Electra

Just what the title says . Kind of an odd request, but I'm looking for BPALs that make you feel aloof and/or detached (from society in general) when you wear them. I need to disengage a bit. I'd prefer recs that actually make you FEEL this way when you wear them, but stuff that just smells that way to you is fine too! Notes I cannot wear: ~ jasmine of doom ~ amber ~ black musk, usually (it's ok on me in Wolf Moon '07) ~ red musk Notes that usually aren't great: ~ any citrus (I amp it like hell. This includes verbena.) ~ violet ~ rose (except white rose) Have at it . (ETA - mods, I did search for a similar thread and couldn't find one. If it exists, mea culpa and abject apologies.)

Gloss A semi-sheer virginal nude with a hint of pink. No reviews for Maiden yet? Really? I am wearing Maiden today. First, the color -- this is a perfect "important business meeting" color. It's polished, professional, and chic. Maiden is a milky pinkish-whitish-nude, semi-sheer, in the vein of OPI Bubble Bath and similar polishes. It's very understated -- no one's going to notice your polish, particularly, it just makes your hands look impeccably groomed. Next, the application. The first time I wore Maiden, I had a really hard time with the application -- my exact quote was "while it's a lovely color, my application was a streaky mess. I simply could not get it to apply evenly." I think the problem was using it over CND Stickey basecoat. This time I used it over Barielle Natural Nail Camouflage (a non-"grippy" basecoat) instead, and the polish went on much more smoothly and easily.

There was quite a lot of discussion a while back in this thread about using BPAL phoenixes/Macha's artwork as tattoo designs. The impression that I took away from it was that the thing to do is to contact Macha to ask for permission. If you need to go to the Lab to ask for permission as well (due to ownership of rights, etc...I'm not sure exactly who owns what with respect to the artwork), I'm sure that Macha could let you know that.

Body chemistry is so interesting! On me, Shadwell is a sweet milky tea with a hint of an aquatic note...no mildew at all, and it's very comforting. Hmm, quirky bizarre scents...oh hell, Puck for sure. I actually physically recoiled when I smelled that one. Jolasveinar -- pine and pastries? But it's wonderful. Black Opal -- vanilla and stone. Kumari Kandam is pretty interesting too. ETA -- Urd is weird too. It smells like a hippie drinking grape Kool-Aid.

Geek (past LE). I'm not sure I've ever worn it without being complimented.

Olokun, hands down. Thalassa is much more oceany, though. And very, very nice.

DDLM '04 smelled quite bready on me. In my review I wrote "The wet scent is a really strong, heady, perfumey rush of flowers over something bready/yeasty. The drydown is some sort of baked good with butter and honey."

This thread was a request for spicy scent recs for someone's boyfriend, but given that a lot of the scents recommended are gender-neutral I think it's a good place to start .

These are both past LEs, but 1) Usher has developed a salty note on me that it didn't have initially, and 2) Storm Moon goes back and forth between fresh ozone and salty ocean aquatic (very much an Atlantic Ocean scent as opposed to Pacific or Caribbean or Mediterranean, but wonderful). I also second the recs for Lyonesse (if you can wear amber, which I can't, it's a nice non-foody golden vanilla meshed with a salty ocean-aquatic tang) and Thalassa (straight-up salty ocean aquatic).

The idea of wearing scent while working out is just mind-boggling to me. *boggles quietly* I know everyone's different. I just think it would really bother me. (It's not even a "consideration for other people" thing, though there's that too -- I think it would drive ME nuts.) If you're going to be working out around people and must wear scent, I'd wear something light and clean smelling with minimal throw. When you heat up, it amps. There are lots of lovely fresh clean BPALs, though...Olokun, Shanghai, (dc'ed) F5, (dc'ed) Usher, perhaps Embalming Fluid (not great on me, but other people love it), Sea of Glass (ditto), Danube (tritto), etc. etc.

I admit that I found the formula somewhat tricky to work with -- it didn't seem to apply as evenly as some other polishes I have, and it looked a bit streaky and not as opaque as I wanted until I got three coats on. This seems to be a problem with creme formulas in general, though, or at least the dark vampy cremes that I have -- I have great coverage with two coats with my dark shimmer polishes, but my cremes all seem to take three coats to achieve the desired level of opacity. The color is OMG EFFIN' LOVE. With three coats it's a deep vampy blackened burgundy. Holy crap, it looks so classy and gorgeous. I couldn't stop staring at my hands. (It was great on my toes too, but I *loved* it on my hands.) Unfortunately it chipped like the dickens. I used it in conjunction with CND Stickey basecoat and Super Shiney topcoat, and I had chips within a day. (By way of comparison -- unlike pretty much everyone else on the planet, I find OPI horribly chippy and get great wear from Essie.) I did not try the Stickey sandwich because I hadn't heard of it yet, so I'm curious to see how much the wear improves when I do. I'll revise my review and report back.

Let's see. Things that I hate, you would like . SO: Mr. Nancy -- tooth-achingly sweet and syrupy in the opening, then smells like spicy Christmas cookies Bliss -- brownies Grog -- butterscotch

This thread is such a fascinating read! Different people have such different takes on what constitutes a comforting scent -- it's so interesting. I love to *eat* delicious food when I'm sad (I will head straight for the cheese fries!), but given that I'm not a foody/fruity scent person in the first place, I find them even more offputting when I need something to actively comfort me or cheer me up -- whereas for the foody/fruity crowd, that seems to be (understandably) the first place they turn. OTOH, I have an unholy passion for all things mint and aquatic (not necessarily together, though minty aquatic does sound rather awesome), but that isn't necessarily where I'd turn either. Mint, definitely not. Fascinating. Anyway, topic! My scents: For comfort -- Safari. I find it deep, grounding, and infinitely soothing. For cheer -- Olokun. This is partially because it's just a bright happy scent and partially because I have very happy associations with it. Every time I smell it it makes me smile.

Just off the top of my head: Port Royal (spiced rum and ship’s wood mixed with the body-warmed trace of a prostitute’s perfume and a hint of salty sea air on the dry-down) Plunder (tea leaf, cassia, cinnamon bark, clove, allspice, sandalwood, tobacco, peppercorn, and nutmeg) Port-au-Prince (buttered rum flavored with almond, bay, clove and sassafras) Silk Road ...would probably be good ones to throw into a starter imp pack. Plunder and Port-au-Prince are the most spicy, then Silk Road. Port Royal is the least spicy, but is still very nice (and has a lovely aquatic element).

Milky tea with a hint of aquatic. Really interesting and really, *really* nice. I like this one a lot. (I don't get any mildew! )

I can easily imagine Una smelling like this. Unfortunately, that said, I don't like it. I tend to prefer darker, more masculine scents, but I wasn't necessarily doomed to hate this one -- Trish McEvoy #9 is historically one of my favorite perfumes (I wore it for a couple of years in college), and it shares two notes with Lady Una -- blackberry and vanilla. I thought that this one might work for me too. Not so. Lady Una is strong, fruity and candy-sweet. Smelling it on my skin almost makes my teeth ache. I don't get any of the fae spices, or anything that would ground this scent and make it wearable for me. Oh well. Candy-scent crowd, this one is for you!

At first it's boozy and sweet, then it turns to play-doh, then within ten minutes it's gone completely. Oh well. I knew this one was a long shot.

Two caveats at the beginning of this review -- 1) I am not a bar soap person, and 2) I don't like Snake Oil. The reason I ordered a bar of this soap was because it had been getting such rave reviews. and I really, REALLY want to smell Snake Oil the way it smells on all the people who love it (it's awful on me), so I ordered the soap to see if I liked the scent any better in this medium. The presentation of the soap is beautiful. The packaging is exquisite. I would not hesitate to give BPTP (or Silk Road Trading Company) soaps as gifts. The soap itself looked very attractive when it was removed from the wrapper. It feels nice in the hands whilst lathering, and the lather itself is rich and creamy. I also tried it with a shower poof, and it lathered easily. The soap is not drying. So -- packaging is great, quality of the soap itself is great. Unfortunately, I can't say the same for the scent. It's not even that I dislike it (which I was prepared for) -- it's that I can't smell it. This soap may as well be unscented. Even when I practically jam the bar up my nose, I can only smell the very faintest whisper of something that's vaguely, generically sweet and for some odd reason reminds me a bit of cereal. The only reason that I would reorder -- and I *will* consider this -- is that when I eventually have a place that's big enough to have a guest bathroom, I could very easily envision using this as the guest soap. 1) It would look beautiful sitting in the bathroom in the wrapper, 2) once unwrapped, the scent is so nonexistent that it could not *possibly* offend anyone (they'd just think it was unscented soap), and 3) because of #2, I wouldn't worry about the scent fading over time if the soap sat there unused for a while. I wish I could give a better review. It is a very, VERY nice soap. I just can't smell anything, and $10 per bar is steep for an unscented soap.

The retail exclusive Salon blend Lucifer is a ringer for Tarot: Death on me.

ETA -- never mind, moved this post to the proper thread.

Tzadikim Nistarim. It's in Sin and Salvation, and the notes are frankincense, olive, spikenard, hyssop and galangal, but it smelled strongly of pineapple on me (and apparently some other people, from looking at the reviews). Also definitely Baba Yaga, if you can get it (it's unreleased, but there are imps floating around). Smelled like pineapple incense on me, and pretty much every other review says "Wow! Pineapple!"

That is STRONG stuff. Yowza. It reminds me of laundry detergent, honestly. It's aggressively clean and slightly powdery.

Gorgeous. I opened up the bottle, took a sniff, and went "Ohhhhh..." I get a beautiful, very soft pine (technically fir, I suppose, but my nose wants to read it as pine) with just a hint of an aquatic note behind it.

This scent is unabashedly masculine (and I don't often agree with the "this is masculine" reviews!) and quite sexy. It's quieter and more refined than Crowley, which I also love. Famine is so well-blended that I can't pick out any specific notes -- just a lovely dark musky scent (which I *think* is a combination of the white musk -- which does not smell aggressively clean here like it often does -- the tea, and the tobacco. It sweetens up a bit after a while, but still isn't a sweet scent overall. This is a scent to wear when you're curled up in a deep leather chair. I like it very, very much.

I used to work in a library. I miss it . Let's see. Olokun is a beautiful aquatic, and it holds up really, really well in disgusting summer heat, so I can at least vouch for the fact that it's not delicate and it's got legs. Possibly worth a shot. You also might do well with something that's a very clean, subtle skin scent like Mr. Ibis. That one is so subtle that I can't imagine it going too terribly wrong.