lizbetann

In the bottle: Cherries. Cherries? Goddess, but my nose is weird. (I read through the other reviews after I wrote this, and noted that cherry is a common note among others, so perhaps not so strange.) Not candy cherries, BTW, but the sort that you pick off the trees in an orchard that are warmed by the sun (I remember doing this as a child, so it's a strong sense memory). On my skin, wet: The cream comes out now, with the cherries backing off a bit. On my skin, drying: Brandied cherries in cream, perhaps with a little bit of baked brown sugar. Hmmmmm! I wore it to sleep in, and now I catch just a whiff of cream from my wrist. Not vanilla-y, per se, just creamy. My roommate's vote was: creamy and spicy. *g* I tried an imp of Sudha Segara, which was lovely but faded way too fast. This is more like what I wanted.

(My first BPAL review. ::scuffs toe, looks cute: Most of my recent perfume hunting has been to find a something that reminds me of something else. Mata Hari, I pegged from the description as possibly being similar. Luckily for me, I live close enough to the Black Broom to drive over and sniff-test. I initially picked it up, sniffed it, didn't like it and put it back. I came back to it later, swiped some on my wrist, and a few minutes later was in love. I've worn it a few times now. Initial smell in bottle: Of all things, Lily in the Valley! Ugh, too sweet! (No wonder I put this down initially!) On wrist: I smell the roses immediately, with more complex notes underneath. Since I pegged this one because of the jasmine and vanilla, I expected to smell those, but I've adored roses for a long time, so this is nice! Lingering: I put a small dab on earlier today and rubbed it on my wrists, so I think the sleeves of my shirt have rubbed most of it off. But for a few hours I was surrounded by a scent so unbelievably rich. I wouldn't know fig, tonka bean, or mahogany if they bit me on the nose, and I definitely smell no coffee in this, but something about this keeps it from being a too-sweet floral.

Another recommendation for Black Pearl. I went a little crazy at Black Broom (I love, I love, I LOVE that there is a brick-and-mortar shop close enough where I can sniff-test things!) and when I ran out of places to put perfume on me, I put some on my roommate. On her, Black Pearl smelled oh-so-coconutty without any suntan lotion associations. 24 hours later, I put my nose in her elbow and she smelled like warm butter -- if a human being can smell like warm butter and have it smell GOOD. However, a friend of mine put on Black Pearl and said she just drowned in the florals, so it comes down to (drum roll please) individual body chemistry! INSERT SIG HERE

No, I haven't, but I love all those smells individually, so I would probably love a mix of them! Thank you! --<--<--@

Okay, I don't know if this is the most useful place to try this, but I also have a commercial scent I am trying to find *similar* BPAL's to. Long story short, I bought an absolutely gorgeous vial of perfume at a Ren Faire 12 years ago (they called it Celtic Dawn, or Celtic Moon, I can't remember which). Loved it to pieces, wore it sparingly, used it down to the last quarter of the bottle (then refilled the bottle with jojoba oil, and the scent is strong enough that it is surviving even diluted and hopefully the jojoba will keep it from going rancid). Visited my mother and took one sniff and said, "What are you wearing?!?!!? It's exactly like a perfume I've been trying to find for years!" She shamefacedly admitted that it was (gulp) JLo's Glow, which she had fallen in love with through a magazine sample. According to the only source I could find, BizRate (of all places), the major notes of JLo's Glow are jasmine, vanilla and grapefruit. I bought Mata Hari for the jasmine/vanilla blend and find that I adore it for reasons that have nothing to do with its resemblance to my old Celtic Dawn/JLo's Glow. So much for the short story. Anyone have any suggestions for me? I loved Celtic Dawn because it was very floral and very musky. It wasn't girlish at all. Any suggestions?