ivyandpeony

I'm not sure what I would recommend - I think that your response to certain notes can be really personal even when they're recommended for particular uses in aromatherapy. But in case you haven't poked around Recs in a while, you can review the discussions on calming & relaxing scents for ideas on those & recs for studying, learning and exams that could help you focus (you may have already found that one). I think whatever makes you feel confident is probably your best bet, as long as it's not something that also makes you so cozy and sleepy that you won't be alert and together for your lessons and test. And maybe use a light hand if you decide on something that's on the sexy or heady side, in case you have a driving examiner with a sensitive nose.

I don't have an immediate answer to your question, but since you are so new to the forum you might not know that BPAL discontinued selling single notes a couple of years ago. It sounds like you weren't convinced that was what you were looking for anyway, I just figured I'd mention it in case someone else came along and was unaware. And I think that Bath & Body Works may have stopped carrying the Henri Bendel line across the board in favor of Slatkin products - they don't have them on their website anymore and the couple stores in my town don't have any more HB either. I don't know if the actual HB store carried the stuff or if it was a special line they only produced w/ Bath & Body Works. There used to be someone on the forums who worked at B&BW, but I can't remember who it was - but maybe someone knows more?

Monoi de Tahiti, vanilla, white coconut, tuberose, ylang ylang, white musk, red hibiscus, and neroli. One caveat, the pollen counts in my area have been insane so I've been extremely congested! They've dropped enough that I've started to test my Tikis, though, and Tiki Queen is first up. Of all the notes, tuberose dominates on my skin, and this is just fine with me. It's one of my favorite notes and I don't find it in as many blends as I would like. The monoi is there playing second fiddle but still detectable and it's a lovely companion to the tuberose. I believe the hibiscus is what provides the sweet-fruity-candy vibe, and as Tiki Queen dries down it becomes a unique and feminine combination of a fruity-sweet base topped with swirly white florals. For me, the danger notes in TQ were the coconut, neroli and ylang ylang - none of them are complete deal breakers for me in a blend, but how they play along determines the final outcome. I'm happy to say that all three seem to be support staff and they surely contribute to the sweetness, but I can pick out none of the three individually. All in all, this one is really a winner, a tropical floral like no other BPAL has released before. If anyone longs for tuberose the way I do? Order it immediately! And this is a must for any white floral fan as well.

TigerKatze, I think you are right - I believe that anyone who decides to search BPAL in the hopes of finding a replacement for a single scent is going to end up frustrated and disappointed. BPAL blends do smell very different from one person to another depending on each person's chemistry and there's no way to predict for sure that any particular blend will work on you until you try it on your skin, and that can be very frustrating for some people - I think there may even be a standing thread now for relative newbies to rant about how everything they've tried smells bad to them. The people who do end up turned on to BPAL seem to start enjoying the process of trying new perfumes and figuring out which notes work for them and which don't, with the added bonus being that you find perfumes you like along the way - people who find that frustrating or just not a fun way to spend any time end up uninterested in BPAL. I have a group of friends who couldn't be less interested in my perfume hobby, I have a group of friends that could sniff and try stuff with me all day. Neither group is any better or smarter than the other, they just have different interests. If you feel like you're falling in the group that wouldn't enjoy the trial and error process, though, it is going to be doubly frustrating trying to find a match for something that you used to wear. Another reason it can be hard for a newbie to find something that's similar to a favorite perfume if you're asking in Recommedations: you have to get lucky and find someone who's not only familiar with that perfume, but who has also tried a lot of BPALs, enough that they may be able to come up with something similar. Folks are always happy to help you match up notes when you have a list of the notes in your old perfume (they even go find lists themselves!) but it's just a matter of luck as to whether any members who frequent this area have tried the particular perfume that someone's hoping to replicate. As far as availability and ease of purchase, you may be a little off the mark though. You might be surprised though at the number of people in the US who do not have access to retail locations that sell BPAL - Europeans are far from the only underprivileged in that number. Other than the Lab itself (which is open only once a month) I think there may be 4 locations (a salon in LA, two Whole Foods in GA and Shelldoo's salon in PA) that sell BPAL at retail. I can't speak for mailing times for personal packages like the one that you're waiting on since I have no idea what method of mailing it went by, but most lab orders are arriving within a month these days even to international customers. I think they ship by Global Priority mail which arrives pretty quickly. There's a thread here in Recs about enabling friends where people can post their suggestions for what to include in an imp pack - I definitely agree with you that being able to try scents first hand would be the most likely way to really get someone interested. I'm familiar with Goth Rosary's sample scent pack and I don't know if that format would work well w/BPAL, though, since trying it on your skin is of such importance - many things I sniffed in the imp or bottle I wasn't wild about, but on my skin they were another story. I'm sorry that you haven't found what you are looking for yet - I don't know for sure that it exists, but maybe when your package arrives you will find a couple of things that intrigue you even if they don't duplicate your beloved perfume. And from there, if you're still interested, you can post that list and ask about what's worth trying next, and so on and so forth.

I have seen just a few of these pop up lately so I figured I'd bump this in the hopes that more people will have a chance to read it. Thanks!

I haven't made it through the whole collection yet, but I wore Tiki Queen today and there is a whole lotta tuberose in there for the Michael fans. I got no detectable coconut for the coconut phobic - it's an unusual blend, the hibiscus makes it sweet and juicy and almost a little fruity with the white florals on top.

If it was my dad? (or my husband) I would trust my own sense of smell! My husband has about four things that he says perfumes smell like: baby powder, cookies, an old lady and patchouli. At least that's when he doesn't like them very much, otherwise he'll say, "Oh, that one's nice."

I think it's very helpful to post when you find a not-so-rare, or even a still-available LE (like Mme Moriarity) that resembles a harder to find one. So it counts! Be sure to share when you find time to do a side-by-side comparison, too.

Thanks for posting these. I love the labels for the tiki scents. LOVE THEM! I would almost buy them just for that. I'm a sucker for packaging. Ditto on the thanks... and on the tiki love. Looking at that display has me wanting to run out and buy all manner of tropical juices and boozes to start mixing up!

do I smell a new member title? Now you all have me wanting to hunt down some Daphne plants for my yard. Although technically I am trying to make it not my yard (we have our house on the market) so I shouldn't be spending money at this point to do too much landscaping.

Nothing comes up in the search engine for me - does daphne go by any other names though? Is it the same as mountain laurel? Why am I confusing them? I don't think a lot of daphne grows in my area, that's probably got something to do with my

Ooh, when I saw the topic title the whole Tiki Bar jumped to mind! Can't believe this one hasn't been discussed in three years. But we do tend to yack away about so much...

Ugh, that would make me so sick I'm queasy thinking about it! Wonder if it would be worth complaining to management about? It's not like it actually makes the air cleaner or has some kind of health benefit. Regular perfumes would get overwhelming really fast at the gym, and I can't imagine someone wearing Snake Oil to a cardio workout - but something citrusy applied with a very light hand, maybe just to your wrists so you can take a sniff, shouldn't overwhelm anyone else, especially if you're all having to breathe synthetic air deodorizer fumes. Sudha Segara is one that hasn't been mentioned lately, it's the kind of ginger that smells almost lemony.

Oh, it's a Tiki tie-in thing. Thank you for posting those pictures, coldandsleepy!

I don't have mine yet, Tzi, but I will be checking back in when I do - it should be fairly soon. Michael Kors is one of my favorite non BPAL scents (despite the ridiculous orange persona he's developed since it was released years ago, I still love it ) and I love BPAL white florals. I have high hopes for Tupapau, which is the one that combines white florals with white sandalwood and a Hawaiian moss. Have you ruled out the Tiki Bar scents? I'm really looking forward to trying them, the reviews have them sounding much less sweet and boozy than I was fearing. I can understand just focusing on the florals to start with if fruity scents don't normally get along with you.

Becky, I wonder if you are just amping other notes in those blends to the exclusion of the rose. Cinnamon can be such a strong note, for example, it might just be beating out the rose on you. (Of that list, Harlot is the only one which smells like "lots of rose" on me and the cinnamon is pretty strong too - I can barely smell rose in any of the others that you listed, so you are not alone. For example, Zombi is pure dirt on me, KoH was just baked goods and fruit, Eve = sharp apple blossom on my skin.) From the general catalog, Black Rose or Moon Rose might be good places to start, since rose is the focus of those blends you may find that the other notes sing backup the way they're supposed to. Blood Rose might also work for you if dragon's blood is a note that works on your skin. Lucy's Kiss is rose with spices and London is a deep tea rose blend. Two, Five and Seven is rose-crazy and unless you happen to just amp green notes like a crazy-woman, you are bound to get some rose from it! Rose Cross is rose and frankincense and has a very serene and simple feel to it, I like it as a room scent (frankincense is iffy on me) but I hear a lot of good things about it from people who love frankincense too. If you like to persue the swaps and sales forum, see if you can track down the recent Yule LEs Rose Red &/or The Peacock Queen. Both are very pure rose - although there are other elements that make them whole your nose will pick up very little except lush red roses. Some people love both, others are sworn to one or the other, which is why I suggest trying both if you're able (I'm a Rose Red fan, myself).

The search engine can now find three letter words - that old restriction got worked around in the last update. The help info and old posts about using the search engine might not reflect this yet. But try a search for "gym" (or "tea" or something of your choosing), limited to titles only and topics only for ease, and you'll see that it works. I don't know that this applies to the the lab search engine (that you access through the retail site) yet, though - it runs through different software and may still balk at the three-letters-or-less searches.

No admonishment intended, so no blushing required And when it comes to what people do behind closed doors with their little bottles, I'm all about freedom! *eyebrow wiggle* I just have to make the effort to make sure the info is there, so when someone wanders in who doesn't understand the difference between BPAL & TAL, they can understand the differences and decide for themselves if they want to explore .

This came up in another thread recently - so my addressing it again so soon is not directed towards anyone personally, nor is it something I'm harping on for personal reasons, it's a moderating issue. I just have to mention that TAL Temple blends are not sold as perfumes and aren't intended for use on the skin, so as the Recs mod I disagree with them being used casually as scents or recommended for that use. There are TALs that are intended for use as scents but that particular set of ritual oils is not among them. Discussing what they smell like in this area isn't something I am going to warn you for or get angry about - I just feel a responsibility to mention these issues when someone does recommend them for perfume use, so that any newer members who aren't fully educated about TAL can make their own decisions. The thread here contains most of the discussion of this issue, and there may be more information in other threads in the TAL area. If there's something that's not covered there or you want to discuss further, feel free to bump that thread with your questions or PM me or wickedgoddess.

After reading through all the latest developments, this one seems like an overly obvious suggestion - but I was wondering if you've tried Kali, voodoobaby? It's very complex and I've never been able to describe it well although it was one of my first ZOMG BPALs - I think it's one of those blends where the whole is greater than the sum of its parts, if you know what I mean. The notes are "...blooms of cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus and osmanthus swirled with offertory dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey."

Frejya, Loki, and Hel have appeared on past "up and coming" lists. And I saw some chatter about Hel in last week's Will Call threads so she may be joining us soon.

You picked the perfect place to put that And I agree with you on VoR, it's almost like a resinous Three Witches. original version to boot. I was wavering on ordering a bottle of VoR, though - if the frankincense had been amber instead, it would be incredible on me, but frankincense sometimes gets a little bit of a weird kerosene hint on my skin. And VoR wasn't absolutely perfect, and I am swimming in bottles, and then my Sugar Moon order arrived with Mort de Cesar in it just before the Lupercalias were pulled. And if clove is a spice that delights you - Mort de Cesar is awesome! (Some of the reviewers have said it's bitter or masculine, but I can turn flowers into man-musk if there's even a hint of masculine in a blend and MdC doesn't get manly on me at all. Maybe there's enough sweetness in it for my chemistry to work with.) So I decided to be happy with my bottle of Mort de Cesar and my decant of Valentine of Rome... for now.

Have you tried Eat Me? It's all berries and vanilla on me. To get the mint element, you would have to layer it with something minty that would mesh w/ the sweet/foody feel (I'm thinking Lick It, Lick It Again, Lick It One More Time or Tokyo Stomp in that regard). There's also a Panacea that's very minty and eucalyptus-y but I can't remember which one, maybe someone can help me out.

Hmm... in three and a half years I've never seen a label like that, Freckle, and there isn't a BPAL blend called Alchemy. I know Aftelier (Mandy Aftel's natural perfume company) has a scent called Alchemy - although I could only find the solid form on her current website, I remember reading about it in her book. I suppose you could have a sample of a liquid version if it smells anything like "A floral heart swathed in amber and vanilla, with bitter orange and black pepper top notes."

Seconding the Bastet rec, if you love warm golden amber. When I think of Jacob's Ladder, I think spicy resins and one of my favorites that fits that bill is Hermia. Since it's GC you can pick up an imp easily, it does have some floral notes that JL doesn't but on me it's almost all pink pepper and amber, which is just a delicious combination. I also find The Lion to be a close relative to Jacob's Ladder, at least the way it mixes with my chemistry, so I'd recommend that one too. A little pricier but very lovely and similar in feel is the Salon blend And There Was A Great Cry In Egypt - the notes are dark myrrh, white sandalwood, amber, hyssop, frankincense, honey, cypress, red musk, cardamom and saffron; it's a sweet-spicy resin with lots of depth. I think White Light is an excellent tool for healing and dispelling negativity, so that's a wise choice for your list. Best of luck to you on your journey