ivyandpeony

Thank you, salixnoir! I think that you are absolutely correct after looking at the wikipedia articles on the two different plants/flowers. I was wondering how I could have missed the fact that there are actually two plants with different names and qualities - I'm far from an authority on all things perfume, but this was the sort of thing where I felt like I must have learned it incorrectly and it stuck with me (do you know that feeling?) Lo and behold, a little googling and I saw that the venerable Mandy Aftel uses the terms champa and champaca interchangeably in her book Essence and Alchemy. I am pretty sure that's where I must have read it. (That link should take you to page 114 of the Google preview of the book.) That in turn made me wonder - have I been thinking that nag champa and champaca smell alike only because I was operating under a misconception? Then I found this article by a natural perfumer, who mentions that a lot of people find them similar because one of the resins used in nag champa smells similar to champaca flower. So at least that makes me feel like a justifiable idiot I am so glad that you pointed this out!

I meant to mention in my earlier post - I don't think that any of the Temple blends from TAL are going to suit your purposes; they're ritual oils and although some people may wear them on the skin (contrary to the TAL disclaimer), it's not really what they are intended for. They aren't in the category of TALs that are meant for dual use as perfumes and ritual oils.

Champaca flower or nag champa incense is what immediately came to mind for me, too - but I have never visited a Hindu temple, so I didn't want to just jump to the conclusion that it was what you are smelling. Salixnoir's suggestion that you just sniff some of the incense is smart, it's available very widely, even at the counter at some gas stations! (Seriously, the same brand that I received as a gift in a package from Magical Omaha is sold at the Chevron around the corner from me - and that's not to say by any means that MO carries gas station quality products ) If the fragrance is reminiscent of what you smelled in the temples you visited, then you've cracked the code. And if nag champa &/or champaca flower is what you are in search of, you are in luck - there's a thread right here with lots of suggestions. The fragrance of the incense is actually one that I do not like at all - and champaca's ruined a few blends for me, it doesn't always play nice on my skin. Vasakasajja and Hellion are the only blends with it that work well on me. But according to the search engine, you can also find champaca flower in Khajuraho, Defutata, Kubla Khan, Temple Viper, Dr. John Seward, Prospero, Pumpkin II (from 2007) and Two Monsters. Gaueko and Urd contain a nag champa note. I think the difference, as far as BPAL perfumes go, is that the champaca flower note will be more pure floral and the nag champa note is similar to the scent of the incense, which is derived from the flower but contains some other elements and of course, will be very resinous.

Just a quick mod note - I added the word "artistic" to the title since I see we have at least one other artist who's joined tyro in the search since yesterday; I figured that will give people a little more info about the thread at a glance and help with future searches too. It's too bad the Muses have been discontinued, in some of the other "creativity" threads people mentioned using those blends when feeling uninspired, and not always the obvious Muse for the medium in which they worked.

Blueberry lovers rejoice! Looks like Beth has released BPAL's first ever blend with that elusive blueberry note... Blue Fire, from the Atomic Luau Lounge (specifically, the notes are papaya, blueberry, lemongrass, and gin). The will-call reviews are drifting in and some people are getting more blueberry than others, but I am sure this is going to be a must try for the blueberry fans out there. And if she has finally concocted a blueberry bouquet that she is happy with, there's a chance we'll see it in another scent, or more scents, down the line. I am on the fence about Blue Fire - I have to confess I personally have not been dying for a blueberry scent Sweet and fruity tends not to be on my list of loves, and papaya is a note I am really unsure about. But the whole Atomic Luau collection has me so fascinated, I think I am going to have to try them all! I'm just predicting that I am going to find my true loves among the tropical florals, green and woody scents in the collection and not so much among the boozy-fruity ones. Then again, one of the things I find the most fun about BPAL is when I stumble on something fantastic that I never would have predicted I'd love so much (Pisces 2007, Archangel Winter, and The Black Swan are the most recent ones that come to mind). So I am definitely keeping an open mind!

Welcome to the forum, Tyro! Hopefully, you won't be sorry you asked for suggestions Our more artistic members may have some good recommendations for you too, these are just some ideas to get you started. There are lots of ways you can go... You can take a peek at The Salon (you'll find the reviews here) and see if there's a favorite work of art or artist represented there that might inspire you, or take a chance on an imp set (or two or three) so you can work your way thru a mini scent-museum and see what strikes you. There are some other topics that touch on inspiration, too - one for writers and one for musicians and students of music; the thread about scents to help with studying and exams could also be helpful. And if you haven't discovered Twilight Alchemy Lab yet, you'll find some helpful chatter here.

ifinena, I found this post in the archive in an old, old thread - someone was looking for Christmas gifts for her sister and had listed Tresor as one of her sister's favorite fragrances for reference. And since this was posted there have been so many new BPAL scents - so maybe we can come up with some new suggestions too. Harikata (from the LE Shunga series) came to mind for me - it's a fruity honeyed floral.

I was trying to think of the notes that most often get accused of being "soapy" (like that's always a bad thing). Lilies came to mind immediately, and of course, lavender is a common culprit. Frankincense is very soapy on me but not on everybody. As you try more blends you may find that one of those notes has a soapier, fresher feel on you than you expected it to.

It occurred to me that you might find some good suggestions in this thread - the OP is looking for scents that smell like a baby without the baby powder element, which to me evokes the idea of clean, soapy, warm scents. I second the Zephyr suggestion. It's clean without being too crisp and bright. And Sudha Segara is a great one, too - very warm yet also clean and bright. Morocco is gorgeous and to me, it has a wee bit of a soapy quality - the spices could take it out of the "clean" category for you, but if you haven't tried it, it's a BPAL must and you might love it even if it doesn't fulfill this particular quest. The Unicorn is very clean and simple, although the notes listed are predominantly floral I don't find it to be something that screams "floral" at all. Another blend that I find very hard to categorize, but that I think might fit your request, is Oberon - it smelled nothing like I expected from the listed notes (orchid, white musk, bergamot, juniper berries, and patchouli) and it's very soft and clean.

The Salons are actually available as imps, but only as complete sets by exhibition - they weren't available when the Salon first made its debut, but I think when the second exhibition went live they began to offer them. Since they're not available as individual scents, if you are only interested in one or two Salon scents and don't want to commit to a bottle unsniffed, the swap/sale forum is the place to go. (I had no problems swapping or selling the imps that didn't work for me from the Salon set that I purchased, so it's a splurge that I personally would recommend )

Sugar Skull is completely edible, nothing but sugary tooth decay in a bottle! Somehow it smells fantastic too. It's to sugar what Two, Five & Seven is to roses.

I'm bumping this because this has been happening a little more than I'd like lately. With the increased size of the catalog and the huge increase in membership, I think it's important that this area remain devoted to BPAL only. If members are interested in recommendations for other brands, we have Retail Therapy for that. It's hard enough to navigate the longer threads about more popular notes (vanilla, patchouli, etc) and keep track of the BPAL recs, and I don't like the idea of turning this General Perfume recs subforum for that reason and the reasons I stated in my first announcement. The one exception that I think may be appropriate is when there truly is no BPAL scent that can be recommended - for example, the recent thread about cilantro or the bakery scent earlier this year, where someone wanted something that smelled like bread. You can also visit this thread, where there's ongoing discussion of other products members have discovered that remind them of favorite BPAL scents. So if you are looking for recommendations for general vanilla scents or what have you, by all means visit Retail Therapy, it's there for you to enjoy and the sky is the limit there. This subforum needs to be limited to BPAL questions and recommendations. Thanks, and as always I welcome any questions or comments - just drop me a PM!

Have you ever wondered what the deal is with the Recommendations subforum? What's a duplicate topic, what isn't? Where those topics from the newbies go when the newbies aren't new anymore? This post should answer those questions for you, but if there's anything else you are wondering about, let me know. I will answer your questions and add it to the FAQ here. When to add to an existing thread This subforum has lots of wiggle room for unique, tailored-for-you topics. But I would ask that you please use the search engine in the following cases BEFORE you start a new thread, and bump the existing thread to continue discussion if you find one. 1. Looking for recommendations based on a specific note (rose, lilac, vanilla, etc.) - even if you are looking for a unique combination, like vanilla + smoke 2. Looking for scents similar to a non-BPAL perfume - search for the name of the scent AND the name of the company 3. Looking for the best BPAL scent for a particular purpose, like studying, seducing someone, feeling brave, falling asleep... you get the idea. We've covered a lot of ground already. 4. Looking to invoke a specific feel, mood, season, place - you may have a unique request, but please check first. 5. Looking for a scent that smells like "something" - most often it's a food or beverage, but you're a creative bunch. Just run it through the search engine first. *I highly recommend doing a search that's limited to titles only and to the Recommendations subforum. You can highlight the subforum you want to search at the bottom left of the search form, and there are radio buttons on the right that allow you to choose between searching titles only or titles and complete text (as well as the mode of display: as posts or topics).* If you're in doubt as to whether your topic overlaps with an existing one, just PM me and I will be glad to figure out whether we should continue discussion in the existing thread or start a new one. If you remember seeing a thread in the past and you are having trouble finding it now, please do not start a new thread asking for its whereabouts. PM me and I will help you find it. When to start a new thread, no questions asked And here are some good examples of when it's fine to go ahead and start a new thread. Keep in mind that these topics are usually considered "temporary" - when I see that no one's posted in them for 30 days or so, it's off to the archive, unless the discussion has taken an unexpected turn so it's worth keeping or merging with an existing topic. 1. Looking for recommendations for a first order or your next order. However, if you decide a few days after you start this thread that you want to get some more recs for things you didn't mention at first, PLEASE add to the discussion in your first thread instead of starting another one. You can do that by adding a new post to the thread or editing your first post, or both. Your thread isn't going anywhere until no one's posted in it for a month, and you will quickly find that people are quite helpful and are interested in your morphing tastes. 2. Looking for recommendations for a gift for someone specific, like your mom who hates vanilla but loves tonka or your roommate who is stealing your Dana O'Shee and your Snake Oil. (We have threads covering some categorical recommendations like all-purpose enabling, young children, etc. so please use those when appropriate.) Please be mindful, if you just want recs for tobacco, or rose, or a single type of scent for someone for which a thread exists, it is most likely going to be merged into that thread, so in those cases you should probably just bump the existing thread with your requests. Don't worry, you will get lots of help from this crowd, we aren't prejudiced against older or longer threads! 3. Looking for the right scent for an occasion or event that's coming up - but please search first even though it seems very special and specific to you, since we have threads like Bridal BPAL, best blends for performing in front of an audience, job interviews... we are a chatty bunch and we have covered a lot of ground. The best rule of thumb is search first - and I am always happy to help you with any search issues. If you find a thread and you aren't sure if yours would be a dupe, just drop me a PM. I would much rather discuss it with you then, than have to hash it out via PM after I have issued a reminder or warning about your topic. It makes me feel like you didn't care enough to search or to ask my opinion and it makes you feel like an evil nun is coming after you rapping your knuckles with a ruler. Neither is a pleasant feeling. The big "similarities" threads These are all pinned for your convenience at the top of the forum. There's one for finding good substitutes in the general catalog for your favorite (scarce) Limited Edition scents; one for similarities between GC scents, and this does include discussion of discontinued GC scents; and because there are so many Lush fans who are also BPAL fans, a thread to help you find BPAL blends that smell like your favorite Lush products. There is a very easy way to search these threads without having to read through all those pages. Scroll down to the bottom of any page of the thread and you'll see at the bottom left a box with the words "Enter Keywords" and a box that says "Search Topic." This mini search engine allows you to search within the thread for the specific Lush scent, discontinued BPAL blend or whatever it may bee that you are seeking. It's self explanatory - enter keywords and search the topic! If you aren't finding what you want using that method, another method that takes a little longer is to go through the topic, page by page, using your browser's "Edit: find" function to find the term you're seeking on each page. Finding BPALs that smell like other perfumes Check for threads by company name as well as product name - a few threads are combined by the company (Bath & Body Works, The Body Shop, Victoria's Secret, for example). There's also a thread compiling the most common comparisons where you are welcome to discuss and ask questions - but you can start a standalone thread if one doesn't exist for what you are looking for. A few general comments - I do leave a lot of topics live as you can see, even ones that never got any responses - just in case someone does come along and look for similar recommendations in the future. I merge stuff when I see a logical combination of topics to keep things tidy, and I also edit thread titles to make them more searchable (although I do try to keep the OP's humor & personality evident whenever possible, sometimes our inside jokes ultimately have to go so I can include utilitarian search terms ). I've also gone through the subforum periodically and edited vague titles to reflect their content a bit more accurately, so I hope that will be helpful to all of us. Thanks to all of you for your enthusiastic participation in Recommendations!

I think of clean laundry when I think of babies, I think my SIL was overdosing on the fabric softener back in the day when my teenage niece and her little brother were babies. So I would suggest Dirty from the GC, Enraged Bunny Musk if you are into hunting down past LEs.

There's a lot to learn and there are so many more blends and categories now than there were when I was a newb *nostalgic tear*, I know it's confusing (and intimidating) for a lot of people. Here are a few tips. You can check the page titled Samples on the Lab's site for the list of the "unimpables" - currently it reads: Limited Edition Carnaval Diabolique (which is a subset of LE) Lunacy Blends / Astrological Blends (also a subset of LE) The Neil Gaiman Series The Stardust Series The Good Omens Series The Shojo Beat scents (technically these are LEs as well) Any Twilight Alchemy Lab oils Any oils offered at Black Phoenix Trading Post (also considered LEs) Below that you will see a few categories of more expensive oils - for these, you can purchase imps as a set but not individually. Currently those sets are for the Panacea (aromatherapy) blends, the Chakras, and the regular Salons, broken down by exhibit (LE Salons, like the current Shunga series or the world-famous Dogs Playing Poker series from last year, have not been offered in sets of samples though). Some rules of thumb that I find to work for the most part: General Catalog blends are going to be available as imps as long as they are priced at the "across the board" price, which is currently $15.00. The GC categories that are priced higher, like the Salons and Panaceas, are likely to be offered as sets of imps. Any scents that have a charity component (currently, the Neil Gaiman, Stardust and Good Omens blends) will not have imps available. Limited Edition blends never have Lab imps available. So you're right about Candy Butcher, because it's in the CD series no imps can be ordered from the Lab. Thousands of happy, smelly people will tell you, though, that it's not too hard to find decanted imp-sized samples of most current and lots of recent LEs in the swaps and sales forums. You're still pretty new so you have the whole GC glittering before you - you're smart to stick to that for now, IMO. As you try different scents and figure out the notes you like the most & that work best on you, it will help you figure out whether you want to take a chance on the LEs that are offered in the future. Tracking down older LEs can be fun but it can also be very time consuming, frustrating and wallet-draining.

The Candy Butcher has more of a dark chocolate quality than Bliss does, but both are extremely chocolaty. I'd recommend grabbing an imp of Bliss when you order again, since it's GC - then you can track down a decant of Candy Butcher and compare, and see if the creaminess works with your skin. Gluttony doesn't register as chocolate on my skin but I have this caramel-amping problem, so it turned into a very deep, nutty burnt-sugar toffee for me. If you are interested in trying some complex and gorgeous (IMO) scents where chocolate plays an important role, I would highly recommend Kali (notes: cassia, hibiscus, musk rose, Himalayan wild tulip, lotus, osmanthus, dark chocolate, red wine, tobacco, balsam and honey), Velvet (cocoa with sandalwood, myrrh and vanilla) and Boomslang (Snake Oil with cocoa, rice milk and teak).

I had forgotten about Alison Gross - it really reminds me of the original Herbal Essence shampoo from the early 70s. I haven't worn it often, but the few times I've thought about parting with it I have tried it on again and just have to keep it. I wish that sage didn't amp and turn into a crazy, burnt rubber smell on my skin. Out of the more than 30 BPAL scents that contain it, I can count the ones that work for me on one hand and have fingers left over: Croquet, Noche Buena, and Tenotchtitlan. I need to give Green Phoenix another whirl before I decide if it's hit or miss, but it's the only possible addition to the club - I've tried pretty much everything else that lists sage as a note and it has not been very pretty!

Willowtreeling, peach and apricot are extremely iffy on me (the only blends w/peach I can wear are Titania, Snow Angel, Aglaea & The Ecstasy of True Love, and just forget the apricot! Siren does have apricot listed in the notes and trust me, it reared its hideous orange face to mock me when I tried it.) But nectarine has been a pleasant surprise! Angeronalia was a winner from Yule for me too. I really like Ebisu and it's on my list of bottles I need to pick up before Lupercalia evaporates. The combination of sweet nectarine with the earthy oakmoss and the light, warm musk is really pretty, all three notes balance each other very nicely. I love Croquet too, again the light musk seems to be a really good companion for the nectarine and the citrus notes keep it from being too sweet. There's nectarine in Butterflies and Plovers, too, but that one wasn't great on me - I think it could be the ylang ylang, which can go either way on my skin. (The notes are blood orange, King mandarin, nectarine, patchouli, violet, ylang ylang, and amber.)

Thanks for resurrecting that post, that observation is hilarious! Don't forget honey, vanilla, amber, blonde, crypt (a favorite of mine just for the creativity alone), night, sheer, Kashmir, feral, thuggish, wild, aggressive and furious, not to mention Bandersnatch, cranky groundhog and enraged bunny. There's vegetable musk in one of the Chakra blends, too, which always gives me a funny visual. I am not an expert on all the musk notes of BPAL, but on my skin I do find that pale, blue, crystalline, Chinese and white musk share a little something in common, at least when I think of the scents that contain those "varietals." I don't know what ornery hedgehog musk is but I like it! I suspect it's in the white musk family. Maybe you can only get aggressive and furious musks from bigger, scarier pretend animals. Green musk (it's in 51 and Pollution, I know off the top of my head) and glassy musk (Shoggoth) seem to have something in common but that could be that all three of those scents have a certain green quality. Shoggoth seems like it could be a very fruity cousin to 51, and 51 seems like a fruity cousin of Pollution, all on my skin of course.

My caveat is that sometimes Lush products smell as different to two people as BPAL scents do - but if Retread smells creamy and fruity with a dominant note of melon to you like it does to me, my suggestions might work. Earth Rat, which is still available on the LE page, is getting lots of raves from people who love melon notes, although I have not tried it yet. Yemaya is the only GC scent that lists melon as a note and seems dominantly melon (although Ogun contains it in the description, the other notes in it are really strong and people don't seem to smell a lot of melon in it). Also from the GC, Titania smells a little melony to a lot of people as does Tzadikim Nistarim, and some others that get "melon" comments in reviews although it's not a listed note are 51, Eris and Tweedledum. Harder to find LEs and discontinued scents that you might want to grab if you stumble on them: Mi Go Brain Canister, Ingenue, Blue Moon 07 and 04, Fruit Moon and Selkie. If melon is what you like about Retread you might want to try some of the BPAL cucumber or mango scents too, depending on what they're blended with, these notes can smell similar to some people.

Here in the UK it's the same thing, but I've heard American people using cilantro for the leaf and coriander for the seed, I think. ... The wikipedia entry says exactly that - from the same plant, UK residents will call the parts coriander leaf or coriander seed, but that in the US we call the leaves cilantro and the seed coriander. Nutty Americans. That's probably why several Americans have mentioned that cilantro and coriander smell different to them, because to us we're comparing the scent of the leaves to the dried, ground seed. The enzyme theory is fascinating to me - my in-laws and my husband have always complained that they hate fresh cilantro because it tastes like soap! Maybe they all have that enzyme that makes it taste bad (or lack the enzyme that makes it taste good, the article wasn't specific about that). Nutty Texans.

Aw, I have just had a lot of time to practice But I am glad that you found those ideas helpful. The more you fiddle around with the search engine the easier it gets - once I got the hang of the tools that let you limit your searches (like just searching one subforum, getting results back as titles, etc.) I got much better results. But any time you find you need help (that goes for everyone!) just PM me or a mod for the section where you're searching, we're here to help. I find the scent of cilantro and the scent of coriander to be very different, too. Cilantro is very bright and green, almost a little soapy but in a pleasant way. Coriander is sweeter, deeper and spicier to me although there is a little something similar about the two to my nose. at the gazpacho scent, sorry...

Virgo 2007 is an extremely green, gardeny, herbal scent - I'd label it the herbal blend for people who think they don't like herbal blends, although those people probably won't ever read this thread It is unique among BPAL blends, I can't think of anything I've tried that it is similar to. The notes are fennel, valerian, maidenhair fern, carrot seed, honeysuckle, and myrtle. They're extremely well balanced, the notes that made me pause don't stand out at all (like the fennel and valerian). And it doesn't seem to be impossible to find like some LEs, I see it in the swaps forum fairly often. Black Hellebore is another scent that I found to be very green and herbal without smelling like cooking herbs - herbal in a plant-y, green stems kind of way instead.

BPAL doesn't seem to have made one - or if they have, cilantro wasn't included in the list of notes. Coriander is listed as a note in Tristran, Tenotchtitlan and Tavern of Hell. Although the two may not smell the same to you, you probably know they come from the same plant, so those might be worth trying. Try a search of the Reviews forum for instances where people have mentioned smelling cilantro (if that link doesn't work, you can do this by going to the forum search form, typing in "cilantro," asking it to search posts and titles and give results as posts). When I did that, I didn't get a lot of results, but more than one person mentioned Spooky (very hard to find), Eden, and Tenotchtitlan. You can also try that search with "coriander" and see if you find some other blends that people seem to detect the note in where it isn't listed. If you like herbal scents, you can take a look at this thread - if you can't have the cilantro you're craving, you may at least find something else green and herbal that you like. Good luck!

Although today we have alternating rounds of sunshine and snow flurries, the signs of spring have me craving white musk scents. I'm kind of on an anti-fruit kick right now, though, with the exception of citruses. Dolce Stil Nuovo is really hitting the spot for me, Zephyr might be the best GC white musk scent of all... I need to pull out my bottle of Mr. Ibis for a whirl, and Mania is surprisingly good because the strawberry leaf is fresh and herbal instead of overly sweet (it's stuff like berries and peach and pomegranate that seem to be turning my nose off). What else do I need to be grabbing?