour... before I washed it off with some actual soap going into hour 2. Good news is that the Arabian Musk never came out on me... maybe it would have if I'd been brave enough to keep it on.

I put off trying Hollywood Babylon because I really hate strawberry scented things, they tend to make me sick. I don't really like fruity blends in general. So it surprised me that I fell completely in love with Hollywood Babylon. It's not at all as sickeningly sweet and fruity as I thought that it would be. It is sweet... just not in a cheap or cloying way. I thought that it would be sickly sweet like some other strawberry cream type blends that I've tried (*cough* Jessica Simpson lines *cough*). For me, I smell a red fruitiness... but it's more like I smashed up strawberry and cherry into one fruit, not that they're acting as separate notes. Then it has a wonderfully grownup musky vanilla scent enveloping it. This isn't really foody to me. I think it's the first strawberry scented anything that I've really liked. It stays strong and potent for a bit over 5 hours on me too. I think I might have to put it into my future 5 ml purchase category

I was excited to try Penitence because I normally love frankincense and myrrh. And that's definitely what this smells like. It's a rich, golden scent. It's a little bit on the perfumey, sharper side of resins, and I prefer more of a smooth, sweet, darker quality. In the drydown, this actually goes a bit soapy on me. Still, it's very simple and relaxing. I like this, but I just feel like there's something missing when I wear it, like perhaps it's too simple, and the soapy drydown isn't fantastic. I much prefer Cathedral, Faustus, Midnight Mass, and Priala for my resin blends.

I finally tried my imp of Glitter today, figured I'd best give it a test since it's now discontinued (to see if I love it and should start crying, lol). When I first applied Glitter, it had a sparkling sort of fruit smell. Lovely pear. I can see why it was called glitter. Then it kind of smells like powdery sweet tarts before quickly launching into that lotus bubblegum smell that my skin seems to love so much. I smell like Juicy Fruit. Around the third hour of wearing this, it is very very powdery. Shortly after it turns to complete powder on my skin it disappears. Lasting a total of about 4 hours. It was okay... but nothing that I (thankfully) will need more of.