smallvoice

Huh. This smells like dragon's blood. It's a light floral with a touch of sweetness. I get just a HINT of the smokiness some of the other reviews reference, but... it's mostly just dragon's blood. Weird. As it dries, the notes in it come forward- I can pick out the orchid, for example, and a little teensy bit of benzoin- but my nose is still insisting that it's dragon's blood SN on my skin.

I do believe the sandalwood is the sole problem with this scent on me. If I ignore it; don't huff it, rather, it smells light, flirty and fitting for Spring, and maybe Summer. I do like it, and could see myself wearing out the imp in the coming months... but I don't think I will need a bottle. I've been wrong before, though. It smells lovely as it dries, don't get me wrong, but when I smell it, there is this overwhelming feeling that I'm also wearing powder. The sandalwood and the amber have conspired to bring about this powdery scent. I can usually wear amber beautifully, but the sandalwood has corrupted this one. There are enough other scents that I love that are close to this blend, however, that I'm not too sad. Scents with a similar feel: Fae, Aglaea, Katharina, Brisingamen, Et Lux Fuit, Imp, La Vague

This smells exactly like Hony Mone on me. EXACTLY! So much so that if I didn't know better, I would have suspected a mislabel. And yeah, it has honey in it, but there's other stuff! It has that same richness... it's just the same. So, hooray for not needing a bottle. But so strange that it's the same scent!

Dragon's Milk, Beaver Moon '05, Boomslang, and The Perilous Parlor get all the compliments on my chemistry.

You absolutely must try both Hope and Faith from the Carnival. I also recommend Alice, Euphrosyne and though I've not tried it yet, I also have to toss in a vote for Lyonesse, which people have said have the same creaminess to it. I find that Snow-Flakes is very similar to Snow White, but it's harder to come by. ETA: Tiger Lily, Dragon's Milk, Eve, Sudha Segara, Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, Cockaigne, and Eden came to mind. Oh, and Pink Moon 2007!

For things easier to locate, I'd suggest Dorian (though Black Lace is one I think would be perfect) or maybe something like Death Adder. For woodsy- Knecht Ruprecht, maybe? Or the Twisted Oak Tree. I haven't tried it, but you might consider The Lurid Library. In my mind, it's made of perfect. That's not exactly woodsy, though, is it? Hmm. Ivanushka is another great one that seems like it could go well with your theme. There've been some great woodsy scents lately, I just can't happen to think of them at the moment. Hope that helped, and congratulations!

Hee, I just wanted to point out that Eclipse does have almond as an ingredient, so the culprit for smelling like almond extract might actually be... almond. (I also get an almondy vibe from Chimera, but I just looked it up to make sure I wasn't being stupid, and it turns out that I was- but I think it might be an unlisted ingredient... anyway) I know, you can trout me. Hmm, what's not been mentioned? From the GC: Jack- pumpkin and peach cobbler... I don't know how that works, but it does Jailbait- What smells exactly like hubba bubba bubble gum in the bottle smells awesome on my skin. YMMV (which, if you don't speak BPAL, means "your mileage may vary"- it took me forever to figure that out, because I'm pretty sure I was too stubborn to ask.) Dana O'Shee- Sweet, creamy, warm and lovely... just try it. Sudha Segara- Like Dana, but with ginger... and I swear it smells like tea, too. Shub Niggurath- Speaking of ginger... This is delightful. People have mentioned getting lemon cake out of it, as well, but I never quite had that reaction. Bengal- Honey, spices... it is fantastic. Queen of Sheba- Almonds and honey. Smells like cookies, on me. Sometimes. Mouse's Long and Sad Tale- Sweet, lovely sandalwood. If you don't like it fresh, put it away and let it age for a few months. It'll smell even better. Katharina- More fruity than foody, but it is a GORGEOUS scent if you're into fruity. Velvet- If you can do sandalwood (and I can only do it in certain scents), Velvet is a beautiful, warm cocoa. Come to Me- I think this is the one that people often describe as "cakey" Gluttony- If you think you can handle it... O- the honey scent all other honey scents aspire to be (in my opinion, of course!) Antique Lace- Quintessential vanilla scent. The vanilla all other vanilla scents aspire to be (except that is just the general consensus; I'm not head over heels for AL) There are plenty of others, but that should be enough from the catalog. On to Limited Edition scents: The Perilous Parlour: Spiced vanilla pear. To die for. Basically any version of Thirteen: It has chocolate in it, always. Egg Nog: Yum! Beaver Moon (2005 is better than 2007, but '07 is much easier to acquire) La Befana (It sounds strange, but you just need to try it on) Midway- This should've been the first thing to be recommended! Red Lantern- A very sticky foody. Sugar Cookie- Well, the name kinda says why... heh. Midnight Kiss- Cocoa and musk. Other stuff, too, I would imagine! I can't wear it. Earth Rat- Smells primarily like candied melons. Hope that helps some! EDIT: Because Love's Philosophy had already been mentioned, and to add in some others.

I love citrus, amber, white musk, and I tend to not have much trouble with jasmine. Rose is picky, but has been known to work- this was basically a no-brainer. I just got The Presence of Love, and it smells like roses. In the bottle there's a hint of citrus and floral, but upon touching my skin, it is the Presence of Rose. This is a lovely rose; it's like freshly bloomed pink roses. The jasmine is poking its head out, and the rose seems comfortable with that. Now I can smell the amber with the white musk (and I have to agree with clover; it's not the standard white musk note) and they're rounding it out. It's a little sharp, as rose tends to be on me, and I keep hoping for the grapefruit to surface. It is a very soft, sweet scent- not sweet literally, just adorable. It's like porcelain.

First of all: Snake Oil is the most popular blend, but there are plenty of people who dislike it intensely. I've read reviews similar to your experience, in fact. Reviews, plural. While it's possible BPAL just might not be your bag, I don't think it's time to give up yet. I tend to like sweeter scents, but I've tried a few blends so I think I might be able to help. A little. Some suggestions: I can't believe nobody has mentioned Dirty! Hello clean. Black Opal could work, or it might go sweet, but I'd still say you should try it. You should definitely give Dee a spin, and I'll also second the suggestion of Odin. The Hesperides might be heavy on the apple for you, but it does have that autumnal vibe, to me. Scarecrow, Seance, Tempest, Yggdrasil, Sacred Whore of Babylon, Szepasszony and Ozymandias all come to mind, as well.

In the bottle it smelled smoky and medicinal. I wanted this one more of the two, because it sounded so much more complex. It wasn't what I was expecting, because I hadn't realized that this has a no-no note in it for me. Or, rather, I hadn't yet come to the conclusion that the note is a no-no. The offender? Myrrh. Fresh myrrh has taken to destroying blends. So, basically, this turns into an ultimate fighting championship between the myrrh and the sage. That's all I get out of it. No sweetness. No tartness. No smoky vanilla. No amber, daemondrops, cinnamon, or leather. Just myrrh and sage. I'll see how it ages. The myrrh might soften with time. EDIT: Myrrh works for me in other blends, so I don't know. However, I do know that it becomes more complex on me one week every three months, when my hormones shift. Or it's aged. Hmm. Either way, I'm getting a very soapy undertone when I actually huff it. And... bacon? WTF? Okay, this is freaky. And unpleasant. There is a distinct "bacon grease" scent to this. Yeah..... I think this one needs to go away from me.

I think I'd have to claim Western Diamondback as the best BPAL leather I've smelled. Love that stuff!!

My chemistry does terrible, terrible things to this scent. Unspeakable things. Unholy things. I don't get a gorgeous ambery spiced pomegranate. I get...... soap. SOAP! Perhaps the soap Persephone used to wipe away the grime of her travels.... well, not even that. It's not the soap she brought with her, it's from the hotel she had to stay at halfway. While I'm sad, I hope that age may bring out some of the deeper elements that were found on more well behaved chemistries. Then again, I'm a little afraid to let the two meet again.

I think I might be late with this, but when somebody asked about GC scents with special labels, did I miss somebody mentioning that Rappaccini's Garden scents all have pretty labels? I love them! ETA: Oh. I can read. Yes, it was mentioned.

I know I'm crazy, but I have the strangest Black Lace comparison yet, though it's not entirely in the catalog. The Chilling Cellar layered with something vanilla-y- Antique Lace came to mind. I don't know, but there's something about the base to it that is very remeniscent of Black Lace to me. Odd. Also, Nia... I'm sorry if this is way too obvious, but could the Christmas Rose comparison you're thinking of be Black Hellebore from Rapaccini's garden? Or maybe Crow Moon. I'd help with Poof-lovers, but it ended up drying down to Antique Lace almost exactly on me. You could try layering that with something that has a strawberry note- maybe Beaver Moon '07.

Scents that I recall reading as "old lady" to me, at one stage or another: Midnight, Victoria, Peacock Queen, Nuit, Asphodel, Seraphim, Glasgow, Singing Moon, Florence, Sea of Glass and Lolita, to name a few. I don't think I've ever phrased it that way, but I definitely get the old lady vibe out of these. I think that what people mean by this varies, because our experience of "old" and "classic" are so vastly different, to respond to an above poster.

I would love to see another round of Chaos Theories someday- my one and only bottle was lovely but too complex for my nose at the time, so I swapped it away.... and was swaplifted. Ah well! This community more than makes up for the nasties, and there's always the chance that chaos will reign again!

Here's what I found when searching for the notes in Chinatown: top notes of peach blossom and bergamot; middle notes of peony, gardenia, tuberose, and orange flower; and base notes of patchouli, cedarwood, vanilla, sandalwood, guaiac wood and cardamom. Having never tried/smelled it myself, it would be really helpful to find out what it smells like on your skin, to your nose. If it's prominently patchouli and gardenia on you, I'd be looking at a different set of BPAL scents than if it were prominently vanilla and sandalwood.

I remember trying Drink Me and thinking, "Huh. It really does smell a little bit like some really good toast. How strange." Other than that, I've never found a yeasty-breadlike scent. EDIT: Because there's a T in yeasty

For the sake of keeping track, I've read Twilight thus far in 2008. 60lbs-4lbs=56lbs to go! Anyway. I think being sick is good for my diet. I don't know that I've ever been this sick without also being depressed and had utterly no appetite. My husband has resorted to trying to retrieve me all manner of sweet things to try and get me to eat, but nothing tastes good, and I have no inclination toward any of it. I've lost 4 lbs since my last weigh in, which I've noted above. I think I may have lost most of it in the last four or five days. But the not eating thing probably explains the no energy thing. Hopefully tomorrow will arrive and I'll be doing much better. If nothing else, I'll be able to go to school. (I've missed this entire week!)

I WANT the first Krampus label. I just don't want his red muskiness. Also, I may be dense and this may've already been stated, multiple times, but I just noticed that on my bottle of Egg Nog it lists the notes in the blend! How cool is that?

The Perilous Parlor is, in short, love. It is made of love. Unsurprisingly, it smells like a musky pear and vanilla- that sweet musk, which may be vanilla musk? As it sits on my skin, it takes on a spicy note, and every single time I've worn this, sometime that day, I've sat and sniffed the air around me wondering who it is that smells so darn good, before realizing that it's me. I almost asked a woman sitting in front of me about her perfume the first time this happened. I am so afraid the Haunted House won't make a reappearance next year, because I'm wondering if my bottle will be empty by then. I don't know that I've ever smelled anything quite so lovely. It's probably in my top 5 scents.

I tend to like sweeter florals, so I immediately thought of Hope and Faith for you. I have to recommend Euphrosyne, because they look like the notes of utter doom, but it worked on my skin, somehow. A lot of people put Regan in the same category as Alice (and Euphrosyne), but I don't like it nearly as much. I really love fruit paired with florals, like Katharina. Whitechapel is another one I love. Grandmother of Ghosts and Peitho seem like they might be good candidates- they're paired with some darker elements, as with Dracul. Have you tried Lyonesse? I've heard excellent things about it, but haven't managed to try it yet. The Tavern of Hell sounds promising, and have you tried Nephilim? It looks like it has a lot going on, but could be good. Unless there's a note of DOOM in there. Hmm, now I'm giving advice based on speculation. Up to Whitechapel, it's personal experience though. Hope that helps some!

I was just thinking that the other day, and ended up amusing myself by making a mental family tree around Dorian, with Usher as his eccentric, reclusive older brother (I've always thought that), Black Lace as his reserved but beautiful younger sister, and Snake Oil as their once-a-sexpot, always-a-sexpot mother. MB: Underpants is the beautiful, sophisticated aunt and Antique Lace is the sweet, shy spinster aunt. But who's the daddy? I don't know. I've already put way more thought into this than is healthy. Theodosius, of course! (It's probably every bit as unhealthy that that was what immediately sprang to mind upon reading your post!) I was just musing that I bet Yemaya layered with a bit of Eris would possibly be a fairly close approximation of Fee.

Hmm...do you think Milk Moon 07 would work? I have that one, actually. I'm placing an order this weekend, and I'm definitely going to try Bengal, Plunder, and Dragon's Milk. It'd be a more tropical chai, if such a creature exists, but it sounds like an interesting experiment. The original Milk Moon was a more pure milky scent, as I recall. (Of course, I'm mostly just envious of anyone Milk Moon '07 works on. It'd have been great on me, if not for the sourness.)

Whoa, old topic. It fits the bill, though. So I was messing around with what-if tonight, and I noticed something odd. If I have 3 GC's and 6 LE's (both at standard prices- $15 and $18) in my cart, shipping is $11... but if I have 4 GC's and 5 LE's (again, standard prices), shipping is $6.50. It's the same amount of bottles, and therefore the same weight, so why does shipping change? ETA: I'm not sure how the shipping calculator works at the moment, but now I'm wondering if it's based off of the price before shipping- I thought that was changed when postal costs increased, though. Maybe the scale just bumped up a bit? I'll go look and see if I've put my foot in my mouth. EDIT2: Yep, I have. From the website: The shipping rates for the US are as follows: Orders totaling up to $150.00: $6.50 …up to $300.00: $11.00 …up to $500.00: $13.00 Well. I feel foolish for not figuring that out more quickly.