Little Bird

This smells like a really good soap to me, like one of those all natural, hand-made, small batch soaps that you can find from small companies (not like harsh laundry soap or anything). I can pick out the blackberry, lavender and rosemary, but they meld together into this naturally fruity, lightly purple, clean, herbal scent that I really enjoy. The white musk is smooth and creamy rather than sharp and perfumey. Mostly it's herbal, tangy, soft, lavender and fruitiness. It reminds me a bit of Moon of the Terrible.

Weird. I don't get the snow and pine from my decant at all. This also doesn't remind me of bpal's other opium/poppy fragrances. It's sort of a nondescript, soapy, perfumey fruity-floral on my skin. It reminds me of Bath & Body Works. Some sort of spring floral (tulips?), soapy rain note, and sweet lemon fragrance, but generic and musky/perfumey.

I love jasmine when it's not soapy or intensely sour, and the jasmine here is pretty, heady, heavy, warm, honeyed, yellow, decadent jasmine with a slightly weedy, dark green undertone. I was worried about the vetiver, but it's thankfully not showing up to the party. I get hints of orange flower, which smells like bright, juicy orange more than orange blossoms or neroli, and the saffron and benzoin add a warm, rich, powdery, spicy, resinous sweetness. Heady jasmine with a brightness from the orange flower, all wrapped up in a deep, resinous, spicy warmth.

I love the sweetness and powdery softness of orris, and was hoping that it would be stronger here, but I can't really pick it out. I don't get the ambergris either. Dusty Moth is very tuberose dominant, and it's a sharp, white, slightly soapy tuberose. I also get the dusty, ashy quality that others have mentioned, and it reminds me of the scent of burning heater dust when you first turn on the heat for winter. In the drydown, I can smell some bitter, astringent black tea, but still mostly tuberose and that dry, dirty, dusty undertone.

I'm really only getting the pine from this blend, and bpal's pine notes haven't been playing nice on my skin lately they go sour and brightly green smelling, which is exactly what Of Earth is doing on my skin. In the drydown, I can pick out faint, dry wood notes, but mostly a sour, green pine.

Very sharp, soapy, stab-you-in-your-nose champagne. I think I'm mostly getting white musk and ozone that are making the champagne soapier, brighter, perfumey, intensely sharp... as it dries down, I can smell the sour, boozy, slightly pukey tone that the champagne usually has on my skin. Industrial soap and getting sick after a night of drinking.

Reminds me of menthol/ eucalyptus / Vicks VapoRub when it's first applied. I don't like that cold, medicinal scent at all. Dries down with more of a dark green, bitter, herbal edge that keeps making me think of parsley. Over time, whisps of wildflower honey start to come through, but I just don't tend to wear these herbal, medicinal type blends.

A dry, soft cedar note with a slight smokiness that keeps making me think of incense (I actually keep thinking it's sandalwood), and a drydown that's mostly ambergris, dry wood, and spicy bay. It smells very traditionally masculine to me. I'm glad that I'm not getting any of the citrus notes, oudh or anise. The ambergris smells like cool, spiced amber and smooth aquatic cologne, paired with a smooth, dry woodiness. Resinous, woody and spicy, but also very calm, smooth and clean. I actually like this a lot on my man. I'll keep my decant, but probably not need a full bottle.

Starts off as strong, soapy lemons and, after about a half hour, is sweeter lemon with a backdrop of ambergris, which always reminds me of a slightly spicy, slightly powdery, amber cologne with a smooth, aquatic finish. The soapiness backs off over time and it's ambergris cologne with a hint of sweet lemon. Rather light, but pleasant, reminding me of a clean amber cologne.

I am not a fan of bpal's oud notes. This doesn't seem to be the fecal smelling one, but it reminds me of Phoenix & Dragon, which had a weird, sharp soapiness (a little PineSol-ish) and rotting mulch scent to it. The amber is vanillic, resinous, and slightly powdery, but the funky earth and soapiness is not good on me at all.

I was hoping that this one would smell like actual bread/flour notes, but it's lots of sweet cinnamon, buttery caramel and cardamom to my nose. I kept thinking that I smelled cinnamon sugar and maple syrup in my room after a while, after spraying this. I wish it had more of a lasting cardamom and that the bread scent was there, but this is still a cozy, sweet, warm room spray.

I don't get leather or amber from this, and it winds up being a sickly-sweet orange, like an orange liqueur syrup. The beeswax is noticeable, and smells super-sweet and, well, waxy. Sweet orange scented candle.

An Exercise is a heavy, sweet vanilla with slight powdery tones and an elegant, perfumey quality from the ylang ylang and musk. The smokiness smells like whiffs of dry, warm incense to me. It reminds me of Arcana's Vanilla Craves Terror just a bit, but this is more perfumey/musky with a floral edge. I like this, because I'm a vanilla fanatic and can actually smell it in this blend.

First on, this reminds me of lemony iced tea with a good dose of sugary peach syrup to sweeten it. As it dries down, it's less fresh/tea-like and more lemonheads candy and sugar-crusted, peach flavored gummis. Candied, bright, sweet, and cheerful. I like this layered with vanilla fragrances.

Cumin has a weird, sweaty armpit funkiness that I'm really disliking with the sour, boozy whiskey. The spiced rum adds a cinnamon touch in the drydown, and there's a smoky wood thing in here as well. The sweaty cumin and sour whiskey just smell like someone was out too late and made themselves sick. Nope. A scrubber.

Very powdery amber, crystalline and clean smelling white musk, and a hint of dry, dusty incense. Anaxagoras fades really quickly on me. Powdery, clean and light.

I don't get apple anymore, now that my decant has aged. It's all red, deep, wine-like red musk with a little vanilla creaminess and a dark, murky quality that I think is from the tobacco. Red patchouli smells funky/sweaty on me, but the red musk completely overpowers everything else in this scent, especially now that it's aged.

Spiced rum does its usual thing and smells like dark cinnamon on me, but I love it paired with the dark, smoky leather, hints of sharp clove, and sweet tobacco. The smoke is a bit much when first applied, but it tones down and lets the leather and tobacco come through in the drydown. This is more complex than Spanked is on me, and has that touch of smokiness that Spanked doesn't, but I can definitely see the similarities. I really like this on my man, and he was amused by the name "Miss Fanny Phippany," lol.

I like gardenia when it's sweet and creamy, like monoi oil, but these are perfumey, heady, white floral, musky smelling gardenias. I get a hint of green stem and the gunpowder smells strange on me, sort of like rust, black pepper and smoke. But this is mostly a sharp white floral that goes slightly soapy on me in the drydown.

The aldehydes make this soapy and dry, like smelling laundry soap powder, and the sharp citrus notes completely overwhelm the peach on my skin. It winds up smelling mostly like a lemon scented soap powder. Very tart and very not me.

The narcissus gives this a strong, sharp, clean, perfumey floral vibe on my skin. Very floral with a hint of sweet peach. I don't get the dark amber at all. I don't like clean, musky florals, so this one isn't working for me.

I can't pick out most of the notes listed for this one (no peach, no tobacco, no hay, no vanilla). I do get a candy-sweet, syrupy pear note, mixed with the red rose musk. I don't smell red fruits either, but maybe that's what gives the rose in this a sweet, glistening, deep red, rose jam feel. The perfumey musk keeps it from being sickly sweet. It kind of smells like rose jam and pear jelly with a musky perfume spilled over them.

Bright, juicy mandarin with a creamy, baby powdery white sandalwood and a hint of dry, herbal chamomile. I'm not smelling the tobacco at all, and the orange goes a little too sour/bitter on me in the drydown. It smells like I peeled an orange and got the bitter peel scent on my hands, then dusted them with baby powder.

I like the sweet, syrupy myrrh and sweet tobacco in this, and the dry, woody undertones. I do get a woodsmoke scent from it as well, but nothing like olives or greenery (and I like olives, so this wouldn't have been bad for me, lol). I usually don't care for smoky fragrances, but this isn't overwhelming smoke, and it doesn't smell like charred bbq the way that some of bpal's vetiver notes do. The drydown is like someone set sweet myrrh, sticky tobacco leaves, and a few planks of dark, dry wood on fire. No spiciness to the tobacco and it's not as rich and heavy as French Tobacco single note is on me. I'd consider getting a bottle of this one, but I already have a hoard of French Tobacco and Bulgarian Tobacco single note to satisfy my tobacco needs. The sweet myrrh does make this lean towards a sweet tobacco on me, though.

This review is about to be useless... I know there were a lot of mislabelled bottles and batch variations with this update, and I keep wondering if my bottle of Maiko is Cave of Treasures or something (but my bottle of Cave was soapy lilac)... I get a strong, sweet lilac undertone throughout the whole life of this fragrance, and nothing like carnation, sugar, or coconut. And it smells more like butter than any type of milk. My bottle of Maiko is intensely buttery, spicy and infused with sweet lilac. Super creamy and like it's swimming in a puddle of melted butter. I often go to a fresh seafood restaurant that boils shrimp and coats them in tons of butter, cajun seasoning, lemon pepper, and garlic... and Maiko smells so much like that steamy shrimp and buttery sauce. With super-sweet lilacs. It's so weird, but I like it.. but I think my bottle might be not-the-right-scent, because it doesn't sound like the other reviews at all.