ladymeag

Some other suggestions, then, based on what it smells like for you:

PERVERSION - Smoky rum, black tobacco, steamy leather, crystalline chardonnay, base of tonka. (Be warned, this loses the leather for a lot of folks. On me, it's soft leather.)

THE RED RIDER - Red leather, red moss, and balsam. On me this is mostly a musk-and-leather scent (don't ask me how, I dunno) but on my spouse it's all sweet, warm, soft leather.

ROGUE - Soft, well-worn black leather, hemp, and rosin. As this ages, it's picking up a dry woodsy incense smell. This one smells a little sweet on me.

I like to layer Rogue with Antikythera Mechanism (Teakwood, oak, black vanilla, and tobacco) - it's amazing together and Antikythera Mechanism is a little sweet on its own.

I am looking for a scent like Haunt's Winchester. A sweet leather. I have never liked leather but I got this as a frimp and am in love. So can someone help me find a Winchester bpal match?

How sweet is it? The notes on their website for the Winchester oil are: worn brown leather, sweet tobacco leaf, incense, amber, labdanum and smoldering woods.

To match that, I'd try

Captain Cully (light musk with leather, tonka, a dusting of dry woods, and a splash of porter)

Hoggle (Fermented pumpkin, brown leather, dust, tobacco leaf, and dark woods.)

Iago (black musk, wet leather and vetiver.)

Hellfire (pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke)

Of those, I'd say Captain Cully is the sweetest. (My recommendations are almost always missing scents that contain florals because florals simply don't work for me. Hopefully someone else can come in and fill in the blanks.)

Snake Oil doesn't work for me, either - it's way too sweet. I tend to wear masculine scents, so my recommendations tend to fall in that area. My skin chemistry is a little weird, so I think I get incense where other folks don't but anyhow, some general catalog recommendations:

Dracul - Black musk, tobacco, fir, balsam of peru, cumin, bitter clove, crushed mint, and orange blossom - this was, for me, what I wanted Cathedral to be. I don't get mint or orange.

If you're okay with leather scents (they're vegan if they don't contain honey/beeswax,) Iago - sinuous black musk, wet leather and vetiver - or Rogue (from RPG) - black leather, hemp, and rosin. Iago for me is more leathery, Rogue is more incensey.

If you're okay with a little boozy, Hellfire - pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass.

If you're okay with spicy, Sin - amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon - and it's spicier cousin, Satyr. Both of these are remarkably sexy.

If you want to hunt down old LEs:

The Seekim - this one has some nice patchouli and hay notes with incense ash.

October (2007 or 2010) - this one is leaves and smoke, mostly.

Need advice! Just tried my first leather note in "in the forest", and it was a big NO. All new car smell. Dare I risk getting decants of Jareth and Hoggle? I love Labyrinth but am scared of the leather.... Hoping someone with more leather experience can help ease my mind.

BPAL uses several different scents for leather and "worn" leather tends to smell a little less new-car-smell-ish. More like "expensive new purse." IIRC (because I don't have my notes handy) from protos, Jareth had more of that "new leather" smell and Hoggle had more worn leather smell.

Hope that's helpful!

It's a friendly dance-fight, zmulls!

Dracul is great - to me it smells like I was hoping Midnight Mass would smell, like an old Catholic Church with oak pews and the lingering aroma of incense from a High Mass (I grew up Latin-rite. ) I don't know that I'd particularly class it as "elegant," though.

I think a lot of the elegant scents, especially of a darker tone, are going to edge more toward the androgynous or feminine. There is something particularly captivating, though, about a rugged scent on someone elegantly dressed.

Satyr - It's spicy and sexy and amazing - I was originally going to give it a pass because it smelled a bit like Sin to me but there's more to it than that. My collection grows increasingly masculine and this is more than fine with me.

I have found a few distinctly different types of 'leather' in BPAL blends - DeSade was sharp and harsh on me.. with almost a chemical-like udertone - like shiny new leather. I actually put together a list of leather 'types' that I have encountered about 18 months ago - it went like this:

 

Soft/suede type leathers - Sacrifice, NGG023 prototype, Rivet Goth, Nanny Ashtoreth

Dark/hot type leathers - Spanked, Crowley, Loviatar, The Black Rider, Brom Bones, Western Diamondback, Iago

Old/worn type leathers - Clockwork Couture: Male, Hunter

Sharp/fresh type leathers - DeSade, The Traveller

Red/brown/raw type leathers - The Red Rider

Sweeter type leathers - Liz (flowery/vanilla leather), The Blockhead (bubblegum leather), Dee

Clean/fresh type leathers - The White Rider, Liz (again), Clockwork Couture: Female

 

There's been a few more since then - I would add Fetish.Goth to the sharp/fresh category, and Captain Cully should be in there too - maybe in soft/suede or perhaps old/worn. But these are just my impressions - when you read reviews for all these blends, you'll see that the leather notes give very different results from person to person.

 

What I really, really want is a black vanilla, leather, musk (maybe with amber as long as it's not "golden" or "light") scent.

 

I would recommend Western Diamondback or Dee if you haven't tried those already, or try layering your favourite leathery BPAL with a little Snake Oil

Snake Oil just disappears on me. It's a sad, sad state of affairs with my skin chemistry. I'll give Dee a try, for sure. I avoid trying discontinued and not-currently-available LEs because I don't want to find my holy grail in something that I can't get. I've been buying BPAL since very late 2003 or very early 2004 (I can't remember which) and I've learned to stay clear of needing something I can't get.

Thanks for the notes on, er, notes of leather. Captain Cully to me smells like soft leather - the kind you find in high quality belts and purses. DeSade wasn't so much plasticky on me as it was just... not leather. Musky and dusty and, yeah, not leather.

Speaking of De Sade, I wonder if it mellows out as it ages. I've heard complaints that it smells too chemical-y. Personally, I've never had the pleasure of trying it, but I'm determined to track it down someday. I just worry that it won't live up to my expectations!

Mine (waiting to be handed off in a swap later this week ) changed some as it aged (six years) and did lose some of the sharper note. I know that if I had hunted down DeSade instead of ordered it from the Lab as a GC, I would have been really disappointed.

Did anyone else have trouble with DeSade but otherwise adore leather scents? DeSade smelled incredibly strange on me (and I bought it way back when going "Yes! All leather!") and never aged out of smelling terrible on me.

I'm always sad that BPAL's rose note is horrible on me, I want Whip to work so badly. What I really, really want is a black vanilla, leather, musk (maybe with amber as long as it's not "golden" or "light") scent.

I'm trying to find somethings to try on my husband, but I'm not really sure what I'm looking for. Normally he wears Axe Kilo (http://www.basenotes.net/ID26122229.html - The best I could come to finding notes.) or Axe Dark Temptation(http://www.basenotes.net/ID26129838.html) and I rather like both for what they are. I want to find him something less chemical though.

 

I've tried Fenris Wolf on him and it's sexy and alluring, but not quite right - he smells a bit too much like walking into a new age creations. Any ideas on what I should start with?

Based on the notes listed for Axe Dark Temptation - I'd be inclined to locate some of The Seekim or maybe OccupyWallStreet, if he's okay with a heavy patchouli note.

I don't know that you can mimic Axe Kilo easily but I'd suggest starting with either Tombstone or The Antikythera Mechanism, since those seem like likely choices for someone who would like that scent.