Little Bird

It's interesting how different this is on everyone. I was hoping that I'd be in the camp of people who are getting tons of sugar and apple jolly ranchers from this, but apple blossom does its usual thing on me and immediately turns to soap. I smell like apple-floral shampoo.

The cubeb overwhelms with its tart, lemony scent. Cubeb mixed with honey starts to smell like lemon & honey flavored cough drops. I'm surprised that I'm not getting any carnation or rose, because florals are usually pretty strong on me. Lemon-honey-cough-drops

Pretty, soft rose with a hint of greenery clinging to it, coated in a warm, honey scented dusting powder. I'm not getting the cream or a creamy impression from this, but it's a pretty, sweet, honeyed, powdery rose with some unusual green notes.

My decant is now well aged and red musk amps up on me to high heaven, but I was still sad to not get any of the 'lavender fougere' from this. I enjoy bpal's fougere and masculine blends. This is a big, incensey, slightly smoky red musk on me with a hint of sharp citrus. It goes a little grapey and reminiscent of nag champa incense on my skin. Strong red musk.

Another 'weenie that seems more like a spring scent than a fall one to me. Apple blossom smells bright, clean, green, tart and soapy, mixed with a watery sort of coconut. Dries down with warm, powdery sandalwood, but no leather or woody musk for me.

Always reminds me of Olympic Orchid's Woodcut, but less natural and not as good or complex (though I do still enjoy Disappointing Pencil). I collect the stranger sounding single note blends, so this was a keeper for me. I don't know if it really smells like a pencil to me, but it has a rich, dry wood (yet it smells creamy and soft as well, like a wood that would be easy to carve) and almost a caramelized sweetness to it. I love cedar and this is cedar without cedar's natural spiciness. Somewhere between good cedar and good sandalwood. I don't know if I'm making any sense, but I like this and think that it's a very good wood fragrance.

I was afraid of the beer, but this is an explosion of cinnamon on my skin, and not much else. Starts off very dry, but has more of a buttery, creamy edge to it in the drydown. But mostly all cinnamon all the time.

White musk and tobacco flower make this have a white, soapy, dryer sheets feel. The neroli and white tea form a creamy, orange-y, sharp citrus refreshment next to the laundry pile. I don't get any leather at all. It's a clean, spring-like fragrance.

I bought this, because I'm planning on collecting all of the Seven Word Story installments (why? who knows), even though I tend to hate the lab's pomegranate note. This isn't as dry and tart as the pom usually is on me, though. It usually smells like powdery sweet tarts candy. The red fruit here is bright, perfumey, and a little soapy, like a pomegranate scented shampoo. I'm not getting much incense at all, just a slight smokiness in the drydown that reminds me more of cigarette smoke than incense, which is appropriate for the story, I suppose. I don't really like this, but I'm keeping my bottle for the set, so maybe something magical will happen to it with age.

The aquatic/ice parts amp up on me and go straight to soap. It's like a nice, lavender scented laundry soap. I actually think that my mom might enjoy this, because she gets all nostalgic over soapy lavenders that remind her of doing laundry when she was a little girl (she loves Sleepy Moon, but this is a lot soapier and not as sweet as Sleepy Moon). For me? Too much soap.

I hate the lab's opium/poppy note. It smells sharp and chemical, sort of like hairspray chemicals, with a white, sharp smokiness. I get lots of opium here, with hints of sour rose and maybe a sharp spiciness from the carnation. I had to scrub this one off.

Tobacco, tonka and vanilla are nowhere to be found. This is a big, heavy, soapy white floral scent on my skin. Perfumey and sharp. Gives me a bad headache.

Baby powdery sandalwood and a lemony, sour, sharp rose I haven't had good luck with the OLLA blends, other than Ian, Streets of Detroit, and In Templum Dei.

I love the smell of real cedar (closest I've found to that is Solstice Scents' Attic and Olympic Orchid's Woodcut), because it has a pleasant spiciness and green tone to it. This doesn't smell like cedar to me. It's sort of like pencil shavings + a hint of sour rose. Very dry, and slightly powdery in the drydown. This one fades fast on me.

In the vial, this is metallic, a bit peppery, and has undertones of dry wood and barely-there leather. On my skin, it's sweet and quickly turns into a beeswax single note. A sweet honey-vanilla aroma, actual wax, and a swirl of candle smoke.

Cookies and incense sounded good to me (I like a lot of the lab's cake & incense blends), but this has the bad almond in it, the kind that smells like cherry cough syrup and sickly-sweet maraschino cherry syrup. Dries down to boozy almond extract (cherry all the time) and... cinnamon? I'm not getting anything that reads as incense.

Fragrance review: Spooky is in my top ten of all time favorite bpal fragrances. I have a little orb bottle with the handwritten Spooky label from '04, and bottles from all of its re-releases, and it's one of those fragrances that always makes me smile when I wear it. I'm also always surprised by how complex it actually is. It's buttery vanilla with a drizzle of frosty peppermint extract (like a Shamrock Shake in perfume form), golden and warm from the oven sugar cookies, and a hint of toasted coconut and sweet chocolate that swirls around the vanilla cookie heaven. I'm surprised at the reviews that get a lot of rum and coconut from Spooky, because it's tons of buttery vanilla and cookie on my skin, a persistent undertone of sweet mint, and the tiniest hints of toasted coconut (not the suntan lotion variety to my nose at all, and I hate suntan lotion coconut) and chocolate. The buttery, sweet mint reminds me of Snowblind, but this is like Snowblind in cookie form. I don't tend to enjoy bpal's rum fragrances, but I don't smell the usual rum in Spooky, and think the rum just adds that buttery, silky edge to the vanilla. I can only use tiny amounts of hair gloss on the very ends of my hair or else it turns my hair into a greasy mess, but I also use the hair glosses as a body mist, so I'm loving having Spooky in spray form Product review: Overview: Hair gloss is a heavy, oily spray that quickly overwhelms my long, fine hair and makes it look and feel very greasy. I can't use this product anywhere but very sparingly on the ends of my hair, or else it makes my head look like an oil slick. I'm really careful with my hair and the products that I use on it. For a while, I was using this to fragrance the ends of my hair, but I find that it makes my hair fall out a lot, either from the high fragrance oil content, the heaviness of the oil itself, or something else. I wanted to love these and wanted them to work, because of the fragrances, but now I only use the hair gloss as a body mist on my arms and legs, not actually on my hair.

I didn't try the Eldritch Dark bath oil, because the bath oils make my skin break out like mad, but I'm definitely enjoying the perfume oil. Dark, black leather (like a black leather jacket) with a bit of powder and smoke from the black musk, sweetened up by an ever so slightly honeyed red musk. Warm, musky, sexy black leather. Red musk, leather and rose all amp up on my skin, but I'm not getting any rose here. Black leather and sweet red musk.

Frimp of this in a lab etsy order. I'm really loving Ploutos. It's a strong leather first and foremost, like the scent of a black leather jacket and a hint of soft, brown, suede leather. The amber threatens to turn powdery (like bpal's ambers always do on me), but the other notes are keeping it in check and it comes off as a waft of amber incense smoke instead, thanks to the smoky oud and honeyed patch. Dark, incensey, warm, black leather. Like being snug and warm in a black leather jacket, in a room where Midnight Mass type incense is burning. I'd buy a full bottle of this if it were available.

My decant of this might not have aged so well. I find the musk to be sour and almost metallic, something is turning powdery (like baby powder and a hint of cocoa powder) and the tobacco & patch are gritty and smoky, reminding me of cigarettes and ash trays. I wanted this to be rich, heavy and dark... gourmand, but dangerous and sexy and smooth... like Blood Moon 05, The Tell-Tale Heart and Tezcatlipoca... but Callidora has gritty, ashy, sour tones that remind me of Midnight Kiss and it isn't working for me.

I liked the scent of the Tricksy bath oil, but the bath oils started irritating my skin a lot, so I'm happy to have this in perfume form. It reminds me of the patchouli in Goblin, which is like a mix of gritty patch and resinous, sticky patchouli, sweetened with a vanilla-creamy type honey. Sensual, and always makes me think of autumn and Halloween time. It's a perfect fall patchouli

Soft, dry, woody, light brown smelling mix of patchouli and hazelnut. The hazelnut adds a warm, wooden, toasty, nutty goodness to the patchouli, but I don't get the vanilla and the hazelnut definitely isn't supersweet or reminiscent of nutella or anything like that. It's a soft, earthy, dry, wooden scent. A little darker from a hint of leather in the drydown. I'm kinda tempted to buy a bottle of this, because I do think that the statue is cute too, but $125 is a bit much for me at this point in my life, lol. I think I'll just be happy with my decant and my million other patch blends.

Bpal's apple notes and I don't often get along so well (unless they're caramel apples, and even then, it's iffy). This is another apple that reminds me of green apple air freshener (slightly floral-apple) and soapy apple shampoo. I can smell the dirt and some spices in the drydown, but it mostly just keeps reminding me of Febreeze and Yankee Candle :/

I like Sylvia. It starts off with a blast of pine, but dries down more warm and spicy. The musk makes it warm and snuggly while the spicy clove and carnation combo are almost sweet and cinnamon-ish on my skin. I was worried about the spices and that the pine + spice would remind me of holiday potpourri, but my aged decant of this seems to be doing well. The musk is powdery and soft, but not baby powdery, all warm and snuggly, with a bit of soft leather backing it up. The vanilla and pine are pleasantly sweet and foresty. The spices are there, but not overwhelming or turning to a cinnamon disaster as the whole thing dries down. Powdery musk, sweet vanilla pine, soft leather, and warm spiciness from the carnation and clove. It reminds me of blends like The Illustrated Woman, Ivanushka, Golden Priapus...

Sharp mint and intensely sour, tart, red currant and sharp, citrusy green tea. Reminds me of Smell Bent's Mama Cassis in the drydown, which is like a weird toothpaste smell + fruit that doesn't seem to mesh together well for me.