rawgirl75

I think this should have been called Beth's Curious Concoction of Various Funk Notes because when I checked the notes I realised that all it was missing was skin musk and it would have had the monopoly on notes that turn funky on people which include: red musk, champaca, ylang ylang, patchouli, honey and caramel. (talk about Russian Roulette here) I'm not convinced that this is full on caramel (Beth says it's just "a dab"). While my nose does smell the caramel on top, I think its the vanilla/red musk combo mixed with the honey and ylang-ylang that's bolstering up the caramel so that it seems more robust caramel than it really is. And that's a blessing because this blend, for all intents and purposes, should have failed me utterly because honey and especially caramel are death notes for me... However, in a freak skin chemistry accident, Now Winter Nights Enlarge shockingly smells ABSOLUTELY FANTASTIC to me and is quickly turning into the surprise hit of all my Yules. I think the miracle that happened was wholly due to the fact that the honey and true caramel notes are on the bottom of the note list. And also, most of the other notes are top favourites of mine, especially the ylang ylang (omg Im so in love with ylang-ylang these days. Can anyone say T.he Girl omg yum!). Wet: It starts out with this blast of caramel, but unlike the other caramel blends which start out nice and then amp caramel like crazy on me, this one chilled out and the caramel-like other notes melted away and left the champa, petitgrain, ylang, patch and nutmeg notes behind to tantalize all my olifactory senses. Dry: I'm smelling some elements of Lawn Gnome (caramel creme patchouli), Inez (vanilla/red musk) and Tell-Tale Heart here (woody, peppery nutmeg and throaty without musk or blood). Heavy, heady, but not loud and not quite foody. OH! And there's a perfect word for this too: Sticky. Yup.. definitely sticky. I recommend people keeping an open mind about this one. I certainly did and was pleasantly surprised. It really is one of a kind. ps. No celery found of any kind.

Yeahbutnobut's review of Rumpelstilzchen was right on accurate... Vetiver is a hit or miss note for me depending on what it's mixed with. When it's bad, its bad.. and when it works, it's AMAZING. Luckily for me, Rumpelstilzchen falls in the latter category: OMG YUM! THIS is the outdoors pagan firepit scent I've been seeking all this time. Yeahbutnobut mentioned that it falls in the same category as Djinn, Bonfire Night, Priala, Music of Erich Zahn and Chant D'Automne.. and it does, but it really doesn't smell exactly like any of them and I've tried them all: Djinn was too angry fire, Bonfire Night was too much straight SMOKE, Priala was too heavy spice, Erich Zahn was too masculine and Chant D'Autumne was too much wet wood/leaves. Imagine a little bit of fire, smoke, spice, androgynous, wood and leaves all blended together and you have it! Definitely keeping my imp, and strongly considering buying a whole bottle.

Yes, my bottle was like that too before I swapped it. Many people have reported cloudy, oily and sedimenty Hellhound bottles. Found the thread here: http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=21...5&start=125

Is it for someone new to bpal? Try fresh Dorian, which smells like straight-up lemon vanilla to me. Not quite what you were looking for, but it might do the trick.

Definitely very close to my Midway (original) with less of the plasticy note. Not at all like Sticky Pillowcase whatsoever to my nose. Midway + milk + white sugar + cotton = Boo This smells nice, but I prefer Midway.

I too have a passionate love for green tea and highly recommend checking out the Retail Therapy thread for some possible green tea scents outside of Bpal as well. I dont find Embalming Fluid to be too sweet at all. Its a crisp and tart tea scent... same thing with Shanghai. If she likes that kind of scent, she may also really like Kumiho, which is white tea but is quite similar to these. (I haven't tried Starbucks Greet Tea Latte, but it sounds quite delish and I might have to just go get me some tomorrow!)

WHOA! What a drastic change to this since I first tried this! War is truly one of those scents that needs aging. I disliked War when it was fresh because the red musk was wild and crazy powder on my skin and the patchouli was headshoppy and cedary-like so I'd swapped it away. Recently however, I was frimped an aged imp of this and WOW what a difference. War has tamed down into a slick, peppered ginger that quickly melts into your skin. The crazy dust and cedar are long gone. And it lasts! Ive been wearing this it for over 6 hours now and can still smell it. War is what I'd hoped Ifrit would smell like and I really like it! I agree with the others that a little goes a long way with this one. Slather with caution. ps. Im surprised that no-one else has compared this to The Great Sword of War but without the citrus note. They smell similar to me for some reason.

I dug this one up from the bottom of my tester box today... Its over a year old now... and WOW what a difference a year makes! Last year I liked this but found the olive leaf note to be a little too odd and overwhelming. But this year the olive leaf has mellowed out significantly and adds a nice little zing to the blend that Im really enjoying. Foody lovers will likely be disappointed as the cheesecake is there, but only as an afterthought. I think this is more suited for those of us who dont like the purely food scents. In the imp, this reminds me of my favourite non-foody Pumpkin Patch blends like the PP IV 2005 and PP IV 2007. I think this smells EXACTLY what it was intended to smell like: A buttery cake and a chalice of white wine served on an altar with sticks of incense burning as an offering to a goddess. Gourmand incense. I think the incense in this is the same sugared type that's used in Midnight on the Midway (but without the florals of course), so fans of that blend might also like this as well... [edit* Ive recently aquired a bottle of the '06 version which appears to be more incensey than the '07 imps which are more foody wine]

In the Will Call threads I think I recall some people mentioning that the Tilt-A-Whirl prototype smells like waffle cones (I could be wrong), so we might be getting a Demeter-like scent coming up soon.

Temple Viper is almost single note Nag Champa on me. Try it - you'll LOVE IT!!

Quite rare, but Queen of Clubs is blackberry dirt. (ps. I second Penny Dreadful - my most fav gourmand dirt scents ever.)

I tried Versailles on myself today and although its very very nice, its missing the sandalwood/resins that it needs to ground it. A little to light and I wouldnt consider it a traditional "Floriental". That being said, I've changed my recommendation. What you might want to try is Wilhelmina Murray which is sadly hard to find. [edit: OR layer it with another scent that has a sandalwood/myrrh/patchouli combination to darken it up.]

Although I've never tried Xia Xiang before, I did find a listing of its notes (which might help you target a scent close to it (or atleast one you might love just as much): Scent: Floral Oriental. Top Notes: lemon and tangerine. Middle Notes: jasmine, rose, gardenia and orange blossom. Base Notes: peach, plum, raspberry, vanilla, sandalwood, patchouli and oakmoss. So from these two we discover that.... a] You like citrus topnotes b] You like jasmine and rose middle notes (paired with a sweeter floral like orange blossom or ylang ylang) c] You like sandalwood and vanilla as a basenote (with a little bit of something grounding it like oakmoss or patchouli) I wonder if you'd like... Rapture, Kubla Khan, Euphrosyne, Pannychis, La Vague, Moscow, MB Biggercritters, La Primavera, Faiza the Black Mamba or The Presence of Love.... Personally, I think the #1 scent you should try though is Versailles. I think its exactly what you're looking for.

I wonder if you got some mislabeled bottles then. Does it smell sort of like an almond cookie? If it does, it could actually be Asp Viper. The mandarin in Asp Viper smells 'almost' like a leathery note to me. No it doesn't smell like that one either there is a strong almond smell but also quite Sharp and aging doesn't seem to be helping much either. I bought I think 4 of them at the same time and they are all like that. Very strange. Oh my! Component change maybe. eep.

Omfgbbq I am a yummy spicy cookie. I dont need a creditcard.... Im gonna need to mortgage my house. This is multi-bottle love. (Okay seriously now, this one defies the odds. What I was most worried about was amping the pine (which I normally hate), but here its almost nonexistant on me. What I do get is a warm glowing spiced bakery smell that is a smidge on the foody side, but not overly so. Completely surprised me how good it is.) [edit* months later this one is STILL one of my top 10. Its unbelievable!]

I wonder if you got some mislabeled bottles then. Does it smell sort of like an almond cookie? If it does, it could actually be Asp Viper. The mandarin in Asp Viper smells 'almost' like a leathery note to me.

I had only picked up a partial decant of this originally to complete my Pumpkin Patch set and did not expect to like because Bpal's leather usually goes horribly awry on my skin. But to my complete shock, this turned out to be my favourite of all the halloweenies. I cannot believe how much I love it - it's really nice! The leather note is surprisingly mild. It's like you're wearing a soft, smooth, sweet (but not too sweet) pumpkin scent and your favourite well-worn black leather jacket. ps. I definitely don't get buttered popcorn from this.

Awesome everyone! My wishlist is starting to look good! This is what Ive got on my wishlist so far: 51 White Rabbit Shanghai Blue Fire Maenad Jester Tamora Yemaya Katharina Wensleydale Knucklebones Squirting Cucumber And Im going to retry these (digging them out of my swap pile o' doom) just in case they work now after aging some: Embalming Fluid Phantasm Titania Dirty Fae Carnal Silence Marianne Fairy Market The Apothecary Rangoon Riptide Other possibles which contain component concerns that I might add to my w/l later on (I think Im allergic to peony): The Dormouse Cheshire Cat Danube Daiyu Aglaea Croquet Earth Rat (ps. I love love love Cheshire Moon... too bad my father hates it (allergies). ) [edited to add squirting cucumber]

No, not tea specifically. Dorian was just the scent I happened to have had on hand. What I really want is a whole bunch of GC and LE options for light, fresh, juicy, fruity, melony, non-heavy scents that I can slather to my hearts content until the fall. I've been wearing Kumiho, La Fee Verte (a little cloying, but it sure is ), Dorian, Yerevan and fresh Snake Oil (aged is too heavy right now) so far. Oh I sure wish I'd gotten my hands on some Mead Moon when I had the chance. Honey is usually my nemesis, but I haven't been minding it at all in the La Fee Verte these days.....

Shango didnt work on me at all the first time I tried it, but maybe it was too old/new? What do you think?

Mmmm yeah.. White Rabbit sounds yummy *marks that one down too*

Oooo YEAH, Ive been thinking about that one - I bet it would be absolutely juicy! mmmmm

I appears that I've somehow lost my mind (due to summer heat) and am CRAVING light juicy fresh melony fruity citrusy scents out of the blue all of a sudden. This is NOT normal for me. I dont even like those kinds of scents.. or do I? Last week I couldnt even look at my many bottles of musky/incensy/floraly scents and ended up grabbing the imp of Dorian out of my swap pile and ended up wearing it for days. There's still atleast another month of summer to go and I cant keep wearing Dorian everyday (well I could I guess, but...) Please everyone, please throw my way all kinds of fresh scent ideas at me. I NEED them! [edit: I have to put this list on hold for now, due to financial circumstances]

The ones I like..... Dragon's Milk: Warm, comforting and inviting. GLowing Vulva: But what if she liked your scent and asked you what it was called?!? O_O The Raven: This one is beautiful, soft and sophisticated.

Hehe I recommended this one to someone this morning and decided that I should also post my review here too: This is a weird and fascinating scent. I like it Wet: I get notes that (to me) smell like burnt mint, light licorice and a smidge of medicinal stuff. Dry: Its laudanum right on the nose (and a little bit rootbeer). Surprisingly quite wearable. The burnt mint, licorice and medicine have softened and faded and the remaining scents is fascinating. This is one of those concept scents - I can totally see a 19th century doctor smelling like this and I think it belongs in the Steampunk category. [Edit to note: My imp is probably almost a year old. I remember trying this one when it was fresher and hating it back then because it was too strong/sharp, so I recommend swapping someone for an aged one. I had dug this out of my swap box to sell, but I think Im going to keep it now. Yum!]