ivyandpeony

Can you feel it? I am sending you telepathic hugs and kisses! I took a warming bath with Glogg last night and realized it's very similar to Inferno. Glogg's really heavy on the cinnamon to me and Inferno is straight-up cinnamon on my skin. But sometimes simplicity is what I want.

I would second Tea Otter's suggestion of Snake OIl. I've had people tell me that Snake Oil reminded them of Carmex lip balm, and Tiger Balm reminds me of Carmex. I find Snake Oil to have more sweet/musky/woodsy elements than spicy ones, at least when you're thinking of cinnamon, cassia, ginger, clove type spices, so I don't think it would be overwhelmingly spicy. And I agree w/ mel85 that Sin might work well w/ the smell of Tiger Balm. The notes listed are amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon, but at least on me, there's barely a touch of cinnamon. It's much more resiny and woody to me. I'll be sure to post again if anything else pops up in my mind!

So, so good! I agree with the previous reviewers, there's something that's a little creamy about this. I have the world's most reactive skin when it comes to cinnamon, cardamom, pepper. etc. in my BPAL, but after using this as an after-shower moisturizer successfully, I tried it in a hot bath and had no skin issues at all. This is a really delicious, spicy foodie scent and I found it layers really well with Sugar Cookie perfume (I don't have Gingerbread Poppet perfume, but I can imagine that you could really up the oomph-y gingerbready goodness with that!)

I have only used this one as a moisturizer so far. I agree, it is strong & a little will go a long way. But this jasmine seems a bit gentler than some of the in-your-face assertive BPAL jasmines. If you really hate jasmine, you won't like it, but if you just find that jasmine can be too strong, this might be the ticket for you. I get mostly honey and berries underneath the jasmine so ultimately it's a sweet honeyed floral. Really girly and pretty, I'm so glad I got a bottle!

Mod note - I tweaked the title thinking it might get a little more attention with the company name there. =) Member note - I LOVE Tyler's High Maintenance scent! I will have to have a sniff and see if there's something BPAL that rings a bell for me. I really haven't ever had a scent from that company I didn't like except for one foody one a few years ago that just was WAY too much. I gave it to a friend who loves foody and she ended up tossing because it was too much for her too! Candied Chestnut or something like that - it smelled a lot like BPAL Gluttony.

Me too - I think it's my favorite Lush scent too. At least Lush gave us an early Christmas present with the Golden Wonder ballistic. It's showing up as out of stock on the US site, but I would heartily recommend hitting up local stores or the UK site if you love Champagne Snowshowers. Kyoto is the strongest straught-up cherry blossom scent I can think of.

I am sure you will get more responses as people receive their Yule orders - it looks like the Lab hasn't started shipping Yule orders just yet. I haven't put my order together, either, so I'm looking forward to hearing what the most popular new scents are. Of the scents that are returning, my favorites are Chanukah, Jacob's Ladder, Noche Buena, Rose Red and Snow White. Snow White is unique and to me, doesn't smell like anything I've ever smelled before. It's reminiscent of almonds, but not almondy, reminiscent of coconut but not coconutty. Jacob's Ladder is my absolute favorite resin scent from all the BPAL scents I've tried over the years - it's predominantly amber on me, but of course the versions can vary from year to year with any of these. And Noche Buena was a big sleeper hit for me. It's mostly a white floral with other notes that kind of make it a little spicy. I love it. The Frankenstein and Little Match Girl scents are brand new to the Lab, so I'm also looking forward to reading reviews and trying as many as I can.

The closest Black Opal smell-alike I have tried is Staged Moon Landing. I get some vanilla and a mineral-y, slightly dusty vibe from it. Of course, it's an LE and may be as hard to find as Black Opal - i have no idea how popular or unpopular it may have been while that series was being offered. The apple note in The Glittering Apple of The Stars reminds me very much of The Hesperides. On my skin, The Hesperides was pretty much a single note apple scent - I love the accompanying notes in Glittering Apple but your mileage may vary (for the record: Heirloom Malus, ylang ylang, white and blue musks, crystallized vanilla, tiare, frangipani, and bergamot).

You might find some ideas in this thread - http://www.bpal.org/topic/7633-bpal-for-headaches-pain-colds-seizures-sickness-illnesses/ It may be that a scent that works for some may not work perfectly for him, so you might have to try a couple of things. This blog entry recommends ginger and mandarin essential oils, so something like the Panacea blend Moxie that's full of ginger and citrus might work well. Peppermint and other mints seem to be recommended often for nausea, so maybe something like GRR, the headache Panacea blend, would work. (I'd lean towards the Panacea blends as opposed to the perfumes since they're actually intended for aromatherapy and just contain essential oils, not any accords or bouquets. - a minty or gingery perfume might comfort him if you are wearing it, but for real aromatherapy you want those concentrated essential oils.) I will be thinking about you and your family!

The current forum search engine won't find three-letter words, unfortunately - and the current version also doesn't seem to search subtitles of threads like previous versions have. So this thread was hiding from you! No worries though.

Oh cool! Thanks for sharing that explanation!

Just bumping this up, since so many of us are planning out our holiday shopping lists. Give yer friends some BPAL!

Even though it makes me giggle to say (or type) the name, Pussy (Moth!) is my current fave. And I love being able to wear my honey scents with the scent of Honey Hair Gloss wafting around me.

Don't forget Wicked - dedicated to all those characters right in the copy! "A paean to all the Wicked Queens, Evil Stepmothers, and other misunderstood villainesses throughout history and lore. Lends an aura of majesty, refinement, strength, and a deep, brooding malice. A sophisticated, womanly scent: rich myrrh and jasmine draped in the subtlest rose."

I wonder if Morocco would be something that would work. On me, it's soft carnation (which kind of combines floral and spice notes) with woody spices.

I love Urban Decay's Sin - one of my favorite pre-BPAL perfumes and one of the few that I've hung on to! I haven't found a perfect duplicate of it (and I have tried lots of BPAL) - but I think you could get close by layering different scents. Despite the notes that UD listed for it, it's mostly vanilla and cinnamony spices on me although there's a hint of florals and musk. I'm thinking a strong vanilla scent layered with a spicy one might at least give you something similar. Maybe Dorian or Detestable Putrescence (from the Gris Grimley scents) for a vanilla base, depending on how sweet you want it to be, and then something like Chimera or Bengal for the spicy notes. I have to put this on my "experiments to conduct" list

You should definitely e-mail the Lab at answers@blackphoenixalchemylab.com. They can figure out what it was that you wanted and whether they owe you some money or credit. Good luck!

The scent that immediately came to mind when I read your post was Amsterdam. You'll find it in the Wanderlust category - the notes listed are "Tulips, peony, fresh flowing water and crisp green grasses," which I find to be a fresh, clean scent with light floral-green notes. Bayou, which is also in Wanderlust, is a bit deeper and more robust, but in the same general family - "A lazy, warm deep green scent with a thick aquatic undertone: Spanish moss, evergreen and cypress with watery blue-green notes and an eddy of hothouse flowers and swamp blooms." Most scents with "rain" in their names have a bit of an aquatic feel, so as you dabble in search of a similar scent, I'd look for aquatic notes and light florals based on the description & name. Good luck!

I am a little embarrassed to admit that I haven't placed Halloween orders from the Lab or the Trading Post yet. For those of you who have started testing your loot from the Halloween updates (including Pickman's Gallery), I would love to hear your opinions - what's this year's big hit? Sleeper hit? Any disappointments for you? I am having the worst time deciding because there's so much to choose from.

I don't think that the Polls option allows for nearly enough choices to list all the Halloween LEs, but if someone decides to do a poll of all of them on another site, feel free to link it in this thread. I got my Halloween order yesterday - bought 9 bottles (some thanks to you all!) and have skin tested 2 so far. But all of them smell awesome in the bottle, which is rarely the case for me! Last night I tried Le Revenant and The Glittering Apple of the Stars and both were beautiful. I realized while looking over notes yesterday that the scents I ordered this year were much less "Halloween-y" than I've chosen in the past - nothing foody, or pumpkiny, or clove and cinnamon-y. If there was a drop of white floral in it, I bought it (that wasn't intentional, it's just what happened )But I'm really hopeful that they all are going to smell great on me and not just in the bottle. Here's what I got: From the Gallery: An Incubus Leaving Two Sleeping Women Muse of The Night The Ta-Ta The Two Tailed Sogg "regular" Weenies: A Nocturnal Reverie Ghosts in Love Le Revenant The Silver Apple of the Moon The Glittering Apple of the Stars

The CCNow shipping status is the source of lots of confusion - it actually means that CCNow has sent the orders to the Lab, not that the Lab has physically shipped it to you (apparently, CCNow batches the orders periodically instead of sending them one at a time &/or in real time). You should receive a USPS Click 'n Ship via e-mail when your order ships from the Lab (and I wouldn't be surprised if you got one soon, I just got an October 4 order). Of course I have no idea why you haven't received a response from the Lab, but it may be that customer service is very backed up from some of the comments I've read here & there. Be sure to check your spam folders in case it grabbed an e-mail from the Lab. (And I use the folders function in Gmail and it sometimes sorts things into folders where I don't expect them to be, so that might be something to check too). Hope you get your order soon!

If you happen to find a discontinued GC scent that hasn't had its review thread moved to the discontinued subforum, please report it if you have a minute

I had not picked up my bottle of Honey Moon in a long time - man, is it the most delicious honey ever! Not that I haven't loved it since I opened my mailbox back in 2005 but age has only made it better. I layered it with Jacob's Ladder 2005 and it put me into a honey-amber pleasure coma.

I will have to re-try Snooty Rose! I recall at least sniffing it at one of the GA will calls, but IIRC it came along w/a fairly large GC update, so there were so many things to try that I was overwhelmed. I keep hoping that one day Beth will have the time and inspiration to try to reformulate Noir. It remains my favorite plum BPAL of all time (although Snake Charmer is nothing to sneeze at.)

You might have to layer some scents to achieve what you want - it's really rare to find a BPAL blend with notes that match a non-BPAL perfume or product. Maybe look for fruity vanillas? Tamora is a peachy, amber vanilla that you might like.