Firebird Bath & Body Perfume Oils Review

(Woodsmoke and Vanilla, Cinders, and Saltwater)

Today I'll be talking about Firebird Bath & Body perfume oils.

Firebird is another Etsy-based indie perfumer. As the name implies, they also sell handmade soaps, and other body/bath stuff, not just perfume.

They offer your choice of 3 perfume samples for $5, plus shipping, which, for me, brought the total to $8. A full sized bottle costs $10 for 9mL. I assume with comparable shipping.

For my samples I chose:
Woodsmoke and Vanilla
Cinders
and Saltwater

They took about 9 days to get here, which which took longer than Alkemia, but certainly not horrible.
They were wrapped in tissue paper, and inside a classy black envelope, so they might be a little safer in shipping than Alkemia's, but I didn't have any trouble with either brand, and both are in bubble-pack envelopes.

The samples come in 1mL glass vials, like Alkemia, but they seem a little fuller (not that Alkemia's were that skimpy--and to be fair to Alkemia, they seem to send an extra sample with purchases and Firebird doesn't).

On to the perfumes themselves!

Day 1 (or day 7 of trying a new perfume everyday, which has been interesting): Woodsmoke and Vanilla
"Spicy, smoky, resinous, warm and sweet- with notes of frankincense and myrrh, fir needles, balsam and cedar, on a soft base of vanilla and honey. Brings to mind firewood, incense, cold winter nights."

Firebird's Woodsmoke and Vanilla perfume was the first woodsmoke and vanilla perfume that I found, and so started this whole thing (well, the part of it where I actually look at perfume...I knew I wanted a woodsmoke and vanilla perfume before that, I just didn't realize I might be able to find one I liked). So now that my sample has finally arrived, let's see how it does.

In the bottle and when I first put it on I get a lot of the resinous pine-y (or fir, I guess it says) smell and not much else. When it's dried down I get more vanilla and just a hint of smoke, but not nearly enough for my tastes. Admittedly, I am looking for a strong smoke smell, but, at least with my skin chemistry, I think a better name for this would be Fir and Vanilla. Annoying, since I think I'd prefer it without the fir at all (although I like the addition of fir much more than I thought I would).
I think a lot of people do think evergreen forest when they think woodsmoke though, so it's probably great for those people, especially if they're worried about an overly smokey perfume. And it is a nice smell. Very forest-y and sweet.
It's not THE thing I'm looking for, but I am considering getting a bottle when my sample runs out.
Mild sillage.

Day 2 (or 8): Cinders
"Burning leaves, woodsmoke, and creamy, smoky raw beeswax. This is campfires and hearth fires and a cabin in the mountains heated by wood stove and lit with candles. The smell on your clothes from tending the fire. The smell in the air after the light flickers out."

When this one first goes on I get strong, fresh green leaves that have just been crushed. Not burning leaves at all. When that quiets down a bit, I can start detecting the somewhat creamy beeswax. I like it better after the leaves have faded, but someone who likes leaf smells a lot would like it to begin with too. Not much smoke though.
Leaves are strong scent when first applied but after that it's subtle. Lasts similarly to the others.

Day 3 (or 9): Saltwater

"When I first introduced this fragrance it was a bit of a departure for me. Up until that point, my fragrances were generally more literal and based on simple recognizable notes: mint, fig, grapefruit, honey, and so on.

This one is more conceptual. Which is not to say it doesn't smell like it's name. There is something unmistakably oceanic about it- a watery, ozonic quality and a touch of something salty and almost a little spicy, that brings to mind sand and driftwood and sea air. But I wouldn't say it smells exactly like the ocean. (Would you even want it to? Dead fish, seaweed, and all?) It's more like... a memory of the ocean. You know how familiar places become distorted through memory- certain aspects take prevalence while others fade away...
Perhaps I'm getting a little too out there. To put it simply- a non-floral, non-tropical ocean scent consisting of marine notes, cedar and myrtle, that softens and mellows on the skin and becomes ethereal and almost haunting. Definitely unisex, definitely unusual- and worth a try, if the idea intrigues you."

...Wow that is a long description...

This one smells to me like mint and vanilla and sort of musty somehow. It doesn't smell at all like the ocean or salt, or anything I associate with the ocean, and yet, I sort of see why it could remind someone of the ocean.
I like this scent, but I don't recommend wearing it if you plan to be cleaning at all: as I said, it has a slightly musty smell, and if you're smelling actually musty things it makes you feel a little musty yourself, which isn't nice. I like feeling clean.
Pretty delicate smell that stays close to you and lasts comparably to the others.

Final impressions of Firebird:
I liked all the Firebird scents, although none of them were the specific thing I'm looking for (Smoke & Mirrors does best for that, so far). I would consider getting bottles of all of them when my samples run out, and I would like to try more scents too.
I'll say the same thing about them that I did about Alkemia:
Over all, they seem to last well and be non-irritating, but I wish some of them had a little more presence so that I could smell than without sniffing my wrist.