Pamlwell

In the bottle: Grapefruit and, hmmm, something else. It's got a kinda... resin-y kick to it? I'm not sure what the listed notes smell like on this one so I can't really pinpoint it beyond that. On wet: more of the above for me with the grapefruit gradually blending and the tea making its appearance on the drydown. On dry: It smells like clean, sweet grapefruit. I tend to smell tea notes as "clean," so that's probably where that comes from. Those who like light, fruity/citrus blends will probably love this. A bit too much fruit for me, but I tend to go for musky/resiny/spicy blends...

Just a quick little update for others who might be on the same quest: I just got imps of Morocco, Silk Road, Bengal and Sudha Segara in the mail today and Morocco really fits the bill of what I was looking for too. It's a creamier spice (rather than floral like Mama-Ji) and it's wonderful. The cinnamon in Bengal and I didn't really get along and something in Silk road turned weird on me (sort of soapy?). Sudha Segara was nice, but really light. From the description and reviews, I was expecting it to be a little creamier. Looking back, I should have listened to DeniseScan! Still very nice. Morocco though, Morocco is the shit! Thanks again to all for the advice! If you are inspired by my likes and dislikes from the above, feel free to chime in with more recommendations...Love you guys and your expert noses! Edited for mah bad spellin'

Just got an imp of this in the mail and thought I would throw my two cents in here because I seem to sometimes have very different reactions to scents that many forumites would die for. For once, I really agree that this scent is top ten material. Wet in bottle: I agree that this one doesn't really have much scent when wet. It's an interesting quality and one I really love because the initial phase of many blends is a bit much for me. Wet on skin: as soon as it hits my skin the spices begin to unfurl. Not in an overwhelming way, but delicately, like a spiced carnation slowly opening to the sunrise. The scent is still predominantly spice, but I personally get the most carnation during this phase. Super sexy. Dry on skin: The carnation fades into the background at this point. It's still there in the supporting cast, along with the Arabian musk, keeping the spices from being too dry, but the spice takes center stage now. I can see why other reviewers have found this to be a foodie scent: It is very creamy and spicy. For me however, the musk and the carnation maintain enough of a presence as "inedibles" to keep Morocco firmly away from the foodie category for me. I am one of those girls that is wary of incense-y scents and was worried that Morocco might go the way of the head shop for me. Not so. Spicy and sexy without being hippy-ish to my hippy sensitive nose. I also tend to turn a number of scents into soap or powder. Luckily for me, Morocco fell into neither of those two categories. Lovely lovely lovely. I am going to keep testing this over the course of the week to see if anything changes ('cause we have all had that happen), but if Morocco keeps living up to its first impression then this will likely be my first big bottle purchase! Whoo-hoo!

Well, thinking back on it, the main blends I found too incense-y were Scherezade and Mama-ji. Mama-ji actually gets a lot better after an hour or two, but it's a bit much for me on first application. Makes my nose itch. It might be something I like better in the cold weather. I'm not necessarily against any of the notes you mentioned as headshoppy (trying to be open-minded here, patchouli scares me the most, sandalwood the least). I mean, I don't really know enough about my tastes at this point to eliminate a blend because of a single note. So, yeah, take what I said with a grain of salt, I guess. Wow, Pepper sounds great! I'll have to search the forums for it 'cause it's unimpable but those notes look enticing. Looks like it could match the general 'feel' of Heroine with the ginger and the florals...

I am wondering if anyone could help me pin down some BPALs that are similar to two perfumes by Strange Invisible Perfumes, Heroine and Arunima. I love 'em, but they are ridiculous expensive. I mean ridiculous. Thank god for BPAL's prices. Here are the notes: Heroine: ginger, tuberose, frangipani, opoponax and Moroccan cedarwood (a little quick Wikipedia-ing has uncovered that frangipani and plumeria are the same thing). Arunima:A hypnotic elixir of blue lotus, Madagascan vanilla, frankincense and lavender from Kashmir is finely sequined with ginger, cardamom and key lime. I'm not attached to finding a perfect match, of course, but part of the reason for this post is just to help me begin to figure out what notes I like. I was always allergic to synthetic perfumes and only discovered my natural options recently. Ipso facto, I've only begun developing my nose and discovering what I like and don't like recently. I think part of what I really enjoy in both of them is the ginger. They both retain the gingery-woodsy spice on the drydown, Heroine in a somewhat floral way (not overpoweringly so) and Arunima in a vaguely foody way. I find that they are also both relatively ballanced perfumes and no one particular note stands out glaringly to my untrained nose. Of course, untrained nose might be the operative phrase in that sentence. I must warn that, having tried a few BPAL scents now, I am beginning to realize that I want to avoid incense scents like the plague. What notes smell like incense/hippie shop to me? Well, I'm not sure. I know that's not helpful, but I thought any well wishing advisers might want to know. Thanks a bundle for your help!

A quiet scent, soft, calm and enigmatic. A perfume of mystery, of whispers, and of secrets behind secrets. White sandalwood, lilac, gardenia, violet, orris, lavender and ylang ylang. This scent is full of lavender and violet for me on first application. As It dries, the sandalwood begins to show up and ground the flowers a bit, which is good because they were a little bit heady and over the top for my tastes at first. About ten minutes in this goes through a lovely phase on me that is the perfect balance of flower and sandalwood. Not too sandalwood-dry and not to rich-flowery-wet, if that makes any sense. It's a very feminine scent for sure and it seems vaguely Victorian to me for some reason. Perhaps because it seems delicate and proper. Unfortunately, the best part of the scent doesn't last very long on me. Not too long after the ten minute mark, my skin eats all of the scent except for a powdery, vaguely lavender-y scent that reminds me of my grandmother's bathroom. Even this grandma-bathroom smell fades after only about an hour. Ahh, well. Perhaps this will have more staying power on the rest of you...

The Dark Side of Earth: deep, brooding forest scents, including juniper and patchouli. The scent of upturned cemetery loam mingling with floral offerings to the dead. In the bottle: Whoa! I get pine and juniper like crazy from this. Something vaguely medicinal too... Wet on skin: Hmmm, this smells exactly like a floor that has just been mopped with pine-sol. I'm not getting much earth here, just evergreens and that weird chemical sort of cleaning fluid scent. drydown: Ok, now that it's dry, the woods and dirt in this are beginning to come out. It still smells like a pine-sol cleaned room though. Actually, it reminds me exactly of what the cabins used to smell like at the summer camp I went to as a kid. Wood interiors, open, screened windows, forest outside, vague pine sol scent inside. Not all bad, considering how it started for me, but still not something I want to smell like. Maybe if my skin chemistry were different...

A quick update: I just got Mama Ji in the mail (the only unimpable and thus the only one I bought off the forum), and boy do I it! Not incensey and a lovely spicy floral, as recommended. Thanks for all your advice!

Shubb Niggurath? "The lust incense of a corrupted Astarte. A blend of ritual herbs and dark resins, shot through with three gingers and aphrodisiacal spices." I would never have picked that one out because of the resins, but it's certainly worth an imp of a try. Thanks! So. So far I'm looking at Bengal, Al-Sharian, Chimera, Plunder, Morocco, Sudha Serga, Shub Niggurath, Silk Road and (even though it might not be spicy and because I'm curiouser and curiouser,) Alice. Then toss in a 5 ml of Mama-Ji to really squeeze the pocketbooks. Hmmm, I really must try to cull those imps down to six...

Oh wonderful! I was already musing on Bengal: Glad to see you guys agree. Alice and Plunder sound wonderful too. I was looking at Silk Road, but I was worried that whatever it is that smells incensey to me in Scherezade would be in Silk Road too. The description of it isn't very specific about what exactly it contains and it seems like it would have a high propensity for incense. Still, that gives me a little something to go on for now...

I am looking for a scent that has some spice and warmth, but doesn't smell like incense. I thought I might like the scent of Scherezade (I really like the idea of Scherezade) but I just got it in the mail and it leans too much towards incense for me. I really like chai tea, which would have notes like cardamom, ginger, clove, possibly black pepper. I wouldn't mind a few light florals thrown in there too, maybe a rose. I'm not sure what note I'm specifically reacting to in Scherezade, which I know would be helpful . But hey, I'll take any recommendations you have! Anything for an excuse to buy more oils, right?