wonderfinch

I've recently gotten kind-of obsessed with BPAL, and the oils have definitely spoiled me-- I can't stand commercial perfumes now, I feel like they all smell too "chemically" for me, and I've started having a really difficult time picking out the scents from the alcohol and other things that are tossed in there. That being said, there are a couple of commercial scents that I just adore, and would love to find in BPAL form. Chief among these is Yves Saint Laurent's Baby Doll-- I love that scent, but I just can't get over the alcohol mixed in with the oils. According to the YSL site, the top note is grapefruit, the middle notes are rose and currant, and the base note is sandalwood-- though, to tell the truth, the currant is pretty faint, and the roses completely dominate the scent. Anyone know if there are any similar BPAL scents (not even with the same note, just the same sort of feel)?

I bought this bottle on a whim, and I really like it <3 In the bottle: At first sniff, this smelled like very badly burnt sugar mixed with strawberry leaves-- a definite cooking disaster. Wet: This smells like brown sugar now, with a floral muskiness lurking underneath. Within ten minutes, though, the brown sugar scent has faded to the background, and it's a lovely, sensual floral scent with an extra kick of sweetness. It bears almost no resemblance to the scent in the bottle, to tell the truth. An hour later: The musk has taken center stage now, and I'm really enjoying it. I'm not really catching the orchid (perhaps because I'm not too familiar with it as a note), but the violet scent is prominent, as well. The rose is lurking in the background, and complements the other scents nicely. Several hours later: It's still the musk-and-violets-with-a-hint-of-rose, but the brown sugar has reappeared, and the strawberry has started to come out, making this scent both Eighteen hours later: This perfume has some serious lasting power. I applied it at six o'clock in the evening, right after hopping out of the shower, and I went to a dinner party, fell asleep for a few hours, cooked burritos from 1h00 to 7h00-- I must have washed my hands and arms at least fifteen times, if not more-- and then fell asleep until noon. And when I sat down to finish writing this, I could still catch a whiff of this scent. Over the course of twelve hours, though, the musk has faded, and the violets and sugared strawberries are the main components. Overall: I ordered this based on its name alone, with barely a glance at the notes, and I think it proved a good choice. I really adore the drydown, where both the sweet and sultry notes blend seamlessly into an interesting, unusual, and gorgeous whole. I'm especially glad that the strawberry note worked out-- I was afraid that it might turn into something saccharine and disgusting on me, but it's merely another nice component in one of Beth's gorgeous blends. Definitely the best spur-of-the-moment-purchase I've made in a while :3

I love, love, love this scent <3 In the bottle: It smells just like pomegranate-and-currant candy: a little sugary and a little tart. I can also catch a whiff of something that smells like green apple. At first sniff, this definitely wasn't one of my favourites: It smelled like candy in the worse sense, all artificial flavours and preservatives. And no-one wants that. Wet: The green apple vanishes, and now it's all red currant and pomegranate, along with the pear. It smells like nice candy now, the sort that's made with all-natural imported ingredients and costs $50 per pound. One Hour Later:This has mysteriously morphed into something that smells sensual, rather than saccharine. The pear and pomegranate notes are nearly gone now, and the sugar has died down a bit. The currant has really taken over, and it's been joined by a scent that comes very close to being a rose note. I've heard this scent described as a sort of "candy musk," and I'd really have to say that's a fair assessment. Several Hours Later: Still that lovely currant-and-rose combo, though the sugar has faded a little and now it's a pleasant fruity-floral combo more than anything else. I am definitely a fan. Overall: Someone suggested this perfume to me as a substitute for one of my favourite commercial perfumes (YSL Baby Doll), and I have to say that I think it's a great replacement <3 Candy Phoenix has a base that feels super-similar to the rose-and-currant combo of my old favourite, with a lovely sugary kick to it. It's a sweet, bubbly, and delicious scent that comes across as extremely sophisticated, and I think I'm in love with it.

I hated the blend of civet and florals in this scent-- even though it's not one of the notes, the combination smells exactly like patchouli when I put it on. And while patchouli isn't a scent that I necessarily hate, but it is a scent that I don't really care for on myself. This scent isn't for me at all.

Thank you for the suggestion! I just picked up a bottle of Candy Phoenix, and I'd definitely agree: Though it's missing that tart grapefruit note, the currant-and-sugar combo is similar to Baby Doll. To be honest, I rather prefer Candy Phoenix more

I tried a couple of the methods suggested, but none of them really worked :[ Even the toothpick method was a no-go-- I'm not co-ordinated enough to catch a drop of the oil out of the bottle and get it squarely on my skin (without dousing my desk and carpet, that is!). I found another solution, though: paintbrushes work really well for the larger bottles. They don't tend to drip oil, and since I'm definitely more of a dabber, I can just brush on a few stripes of whatever scent I feel like.

@ paperrose: Thanks for all the suggestions! I was thinking Croquet sounded similar-ish to what I wanted, but none of the others even occurred to me-- I'll definitely have to give them a shot! Venice sounds especially promising, and it's been on my "to-try" list. @ allidavie: Oh, thank you! I think you've created a monster-- that sounds so promising, and I'll probably spend the next few weeks trying to track down a bottle (and then trying to track down the money to pay for it, haha).

I'm looking for something similar to YSL's Baby Doll-- the original is just too chemically for me after using BPAL oils :[ The notes are: Top: Grapefruit Middle: Rose, Currant Base: Sandalwood Can anyone think of something?

In the imp: I'm definitely a floral girl, and I have an admitted fear of musk-- but, since this is supposed to be a rosy scent (and since it was a freebie from the lab), I figure I'll give it a try. It just takes me about a week before I can work up the courage to put it on-- the scent from the imp isn't rose at all, it's just musky, with virtually no rose scent in the background. Wet: On my skin, the musk tones down a little bit, but there's still not much rose. Instead, I smell like incense and greenery: dark, evil greenery, like the thornbushes around Sleeping Beauty's castle. I can catch a tiny whiff of rose every now and then, but it's not the focal point of the scent. Not at the moment, anyways. Twenty minutes later: The greenery is starting to tone down a bit, too, and it's blending gorgeously with the musk. I'm really starting to smell the rose, now, and even though I'm a huge fan of traditional rose scents, I love the dark, cloying scent of this rose. It's delicate, yet dark and almost foreboding. Not the type of rose you'd ever want to pick out of a garden, that's for sure. Several hours later: The roses have come out even more, and the musk has retreated almost entirely. I am definitely enjoying the combination of roses and dark greenery. Overall: Even though I was a little afraid to try this one, I really like the way it smells wet-- I've never had a perfume that smells of greenery before, and I must say that I was rather pleasantly surprised by it. Not to mention that I LOVE how it smells when it's dry-- the roses really come out, but in a pleasantly unconventional way. I'm normally a fan of more traditional rose scents (Two, Five, and Seven was my previous favourite), but I was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed this scent. I'll probably be upgrading to an actual bottle sometime in the near future.

I ordered this unsniffed, and while I wasn't sure about it originally (I was actually afraid to wear it for about a week!), I think it may be growing on me. In the bottle: All I can smell here is coconut, with a weirdly muddled fruity background. I HATE coconut like nobody's business, so I was extremely disappointed upon receiving this. Wet: Unfortunately, it's still a little on the coconutty side. The mixed fruits have stepped forward, though, and I spend my first twenty minutes wearing this feeling as though I've bathed in tropical punch. Half an hour later: The coconut is still there, but the punch scent has all-but-vanished and I'm left with a pleasant scent of crisp white flowers and that unfortunate coconut. Several hours later: I'm still smelling the coconut, but it's given way to the florals now, and I probably wouldn't notice if I didn't hate the scent so damn much. There's a slightly cool scent lurking in the background by this point, too, and the overall impression reminds me of the scent of snow in a cactus garden. I'm starting to catch whiffs of pine and other herbs as well, which blend beautifully with the white florals and all-but-obscure that stupid coconut. Overall: I'm really disappointed by the pervasive coconut scent-- my body chemistry tends to bring out anything that remotely resembles a food, though, so it's not the oil's fault that I smell like coconut cream pie left out in a snowy, cactus-filled pine forest. Luckily, that starts to fade after an hour or two, and I have a feeling that the coconut may mellow out a little more as the oil ages. For the time being, I think, this one's a keeper. EDIT: The coconut just DOES NOT FADE on me. I went to bed last night with a stomachache, and when I woke up, all I could smell was coconut-- and this was over twenty-four hours after applying the perfume! I want so badly to like this, though, so I'll really just have to hang on to mine and hope it gets better with time (because, aside from the coconut, it's an absolutely perfect scent!).

I wanted really, really badly to like this one, just because of the name. In retrospect, ordering a 5mL of it was probably not a great decision. In the Bottle: I can't even smell the plum-- the carnations have completely taken over, and it's all cinnamon and spice, with a whiff of something vaguely fruity lurking in the background. Wet: The plum has really come out now, and I smell like a high-end Christmas candle-- not a waxy, cheap, too-strong candle, you understand, but a candle all the same. Twenty Minutes Later: I really do smell like I've spent too much time in a Christmas craft shop. The boy who sits in front of me in my first class of the day is very obviously disturbed by it. I don't blame him. Several Hours Later: The carnation has really died down now, and now it's all plum and chrysanthemums with a hint of spicy musk in the background. I'm a fan, though I'm not all that sure how I feel about having had to wait three hours for the scent to be really enjoyable-- and I'm especially not sure how I feel about having smelled like Ye Olde Christmas Shoppe in the meanwhile. And unfortunately, the scent itself has really faded by this point. There's just a bare suggestion of its scent now. Overall, I enjoy it, but I'm not sure I'll be wearing this too often. The scent eventually dries down into something lovely, but I'm not altogether sure I enjoy sitting through the first hours of craft-shop scent-- especially since it fades so quickly!

I'm a huge fan of rose scents, so I couldn't say no to this :3 In the bottle: It smells like rose-scented Windex. Not a good first impression, but there's a gorgeous rosy scent underneath the first whiff of chemicals. Wet: The roses become a little more prominent when I put this on, but god, I smell like Windex, and I'm not too happy about it. Twenty minutes later:No more chemicals-- now, I just smell like I've burst forth from the ground in a rose garden. I can't pick out any of the individual roses, it's just a riot of petals. And I don't think I mind. Several Hours Later: It's dried down to a nice, powdery rose scent. The petals aren't so much a riot as a nice, polite tea party, and they've settled down wonderfully. Unfortunately, the scent faded pretty quickly. I'm kind of a dabber, though (I apply my BPAL with paintbrushes), so I wasn't too surprised. When I slathered some on the next day after my shower (at 6h00), I could still smell the roses at 19h00. I'll find a way to get it to stay longer, but it's definitely a keeper.