Little Bird

I love patchouli, but the red patchouli always smells a little off on me. Claudian's Phoenix is lots of woody fig and sweaty patchouli on my skin, smelling mainly like BO and dry wood. I get the ashy quality that others have mentioned in the drydown. No pom or frankincense. Not a keeper for me.

Sweet, syrupy myrrh and sweet clove that gives off a bit of a cinnamon feel with dry, somber sandalwood. It starts off as mostly myrrh and clove on me, and settles into a strong, smooth sandalwood incense with hints of myrrh and clove. The white sandalwood usually turns baby powdery on me, but the red sandalwood isn't powdery at all. It smells of expensive, dry wood. I'll keep my bottle of this, because I'm obsessed with myrrh, and this is a lovely sandalwood incense and myrrh.

Le Clerc's is overwhelming, heavy cinnamon and cassia. Cassia always smells like a dark red, woody cinnamon to me. Tons of that here. It actually smells a lot like the original Red Phoenix, which was also amped up cinnamon. Too much for me to handle, and gives me a headache pretty quickly.

The Avenue is one of my favorites of this year's Lupercalia blends. Maybe even the #1 favorite, in good company with Dark Choco Tobacco, The Imperfect Enjoyment, The Mark, Volcano in Springtime... I love chocolate, vanilla, resins, non-cinnamon spices and earthy blends. The Avenue is like a mix of all of my favorite things. The Avenue has a gorgeous, silky, smooth, dark chocolate and luscious, creamy vanilla with resinous tones and a whiff of smoke (not sharp woodsmoke, but like a burning resin smoke). I was worried about the pink pepper, which is a death note for me, but I love black pepper and I'm only getting the black pepper from this. I think that this could have been one of the chocolate bonbon scents this year. The chocolate and vanilla are so creamy. Those notes keep making me think of chocolate silk pie topped with a heavy whipped cream. The smoked amber, clove and black pepper give it a non-foodie, resinous, spicy, amazing oomph, though. If anyone has ever tried Violette Market's "Veil of the Moon" fragrance (notes of 'vanilla accord, peppered woodsmoke, cedarleaf, vanilla honey and black pine resin'), this smells verrry similar, but I like The Avenue even more. The Avenue is smoother.

The pitch is an ashy, charred, over the top, harsh woodsmoke scent, covered in black musk that's turning very baby powdery on my skin. Sort of like cigarette smoke and dirty as tray in the drydown, with a hint of baby powder and cheap men's cologne.

Sugary, cloying, honey flavored dusting powder and nothing else. Not much throw or staying power. I'm not getting anything like leather or red musk.

I keep thinking 'white chocolate' whenever I wear this, but it must be the vanilla amping up on my skin (and I am not complaining about that at all!). Lots of creamy, sweet, chocolate-y vanilla. The other notes meld together so well into this warm, sweet, golden incense feel that I really enjoy, with a dusting of rich, sweet, dark cocoa in the drydown. There's a little bit of smokiness as well, but it's not harsh woodsmoke or bbq smoke; it's like a light wisp of incense smoke. It really smells magical. White chocolate, golden incense, and a dusting of dark cocoa powder. This year's chocolates are all really amazing.

I can pick out all of the listed notes for this one - a sweet but earthy cocoa, warm and toasted chestnut (same as the wonderful, nutty-woody note in Horse Chestnut Honey), thick honey and earthy patchouli. It all combines into this chewy, earthy chocolate and honey amazingness. The honey is almost reminiscent of caramel on my skin, and I just love the way that chocolate & patchouli always complement each other. I'm glad that I decided to just order a bottle of this one.

I agree with VioletChaos in that this immediately reminded me of Boo, but minus the notes that make Boo a bit off smelling to me sometimes. It also reminds me of Haus of Gloi's Ghost Puffs fragrance, which is a true, buttery, slightly salty, fluffy marshmallow delight. I was worried about the staying power after reading some of the other reviews, but this has been going for 4+ hours on me so far and still smells the same and I keep getting lovely wafts of it. It's not overwhelming or super strong, but it's lasting and doing excellent things on my skin, lol. This is by far my favorite marshmallow scent from bpal. No spice, fruit, or perfumey sugar notes - just realistic, amazing marshmallows. I would also love this in bath oil and hair gloss form.

I really like the sweet & sour quality of this - like sour gummi worms with emphasis on the lime. It smells like I took a bag of sour gummi worms and squeezed a real, fresh, juicy lime over them. Sugary, zesty, juicy, refreshing and fun. I don't normally like fruity/fruit candy scents, but I'm really enjoying this one.

On me, this smells like chocolate, a really powdery honey sugar, and something sharp that is perhaps the metallic/tin foil note. I was expecting a chocolate single note, but this is powdery and that sharp note makes it less foodie smelling on me. I prefer Melty Creme Egg's straightup gourmand chocolate & marshmallow thing, but this is still nice. The drydown's chocolate and metallic cologne feel makes me want to try Earless Bunny on my husband.

I've had issues with bpal's chocolate notes turning powdery or plasticy on me lately, but this one is fantastic. It smells like rich, sweet, melty chocolate, marshmallow, and buttery, salty caramel. Really decadent, warm, and it has great throw and staying power on me. Purely gourmand and smells delicious.

I love vetiver when it's dark and smoky, but not savory like bbq, or when it's like dying, drying out grass. I thought this would be the grassy variety, based on the other reviews, but it's all smoky mesquite bbq type vetiver on me . The steel adds a metallic, clean cologne note, but it's mostly smoky, charred bbq. It's reminding me of a less complex Mutant Hot-Rodders from Hell High...

This is my definite favorite of the Dark Crystal series, though the sweet, tropical, fruity feel doesn't remind me of Dark Crystal or make me think science at all. I really love black currant and myrrh, especially mixed together, so that makes me immediately happy. The combination is sweet, dark and sensual. The passionflower and black viola are big, heady, lush tropical blooms, and the whole thing is rather juicy smelling on my skin. It's very distinctive, juicy, tropical and fruity for about 45 minutes, and then starts drying down into a clean, kind of more perfumey, slightly powdery, tropical floral with hints of fruit. It fades quickly after that, but I do enjoy the opening.

The Ritual Master is mostly opoponax and opium. The opoponax is thick, syrupy resin (always has edges that remind me of maple syrup and black pepper) and the opium turns sharp, dry, and soapy on my skin. They actually smell rather interesting together, even though I don't really enjoy the smell of opium and I can only handle opoponax in small doses. I wouldn't wear this, but it is an interesting mix of the heavy-dark-sweet opoponax and heavy-white-soapy opium.

I so wanted this to smell like leather and spice cake with vanilla cream. This is a strange, metallic, chemical smell though. It reminds me of hairspray in aluminum cans, sort of musky-chemical and brightly, sharply metallic. A weird sweetness creeps in, but it's not foodie, cakey or creamy sweetness. It's like a metallic, sickly rusty sweetness. As it dries down, I wonder if there's vetiver in this, because I'm smelling the variety that's reminiscent of charred mesquite bbq smoke and sweet bbq sauce. Mixed with sharp, chemical hairspray and metal. This is really bad and gives me a headache from the sharp chemical smell... absolutely no cake or cream.

The eucalyptus and camphor give this a bit of a Vicks VapoRub scent, mixed with the citrusy-clean, bright white tea. The menthol edge fades a bit in the drydown and it's more of a clean tea and soft mint. I can't really smell any fir/evergreen. Too clean and the menthol & mint make it a bit medicinal smelling to my nose.

This smells like what I imagine it would be like to somehow set PineSol on fire. A very chemical, sharp pine with ash and smoke. Fireplace Cinders smells very harsh, sharp and sour on my skin.

I was expecting orange and clove, but I don't get any spiciness from this scent. It's powdery and tart, reminding me of orange flavored sweet tarts. Very artificial. I don't like this one at all.

The beeswax is creamy, waxy, and turns rather powdery on me in the drydown (the dust?), smelling warm and honeyed. The olive oil, I think, is adding a bright, almost fruity tone on my skin. I like beeswax mixed with earthier/woodsy notes, but it's a little too simple and the olive oil is strange on me here.

I had high hopes for this one after reading all of the bold notes listed for it, but it's mostly a sour sort of red musk with some herbal tones to it. I don't get vanilla, tobacco, leather or myrrh. Maybe some sour red rose mixed with the red musk and herbal notes. A little smoky in the drydown.

Soapy aquatic with sour, green moss and spring floral dryer sheets. Sort of reminds me of a soapier, more floral version of Bayou.

This is all tobacco flower on me, which is a bpal note that I hate. It's like a dry, sharp, white floral that turns really soapy on my skin.

Lemony green tea and a watery, crisp, refreshingly green cucumber note. I want to drink this or bathe in it at a spa or both. I agree with reviews saying that Rendezvous is in the same family as Shanghai and Embalming Fluid. I don't really get any mint from this, but it does have a cool, crisp feel to it. I don't wear clean/tea/green type scents very often, but I'll keep my decant of this one.

On me, this is mainly a creamy gardenia scented soap. The orchid makes it kind of perfumey/musky smelling on me in the drydown, where it's a mix of tropical floral (definitely gardenia as the main player on my skin), perfumey white floral, and creamy white soap scent.