Little Bird

This reminds me of the now discontinued blend, Asphodel, which I really hated. It was intensely soapy and powdery on me with a sharp, musky/perfumey, white floral edge that gave me a horrible headache. The Silver Stream is much the same, but with more of an aquatic, watery, salty edge to it.

The Ghost Children would be at home with most of the florals in the Ars Moriendi collection. It's a very somber, quiet, cold, damp floral with wet, green stems and a clean white floral, maybe lily, that turns soapy on me in the drydown. Like a damp bouquet of white funeral flowers and a hint of soap. I don't get anything like candles, beeswax or smoke.

Right Hand starts off as a soft, powdery, lightly sweet orris, black smoke from the vetiver, and a floral dragon's blood. The vetiver takes over in the drydown and it's a blackened, smoky vetiver with just a hint of the dragon's blood. A simple, smoky fragrance.

I agree with other reviewers in that this smells like a minty, mentholic toothpaste scent. Also has a generic white bar soap smell in the drydown. Not for me, but maybe a good choice if you wanted to smell really clean.

I love the smell of construction and was hoping for a wood, paint and drywall type of scent with a creamy buttermilk (as odd as that sounds, lol). Unfortunately, I'm just getting the chalk out of it. It's dry chalk dust and reminds me of when my teachers in gradeschool would select students to go and bang the chalk out of the erasers. I always tried to get out of the eraser cleaning duty, because the smell made me sick and I hated getting that dust all over me. It makes me want to sneeze and take a shower.

I get mostly white sandalwood and the rose notes from this. Bpal's white sandalwood, unfortunately, goes to heavy baby powder on my skin, and the rose water is a bit sharp and sour smelling. I don't get the incense, spice or honey notes at all. It's interesting that people keep comparing this to Morocco, because I've never understood the love for that fragrance either, as it also just goes to baby powder on me

Clean, perfumey, slightly powdery, sharp white musk mixed with a sweet, grapey nag champa incense. Very powdery on my skin, especially in the drydown. Not a keeper for me.

I've put off reviewing this one, because it's nothing but death notes for me. The aldehydes are sharp, soapy and powdery, with a sour green edge, the rose smells stuffy and old fashioned, the iris unbearably sharp and perfumey, and the eucalyptus adds a medicinal chill. It smells chemical, soapy, powdery and like some sort of medical disinfectant. I can't pull this off at all, but I am not a fan of aldehydes, iris, or eucalyptus.

I'm not getting any greenery or floral, just a very sharp, soapy aquatic and a musky, metallic cologne scent that kind of reminds me of sharp white musk. I can't pull off musky or clean scents, so I'll pass on this one.

I don't think that this really smells like Banshee Beat / Revenant Rhythm, because it doesn't have any vanilla or sweetness at all on my skin, and the patchouli is a light, woody, cedar-ish variety. I get a little bit of the hemp at first, dark green and oily and slightly sour smelling, and a little smokiness in the drydown, but it's not screaming 'pot smoke' to me or anything like that. Mostly just a light, woody patchouli.

This is a very light scent; it clings close to my skin and only lasts about an hour and a half total before it has disappeared entirely. The banana reminds me of Splatter Comedy, like a true banana with a hint of cold whipped cream and cold metal. Has more of a slight, warm muskiness to it as it dries down. The chocolate is a thick, woody cocoa absolute. I don't get the vetiver and tobacco until 7-Sloth has been on my skin for almost an hour already. Then it's earthy, sweet tobacco, a hint of smoke, and a hint of warm banana. And then it's gone. I really wish that this lasted longer and had better throw.

This smells like harsh, sharp woodsmoke, sour pine and a soapy snow note on me. Might be better as a room fragrance, but I don't like the smokiness all that much, so it's probably just going to wind up in my swap pile.

This is my third favorite single note (after Bulgarian Tobacco and French Tobacco). I was worried about the coffee having a bitter or burnt smell, or a lot of cinnamon, but this is just perfect. Sweet, creamy coffee and hints of really good, subtle spices. It really does smell like standing in a coffee shop, ordering a latte and admiring the pastry cart. It doesn't turn bitter at all on my skin. Volcanic Coffee Bean reminds me of Bah with hints of spices that remind me of Mayan Chocolate with Annatto Seed and Mother Shub's Pfancy Pfefferneusse. I'm so glad that it's not sharp or weighed down with cinnamon, like most coffee fragrances. It's sweet, creamy and smells delicious.

I glossed over the "fastidiously clean" part of the description when I first wore this, and was really confused by the fact that it smelled like laundry soap and baby powder. I can't pick out the tobacco or leather at all, not even in the drydown. It actually smells strangely sweet on my skin, and I keep thinking that I smell a hint of the juniper/gin note - slightly fizzy, sweet and clean. Mostly this is straightup baby powder smell on me, with a hint of sweet floral scented laundry soap and a hint of gin...

I love sweetened leather and sweetened patchouli scents, so this is right in my wheelhouse. I hate almond when it is the variety that smells like cherries, but it smells like cherries and golden, nutty, almost honeyed sweetness here, and I like it just fine paired with the leather and patch anyhow. The golden amber goes a little baby powdery on me, but paired with the leather, it gives off the impression of warm, soft suede. The patchouli adds a grounding hint of soft earthiness in the drydown. Warm amber-suede and soft patchouli sweetened with a hint of cherry and honeyed almond. I'm sad I didn't get a bottle of this, but the decant is definitely a keeper.

Serving Fish is so pretty. It reminds me of Bath & Body Works and shampoo, but in a really good way (wearable and smooth rather than giving me a headache like actual Bath & Body Works). The sweet pea is clean, floral, tart, and sweetly pink smelling, made sweeter and muskier with the pink musk and vanilla sugar. I kept thinking that this smelled like Bath & Body Works and celebrity fragrances, but without the cheap, sharp white musk and headache inducing ingredients that those tend to have. It's like that generic, sugary, vanilla-fruity-floral that all of the B&BW and celebrity fragrances have, but with more sparkle, more smoothness, and made wearable. The drydown reminded me a lot of Juicy Couture's Hollywood Royal, which is a guilty pleasure scent that I actually enjoy. Clean, but sweet, vanilla musky, and very girly and playful. I'm glad that I got a bottle of this from ebay.

The lab's champagne blends never work for me. I find the champagne to have a sour, boozy, pukey undertone to it that I just find very off putting. Fizzy and clean, but soured and off as well. The pink grapefruit makes it more tart than usual, but the whole thing fades very fast on me, not lasting over an hour.

On me, Mary Shelley is tons of sharp, intensely soapy ozone, smelling like soapy dryer sheets. I can smell hints of the mint and black licorice as it dries down, but they're covered in an unpleasant, sharp, dry soapiness. Starts turning baby powdery after about a half hour. I don't care for this one at all.

Aquatic, slightly soapy, generic men's cologne muskiness with hints of smoky vetiver and lemony bergamot & hay (the lab's hay note usually smells like dead grass, dry wood and lemons to me, and I get that impression here too). I don't really like the clean cologne mixed with a darker smokiness here. Opoponax is usually super strong on me, but I don't smell it at all for about the first hour on my skin, and then I started catching wafts of resinous, syrupy sweetness. Still, this is mostly lemony, cologne-like, and slightly soapy, with a weird, dark undertone of smoke and resin. The parts don't mesh well to me. New imp of this smells like tons of sour lemon cologne with an undertone of ashy vetiver and dry, dusty hair. Not a fan.

Not sure what the 'yellowing, ancient bones' are supposed to smell like, but I definitely get the rose. Big, heavy, lush, red roses with a musky/perfumey edge to them. No greenery or anything to them, just a perfumey red rose scent.

The original Velvet Pink Kitty perfume oil was so sweet that it gave me a headache and made me feel sick, so I'm not sure why I thought it would be better as a room spray, lol. I don't smell any gin at all in this formulation (or maybe the gin went away entirely with age?), which I'd need to cut through the cloying sweetness. It's like strawberry bubblegum, cheap strawberry hard candy, and extra sugar. So so SO sweet.

Starts off smelling like a bathroom disinfectant with lots of sour lemongrass and settles into a soapy, dry, tart citrus. Not my sort of thing, but very clean and sharp.

Stale beer, sharp cinnamon (like red hots candies) and a sour, tangy citrus. I don't care for this scent at all.

I have two imps of this directly from the lab, and both smell different. In the first, the black musk and vetiver make for a dark, powdery, slightly smoky, black incense cologne. The honey weaves through and smells sickly and a little urine-like. The drydown starts to smell ashy, sour and sharp, and still has that undertone of urine-honey... I was worried about the lemon, but I don't get any lemon. Sickly honey, ashy vetiver, and powdery black musk. My man said it smelled like fireplace ashes and rotting flowers. In the latest imp, it smells nowhere near as bad. The vetiver is still a touch ashy and smoky, but the black musk is enveloping, sweet and resinous, and the honey is just a pleasant, creamy sweetness that wraps itself all around the black musk, so that this is rather similar to the muskiness + sweetness that reminds me of Snake Oil. No lemon or saffron to be found in either version.

I expected a rich, heavy, sweet rose with incense. This is a watery, perfumey, thin, sharp little rose on me, though. It has a sour, lemony sharpness to it. A little sweeter in the drydown, but still no incense, and this is far too sharp for my tastes. I think that Hedylogos is my all time least favorite of bpal's roses. I like rich, bold, sweeter roses.