Little Bird

Sour, bitter orange and a hint of earthiness from the patchouli, mixed with lots of cinnamon-y gingerbread note. I don't like how strong the cinnamon/spice is, and the orange is a bit too sharp for my tastes, but my skin tends to amp up spice notes. Kind of an orange pomander feel.

I think I have fatigue from all of snow/pine blends. They all smell so much alike to me. In the Wild North isn't one of my favorites, because it goes a bit sharp and perfumey on my skin, with a soapy undertone. Slightly minty, slushy snow note. Dries down like those pine shaped air fresheners and dryer sheets on my skin.

I actually enjoy the smell of charcoal, but this smells quite like a dirty ash tray to my nose. Ashy, dry, slightly smoky, and gross to me.

My bottle of The Magpie was very strange and faint smelling. It's like sweet lime soda, even slightly fizzy, and the smell of cardboard. I don't get the comparison to The Comforter or really any currant or vanilla at all. Maybe I got a bad bottle, as I ordered this later into the Yules. Definitely sweet lime candy in the drydown, but so light that it's barely there after five minutes...

I think that Deluge of Blood is my favorite of the Song of Creation series. It's so heavy and over-the-top. I can smell red musk, dragon's blood, black, earthy, damp patchouli, and a sharp bite of spices, somehow all in equal measure. The nagarmotha is dark and earthy-woody, dusted over everything. It's almost resinous smelling to me (kind of like a not-as-sweet opoponax with a hint of opium and a woody, earthy character), and it makes me feel like I'm just falling into the fragrance. Overall, this smells very aggressive, dark and intense. In a way, it really does smell bloody, and it sort of makes me want to get into a fight. It's like the fragrant equivalent of a mosh pit. On a good side, however, it makes me feel very strong when I wear it. Black with streaks of blood red. Resinous, earthy, bloody, and so dark. There's just enough sweetness for this to be wearable for me. I don't know if this review will be helpful, because I'm still processing this one myself, lol. I'd say if you like the idea of a spicy dragon's blood that's intensely dark and slightly sweetened with red musk, complex and brooding, then you should give Deluge of Blood a try.

Like others have mentioned, I get something dark and slightly fecal about this, along with a sour rose note. I do enjoy a handful of oud fragrances from other companies, but I don't think that any of the lab's oud fragrances thus far have really worked on me. This has a damp, sour dirtiness that I just find off putting. In the drydown, the woody, sweet fig creeps in and it's more enjoyable, but still not something I really want to wear.

All of this year's Gingerbread blends had a strong cinnamon scent on me. Gingerbread-Vetiver has the same sharp cinnamon potpourri as the others, but the darker notes manage to claw their way through the cinnamon and give this one some complexity at first. The clove is sharp and almost black peppery smelling, and I get the same thick, dark molasses feel that others have mentioned. It's intense and slightly bitter & medicinal. Vetiver lends a dark, damp woodiness to the whole thing. So it's like cinnamon potpourri with strong, sticky molasses and damp, rotting wood, with a sharp, peppery clove note. After an hour, this is still going strong, but it has lost the darker notes and smells just like red hots cinnamon candies on me... gives me a headache, unfortunately.

I originally got a decant of this that's rather strong on the orange blossom/neroli. I bought a full bottle that was backordered and delayed, and my bottle is very light on the orange blossom/neroli and really strong on the honey musk. I enjoy the decant, but I also enjoy the full bottle, though they're rather different from each other. There's a little hint of juicy orange when this is first applied, but it quickly settles into a warm, heavy, sweet, creamy honey with a slightly sharp musk (that works for me with the intense sweetness) and hint of soft magnolia. I got this because I loved the honey and magnolia of The Bride. Swift as Light is much more of a sweet, sexy, thick honey and not very floral, though (at least in-bottle and not in-earlier-decant). The Bride is much more of a clean, floral, dainty/innocent fragrance. Swift leans more gourmand.

Something in this is turning soapy on me, which I don't understand, because all of these notes are generally fine and nowhere near soapy on my skin. Fresh and clean, high pitched, soapy dryer sheets, a sort of steamy, fresh from the shower feel, and a slap of very sharp pepper. The drydown is mostly the same, except with hints of ashy vetiver (like a burnt out campfire), burnt tire rubber and pine that swirl in and out of the soapiness. Not really resinous on me and no clove or tonka that I can discern.

I'm glad that I just went with a decant of this one. I was really tempted by the dark chocolate, vanilla, clove, tobacco and patchouli, but those notes aren't present for me. I get a hint of dark chocolate and then mostly ginger, honey and a hint of lemon. Honey notes can sometimes smell a bit urine-like on my skin, and the honey here is doing that. It's sort of sickly-sweet. The ginger reminds me of ginger cookies. Faint ginger cookies and sickly honey with a weird undertone of salty corn chips. This Thirteen is super light on me. I can only smell it if I hover my nose about an inch above my skin, and it fades away entirely before it hits the half hour mark.

Has a watery cucumber and sour pickle undertone, along with the strong scent of plasticy craft glue. Dries down with a powdery, papery edge, but still mostly smells very plastic-like on my skin. Plastic, dry powder, and sour cucumber.

This smells so much like PineSol. A very strong, chemical, intense pine note. There's something dark underneath the pine. I'm not sure what it is, but it smells a bit fecal and a bit powdery to me, maybe a powdery black musk and something more filthy. My family often cleans up and rebuilds hoarder houses that have been trashed by previous tenants, and that's what Musty Santa Costume reminds me of... walking into a house where filth has accumulated and people are desperately throwing disinfectant and cleanser everywhere. Really gross, but an experience, I guess.

The milk and honey last for about a minute and I love that sadly brief stage. It smells like the original Milk Moon, all creamy and sweet. Unfortunately, the milk and honey quickly and completely disappears and I'm left with a lackluster frankincense note. It's light, thin, weirdly oily smelling, like a couple drops of golden frankincense oil poured into baby oil. I really didn't like this one in the drydown.

I expected powder from the sandalwood and sweetness from the vanilla and orris, but I can't pick out any of those notes. The white tea is there, very crisp and with a hint of sharp citrus and sour cucumber sort of feel to it. The snow is more bracing and minty than usual. It's a harsher, more crisp version of snow note with a weird, sour cucumber undertone.

Smells similar to the other Gingerbreads, which all have a strong cinnamon potpourri feel on my skin this year. This one also reminds me of blends like Maison En Pain d'Epices, where there's an overlay that smells like stale powdered sugar and sweet tarts candy over the cinnamon. Has a generic room fragrance vibe to me.

The sour-sweet, dark, slinky booziness is similar to the Dark Chocolate & Whiskey Truffle scent, but the 'hot buttered' part gives it a strange, buttery maple syrup tone on my skin and maybe a touch of cinnamon? Makes me think of warm booze poured over a dark, polished, wooden bar and a plate of pancakes...

Bpal's ambers almost always turn to heavy baby powder scent on my skin (which I rarely get from any other companies' ambers), and that's all that I can smell with The Forest in Winter. I like Ded Moroz a lot more, because the foresty notes are able to shine through the amber in that blend, where this is all powdery amber all the time.

Dark, thick evergreen and a cold, mentholic undertone. It reminds me of another GC bpal (Belladonna, I think? minus the smokiness that the newer imps have). As it dries down, it's less menthol/medicinal and more of the sweet, slushy snow note with warmer, dryer notes of oakmoss and benzoin. It makes me think of being out in the woods as the sun is setting and the air is turning deadly cold. It has a quiet, but dangerous quality to it, because the evergreen smells so dark and cold.

Road to Versailles is very light on me, and is mainly a warm, powdery sandalwood incense type of scent. Clean woods and a touch of dry herbs, but mostly just a soft, powdery sandalwood fragrance. Fades away by the one hour mark.

Matcha tends to smell like really bitter, sour, green lemons on me. I get a hint of that from this Gingerbread, but mostly it's cinnamon with a whiff of smokiness around the edges, like cinnamon-heavy gingerbread that's burned a bit in the oven. With a squeeze of sour, bitter, lemony tea. I don't get mint at all.

I love blue musk, but this may as well be another snow single note blend. Minty, slushy snow with a strong, soapy undertone that turns very harsh on my skin and gives me a headache after a while. Like bpal's snow note dumped over dryer sheets.

I actually enjoy Ecclesiophobia, which is surprising, because I usually hate bpal's jasmine blends and this is definitely more than just a thread of jasmine. This one isn't really sour or perfumey on me, though; it's more heavy and thickly sweet (like vanilla-honey-sweet). I think it pairs really nicely with the heavy, sweet myrrh and powdery, dark, amber-y labdanum. It's like drooping, sticky, yellow flowers and air heavy with church incense. My decant will be enough, I think, but I'll definitely keep the decant.

This isn't as bad as Europa was on my skin, but has a similar smoky, powdery vetiver and burnt, sour coffee thing happening, and the vanilla never shows up to the party for me. I think the only bpal coffee blend to work for me was Bah, as that one went very sweet and gourmand. This one is too bitter for me.

I love the wild plum note - sweet, dark, juicy plums. The opening of this is all about plum and makes me happy. The drydown, though, is all about intensely soapy lilies, snow note and lavender. It's a frosty bar of lavender dappled soap. Too clean for me.

Smells pretty much as I remember the original Lick It With Consent: "Peppermint, as usual, but I find this year's version to be sharper and not as sweet as previous year's. It has an almost musky/perfumey sharpness to it, and is all bracing, cold mint. I don't get vanilla and not much of a sugary scent to it either." The original Lick It is still my favorite, because it was so sweet, and lasted all day on me. This year's version is rather light and doesn't have so much of the cooling effect on my skin. Only lasts around the 45 minute mark.