orata

Perfumey, with a bit of a "fancy soap" smell, like the finely milled pastel kind pressed into seashell shapes. There's a slightly aquatic note, and a slightly grapey undertone. Very pretty, girly, clean, soft, but it's not much like the creamy clove-vanillaish scent you might expect from looking up descriptions of the scent of stock. I would classify it alongside light, clean "watery floral" scents like Amsterdam, Lady of Shalott, Danube, or Prague.

Atlas is a beautiful vetiver scent--very soft, woodsy, and cuddly. I often feel like vetiver smells like old peanut butter but I don't get that impression with Atlas.

You might try mixing a few things... The chocolate mint reminds me of How Doth the Little Crocodile, the juniper of Illustrated Woman and Golden Priapus, the vanilla/musk/patchouli of Snake Oil.

As you may have gathered from other reviews, this has a LOT of jasmine in it. It's a pretty strong floral, but sweet-- not as rank/stanky as Ceanothus Silkmoth, which was a sad surprise for me with its powerful jasmine punch. It has a kind of creamy, traditional feminine perfume feel to it, with a slight sweet powderiness, maybe from the vanilla and amber grounding the scent? After a bit, I can smell hints of the fruity fig and dark, smoky leather, but they never do more than dance around the edges of the jasmine. Unlike angelamaria, I don't find it sharp and I can't smell enough of the leather for my liking. I wouldn't think of this as a serious, studious scent... it's more of a sexy girly-girl scent to wear with a little black dress. Smooth, powdery, smoky jasmine.

This is a very sweet, very rich, almost custardy French vanilla type of scent. I was going to say I didn't get chocolate from it at all, but I put on a new dab just now and realized I do get a chocolate note when this is wet, and it does remind me of Gelt at that stage. But the chocolate/cocoa-ness fades away pretty quickly. The vanilla reminds me of a sweeter version of Tombstone or Chimera v5--like Tombstone minus cedar, plus a slightly boozy butterscotch aspect. Even though it's sweet and rich, I don't get the same over-rich plasticky grossness that I got from Detestable Putrescence or Love's Philosophy. I think I prefer slightly less rich/boozy vanillas in general, but this is lovely overall!

My first thought was Kypris--She Who Furnishes Pregnancy, though I don't know if it's sexy so much as pretty. http://www.bpal.org/topic/72141-kypris/

Spicy, clove-y fresh carnations! It does smell very realistic, and has a strong greenery component that I think could turn a lot of people off--it's reminiscent of the smell of cut flower stems as they start to get a little old. It fades pretty quickly on my skin, but is a wonderful, uncomplicated spicy fresh carnation scent.

The cedar in Tombstone reminds me of pencils a little bit. The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa smells a little like rubber (though I thought gloves and balloons; not sure what kneaded rubber erasers smell like).

SWEET vanilla, tobacco leaf, and copal. It's much sweeter and less creamy than Haloes or Antikythera Mechanism. It's very sweet on my skin and (like sunshinedaisybliss) it reminds me a lot of Tom Ford Tobacco Vanille--like a really sweet, marshmallowy, vanilla-scented pipe tobacco. Slightly smoky, but much more like unsmoked tobacco to me.

Medicinal at first, a little terrifying to sniff when wet; however, it mellows and morphs into the most amazing dark, spicy, resinous vanilla that clings to the body--a sexy skin scent like a black silk negligee. Smoldering, smooth, dark, warm, well blended. The chili does burn my skin a little, so if you're sensitive, be careful.

Yaaay, I got my bottle of Melancholia! I think that's my favorite Salon--creamy florals. I also love Three Brides (spicy rose-carnation floriental) and Kiyohime Changes from a Serpent (aquatic plum-fruity-floral).

A lot of cinnamon scents are much too aggressive and just smell like red hots or cinnamon candy on my skin. However, the cinnamon in this is gentle, warm, sweet, and creamy, like the softer cinnamon sugar in cinnamon morning buns. It threatens to get slightly plasticky in the vein of Dana O'Shee, but never ends up being as much of an offender as Dana was on my skin. Also, it's not too foody/sweet because of the copal and myrrh--it has the same softness to the cinnamon as cinnamon buns, but doesn't actually smell exactly like baked goods to me.

After a long time hunting for it, I finally managed to snag an imp of this on eBay! It's a creamy vanilla musk scent, sweeter and more buttery than I had thought it would be, especially as it dries down. Almost too sweet, maybe. I don't really get a lot of florals; it's almost all vanilla to me, maybe a bit of that lineny "lace" base. It reminds me most of Black Lace, but quieter, softer and much, much sweeter; Black Opal, but definitely softer and not as cold/inorganic-smelling; and Boo, but not as toothachingly sweet and creamy. I've also seen it compared to Morocco, and they have a similar musk, but the spicy carnation in Morocco makes it smell very different to me. It lasts a very, very long time, which is good since I probably won't ever be able to track down another imp once this one is gone... but one little drop has lasted for about 7 hours on me so far. It's too bad everything else I've found similar is LE or DC'd (this includes another e-tailer scent that I found very similar to both this and Black Opal, but was recently discontinued with no notice as well!) Maybe one of these days a replacement for that tricky component can be found.

Is cassis a typo for cassia? This smells very dry-cinnamony to me, with cherry, but mainly spicy and WHOA CASSIA. Woodsy and spicy and burning my skin

Fig and orange, with a slightly sickly sweet resin base from the myrrh. It smells good, but somehow seems to lack substance or body; something about it feels wimpy to me. Not simple, but spineless. Maybe I'm anosmic to something in here?

Soft, faint, delicate, powdery amber. There's a hint of something fruity that reminds me of Brisingamen. Somehow I thought it would smell closer to Harp of Cnoc I'Chosgair, but I barely get anything but faint amber here.

Spicy! Dry and spicy. I would have said cinnamon, but I guess it's the cardamom and nutmeg talking. I don't find it especially floral; it kind of reminds me of holiday potpourri, sadly. Creamier and more distinctly cardamom as it dries; more interestingly exotic, but reminiscent of the spice aisle at the Indian market.

Is this the right thread for discussing similarities with Salon scents? I just tried Sunrise with Sea-Monsters and the sweet/saltiness reminds me a lot of Lyonesse. Melancholia reminds me of the old LE Signior Dildo, minus the violet note. Fox Fires reminds me of On The Death of His Mistress because of the green tea incense.

What about The Hanging Gardens? It doesn't list amber, but it seems in that family to me. Also discontinued

I got impatient (and worried about Melancholia) and placed an order for Salons--then realized maybe I should have waited for 13/Coraline. Fffffff I hate paying extra shipping. I gave Melancholia a lukewarm review at first but it settles to a really beautiful soft creamy floral--I've been wearing it almost nonstop from the decant I got from swaps recently.

Have you tried Brisingamen? It's appley amber.

SotKCT I found light and pretty but unexceptional. Itaso is greenish and tart-fruity-sweet, but not herbal at all to my nose. Osmanthus smells a bit like green, floral apricots with a slight leathery undertone. The BPAL blends where I've found it strongest are Belle Vinu (reinforced by peach) and My Sweetest Lesbia. Itaso smells a bit more like hibiscus to me. Schadenfreude Baigneuse (autocorrect from my phone that I liked, so I left it ) seems to be an unexceptional light and slightly sharp rose scent to me. I'll try it again on clean skin tomorrow.

They smell very different to me--Komachi is a sweet, lilac-y, lightly fruity floral, while Fox Fires strikes me mostly as a green matcha incense. Fox Fires seems more unique/"interesting," I guess, but I like Komachi better, so if I were you, I'd get that one. Someone else might say the exact opposite if they liked incense better than florals.

The hibiscus and osmanthus team up to give the impression of some kind of bright, tart red fruit, so it opens much more fruity than I would have expected. The fruitiness fades a bit, and leaves behind a fresh, sweet green scent, like a combination of fresh sugar cane juice and fresh-cut grass, still with the general fruity-floral impression from the hibiscus/osmanthus flowers. Clean, green, tart and sweet. It has pretty good throw and smells very distinctive. It has certain similarities to Harikata (one of my favorites) but is much juicier/fruitier than that scent. ETA: The review above was based on a decant. I got a bottle of this based on the decant, and it smelled quite different! Less green, more perfumey-honeyed; reminded me of Gennivre.

Cherry blossom, blue lilac, lavender monofloral honey, white sandalwood, and Asian pear. Fruity! Crisp green pear with soapy-floral lilacs and cherry blossoms. It's not too strong on the honey. Clean, delicate, and pretty, if leaning slightly towards the generic-perfumey or body wash type of scent. The drydown is especially clean and nice in this hot weather. I like it, but somehow it doesn't have a distinct identity to me--like I'd enjoy smelling it but wouldn't remember at all how it smelled once it wasn't under my nose anymore.