Little Bird

Witch in the Woods is the most gorgeous blackberry and myrrh combo. Both notes are sweet, syrupy, and bold. The smoke keeps things from being too sweet, adding a veil of seductive, dreamy incense smoke over the fragrance. The other notes are barely there for me. I was worried about the cypress being too strong, but I can only find it if I'm trying really hard (and then I might just be imagining it). There is a wild, foresty element to the blend, though, but it's more of a feeling than a smell? The overall perfume makes me think of being in the shadows of a forest, picking blackberries, drawing blood on a thorn, the scent of myrrh like the sticky, sweet sap of ancient trees, and just feeling perfectly at peace. A perfume that resonates with my witchy little soul.

Pink Moon '24 is definitely in my top 5 of favorite lunacy blends. It immediately reminded me of that sugary, creamy, pink bubblegum medicine that they give children, but it quickly turns into a perfect strawberry milkshake scent. The strawberries are fresh & tangy and sugary & tart all at once, and you can smell the milkiness, but the marshmallow cream really does make it creamier and richer, with the milk + marshmallow cream reminding me of vanilla ice cream. A perfect strawberry milkshake made with rich vanilla ice cream, and I will need backup bottles.

Batty Perversion smells like a lighter version of my favorite variation of Perversion where it's very creamy and slightly coconut-y (but not cheap like pina colada or suntan lotion, in my opinion, more like coconut milk), has a soft, snuggly black leather, and a warm, sweet cigar type tobacco. The rum, I think, is the only thing different in Batty Perversion, where it adds a caramelized, dark gold sweetness around the edges. After a half hour, it leaves behind just a light trace of the caramelized scent and faded muskiness. I like it, but I wish that it didn't disappear so fast.

The new formulation of Dorian is nothing like the original Dorian, and I wish that the Lab were more clear about it being so different. In my opinion, the reformulation shares nothing in common with the original Dorian. I don't think that the new perfume should even be sold under the name of Dorian because I've noticed the new version on so many sale pages and I know that, for myself, I bought a bottle of new Dorian because I assumed it would at least be similar to the original, and it isn't at all. The original is cool toned, smooth, creamy, perfectly unisex, and just absolutely full of the smoothest, coolest, creamiest, delicately sweet vanilla. It is one of my signature scents and has been for nearly 20 years now. The new version is warm, perfumey, powdery, dry (all qualities that are directly opposite of the original) and it smells sort of like pink musk and old fashioned women's perfume with tons of baby powder. I wouldn't recognize this new version as Dorian at all if I weren't holding the bottle with the same name/label in my hand. And there's no way that this will age into anything resembling the OG Dorian either. I think that this new Dorian should have had a different name entirely because it's so completely different and now there's confusion in the community over 'what year of Dorian' and people thinking they have the OG when it's the new one. I've had people tell me that they're glad they didn't buy OG Dorian on ebay because they hate the reformulated version that they got and I'm like no, they're not the same; not even close. The new Dorian is priced at $32 and I don't think that it is worth it at all (whereas I don't blink twice paying $100 for the original, which I have now hoarded). The new Dorian is so bone dry and powdery that I cannot even wear it for a full day without scrubbing it off. So it went from being my favorite bpal and my signature scent to a complete scrubber for me. I feel like the new Snake Oil retained at least some of its original character in its reformulation, even though it's quite different, but Dorian hasn't retained anything familiar. I hope that people don't read the older reviews of Dorian and think that that is what they are purchasing if they buy a bottle of what is currently available.

Constellation starts out wonderful with sweet clove that's slightly earthy/tobacco-ish and, of course, spicy, with a woody leaning amber. Sadly, as it dries down, it loses a lot of its nuance and appeal for me. The clove and amber turn into a weak, super powdery, faint clove that reminds me of Fledgling Raptor Moon. Like cloves stuffed into baby powder and barely distinguishable anymore. It loses its sweetness, earthiness, and spicy kick that I love in the opening and just becomes powdery and bland.

I'm surprised that more reviews don't mention lemon, and it makes me wonder if there are huge batch variations with this scent. My bottle of this is like the lemon in Lemon-Scented Sticky Bat, very strong and on the sugary side of things, with a hint of orange and more of a glittering, crystalline sugar smell to it. It stays lemony-orange for hours until it fades away. The patchouli is barely there in the drydown and smells oddly clean, woody, and crisp, slightly green, more than heavily earthy (I like heavily earthy). Not my favorite for patchouli, but I do like the sugary lemon scent.

Neroli smells like creamy orange blossoms and a weedy, dark green scent simultaneously, while the King mandarin adds a fresh spray of orange juice, and the amber & vegetal musk form a warm, slightly powdery, resinous base for the orange tones to play out over. This is one of those fragrances that smells like warm sunshine between the cheerful, creamy, floral orange tones and the golden warmth of the amber and musk. A half hour into the drydown, it's like creamy orange blossom over warm, cuddly, ever so slightly musky amber. | I haven't reached for this much since my bottle arrived because it leans a little too powdery for me, but when I do wear it, I'm always surprised by how warm and enveloping it is. I love neroli and orange blossom and the neroli is very pretty here. I'm surprised this hasn't been reviewed more because it reminds me a lot of Khrysee, which has always been highly sought after (and has notes of vanilla amber and orange blossom).

Beautiful myrrh, fruity rose, and red musk with hints of patchouli in the drydown. I love black currant, especially when it's jammy and sweet like it is in this blend, and it melds into the rose so perfectly into a dessert type of scent. For the first couple hours, it's delicious black currant syrup with hints of red rose and a backdrop of sweet myrrh that's just ever so slightly incense smoky. After that, the rose fades considerably and I can smell hints of earthy patchouli instead of hints of rose. The crimson musk doesn't seem to be the usual, heavy red musk, but adds a little sultry warmth that holds everything together. The black currant and myrrh stay gorgeous the whole way through, disappearing around the 5 hour mark. I really enjoy most of the Haute Macabre scents, and Garnet is currently my favorite ❤️.

Pine wood (no evergreenery, just the wood) and creamy sandalwood with the growly, earthy, patchouli-dark-musk and slight spiciness of the new version of Snake Oil. A little smoky. Hints of cucumber and waxy lipstick that I don't love, but the musk and smokiness eventually overpowers the weird tones. It's the scent of building up a wood pile in fall, woodsmoke in the air, and snakes cuddled into the wood and fall leaves, everyone preparing for winter. I like this and I think it's a very unique Snake Oil variant. Kind of reminds me of Satyr more than Snake Oil.

I was really confused when I tried on my decant of Carrotberry Pie and it smelled of strong, sharp spices. I had to go back and reread the notes. I guess the 'pumpkin mash' is pumpkin spice. I never smell any carrot or anything vegetal. It's mostly tart, tangy, sweet cranberry jelly and lots of sharp, dry, cinnamon spice. More cranberry than blackberry to my nose.

I want to love the 'blow mold' scents, but the literal plastic note makes them hard to wear. If I say a scent is plasticy, I usually mean I dislike it. It takes fragrances into a cheap, candle-like scent category for me. Vintage Snowman is a sharp evergreen and ice scent, more aquatic/ozone than minty. The touch of plastic makes it smell like an old, forgotten evergreen candle turning to dust in the bottom of a christmas box in the attic.

Maple Pie is so sweet that it's nauseating to me. I can smell the molasses, brown sugar, and maple syrup, and they're very cloying and strong. I was hoping the salt would cut through some of the sweetness, but it never shows up to the party. I love to make desserts with maple syrup; I just don't seem to want to smell like maple syrup. Toothachingly sweet and makes me think of candle fragrances.

I was excited for the 'apple custard,' but I don't smell anything creamy or reminiscent of custard in this blend. It's very boozy and slightly pukey smelling on my skin with an apple air freshener and slight lemon scent. No pie crust or custard. My husband said it reminded him of bad Febreze. Apple notes are iffy for me and I don't like this one with the sherry and sharp lemon.

My favorite of this series of Pie scents, but it still leans plasticy and artificial to me, unfortunately. The chocolate has a waxy, chemical-y edge to it, like chocolate lip balm mixed with chocolate scented markers. The mint and marshmallow meld together into a creamy mint scent that I enjoy, but the other notes kind of ruin it for me, with something turning very plasticy in the drydown. Grasshopper Pie is also very light on my skin, only lasting about an hour with not much throw.

Coffee Cream Pie smells so artificial and plasticy to me. The chocolate pudding smell throws me off because it really does smell like the cheap, wobbly, room temperature, artificial chocolate pudding you can get at the grocery store that's unrefrigerated. Then it has a plasticy tone to it and a strong, dry, powdery, dusty yet cloying scent to it. The coffee is a little sweeter than Bah and it lacks the edge of toasty bitterness and warm milk that makes me love Bah. I don't know what is turning to plastic and weirdly dusty to my nose. Too sweet, the chocolate pudding thing is unappealing to me, and then the weird plastic and dustiness just makes it unbearable. None of the pie scents in this series smell good to me

The first hour is a sharply salty, soapy, dark blue aquatic with sandy undertones and what smells like ink on my skin. After an hour, I wondered what smelled powdery and floral until I realized it was me, wearing this. Powdery, sweet-ish, and floral without being noticeably rose scented. It has a cool aspect to it that I like and it makes me think of porcelain dolls.

To me, Ariel is nearly identical to the GC bpal "Sea of Glass." I get the same bright, cool aquatic with a lemony/bergamot citrus cologne lilt to it and hint of salt. Ariel just has a tiny hint of dry, woody, incensey oud that gives it a darker undertone than OG Sea of Glass.

My old bottle of Ryogoku Bridge was all about the powdery amber and an oddly dank, moldering teak note. My bottle of 2024 is all about the gourmand facets, and I am thrilled with it. First applied, it smells like marshmallow mixed with a cool white floral perfume, like a bouquet of lilies and some creamy white musk. Bpal's lotus usually smells like bubblegum on me, but this is lily-like, super creamy, and cool toned along with being sweet. Dries down to a perfect sugared sweet cream scent with golden undertones. The amber is a golden halo enveloping everything in romantic candlelight. Beautiful, and it lasts all day on me. Hoardworthy.

I love this and love what a unique incense scent it is (while still smelling so familiar). It's incense, but done with a fun, playful, youthful twist. For me, this is dead-on the scent memory of finding incense sticks in the local mall when I was in high school. Nag champa, powdery amber, and strawberry candy scented sticks that dry down after a half hour to all of that plus a soft, romantic, powdery rose with a hint of tart rhubarb. It's a mishmash of those sweet, powdery, so artificial smelling incense sticks, but I really enjoy it. It's nostalgic and fun to me. I remember being in high school and my friends and I were always searching out the incense sticks and sitting and smelling all of them with each other (along with everything in Sephora and Bath & Body Works). I remember how excited we were when one of us found 'fizzy pop' incense sticks and we marvelled over how something dry and smoky could also smell bubbly and wet like Sprite. Roses, Pearls, & Rubies conjured up those memories for me. It's a fun fragrance for the nostalgia and also because it feels kind of goth, but also kind of rainbows and sunshine. I have a partial bottle and think I'll full size it before Lupers disappear.

The black sesame and clove are so savory and strong, like I've made beef dumplings and a spicy black vinegar and soy sauce mix and then smashed and poured them on to my skin. It also kind of smells like bitter, dark coffee beans in the drydown and turns rather sour to my nose. I think the green silk is the high pitched, soapy note that I'm getting. Then there's a little bit of woody smokiness from the sandalwood and agarwood. I had really high hopes for this and it just smells so strange and unpleasant to me. It doesn't make me think of books... more like bitter, black coffee, burning wood, soapy and starchy fabric, and seasoned meat.

The Corn Spirit makes me feel sick to my stomach when I smell it. It's so cloying sweet to my nose, but then with a strong, dusty undertone and sudsy, creamy, floral soap. Vanilla frosting, extremely dusty soil, and the floral soap. I'm not getting corn husk or hay at all, and was hoping this would be more like a corn field scent with tilled earth and drying stalks. I miss the GC Scarecrow that filled that niche, but The Corn Spirit smells like a chaotic mishmash of random notes, not what I expected from the listed notes. It stayed very strong for the hour that I wore this, but then I had to scrub it off.

I added this to my last minute Halloween order because Butterscotch and Blackbeetles is one of my favorite bpals. I would say that this is in the same family because the burnt coffee bean comes across as dark and earthy (not a burnt or smoky/charred smell at all, which is what I was worried about; it's simply the scent of gourmand-ish, earthy, dark, toasty coffee beans). The butterscotch smells like a mix of butterscotch and soft caramel melting on a stovetop. The apple is green apple candy at first and then dries down to a breezy apple blossom-ish scent, which comes across as smelling like apple blossom air freshener after a while. What I really love about this scent is that it's somehow foggy, cool, and spooky in feel. The scent of a peculiar, melty, butterscotch-caramel confection as you're wandering in the woods on a foggy night. The sweetness feels out of place and that makes it creepy. I love gourmand atmospherics like this.

Starts off as sharp, green bell peppery, cologne-like dead leaves. I immediately looked at the notes list again and screamed "noooo" inside my own head as I read 'decaying leaves.' Bpal seems to either use a realistic, crunchy, spicy dead leaves note or it winds up being this bell pepper cologne thing that I dislike so much. That said, I feel like it's actually on theme here (watching cicadas lounging around my yard on all of the greenery) and the greenery fades quickly, so it doesn't bother me much. 15 minutes in, the greenery is already nearly gone to make way for a dusty, well worn, brown leather fragrance that's sweetened with a little vanilla and cozy, warm amber/labdanum. The earthiness is dusty and parched and there is a mineral feel to this as well that makes me think of cicadas crawling through earth and stone to reach the surface and unfurl their little wings. An hour in, it's dusty soil that still has that cool, mineral, rocky quality to it, paired with warm leather and powdery amber. The oakmoss and clary sage add a soft, dried, herbal quality as well. To me, this is all about cicadas journeying through the soil, drawn to the surface by the promise of green leaves and socializing. I've always loved cicadas (even their 'singing' has never bothered me, not even when they descended like a plague in the Ozarks during my childhood and their sound seemed to pulsate through the trees and have its own heartbeat) and I think that this perfume is a gentle ode to them and their journey. The rocky soil and lightly sweetened leather with warm amber is so cozy and I love it.

I'm kind of surprised that there's no clove listed for this scent, because it's so spicy, warm, and powdery on me. I love the Japanese cedar because it's aromatic like dried cedar planks (and perhaps that's where the spice is coming from?). The first time I wore this, I got green cypress and some smokiness, but I don't smell either of those things today. The leather and patchouli start off slowly, getting stronger over hours of wear, but they still stay more muted than usual. The leather is well-worn and soft and the patchouli is like the earth in a forest clearing, with wood, pine needles, and rich soil warming in the sun. It's a warm, enveloping scent that keeps making me think of laying outside on a sunny day. I like this, but I have so many patchouli and leather scents that I would reach for before this one.

Vanilla buttercream frosting with frothy milk that cuts down on some of the buttercream sweetness. The honey is barely there in the opening and I don't get any bourbon, but the fig and patchouli come in subtly and mesh together into a beautiful, dark, earthy-woody scent melded into pulpy-sticky-fruit. I was worried that this would be cloying, but I don't get a powdered sugar scent to the buttercream; it's more of a whipped, creamy vanilla frosting, and the milk is warm and frothy rather than thickly sweet and caramelized. The fig and patchouli also help to even out the sweetness. So it's a strong vanilla frosting (I'd say it's 80% vanilla-y and 20% patchouli and fig), but the other notes keep it from being sickly sweet or too simple. I have a ton of vanilla and patchouli scents (and not enough patchouli and fig scents), but I'm happy to add this one to my collection too and will add a backup bottle into my next order.