Little Bird

I admit that I bought an imp of "Greed" just because people were telling me that it smells like Lush's "Tramp". Greed smells nothing like Tramp to me. That's okay though, because Greed is wonderful in its own right. Tramp always smells very green and herbal to me... Greed smells golden and spicy and sweet. No real outstanding similarity between the two to me at all. Moving on. When I first applied Greed, it smelled like patchouli drinking some Cherry CocaCola. A sweet cherry and cola sweetness with some woodsy notes and patchouli lurking in the background. Then it began to smell more spicy and warm like amber does on my skin. In the drydown this is so warm and woodsy. It reminds me very much of something... maybe an old summer house that my family used to visit when I was younger. The handmade log cabin house always smelled like this sort of woods, and the forest behind the house added all of those unique tree smells. The blend of woods and spice and warmth that I've been trying to find my entire life, lol. Mmm... I agree with a previous reviewer, Greed is good.

I don't know if there is much to say about this fragrance that hasn't already been said. It definitely smells like leather. On me it also seems to have a sweet incensy quality in the drydown as well. A sweet smokiness. And this is definitely a strong scent. I put a tiny dab on my wrist and I can smell it quite clearly as I am typing right now. This is much too masculine for my tastes. It's a good leather scent, but it's too sharp for me to want to smell it on the boy either... I just love scents that are sweeter. I might use this to layer with some other scents though. *edit to fix typos

Jabberwocky went through a lot of changes over the three hours that it lasted on my wrist... At first, the eucalyptus was STRONG and bothersome. I have a hard time wearing eucalyptus because it smells very medicinal on me. In this stage it is very sharp and bitter... sinus clearing and screechingly loud. After about a half hour, the eucalyptus is patted down by a lovely scent of pine (reminding me of the pine in Dublin). Then... chlorine... it reminded me of the pool that I went to when I was younger. In the summer the doors would be open and the scent of pine would drift in... but there's this watery chlorine smell backing it up. It's odd, my skin chemistry seemed to warp the eucalyptus into a chlorine scent. In the final stage before the Jabberwocky disappeared, it smelled like chlorine and orange hard candies. This is definitely an interesting scent... but I don't think that I love it enough to ever get around to buying a full size bottle. Though I do like the watery chlorine and pine smell that reminds me of happy summer days spent swimming.

Ooh... this is lovely... I may have finally found a true foresty scent that works on my skin chemistry. Yay! When wet, I thought that this would disappoint me. It had a fruity quality that I didn't quite like. But the fruitiness disappeared within a minute and I was left with the scent of a dew drenched pine forest. Strange, I thought, this smells very familiar... and it took me a few minutes to place the smell. This smells exactly like a car freshener that my mother had when I was little. You know those fresheners that hang from the car mirror, the green one that is shaped like a pine tree? Well, that is Dublin. I never thought that I would love that scent so much on *me*... but I do, I truly do. Dublin is a definite full size bottle purchase.

Malice isn't awful on me, but it's not something that I'd really want to wear either. I have problems with ylang ylang going really metallic and sharp on my skin, and it's lingering menacingly in the background here. The red patchouli is a warm, dry, wooden sort of smelling patchouli (though it starts off kinda funky smelling, the drydown is nice). This is a dry, warm, woodsy, and slightly spicy blend on me. I can't pick out any one note in the drydown. It's a little bit boring to me though. None of its qualities stand out as being particularly special.

In the vial, this scares me... it is an overwhelmingly strong scent of jasmine and lemons. When jasmine is too strong, it easily gives me a migraine. On my skin, however, the jasmine disappears. But what does appear is not good. Not good at all. This smells like something rotting and burning. When I sniff my wrist, my stomach literally lurches and I feel nauseous. And it's so strong. Like rotting flesh and burning garbage. I'm holding my hand away from my face and it's still hitting me and making me sick... It's only been on for about five minutes and it isn't changing... but it's making me so sick that I have to get it off NOW. This is the quickest I've ever had to wash off a fragrance.

Vinland didn't smell anything like what I expected (or hoped) it would. I was hoping for a scent that was mostly woods and frost. On my skin, I get neither. My first impression of this was that it smelled soapy. I hate it when scents do that. Then... citrus. Limes and oranges. Why? I wasn't prepared for this at all. About an hour into wearing this, I'm getting a subdued berry (the loganberry?), and still a sharp eye stinging sort of citrus note. The kind of citrus that burns. Horribly disappointed... but someday I'll find the perfect forest/woods fragrance that works on me. Some day.

Hmm... yup, this is odd. It reminds me of the smell of the inside of a craft store. Cinnamon potpourri, dried flowers, glazed wood... in the drydown I get something that smells sort of like an apple cinnamon potpourri. This might work as a decent room scent, but I'm definitely not crazy about it... This isn't the natural forest scent that I was expecting, more like a handmade forest... a nicely scented craft project. Oh well. Up for swaps it goes.

Oooh... this is just as gorgeous as I thought it would be. All golden and sexy amber. In the drydown it smells like sweet dry meadow grasses that have been drizzled in amber. The Lion is such a warm and beautiful fragrance. It's not horribly strong on me, but I can still smell it lingering on my skin even after 8 hours have passed. I wish that it were stronger, but it's beautiful and romantic enough that I can see myself wearing it out (or in) with the boy... definitely going to buy a full bottle. ETA: I really love this layered with Faustus... it adds more staying power and a spicier quality. Of course, Faustus and The Lion are still equally as wonderful on their own

White Rabbit conjures up a picture of a boring garden party with bored rich women lounging around holding dainty china cups filled with bland tea. I'm not saying that this is a bad scent at all, but it's sort of simple, cold, and odd. It smells mainly of clean white tablecloths that are laying out in the sunshine, and used teabags, with an odd slap of sharp pepper. I had hoped that the vanilla and honey would sweeten things up, but I can't really pick up on either of those notes. It's mostly clean linen and milky tea with sharp pepper. A bit sour. I kinda like this and how unusual it is, but often it seems like the notes don't really work together, and I can't stand leaving this on my skin for more than an hour.

I love this in the bottle and on my skin at first. It smells like a bowl of rich vanilla cream and sweet little oranges, with a few rose petals laying about for decoration. Delicious and charming. Unfortunately, on my skin in the drydown, the honey amps up like mad and the blend becomes cloying, warm, and slightly off. It's like the orange sours and the vanilla cream impression morphs more to the baby powder side of things, so I'm left with cloying honey, sour orange, and baby powder with a hint of perfumey rose. Boo

This is a very interesting scent, and not at all what I expected it to be. I didn't smell any jasmine at all, which was odd because it usually dominates on my skin. I was grateful for the lack of jasmine though When I first apply this it smells like pure pepper. Very hot and spicy and strong. Then for about 5 hours it smells like an odd (but pleasant) blend of canned sweet apricot juice and pepper. In the final drydown before it disappears, it is a lovely vanilla and spicy ginger scent. It's unlike anything that I've ever smelled before. I'm not sure that I love it enough to buy a bottle, but I may go through a few imps of Siren.

This is another masculine blend that doesn't strike me as smelling masculine. It's too floral, powdery, and sweet for me to consider it manly. In the imp, this is zesty, sweet limes and a background of smooth, cool lilac. I like the smell of lilacs, and this is a true lilac scent, but I don't like it paired with the citrus. On my skin, this is candied limes and powdery lilac. It smells like a fresh, floral, girly scent. It also sometimes smells like cleanser to me. I'm not too fond of Whitechapel. It stays strong and lasts all day (and all night), but it starts to give me a headache and bother me after a short while.

Wow. This is strong. This is quite possible the strongest and most overpowering BPAL scent that I've come across yet. I love the pink border around the label and the pink writing (I'm easily amused, lol). I'm still not sure if I really like the scent, but I doubt that I'll ever love it. For the first fifteen minutes on my skin, this is just way too much for me. Like drowning in phlox and getting pelted in the face with strawberry bubble gum. Then it begins to soften a bit and becomes bearable. Less screaming and in my face. Delicate pink flowers and strawberry cotton candy. The boy said that this was a bit too 'heavy' and sickeningly sweet for him. ...and I usually wear really intense foody scents... soo... he's used to serious sugar shock, and pink moon was still too much... lol.

This smells very manly to me. Like a cologne for a muscular hunter type. I get leather holding strong in the background of this, and the leather remains a dominant character all through the hours that I wore this. At first Tintagel smelled like leather and limes. Something citrusy and zesty, I was surprised to learn that there isn't any citrus in this. Then it is leather and spice. I can smell the dragon's blood coming out, the fragrance feels very spicy and warm in this stage. Around hour 3, leather and woods. Dark impenetrable woods. My leather clad hunter, creeping through the forest. I desperately want to slather this on my boyfriend. In the drydown before it disappears, this turns into something very sweet on me. Almost like jasmine. Which is odd. Maybe it is the juniper and bayberry? Overall, this is a very foresty feeling scent to me. Like the way the sexy hunter in romance novels should smell like.

This reminds me of walking into a craft store for some reason. Anyone ever been to a Hobby Lobby? That smell of a million different things blended together into one strange scent. Potpourri, oils, fake flowers, a million different things for a million different craft projects. The overall smell of this is VERY nice. It is sweet, but not in a foodie way. Light and summery. It smells like fruit, like florals, like aquatics, like herbs... while not really smelling like any of those things at all. Very well blended. I cannot pick out any one note. I expected this scent to be more green, but that's not a feel that I'm getting from it at all. The Apothecary confuses me by smelling like nothing and everything at the same time. I like it a lot, but probably won't buy a full bottle as it isn't striking me as something that I need to smell like. Plus, it is rather light and fading fast. I don't really like to have to reapply my fragrance throughout the day.

The rose here is a heavy, classic, perfumey sort that makes my throat feel a bit tight (like I want to cough) when I smell this. That said, this is still pretty, even if it is a bit overpowering on me. On me it goes from being a soapy rose to a very sweet rose. It switches between those two elements every few minutes. Soap-rose, sugar-rose, soap-rose, sugar-rose... The sugar-rose stage is very nice on me and doesn't bother me so much. Like a lovely blooming flower dusted in powdered sugar.

Green tea is the only thing that I will drink (besides water)... Shanghai prompted me to go and pour myself a glass. It smells very true to the description and very lovely. Like green tea with a fresh lemon squeezed over it. I can detect a very very faint hint of honeysuckle in the background after several minutes. I wish so much that this fragrance weren't so light. About 10 minutes after applying it, I can only smell it if I put my nose directly on my wrist and concentrate very hard, lol. ETA: Both Embalming Fluid and Shanghai smell different to me circa 2016. This is really sharp and soapy (like generic white bar soap suds) and sour lemons. Lasts longer, but is unpleasant...

When I first applied Empyreal Mist, I felt certain that I was going to fall in love with it. It smelled like waking up in the country... on a crisp morning where there is fog and dew everywhere. So clean and crisp and wet. Then it got even better. For the first half hour after application this smelled *exactly* like fresh cut rose stems. Just the stems, wet and sweet. Sadly, that stage went away quickly and all I could smell after that was perfumey roses . So far I've really only loved the roses in Whip, usually roses are just too throat clogging and overpowering for me. I was surprised that this lasted so long too, as most reviewers said that it was very light on them. This lasted for about 8 hours on me and stayed pretty strong. Damn roses, my skin loves them and my nose hates them. I am almost tempted to get a bottle of Empyreal Mist just because it starts out so wonderful... the first half hour is a dewy green dream. ::sigh::

To date, I've gotten three different 'versions' of this scent. My favorite smells like it has lots of creamy, cool coconut in it with a silky, boozy side and smooth leather. Sweet, silky, boozy, and with an edge of darkness. It's coconut without smelling like beaches and suntan lotion. Sexy, watery and cool. My least favorite version of this is very smoky tobacco and sour, SOUR booze with sharp leather. It's pretty much unwearable for me and reminds me of getting thrown up on in a smoky bar. Not sexy, not good. And in the middle, I have a bottle that's like a mix of those two. I don't get the coconut from it, but it has a sweet, silky booze note with smoky leather and a touch of sour. I'm swapping the two latter bottles and keeping my 10ml of the coconutty version. This isn't one that I'd repurchase, just based on the huge batch variations, though I do really like it when it's smooth and not sour...

The Hanging Gardens was just way too... busy... for me. There were too many notes all screaming for attention at once. It gave me a headache. The pear comes out on top of the blend, still getting engulfed by a plethora of other scents, but I can definitely pick out the pear. 3 hours of this and I'm too sick to keep wearing it. It's so strong. The shifting notes aren't my favorites either. This is everything that I hate about florals and everything that I hate about fruit - in one bottle. I've noticed that most all of my favorite scents only have 3-4 different notes. I just can't seem to handle it when there are so many different scents all vying for attention. Instant headache in the hanging gardens.

I wonder if this blend has violets in it. My skin always warps violet into a very strange soapy smell... and "Come To Me" is that strange smell exactly. Like green herbs and soap, as most everyone has already said, lol. This blend never really made me feel sexy and never inspired anyone around me to give me a compliment on my fragrance. I just smell like soap. And just smelling like soap makes me feel very unsexy actually...

I tried this on without reading what notes were in it, wanting to see if I could guess. I definitely smelled cinnamon and something wonderfully familiar (yay, the frankincense that usually smells so good on my skin). The closest that I could come to describing it besides "cinnamon and something awesome" was that this is like someone took the pure essence of 'pretty', crushed it up, and put it in a bottle. It's amazing. It's gorgeous. I sniffed my wrist and felt so sexy and powerful (megalomania indeed). This is so spicy, warm, and decadent. Luckily for me, this blend stayed strong all day and the violet never came up (violet tends to hate me and smell soapy). It stayed a wonderful cinnamon and frankincense goodness. Faustus just made its way up to a full bottle purchase in my next order.

This isn't the dark, sensual plum that I love in a lot of bpal's limited edition blends (Hellion, Tarantula Fascinator, Black Moths, Lady Lucille Sharpe, First Cry of the Warbler, etc). This is a bright, sweet, breezy, candied fragrance. Almost more of a candied blueberry or blue raspberry than plum to my nose. Juicy, syrupy, heavily sugared fruit candy. Kind of reminds me of gummi bears, but way sweeter than gummi bears. Cloying, simple, and starts to give me a headache after a while.

I really thought that I would love this (maybe just because of the name and wild west images that it conjured up?). Unfortunately, this blend didn't work well with my skin chemistry. At first it smelled most strongly of vanilla. The same smoky vanilla that I got in snake oil (gah I hate snake oil ). Then the vanilla was slowly gobbled up by cedar and sassafras. I'm not sure if it was the cedar or sassafras that started to make me ill, I'm not sure exactly what sassafras smells like and I'm usually okay with cedar... but this started to smell very dirty on me. Like sweat and soil and wood chips. I wouldn't necessarily say this is masculine (moreso a unisex blend) but it still didn't work out on me, sadly.