Diana

I also can see the similarites between Al-Azif & Mightnight Mass, which were two of my favorite LEs. This though, it's more heavy, the resin seems to me a bit woodsy, and has an almost earthy quality to it as well. It's like someone threw a bit of greenery in the mix. It's got a rounded sweetness to it, from frankincense or something similar, but not "sweet" in the sugary context. If you like heavy, resinous incense smells, you'll love this.

From the good ol' search engine: Carnaval Noir Snake Charmer Sensual, sibilant, sexual and hypnotic: Arabian musk and exotic spices slinking through Egyptian amber, enticing vanilla, and a serpentine blend of black plum, labdanum, ambrette, benzoin and black coconut. Wanderlust Hollywood Babylon The essence of innocence shattered: glittering Egyptian amber and heliotrope, infused with the sweetness of strawberry and vanilla - dragged into debauch by lusty red musk and a dribble of black cherry. Other than the Single Note, looks like these are the only other two. Unless Beth just didn't quantify amber with "Egyptian" in some of the descriptions.

Berenice is a great clean scent. It's an LE, but you can get still get it. Other "clean" "fresh/herbal" or "soft" scents: Apothecary Dirty Tempest Embalming Fluid Kumiho The Dormouse Neo-Tokyo Vinland Utrennyaya Euterpe Aizen-Myoo Morocco White Rabbit Alice Kitsune-Tsuki Midnight Zephyr Sudha Segara Dorian Fae Sandalwood-base: Tushnamatay Namaste Velvet Cathedral (+ deeper resins) Kuang-Shi (+ orange) Fire of Love hope that helps!

there might be a "similarity" thread somewhere in the recommendation section. I can't remember right now, though, since I should be in bed. I think Midway is similar, but that was also an LE. But it's a bit sweeter. Perversion seems to be kind of in the same vein as Red Lantern as well, but I think that's owing more to the coconut than anything else. But it might be worth a shot. Gluttony also has a caramel type note to it, but it's also much sweeter and stickier smelling when compared to Red Lantern, which has that dry base note. There aren't too many non-LE strawberries either. I think Hollywood Babylon has some similarities, but it's a bit heavier and less silly than Pink Phoenix. Or you could try Bon Vivant, which is a strawberry-champagne scent. The other closest thing is Strawberry Moon, which is probably a lot harder to find than Pink Phoenix. Hope that helps!

Soft milky sweetness, with just a touch of almond. It's not a heavy scent, but really soft, and comforting. It is a barely there, almost 2nd skin type scent. This isn't my typical choice of perfume, but I must say this would be insanely amazing as a linen spray. It's so cozy and soft, I bet it would just be dreamy in bed. No pun intended.

Sin, Lust, Scherezade, Zombi

In the general catalog, I'll reiterate & add: Jester or Lurid (red currant candy) Lolita (lollipops), Bliss (if you also <3 chocolate), Inferno or Wrath (red hots), Gluttony (caramel), Dorian (sugared lemons), Kabuki (spicy cherry syrup), Akuma (sweet fruitiness), Hellcat (dessert), Lady Macbeth or Bewitched or Dragon's Heart (fruity-berry juice), Hollywood Babylon (vanilla-strawberry), Bordello (almond-plum), Horn of Plenty (cherry jolly ranchers) now my teeth hurt.

I love dark, musky scents. They tend to be strong in their own right, so smoke won't really detract from their oomphy sex power. My favorite is Scherezade by a long shot.

This is my Maestrom shocking surprise. I bought the whole series, because I couldn't decide on anything. This is one of the ones I thought I'd dislike & have to unload on someone later. Lilies are usually something that I dislike wearing. They're usually too floral for my tastes, and sometimes remind me of funerary flowers (yes, take my goth card away). Putting this on, though, it is light, clean, refreshing, pretty, and totally awesome. It reminds me of some washing detergent that people use in Europe (which sounds like a totally weird correlation, but I always loved the smell of peoples' laundry when visiting abroad... I'm a freak). It is like a clean, sweet hug. It lasts very nicely too, with good throw. I may also have to say that so far this has been my favorite in the set. Backups definitely required.

Wet, this was a blast of dry woods... very much patchouli & sandalwood. Mmm pencil-shaving-licous. Dry... this just faded bit by bit, keeping true to its notes, and was gone. Fairly quickly (less than 4 hours), which was surprising, since these notes usually last a very long time on me. I like it, but I will probably have to test how well it lasts before I'd commit to a whole bottle. Then again, I love sandalwood + patchouli, but I think Sin is my #1 undefeated scent in this category.

I'm another that got wintergreen! On application, it's minty, cool, sweet. As it dries, the wintergreen note softens, and there is an undercurrant of fresh air. I have no idea what these notes are but it's it's like a soft breeze of vaguely floral notes, cool and clean smelling. I really like it, wintergreen & all. And FWIW, I tried very hard to recall what this reminded me, so I looked up at my wall o' perfume, and there it was. This is almost exactly like Dior Hypnotic Poison on me. Hot.

Wet: very sweet almonds. a hint of "spice," whatever they may be. Initial dry: the honey starts to peek out. It's very strong, almost noxious at first, but it mellows as it dries more. The almonds provide a nice extra layer of sweetness to it. Drydown: Powdery sweet honey & almonds. The spice notes are very low-key and add just a touch of depth to it. It is very yummy. It does seem similar to Bastet, which I prefer, but this is a nice, close skin sweetness.

Sometimes I love dragon's blood in a blend, sometimes I don't. This one? I don't think I liked it too much. This goes on smelling like a overripe/slightly rotten-fruit Coppertone. I have NO idea why it smells even remotely like Coppertone, but there you have it. The dragon's blood gives off kind of a weird fruity-tangy scent. In this instance, while wet, I don't really like it that much. After about 3 minutes after the initial application, I get a brief rush of cinnamon, then I'm back to the fruity note. For some reason, there is only ONE blend that has clove in it that has ever even remotely smelled of cloves (March Hare)... I don't get it here either. Pepper? very vaguely, but this is almost 100% straight up DB on me. After wearing it all day, the dragon's blood finally stops being so slightly-off fruit and starts to become a milder powdery scent. I like this stage a lot, but it took 6 hours to get there, and none of the fun spices really showed up on me. I think I'll have to give this one a miss, sadly.

This reminds me a LOT of Cerberus. Yum, Cerberus. This goes on a heady, chocolately-fig, deep, earthy blend, but not quite as heavy as Cerberus. It stays that way all through the day. The woodsy notes tend to stay as base notes way off in the background. It's definitely an interesting blend, and pretty. Very comforting and warm. I like this a lot, but it's way less complex (and to me less interesting) than my beloved Cerberus. If the day ever comes when I run out, then I will come running to this blend with some lemons in hand.

Wet: very obvious & strong dragon's blood. It's very sickly sweet. Initial dry: the cherry comes out to play, taking over as the main component; juicy & wet & sweet. there's a tiny bit of a metallic tang to it, and the dragon's blood moves to the background. dry: metallic cherry. i really like bpal's cherry note, so this is happy-making. i almost never pick up on the clove note in bpal blends, and this scent is no exception. hours & hours later: the cherry has faded, there's a bit of the resiny dragon's blood & myrrh, but they're faint and not overpoweringly sweet.

Nothing quite compares to Fée, sadly. This is one LE that I really wish would be rereleased, if even for 5 minutes. It is SO amazing, it makes me weep with pure joy. Yes, there is a touch of that honeydew goodness in Fruit Moon, but it is totally overshadowed by the 324098 other fruit notes in that blend. Yemeya also has a fruity-melon type of aroma to it, but it is more watermelon than cantalope/honeydew, and there is also a touch of some floral notes to it as well.

This is something I would generally shy away from, since past experiences with iris have always ended with someone in tears and someone else not speaking to me for months at a time. Anyway. I got an imp of this in a swap, and as I sniffed the little dipper wand, a bit got on my nose. And it smelled nice and non-offensive and vaguely coconutty, so I bravely decided to try wearing this today. Putting it on, there's the IRIS. It is very floral-perfumey-loud, yet somehow, it's softer and less grating than I have come to expect with iris blends. Wearing/drydown: the iris softens, the white musk and other floral notes make for a delicate, slightly creamy, sweet, pretty combination. Color me surprised. I actually LIKE this! I usually canNOT wear anything with iris, but now I feel like I should try other things out again. Maybe it's just growing on me, like vetiver did. Now I just have to conquer aquatic notes, and I WILL RULE THE WORLD! In review, this is nice! Even if you're not a big fan of iris, you might be surprised with this one!

I had really high hopes for this one. Sadly, it was not what I envisioned at all. Wet: jasmine & apple. Dry: jasmine and less apple. This is predominantly jasmine on me. I don't get sandalwood, musk, quince, citron, myrrh or thyme. You know, all the notes I wanted to smell. I like jasmine ok, but it usually takes over any blend I wear and gives me a headache.

I made some fake Spanked! a couple of imps of De Sade, about a 1/2-3/4 imp of Bengal, and a tiny dribble of Sin. Pretty close, I think. Spicy and leathery!

I got scared when I read a lot of "aquatic + lily" type of reviews. Thankfully that is not how it wears on me (I dislike lilies and most aquatic notes). This goes on sweet. Not like candy or honey or sugar, but just not heavy or brooding or overly floral... with something else lurking. I think mainly on me this is a musk blend with just a hint of sweet frankinscense resin. It is sweet to the point that the musk smells more like the Egyptian variety rather than the White type. I'm sure there are flowers in here, but I'm not really picking them up at all (yay!). This is cool and fresh and a surprise for me! I can see how someone would call this "aquatic," but it's more in the way it reminds me of water rather than how it smells. If that makes any sense!

For me this is mostly white rose. Just a touch of the resin ever comes through. This lasts all day and has average-good throw. If you're not a fan of rose, this is not for you. The overall effect is that of sitting in an old medieval chapel filled with white, translucent roses in which the smell of incense lingers on every surface and cold stone wall. It is mighty pretty. It's sweet & innocent, much like the concept of courtly love.

This one is very evocative. Like a past memory or life or something. It's a honey-sweetened patchouli with just a hint of woodsy juniper. I can actually smell the beeswax at times. Sweetish, herbally. It's pretty and I am just not very eloquent today. If you like the more "masculine" bpal scents, you should really give this a try.

Spicy Leather. On me this is pretty much straight up cardamom and leather. I don't get bourbon. The patchouli is minimal. This is like Alone, but leather instead of dirt. It doesn't seem to have much throw, nor does it seem to be particularly long lasting, which is a shame, because I like this. I love my 5mL and I will keep it, and hopefully with time the ingredients will strengthen and become longer-lasting. I think I'm going to make a ghetto version of this with some DeSade & Sin in a rollerball in the meantime. Hahah.

In the bottle, it smells Nag Champa-ish. Resiny. Wet, the sandalwood is the prominent note. As it dries, it smells like spicy sandalwood incense. Just a touch of floral notes in the background. I love this blend!

This is similar to Snake Oil, but different enough. To me, Snake Charmer & Oil are almost identical. This has something more different. Wet, it's like Snake Oil on a bender. Sweet, sexy, sugary, boozey. Initial dry: something goes weird plastic-sour-playdoh. Gah. I put more on to cover it up. More dry: ok MUCH better. It's the sweet, musky quality of Snake Oil with a lighter, fresher top note. I think as this ages, it's just going to get better and better. I'm stocking the hell up.