Little Bird

Mostly hay absolute with a little sugar. Hay absolute has a lemony scent to it, like fresh lemons sliced over dried grass, leaning sour. There's a tiny edge of extra sweetness from the sugar. I was most excited for the rice milk (I love Nocture Alchemy's rice milk scents), but I don't pick up on that aspect at all.

I like a sweeter jasmine that smells like the bushes that I've planted in my backyard (NAVA's EA Purple and Ghost Velvet being my go-tos lately). I can't really pick out the honey or vanilla notes in this, though, which I think would have actually made this smell more realistic and wearable if they'd showed up to the party. This is a sharp, perfumey jasmine on me, leaning a little to a generic white floral smell on my skin.

I only enjoy strawberry scents when they have the juiciness and tanginess of real strawberries. This smells like strawberry flavored nerds candies to me. It's very tart, intensely sweet, and artificial. It also goes a little plasticy and burnt/metallic smelling on me in the drydown. There's a hint of cream, but I wish there were more creaminess.

I gave this one a few months to settle, but it still isn't working for me. I usually love the lab's fig notes and vanilla is my favorite scent ever, but Waltzing Matilda is sharply fruity (like sour blackberries) and soapy on me. It makes me think of tart fruity-floral shampoo and sour berries. Reminds me a little of Miller Vs. California, but soapy and sharper.

This is my favorite trio. I've been enjoying floral scents a lot more in these past couple years and I really like bpal's Wild Honeysuckle note. This scent has a gleeful quality that makes me think of running around outside as a child and picking flowers, the scent of green sap and sweet petals crushed in my hands. It smells like a beautiful day outside. It has a bit of a sharp, perfumey bite to it, but it does also smell like actual jasmine, honeysuckle and wisteria flowers, full of breezy sweetness. The pale lilac of the wisteria really comes through in the drydown. Mostly wisteria with a good dose of honeysuckle and a hint of sweet jasmine.

The first time that I wore this, I thought that it smelled like a chocolate orange candy. Now I'm getting more of a bright, lemony scent from it, closer to the scent of Lemon Pledge furniture polish (which I actually enjoy, but not so much mixed with chocolate). Chocolate bars + Lemon Pledge isn't quite mixing for me, I think, and I don't ever really pick up on the amber. A very strong fragrance that leaves sort of a scratchy feeling in my throat.

I don't get any of the lemon and this winds up smelling like a bracing, minty toothpaste on me.

I have the opposite experience of some of the other reviews. I get no cream or anything milky or vanillic. Starts off like a sweet blueberry candy and dries down to all cardamom all the time.

Mostly a very powdery sandalwood on my skin with a hint of vanilla. Like a lightly vanilla scented dusting powder.

I like this one, but it's a very heavy, dry scent that's like a simplified vintage fragrance full of patchouli, oakmoss, sweet labdanum and a little hint of tropical floral ylang-ylang. Resins can sometimes have a cola or Dr. Pepper type of smell to them, and this one reminds me a little of Dr. Pepper (and similar to bpal's Schwarzer Mond with its patchouli and sweet resins). The ylang-ylang gives it a hint of a sophisticated floral-ish tone that's quite nice amongst the heavier notes. Dry, earthy, resinous, yet perfumey.

I wish that I got more lemon from this, but the orange is a lot stronger to my nose, and it's a syrupy, artificially sweet orange more than orange blossom. Very sugary, kind of cloying. It does remind me of Froot Loops in the drydown, with the sweetness dialed way up. Artificial citrusy tones and sugar.

I ordered this hoping that it would be like Midway, which I loved and ran out of long ago now, and it's unfortunately nothing like Midway. I wish that the description had listed cinnamon, because then I would have known not to buy it. This smells a lot like cinnamon sugar dumped into vegetable oil on me. Oily and something slightly sour about it. Drydown has tiny hints of something like banana bread and pancake syrup. The labels for the Please Scream scents are so cute, but I'm going to pass on the rest of this series. Oily cinnamon scent.

Reminds me of red musk with lots of sharp, perfumey, strangely dry white florals and an undertone that smells like a mix between bonfire ashes and cigarette tray ashes. Dirty, sharp, sour. The drydown has more of a noticeable rose note that's sour and soapy.

cold first winter rain poor monkey, you too could use a woven straw cape Compassion: pink lotus root and fig milk with ylang ylang, bourbon vanilla, soft myrrh, fir, khus, and sandalwood incense. I bought this mostly because of the adorable monkey on the label and the cute description, but it has wound up being one of my favorites of the Yule scents I purchased this year. Poor Monkey is a very foodie fragrance on my skin. I love the lab's fig note, and the fig and lovely bourbon vanilla are the strongest notes on my skin. It's like figs drenched in milky vanilla cream with a slice of moist vanilla cake and slight, sweet spice to it. There's a soft swirl of sweet lotus floral perfume, temple incense and sweet myrrh, and a hint of fir that fades in and out of the fragrance. But it's mostly fig milk and bourbon vanilla, with the other notes keeping things interesting and more perfume-like in the background. I really love this one <3

Russet amber and orange blossom honey, red labdanum and wild plum, golden musk and a rustle of patchouli root. Mostly orange blossom honey and patchouli in the bottle, and it's a lovely, creamy, sweet orange blossom and dry patchouli. I wish that this is the scent that showed up on my skin, but that's not to be. On my skin, this actually gets sweeter (a bit cloying) and more powdery than I would like, and the patchouli instantly disappears and never returns. There's a weird, slightly funky soapiness that makes me think of rest room soap, and I think that's the honey note going a bit urine-like on me, and the orange blossom trying to clean it up. The amber and musk form a powdery, perfumey cloud around the intensely sweet honey and slight funkiness. No plum or patchouli for me, unfortunately.

Someone sent me a partial bottle of this as a gift and I'm very thankful. This has a lot of my favorite notes in it, but it didn't show up on my radar for some reason. It's like having a creamy sandalwood that's been dipped in golden resins, with one of the most beautiful drydowns ever. Whenever I wear this, I keep thinking of frankincense with it's golden, sour-sweet character. It has a really good, non-powdery, labdanum/amber richness and warmth, on a bed of just slightly earthy, sour, dry, sophisticated oakmoss. After about 3 hours, this reminds me of some of my favorite shops full of solid resins and old, vanillic books, with a slight, clove-like warmth and spiciness. I love it and actually don't find it to be too powdery (I strongly dislike it when amber and sandalwood go powdery - this is more creamy and resinous).

I think that this is wonderful and not artificial smelling at all. I did find that it was light and a little dry smelling when it was fresh out of the mailbox, but it's a completely different scent after letting it settle for a couple weeks. I've worn it several times now and just love it. It reminds me of frozen, chocolate covered bananas and then a banana split with coconut infused whipped cream and drizzles of sweet, warm, melted chocolate. It's strong and lasts all day on me and it morphs around a lot. One moment it's mostly banana cream, then just whipped cream, or mostly chocolate or coconut, and then it starts all over again. I'm wearing it now and smell like fudgey brownies. It's a whole gourmand experience to me.

This smelled harsh in the bottle when I first got it, so I set it aside for a few weeks. Now it reminds me of a black tea that I own that's scented/flavored with bergamot oil. It smells like the dry tea, a little smoky, slightly bitter and very citrusy-lemony with only a teensy hint of dusty leather. After two hours of wear, all of that has disappeared and I'm left with a dry, spicy, sweet clove single note. I love clove, so that works for me.

Hymn is one of my Yule loves. It smells like sweet wildflower honey drizzled into chilled cream (the cream is sweet, but also cool and fresh smelling to me). I actually don't think that this smells buttery. You definitely won't smell like you rolled around with a stick of butter or anything. The honey and refreshing cream are much more prominent to me. It makes me think of big, fuzzy bumblebees and makes me wish for summer and for things to go back to normal...

Purchased a bottle of this with the 2019 Yules and I actually do think that it smells like sweet potato pie. It's mashed sweet potatoes (slightly earthy-vegetal), whipped and soft, filled through with cinnamon sugar, and topped off with fluffy marshmallow cream and maybe walnuts? The cinnamon burns my skin where applied, so it'll be a scent for the ends of my hair or smudged on to the sleeves of jackets, but I love how soft and sweet the cinnamon in this is. It smells very cuddly, even while being skin burny, lol.

Shub-Niggurath is my favorite gingerbread scent. This is more dry and spicy, like burnt gingerbread cookies that have been dusted with cinnamon sugar. First on, it reminds me of the cinnamon potpourri that my grandma used to have, and then it dries down to a much more sugary scent. The cotton candy, I think, is giving me that burnt sugar impression, but it doesn't smell like pink, fluffy cotton candy to me. It's burnt gingerbread cookies with caramelized, burnt sugar and a dusting of cinnamon.

My guilty pleasure is a caramel latte and this does remind me of drinking a latte, so I must pick up on the hint of coffee in here somewhere, but it is hiding underneath a whole lot of butterscotch. This is intensely STRONG, long lasting, and smells like butterscotch amped up into a beast mode type of scent. It doesn't remind me of Werther's hard candy type butterscotch, but something like the butterscotch flavored syrup you'd use on ice cream or, I suppose, in lattes. It is so intensely sweet that it's kind of hard for me to wear, but I do notice this smelling more creamy and mellow as the months go by.

Bpal makes the most realistic cheesecake and the most realistic eggnog scents; I love having a mix of both in one delightful bottle. I love the creamy, sweet, custard-y smell of eggnog, but most companies' eggnog fragrances are loaded with cinnamon and just smell spicy. Bpal's eggnog doesn't have that spiciness and smells like real egg nog. The cheesecake is vanilla-y and actually has that cream cheese tang with a little bit of buttery graham cracker crust. It truly smells like you're sitting in front of a vanilla cheesecake and just dumped a gallon of eggnog on it. Gourmand heaven. If you like vanilla gourmands, you need this.

This was the first Yule scent that I added to my cart and it does not disappoint in any way. The description just sounded so unbelievably pretty, and the scent lives up to the description. I don't have the greatest track record with bpal's jasmine (often going soapy or very sharp on my skin), but this one smells just like the jasmine bushes in my yard. It smells sweet and almost like honeysuckle, but more sensual and heady. Then the vanilla foam smells like a non-soapy aquatic and sweet, creamy vanilla. After a couple months of aging, I love this even more, and I get lots of the vanilla and jasmine with this clean, but not soapy undertone that makes it feel so refreshing. It feels like wearing sunshine and being outside and it's so beautiful.

This reminds me quite a bit of O, but I think I prefer O, because Honey Cakes turns rather powdery on me in the drydown. Like a brighter, more light gold toned amber and thick, sweet honey (reminds me of those bear shaped bottles of honey) that's been dusted with baby powder and some dusty, warm incense. I don't get much of a cake or baked goods impression from it, other than it being a warm scent. The incense comes out more over the hours and I do enjoy that part, where it's almost earthy and like dusty temple incense. I made a friend smell Honey Cakes on me and they told me, "You smell like fancy hand soaps in a fancy restroom." I have no idea where that's coming from.