Mousesong

Seconding both Coiled Serpent and Rumpelstilzchen. Rumpel is less straight-up patchouli but it's definitely smoky and dark, if that's what she's after.

The boyfriend said, "You smell like Earthbound." Presumably he meant "sans the hermit crab stink and the odor of closet-yuppie trustafarians with terrible customer service skills." I like it. The musk keeps it just enough in usual-perfume territory to make it work appropriate, and the dragon's blood keeps it unique. My boyfriend's wrong, though. It doesn't smell like Earthbound. Smells like Renfaire.

Lustrous, sanguine, soft and lavish: soft orris, blood musk, and coconut. Dragon's Blood to the fore! I've tried a couple of DB scents and now I want to try the entire Ars Draconis. Orris tends to go violet for me as well, I am learning, and violet reads as fruit to my nose, so this is an extremely soft fruit blend, tempered with the musk. It's almost a bit old ladyish, but in a good way, not in a hold-your-nose way. It's not spectacular, but it doesn't need to be. BPAL's coconut does weird things on me sometimes, and sure enough it's pretty much invisible here, cropping up every now and again and smelling distinctly earthy beneath all the violet-and-fruit. Really beautiful. Still wavering on whether it's a keeper for me, but I'll use the imp up at least.

I find it slightly mortifying that I don't like most of what's been proposed here other than Alice and Morocco. What is up with my skin?!

Searched the thread and no dice D: Anyone know if there's a good GC equivalent to Harvest Moon 08? I've become infatuated with it. I know it's not that expensive but if I can get my hands on GC imps that'll tide me over until... oh, January or so, which will be the next time I can afford a bottle.

Ha! I came in here to rec Hellfire, but I see you've already got that down. Actual comment from bystander after accidental overapplication of Hellfire: "Has... has someone been smoking really expensive cigars in the breakroom?"

This is the sort of thing that appeals to me strongly I may have accidentally repeated some themes but I think I didn't. I made *rules* for myself. Impable GCs only, common knowledge only (nothing that your average well-educated person, as BPAL fans/potential fans tend to be, would typically have to wiki to get the reference, unless it's self explanatory to the theme like Antikythera Mechanism which fits even if you don't get the reference), six items each. BESTIARY - Jabberwocky - Loup Garou - The Unicorn - Black Phoenix - Dragon's Blood (for lack of a just-plain-dragon) - Chimera I think this could be nicely given with any book about mythological creatures, or you could package it up with one of those Care of Magical Creatures notebooks you see all over Etsy. CABINET OF CURIOSITIES (I know, I know... CD has one already. GC!) - Wolf's Heart - Black Opal - Dragon's Claw - The Antikythera Mechanism - The Robotic Scarab - Mandrake To be given, naturally, with real curiosities: feathers, turtle shells, strange stones, old mechanical oddities, or perhaps a taxidermied creature in a bell jar. LOOKS CAN BE DECEIVING - Poisoned Apple - Dana O'Shee - Mata Hari - Intrigue - Siren - Snake Oil ... With a hollowed-out book and a poison ring. Naturally. If you ditch the "common knowledge" rule, Kumiho is a shoe-in for this list as well. I'd replace Intrigue with it, or possibly Snake Oil.

Grr. There's a line in an Iron & Wine song that goes, "There is a house by the sea/the scent of roses and raspberry leaves/and there is smoke in my nose" and if that's not begging for me to try and synaethetically experience it via BPAL I don't know which end is up. Anyway, I've got smoke and roses covered abundantly (and even the sea, if I really want to brave it), but to my shame I have no idea what raspberry leaves smell like. Anyone? This is going to end poorly. Just thinking of sitting there in a cloud of Hellfire, Othello, and The Seam Foams Blood is kinda making my stomach turn

THIS IS GENIUS. I am gonna try this.

Just throwing in another vote for SGA if you can track it down. It turned into Jolly Ranchers on me but it started out as (and stayed, on other people) a frigid just-bitten apple for me. Also I appear to be in the minority on this one but Ouija is almost painfully, nose-itchingly cold on me.

Bumpity bump. It may be just me but every time I put on House of Night it is deeply, richly, darkly purple.

My brother who is awesome* picked me up a bottle of this at Whole Foods. Some time after my nose shut down when I was trying scents there earlier this year I was torn between Morocco and Crocodile and ended up with the former, and Crocodile has been HAUNTING ME ever since. I was slightly worried that what I got from Crocodile wouldn't be what I remembered (which was "chocolate trees**"), and sure enough, there's more mint and less sweetness than I recall. This is not a problem, though--it's every bit as rich and fantasy-world as I remembered. This scent is heavy on the chocolate and woody notes for me, and light-handed on the mint and pistachio. As other reviewers have mentioned, it's so well-blended it gets hard to pick out individual notes and you're left with the same general impression of "chocolate trees," at least on my skin. Weirdly, Crocodile is almost a bit raunchy, in a way. It's incredibly earthy and brown and rich and on me it treads a delicate line between earthy and unwashed. It treads it successfully, though; I've gotten a couple of positive comments and I definitely can't stop snorfing where it's rubbed off on my scarf. Overall if you're like me and woods adore your skin chemistry, you'd do well to try Crocodile. I've found that if you want to kick the sweetness up and get more Andes Mint and less tree, layering it with Morocco is... really, really good. REALLY, really good. Try it. Overall: Main notes hitting my nose are woodsy, mossy smells tempered with a little bittersweet cocoa. Underlying (put your nose on your wrist) notes are almost entirely mint. Staying power is proving to be below-average on me, as is throw, but my skin is incredibly dry right now. "Clothes cling" factor (my favourite aspect of BPAL, I'm learning) is very high. * He said he was embarrassed because he took the tester up to the counter. Haha, poor guy. ** Mental picture too... awesome... to stand...

The ginger definitely goes lemon for me as well, which is a bit of a shame. It's a lovely blend, though--the only milk blend I've tried that hasn't gone sour on me. Honey and I nearly always play well together, so this is not surprising. It's a very clean, light scent--unconventional enough to be interesting, but conventional enough you could wear it to, say, a job interview. The word I keep wanting to use is "pretty." As this dries down, on my skin at least, it becomes very difficult to pick out individual notes. It's just a creamy-yellow, pale sort of scent that sticks close to the skin--throw is minimal and very light. I can't wait to try this as a room scent, or to dab some on my pillows.

I agree with the initial Twilight suggestion. Just wanted to toss that in

Overall impressions: Dish soap, but not in the bad way you normally associate with that term. Wet: CITRUSwhoosh, a warm, vibrant citrus, not the cool kind I was expecting--I expect that that is the benzoin and tonka doing their work. Drying down: The tonka has blossomed beautifully. This became complex very rapidly. I probably wouldn't have pegged this as tonka, with my immature nose, without having seen it listed already, but that is unmistakably what it is. There's a sort of warm vanilla-y smell that isn't tonka which I am going to assume is the benzoin. Dry: The waft on this is mostly warm, vibrant tangerine. Closer to the skin it's all tonka, with a slightly acidic edge from the citrus, and a smoky twist. The smoke occasionally comes out in the throw--tangerines and smoke! It's gorgeous. The scent clinging close to my skin is almost, surprisingly, feral--not a word I normally associate with blends that don't have a ton of musk, but oppoponax is always slightly dangerous-smelling on me, and tonka can be, depending on what it's sitting around with. Citrus tends to vanish into my skin after just a few minutes, but I've been really impressed with the wearlength on Sumo, and a bit, er, overimpressed with the throw--maybe I'm just amping something like crazy, but I feel like I am sitting in a cloud of Sumo after just one swipe of the imp wand. After a while the smoke and tonka mellow and this becomes pretty dish-soapy, but not in an offputting way. It's quite clean and lovely and if I had more than a half an imp I'd be scenting my furniture with it--it would make a nice room smell. I don't play well with jasmine, so that note is always a gamble, and luckily I don't get it at all out of this. I do, however, amp smoky smells, so YMMV. Clean, but mature! More complex than you'd expect from the wet stages. Happy smell, but not ecstatic--just smiling a little.

See, this list, and the fact that it echoes lots of other proposals here, just proves to me that my nose is broken I haven't tried PQ or IDFB but I have tried the rest and didn't like any of them D: What am I missing out on? Stupid nose. The only ones I've personally tried that have gone over well with non-BPALites on a consistent basis were Morocco (everyone loves Morocco), Dorian (everyone loves Dorian), The Bow and Crown of Conquest (everyone loves B+C provided I am the one wearing it; YMMV), and Dee (mostly for the guys to wear, but lots of girls get very excited over it too). Antikythera Mechanism is, I feel, a good "unconventional" scent--it's delicious, but it's a good one, I think, for people who are looking for something daring and different, but familiar--if that makes sense! Morocco and Dorian are definitely good enabling blends. Dorian was especially successful for me :nods: How could I forget? Not on me, but on practically everyone else, Miskatonic U is an excellent enabler.

The lurid library. Or if they have high presence, Dee. It doesn't smell like books, it smells like sexy old things. Darklings FTW! I agree that Dee would be a great Darkling Antiquarian. Perfect, really--maybe that's why I love Dee so much. It's too bad Zuko was all the way back in April; Sunbird would be perfect for him--or at least the way Sunbird smells on me would be. EDIT: Didn't realize that was from all the way back in March oh well, still a good rec :nod:

While it's not actually autumn-smelling in and of itself, Dee is the best scent to smell snuggled up into a light scarf or to smell lingering on your peacoat when you're out taking a walk in October... oi. I don't know that I will ever be able to wear it outside of autumn. A favourite scent for my favourite season, though: that makes sense

It's a shame that I soap up aquatics as much as I do, but I haven't found a way around it, and I never get the throw/lasting power I want if I put it into a locket or on my clothes. With that disclaimer out of the way: dry, SFB is straight-up Irish Spring and huffing an old change jar (I do so love metallic notes, but not with Irish Spring) on me This is more disappointing than I expected, because: Wet, like the second it touches my skin, SFB is INCREDIBLE, and smells very convincingly of blood and salt air. If you have good luck with lockets/etc. I'm going to strongly recommend this one. I am exploring other ways to wear it to see if I can kill the Irish Spring note because this blend is strikingly evocative--definitely one of the most accurate BPAL blends I've tried, until my skin murders it.

Didn't see this up in the thread already (ran a search) so if I missed it, apologies, but... I recently obtained an imp of Jingo-Kogo and... ohmygod. The sender told me it was similar to Haloes, but I'm actively looking for any other similarities. I've checked through the review thread but everyone seems pretty certain it's in a class by itself, with slight similarities to GV, Haloes, and Chimera :sob: I have fallen DESPERATELY in love with Jingo Kogo. The imp is empty; I keep it in a tin by my computer to randomly sniff. That is how much I love it. I want to smell like Jingo Kogo every single day but it's extremely unlikely that I am ever going to be able to get my hands on a bottle and most of the comparisons are to also-hard-to-finds. BPAL army, mobilize! D: Please?

I know the original replier already dealt with this, but just for the record, the anise in Kyoto is both gorgeous (if you like anise) and S-T-R-O-N-G. If you're an aniseed fan I can firmly recommend it. On a couple of my friends so far this is almost an aniseed single note, lightened up with florals.

I have to say that the way aquatics smell in the bottle fascinates me. But every time I put any "ocean" aquatic on it goes straight to Irish Spring. The Sea Foams Blood went from gorgeous to Irish Spring + penny jar in a few seconds D: I'm getting discouraged about trying any more aquatics... but all these things about the snow note intrigue me. Can anyone give me a more concrete description of the snow note--is it minty, or what? Not Irish Spring, I hope...

Old bump! One of my friends is a newbie BPALer and curious about fruit threads so I'm going ahead and bumping this *raspberries** cos she's going to do it if I don't, and I want to point out that although no fruit is listed, House of Night has a GORGEOUS, luscious fruit note--I have no idea what it is (grapes? plum? something LUSH) and it's worth checking into if you like fruit, especially the darkly juicy kind. I'd solidly class this as a fruit scent rather than a floral, despite the listed notes. * no pun intended EDIT: *raspberries louder* Shoulda been less timid.

I bought Morocco at the Roswell Whole Foods. Full confession: after I bought it I longed for How Doth the Little Crocodile and hated myself for succumbing to peer pressure ("Why would you want to smell like chocolate and bark?" Because I do, darn it. It's gorgeous). However! Having now had the time to timidly get to know Morocco I am pleased to report that I am very satisfied with my purchase and do not foresee any immediate need to swap the bottle for Crocodile or anything else. This is a very PINK blend to me, but a rich, salmon-y pink, not a girly frou-frou pink. Initially it's almost entirely vanilla, but I get a light floral off the carnation (not so much the spice and clove, more the pink flower smell), and although I cannot actively pick up the spices on my skin, I can tell that they're in there, doing their job, lending maturity and depth to what would otherwise be a very girly and innocent smell. The sandalwood crops up more on the drydown but remains, on me, very gentle. I've learned I can't wear Morocco on the insides of my wrists. I don't know if it's the constant contact with my desk or what, but for some reason it immediately goes sharp powder. Inside my elbows, in my hair, on my clothes, or on my neck, it never goes even faintly powdery--the only lingering note is a rich, smoky vanilla shot through with pink carnation (nom, carnation), and the spices become slightly more pronounced, but only slightly. Morocco is both intriguing and very gentle. I love putting it on the ends of my hair so that if I turn my head I get a soft waft of it. It manages not to go play-doh on me like vanilla + spice normally does (curse you, Snake Oil!) and is an all-around pleasant scent, just mainstream enough not to scare anyone, but just unusual enough to make you look twice. I can see, now, why it's so popular--the more I wear it, the more I like it. The best thing about Morocco is that it makes a cloud of scent without having immense throw: it's like wrapping yourself up in a pink-cloud blanket. It reminds me (and reminded me immediately, in a visceral way) of that scene in Jane Eyre when Mr. Rochester is telling Adele that he is going to carry Jane away to the moon, and have her wear the sunset clouds as a gown, and a rainbow as a scarf. Maybe if he really had, this is how she would smell <3 EDIT: I changed my mind. The second best thing about Morocco is that. The best thing is the smell that it leaves on your clothes or scarves or the pillow you were using, two days later: it smells like milk and cinnamon. In the words of a friend, "I really want to gnaw on your wrist."

Okay, I am REALLY starting to be convinced that my nose is broken. I do get both citrus and a creamy, vanilla-y smell from Jingo Kogo, so I can see where the orange creamsicle comparisons are coming from. But it wasn't the first thought into my head--although, to be fair, the first thought in my head was "oh no, why do I love something this rare this much?!" The blend remains relatively unmorphed on me from imp to drydown, except for the sandalwood becoming stronger/being less drowned out. It's cool and light and wonderful, with a depth to it that surprised me at first, given the citrus-y topnotes. Maybe I am insane, but I distinctly smelled something almost anise-y (the "something astringent" from the other reviews?) when I put this on, and it lingers. It's extremely faint, but it's there. I also keep catching wafts of something that reminds me very strongly of cucumber--in fact, the notes I jotted when I first tried this weren't orange creamsicle, they were "anise, cucumber." After that I added "citrus, and vanilla." There is, as others have noted, a light floral, but while I am crappy at identifying all notes I am totally useless at florals, so I couldn't hazard a guess as to what exactly it is. My nose has a habit of confusing very light, clean florals with cucumbers, so maybe that's where I got that impression. The drydown, I do get a sandalwood base, very clearly. Whether it's actually sandalwood or not I don't know, but the rest of the reviews make me feel comfortable with calling it that. The vanilla ripens up beautifully too, with wear, and it becomes just a bit easier to see where orange creamsicle is coming from. I could wear this every day, quite happily. I don't know if it would ever dethrone my favourites, but it is stunning. I'll hoard this imp up drop by drop. I've heard a couple people compare this to Haloes. Guess I better try to get my hands on some. The more I wear this the more obsessed I become. So gorgeous. Seriously, where am I getting the anise from?