Firebird Bath and Body

Firebird Bath & Body is an Etsy based perfume and bath company. I decided to order from them because I had heard a few good reviews, but they still seemed like a lesser known brand, at least in my circles.

Also, I got a friend of mine to do these reviews with me. We have fairly similar senses of smell, but different skin chemistry. She was privy to the name of the perfume, but not to the notes of the perfume like I am.

Shipping and Packaging

 Another etsy order that came in a bubble mailer,
but the samples were still wrapped beyond that and everything arrived safely. Inside the tissue paper the samples were held inside of a black envelope and then they had all been bound together in plastic.

I like how simple, practical, and professional this packaging is. While it looks homemade, it doesn't look unprofessional.

Price

A full size rollerball perfume is 10$ (.3oz or 9mL). Samples cost two dollars a piece and come in packs of three, which is fine for me because I love to try and review multiple scents, but if you don't want samples in multiples of three I can see how this may be inconvenient. 

 Scent Reviews

Peach Tea ★★☆☆☆

 Company Description: Not a sugary, cloying peach nectar- this fragrance is more reminiscent of the subtle sweet perfume emanating from the fuzzy skin of a just-picked peach on the verge of being perfectly ripe. With a slightly bitter wisp of chilled black tea in the background, and the soft redolence of nearby honeysuckle blooms. Very feminine and summery.
In the Bottle: I'm getting the peach, some apricot but mostly peach, and then tea as the back note, but I can't really discern what type of tea.
On the Skin:  This smells a lot more like apricot black tea to me personally, but still good
Sillage: ✦✦✦✧✧ 
Lasting Time:  4-5 hours

Susannah: 
(In Bottle) "Definitely getting the tea, a little peachiness, but not overly frilly"
(On Skin) "There is a lot more peach on the skin, I get more apricot. The tea is still there, but faintly"

Almond Milk ★★☆☆☆

 Company Description: Soft, sensual, intoxicating: almond, vanilla, musk, a wisp of white chocolate. 
In the Bottle: Very similar to how it smells on the skin, but with no cream smell.
On the Skin:  It is a very full but sickly sweet fragrance. On the skin the vanilla and white chocolate do smell like a very sweet cream, I'm getting another note of what I think is supposed to be the almond, but which doesn't smell like almonds at all. Once it starts to mellow out, the vanilla gets stronger, but it is still a little too sweet for me personally.
Sillage: ✦✦✦✧✧ 
Lasting Time:  4-5 hours

Susannah: 
(In Bottle) "Its almond and vanilla-y but not very strong"
(On Skin) "Putting it on my skin ruined it- it smells like vanilla aerosol on me"

Black Cocoa ★★★☆☆

Company Description: A dark and mysterious blend of rich chocolate, golden amber, cedar, sandalwood, and a wisp of black coffee
In the Bottle: It smells a lot more like incense in the bottle, I'm guessing that is the cedar and sandalwood. There are little whiffs of the chocolate and the coffee once you move away from that.
On the Skin: On the skin it is just this very elegant chocolate scent, I can't truly recognize the other notes but they are there. I wish this perfume had better sillage.
Sillage: ✦✦✧✧✧ 
Lasting Time:  4 hours

Susannah: 
(In Bottle) "Definitely getting the chocolate, but also getting a blackness, whatever that is."
(On Skin) "On the skin its just another chocolate perfume."

Gingerale ★★★★☆

 Company Description: This fresh and citrusy perfume smells just like a glass of gingerale- you can even smell the bubbles!
In the Bottle: It smells somewhat like gingerale in the bottle, but on the skin it really brings out the scent.
On the Skin: morphs into magical gingerale-from-the-can scent, carbonation and all. Like I just opened up some Canada Dry, bubbles included.
Sillage: ✦✦✧✧✧ this one stays close to the body, but I think that is for the best. It would be odd to smell gingerale from six feet away. 
Lasting Time: 5 hours, it is still there, but wearing down.

Susannah: 
(In Bottle) "This is gingerale, ginger but with a sparkly lightness. It smells carbonated."

(On Skin) "It smells similar in the bottle but it intensifies on the skin in a good way."

Grapefruit Ginger ★★☆☆☆

Company Description: Tart and fresh and full of bright citrusy sparkle and zing, this scent combines juicy grapefruit and zesty lime with the spicy kick of ginger. 
In the Bottle: I smell more of the lime than the grapefruit, but the citrus mixes nicely with the ginger.
On the Skin: If the scent that was in the bottle was what came out on the skin, I would be golden. On my skin is morphs into the deep floral with the vaguest hint of grapefruit.
Sillage: ✦✦✧✧✧ 
Lasting Time: 4 hours

Susannah: 
(In Bottle) "Oh! That's nice, first I get the grapefruit and then the ginger"

(On Skin) "There is a lot more grapefruit, it loses the ginger almost entirely. Later it morphed into a floral and grapefruit scent."

Sugar ★★★☆☆

Company Description: Orange blossom, vanilla, berries, a hint of anise- but "Sugar" really describes it best
In the Bottle: Very fruity, with a clean tinge to it. Not like detergent to me, but as Susannah enjoys cleaning I can see how she would get there
On the Skin: On my skin it sweetens up a bit but still very much has that clean smell, it isn't that different from the bottle. I much preferred how it smelled on Susannah.
Sillage: ✦✦✦✧✧  1-1.5ft from the skin, my preferred sillage. 
Lasting Time: 4 hours

Susannah: 
(In Bottle) "Not sugar at all, almost citrusy. Like citrus laundry detergent."

(On Skin) "There it is! It's a very light fruitier sugar. If you don't want to smell like a prostitute, but still want to smell like sugar this is the perfume for you."

Final Thoughts

Quality perfumes at reasonable prices, they all wear pretty close to the skin but not so close its pointless. I am incredibly impressed with this brand and I will be ordering from them again. They have less than a page of scents in their shop, but from the samples I got I feel they put a lot of hard work into making good blends while still having a decent selection. 

Blushie Perfume Review

 Blushie is another etsy perfumery that I made an order from. I loved all of these perfumes so much that I wish I had ordered more than three samples from them. This post has been edited to include the reviews of a friend of mine. She has a similar sense of smell but different skin chemistry, and she was aware of only the names on the bottles and not the notes that were supposed to be there.

**Disclaimer that things smell differently to different people and on different people, and that I am exceedingly picky so this is an absolute rave perfume review.

Shipping and Packaging

 So embarrassingly enough, I totally thought that these perfumes took forever to get here but I like to actually check before I mention that in a review. In reality, it took them three business days to ship out my package (when their stated TAT is 3-5 business days), and then it took 4 days to actually get here. Basically, I am a silly impatient person, and their shipping was just fine.






I was nervous again when this one showed up in just a bubble mailer but all the samples were very well secured. Inside the bubble mailer the perfume samples were inside of a pillow box wrapped in another layer of bubble wrap, and the actual samples themselves had been wrapped in another layer of bubble wrap before being placed inside of the pillow box.

 They gave me a free sample of their sweet pumpkin soap, which I will be passing onto a friend but the gesture was sweet and I was very surprised by how agreeable this particular pumpkin smell was. Also, their soap bars are some of the most adorable little things I have ever seen. I highly recommend that you check them out if you are a soap person because not only are the designs pretty, but if their perfumes and the one sample I've tried are any indication, the scents are wonderful.




Also, have you seen these labels? The packaging is beautiful and the samples are generous.

Scent Reviews

The Cake is a Lie ★★★☆☆

Company Description:I made you a cake. Well, it's not actually a cake. But it smells of rich dark chocolate, vanilla extract, and a hint of nutmeg. It has less calories than a real cake, and will last longer too. 
In the Bottle: In the bottle is smells unique, possibly leaning toward the bad side of neutral. I can't pick out a lot of notes with my novice nose from the bottle, it just smells like a mixture of things that aren't sure if they feel like going together.
On the skin: Actually, it reminds me a lot more of the taste of tiramisu (or the Olive Garden variety that I have tried) I think it is because of the nutmeg and the artificial chocolate note, which combined with the vanilla extract lets me imagine there is some coffee in there
Sillage: ✦✧✧✧✧ (very weak, even behind the ears where it is warmer and the scent can be caught and distributed by the movement of my hair)
Lasting Time: Max 3 hours

Susannah: 
(In Bottle) "Very chocolatey"
(On Skin) "Kind of smells like coffee, very sugary coffee"

Amaretto Tiramisu  ★★★☆☆

 Company Description: Rich and intoxicating, imagine layers of ladyfingers, cocoa powder and mascarpone smothered in heavy cream and rich amaretto coffee and you've captured this fragrance.
In the Bottle: Tolerably awful in the bottle, on the wand from a distance though it has an almond extract type of scent.
On the Skin: So, to me this smells exactly like a yellow cake. I get no coffee smell and no anything else, just cake.
Sillage: ✦✧✧✧✧ (very weak, even behind the ears where it is warmer and the scent can be caught and distributed by the movement of my hair)
Lasting Time: Max 3 hours

Susannah: 
(In Bottle) "All almond"
(On Skin) "Sweeter and more sugary, essentially smells like amaretto on my skin"

Raspberry Vanilla ★★★☆☆

 This wasn't within the range of my expectations, I was expecting either a raspberry creamsaver type of scent or a raspberries and whipped cream sort of scent or something soft and feminine. On me at least, it is very girly smelling. I do really like it though and will probably end up using it more in the summer time.

Company Description: Raspberry vanilla is a sweet, fresh blend of raspberries, blackberries, vanilla and a touch of plum. It’s a classic, feminine fragrance that's sweet and fruity without being overwhelming.
In the Bottle:  Same as on the skin
On the skin: Not getting a lot of vanilla, it mostly just smells like raspberry lemonade. That may just be the artificial raspberry berry notes overpowering the vanilla though.

Sillage: ✦✦✦✧✧ (exactly where I like it to be, wears close to the body but not unreasonably so)
Lasting Time:  6-8 hours

Susannah: 
(In Bottle) "Smells like raspberry lemonade. You kind of get the vanilla faintly once you stop smelling the raspberry though"
(On Skin) "Similar on the skin"

Final Thoughts

Overall, while I was disappointed in the sillage and lasting of the gourmands, everything smelled good, the shipping was good, the packaging is adorable. Given how picky I am with perfumes, this is a completely rave review, and I will 100% be ordering from them again. This is one of the best indie perfume experiences I have had.