heartbeast

I don't know if you could ever find it (and if you do, and there's some to spare, let me know!), but when I first got into BPAL about 20 years ago there was a civet scent called Bacchanalia that is long discontinued. It was a very grapey red wine scent with dark musk and civet, smoothed out with a bit of orange blossom. Very very sexy in a deliciously in-your-face way! 😈 Definitely my HG civet scent.

This starts out a little sweeter than I usually like, but very quickly the bay steps up to ground the blend and render the scent spicy and slightly sweet without being foody. It really lasts for me, all day, and today it was perfect for our first chilly fall day. Non-foody foodies are one of my favorite BPAL tricks, and I love this one!

I'm not sure I can top that. This is a lovely, clean and fresh smell. You know those laundry products that claim to smell like a fresh ocean breeze? This is what they're shooting for, and missing. That is the source of the similarity, and that is where it ends. This is a definite favorite, and really nice on a cool, bright and breezy day with just a slight threat of rain.

This is my second light masculine blend in two days that seems to have aged into a beautiful fresh unisex scent. (The first was Mr. Qubit.) When I first put it on, it reminded me of Benefit's discontinued "Bathina" body balm--a scent I like, but not what I was expecting from the King of the Fairies! They have the bergamot and the white musk in common, so I think that's what was going on. Anyhow, I found Oberon to be ideal for a cool fresh fall day with the threat of more rain hanging over the cleanliness from yesterday's storm. I'd say the juniper dominated a bit after the drydown, but all in all it was just a smooth, fresh and subtle blend.

I haven't worn this in some time, and never reviewed it, so I decided to do both today. I was afraid it would be too masculine, but it turned out to be quite unisex and ideal for a rainy day! It's a lovely crisp ozone scent that's so fresh and slightly austere. This might sound odd, but its aesthetic matched not only the rain, but also my hands: I have a pale grey cream polish on at the moment, and today I wore a silver ring in a very spare, art deco-ish style, set with a large smokey topaz. It was just such a neat pleasure to look out at the rain, look down at my hands, and catch a whiff of Mr. Qubit!

I second Shub-Niggurath. Some people get gingerbread from it, but to me the ginger is non-foody, and just spices up the incense. I find it verrry sexy!

I can think of two that I liked, but unfortunately they're both old LE's and quite rare: June Gloom, which was a seasonal LE several years ago, and Chiroptera, which was one of the Oblation collection. I recall reading that Bat Woman from The Salon was very similar to Chiroptera--also discontinued, but more recently, so you might have a hope of finding it. All of them are worth looking for, you never know!

My favorite delicate florals are all Shakespeare girls: Juliet, Ophelia and Desdemona. Sadly, the last is discontinued, but you might be able to pick her up in a swap. Oh, and Maiden! That's another lovely one.

You know...there are those who believe Anne Bonny and Mary Read were lovers. I'm not sure how anyone could ever say for sure that they were or weren't, but they were close associates and, fwiw, it appears that they did share a man. Which is nice for the bi-and-poly crowd; throw in Calico Jack and you've got the whole triad! (You could even make a case for Mary as trans; the tendency is to interpret historical female cross-dressers as doing so for purely utilitarian purposes, but what the heck do we know? Modern trans identity has a particular cultural context; similar people with similar feelings in the past would have handled those feelings with the resources that worked in their own time and place. Uh...Queer studies scholar stepping off; why am I typing this instead of the paper I'm supposed to be writing??)

Anactoria! Oh, here's another one: The Arbor! (Both these poems are by Sappho.)

I want to give a special shout-out to aged Dionysia. My skin has a tendency to amp one sweet note in some blends in a really flat, monochromatic way, and when I first got Dionysia it was the raspberry. It was pleasant, but no big whoop. I tried it again about a year later, and the incense really stepped up in the blend, along with the plum, and the raspberry played much more nicely with the other fruits. Wow! So smooth and complex! It's now one of my favorites.

Two lavenders that are smoky in a metaphorical sense (by which I mean muted, sophisticated and a little sultry): Paris & Yvaine. I love lavender but it usually has an herbal sharpness that I associate with soap or aromatherapy blends for relaxation. Not what I want when I'm aiming for sophisticated and/or sexy. I never imagined before that a lavender scent could pull that vibe off, but those two do.

I love Szepasszony for exactly the mood you're trying to convey! I'm also going to chime in on the Manhattan love, and Yvaine to a degree, although to my nose Yvaine is definitely more at the approachable end of that spectrum; the lavender is almost cuddly though not as much as in, say, Lilith Victoria (def. not what you're looking for, IMO). Same idea in other lavender scents: Paris, though that conveys a smooth sophisticated elegance with it too, and Pontia, which is just a little more remote in tone than either but still has a similar vibe. (Why yes, lavender has been my go-to note this summer; why do you ask?) Also, this might seem like an odd choice, but to my nose Doc Constantine is very unisex and conveys a similar feel to Manhattan. I'd say it's just a touch sexier, but still very no-nonsense.

Not really contributing to the current conversation, sorry, but I just wanted to give a shout-out to Manhattan. It's crisp and fresh for the hot hot weather (for us) we get here in SF from late August through October, yet it has that feel of sophistication that I associate with fall fashions. I can't wear most of those clothes until November, but at least I can smell classy!

Oh wow. This is a new favorite. It's funny, when I first put this on, I absolutely didn't get the wet slap of patchouli that shriekingviolet describes, but I happened to be wearing arm warmers and so I didn't put it on my wrists like I usually do. Later I took them off and put some Clémence on my wrists, and I got that patchouli then--but it didn't last long. I've noticed this, scents smelling different on different parts of the body; I think my body heat just morphs a scent really quickly in some places. Anyway, at first the cardamom and clove utterly dominate the blend, with the carnation giving it a sweetness that's almost honey-like. I can't really pick out the patchouli and pepper, but I know they're there because without them this would be too sweet for me; they give the scent depth and backbone. But that carnation, oh my goodness! When I was in my big victoriana phase I used to wear Crabtree & Evelyn carnation single note, but BPAL's carnation tends to go a little powdery on me, and I've liked it best in blends where it doesn't stand out. But this! As the blend settles down, it becomes the most predominate note. It's that lovely floral with a slight spiciness that I remember, very true to the flower, with the spice oomphed up and the patchouli making it sexy. So good! Very late in the day, it does that greater-than-the-sum-of-its-parts thing that so many BPALs do; it morphs and settles in to the skin like the most sexy, indolent spicy body dusting powder you ever smelled, slightly incensey. My my my. This is like the indolent, pampered love child of Spanked and Bengal. It's more ladylike than Spanked, more sophisticated than Bengal, and more ladylike, more sophisticated, and less foody than Three Witches, but it's definitely in the same family as all three of those. If you love them like I do, you will love this too.