ClareN

Sorry for posting in this thread so much, but I tested some L'Artisan fragrances today and they both reminded me of BPAL! Even when I'm exploring other perfume, I have BPAL on the brain. First, L'Artisan's L'Eau d'Ambre is similar to O, but less foody and PlayDoh-y on me. It also reminded me of something from Lush, but I couldn't remember what. Second, L'Artisan's Patchouli Patch smells like...get ready for this...Schwarzer Mond. OK, it's not a perfect match; I do prefer Schwarzer Mond, and the L'Artisan fades more quickly, but the patchouli note is very much the same, and there are some other dark resins in Patchouli Patch with that almost cola-like note that's also in SM. I'd almost buy a bottle, but would I ever use up 50 or 100 ml with all this BPAL around? Probably not...

It's not only sexy, it contains RUM, and all rum scents are pirate scents! Santo Domingo contains rum, and as it's in the Caribbean, it was probably a pirate port. And for more rum scents, don't forget Elegba and Baron Samedi. Also The Sailor's Den, from the Salon: Orris, bay rum, palm, coconut meat, oak wood, tobacco, linen, blue lilac, and leather. A few others, because the concepts seem to apply: Villain, Wicked, Greed, Sin, Vice, Wrath, Thalassa, Blood Pearl, The City in the Sea. Lastly, maybe Caliban, just for the notes: The scent of the salty seas, bittersweet wine, palm and tropical ferns. Everyone else already covered the main pirate BPALs. The ones I mentioned aren't directly inspired by pirates, but you could make them work as pirate scents if you think of them that way.

Don't forget that Prada also has a subtle dark chocolate note. It's quite an impressive scent for a perfume you can buy at the mall; I'd like to find a BPAL equivalent too. From memory, I think that Lurid might have a similar "feel", but doesn't smell the same. I can't find my imp to check that impression, though.

To my nose, this is a sweet cherry-apple scent with a clear aquatic note. It smells interesting in the imp, but my skin turns it sweet and a little soapy. I almost always have problems with fruit and aquatic notes and this reminds me too much of shampoo to wear as perfume. But there's a happy ending to this story: I gave it away to someone who will love it more.

Wet on skin: A foresty scent with sweet herbs, leather, and if I'm not mistaken, oakmoss, which is one of my favorite notes. I don't usually think of scents as masculine or feminine - many of my favorites might be considered masculine - but this one does make me think "manly". Drying on skin: This quickly turns sweet, to the point that it almost reminds me of toasted coconut or vanilla. I think this is an incense or resin note turning sweet on my skin. The foresty herbal scent fades and it seems less masculine than it did. Later drydown: Continuing with the sweet incense - the kind that makes me think of incense sticks, not church incense in a censer (I prefer the churchy incense). If anything, this has gotten even sweeter (keep in mind that my chemistry turns most things sweet), although a man wearing this scent would not raise any eyebrows. It is faint, but not at all artificial, blending with my skin very nicely. I can still detect the oakmoss, making this somewhat similar to Robin Goodfellow. It also reminds me of Parliament of Monsters (with a similar sweet incense note) and Possets' Scented Gloves (the soft herbal feel). Verdict: This is quite nice, but what I really want is a stronger version. It lasted 11 hours or so, but was pretty faint and close to the skin the whole time. I want Antony with the volume turned up, stronger and darker.

Hello, The Olive Branch! Lush fans will be happy to learn that Kuang Shi smells a LOT like Lush's The Olive Branch shower gel. Both scents are based on a lovely combination of citrus and white musk. Kuang Shi is slightly more bitter to me, but it's the pleasant bitterness of tangerine peel, not a bad thing. I love, love, love this for the first few hours. However, in the late drydown the mango note goes a bit funny on my skin; I was dismayed to find that it had started to smell like fruit-scented car air freshener. I'm still definitely keeping the imp; I'll play around with it and see if it works better at a different time of the month, or in a scent locket. I love BPAL's white musk scents!

You know what this smells like to me? Jalapeno jelly! At my grandmother's house in Texas, I've had sweet, spicy jalapeno jelly on biscuits. In the imp and the initial stage on my skin, this reminds me so much of that strange experience. I'm not sure whether I liked it as food, but I do like it as a scent and I wish it stayed like that for longer on my skin. After the jalapeno impression fades, Himerus remains an interesting sweet, spicy-hot, peppery scent, sharp and perfumey. I like the juniper note, but I don't pick up the red musk. There's a tartness to it that must be from the bergamot. Later in the drydown, though, the notes meld together on my skin and become something less interesting: a sweet, powdery fruity-floral incense. It's a shame it veers off in this direction (on me), because I would love more of the initial stage.

First of all, thank you Black Pearl for not being an aquatic. This blend taught me to identify iris...it's that powdery note that reminds me a little of Pez candy, makeup, and violets. I like iris. Black Pearl is a very interesting perfume, with a "soft" feeling about it from the iris and white musk; the coconut and hazelnut make it almost-foody but not quite. When I wore it for the first time the other day, the foody notes actually nauseated me a little. I had a strange emotional reaction to it, too; it made me feel nostalgic and sad, even though it wasn't reminding me of a specific scent from my past. In my notes on my BPAL spreadsheet I wrote that I didn't like it overall. But I now remember it as a good scent, and I definitely look forward to wearing it again. Perfume is weird like that.

How can I do justice to Dorian? I don't think that describing my impressions of the scent will add anything to this comprehensive collection of reviews. I'll just say that it's in my top five BPAL scents and although I haven't yet used up the two imps I own, I'm pretty sure I will eventually need many bottles. A few random thoughts: the lemon seemed much more prominent to me when I first wore it, but since my nose has gotten a little more refined I smell more of the vanilla, white musk and tea instead. Batch differences: Of my two imps, one seems very slightly more musky than the other, but both are equally wonderful. If you love the tea note, you should also try Kumiho, which is similar to Dorian without the vanilla. I'm looking forward to trying Theodosius, the Legerdemain, which is also said to be similar to Dorian. Everyone who's into BPAL needs to try Dorian at least once, and it should DEFINITELY be a part of any newbie-enabling set.

Even though I know very well, by now, that I don't like jasmine in BPAL, I have this obsessive thing where I have to test every oil that comes my way. And I keep buying imp packs that turn out to have imps with jasmine in them. I'll say one thing for the jasmine scents...they're easy to review. I like the sweet undertones of this scent - frankincense and musk, and I think I detect something citrusy, maybe neroli - but I can only smell that part for a few minutes before the jasmine overpowers everything else. I only applied the tiniest dab of this, but it lasted quite a long time, becoming very soapy-jasminey towards the end. Sigh, jasmine, I love your flowers so much, why must you be my enemy in perfume?

This one I really wanted to love, because I spent two years in Newfoundland (modern "Vinland"). I loved Newfoundland, and I do get nostalgic sometimes. I can't pick out all the interesting plant notes that are listed; on me, they all combine into a sweet, cool grassy scent, like pineapple juice and clover. It stays the same into the drydown, gradually turning into more of a pear scent. There's just a hint of an aquatic note but it doesn't go all out-of-control soapy as most aquatics do on my skin. It's a lovely scent, but sadly, it's not my style - too fresh for me. But it's a very good choice for a refreshing, green, fruity scent that's not too sweet.

A poisonous fruit-bearing member of the buttercup family. The scent, like the plant, is dark green, herbal, and plump with bulging black fruit. I've tried about 80 BPAL scents now and Baneberry is definitely one of my least favorites. It had that same fake fruitiness that I dislike in a few other BPAL scents with fruit notes, combined with something that reminded me of a bitter, cheap man's cologne. I didn't really get any herbal notes from it, which I would have liked; all I could focus on was the soapy cologne note. To be honest, I was embarrassed to be wearing this in public - I felt like I smelled very cheap. I much prefer Bordello for a good berry scent. Keep in mind that I don't like fruit notes in general, so if you do you may enjoy this. EDIT - 14 October 2008: My old review refers to a secondhand imp. I'm editing to add that I recently tried a fresh-from-the-lab imp, and it was much better. The berry note was stronger and darker (it reminded me of plums rather than berries) and the aquatic/cologney note seemed less bitter; the lab-fresh imp was more complex, with an interesting swirl of dark herbal notes underlying the fruit. The new imp was still definitely the same scent as the first one I tried, and still not something that I would wear, but it was easier to see the appeal. The person I passed it on to loved it! Perhaps the first imp I had was tainted somehow. Or it might be an aging difference - so you may want to use this up quickly if you like it.

Hi Jaybird, and welcome! Can you describe those scents? What notes do you like in them? (particular floral notes, fruits, musk, spices?) There might not be a BPAL scent that's very similar to your favorite perfumes, but you might have luck finding something in the same category if you know what you're looking for.

I would love to know of any similar Olive Branch scents too. It's my favorite Lush scent! I'm really surprised I'm the first one to mention this, but Kuang-Shi is a very good match for The Olive Branch. It's the white musk and citrus combination. Lovely. I don't find Dorian to be very similar, personally. I love Lush's jasmine scented products, especially Flying Fox, but I can't take BPAL's jasmine which smells very different to me. However, Namaste and Euphrosyne both bear some resemblance to Flying Fox. Euphrosyne is all Flying Fox for the first few minutes, but changes to BPAL-type jasmine in the drydown. Namaste (which I much prefer) is a lemongrass/incense scent that periodically goes through very Flying Fox-like stages, on me.

I love jasmine, the flower, and I even love Lush's jasmine products. But for some reason, BPAL's jasmine note doesn't resemble jasmine at all, to my nose. It's this weird, bitter, dry, papery, almost soapy scent. I saw someone else on this forum describe it as "funky rice" once, and that seems about right. I'm sure some people must perceive it differently, or there wouldn't be so many scents with jasmine. But I'm jealous of anyone who gets a real jasmine scent from that note. Anyway, that's what Black Dahlia is - that weird jasmine note drowns out everything else. I've stopped trying with BPAL jasmine, but I think this one came to me in a mystery imp pack. Such are the perils of mystery imp packs.

I'm tackling all the scents in categories that "aren't me" first, because they seem to be the easiest for me. This is very pretty for an aquatic floral. It makes me nostalgic for the scent of the tulips my neighbour used to grow in Canada...and I didn't even remember the scent of tulips until now. It's light, summery and refreshing, evocative of tulips waving in the breeze beside a stream. It doesn't go all air-freshener-y like the aquatics I really hate; I think it's very good for this type of scent, but I'd still never wear it, so I'll be passing it on.

I don't like aquatics or white florals, but all the imps I pulled out of my untested box today ended up being aquatic or white floral. This one's both. Sigh, gotta test 'em all... This is actually not too bad. The magnolia is subdued, and the muguet (lily-of-the-valley) is more prominent, but muguet is one white floral note I can tolerate. It's not actually related to other lilies. And the aquatic notes here aren't overly soapy. This is a conventionally pretty and feminine blend, a very well-executed melancholy-damsel-in-distress scent. Have to say it's not me, though. It reminds me a little of visiting my relatives in Texas, where they all have home fragrances from Bath and Body Works. Don't take that as a bad thing - I think if you like the sound of these notes, you'll love this blend.

Damn! I love the wet stage in this so much - it smells like a mango-lime sorbet I used to make when I lived in Venezuela. I know there's no mango listed, but it definitely has a sweet/fruity vibe, and I guess the lime is from the lemon verbena. So sweet and golden. I don't like fruit notes and I don't do refreshing scents, yet this was on its way to becoming one of my favorites. On me, it has this incredibly realistic lime note - like a freshly cut lime, rind and all. I've been dreaming of a lime scent like that and THIS IS IT. Until the drydown, when it becomes another soapy aquatic I can't stand. Oh, cruel world.

This is a hard one to review. First applied, I get a weird savory-food vibe from it, with cucumber, cumin, and coriander, competing with some white floral (that's the night-blooming flowers). Then it's mostly sweet white floral - the dusty, papery white florals I can't tolerate (like half the people on this forum, it seems). It's a bit different from the typical BPAL floral though: there's a hint of dry spices underneath, with just a little bit of the violet and incense coming through to make it interesting. The incense gets stronger as it wears on. Take out the night-blooming flowers, and I might love it. If you can do BPAL's white florals and you like incense, this is quite an interesting blend. I can't wear it, but do try it for yourself.

Moscow doesn't know what it wants to be, on my skin. At first it was all dreaded white flowers, then amber, then white flowers with rose and amber, then dark musk. Currently, it's all carnation, with the white flowers peeking in and out. BPAL's carnation is lovely, I could definitely use a carnation/musk blend, but the other notes in Moscow aren't right; the white flowers are especially ruining it for me. I can certainly see how someone could fall in love with it, though.

Try Whitechapel! It's a realistic tart lemon scent at the start, then gradually turns to lilac and white musk. I think the citrus notes listed are lime and citron, but it mostly smelled like lemon to me. I tested my imp the other day and fell in love - today I bought a bottle from the For Sale section. And I want a sugared fig scent too!

I wanted to like this a lot more. I love spicy incensy scents, but Al-Shairan isn't doing it for me. It's like an inferior version of Bakeneko (that citrus and soft cinnamon combination) combined with Bengal (mixed Indian spices). I like Bengal but I find it a little one-dimensional (like it's not complete without being layered with something) and Al-Shairan has the same problem, to me. There's also a weird dirty or dusty note in Al-Shairan which I'm not sure I like. I think it may be the peach note going weird on me. I get very little incense unfortunately. It is not terribly long-lasting on my skin. And I'm another one who was burned by the cinnamon in this. If I were to keep the imp, it would be scent locket only. But I think I'll pass it on.

BPAL's red musk note is unmistakable and although it's not in the description, I swear Vixen is full of red musk. Fortunately, I love the stuff. Every BPAL with red musk I've tried has become a favorite of mine (except for Dragon's Musk and The Dodo - dragon's blood hell). Vixen goes very sweet on my skin, but not cloying, just right (I have the kind of skin chemistry that turns everything sweet). There aren't many GCs I've taken to as much as this. It's slightly similar to Hunger (an underrated gem IMO) with the orange blossom note, and I think there's vanilla in here too. If you tend to avoid florals, don't be afraid of the orange blossom in here, it's not that prominent and it doesn't go to white floral hell, at least on my skin; this scent is much more about the red musk and (subtle) patchouli. The ginger is mainly noticeable in the wet stage; it fades in the drydown. It's a dark, peppery ginger, not a gingersnap ginger or a lemony ginger. Vixen has a very good throw for a perfume oil (you get this with a lot of red musk scents) and excellent staying power. I'll have to wear Vixen a couple more times, but I could imagine getting a bottle. The only problem is that I'm not sure how much wear it would get, as it would have to compete for my attentions with all the other gorgeous BPAL red musks.

What a cute thread, it's almost making me wish my boyfriend and I had a kid! (Bad forum!) I think something minty like Tokyo Stomp would be a good choice. Also, I'm wearing the amazing Whitechapel today and despite the fact that it's supposed to represent hidden corruption and malevolence, I think it would smell very nice and innocent on a little boy. Do avoid anything with cassia or cinnamon for your kids, though (unless you want to introduce them to scent lockets!). Many cinnamon-containing oils irritate my skin, so I imagine they'd be much worse on a child's skin. Bengal and Silk Road are the most irritating on me, Gingerbread Poppet and Bakeneko were okay.

In vial: Sharp citrusy floral/resin with a hint of violet. Wet: That powdery Pez candy smell. Citrusy resin and flowers. Makes me think of some kind of baby product - baby wipes? Drydown: Sweet, soft, powdery floral with a little violet. Baby powder-ish, not in a bad way, but not terribly interesting. There's not much to say here. If you're looking for a good violet scent, I'd steer you to Queen Gertrude or Sybaris first. Verdict: Ditto.