sunshinedaisybliss

YAY! And don't worry - your advisor will be unable to hate you when you're smelling so good You should take a look through the For Sale section here on the forum - you'll find people with big long lists of imps for sale, so you should be able to find a nice selection of things to try without sending yourself broke Happy sniffing!!

Hiya RunnerInPink It's been said already, but definitely Obatala. It's a gorgeous fresh coconut - it doesn't really have an 'ocean' aspect to it, but it smells just like 1970s style coconutty suntan lotion Sea Foams Milk and Sea Foams Glass - yep, I would definitely second those recommendations too

I love patchouli, I love vanilla, and I love amber. I do not love honey. Well actually that's not really true - I do love honey, but only on my toast.. on my skin, it does nasty nasty things and makes me smell like baby's vomit. So I had only one concern witth FM&FMWP and that was.. you guessed it.. the honey. But here's the thing - it's OK! The patchouli in this is so dark and moistly grungey - it smells like a big block of hash I was once offered to buy in Bali, earthy, gooey, feral and scary. So what happens is that the honey tries to step up and be all sweet and sickly but the black patchouli says "fuck off, you stupid pile of bee barf" and the honey goes all quiet and sits meekly in the background. This makes the patchouli think it's all tough and manly-like so it starts puffing up its chest and swelling its testicles, striding around like it's the King of Stink, but just when you think ermahgerd this patchouli is going to strangle me - the vanilla amber shows up. And when I say "shows up", what I really mean is that it flies in on a golden unicorn and sprinkles dusky soft vanilla dust over the top of the black patchouli, instantly shrinking its swollen testicles until it gets all embarrassed and stops strutting around. The vanilla amber gets off its golden unicorn (whose name, incidentally, is Gerald) and settles itself down on top of the patchouli and honey, creating a blanket of soft ambery vanilla goodness. The patchouli - by now quite ashamed of its aforementioned display of testicle swelling and chest puffing - snuggles in on the vanilla amber blanket and sleeps peacefully, occasionally snoring but in a cute way. Who knew the patchouli would turn out to be such a big softie? Gerald, that's who - he knew all along. After about half an hour on my skin FM&FMWP ends up being a lovely dry patchouli with a soft amber overtone and just a hint of dry vanilla and honeyed sweetness, and it pretty much stays like that for a good few hours. The patch does retain a slightly bitter tone, which is why black patchouli isn't my favourite kind, but it's still lovely nonetheless. I really love these 'simple' blends with only a small number of notes - they're never any less complex than the multiple-notes blends, but I find that they allow each individual note to sing its own song and retain its own characteristics and that's definitely the case here. I can smell each note quite clearly, but at the same time I can enjoy the mix of them all together. I'm very happy with this one, and I am putting my 2nd bottle into a nice dark box to age for a while because I'm sure it's going to be amazing in a year or two. Oh, and for the record - I didn't buy the hash. It's very unwise to buy drugs from random Balinese people you meet on the side of the road - just a little travel tip for y'all

I only bought a half-decant of this, but my half-imp has about half-sludge and half-oil OK.. this one was a 50/50 chance for me - I love bourbon vanilla, I love cocoa, I love oudh.. but lemon hates me (lemon amps ridiculously on me), skin musk hates me (it goes bitter and sharp), and rose hates me (although white can sometimes be OK). The X factor was the custard - I don't think I've encountered that before in a BPAL so that was the one note which intrigued me. I have been waiting for years for Beth to make a bourbon vanilla + oudh + cocoa blend, so I figured this was as close as I'd get for now and decided to give it a shot. So the lemon is a main player here - but instead of amping up all over the place and being all HI I'M LEMON on me, it's a lovely soft powdery lemon, so win #1: lemon blossom is better than lemon. On my skin, it's like the lemon is there... but it's just dancing around the edges of everything else, and it adds a lovely fresh and clean tingle to the darker notes in the blend. I really can smell the custard - it's just like the smell of a steaming hot jug of custard that you're just about to pour over your apple pie.. delicious, but not sweet or foody. SO win #2: custard accord is awesome. The skin musk is something I definitely could have done without - it's sitting as a top note on my skin, and it's amping more than I'd like it to. And the rose.. well, where is it? I'm hardly noticing it at all, but I can detect a slight floral-ish waxy sweetness which I'm presuming is the white rose. OK - so those are the not-so-good bits.. the omg-crazy-good bits here are the vanilla+cocoa+oudh combination... it's sublime, dark and slightly smokey, and definitely cocoa rather than chocolate. This just makes me wish that all the other notes (rose, lemon, skin musk) weren't in here - once again, I wish I had a Note Removal MachineTM handy because I would rip that lemon and skin musk out of there! A half-hour after I first applied it, the scent has faded significantly and mostly what I have left is the lemon and skin musk, some residual hints of the custard, and the dry duskiness of the cocoa. The funny thing is.. on my right arm, it's quite floral + lemon custard with a clean/bright tone, but on my left arm it's more cocoa + vanilla + oudh with a musky tone . Curious and curiouser. So overall - very very nice. I'm a little disappointed that the uh-oh notes are the stayers - but ain't that always the way? I've ordered a bottle though, because I find that lemon and skin musk tend to dull and soften with age where bourbon vanilla, oudh and cocoa tend to deepen and get more rich, so perhaps in about six months from now this will be more to my liking. But for now, it's soft and pretty and clean and nice.. not my thing really, but very pretty nonetheless. PS this would make a wonderfful room spray. I might sacrifice my half-imp to make up a little spray bottle!

Gah. Can I please get a bottle of this without the juniper berry and white cedar? Those two together on my skin make a smell that brings to mind a pile of pencil shavings with a pine-scented Magic Tree air freshener hidden inside it. What a shame, because there's so much else in here that I like.. and after about an hour they're all there - beautiful soft amber, a hearty musk, dark and smoky oudh and vetiver, warm snuggly leather and a nice woodsy tone from the oakmoss. I'm not really picking up the blackberry at all. Oh well - it was worth a try, but I kinda knew the cedar and juniper berry would ruin this for me

I was sent a tester of this from my decanter, otherwise I would never have tried it because.. jasmine, jasmine, jasmine. Ayup - it's jasmine. Stinky, nasty jasmine. It's really all I can smell, which is a shame because I like a bit of labdanm and benzoin, but.. jasmine. Yuk - my skin just hates this. I envy those of you who can make this one work, because it really does smell lovely in the imp. But unfortunately my skin does horrible things to it.

I've always had a bit of a thing for ambergris, but Silver-Haired Bat really turned that thing into a full-on love affair... so of course I was hoping for this Luper would be something special And it is! As with SHB, the ambergris here is silky and shiny - exactly what it says in the description... it's luminous, glowing, lovely. Dancing softly through that silkiness is the soft golden amber, dusky and gorgeous and doing a great job of keeping the scent grounded, then there's the beautiful golden musk warming everything up like a ray of sunshine. Honestly, I could have done without the orris - it adds a soapy element that I find interferes with all that luxurious warmth from the other notes, but the orris does dry down nicely and eventually almost disappears in amongst the duskiness of the amber. As others have mentioned, this one is a soft, delicate and graceful scent - it's understated and classy, grown-up and sophisticated, but somehow it doesn't have any snobbery about it - it's kind of really warm and snuggly, and I would be inclined to wear it when I feel like I need a little bit of a confidence boost because I find its glowy-ness gives me a good feeling. it doesn't have a lot of throw, and it doesn't last long on my skin, but even when it's almost gone it's still lovely - one of those 'my skin but better' kinds of BPALs. Very nice, and a must-try for anyone who enjoys these goldenesque kinds of fragrances.

At first - BAM!! hello jasmine. Then BAM!! neroli, BAM! rose, BAM! tuberose. It's like my nose has been kidnapped by the Floral Army. An hour later, the army has disbanded and I'm getting a nice waft of soft musky vanilla with a clean tobacco undertone. The florals - particularly the jasmine - are still dancing on the top of everything else though. Nothing special for me at all - this one goes into the "soft feminine floral" category which is just totally not my scene.

I wouldn't have bothered trying this one, because honey is not my friend and that applies doubly to the "sweet" variety of it.. and although I do like apricot as a note, the "white" bit scared me.. and really, cayenne pepper doesn't excite me much.. so yeah, it would have been a big pass. But my lovely decanter sent me a tester, so... test it I do! Surprise surprise - this is actually quite nice. Like, it really is nice. In the same way that fluffy kittens are nice - it's soft and pretty and cute and snuggly. The apricot is very clean - not overly foody, nor too sweet - it's just a nice true apricot fruit smell. And yes, the honey is sweet but not in that horrible cloying strangle-your-nostrils-with-powdery-honeyness way that it can sometimes be. Turns out honey + apricot work really nicely together for me. And the pepper? Hmm.. ok, so there's a hint of a soft spice at the very bottom of everything but it's hardly noticeable - just a nice balance against the sweetness of the honey. Overall, I'd say this has a nice creamy soft feel - it's warm and comforting - everything is beautifully blended and clean and despite what sounds like a very basic blend of three notes it's actually fairly multi-layered due to the tactile vibe it has, but still pretty simple on the skin. Nice, but not a knock-yer-socks-off thing for me.

OK.. so Balame has already said pretty much what I was going to! It's peppery and sweet, musky and waxy, just.. too much dissonance for my poor nose - it's like a big red sticky noise. Oh woe, 13-year aged Sumatran patchouli - where are you? Woe. This is red, like seriously... RED on me. It smells like a cross between a bathroom freshener spray called something like "Berries of the Forest", and what I would smell like if I were trampled in a field of geraniums by a big red lollipop monster. You might wonder how I know that, but I was once trampled in a field of daffodils by a big yellow lollipop monster and I can still remember how I smelled afterward. This is just like that time, but in red.

I got a tester of this from my lovely decanter, and I'm very happy about that because I hadn't bought a bottle and figured this one would just pass me by When I leaned in for a sniff right after first applying the oil, I was greeted by a sharp top note - the twang mentioned in the description, I guess - but it wasn't really citrus-like.. it was more herbal, or slightly earthy - like tangy earth. Is there such a thing as tangy earth? Heh.. there is now! Overall, it smells a bit cologne-like at this early stage. So anyway - that harsh top layer took about 5 minutes to dissipate, then I go in for another sniff and get the lovely golden tobacco that I recognise from so many other BPALs, but right alongside it is the brown sugar/caramel. I know from past experiences that caramel is not my friend (and the mention of caramel in the notes is why I had been happy to let this SN pass me by) - and it's doing what it usually does to me here.. turning into a sharp, nasty burny sugar smell. The tobacco is keeping up - it's really giving that caramel a good fight, but I'm not sure it's going to win. Citrus? Hmm.. OK, since I know it's there then perhaps I'm getting it - it's more a citrus haze than a citrus twang though. Fifteen minutes in, and finally the tobacco has triumphed over that nasty caramel. The caramel is still there, hanging around like a bad smell (literally!), but it's definitely in the background now. But unfortunately the tobacco has gone a little bitter, which is a shame.. I was hoping it would go all warm and earthy but no. If I had a bottle of this I would definitely use it as a layering note, but I'm not sure I would wear it on its own because it's just not playing out too well on my skin - I know there's a lovely warm earthiness in there somewhere, but that bitterness never quite goes away even though I asked it very nicely to please bugger off. But that's bitterness for ya - bloody rude, it never listens.

Awww... right backatcha! Gotta try and help out a fellow Banshee Beat appreciator Yeah.. #OWS does have cocoa in it, but I think it has the right kind of vanilla, and really - on me at least - it was like 95% patchouli so that's why I suggested using it as your base. Another one to look at would be Heretic - that doesn't actually have patchouli in it, but it's very hippie-esque and overall definitely has a patchouli-like flavour (to me, anyway!). And I think you might be right about the vanilla in SO being similar to the vanilla in BB - it has that same tyrupy richness to it. I'm sure eventually you'll find something you love - but in the meantime, keep a lookout for those two prototypes

Yep - definitely worth a try.. and I would recommend getting yourself a bottle of #Occupy Wall Street (if you don't already have it!) and using that as your +patchouli elixir. Personally, to find a Banshee Beat dupe, I would start by trying to find the right patchouli first because that's what gives BB its depth. Then try finding the right vanilla to go with it... you need that black vanilla - the rich, syrupy vanilla rather than the candy-sweet one - and then something for the hemp if that's even possible. And once you've got #OWS, go back to Velvet and slap some #OWS over the top. Go back to Goblin and slap some #OWS over the top. Grab some Tombstone and slap some #OWS over the top. Grab some Morrocco and slap some #OWS over the the top... you get the idea You might also want to go searching for two prototypes - UOH34 and UOH2 - although there is no official confirmation from the Lab on this, many people have speculated that the "UO" part in these stands for "Urban Outfitters" and that UOH34 and UOH2 are Banshee Beat prototypes. For me, neither is a 'dupe' but I can defintely see the connection to Banshee Beat... and even if the whole speculation about them being BB prototypes isn't true, they are both very BB-like. There's some reviews posted of them both (UOH34 here, and UOH2 here), if you want to investigate further, and you should be able to find at least a decant of them here on the forum somewhere

Hmm.. as others have said, nothing from the general catalogue (GC) springs to mind So I would suggest you go search through the 'For Sale' section here on the forum, and see if you can find a decant of: Boo (any year would be OK, but 2009 seems to be the most creamy) - this is a rich vanilla cream.. it's heavy on the vanilla, but worth a try Milk Moon (05 or 07) - this is like a heavy clotted cream, on me it goes slightly sour but most people find it to be very creamy/milky Castitas would work nicely as a base though - so if you're going to go that route, then you could look at layering something like The Lion over it for a lovely golden amber.

Hmm, have you sniffed her? I wonder how prominent the floral notes are. *goes to search reviews* I don't find the floral notes to be prominent at all. I had actually forgotten there were florals until I posted the description. Most floral notes give me a massive headache, but Liz is lovely. YEP! That's exactly what I would have said too.. I'm not a fan of florals at all, but I don't really notice them at all in Liz. For me, it has a lovely smoky/swirly feel and the leather is subtle but gives it a nice warm vibe. And although it says 'feminine' - much like Liz herself (if you're familiar with the Hellboy story).. it's not a 'girly-girl' perfume at all I would definitely suggest you try to track down a decant of Liz here on the forum - look through the sales area, you should be able to find some. The other blend that came to mind is Clockwork Couture: Female, but that was a limited edition run and is very hard to find now.

Wowsers - thanks for that info, wickedgoddess! So arsinoe9.... looks like you have some special bottles there Good for you!

Ahh... Elf v4 hates me - it's the kind of vanilla that turns into a horrible sharp plastic/chemical nastiness on my skin. I remember when I got my bottle, and I'd read reviews where people were saying similar things to you - warm, musky, snuggly - so imagine my disappointment when I tried it! Anyway - enough about me So there's some others in the BPAL vanilla range that have done the same thing on me, and therefore might be worth trying as dupes for you, for Elf v4 - using the logic that if Elf v4 was horrible on me but good on you, then the other vanillas that were horrible on me should be good on you! (this may be a special form of blonde logic ) Celeste - an LE from the Trading Post - notes are: Madagascan vanilla bean, vanilla orchid, orris root, and saffron. I find Celeste to be.. prettier in a more feminine way than Elf v4 - kind of like it's 'soft pink' rather than white. This has the saffron that you mentioned in Love's Philosophy (but I don't find Celeste spicy at all), and there's also a soft/slightly sweet waxy floral feel. The vanilla though.. pretty sure it's the same as Elf v4. Phyllocrania Paradoxa v1 - a prototype - no notes, but some reiews mention a similarity to the vanilla in Elf v4 and a musky vibe. Anti-Saloon League - Notes are: sarsaparilla and cream. The sarsarilla here gives ASL a fuzzy feel, but the vanilla is creamy. None of those are going to be easy to find.. sorry!! But perhaps you could track down a tester just so you can test them out before hunting for a bottle And I realise that this thread is supposed to be about finding GC equivalents, but I just can't think of a straight-up vanilla in the GC that's anything like Elf v4. Morocco would be one suggestion.. but you've probably already tried that one.

awww thank you for the kind words, arsinoe09! Hmm.. so that's an old bottle of Crowley then, you think? Curious and curiouser! I thought I was doing well with my aging bottles being from 2007, but now I'm going to have to find some of the one you've got if it's older than that!! I would love to know if that's actually the case though (ie that bottle is ooooooooold) so hopefully someone else will be able to confirm!

Hmm... arsinoe9 - are those Good Omens bottles newly ordered? Just wondering, because my bottles of Crowley (the oldest being 2007) have this label: So I'm wondering if the artwork has changed on the Good Omens series?!? And... more leather, you say? And I *think* that bottle of Smut is 2007 - the '06 and '08 labels had almost the same looking label (b&w photo with red splash) but with slight differences.

When this first goes on, I get a strong rum-like note that I really wasn't expecting! I guess it's from the bay laurel, although usually that comes out as softly spicy rather than rum-like on my skin.. so possibly it's the combination of balsam + bay laurel. Aaaaaaanyway - that rum business goes away pretty quickly, and soon becomes a nice warm base. The leather here is quite a heavy leather - not quite warm and snuggly, and not quite black and shiny.. just somewhere in between, but I'd say brown rather than black leather. Oh ambergris - lovely, softly sweet and musky - it's the star of the show here, and with the leather it's just glorious. I totally agree with the lovely Ms z_z up there ^^ because this really does remind me of Quincy Morris - the leather is definitely similar (if not the same) but it's the balsam + bay laurel that creates a point of difference with the herbal tones. And the soft spiciness reminds me of Spanked. Another comparison here would be Banshee Beat - this doesn't have that syrupy dark vanilla, so it's not really a BB-alike at all, but the balsam + bay laurel smells similar to the hemp component of Banshee Beat on my skin. After about 30 minutes on my skin, Peter Quint has softened up and mellowed out quite nicely into a warm spicy leather. Like Spanked layered with Quincy Morris I don't love this enough to buy a bottle - I pretty much have my leather needs sorted already - but if you've never had a chance to get any of BPAL's classic leather blends like Quincy Morris or Brom Bones, then Peter Quint should go on your things-to-try list

Eat Me is hard to find on the sales posts, because unfortunately the search engine here on the forum doesn't handle three-letter words.. and two-letter words are even worse! So you could try putting it in quotes like "Eat Me" and see if that gets a result, but if that doesn't work then you're probably stuck. Another option would be to make a new post in the 'Wanted' section - list the imps you're looking for, and people who have them available will contact you.. that might be quicker - they can come to you, rather than you searching for them! Aside from Eat Me, the only other full-on black currant I can think of in the general catalogue would be Knave of Hearts - that one is 'crushed roses and black currant tarts'. There's also The Red Queen (wood notes with sweet, black-red cherries and currant) that might be worth a try. There's also Bordello - plum with amaretto, burgundy wine and black currant - it's lovely, but quite dark and rich - like a nice dark red wine kind of feel. You could also investigate blackberry - like Betwitched - blackberry, sage, green tea, wild berries and dark musk - lovely, but quite voluptuous and dark. Glasgow was also mentioned earlier - that one is wild blackberry breezing over gentle rosy heather. I think you might like Hollywood Babylon - notes are: glittering Egyptian amber and heliotrope, infused with the sweetness of strawberry and vanilla - dragged into debauch by lusty red musk and a dribble of black cherry - so that's cherry rather than black currant but I've always thought it has a blackberry-ish feel and it's quite light and pretty with nice sweet tones. It's nice to see you getting into this! I hope you have a great time with all the lovely smellies when your first little package of imps arrives!!

Excellent! I'm happy to hear you've managed to find some imps in the sales here - the other good thing about that is people generally ship things pretty quickly so you'll get them nice and fast I thought of a couple more, because I saw in your intro post that you said Earl Grey tea (rather than green tea that I was thinking of before), sooooooooo: Rapture - This has your bergamot, plus mandarin and neroli and jasmine so it could be a winner. Notes are: Moroccan rose, Sumatran rose, mandarin, Egyptian myrrh, night-blooming jasmine, bergamot and neroli thrust into Arabian musk. Fae - This is another of those 'glowing' scents that BPAL does so well - it's very pretty with an soft ethereal feel. Notes are: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss. Zephyr - personally the lemon in this was too much for me, and as meaganola mentioned the 'white' notes are risky when it comes to headaches, but it has a lot of the things you seem to like so it may be worth a try. Notes are: Lemon, lemon verbena, neroli, white musk, white florals, white sandalwood, China musk, bergamot and a drop of vanilla. But as you've seen by the great recommendations everyone's already offered, there's no shortage of lovely things to try! I hope you enjoy your travels through the smelly world of BPAL

Hi russalka! Welcome to the forum!! You've definitely chosen the right place to explore a new option for your perfumes - a lot of people who can't wear regular perfume due to migraines/headaches find BPAL perfectly OK. However, it may take you some trial and error to find things that are wearable for you - certain notes may be problematic, no matter what type of perfume you try, but at least with BPAL you know exactly what you're getting because the notes are listed.. and there's no nasty chemicals in there which is definitely a good thing I looked at the commercial perfumes you mentioned, and it seems you like the sweeter florals and soft/sweeter nectar type fruits like peach but also citrus notes. Sandalwood appears in two of your perfumes, jasmine comes up in three, musk in two (light/white musk), and the citrus notes reappear too. Fragrantica has this neat feature where it gives you a summary of the main accords in each perfume, so I looked at what it listed for your four (Daisy, Amor Amor, Weekend and Green Tea) and here's what you had: ozonic (x2), white floral, powdery (x2), aquatic, fruity (x3), floral, woody, sweet (x2), citrus (x2), ,vanilla, rose, green, aromatic, fresh spicy. So maybe that will be helpful to narrow down the kinds of notes you're drawn to? 'Powdery' would be the sandalwood, and the floral/sweet definitely matches up with jasmine. Having said all that, it's a really good idea to branch out when it comes to BPAL - try at least one thing that's nothing like any of the perfumes you already have - it really is about creating scent experiences and many of us started out thinking we loved xyz smell but ended up falling for something completely different... for example, I started out with a lot of 'foody' blends because I love the smell of cakes and candy and chocolate (and BPAL does some incredible foody blends!) but then I realised that although I really do love the way they smell, I don't really like wearing them as perfume so I went back to the dark, resinous, incense-y smells that I have always loved and found my favourites there. Here's some of my suggestions for you - I'm just going with things that mostly match up with what you've said you like for now because that's easy Mouses's Long and Sad Tale - I recommend this a lot to new people, it's just so soft and pretty and it has sweet pea for the sweet floral you like plus a gorgeous powdery softness from the amber + sandalwood, with a base of creamy vanilla. Notes are: vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea and white sandalwood. Dorian - this is a huge favourite for many people, and it has the tea that you like plus vanilla and nice warm musks and a lemon citrus tone. Notes are: A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea. Euphrosyne - Two white/sweet florals, a lovely soft tea rose, and warm vanilla. Notes are: gardenia, tea rose, vanilla and jasmine. Morocco - this might seem an odd choice, but it's gorgeous and soft with a lovely warm vanilla and gentle spices and the carnation is lovely. Notes are: Arabian spices wind through a blend of warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood and cassia. Phantasm - This seems like a great mix of notes for you - the tea is clean and fresh, it has a lemon citrus hit plus lovely sweet jasmine and a soft orange from the neroli. Notes are: green tea, lemon verbena, jasmine and neroli. High-Strung Daisies - a beautiful gentle floral, it has a subtle sweetness but also a bit of soft spiciness from the carnation and pink pepper. Notes are: daisy, pink carnation, pink pepper, and sugar. Tamora - this has the lovely soft powderiness from amber + sandalwood, plus a sweet soft peach and pretty vanilla - this is a real 'glowing' kind of scent, warm and lovely. Notes are: amber, heliotrope, golden sandalwood, peach blossom and vanilla bean. Rapture - This is a heady mix of florals and citrus with a beautiful exotic feel. Notes are: Moroccan rose, Sumatran rose, mandarin, Egyptian myrrh, night-blooming jasmine, bergamot and neroli thrust into Arabian musk. Jezebel - this is a warm 'womanly' scent with a lovely dusky sweetness. Notes are: honey, roses, orange blossom and sandalwood. Embalming Fluid - despite its name, this is a lovely clean one with an aquatic feel and a nice hit of citrus. Notes are: white musk, green tea, aloe and lemon. Lyonesse - this has a slight aquatic feel, but the lily is gorgeous and the vanilla + musk give it a beautiful soft warmth. Ambergris is a note I think you may really like, although you possibly haven't encountered it before - it has a gorgeous soft, almost waxy sweetness. Notes are: Golden vanilla and gilded musk, stargazer lily, white sandalwood, grey amber, elemi, orris root, ambergris and sea moss. Vasilissa - this is seriously one of the prettiest BPALs I've encountered - it's soft, clean, sweet and powdery but also creamy - just gorgeous, the pink musk is sublime and the myrrh gives it some depth. Notes are: creamy skin musk and blushing pink musk with soft sandalwood, white amber, dutiful myrrh, and star jasmine. Obatala - probably the most coconut-y of BPAL's coconut blends - this has sweet tones, but it's also creamy and slightly aquatic but very clean in feel - the coconut is gorgeous and reminds me very much of the pure coconut oil that I use. Notes are: milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water. I could go on... but I'll leave it there! Hopefully I've come up with some things that appeal. I heartily encourage you to try Kubla Khan though - I have a feeling you might like it, and although it has some of the notes you like it has a different feel to the perfumes you mentioned so it would be a good one to test yourself with. And of course there's Snake Oil - we always say everyone has to at least try this one, and I think you might like it. I see Black Pearl on your list of possible imps, and also Siren.. yep - good choices! Actually I don't think you can go too far wrong with pretty much all of the imps you're already considering. Finally, there's a huge 'For Sale' section here on the forum - if you find your list of want-to-try imps is getting a bit long, you should definitely check out forum sales because you can pick up imps from there at very fair prices... and the more you try, the more you'll learn about what's going to work for you. And just a last bit of advice - BPAL oils need to be tried differently to commercial spray-on perfumes - when you first start out testing BPALs, just apply a little bit (swipe the imp's wand cap over your skin just once or twice) - you'll be surprised how just a teensy bit of oil packs a lot of fragrance. And give it time to meld with your skin - the oil will often smell quite different from initial application to even just five minutes later, and the play of individual notes will change over its wear length, so always allow the oil to go through its full dry-down on your skin before you decide whether or not you like it. Good luck in your BPAL adventures! I hope you find some things you love edited for formatting mess-up!

Oh my. OH MY! This is exactly what I had hoped for... dark and heavy, rich and sumptuous. The vanilla is rich and strong - it's very much that vanilla extract smell more than a sweet vanilla smell - the type of vanilla extract that you pay a lot of money for... rich, slightly boozy, used by chefs with great caution and an eye dropper. But it's the type of vanilla I like... not too sweet, not really foody as such - just... pure bourbon vanilla. The molasses definitely translates to a spicy rum smell - it reminds me of the Hot Buttered Rum that came out last year, but minus the butter. It also reminds me of the rum note in Rangoon Riptide - it's not a young sweet rum, it's a deep dark old spicy rum like you'd find in the captain's quarters of a pirate ship. But I can see why the description says 'fermented molasses' rather than 'rum' because this actually does smell like molasses when I really pay attention - it's the smoky tones of the molasses that make the difference, and there's also a slight menthol or medicinal tone at the very top that I recognise as being a feature of the way molasses smells. But overall, the effect is very rum-like. As others have said, this is going to become even more amazing with some age behind it, because the brashness of the molasses will mellow out over time and become more syrupy. If you like your vanilla sweet and pretty as in blends like Celeste, this is not the BPAL for you. There's nothing soft and pretty about this at all really - it's a smack-you-in-the-face type of vanilla.. the kind of vanilla that stays in the room long after you've left. Luckily for me, that's exactly how I like my vanillas edited because I despise typos!

I musr have some sort of freaky skin chemistry, because my impressions of this are quite different to the previous reviews! At first, this smells like Johnson's Baby Shampoo, with herbs and almonds. If it had a colour, it would be gold (the oil actually is a golden yellow colour, but that's not what I mean). Actually... I know exactly what this smells like - California Poppy Hair Oil!! Does anyone even remember that? Anyway, it starts off all shampoo smelling but then the herbs come out and it develops a definite green/leafy tone. I get the civet that others have mentioned - there's a slight smokiness here too, which could be some vetiver or maybe a musk of some sort. It ends up smelling kind of poopy. It's interesting and all, but... I don't really like it, and neither do my cats.