ReallyZeb

Wet, and for the first hour or so, I feel like I'm being hit round the head with a marzipan coated whip If that is your sort of thing, this may be for you!

After the massive hit of leather has calmed down it's quite sweet and almost caramelly, with nice soft patch in the background - but the first hour gave me such a headache that I had to get rid

I think I would really like this on selected men, but on me it was all too overpowering.

Oh, everyone is being really helpful, it's made me cry, but in a good way. Lots of really good suggestions.

Strangely, High John and Wolf's Heart were imps I'm thinking of buying, just waiting for the lab to confirm that there's no cinnamon in them.

Distilling everyone's suggestions together, for tomorrow I'm thinking Crowley or Bastet or Cleopatra Testing Poisons On Those Condemned To Death (the 'unusual' one) or a combo of Thieves Rosin & Druid - will finally decide when I wake up tomorrow as it's bedtime here.

For my nice scent association, I won't need one tomorrow because I'm getting to spend an hour with my sweetie in the middle of all this, and his neck smells totally like Dorian ... but on Wednesday I will dab some on somewhere I can reach it!

Thank you so much everyone

I have, at very short notice (tomorrow), got a horrendously stressful two days mostly in the company of those who wish me harm.

Can anyone recommend any scents - lots of suggestions are needed in the hope I have one of them! If anyone can find something that's listed in my bottle list that would be brillliant but I have (roughly!) millions of imps too. Normally I'd look myself but I'm too busy stressing.

I have no TALs but lots of GCs and LEs - and I can't do cinnamon. (I'd be prepared to wear other notes that I normally hate in this circumstance)

Gnome and Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat for the fizzy pop vibe, Cloister Graveyard In The Snow for cooling me down, Kumiho and Cairo just because, and I'm hoping Sound Of Insects will be perfect then too.

Why didn't I read fully through the reviews before testing?

This gives off a beautiful, rich, spicy dried fruit scent as it burns its way through my skin. Damn and blast.

This is like tripping headfirst into a vast pool of fresh blackberries and raspberries. Maybe the pool is surrounded by a small wood full of resinous trees, but mostly it's just a gorgeous fruity pool.

It doesn't say on my skin for very long after the bath, which is a shame, but my bathroom still smells divine. I wish I'd bought a second bottle while I had the spare cash.

Crib Girls, but I'm also thinking that Quaeris Quot Mihi Basiationes might be great - it just hasn't been the right weather to try it recently!

There is an asian foods shop in Crawley that Quillifer calls something like 'the mouse shop' and on me this smells like that ... dusty spices past their best and a hint of mouse musk

Dragon's blood resin, red ginger, bourbon geranium, thorny rosemary, red sandalwood, pink pepper, and green coffee bean.

This is intensely herbal on me, all geranium and rosemary and a tiny note of pepper and sandalwood. I really don't get any dragon's blood, and I don't even know what I'm looking for with the green coffee note.

I can't stop sniffing my arm but after 2 days of trying I still don't know if I like it!

There's a blizzard outside, it's 7.30am and there's no heating on ... yet my room feels warm and cosy and expensive. Is expensive a smell? Maybe that's where the glittering part is, this smells extremely luxurious! I cannot pick out any individual notes because it all blends so perfectly, I love it!

I so wanted to love this because the picture makes me laugh, but I just don't. No plum, a tiny hint of sandalwood, mint that vanishes once dry, and what I presume is the agarwood, which seems like a light version of cedar. It has good staying power, but I think I'd prefer it on a man. It's pleasant enough but my pennies are needed more urgently elsewhere.

Mine's a decant and in its imp, I get a delightful blend of honey and apricot, sort of what I imagine fairy wine would smell like. On my skin, however, I get an instant red rash which had me scrubbing it off inside of five minutes. I'm super sad, because the fragrance I get from the bottle is just glorious. Normally this is something that only happens with cinnamon blends (the review above that mentions cinnamon makes me wonder if perhaps there isn't a hint of that in here too) so I thought I'd be safe with this. I'm willing to believe pepper would do the same thing though, so I'm going to have to check through my current imp stash and see whether there's anything else that incorporates pepper and if I have the same reaction.

 

Needless to say, this little one's being re-homed.

I normally get the cinnamon rash, but I don't get it with this one so I'd guess maybe it's the pepper does it to you. However I will retest at home tonight, using the crook of my elbow, just to be sure before I spring for a whole bottle. *crosses fingers*

In the bottle it's all apricot and only a little honey, but once dry I get a beautiful honey, with a warm dusty spice kick in the background and a fruity roundness to it from the apricot.

ETA: this didn't give me cinnamon burn, just a tiny bit of heat on the inner elbow

This is a lovely fresh mix of citrus and tea but it only sticks around for about an hour and then vanishes completely. I think this should be made into a shower gel, it would be perfect.

At first I get sweet honey and a floral similar to the Butterfly Nectar bath oil blend from last year, summer petals dipped in honey. It seems to have very good throw for the first hour. After 3 hours it has faded a lot and I get faint fruity beeswax. I may still get more than one bottle, as I love the early stages even if I will need to slather it on.

I'd second Agrat-Bat-Mahlat, and also add in Zarita The Doll Girl, as much for the description as the notes ...

A tiny woman stands in the center of the stage, the perfect woman in miniature, her copper hair bouncing in elegant curls. She is surrounded on all sides by a necropolis of maimed, mutilated stuffed animals, decapitated fashion dolls, and eviscerated wooden figures. It is a strangely ghastly tableau: the disemboweled toys ooze fiberfill, batting, and sawdust from their gaping wounds. In one dainty hand she clutches a shard of glass, and in the other she nimbly twirls a razor blade. Her face is twisted in a grimace of mad ferocity, and she hisses as she brandishes her makeshift weapons at you. “Play with me?” she growls.

Soft, yet sociopathic: white carnation, iris, orange blossom, and sugared cream.

 

Can I go on about Crib Girls some more though? I think this is a way underrated honey...I just used up my bottle yesterday, must get more. It's like the perfect warm honey

scent.

 

And I agree with REally Zeb, who I think maybe one of my scent twins, or at least a sibling, those two are awesome. I have both and LOVE them.

Ooh yes, Crib Girls is wonderful and underrated - lovely lemon honey with a little spicy kick ... my only problem is that sometimes it smells so good that I want to drink it

A couple of LE's to try if you can find them are AE Aegypti (Five honeys with vanilla orchid, gardenia, dragon's blood resin, gingergrass, and turmeric) and AE Albopictus (Saffron, pimento, cardamom, beeswax, cajeput, tomato leaf, geranium, and pink pepper honey) from last summer. Both spicy honey loveliness, though I prefer the first one as being more honey & less spice.

In the bottle: Delight ... a lovely lemony, slightly custardy, vanilla.

On my skin: Consternation Where did all my custardy goodness go? It would make a lovely laundry scent but that's all I get, clean, fresh, soapy smelling laundry

ETA: with a different imp I get far more cocoa and custard on the drydown ... now I don't know whether to go for a bottle or not!

Have you considered Antikythera Mechanism - Teakwood, oak, black vanilla, and tobacco?

I get smoky vanilla rather than actual tobacco, but it might not be airy enough for what you want.

For greens, have you tried Heinous Hedge Maze? Or maybe Arcana?

On me this is soft and gentle ginger with honey - more like a sweet than a gingerbread. There definitely isn't cinnamon in it as I don't have a horrid burning itchy sensation. This to me is the winter version of AE Aegypti - honey with a bite.

Can a newbie play this game? I'm afraid I can't give recommendations yet, but I'd love to get some recommendations.

 

Here's a quick and dirty personality sketch. I'm quiet, introverted, intellectual and serious--a day-dreamer and a thinker with a strong philosophical bent. I love both science and creative pursuits. There is a wild side to me that few people see and I have great sense of humor that lies hidden until I know a person well.

 

Mules are jealous of my stubborn streak. I'm also ridiculously unconventional because I see things differently than most people do.

My first thought was Iole - A serious, studious scent: fig, night-blooming jasmine, red sandalwood, bourbon vanilla, oak bark, leather accord, and black amber.

and then for someone unconventional who sees things differently: Agnes Nutter - The mind of Agnes Nutter was so far adrift in Time that she was considered pretty mad even by the standards of seventeenth-century Lancashire, where mad prophetesses were a growth industry.

Gunpowder, charred wood, smoke, and rusty nails.

or maybe War, also from the Good Omens series and probably a bit more wearable - Red ginger, black spices, patchouli, honeysuckle, and three blood-soaked red musks.

Lamia comes to mind - Deadly elegance: pale orchid, vanilla amber, black currant, white peach, champaca, coconut, Arabian myrrh, Burmese vetiver, and oude or Lawn Gnome - Red currant, molasses, vanilla cream, moss, and patchouli. Shame you didn't mention this yesterday before I posted!

Dorian, without a doubt - I'll leave you to read the review for that one

For fruity, lighter blends you might want to try Gnome, Vial of Holy Water, Shoggoth or Embalming Fluid ... and maybe Goblin for the darker side of coconut! But 6 will never be enough imps, you should check out the sales threads for bargains if you want to maximise your budget.

Can one ask for recommendations based off of basic memory scents?

 

If so I'm looking as a "noobie" for such scents that may have or be reminded of:

-Fresh mowed green grass

-Damp basement/humidifier

-Carmex lip balm

-Juicy Fruit gum

-Lilac

-Leather

Not all mixed together, mind you. But any of those scents that appear similar in BPAL fragrances.

There's a vast range of leather - so, what sort of memory?

My favourite leathers are:-

White Rider - white leather and sandalwood

Rogue - Soft, well-worn black leather, hemp, and rosin

Whip - black leather & damp red rose

As you also mentioned lilac, Bensiabel is plum juice, lilac, leather, and a smattering of herbs