Little Bird

This is very pretty on me at first; I just wish that I could get rid of the sharp, perfumey iris that dominates the drydown. The white leather and amber are soft, slightly powdery, almost buttery smelling on my skin initially. Suede-like. The violet and coconut come in sweetly floral and a little creamy. And then the iris pops up and takes over in the drydown, making the whole thing too floral and too sharp for me. Iris often smells like cheap, chemical-y white musk, and it's doing that to me here. Sharply perfumey.

I was hoping for buttery crust and gooey apple filling, but this is a lot of cinnamon on my skin and a very fresh, perfumey apple smell. Dries down like an apple cider scented candle.

Pecan Pie goes straight to generic spice candle smell on my skin sharp cinnamon and nutmeg type of scent.

These are all a mix of sweet & clean, popular, and fairly easy to wear: Alice, Cheshire Cat, Dana O'Shee, Dorian, Embalming Fluid, Lyonesse, Mouse's Long & Sad Tale, Roses Pearls & Diamonds, Tamora. If you're interested in actual foodie/gourmand scents: Bliss, Cockaigne, Drink Me, Eat Me, Shub-Niggurath, Miskatonic University, Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener... And Dirty is the literal clean laundry scent in the catalogue. Sea of Glass is also a beautiful clean fragrance.

I think that I don't like galbanum. It often smells weirdly green and reminiscent of Pine-Sol on my skin. Bitter and pine-y. I usually enjoy black pepper, but I find it off-putting with the bitter green and sour, musky ambergris here. The drydown is a little smoky and a little powdery from the sandalwood. I find this to be a bitter, sharp, spiky sort of fragrance, where I tend to wear sweeter, smoother blends.

Starts off as a cherry blossom scented soap. It smells breezy, clean, creamy, floral, and a bit sweet. After about a half hour, though, it's all laundry soap powder and loses the creamy blossoms and sweetness, and then I don't care for this at all.

Men's cologne feel, soft mint, and a watery, cool white musk. Clean and sharp. I don't get any coconut or sweetness from this, personally. Drydown is like a watery type, musky men's cologne.

This is a jumbled, soapy mess on my skin. It's a harsh, disinfectant sort of soapy with dirty, smoky undertones and a weird, green, honeyed floral something? But mostly soap.

This is a really beautiful perfume, and such a sweet concept. The lavender is soft, creamy and herbal, mixed with sappy green leaf and a bit of a crunchy, earthy, dead leaf smell. Cool (like a chilly breeze) and outdoorsy.

Buttery, salty popcorn and a little bit of sweet, fruity sugar from the jelly beans. I like popcorn and buttery scents, so I enjoy this one a lot

Strangely dry and dusty, like the way heater vents smell in old houses when you first turn on the heat for the winter. And tons of very sweet, very dry smelling, perfumey white sugar. The coffee, I guess, adds a toasty, brown warmth, but I wouldn't be able to identify the coffee if I wasn't actively searching for it. This is a dusty, strange, chemical sugar scent on me.

Muddy Puddles turns so plasticy on my skin. It's like chocolate brownies fragrance oil that turns to powdered chocolate mix in the drydown, and an overwhelming melting plastic scent. I was sad that there wasn't any dirt/mud tone to this one either, as I enjoy earthy chocolate blends.

This is like opening one of those canned peach in syrup things.. sort of a fresh, watery peach with syrupy sweetness. As it dries down, I get some pie spices (cinnamon-clove-ish), but not really any butter, and this actually isn't as sweet as I would have liked on my skin. The peach goes a little sour/plasticy on my skin.

I don't smell any cream or vanilla from this, and the blueberry is a very syrupy, candied one. Blueberry hard candy and a cinnamon-buttery pie crust. Kind of cloying and the spices are a little sharp on my skin.

I strongly prefer Dragon's Milk for a dragon's blood, cream and honey fragrance. Dragon's Boner is more soapy, watery and floral on me than foodie. I don't smell any honey or cream in this. It did remind me to buy a backup of Dragon's Milk, though.

The Magician has kind of a generic men's cologne smell to it. It's pleasant and a good smell, but sort of nondescript and reminiscent of department store colognes for me. Sort of a warm wood and dry amber with slight spiciness, covered in a fresh, citrusy, bright, metallic, musky cologne thing.

On me, this smells like dried rose petals thrown into some sort of 'spring' scented laundry soap powder. A very soapy rose scent.

Herbal, sharp lemon verbena and a perfumey floral note from the osmanthus. Sour, bright, sharp, herbal, lemony-floral...

Big, heavy white florals tend to give me a headache, and tuberose is one of my death notes, so there was really no way that I was going to like this blend. Tuberose is just so unbearably sharp and almost chemical/alcohol smelling to me. I can sometimes wear gardenia, but it's overwhelming here with the tuberose. The jasmine gives a hint of sour floral in the drydown, but I'm not smelling any benzoin, oud or carnation. Turns slightly soapy on my skin and this was a scrubber for me.

I like the cool, herbal lavender in this, and the soft, earthy patchouli, but the mint and fir add a sharp, sour quality to the blend that I can't love. I'm not getting any carnation from my decant.

I love this when I first put it on, where it's tart, juicy, red cranberry and a dewy evergreen. Then I guess the unsuccessful part creeps in, because the cranberry turns very sour and the pine smells dusty and waxy...

I agree, this is reminiscent of Mouse's Long & Sad Tale, but I like Mouse a bit more (and Mouse is a lot stronger and longer lasting on me). It's a light, bright, spring floral with a hint of buttery vanilla and a dark, slight warmth from the amber and oak. But all of the notes are very subtle. I wouldn't call this a vanilla or amber fragrance; it's definitely a clean smelling floral, first and foremost.

The vetiver in this smells like sharp woodsmoke. In the drydown, some black musk joins the mix and goes a bit powdery. And this is just way too smoky and sharp for me. It needs something to sweeten it up for my tastes.

I seem to be in the minority, but A Shadow In The Elevator isn't a favorite for me from the Crimson Peak line. I love Lucille Sharpe, Black Moths and Insects all more than this one, and they're all in the same vein of dark/earthy + rich fruits. The vetiver and patchouli in this one actually go a little bit ashy smelling on my skin (like cigarette ash/ash tray), with a powdery quality similar to Fledgling Raptor Moon. The plum isn't sweet at all to my nose - it's a sour, hard, unripened, green fruit that hasn't yet ripened into any sweetness or juiciness. There's also a weird, spicy undertone in this that I can only describe as the scent of the taco scratch 'n' sniff stickers I had as a child. Soo... the powdery/woody patchouli of Fledgling Raptor Moon, ashy vetiver, a sour and unripe, green, hard little ball of a plum, and a hint of strangely chemical taco spice...

My husband hates this fragrance. The first time that I wore it, he said it smelled like old ladies at Catholic church, and then I had to explain to him all the ways in which I find that offensive. Anyhow. He said it smells powdery, sour, and like someone put on way too much old fashioned perfume. I think that Insects smells amazing. Insects, Black Moths and Lucille Sharpe all smell like the sexy, badass, glamorous, femme fatale fragrances of the Crimson Peak line to me, and I love all three of them. Insects is heavy, black patchouli, thick, incensey, syrupy sweetness from the opoponax, a dark green neroli (the sort of neroli that has a dark green, weedy, oily smell to it), and a sweet, glistening purple. It seriously does conjure up an image of black beetles with that shimmery, dark green and dark purple iridescence. I don't have anything else like this from bpal, though I do agree with my hubby that it smells like an 'old fashioned' perfume in that it's bold, rich, and has a sort of smutty/animalic undertone to it and a touch of powder. It smells like old Dior and old Guerlain.