oakmoss

Try Marquise de Merteuil. Opulent galbanum and amber, glistening peach, and a bouquet of French florals, with a merciless undertone of jonquil and heartless vetiver. It's delicious new and ages beautifully.

Alas, my much beloved notes of currant and carnation are lost in sharp jasmine and eleni, resulting in a "perfumey" scent that is oddly dusty and dry, like an old bottle of perfume found at the back of the bathroom cabinet. I envy those people who got the sweetness and purpleness -- curse my chemistry! This one is going to swaps. :-(

Like Lycanthrope, I tend to amp jasmine, and not in a good way. But this blend stayed fruity and sweet on me, a very refreshing summertime scent. The words that came to mind were "tutti-frutti". Epibulia is a floaty soft fruit dream, with minimal throw and a brief life on the skin (my skin, anyway).

Yew Trees and Yggdrasil might have what you are looking for. Looking over my notes, I'd suggest you use Yew Trees delicately to get that quality of woods without PINEPINEPINE blast.

This blend is a morphing maniac for the first half hour or so. In the bottle, I thought it was going to be the orange blossom scent of my dreams -- almost a single note scent. The orange blossoms of the groves of my teenage years, ahhhhhh! And then it hit my skin. And turned into gloopy soapy something or other than I could not really identify. Another fifteen minutes or so, and the gloop went away, leaving a soft powdery scent that was like burning a stick of incense next to an open window with the warm orange blossom wind blowing in at night. I'm thinking this might age very well, that slightly sharp orange blossom note blurring even more into the resins and smoke.

Love this. Love love love this. Love it. Slightly lemony, drying to soft sugary lemony floral, with an undertone of vanilla. I don't find it as candy-sweet as some of the other reviewers do. I was expecting lemon blossom, not lemon, so the citrus note was a surprise. A light and lovely scent for summer.

Try looking in the Wanderlust section for scents that are evocative of warmer climates, and just surrender to the hot spicy goodness. For example: Baghdad: Amber, saffron and bergamot with mandarin, nutmeg, Bulgar rose, musk and sandalwood. Bengal: A sultry and unruly blend that emulates the ambient scent of the markets in ancient Bengal: skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger. Morocco: The intoxicating perfume of exotic incenses wafting on warm desert breezes. Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia. Sri Lanka: Indian sandalwood and cedar, and the dry incense smoke of olibanum, gum mastic, patchouli and myrrh. I've found that if you stick with the "dry" spicy or resiny scents, they work in hot weather too. It's when they get buttery or foody that they seem overpowering to me.

The scents that have brought on the most universally positive responses when I am attempting to enable people are Alice, Penitence, and Prague.

Chaste Moon 2005 is a favorite of mine, and while I know Beth warned us that 2010 was not like 2005, since the descriptions were identical, I had some hopes (and kind of wonder, if they aren't the same perfume, why give them the same name, same description, same listed notes?). ANYway... my first impression in the bottle was... nothing. Literally nothing. It could have been a bottle of water. But I believe in the BPAL magic, so I dabbed a bit of the water on my wrist to see what might happen. After about five minutes, a very faint lily of the valley scent began to emerge, very quiet, very small, like holding ONE sprig of lily of the valley to my nose, with maybe a blade or two of grass to give it some greenness. It's nothing like Chaste Moon 2005, but it's pleasant. It will be interesting to see how it ages, if any creaminess comes out. Some other milk/cream blends do amp the dairy as they age, so we shall see.

This was just rose rose rose on me, a veritable rose parade. I like BPAL's rose perfumes, and this is a nice one, but I was hoping the coconut and orris would add something new -- alas, not on me. I may get a bottle just for the name alone and hope that age brings out the other notes, as orris is one of my faves.

Yup, definitely try Prague. It doesn't get much mention around here, but everyone I know who has sniffed it falls in love. It has a very light sweet aquatic undertone with fresh flowers. Not perfumey at all, just delicate and springlike.

You might also like Burial (and it's GC, so you can get an imp). To me, it is very evocative of a damp redwood forest.

Try Pink Snowballs (quickly, before they melt away!). Very similar in essence to Antique Lace.

Oh, pretty pretty pretty! I tend to like most of BPAL's rose blends, so I'm always happy to try a new one. As others have said here, this is Snow White's identical cousin (they laugh alike, they walk alike....) but she has a softer accent and fades into the corners a bit more. Gentle rose sweetened with vanilla and the faintest hint of the snow note, not edging into the mint zone. If you like Black Opal, Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, and Antique Lace, you will probably like this as well. I am delighted, as almost every other blend I've tried this year has not worked on me -- either too sharp or too musky or just too weird, though I enjoy sniffing things even though I can't actually wear them. This blend is lovely, and I look forward to giving it lots of wrist time in the coming months.

I just did a sniff comparison with most of the bottles listed here, and I'd say the closest scents are Mouse's Long & Sad Tale and Black Opal. Which is nice since they are both GC and you can get imps for them to sustain you until Antique Lace comes back.