Little Bird

I was a fan of the lab's leather notes (love The Riders in the GC, Brom Bones, The Manuscript, Spanked, Quincy Morris, Liz, and so many others), but the Luper leathers this year have been a huge fail on me, with the exception of Snake Skin. They smell harsh, cold, and chemical. While the other scents smell like actual leather, these smell like cheap, chemical interpretations of leather, if that makes sense. Sharp and harsh. Riding Crop was the worst leather for me. It smells like black, harsh leather (maybe an air freshener interpretation of raw leather to hang on a car mirror?), someone blowing cigarette smoke in my face, a hint of dirty ash tray, and a weird, bitter, watery-green overlay that smells like celery. I wish I'd just gotten two bottles of Snake Skin and passed on the other leathers in this update. Riding Crop smells so much like cigarette smoke in the drydown that I had to scrub it off after an hour, because it was literally making me cough and feel like I couldn't breathe. Chemical, raw, not-sweet-at-all leather, cigarette smoke and a dirty ash tray, and celery...

Sharp, citrusy/lemony white tea and sour evergreen. It's very fresh and bracing. I get nothing of the other notes, and it winds up being too sharp for me.

I wanted spicy carnation and warm incense, and this is not that. Overall this is a very plasticy, clean, cold, watery fragrance on my skin. It's like fresh, watery, white florals and green stems laying in a pool of water. I'm not getting anything like incense or carnation. It's very strong, but not what I was hoping for based on the notes.

I expected this to be sweeter, but it's mostly a clean, yellowy, soapy jasmine on my skin, with hints of the powdery/chalky vanilla that reminds me of Love's Philosophy. I get a little anise for the first couple seconds and then it's 90% clean jasmine and 10% powdery vanilla. The jasmine is slightly herbal & sharp, and very soapy. I was expecting a heavier, sweeter jasmine and a sweeter scent in general. This isn't really wearable for me.

I had high hopes for this and every note in it should be a love for me, so I risked the blind bottle buy. Lilac is my favorite floral ever and I've never had trouble with it going soapy or sharp, but it's sharp and soapy here. The amber also immediately goes to baby powder on my skin, giving me a dry and powdery floral rather than a sweet and creamy one. It stays soapy, sharp and powdery for about three hours and then shifts into a honeyed lilac and baby powder, with the soapiness starting to fade off. Too little too late, though, and I still don't like the powder. I get no cardamom at any point. Baby powder, soapy, sharp lilacs and a hint of honey...

Almost identical to the Dark Chocolate, Whiskey and Cognac Truffle, which makes sense. The Cognac one even had a similar spiciness to it on my skin. This one is just a little bit sweeter from the caramel, though I don't get a lot of caramel. The whiskey a little too sour for my tastes. Like biting into a creamy, sweet, dark chocolate truffle and getting a mouthful of sour, thick liquor.

No cream or coffee, and only a whiff of chocolate for the first 15-20 minutes. This is a really loud, sharp, heavy, intense cinnamon. It reminds me of a more cinnamon-infused El Dia de los Reyes, which was already too strong on the cinnamon for me. I'm really disappointed in the chocolate box scents this year

This is my least favorite Pink Moon I envy anyone getting strawberries or sweetness from their bottle. Goes on like men's shaving cream, intensely sharp and screechy white florals, and the weird, burning dust smell that you get when you turn on a heater for the first time after summer. As it dries down, it's still soapy and sharply white floral, with a very hot and peppery carnation coming in. It's very harsh and sharp with no creaminess or sweetness that I can discern. Not playful or sweet, but very perfumey and cutting. Fades into a sharp, perfumey white floral and harsh industrial soap.

This is what I wanted 7 Word Story: Gluttony to smell like with the similar notes of salty aquatic, lavender and incense. The aquatic doesn't go soapy on me here and has that salty, tangy cologne scent to it. The lavender comes in cool and creamy, and smells like a nice lavender cologne. After about a half hour, the red musk takes over and reminds me of fruity, deep red wine and incense. The lavender cologne adds a cool, airy edge to the red musk, though. The decant is probably enough for me, but I do like this blend.

I get no incense or lavender it's all salty, soapy aquatic and floral osmanthus. I like the edge of saltiness, but the drydown is too soapy and makes me smell like a floral scented laundry soap.

I don't really enjoy the lab's oudh and iris is a death note for me, so this was pretty much a guaranteed fail. As has already been said, the oudh has a fecal quality to it, along with a strange ashiness on my skin, mixed with the sharp, perfumey white floral iris and bright, sharp metal. I don't get the frankincense. It's like a bad drugstore cologne spritzed in a dirty restroom with a handful of ashes thrown in somewhere. A total scrubber.

I wish that this smelled like pine sap on me (I grew up in the middle of a pine forest and have been trying to find a scent that captures that sap smell for over 15 years now with no luck), but this is a really sour evergreen and sharp, soapy ozone on my skin I had to scrub it off after an hour, because the evergreen note is so unpleasant.

The honey in this is bright and has a perfumey/musky edge to it. I'm also getting the fruitiness that others have mentioned, which almost smells like a hint of cherry on my skin. I don't get the herbs, but the whole thing is sort of clean smelling on me, like a honey and metallic cologne in the drydown. I like thicker, heavier, sweeter honeys.

Minty evergreen with an edge of powdery black musk and resinous opoponax. It reminds me of a darker Ded Moroz.

This smells like Vicks VapoRub and spring floral laundry soap on me. Very soapy, cold, and medicinal.

I get no vanilla or sugar from my bottle. It's all cherry cough syrup all the time, with a slightly dry smelling soapiness in the drydown that I'm guessing is the fog note. Fades really quickly and doesn't have much throw.

I only went with a decant of this one, because I was pretty sure that it was going to be all floral and no vanilla on me, and that wound up being a good call. It's a sharp white floral with a sharp, green edge to it on my skin. It goes slightly soapy in the drydown and has a perfumey, almost white musk-ish tone to it. Not a fan at all.

I actually don't like Snake Oil (turns to baby powder and a weird, dirty hair smell on me), but I often enjoy it in blends, and I looooove Snake Skin. I like this a lot more than Western Diamondback, as the vanilla of Snake Oil seems to come out more, the leather is much smoother, and it doesn't have any other notes to muck it up. This is the slinky musk of Snake Oil, the deep vanilla, and a smooth, sexy black leather. No powder or dirtiness or sharpness on my skin. Maybe a little black leather smokiness, but not a lot. I'm thinking I should have purchased more than one bottle of this beauty.

I agree with others who have said that this doesn't smell like the white chocolate note. It smells like a sweet milk chocolate powder (like the mix for making hot cocoa) with a syrupy, green pear laying in the middle of it. The pear does stick around for me, but it's about 80% chocolate and 20% pear. I like this, but I don't know if it's a keeper, because I have ten other Chocolate Box scents that I like more and that have better throw on my skin... I wish that I could get this pear as a single note, though, because it's not the sickly-sweet pear gummi scent that I usually get from bpal's pear notes. It has a green, true edge to it that I really like.

I tested this fresh from the mailbox and liked it ('red musk and smoky incense' were my original notes), but I tried to wear it a couple times afterwards as a full wear with no other competing fragrances, and it didn't smell so good to me anymore. I wore Ill Omen to a party and asked for opinions and was told that I smelled like "pine needles and soap." I was getting that sour pine impression too, along with baby powdery amber. Oddly, it didn't even give off a strong red musk note when I slathered it on. Powdery amber/labdanum, dusty frankincense, and pine?

When I first apply this, it smells like honey flavored dusting powder, hot cocoa powder, and marshmallow cream. The drydown reminds me a lot of Boo's cool sweet cream, but like Boo eating a rice krispy treat. It's more buttery marshmallows than milky to me, and I only get the honey for a few minutes on first application. Still, I like this. An over-the-top, sweet, buttery marshmallow works for me.

This smells like Bath & Body Works, but in a good way. It smells like B&BW from 18 years ago and not their newer stuff that's all crammed full of bad, cheap synthetic musk notes. First on, Diligent Instruction reminded me of the original B&BW Sun Ripened Raspberry lotion, and the drydown smells more like their original Sugar Plum Fairy, which is a fragrance that I've missed for, well, 18 years. I remember going into their store and my sister picking out the Raspberry and then buying several bottles of the Plum for me to take home with me. I hoarded the last drops of that lotion. Anyhow. This smells like the sweetest, sugar dusted fruit (I still think sugarplum and raspberry more than strawberry) and so much wonderful creaminess. It's like a hint of bubblegum, pink cotton candy, fluffs of vanilla cream and marshmallow underneath those sugar dusted fruits. It definitely leans gourmand and creamy on my skin. Warm and dry more than milky, though it does have a definite creaminess. It makes me think of Christmas and creamy lotion, because of the association that I have with that lotion, lol. I love this and it makes me feel nostalgic and miss my sister...

Hoiru is very light and soft. It doesn't have much throw and only lasts about two hours on my skin. The amber and cashmere, I think, meld together in a soft, powdery, warm skin scent, with the vanilla and coconut giving it a creamy, sweet edge. It reminds me of white sandalwood. I can't pick out the leather, patchouli or tea, which I expected to be stronger, but the whole thing is very light and difficult to discern notes from.

This is my favorite of the Pleasures series, but I don't like it enough to upgrade from a decant to a full bottle either. I think that The Black Rider (which is black leather, opoponax, tobacco and black amber) is better for a similar blend. And that one is a GC blend and only $17.50 a bottle. The leather here is black, shiny, new, and slightly chemical smelling (like a 'new car' scented air freshener), the black amber goes powdery on me, and the myrrh is thick, sweet, and resinous, and similar to the opoponax in Black Rider. The Black Rider is richer, less 'new' smelling and slightly smoky on me instead of powdery. I like this, but there are leather bpals that I like a lot more.

V is mainly red sandalwood on me. It's warm, powdery woods and sandalwood incense, made a bit sweeter and more powdery from the orris. I get a little bit of black tobacco and earthy, dry patchouli in the background, but the woods and sweet powder definitely dominate. This reminds me of Mythological Scene, which was also red sandalwood, orris, leather and patchouli. This is a bit more earthy and doesn't have the citrus edge of Mythological Scene, though.