ivyandpeony

Salem, for something new and lemony, you might like Ave Maria Gratia Plena (rosewood with Sicilian lemon peel, red Mysore sandalwood, pale musks, sweet mountain sage and a dusting of lily, night-blooming jasmine and orris) or Coral Snake (Snake Oil with blood orange, red apple, lemon peel, plumeria, and gardenia); last year's #5 from the Pumpkin Patch had pumpkin with benzoin, bourbon vanilla, lemon peel, neroli, blood orange, and red ginger, if you can track some of it down. I put on Snow Glass Apples today and I think it's a great late-days-of-summer scent. So many apple blends are warm and spicy, but SGA's got a coolness about it so it's not too intense for days that are still warm and it reminds me of the cool days that are coming.

I pulled out Chrysanthemum Moon yesterday and every bit of wonderful autumn nostalgia I could ever imagine swept over me It's even better than I remembered and I think that a bit more age on it has something to do with that - it's smoother and deeper. This scent really personifies autumn to me!

There is a musk thread here in Recs, but I have been thinking about splitting it up a bit - red musk probably will be a solo topic so let's carry on the discussion and I will merge older posts discussing red musk into this thread when I get started on my project. =) My absolute favorite red musk blend is Madame Moriarty

If I was going to pick 4 from your list for you, they would be: Snake Oil - because it's warm and spicy and you should also like its sweetness since you like Midwinter's Eve Port-au-Prince - sweet and spicy and warm yet completely different from Snake Oil. Seraglio - You may get a little bit of similarity w/ Port-au-Prince because they both have almond, but because they are so different, I'd really try both. This one's got some orangey-ness that makes it a little foodier. Al-Sharain - now here you will smell a bit of orange again, but it's completely different from the others. Very, very spicy, the peach is stronger than the orange to me and the patchouli and incense make it deep and autumnal. I think you should also try the LE Samhain, it's the quintessential warm and spicy fall scent to me, but without having a foody element.

Felix, I love The Lion and even though it's a rich amber and very natural, I think it also has a sophisticated edge to it - as long as you don't apply loads and loads, it isn't an overwhelming scent IMO. There's something that appeals to me about wearing Leanan Sidhe to an interview for a job that has a creative bent It's also on the lighter side if you are worrying about wearing something that will fill the room.

The latest one has a green label w/ purple lettering - sorry I don't have a picture, though!

Bumping this - please focus autumn scent chatter here!

whoops, I had celestia and saracakes mixed up Sorry! So now it's sounding like UK and NA Soft Couer smell the same but Australian ones might be a little different... celestia, have you ever tried any of the various Lick It Yule LEs (there were several: Lick It, Lick It Again and Lick It One More Time, although I don't think they were intended to be vastly different). They're all sugary peppermint-vanilla blends. Monster Bait Tokyo Stomp is also a minty vanilla. Maybe a dab of one of those with a sweet chocolate blend like Candy Butcher might get you into the territory that you're seeking? At least you would have fun trying!

Me too. I get a little bit of vanilla and mintiness from the Mange Too bar, but not Soft Couer - it's all honey on the verge of toffee to me with just a bit of richness from the chocolate part. But since saracakes is in the UK and Tempest and I are in North America, it could be that there are some subtle differences in the products! I wonder if Mead Moon layered with a chocolatey BPAL of your choice would be a nice Soft Couer complement? I think I've raved about how good Honey Moon (2005) is if you are a fan of Lush's honey stuffs - well, I think Mead Moon is an even better match for their current honey products. Honey Moon is more herbal, like the old school B Never gel, Flying Saucers bubble bars (and liquid bath-shower gel you can now get via Retro), and Honey Comfort (aka Honey Lumps) ballistics. Which are my Lush True Loves. I think I'd even stick Mange Too on this side of the fence. Mead Moon is sweeter, which is why I think it reminds me more of the Honey Bee ballistic and HIWTK. I'd categorize Soft Couer over here as compared to Mange Too. Honey lovers who don't have them need to track down Honey and Mead Moons, even if you have to sell slightly used organs to get them. I kid, I kid! I wore some aged Hetairae yesterday and it took me to wild dimensions of honey love. It was like Skinny Dip meets B Never.

Silk definitely has a scent all of its own - I wish I could describe it too! It's soft and a little bit "green" to me, I wonder if it's got something to do with the plants that the silkworms eat to make the silk. (Is it true that they eat mulberry leaves, or is that just an old wives tale?) The bamboo note that Beth uses reminds me of it a little bit. Maybe something like Holiday Moon, which on me stays pretty green and lets the bamboo dominate, would remind me of silk... I'lll dab some on and report back. Are you a fan of any of the Asian-influenced scents?

I think this should be a regular offering from the Lab - you should just be able to ask for an Imp Pack of Weirdness and they'd send you a random selection of 6 of the most bizarre scents that are currently in the GC.

When I first saw this one in the update, I was like, "Oh, Beth, I guess we have to let you throw a few crazy ones in there," then the more I thought about it, the more I HAD TO TRY IT. I really like that herbal carroty quality that I can pick up in last year's Virgo blend, I love the scent of the hay absolute Beth's been playing with. And then I thought about the combination of the molasses and maple oats and red apples and I just went cuckoo from there. I didn't grow up riding, I have probably ridden a horse 3X in my adult life, but my best friend from college is a lifelong rider (and her mom as well) and the smell of a (relatively clean) barn is just lovely to me. (Once I read that a horse produces 25 pounds of manure per day on average, I kind of stopped thinking I wanted to live in the country and have a bunch of horses, though. )

When the Lab uses a note that obviously isn't a readily extractable essential oil (like strawberry, brimstone, cotton candy, soil, leather, metal, certain florals) or one that's animal based like musk or civet, but is inhumane to extract, it is my understanding that these notes are bouquets, meaning that they are combinations of natural plant based extracts that are intended to approximate or mimic the scent of something else. This thread, discussing different types of oils, might be helpful. Some of the other places this has been discussed in the past include the General Note discussion thread, the BPAL free for all questions thread, the Civet Discussion thread, the musks discussion thread (see in particular this post, with info from a class Beth taught) - if you search any of those threads for the word "bouquet" using the box at the lower left it should narrow the posts down for you. (Of course, just because something is natural instead of synthetic doesn't mean that people with sensitivities or allergies can automatically use it... everything that I am allergic to (per my doctor's diagnosis) is 100% natural; poison ivy and poison oak are natural too. So I can understand why the argument comes up, that someone with chemical sensitivities might be able to use BPAL perfumes as opposed to commercial scented products - but because so many people with chemical sensitivities seem to have immune systems on high, high alert, I don't think it would be safe for them to assume this. Anyone with a history of serious reactions to fragrance needs to be extremely careful with all fragrances.)

I grew up in the south, so this is a smell I don't know! We did have hay fields and peach orchards, but not a lot of corn Since I am on unfamiliar turf here, you midwesterners can tell me if what this member was looking for sounds similar? The Scent of a Ripe Cornfield Would they be similar enough that I could make them into one topic... Midwestern Memories or something? (Not that this one is a dupe, but if the scents are similar, I can put all the pertinent search terms in the title and the relevant blends will all be in one topic.)

Just a periodic reminder for all... no matter how well intentioned, all offers for transactions between members (swaps, sales, purchases, custom purchases, gifts, contests for free imp packs, and whatever else you can imagine) must be posted in the Swaps forums only. If you need a review of the guidelines, you can find them here, &/or you can look over the summary of Forum Do's and Don'ts. Thank you!

For tips beyond BPAL-fueled aromatherapy, you definitely should hit up the pregnancy thread over in Get Personal - you should find a lot of experienced moms there who have been through morning sickness. (I am glad it's been established that ginger needs to be ingested to be effective; however, any additional tips on eating or other remedies really belong over there as well, to keep this thread on topic.) I haven't dealt with morning sickness myself, but when I am nauseated or vomiting there's not much beyond those old remedies of time, getting out what's making me sick, &/or Phenergan, that really make me feel any better. Even smelling the most refreshing or minty things can push me over the edge again. Due to the heightened sense of smell during pregnancy, I know a lot of my friends have been super sensitive to smell. It may just be that you need to avoid perfumes until your nose calms down... and every woman will be different, too. Hope you are already feeling better since you posted, purplekylie!

I think I will leave it on its own for now, since it could fit in either of those threads... after it gets some comments, I'll see if it fits better in the tea thread or the LEs => GCs thread and we'll go from there. I am a mint-amper, and not especially crazy about mint unless it's really, really light... so Gennivre ended up being a swap-away for me. I'm jealous of what you get from it! The Dormouse is a light floral tea and really pretty - I would guess it might be less sweet that Gennivre, lacking sugar or honey notes. But definitely worth trying. Maiden is also a very pretty floral tea blend! Baobhan Sith has a great combo of citrus and tea notes. You should also try Nostrum Remedium, it's a spicy honeyed tea. From the CD series, if you get a chance to try Daiyu, it is a really refreshing and pretty tea blend and it's unique. The acai gives it that citrusy brightness and the jasmine in it is a sweet one. Green Tree Viper is a nice twist on Snake Oil w/mint and tea.

Almost every scent I tried from the Tiki Bar collection had a fizzy, effervescent quality like ginger ale bubbles.

So I need to hear a little more about the blueberry-ness of Crawdad Dream. Is it all blueberry all the time, just a hint of berry... what's the verdict? I need to know if I need to get out my crawdad shovel and start poking around in the mud of the swaps forum.

no worries, it fits in just fine in this thread. Sometimes I don't know which of these similarities threads to post something in I think anytime you have a long list of blends that resemble each other this thread's fine, unless maybe none of them are GC! I have noticed the Glowing Vulva - Antithykera Mecanism similarity, and I will have to give Haloes a re-sniff. I haven't smelled Aureus in ages, exactly for the reason you mentioned, it was so dry on me and I am the girl with no natural sweetness. So on me it was dry wood and petroleum, which is what I get from some resins when there's no sweet stuff around. But Glowing Vulva was actually too sweet on me - go figure! For those who are enjoying comparing Baobhan Sith, Vampire Tears, and Whitechapel - you should try Croquet. It's in the same family, sweet citrus with a touch of florals and a little creamy musk.

Since BPAL musks are bouquets and not "real" musks from animals, and because Beth uses poetic license on occasion when writing descriptions... it could be that she is using a specific single note bouquet that she's developed that she has named honey musk in those blends. But there's also a possibility that she may be using that term to describe an overall sweet musky feel that is intended from the scent, and that they contain a musk and a honey note. This made me think that you might want to try some blends that have honey and musk in them to see if you get a similar feel on your skin - maybe skipping the ones that definitely are using a musk that has an identifiable "character" like red musk but trying some that seem to have a lighter feel. (The Illustrated Woman lists "skin musk" and "golden honey" separately, now that I happened to go back and read the description, so maybe my theory will find you another favorite or two!) Here are some candidates: Les Bijoux - Skin musk and honey, blood-red rose, orange blossom, white peach, red apple, frankincense and myrrh. Aghrat-Bat-Mahlat - Amber, cream accord, white honey, apple blossom, skin musk, caramel, and teak. Skuld - Ylang ylang, honey, Egyptian and Arabian musks and labdanum. Anactoria - Golden amber, white honey, red currant, daemonorops, kush, and Arabian musk. Harikata - Osmanthus, honey, golden musk, vanilla flower, and ginger. Brides of Dracula - Skin musk, honey and white amber, plum blossom, osmanthus, sandalwood, calla lily, and a light, sensual blend of Eastern spices. Bilquis - Honey, myrrh, lily of the valley, rose otto, fig leaf, almond, ambrette, red apple, and warm musk. Judith & Holofernes - Skin musk, honey, carnation, French magnolia, patchouli, sandalwood, and immortelle. Schlafende Bagneuse - Skin musk, white cream, honeycomb, yellow rose, King mandarin, chrysanthemum, golden amber, honeysuckle, and wide-throated yellow monkey-flower accord. (This is a GORGEOUS blend for anyone who hasn't tried it ) The Penitent Magdalen - Immortelle, lily of the valley, gaiac, amber, honey, white sandalwood, almond flower, blonde musk, and hyssop. Bengal - Skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon bark and ginger. (a mod note - I may merge this in w/the musks thread after it gets some responses, &/or I may end up splitting the musk thread up a bit into light, dark, etc. So if anyone is having trouble finding a topic all of a sudden, just drop me a PM and I will find it for you!)

Now THAT must be a pretty exclusive scent. *snort* do you know how often I make that mistake? Even when I am in my right mind?

Even though I took the quiz three times and got three different results, none of those results said that I was a Spring personality I wanted the La Primavera set worse than anything, though, and luckily the goblins saw fit to let me have it. Like nearly all of the reviewers, I had a fear note or two here - for me, the ylang-ylang, which sometimes likes to get sharp and sassy on me and on occasion will actually drill a hole into my brain, and the plum blossom, which can go too candylike and fruity depending on its companions. But when I see the word "tuberose" I usually put my blinders on no matter what other notes are there. In this case, my fears were unfounded and this is one of my absolute favorite BPAL perfumes of all eternity. Seriously. La Primavera is a lush white floral that manages to have no sharpness - it's just sweet enough but not cloying, just floral enough but doesn't fill the room, just bright enough but not veering into sharpness, with a hint of green that makes you think of spring. On me, the prominent notes are the jasmine and tuberose, which are gorgeous together. Even as it dries down, this one stays very floral on me, although it gets a little greener - probably the oakmoss and violet leaf coming out as some of the bright ylang ylang and citrus backs off a bit. This is one I will treasure for as long as my stash lasts!

Although it probably varies from brand to brand, I think it's pretty safe to assume that body mists are more lightly concentrated that perfume oils. They're usually made with a combination of scent, water and/or alcohol, moisturizers, emulsifiers to hold it all together, that sort of thing. I don't know of any official rule of thumb, but when shopping I personally think of a body mist as something that is lighter than an eau de toilette. There's a chart here that has the rule-of-thumb percentages for perfume, cologne, eau de toilette and such that might be helpful in understanding those concentrations if you aren't familiar with them. A lot of forum members use their BPAL oils to make their own sprays in varying concentrations - whether they buy supplies and do it from scratch or buy unscented product from an online company and just add scent. There are a few topics in Beyond Perfume about it including parfum sprays and dry oil spray. Some people also like to dilute with a carrier oil before wearing. So it's not impossible to enjoy BPAL even if you find it too intense or concentrated undiluted. The really worrisome thing about your friend's allergies and asthma are that she doesn't know what the triggers are, whether it's an actual component of the scent, an additive in the perfume, or just the high concentration of the product that's making her react. If I were her, I would try to delve into that more deeply before spending money on a lot of products that could make me sick &/or that I might not be able to use. (Remember that once you've turned your BPAL oil into another product, like a spray or diluted oil, you are not permitted to sell or swap it.) The second friend who is only allergic to the alcohol in perfume should be fine with BPAL perfume, it does not contain alcohol. AFAIK the only products that do are the room and linen sprays sold through the Trading Post.

That's a really good suggestion, septima pica. I have found a lot of the Salons have a dressier, more elegant feel and when that's what I'm in the mood for or what the occasion calls for, it seems that I end up wearing a Salon blend quite often!