Little Bird

Dry, crumbly, dark red, slightly sour rose with a dusty incense and old, dry wood. It smells ancient. I can't pick out the red licorice exactly, but the drydown does have this high-pitched, sugary, cotton candy type sweetness that smells really good mixed with the rose and incense. It gets sweeter over time and starts to smell very foodie on me, the way that blends like All Souls manage to smell like edible incense. I love that this is gourmand, but also ancient and dusty smelling.

This really does smell fuzzy somehow. It goes on as lots of rich, sweet cocoa absolute with hints of powdery sandalwood, dark plum, dry hay, and something like warm fur. The plum has gotten pretty strong in this with age, and I don't get any of the spices anymore. The drydown is tart, rich, dark, fruity plum with rich cocoa and a background of powdery, woody, furry, warm tones. It's a really good, dark plum and cocoa fragrance, warm and exotic, and I feel like the scent really does match the picture of that Tarantula Fascinator eerily well.

Perfumey, musky, unbearably sharp white floral. I get tons of sharp, musky, white tuberose mixed with sharp, fresh (almost soapy) freesia and white musky vanilla orchid.. this is like a mix of so many of my least favorite flowers and sharp musk.

My favorite blueberry scent from bpal is still Blue Fire, where the fizzy juniper/gin note kept the sweetness of the blueberry in check. There's nothing holding the sweetness in check with this one. The blueberry is a super-sweet, candied, artificial, syrupy note. It goes a little powdery in the drydown. Too simple and sweet for me.

I don't get any gummy bears from this, sadly. I get a sharp rose, powdery sandalwood, and incense smoke. Like burning a stick of rose-sandalwood incense.

A soft, sweet rose made even sweeter with a big dose of very pink, slightly powdery, super-sweet bubblegum. It dries down reminding me of a rose flavored cotton candy with vanilla. It's very sugary, but it has a fluffy lightness to it as well. Creamy, sugary, pink rose.

This goes on sharp and soapy, and I was thinking it had iris in it initially, but the drydown is a soft, honeyed lavender with dry, herbal chamomile and a creamy, chocolatey edge. It's a sweet, honeyed, herbal sleep blend. Gets a little powdery over time.

I really enjoy the Miss Forcible scent. It's like vanilla-y, soft cosmetics powder and warm, womanly perfume smell mixed in with anise cookies and cinnamon spiced cookies. Warm, complex, and unusual, but pleasant. It's a gourmand fragrance with a twist, which I totally love, and The Other Miss Forcible is the same sort of idea, but with a darker, creamier, more sugared feel. On my skin, The Other Miss Forcible smells like creme brulee (creamy, sugary, sweet) and maple custard, powdery black musk, a curl of sweet myrrh smoke, and hints of vanilla-ish cosmetic dusting powder with a slight whiff of snickerdoodles cookies. It's foodie, but with dark touches running through it. After an hour, it smells mostly like vanilla scented cosmetics powders, maple sugar and some sort of black sugar. I really like the dark sweetness, and I don't really own anything else that smells like this (except for, naturally, the edge that smells of the original Miss Forcible). I might like this more than Miss Forcible, but I do like them both. I'm really glad that I finally took a chance on a bottle of this

In the bottle, this smells like cedar trees and I was immediately excited. I love the spicy-fresh smell of cedar wood. On my skin, it's absolutely no cedar, but I am getting a creamy, powdery lily, sort of a metallic honey note, and a teeny tiny hint of lime. Nothing about it is dark or reminding me of ravens or feathers. Baby powdery, honeyed lily and a hint of lime. And it doesn't change at all once it's on my skin. It stays exactly that for hours.

I had to age the original Asp Viper for 9 years before I liked it. It started off as cheap, hyper sweet maraschino cherry syrup and baby powder. Now it smells like nutty, vanilla-y marzipan and earthy, rich red musk. It's amazing. Asp Viper 2016 smells nothing like it, though, so I suppose that none of that matters, lol. I'm getting a ton of orange and vanilla from this, and it's slightly fizzy, reminding of the Tiki drink blends. In the drydown, I can start to smell the almond, and it's not the cherry of death variety, but the creamy, vanilla-y, warm, nutty almond marzipan type. This is really good, intensely sweet, and surprisingly gourmand. The drydown especially smells like a vanilla overloaded with sugar, like some sort of heavy, sweet vanilla frosting with a squish of orange juice and some nuttiness. After about an hour, it's much the same, but I can smell a hint of smoky Snake Oil in here as well. I really like this one.

This is so different from the original Coral Snake. The original Coral Snake was spiced apples (like apple cider blended with creamy, vanilla-d floral notes), and I don't get any spice at all from this new version. Where the original was warm and softly spiced apple, this version is fresh, juicy, sweet fruits and misty tropical florals. Bpal's apple notes are often a miss on me (powdery, soapy, too spicy, etc), but the apple here is like a sweet, red, candied apple. It's not doing anything strange or unpleasant on my skin, lol. The blood orange adds a juicy citrus burst and the lemon peel smells like a candied lemon peel that's not sour or sharp at all. The plumeria makes me think of wet tropical flowers in a rainforest after a heavy rain, still damp and cool. I liked the original Coral Snake, but I think I like this one more. Red candy apple, juicy blood orange, candied lemon peel, and wet, cool tropical blooms. Very sweet and fruity, and so pretty I'm not getting any of the Snake Oil from this one either right now.

Beauty is the only fragrance that I like out of the Pretty Indulgent series. It reminds me of the Trading Post's "Red Rose" fragrance from a few years back. The rose smells deep red, dry, and of an expensive rose oil absolute. Myrrh, tobacco and patchouli further darken it and give it a thick, earthy-resinous sweetness. I usually don't like earthy roses, but the sweet myrrh and spicy tones to this one are really attractive to me. I keep thinking that there's clove in this for some reason. Dark red, dry rose with a clove-y spiciness to it, sweet myrrh, earthy tobacco and patchouli... a very resinous, dark, beautiful rose.

In the bottle and on my skin at first, this is like a glass of cold root beer and the scent of smoky mesquite bbq (that savory-smoky type of vetiver). I get a little bit of woody fig and vanilla as it dries down, and then it's like a cold root beer float + mesquite bbq smoke and wood ash. It's really strange and not exactly pleasant smelling on me. It winds up smelling more gritty, ashy and dirty on me over time, and I don't like that at all, especially mixed with the foodie qualities and a thick, creamy, sweet lilac that goes cloying. It makes me feel kind of sick to my stomach.

Faiza 2016 starts off sharp, clean, green and musky. Something about it reminds me of the lab's bamboo note - pulpy, wet, lush green. The original Faiza was sharp all the way through and sort of muddled & overwhelming to me. I like this one a lot more. I can actually pick out most of the listed notes from this year's version. Jasmine and white floral perfume (that's not going sour or weird on me at all), juicy orange, sweet blackberry and honeyed tea dancing through lots of musky vanilla. Once this has fully settled, it's like a proper, perfumey white floral fragrance with a warm amber, sweetened with honeyed tea, vanilla, and a little dry spiciness. It retains that wonderful undercurrent of a pulpy green scent and some dark & slinky black musk (snakes slithering through your proper perfume). I catch hints of sweet berry and juicy orange wafting from my wrists every once in a while as well. All in all, this is like a heavy, warm, classic white floral-oriental perfume with dark, green snakes slithering through it. I appreciate this and like it a lot more than the original, but the perfumey white floral aspect is always hard for me to pull off. I like my gardenia to be more creamy and sweet. I do love the sweeter notes in this, though, and the dark green vein running through it. And I just wanted to mention that this blend is STRONG. A tiny drop smudged on to one of my arms lasted about 6 hours with tons of throw before it finally started to fade a little, and then it kept going pretty well until I had a shower around the 9 hour mark.

Australian Copperhead was one of my favorites of the original snake pit. The lab's acai berry note is really fun and pretty, with a good mix of sweet and sour tones, and the smoked vanilla gives it a darker, creamy edge. My old bottle of Australian Copperhead was all acai berry and vanilla, and was very vanilla-y even before aging (and all of my Snake Pit blends have gotten sweeter and more vanilla-centric over time). This 2016 version starts off reminding me of raspberry scented shampoo and Bath & Body Works' Sun-Ripened Raspberry stuff. It has a tart, perfumey/musky, clean thing going on, where the original smelled a lot more natural. That not-so-great stage sticks around for about 20 minutes, and then the scent shifts completely into something gorgeous. Once it loses most of its perfumey/soapy edge, this starts to remind me of vanilla icecream with ribbons of berry syrup, and a background of sultry, smoky orange blossom and sandalwood perfume. I was worried about the white sandalwood going to baby powder on my skin (it almost always does), but it's a soft, woody, sandalwood incense feel here with the smoked vanilla and neroli. Once it dries down, I think that I actually like this more than the original Australian Copperhead. It's more complex and nuanced. Sweet vanilla with hints of tart berry, neroli, sandalwood and a curl of incense smokiness. Very sultry. <3

This reminds me a lot of blends like Holiday Moon (cool, refreshing green tea) and Dragon Moon 06 (sweet, breezy cherry blossom). Warbler is definitely one of bpal's lovely, delicate, Asian inspired blends that's lightly sweet, fresh, clean, almost citrus-floral... the plum and black currant add a dark, sweet edge to this blend, though, especially as it dries down. It's crisp tea and fluttering cherry blossoms on a cool breeze, with a background of rich, dark, sweet plum. Very beautiful. I'm glad that I took a chance and ordered a bottle of this, because it's a fruity-floral that I can actually wear. It's not doing anything sharp or strange on my skin, and I like the amount of sweetness that it has.

Mmm. This scent is amazing. If you love the French Tobacco single note, this is basically the same thing, but with a little bit of cocoa added to it. Earthy, sweet tobacco with a smokiness that reminds me of burning fall leaves. It smells dark, sticky and very sexy. It has just a light dusting of sweet cocoa powder and a curl of smoke in the background. One of my definite loves of this year's Lupercalia blends.

The Gift is so strange. I was surprised that the oil itself is red, and it smells exactly like champagne on me. It's all fizzy, bubbly, bright, white, boozy champagne. Slightly sweet and slightly fruity in the way that champagne is. As it dries down, it's much the same, but a baby powdery amber joins the mix. I don't know what that champagne thing is - maybe the frothed honey? But this doesn't smells like honey, resins or woods on me at all. It's bright, boozy, and way too powdery for me.

I've tried to love this scent, but I really hate it. A lot of my most favorite scents are resins + cocoa (Aelian's Phoenix being one of my recent bpal loves in this category), but the gunpowder in this scent is unbearable to me. It smells like ashes from a wood burning furnace, complete with the weird, burning metal and just... no. It is a bad scent from my childhood, when I was in a bad place. It makes my stomach feel like it's twisting up in knots and I want to gag and run away. The chocolate smells stale and the myrrh sickly-sweet and wrong, and I don't think I've ever disliked myrrh before, but there it is. I love the smell of actual gunpowder, oddly, but this is ashes and burnt metal in the worst way.

I like the lab's blue musk. It smells watery, cool, and still, like staring into a decorative pond on a quiet night. Very calming. A tart lemon splashes around for a few minutes, and I don't really care for the lemon, but it disappears after fifteen minutes or so on my skin, and I'm left with pale wisteria, watery blue musk and a hint of sweet frankincense. This is a very calming, soft, meditative blend to me, pale floral and slightly clean (but not soapy). Cool and pretty.

I'm into honey lately, and I love honey mixed with frankincense, but the pomegranate and dusty/powdery undertone ruin this one for me. I was hoping that pomegranate root wouldn't be so fruity, but it still smells like sweet tarts candy on my skin. Tart, fake-fruit, sweet honey, dry wood, and a dusty/powdery feel overall.

Bartholomaeus Anglicus' Phoenix actually smells very similar to Mandeville's Phoenix, likely because they both share a strong red sandalwood note. This doesn't have Mandeville's sweet myrrh and warm, cinnamon-ish clove, but has a very light sweetness from the honeyed cedar and a hint of warm, actual cinnamon (but those notes are barely there, this is almost a red sandalwood single note on my skin). It does have a quality that reminds me of sandalwood boxes and sharpening pencils, as other reviewers have mentioned. A few of the times that I've worn this, it actually reminded me of the Disappointing Pencil single note. It's all smooth sandalwood and a hint of that honeyed cedar in the drydown, less incensey and without the hint of smoke from Mandeville. I like this blend, as red sandalwood is one of the few sandalwood notes that doesn't turn to baby powder on my skin.

On me, this is waxy gardenia, perfumey white floral magnolia, and loud, slightly sour jasmine. I can't even pick out the earthy notes under all of that floral.

This is a soft, close to the skin scent for me, even though the notes are usually bold, heavy ones. It's a soft, warm, suede-like leather, smoky sandalwood incense, and dusty wood scent. If it stayed like that, I might order a bottle of this, but the cinnamon creeps in during the drydown and gives it a dusty cinnamon potpourri smell that I'm not loving.

I can't do the lab's tobacco flower note. It's like sharp, bright, cutting, cold white floral and laundry soap powder. Soapy, white, high pitched... I also get the cinnamon that other people have mentioned, and no black pepper, which is curious. I really don't like it mixed with the tobacco flower, but I never really like tobacco flower, so take that with a grain of salt, lol.