Little Bird

This starts off as a blast of cheap smelling almond extract on my skin (a bit like maraschino cherries, but sharper). The drydown is perfumey, sweet rose, pine/juniper, and a hint of that almond. The mix of rose, almond extract and sharp evergreen is a bit weird and unpleasant on me.

I only had a couple drops of this to test, but it pretty much instantly turns to soap on my skin. A light, floral soap.

I expected this to be darker and heavier than it is. I don't really get any patchouli or cinnamon, and the woods are light and paired with a soft, powdery incense smell. Light, powdery incense and light, dry wood. Fades quickly on my skin.

The lab's pomegranate note never works on me. It's a strong, bitter, powdery scent that's reminiscent of sweet tarts candy, but more bitter and less sweet. I get that note paired with a smoky vetiver and it just smells harsh and odd to me.

I first got into bpal around mid-2005, and I think they switched to the new imp labels around the same time or within a year from there. I remember not having the older labels in my orders for very long.

I feel like I would love this if it had more leather and I could tone down the vetiver and kick out the opoponax entirely. Opoponax always turns way too sweet on my skin, like someone turned a dark resin into a heavy, sugary syrup. The vetiver is very smoky and overpowering on me at first, though it does settle in to let a little more of the masculine spiciness of the bay & clove come through in the drydown. After a while, this starts to turn slightly powder on me (the way bpal's 'dusty clove' notes sometimes go), and I can never really pick out the leather. It's not awful, but probably not something I'll reach for again either.

Something in this turns really soapy on me (the lily, perhaps) and I get a lot of a sharp green feel from the cypress, yew and ivy. It smells like someone crushed up a bunch of dark green things, splashed some sharp floral perfume over them, and rolled them into a bar of white soap. I do get a bit of a lightly sweet, herbal honey in the drydown, but the overall scent isn't sweet enough. Too harshly clean and sharp for my tastes.

I would recommend checking out these from the GC if you haven't already: *The Black Rider (Marchen) - "Black leather, opoponax, tobacco, and black amber." *The Red Rider (Marchen) - "Red leather, red moss and balsam." My favorite for a dark and sexy leather blend in the GC right now. *The White Rider (Marchen)- "White leather and sandalwood." Probably softer and more powdery than what you're looking for, but still.. a nice leather. I actually like these layered together as well. *Perversion (Ars Amatoria) - "Smoky rum and black tobacco with a whisper of steamy leather with a splash of crystalline chardonnay, layered over a sensual, sweet, and deceptively magnetic base of tonka." This one varies a lot (sometimes heavy on the leather, sometimes I get no leather, depending on the imp/bottle), but can be really nice. *Tezcatlipoca (Excolo) - "Deep cocoa laced with patchouli, leather armor, ritual incense, and a touch of Xochiquetzal’s flowers." Might not be quite the feel that you're looking for, but it has a really cool & unusual leather, cocoa and dry floral incense to it. *Hellfire (Sin & Salvation) - "A swirl of pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass." Another one that varies a lot, but I have version of this that are heavy on the leather with some sweet tobacco and incense smoke. *Liz (Hellboy) - "A light, feminine vanilla floral perfume and a swirl of smoke and leather." Does have a good dose of sweet, powdery vanilla, but the leather and smoke in this is dark, gritty and sexy. *Sara Pezzini (Witchblade) - "A hint of leather and an understated vintage musk layered over the scent of lightly perspiring, honey-dusted skin." Does have a sweet, clean, honeyed note, but the leather is great and this does have the skin musk in it. Layers well with heavier leather blends too. *Captain Cully (The Last Unicorn) - "A cocky light musk with leather, tonka, a dusting of dry woods, and a splash of porter." And, of course, Fetish.Goth has a similar description to what you describe: "Skin musk, slick black leather and wet latex with dark myrrh, patchouli, opoponax." But that's an event exclusive.. the Goth scents show up on ebay a lot, though.

This reminds me a little of The Butterfly (which I guess is the amber & bergamot combo). It has the same baby powdery amber and lemony bergamot, with a little bit of sour, perfumey rose in the drydown. It's light on my skin, but still too perfumey and powdery for me.

On me, this is harsh, smoky, chemical-y smelling opium and rose soap. I was hoping for more orchid and plum, but I don't get anything fruity from this blend.

Sara Pezzini is that sort of scent for me.

Crow Moon 2013 smells like soap, pine, sharp spring flowers and snow. A perfumey and soapy mix that's reminiscent of air freshener... I don't have much to say about this one. I love the artwork, but this scent just gives me a headache and smells really cheap and artificial.

My bottle of this doesn't really smell anything like it's supposed to and it doesn't smell anything like the original Cheshire Moon, even though they share an almost identical note list. The original Cheshire Moon has a nice sweetness to it that's almost like vanilla cake and I could pick out the sweet citrus and cherry blossom. This new version smells like bpal's snow note + soap. Clean, cool and soapy... a huge letdown

This smells similar to all of the other blends in this series (Earth Rat, Fire Pig, Earth Ox, Metal Tiger, Metal Rabbit & Water Dragon). They're all really soapy smelling, tart, perfumey fruity-florals. Water Snake has some extra emphasis on the mandarin and peach blossom on my skin, but is too soapy & sharply perfumey floral for me.

I like this scent, but I don't know if I'll ever really have the urge to wear it or if it's really wearable as a perfume. It's strong, intense and savory. Reminds me of Kinnabari v4, so I wonder if that proto had the caraway in it. Smells like red clay, herbs, a hint of mint, a spiciness, a hint of rye bread... earthy, herbal and spicy. The drydown takes on a bit of a funky quality that reminds me of horses, barns and leather underneath everything else. It's interesting and I keep going back to it, but I probably didn't need a full bottle, lol. ETA: This went bad in record time. Smells really sour and dusty now and reminds me of cigarette ash, menthol, aluminum foil, and body odor. I think that bpal is using lower quality oils as time goes on, because so many of the newer blends have turned rancid on me.

Mayan Chocolate is my favorite of this year's Lupercalia blends (actually the only Lupercalia blend this year that I like at all). I didn't think that this would work for me, because I don't do well with cinnamon scents and Mayan themed blends always seem to be heavy on the cinnamon. But I love the spiciness in this and it kind've reminds me of the sweet and peppery spices of Mother Shub's Pfancy Pfefferneusse. I get a little bit of a cinnamon potpourri feel when it's first applied, but the drydown is like dusty wood and interesting, sweet spices. A little green and a little peppery. It's hard to describe, but I like this one a lot

I like this for the first half hour or so on my skin. The amber turns clean & powdery smelling (which I'd normally dislike), but the orris gives it a delicate sweetness and the ambergris gives it a woody spiciness that makes it wearable. It almost has a little soapiness to it that makes me think of sweet soap bubbles. Then the drydown is a little bit cloying and dark in a way that I'm not sure I love.. it sort of reminds me of play-doh and dry wood. Maybe a bit of yeasty bread as well. Weird, but I think I'll keep my decant of this one.

First on, this was like perfumey jasmine, smoky incense, and just an overall dry, sultry, exotic feel. Unfortunately, within five minutes on my skin, it turns into soapy jasmine, harsh smoke and baby powder

Starts off with a wallop of big, heavy, waxy, tropical, white floral tuberose and undertones of sweet pear (which smells artificial and bubblegummy on me). The opoponax starts to come out quickly in the drydown, and smells sweetly resinous, slightly smoky, and slightly peppery. Tropical white floral + opoponax. I don't get any milk, oakmoss or carrot seed and the scent isn't as interesting or complex as I thought it might be. It settles into tons of sweet, resinous opoponax with a hint of white floral after about a half hour. ETA: I just realized that this reminds me of the GC blend The Death-Horse. They're almost identical in the drydown.

I ordered this mainly because the name and artwork made me laugh. But bpal's aquatics/ozones almost always turn to soap on my skin, and this one isn't an exception. I wasn't sure that this would even be aquatic, based on the note list (ambergris, oakmoss, petitgrain and frankincense sounds awesome), but it is. I get nothing but dry, sharp, heavy soapiness from this, reminiscent of dryer sheets. I can't pick out any of the listed notes

Delight & Consternation must vary a lot, because the bottle I received is about 1/3 full of the sludgey cocoa absolute, and some people got bottles with no cocoa absolute. Even with the tons of cocoa absolute, though, this doesn't really smell very sweet or chocolatey on me (and I mixed it well before applying). I bought it mostly for the vanilla and custard accord that's supposed to be in it, and was hoping for a vanilla & rose scent. I don't get any vanilla or rose, though. This is tons of funky smelling skin musk and sour lemon blossom on my skin. It reminds me of rest area bathrooms and floor cleaner, like someone tried to cover up something dirty with lemon floor cleaner. Turns slightly baby powdery in the drydown. This is another one for my sale page

Antique is mostly a sour, sharp pine/evergreen scent on my skin. It smells a little artificial (like the pine tree shaped air fresheners for cars) and starts to give me a headache after a while. There's a little hint of dry, woody oakmoss that reminds me of the oakmoss in the original version of Luperci, but otherwise it's all evergreen on my skin. It's bitter and slightly medicinal smelling on me. Not a keeper.

This starts off smelling like cherry cough syrup and cherry Kool-Aid on me, and dries down to somehow reminding me of prune juice. I can't really pick out the chocolate & anise, but they might be adding a darker tone to the blend. Really light and fades super-fast on my skin (doesn't even last a full hour). Light and fruity...

Testing this year's box of chocolates has been a letdown. The Banana Cream chocolate smells like lemons, the Fig & Avocado smells like lemons, and this one also smells like lemons. This one starts off sweeter than the previous two. It smells exactly like Lemon Pledge wood polish on me, actually (which is a smell that I really like for my house). But the lemon verbena is just a little too much on the sharp & sour side for me as it dries down and the sugar and chocolate notes fade away. I love this scent as a household cleanser, but not as a perfume.

This starts off similar to Cerberus (they both have notes of chocolate, fig, and cubeb), but a little more perfumey and with a hint of a smooth, green note that must be the avocado (a little like the lab's bamboo note on my skin). Unfortunately, unlike Cerberus, this quickly dries down to a vague, light, simple scent. It smells like chocolate and sour, lemony cubeb. No more fig or avocado to keep it interesting, and the lemony scent is too sharp for my tastes. The drydown is actually similar to White Chocolate with Mate, Hazelnut, and Banana Cream, which was also disappointingly lemony smelling on me...