ivyandpeony

I didn't click with any of the Sephiroth, but after trying all the Qlips, I fell in love with 5 out of the 10. I admit, I do wear them only for perfume. But if you are on a spiritual quest and are ready to confront evil, I say, why not smell stunning while you do it? My favorites are: Samael - reminds me a little of La Fee Verte without the green/herbal notes, musky honey sweetness. Thagirion - Sweet and fruity but not heavy, with a hint of mint and vanilla. Ghagiel - Springlike floral, bright and happy. Nahemoth - reminds me a little of Hellion, plummy and deep with patchouli and something musky. Golachab - another deep scent, very complex with hints of blackberry, vanilla and probably the most masculine of the five I chose - but certainly gender-neutral enough for anyone to wear.

The only negative experience I have had, in my 2+ years of BPAL wearing and collecting: At some point in my newbie-ness I swapped for a bottle of Maiden. I'm convinced that the long-forgotten person I got it from didn't store it properly. It was lovely and I wore it often, but eventually it was if the scent had faded. It wasn't "off" or rancid or different from Maiden, it just was very, very light. I ended up putting it in my oil burner because it just didn't seem strong enough on my skin anymore! If you're interested in the effects of aging on BPAL, I know there's a topic covering it somewhere in BPAL chatter... I'll try to find it and post a link when I have a minute.

You know, in this case I'd just order an extra bottle of each from the lab while they are still available - I know we all have to balance out the amount of oils we hoard with the length of time we have before they might turn and not smell good, but IMO incensey scents age very nicely. Also, I have quite a few bottles (from many different scent families) from the period around Yule 2004 which all are still quite wearable, having been stored in a dark dresser drawer in my home where they're never subject to temperature extremes. If they're your absolute favorites and you're slathering them like crazy... order more than one "back up" bottle ;-)

I wish there was something really similar - I haven't found anything that screamed "Noir" at me. But I'd suggest trying everything plummy, since that for me is what made Noir so.... noir. My favorites w/plum are Hellion (of course, I fall in love w/a BPTP exclusive), Nahemoth (from the Qlipoth - there's plum or some dark fruit in there, it's lovely) and Frumious Bandersnatch, which admittedly doesn't resemble Noir very much but is a lovely plum blend.

Hi klavierbarrette - I will leave this topic up, separate from the big jasmine thread, for a couple days so it can get some attention - then I'll merge it. As a note to everyone looking for a scent with a fairly common note - there are two tips I have for you. First, look in the pinned section above. There's a post called "Guide to Common Recommendations" that has links to the threads about many of the popular notes in it. This can save you even bothering with a search since they've all been done for you and handy links provided! From your post, kb, I got the impression you might be doing a search by posts instead of a search by topics? When you are on the search engine page, determining whether a thread already exists in rec, here's what I recommend (to everyone, not singling out kb). Type your search term in the box under "Search by Keywords." Then you should also choose "Recommendations" in the box directly below that that allows you to highlight a single subforum, rather than searching the entire subforum. Finally, you should click the signal buttons next to "search titles only" and "show results as topics" at the bottom right before finally submitting your search. If you have any doubts about whether a topic is out there, or any other problems with finding something, please feel free to PM me about that (or anything else I can help you with!) Finally, I think a great way to narrow your list of scents is to use the search engine on the lab site itself. It's a quick way to get a list of all the blends, with descriptions, that contain the note you're looking for - then you can skim the descriptions to eliminate those that contain notes that you aren't fond of. Good luck to you, kb, in finding that jasmine scent... If you haven't heard my broken record about jasmine, I find that all the jasmine scents I like were much nicer after the bottles sat around for a month or two. Jasmine fresh from the lab seems quite sassy to me. Euphrosyne and New Orleans are probably my faves.

Beth doesn't necessarily list every single note that goes into each BPAL blend... so there could be ginger or something reminiscent of ginger in The Phantom Calliope. And many notes listed things Beth includes in a description in order to describe what the perfume smells like, not what its actual components are. Civet and all of the musks are examples of that. None of them are authentic civet or musk, which come from animals, they're bouquets that have been created from plant components. Just makes it all more mysterious and stuff

Added a few new links and reorganized some things. Hope they are helpful!

I got a sniff of Jolasveinar last weekend at our meet and sniff - and I think it will be make so many foodie fans happy, even though it's "more" than a foody fragrance. It really smells like Christmas in so many ways, then there's this pastry note in there that holds it all together. I can't wait to get my bottle!

I thought I would resurrect this since we've had new scents come along and new members join since the last post. I love the rose in Silentium Amoris, but the ylang ylang overwhelms it for me. It makes me so sad. It's a really beautiful, simple but elegant blend though... I hope lots of people get to know it and love it now that it was resurrected for the Lab's anniversary.

Those of you who love fig and have not yet tried TREAT #2 need to go ahead and sell a kidney and get your hands on a bottle. Here's the description: A fine confection for discriminating trick or treaters: a fig meat, coconut, and buttercream bonbon rolled in orange rind, mint leaf, cardamom, clove and ginger, dipped in milk chocolate. This is one of the most beautiful fig scents I have ever tried... and one incredible BPAL blend. It does smell like a bonbon, but somehow more sophisticated than I expected it to. And it is fig-fig-figgy!

Thought I would bump this - the title is different because there actually was an existing astrology thread here in recommendations. I merged the more recent thread with it rather than merging it with the one in BPAL Chatter. Feel free to carry on your discussion!

I just saw the new Yule labels this weekend, although I haven't received my Yule scents yet - I think they're beautiful and understated, and I like seeing them as a consistent set since we've had such dramatic and varying artwork we've the CD series, the 2006 Lunacies, the Salon of course... But of course, I do understand the disappointment of opening the box and anticipating new artwork, then not finding it. I'm guessing that the decision was made to go with the simple black and white design since Beth and Macha were both spread extremely thin the past few months, and they've done all the label art and design for the lab in the past.

No problem, Mrs. Black - I just merged them so it will be bumped to the front page and you may get some new suggestions.

Jessie, here's the thread about astrological signs and favorite scents. It's in BPAL Chatter, not Recs, although it did pop right up with a search of the whole forum for "sign." I remember putting some thought into this topic (I may or may not have posted, I don't recall) - I'm a Virgo, so you'd think I'd love earthy stuff. But it took me forever to develop an appreciation for patchouli and there are only one or two blends that I like that have Beth's "soil" note in them. I do love patchouli and resins now, but until BPAL I was all about light musk and girly florals. And one of my best BPAL buddies is also a Virgo, but there are tons of blends that she loves that smell anywhere from unremarkable to downright nasty on me, and vice versa. Personally, I think that planetary influences are either far enough removed from us physically or not concerned with such minute detail that they aren't going to affect our scent preferences or the notes that work on us. Every birth chart is going to be unique (until you meet that person who was born at the exact same minute as you in the same hospital as you, of course ), which illustrates the many, many elements that make you the unique Gemini, Cancer, Virgo, etc that you are. So it seems to me that identifying just one scent family or group of notes for each sign, and expecting everyone born under that sign to like it, would be impossible.

Graveyard Dirt or Dead Man's Hand. But since those aren't readily available, something cacophonous that manages to smell great too, like The Caterpillar or Jabberwocky. Shelldoo, you owe us pictures!!

Although both have jasmine in them, I find them completely different. Love Me is warm and spicy with a floral component; New Orleans is very floral, predominantly honeysuckle to my nose. You should definitely try both, though - they are each beautiful in their own right!

Oops, I didn't see your specific question when I first responded... sorry about that! First, speaking as moderator of this section , don't ever apologize for bumping an old thread if it addresses something you are interested in! There are always new scents that have debuted since that old thread fell pages away into the depths of the forum... and of course, we all want to avoid the dreaded duplicate threads. I'm pretty lenient in here about letting anyone start a thread to get specific recs, but I usually merge anything that I can (and I rely on the reminder/warning system in those cases where it's apparent that someone didn't do a search, didn't look at the pinned threads to find links to the common recs threads, etc.). Now, for the scents you asked about. Maenad is a scent everyone should try, IMO - it doesn't smell like what you'd expect it to - but I don't really get dominant carnation from it. There's a lot of sweetness from the berry & orange blossom but it's tempered by the spicy and woody notes. Desdemona is one of my favorites from my very first order and is a beautiful floral, but it doesn't have a dominant carnation note to my nose either. I really love carnation, so one of my favorite methods of amping up the carnation in my BPAL is to use Lush's Potion lotion (it was discontinued, but is available through UK mail order - you can usually get in on a group order on the Lush forum, or pick up a bottle through the swaps area there). I forgot to mention Bathsheba as another one of my favorite carnation scents. I just pulled my bottle out since it's gotten cold here, since I find it a little heavy for the hot and humid weather. Carnation and plum are really pretty together - spicy and sweet.

In addition to Alice and Maiden, Morocco is one of my favorite carnation scents. Spicy carnations + Moroccan spices = delicious!

Now, it may not be the *exact* spicy fruity thing you described as the object of your quest - but the Phantom Calliope is one of the sleeper hits of this first group of Carnaval Diabolique scents. My review of it is here - although in all fairness you should read the other reviews too, just to see if there's something you might hate about it. I think it is going to be a gorgeous winter scent, dark decadent fruit spiced with cardamom. You don't really smell the verbena in it, it just keeps it from being too one-dimensional and dark (the way you might add a splash of lemon juice to a really rich sauce to give it a hint of brightness).

I get the strongest black tea note from White Rabbit - but Spirits of the Dead is my second favorite. I love Kumiho in the summertime, and Dorian is sweet and vanilla-y tea nirvana. I need to wear Gennivre another time or two to get a good feel for her - I smelled all 15 bottles in my CD order in quick succession and haven't made it back around to giving Gennivre a day to herself. For refreshing green tea, nothing beats Shanghai for me. I don't get any tea at all from Sudha Segara though - just creamy honey and ginger.

I just tweaked the title of this thread a little bit to make sure it's searchable - I think it's really a helpful topic for the section and appreciate all the contributions to it.

JI, I am sorry that I somehow missed this question back in August! I certainly don't mind if there's some overlap discussion in this thread. There is a thread in Beyond Perfume that's completely devoted to all types of home fragrance-making devices, if you haven't discovered it in the two months it took me to notice your question. March Hare, I think anything categorized as clean, fresh, foresty, or even minty might help with the smell of smoke. You can do a search for those categories in Recommendations. I thought that Euterpe414's suggestions were really good so I am quoting her here:

I would start by trying some jasmine scents - pick out some that have other notes that you like, too, and just go to town. BPAL jasmine can be bossy and dominating sometimes, especially when your imp or bottle is fresh from the lab. That's when I get the Youki-Hi vibe from jasmine blends! (I am not a Y-H fan, so I like my jasmine blends to mellow for a while). Melisande is the latest one that I do love, but I am hoping that the jasmine will relax and let some of the other kids play with the ball. There's a thread here in Recs discussing jasmine blends. As you'll see, here are several types of jasmine that Beth uses and of course, every blend is going to have a different proportion... and your chemistry will be the final judge, too. Good luck!

Cordelia and Queen Gertrude are both favorite floral scents of mine (I love Ode on Melancholy too). I can't really say that any of those three are dominantly wisteria, but they are all lovely and very well balanced. I have tried the BPAL wisteria single note, and it is very intense - almost too intense for me! So I prefer wisteria in blends and of course, in its natural state.

I'd add to the great advice here - don't get discouraged if you aren't falling in love with things instantly, don't be upset if one blend doesn't meet your expectations, and just keep in mind that this is something you're doing for fun and pleasure. When I discovered BPAL I thought I only liked floral perfumes and hated patchouli and musk. Gradually I learned the differences between different floral notes, some of which I adore. Others are apparently members of a mutual hate society I didn't realize I had joined. BPAL patchouli is different from any patchouli I'd tried before - not that every blend with it was a winner, but I was delighted to realize that it was actually a beautiful scent in many incarnations. I discovered notes that I had never really thought about in perfumes, like ginger, honey, cream & milk notes, chocolate, oakmoss, and different types of woods and resins. IMO, there's a big adjustment to be made just getting used to the difference between perfume oils and the alcohol-based perfumes that most of us are accustomed to before stumbling down the BPAL rabbit hole. Keep that in mind as you're trying things, too - you may be sniffing a more intense, pure version of the note that you thought you loved and finding it a bit overwhelming at first. Lots of people have experienced this with florals in particular, especially jasmine and rose (and there are quite a few different jasmines and roses that are used in the many BPAL blends that contain them). It is an ongoing education, if the bug bites you. If it overwhelms you or you lose interest, don't beat yourself up - there are only about ten million other hobbies you could choose from. You don't have to buy everything today. You can swap something away and decide two weeks from now, or a year from now, that you want to track down an imp of it again. You can keep detailed notes or you can jot down "LOVED IT!" or "HATED IT!" Most of all, if you're not having fun, take a break - or come here and ask for advice.