styro

I realize this is an obvious suggestion, but have you tried Detox? With regard to the regular catalogue scents, I seem to recall a reviewer of Shanghai noting that it helped to curb her cravings. Best of luck!

Just to clarify...have you tried any of the scents that are specifically library/book-themed, e.g., Dee, Aziraphale, The Lurid Library? I realize that Dee has leather as a note, but I also find that it's one of those strong, long-lasting scents that holds up well against various environmental conditions. And Aziraphale is very clean, especially in the early stages, if that's what you're looking for. Another thematically-appropriate GC would be Clio: it's got amber, but the orange-lavender combination definitely makes it clean and fresh.

Same here! (And Tamora gets such raves--I really wanted to like it!) Hmm...maybe it's just my skin, then. I do keep scents topnote-y for a looong time, so perhaps I'm getting a prolonged version of the initial cologne-y phase that certain scents are described as having. I did order The Emathides based on your rec, so I'm looking forward to seeing how that one works out.

Thanks, everyone, for your suggestions and great stories! It's a bit of a conundrum, because--while there is a sailing connection that I'd like to draw on for her--she's also very much a girly-girl, and in my experience a lot of the pirate scents are either bold and woody or slightly masculine-cologne-ish. (Also, since I don't want to be forever known as The Bad Aunt, I need to avoid the ones with things like "harlot's perfume" in the description. *g*) I haven't tried Calico Jack yet: I'll definitely look into that one--thanks!

I really like Maiden layered with London: the rose of London is a bit much for me on its own, but it has a lovely softening effect on the sharp cleanness of Maiden...while Maiden, in turn, renders London a bit less like scented drawer-paper. (Conceptually, Maiden comes across to me as Jane Austen-like in its astringency, while "Maiden in London" is much more Georgette Heyer-ish. *g*)

Bliss was the first-ever chocolate-scented BPAL to be sampled by me and my enablees, and my foodie-scent-loving friend in particular was looking forward to it. I read out some review excerpts--of the "OMG chocolate truffles!" "Chocolate cake batter!" "Wonderful scrumptious CHOCOLATE!!!" variety--to the group, and then we ceremoniously opened the imp and swiped ourselves with our little cocktail sticks. "It...smells like poo!" cried my foodie friend, aghast. Around the table, people grimaced in response: "Yes, poo, definitely poo," they murmured unhappily as they fled to wash off their forearms. The poo-smell must have got better on at least a couple of us, because I see from my notes that my foodie friend and I both wound up giving Bliss a 2 out of 6 (mild dislike). My woodsy/clean/spicy friend and my rose/patchouli/spicy friend both had to wash their arms, and accordingly gave Bliss a 0 out of 6. One guest enablee gave it a 1 (she thought it smelled like potato chips) and the other loved it and gave it a 6...so at least one of us got some bliss out of Bliss.

A gentle white scent, breezes laced with the scent of springtime blooms and citrus. Lemon, lemon verbena, neroli, white musk, white florals, white sandalwood, China musk, bergamot and a drop of vanilla. Zephyr sounds like my kind of scent from the description, but something here smells very off on my skin. I'm guessing it's the musk: something similar happens to me with Black Pearl and Morocco--though not with all light/white/warm musk scents--so perhaps there's some subset of that category that I just can't wear. Like Black Pearl, Zephyr starts off better than Morocco on me, but the "off" note in it persists longer. I can't really describe this "off" note--it's not "sour milk" or "diapers" or anything I can put my finger on; it's just vaguely nauseating to me. I give Zephyr a 1 out of 6 (strong dislike). Surprisingly, my extremely picky rose/patchouli/spice-loving friend--who doesn't like citrus or vanilla and is nauseated by BPAL scents far more often than I am--gave Zephyr a 3 out of 6 (which is quite high for her). Skin chemistry is a mysterious thing. Edited to add scent description.

Such glowing reviews for Sundew! I was so excited about trying this one, but sadly my experience of the scent was very different. Sundew was a mildly pleasant wake-up morning scent on me at first, but then went a little funky on the drydown. I gave it a 3 ouf 6 (neutral/meh). Also out of 6... My foodie friend gave Sundew a 1 (strong dislike). My woodsy/clean/spicy friend gave it a 3. My rose/patchouli/spicy friend gave it a 2 initially, then a 0 (it was perky shampoo on her at first, then she had to wash it off). A guest enablee gave it a 3.5...so she got the imp.

I found Strangler Fig pleasant enough when I first tried it at a meet 'n' sniff, so I initially gave it a 3.5 out of 6--but on testing it again at leisure, and comparing it against other fig scents, I found that I'm not as fond of Strangler Fig as I am of Hetairae, The Apothecary, or Nemesis. Strangler Fig wafts like mad, which is nice, but there's a low-key but nevertheless somewhat cloying earthy-powdery sweetness to it that I'm not enjoying, so I'm giving it a 2 out of 6 (mild dislike). [Note: my skin does tend to amp the sweetness in scents.] Also out of 6... My foodie friend gave SF a 1 (strong dislike). My woodsy/clean/spicy friend gave it a 3 (neutral/meh). My rose/patchouli/spicy friend gave it a 0 (after smelling it in the imp, refused to try it on her skin). And a guest enablee also gave it a 0 (had to wash it off).

Another Canadian here, so I really wanted to love this scent... Vinland's clean and fresh to start, with a minty aspect to it which I imagine is from the birch bark; the blend becomes noticeably sweeter after a few minutes (my skin doing its usual sweetness-amping thing?), then gets very rosy--in a bath-beady way--on drydown. This is...not as bold as I was expecting. From the reviews and the concept, I was hoping for in-your-face icy-wind woodsy-meadowy outdoorsy freshness, but for me, Vinland pales next to Dublin or even Glasgow. In its minty-cool early stages, I give this a 3 out of 6, but the pretty rosiness of the drydown is really not me, so at that point, Vinland is more like a 2. My foodie-loving friend gives Vinland a 2 out of 6; my friend-who-also-loves-Dublin gives it a 1; and my rose/spice/patchouli-loving friend gives it a 1.

Red rose isn't a great note on me, and sure enough, Whip is "meh" on my skin--I give it a 2 out of 6. My foodie-loving friend gives it a 1; my clean-and-spicy friend gives it a 2.5; and my rose/spice/patchouli-loving friend gives it a 4 out of 6 (which is a really high score for her; she's hard to please). I was afraid the leather would turn her off, but she says she gets no leather from Whip--just rose, and she likes the rose.

I like mint scents, and this one's nice enough scent-wise, but I found myself too weirded-out by the name and concept to wear it. I gave it to friends who are made of sterner stuff, and they said it was a great scent for the oil burner. So, 2 out of 6 from me, and at least 4 out of 6 from them. *shudder*

I may be putting imp packs together for a couple of nieces, and I've taken note of the earlier recommendations in this thread, but I just wanted to ask whether anyone has any recs for pre-teen-appropriate scents from among the newer GCs (or easier-to-find LEs). Hermia, for example, sounds great, but what about Helena? And would any of the new flowers in Rappaccini's Garden be suitable? (Do I need to watch out for inappropriate double entendres in any of the names? *g*) And a more specific question: out of all the nautical/pirate/sailing-themed scents available, which strikes you as most wearable by a preteen girl? Thanks in advance for any suggestions!

Queen Gertrude is the scent that introduced me to the dreaded "going soapy" reaction: she was pleasant enough on my skin for about half an hour--then, soap. (Useful for washing off the rank sweat of an enseamed bed, perhaps, but not otherwise enjoyable.) 1 out of 6 from me...and from five of my enablees, QG got three 2s and two 1s. Sorry, beauteous majesty of Denmark.

I test BPALs with a few enablee friends: we all have different tastes, so it's not unusual for only one out of the four of us to like a scent. It is rare for all of us to strongly dislike a scent (and usually, in such cases, jasmine is the culprit). And then there's Aeval. Before swapping away a frimp I later received of this scent, I actually had to come back and read the positive reviews in this thread to remind myself that skin chemistry is different and that many people love Aeval--because I personally have had such a negative experience with it. My three regular enablees and I all rated it a 1 out of 6, while two other friends each gave it a 0. I get a slightly sharp/astringent/bitter herbal note from Aeval at first, combined with a sweetness--the sharp note fades on drydown to leave the sweetness behind. This is one of those scents that smells different on my skin and in the air, though: still too sharp and bitter up close, definitely too sweet when wafting. I've enjoyed three out of Aeval's four listed notes in other scents, so I'm guessing my problem is with the sweet pea. My enablees found it soapy. I have an ammo box for "misfit BPALs" that didn't really work for me or any of my friends. Aeval, however, I keep in a separate container entirely so that its scent can't get on even my unloved imps. (Yep, on the Island of my Misfit BPALs, Aeval is Piggy.)

I tend to think of Jacob's Ladder 05 as my archetypal or reference amber as well (though I know that its goldenness owes a lot to the other resins in the scent). Wearing it again recently, I was surprised to find that it wasn't as all-caps GOLDEN to my nose as I'd always thought of it before--it seems mellower now, leaning more towards the benzoin/tonka than the rockrose. I've been trying on my amber scents again, trying to get a feeling for this note. I started with Brisingamen, with its "five ambers" and Aglaea, with its "three golden ambers": it sounds like these should both be pretty darned ambery, right?--and yet, when I first sniffed them, I was completely distracted by the myrtle, especially in Brisingamen (I'd never smelled myrtle before, and I was really taken with its chilly herbal freshness). Testing them again now, I still don't read them as primarily "amber" scents, at least not at first: with Aglaea, the peach is most evident right off the bat, with just a breath of a chill from the myrtle, and there's an interesting interplay between that faint chilliness and the warmth of the peach and amber. In Brisingamen, that myrtle/amber interplay is even more pronounced--Brisingamen is primarily about the myrtle to me, with a hint of spiciness that must be the carnation. As Aglaea dries down, I do get a more ambery impression from it, as the peach aspect of the scent blends into an overall goldenness (as with Jacob's Ladder, I wonder how much of my impression of "amberiness" here is owing to other notes in the scent). Trying on some specific subsets of my amber scents... Egyptian Amber (Pumpkin Queen, Snake Charmer): Comparing these to a few golden-amber or unspecified-amber scents, the Egyptian-amber scents did come across as richer, smoother, and darker to my nose, from topnote to late drydown. Black / Grey / White Amber (Titus Andronicus, Verdandi / Lyonesse / 51: Though the black-amber Titus Andronicus and Verdandi don't strike me as particularly "dark" scents on their own, there is a definite darkness to them in comparison to the grey-amber Lyonesse and the (even lighter) white-amber 51. Lyonesse is the scent that strikes me as the most "ambery" of the four, and Titus Andronicus is the revelation in this comparison--I've always thought of it as simply an orangey version of Haunted, but there's definitely more going on in this scent. In Haunted, the "soft golden" amber is almost completely overwhelmed for me by the powderiness of the black musk, but in Titus, the black amber is holding its own against the black musk, and there's much more depth and complexity apparent from the other notes. Sheer / White Amber (Manhattan, 51): If I hadn't been going through my amber scents, I never would have thought of comparing Manhattan and 51, but there's actually a remarkable sort of family resemblance between them--they both have bright citrus playing against a woody base, with that pale amber in the background. Manhattan (which I find myself thinking of in the context of the Manhattan Project in this comparison *g*) is very much the smoother of the two, with 51 quite sharp and nostril-stinging by contrast--I think something in 51 sets off my allergies, actually. And, while I think of these as light scents, their smoothness and prickliness are both still very detectable on my skin over twelve hours late. And I realize I haven't said anything about my favourite amber in all the above, so I'll end with a plug for the ever-wonderful Sin, which gives me my cinnamon fix without burning my skin!

Oh man, now I really want to try The Emathides! More amber chatter...a little while back, during a discussion of resins and incense, I put on every amber scent I owned all at once just to try to get a better handle on BPAL's amber note(s). I remember that one of the things I learned at the time was that amber + lavender (or possibly amber + lavender + moss?) = men's cologne, which is probably one of the most basic scent equations in perfumery, only I hadn't been aware of it before. And Saint-Germain, I think, exemplifies that equation (gilded amber, hypnotic lavender, brash carnation and deep mosses): it's a very classic-men's-cologne scent, clean-lined and subtle. Trying it against Old Scratch (a lavender fougere with tonka, amber, rosewood and a whiff of diabolical patchouli), currently the only other amber-lavender scent in my collection, was fascinating: I had thought of Old Scratch as quite a masculine scent--in fact, it's the scent I layer with Dorian in order to make Dorian smell more masculine-retro-metrosexual on me--but, next to Saint-Germain, Old Scratch smells positively girly...sugar-candied and floral, drying down to a powdery rosy-lavender, very Crabtree & Evelyn but with depth, and with the amber aspect of the scent very muted in comparison to SG. Off to compare more amber scents! (I'm really looking forward to trying my black ambers versus my white and grey ones. *g*)

I've been comparing my "in contention for Top Ten" scents against each other recently (in order to decide on my current list to submit) and I was surprised to find that Nyarlathotep kept beating out other scents that I'd thought I liked better. I definitely think it has something to do with the time of year--Nyarlathotep has sort of a late-summer camping-by-the-water feel to it that's really appealing to me right now. Also, I got my first sniff of Red Moon 2007 last week and immediately went in search of a bottle. I never do that. Again, I think that was a case of it not just being a great scent in itself, but also perfectly suited to the season.

Just popping back into this thread to add that in a recent trial with friends, The Jersey Devil showed surprisingly strong crossover appeal, working really well for all of my enablees. Also, in a recent testing of "spring/summery GC scents," the two scents with the most crossover appeal proved to be Croquet and Tweedledum. (Note: I test scents with three friends--a foodie-scent-lover, a spicy-scent-lover, and a friend with hard-to-pin-down tastes. Usually my first two friends hate each other's favourite scents, so when a scent comes along that works for all of us? That's pretty rare.)

Testing: Lab frimp, received June 2007 Skin Chemistry/Scent Preferences: My skin keeps scents fresh and topnote-y and amps their sweetness. My ideal BPAL is probably a fresh woodsy/outdoorsy floral, but I can also do sweet, fruity, vanilla, aquatic, and spicy. My friend Verona's skin softens scents and frequently swallows them up entirely in the first few minutes. Verona likes spicy and rose scents, hates most foody scents, and is much, much pickier than I am when it comes to BPAL (she frequently has to wash scents off or simply refuses to try them). Results: On me, Horreur Sympathique had some interesting notes, but was too sweet, verging on cloying, in the wet stage (which, on me, is very long). The wine aspect of it reminded me a bit of The Black Tower and, like The Black Tower, Horreur Sympathique was a mild "no" for me--say, a 2.5 out of 6. On Verona, Horreur Sympathique wasn't too sweet at all, and she enjoyed the fact that it seemed to have some staying power (i.e., didn't disappear into her skin right away). It smelled better-blended on her skin than on mine. She gave it a 3 out of 6--which for her is really positive--and is keeping the imp to try further.

When I first tried Odin (Excolo), it seemed to me like a lighter version of the TAL Determination. In a side-by-side comparison, Determination is definitely the deeper of the two and has a cool evergreen note to it, whereas Odin is very warm and golden by contrast, but to my nose, they do have a similar earthy greenness...and Odin even inspires me with a bit of Determination's get-up-and-go.

Also Jazz Funeral, Jolly Roger, and Santo Domingo.

Odin is a magnificent golden-green amber, with herbal notes that add a cool freshness to what is otherwise a very warm scent.

Having read that thread through to the end now myself, I see that the lab is now recommending complete avoidance during pregnancy rather than just steering people away from certain oils, so please take my list above as hypothetical, as I wouldn't wish to suggest that someone go against the lab's advice. It's a complicated issue and different sources give different advice. Some suggest using certain EOs at half-strength during pregnancy, but--unlike in aromatherapy, where you can control the proportions of essential oil to carrier oil by diluting it yourself--with BPAL, we don't really know the concentration of any particular oil in a blend to begin with. And, while one can steer clear of problematic notes that are listed in scent descriptions (as I tried to do in the list above, though I missed the myrrh in Bastet, so I'm going to go back and edit that one out; and I included a couple of rose scents, which should apparently be avoided during the first four months of pregnancy), one never knows what unlisted notes might be present in a scent. So I can fully understand the lab wishing to protect themselves legally by taking the safest route on this point.

My first suggestion would be to try some of the lighter musk scents, as they won't be heavy/spicy, but should be quite long-lasting because of the musk base. Scents with vanilla bases also tend to be quite long-lasting...so really, the first scent I'd suggest to you is Dorian, with its lingering vanilla-musk drydown. Apart from that, what lasts longest on you tends to be a matter of skin chemistry. There's a thread discussing long-lasting oils here... http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=38...hl=last+longest ...and some of the lighter oils most often suggested there are Dragon's Milk, O, Dorian, and Snow White. Other mentions include Antique Lace, Bordello, Dublin, Embalming Fluid, Haunted, The Hesperides, Imp, Intrigue, The Lion, Morocco, Queen Mab, Swank, Tamora, Van Van, Xiuhtecuhtli, and Zephyr. (Some of these may read as "heavy" to you--it depends on your skin chemistry.) ETA: I realize that Queen Mab contains jasmine, but it never registers to my nose and I'm one of those people on whom jasmine usually turns to horrible soap. You might also want to try Eat Me, Tweedledee, Lyonesse, Obatala, or Shoggoth.