Little Bird

I quite like Apatrophia when it's first on and the lime is strong. It's a zingy, sweet lime that smells nice and sort of manly against the slight spiciness, dry cedar, and musk. I could see this being a somewhat sporty masculine fragrance. And then it starts to dry down and the lime disappears and is replaced with baby powder :/. It's the same on both myself and my husband - a drydown of powdery, dry woods. I might keep my decant of this and see how it does with some aging, but the drydown isn't fantastic right now. Though, as a plus, I can't smell any of the mint, which I was worried about.

I was hoping that Ushi would be mostly red musk with the spicy greenery of tomato leaf, but this is mostly mango and fig on my skin (which is nice, but a bit too fruity for me). I'm really surprised, because red musk is usually super-strong on me, and I can't even pick it out here. I get mostly juicy, sweet, bright mango with a sharp edge to it and hints of earthy, wooden fig. It has a green feel at first that might be the tomato, but that quickly fades on me. After two hours, I'm left with something like mango candy and warm, incensey musk, but the scent is mostly gone by that point.

I thought that this would be nice on my husband, and I do like it on him, but he hates the buttery sweetness of the rum, and it's definitely intensely sweet for about the first hour that it's on. I agree with the reviews comparing this to Grog - warm butterscotch with a hint of cinnamon. As it dries down, I start to smell the smoky vetiver and smooth, dry woods underneath the sweetness, and it's rather nice (to me), but my hubby hates this one. I was hoping that the rum would add a touch of dark sweetness, but it seems to dominate this blend.

Tears isn't as bad as I thought it would be, though the aquatic is still slightly soapy and a bit too sharp on my skin. The white rose and orris come across as soft, sweet florals that, probably thanks to the amber, turn slightly powdery in the drydown. The overall feel is like soapy clean skin that's been dusted with sweet floral powder. It's a very light and delicate scent on my skin. Not bad, but not for me.

I love the lab's gin notes (like fizzy pine/juniper on my skin) and their white chocolate blends, but I'm not really liking them mixed together. The chocolate adds a sweetness that makes the sweet, fizzy, boozy part turn towards cloying, and the fizzy aspects just don't mesh with the creamy chocolate for me. Wearing this makes me feel like I layered two different scents that aren't really working together...

This is tons of lemongrass on me, with the honey and ginger dancing around the edges of the sour lemon. Honey + lemon almost always makes me think of cough drops, and this has an especially bitter and medicinal edge to it for me. The ginger smells fresh and zingy. Very lemony, and a little too sour/sharp/bitter for me.

Tuberose is a very sharp, perfumey white floral smell on me that always strikes me as being very unnatural (definitely musky-perfume rather than an actual flowers smell). The tuberose here is very strong and sharp on my skin. As it dries down, something here goes slightly soapy on me and the green musk comes in. I actually like the green musk; it smooths the blend a bit and seems to sweeten things up, and it does smell green and cool. In any case, Kataskopia is still way too perfumey-sharp-floral on my skin. It reminds me of a lot of heavy department store white florals.

Apatouros is mostly vetiver and opoponax on me at first (after it goes through its weird phase of citrussy tea), with more of a dry, spicy carnation and sweet, woody fig in the drydown. The vetiver and resins give the spiced fig a darker, slightly smoky, earthy edge. It's a very heavy scent on me for about an hour, and the opoponax is slightly cloying, and then it softens a lot go a light, spicy fig. It's okay, but at times I find this a bit too sweet and a bit too spicy on my skin.

This actually reminds me of The Zadok Allen Vinyard, and I'm not sure why, because this doesn't seem to have any fruity/wine-like notes in it. But it smells rather like a dark, rich, spiced wine in the bottle and on my skin. It goes through a stage where it's sort of potpourri spicy, cough syrup-esque, and slightly cloying. On minute I kinda like it and then the next it's oddly cheap/potpourri smelling or cloying. After 3 hours, I'm left with a sweet, creamy vanilla and dry, dark woods, but it's very faded and subtle. I'll probably keep my decant of this one and see how it ages, but I don't think I'll need more.

Gods of Intercourse is a springy, soapy, breezy floral sort of scent that makes me think of laundry. The only notes that I can identify are the peach blossom and a bit of tart pink musk, but it's mostly a soapy white floral smell that gives me a vicious headache. A very strong and overwhelming scent on me...

In the bottle, this is yellowy, slightly herbal smelling jasmine and creamy gardenia. A very heavy, full smelling floral. On my skin, I am reminded me of why I hate jasmine, as this instantly goes soapy and awful. Sharp, warm, yellowy floral with a harsh soapiness and a smoky edge to it. There's still a hint of creamy gardenia, and I enjoy gardenia, but I can't get over the sharp floral and soap that dominates this blend. Antheia is really strong and has tons of throw on me, but I had to scrub this off after about an hour.

I wanted this mainly for the black currant. So, of course, I don't smell any black currant in the bottle or on my skin. Biwa mostly smells like a glass of watered down lemonade to me, with a drydown that's mostly baby powder and a hint of citrus (that still smells more like lemon than tangerine to me). So many of this year's Lupercalia blends are just duds to my nose

In the bottle, this is all softly powdery, sweet orris (which always smells like violet candies to me). On my skin, Aphrogenes is so sweet that it's nauseating. It's orris backed up by sugary honey and intensely sweet coconut. Too much. Orris is sweet to begin with (and I love it in blends like Staged Moon Landing), so the other notes here just make it unbearably sweet for me. It's like violet candies drenched in honey and buckets of sugar syrup. Makes me feel ill, and I usually enjoy sweet/foodie blends.

In the bottle, this is tons of sour lemon and a little bit of cool iced tea. On my skin, Tea smells like lemonheads candies and a hint of honey, but no tea or anise. As it dries down, even the honey disappears and I'm left with nothing but lemonheads candies. Disappointing...

Metal Rabbit mainly smells like juicy, sweet oranges and cool honeydew melon on my skin. As it dries down, it goes through a phase of bright, sweet oranges with a hint of soapy dryer sheets. After about a half hour, though, it's not soapy at all. I'm left with an orange-y, fruity, zesty, sweet scent that's rather pleasant. I catch whiffs of that melon-y note every once in a while too, though I don't think that there's even any melon listed in this blend. I find this to be sweeter and juicier smelling than Metal Tiger is on me, and it's also not as soapy as Metal Tiger. All of the new year's scents have gone really soapy on my skin, with the exception of Metal Rabbit and Fire Pig. Metal Rabbit is my favorite of these new year's blends so far

First on, this is like a scary, heavy dose of perfumey floral. The iris is very musky/sharp on my skin, and the honeysuckle's sweetness tries to calm it down, but really doesn't help matters much. I smell hints of jasmine every once in a while, but not tons of jasmine. Mostly it's warm, perfumey/musky floral with a bit of honeysuckle sweetness. This has some similar notes to The Waltz of the Flowers (which I love), but the iris and honeysuckle make this a bit too intensely floral for me. I like this scent after about an hour on my skin, where it's more powdery, sweet vanilla, but I don't want to sit through an hour of perfumey floral to get to that stage.

I love apple scents, so I was excited to try this. Unfortunately, I don't get apple from this blend at all. I get dark, dry, slightly bitter, and slightly powdery wood notes, what smells like a hint of very dry patchouli, and a touch of sweet, perfumey floral rather than fruity apple.

In the bottle, this is a very dark, almost bitter, heavy wood note with a dry, masculine edge from oakmoss and a sweet spiciness. On my skin, it morphs into something vague, cloying, and lackluster, with a baby powdery edge. The spice and woods that intrigued me in the bottle are completely gone within five minutes on my skin. Burning Vulva smells very sweet, but not exactly like vanilla, beeswax, or tonka (oddly, it's something like pineapple on my skin :/). I can't pick out any of the listed notes, just a mishmash of too much sweetness and baby powder. I hated Giant Vulva and Glowing Vulva from previous years, even though their listed notes should have been awesome on me. Burning Vulva is more of the same story

I don't get any cream or honey from this, just the clove and ginger battling it out on my skin. It's like gingerale and a smoky, dry, slightly wooden, slightly bitter smelling clove. I wish that the ginger were spicy instead of that bright gingerale smell, because I never quite feel like this type of ginger blends well with other notes, and it's just weird paired with the smoky clove. After about fifteen minutes, this makes me smell like cigarette smoke, and my husband said it smells like an ash tray :/ no good.

In the bottle, this smells just like Treat #2 - chocolate, spicy ginger, and I even thought I could smell fig :/. On my skin, thankfully, the scent becomes more unique. It's sort of like a gingerbread cookie with a drizzle of chocolate and lots of caramel/butterscotch. The sweetness here smells more like caramel to me, not at all like the butterscotch note that I got from Creepy. After fifteen minutes, I don't smell any chocolate and there's just a hint of ginger underneath the caramel-ish note. This scent makes me feel like I've rolled around in caramel syrup, and it's rather strong on my skin. Yummy, but perhaps a bit too cloying.

I think that Dorian would be a good choice. I always get compliments on that scent and don't think that it's too sexy or outrageous for a job interview. It always strikes me as a pretty, cool, confident scent.

Nymphia is a rather pretty, girly, sweetened rose & lavender sort of scent on me. The lavender and coconut are strongest in the bottle and on my skin at first, with the lavender smelling cool and creamy and the coconut giving it a sweeter, tropical edge. As it dries down, I'm getting more of the soft white rose and spun sugar, and the coconut disappears. It smells like pink roses dusted with powdered sugar and reminds me a bit of Pink Snowballs. I can't pick out the apple blossom, mango, or cucumber at all. Bpal's rose notes amp up on my skin, so I get a good amount of the rose here, but I do like this scent. I probably don't need a full bottle, but I'll keep my decant.

My husband said that this "smells like grape jelly. and soap." I can definitely see that. I get soapy, sharp, slightly tropical smelling florals and tart grapefruit. It's very sharp and perfumey, and gives me a headache. I had to scrub this one off...

This is best in the bottle, nice on my skin at first, and then sort of lackluster as it dries down. The bottle has an almost fizzy mint sugar and chocolatey peppermint patty smell to it, which works surprisingly well. Very sweet and cheery. On my skin, the lime instantly disappears, but the sweet chocolate and hint of mint is still nice. And then five minutes in, I'm left with nothing but clean peppermint that isn't really sweet enough for me. I wish that the chocolate and lime would stick around, but they don't. I doubt I'll even keep my decants of this year's chocolate blends.

This year's chocolate blends aren't wowing me as much as the previous years. This is mostly tons and tons of cloying fig on my skin. The fig has a slight spiciness to it and an edge of syrupy sweetness that might be the tamarind, and the chocolate is mostly absent. I love Intrigue so much more for a fig and cocoa blend.