Little Bird

I enjoy blood musk, so I enjoy this scent. It's sort of like a less warm, more smooth version of red musk with a bit of cinnamon spiciness and a metallic edge. The teakwood also smells dark, smooth and, well, like wood. Dark and sexy.

I've been waffling over whether or not I want a bottle of this one, and I think I've settled on just keeping my decant. I like the soft, well worn, sweet, brown smelling leather and spicy clove note, but the amber and white sandalwood turn baby powdery on my skin. It has an edge of warm, golden resin and a bit of a men's cologne feel, but the powder winds up making the whole thing smell a little off on me.

The combination of iris, tuberose, gardenia and orchid make this an unbearably stuffy, sharp, white musky smelling white floral on my skin. It gives me a headache.

Cinnamon is almost always an overpowering monster on my skin, so I'm amazed at how light and well behaved the cinnamon is in this fragrance. The creamy coconut here reminds me very much of the coconut in Tiki Princess. It's like a chilled coconut cream and buttery coconut amazingness. Very foodie. After about a half hour, the cinnamon starts to peek through. The scent warms up in this stage and smells just like a coconut cream pie with a buttery crust and toasted, caramelized coconut flakes on top. Really yummy, and this scent lasts 8+ hours on me with good throw.

I was really upset when I first got this bottle in the mail, because it just smelled like honey powder and I wanted it to smell like all of the other, amazing listed notes. But I kept coming back to this scent and dabbing it on over the course of a week (something about it is very compelling and addictive to me), and it really grew on me. Adrastea is still primarily a honey powder scent, but the milkiness and coconut make it so lush and creamy. And now, after having the bottle for a few weeks, I can pick out a hint of beautiful white rose and it has more of a rich warmth from the amber and benzoin. It smells sensual, yet comforting & maternal to me. Bpal's Dawn: Maiden smelled like an amazing, creamy honey and rose in the bottle and then turned sharp and soapy on my skin. Adrastea reminds me of Maiden's luscious in-the-bottle scent. I don't like true honey fragrances, because they smell sort of bitter and strange on me, but this is like a creamy, sugared, super gourmand honey powder and vanilla milkiness. Creamy, warm, delicious, foodie goodness

Lilac always smells honeyed and sweet to me on its own. Adante con Fantasia is like a fuzzy, warm, honeyed-vanilla sweetness with a floral edge and a hint of lime. A soft, sweet, floral-y honey musk.

My skin is really amping up the cinnamon in this (my skin loves cinnamon to death). On me, Maidens is a sweet, buttery cinnamon with undertones of warm, resinous amber and sweet myrrh. Very warm, spicy and sweet. My husband thought that it smelled like buttered cinnamon toast. I can barely smell any anise/licorice, but there's a hint of a darker, slightly herbal note after about an hour of wear. Still, mostly cinnamon.

On me, this is mostly orange blossom (which is like a creamy floral and orange liqueur whipped together to form the gooey center of a truffle here) supported by a sweet chocolate and tart, yellowy jasmine. The marshmallow and chocolate add a little of a vanilla-y, creamy, foodie edge in the drydown, but it's mostly a fruity-floral to my nose. It's pretty, interesting, and has a rich/complex feel, but the orange and jasmine turn a little too tart & sour for me.

This is all floral on me. The blue wisteria smells similar to lilac's honeyed sweetness, and the magnolia gives it a sharper, white floral edge. I'm not picking out the wood or benzoin, but this does have a juicy, plummy quality to it on my skin. It's very pretty and spring-like.

Daruma Doll is mostly red musk on my skin - warm, sultry, slinky, almost fruity-wine-like musk. The blood orange gives it a bit of a bright, fruity, citrus twang and there's a hint of woody fig and red rose. The drydown is all red musk on my skin with a hint of blood orange, but my skin amps up musk notes. I like this well enough, but I already own a lot of red musk heavy blends, so I'm not sure if this is one that I'll be keeping.

I don't think that this smells like books at all. It goes on as a brown, faint smelling, sweetish leather (almost tobacco-like on me) with a weird, metallic smell to it (the way cigarettes in their aluminum foil paper smell sort of metallic and off). The rose is very perfumey, sharp and bitter, with a sour sharpness that's almost like lemon juice. I usually love the lab's rose blends, but this one is so sharp and overpowering that it's almost unwearable to me. The drydown is all sharp rose and starts to turn to a powdered laundry soap smell on my skin.

Round Dance gives me a vicious headache. The lavender is sweet and musky-perfumey (keeps reminding me of white musk, which almost always gives me a headache), the carnation takes on a cheap spiciness that reminds me of cinnamon potpourri, and the drydown has a really cloying, sickly strawberry candy syrup note. My husband described it as "flowery, but not good." Already made its way to my sale pile.

I should love this, but I don't. There's a weird, bitter sweetness in this that makes me think of real maple syrup every time that I wear this blend, plus something strangely black peppery, and the white sandalwood goes to baby powder on my skin. I smell orris and violet as well, but the orris is way too powdery mixed with the sandalwood, and the violet winds up smelling cloying and strange. My husband hated this one and asked me to wash it off :/

Sour and astringent, like an unsweetened tea, with a perfumey, thin, sour rose. Maybe lemony. A Sublime Beauty smells white, sheer, and very sour on my skin. I can't smell any orris, tonka or vanilla to sweeten this up and make it more wearable. As it settles, it's like dried rose petal potpourri, sour lemons and sour tea. After about an hour, there's a dry, bitter, earthy patchouli that doesn't mesh well with the rose and bergamot for me. I was really hoping for a sweet, bright vanilla-rose, but this isn't sweet at all on my skin.

This was my least favorite of this year's lupercalia blends. I love vanilla, tobacco and patchouli, and usually enjoy oud, so this should have been a safe bet, but it's just awful on me. Overall, this gives off a cheap, plasticy potpourri vibe (like being in a craft store), but there's also an intense, sharp soapiness and a weird, rotting mulch and cigarette ash dirtiness to it. A hint of something like Pine-Sol in the drydown. It's somehow a dirty smelling clean and dirty smelling potpourri... the drydown has a strong dirty ash tray feel to it at times. I've tried to wear this a few times now and I just wind up wanting to scrub it off for hours.

This is a warm, glowing, peppery incense scent with a nice, honeyed sweetness to it. The red clover honey smells clean and sweet to me, which mixes nicely with the darker incense and spicy tones. I'm not getting much vetiver from it at all, and the smokiness here isn't a sharp woodsmoke, but more of a sweet, plush, incense smokiness. I have so many great incense blends that I don't know if this one is going to be a keeper, but I do like it.

Light, slightly powdery sandalwood incense with a hint of rose that's turning a little soapy on my skin. The drydown is a little bit smoky and delicately sweet, like burning sandalwood-vanilla incense, with a bit of sharp spiciness from the carnation. Fades quickly to a faint, powdery incense after about an hour.

The Teapot turns very sour smelling on my skin. The jasmine is yellowy, sour, humid floral and the bergamot & mate are tart and lemony. It's a bit too sharp, tart and sour for my tastes.

Very citrusy on my skin, almost like a fizzy grapefruit and lemon-berry candy with hints of green tea. Citrus, sweet, and doesn't last very long on me.

This kind of reminds me of Y'ha-nthlei. It's a cold, smooth aquatic that smells like water themed cologne and doesn't go as intensely soapy as most aquatics tend to, though it's definitely still very much a clean fragrance. The bamboo is a gentle, green presence. This does make me think of getting caught in a chilly spring rain, with wafts of clean laundry getting soaked on the line.

I was hoping for more cherry blossom from this scent, but I don't smell any floral at all from this blend. On me, The Instructional Manual is all fake, candy-sweet strawberry and red musk. It smells kind of like a cheap strawberry scented incense stick on my skin, which isn't entirely bad. I was just hoping for more of a fresh, true strawberry and cherry blossom fragrance.

Anteros is one of those fragrances that I wish I could reach into and take out some of the notes (mainly the sour red currant and bergamot in this case). The vanilla-d red musk is wonderful and sensual... dark, warm, sweet musk. There's a mossy patchouli here as well, that reminds me of dry pine needles and forest floor with a whisp of tobacco smoke. It's earthy, sexy, and sort of musky-earthy-smoky-ambery in the drydown. Except for the red currant and bergamot, which add a really cheap, fruity, sour, tween at Bath & Body Works feel into the mix. The two sides don't mesh well for me.

The 'silk' thing is a note that I keep having pop up in indie perfumes and it's a very dry, stiffly starched, scratchy, slightly soapy fabric smell. I find it really unpleasant and reminiscent of dryer sheets. I definitely get that scent as the core of Floating World, surrounded by a nutty patchouli and dry vanilla. I like the other notes, but that scratchy, soapy, dry fabric smell really ruins this for me.

This is like a grownup version of Miskatonic University, and kind of similar to Pinched with Four Aces on my skin. It smells like a coffee shop in an old book store. The leather is sweet, slightly dusty and slightly vanilla-ish (the old books part), and the coffee & teakwood smells like different, dry coffee beans stored in an old wooden case. I don't really smell any cocoa, but it is a little spicy on my skin for some reason. Coffee beans and books.

A sickly, cheap, waxy strawberry lipsmackers and artificial 'vanilla flavoring.' The ylang ylang here is sharp and perfumey, white musk-like, and gives me a headache. Bergamot makes the strawberries smell sour and unripe in the drydown, covered in cheap white musk and sugar, with a waxy, dusty, cheap overlay. It just goes all wrong on me. 15 minutes in, it smells like a plasticy potpourri with a vaguely waxy berry smell to it. Fades away quickly, but I wasn't really sad to see it go.