Beatrice33

I mostly smell Chanel No. 5, and Beth has done a fabulous job with it! If you love No. 5, give this one a try!

Lovely, spicy fall scent but big red spots on my skin wherever it has touched. So sad!

I put this one on with a number of other decants I received last night, and after a while I started getting whiffs of something that reminded me of Chanel No. 5 (which I happen to love). I thought, "What the heck? Did I forget putting another perfume on before testing?" It turned out to be this lil' number giving off warm, powdery, perfumey vibes in all the best ways. I need to test it again by itself to see if my nose is crazy or not, but so far I'm very excited about this one. Yay Beth!

I LOVE Ninon! I finally figured out which perfume Ninon reminds me of, one of my former favorites: Chergui by Serge Lutens. It's got a similar smokey, slightly honey-sweet, musky, tobacco, hay-like wonderfulness ... it's enveloping and dead sexy. I bought two bottles, and I may need a third before it goes away!

Bumping this thread to say that today I realized finally what Ninon, the courtesan scent, reminds me of--one of my former fave scents: Chergui! It's got the hay, musk, and honey, and it's a similary enveloping scent.

I, too, am a tea scent lover, and I'm wondering about how the Shunga Tea scent compares to some of the ones people have been mentioning. Kumiho is my all-time favorite tea scent, but I like The Chinese Dance and The Unsteady Governess as well. I like Embalming Fluid, too, but I like Kumiho's touch of sweetness even more. Also, the lab's green tea note sometimes goes too sharp on me in such scents as Shanghai. Anyone know how Tea fits in with all of these?

I agree with Hillary that this one has similarities to Chance by Chanel. I wore Chance for a while and loved its fruity-floral cheerfulness, but this one is much better and I'm sooooo glad to have found it. It's become my go-to scent when I need a pick-me-up in the morning. My only concern is that I should have gotten a back up before the Yules came down....

This is a real surprise for me. I didn't love it when it first arrived, and I thought I would be willing to hand it over to my hubby, but in the second try, a couple of weeks later, I LOVE it! On my skin, it's a version of Snake Oil that works without becoming all powder. I also get a whiff of coconut that I thought was my imagination until I remembered that massoia bark is a bit coconutty. It is definitely related to my beloved Snake Charmer, and it's awesome!

2010 version. At first all I got was one-note cocoa, which was fine, but nothing I felt I needed a whole bottle of. Then the amber came out, and I've found myself strangely transfixed by this scent. I keep applying it and having trouble ungluing my nose from my wrist. I need to take it for a full-day spin to be sure I want a full bottle, but so far, the amber warms up the cocoa really nicely for a scent that is a perfume with chocolate notes rather than a chocolate perfume, if that makes any sense. It wears on me as a warm, inviting, rich perfume perfect for wintry days, cocoa rounded out beautifully by warm amber without any hint of powderiness. Mmmmmmm.

Ooh, I love this one! At first, I smell the same bourbon vanilla note I get from Sachs, and then the soft cardamom spiciness shows up, and I guess the Egyptian musk is what's helping to smooth it all out and give it an airy quality, as another reviewer noted above. It becomes this wonderful, close to the skin, spicy, airy, somewhat sweet scent that also reminds me of Underpants (as another reviewer noted above). It has none of the buttercream that Underpants starts out with, but their drydowns are remarkably similar on me. Dare I say it, I think I like Gypsy better because of its lightness. I agree with the reviewer that said this is a spicy scent that still works in warm summer weather. It's my biggest new BPAL love in quite a while. Full bottle in next order, please. Yippee!

I used to have a bottle of Sensi, and I remember it as being a soft woodsy skin scent, on me. My top suggestion would be Morocco; I find it very similar to Sensi. You may also want to try Lucretia and And There Was a Great Cry in Egypt, from the Salon. Another one to try would be the new GC Paramatman. Thanks for the suggestions, parrot_suspect! I love Morocco, although it doesn't remind me of Sensi. I will hunt down imps of the other, though to check them out!

Anyone know of a BPAL similar to Armani Sensi? Notes (from Perfume Emporium) are: A sensitive, serene blend of clean elegant notes, Sensi opens with a burst of kaffir Lime softened with acacia farnese. Sensuous barley, Cape jasmine, palissander wood, benzoin and vanilla accents create subtle nuances of sensuality. It's kind of warm yet light, very much a skin scent--but very hard to describe! I'm hoping someone knows it and has found a BPAL with the same feel. TIA!

Oh how I wish I got what some others are getting. On me, this is very floral and too clean-smelling to be something I would wear very often. If the coconut and creaminess came out a bit more, I think it might become a favorite. It's close to working but ends up going wrong on my skin.

I completely agree, Black Pearl is not at all aquatic, but I've fallen in love with it! Maybe I didn't even know what I wanted. I'm still having fun working my way down the list of everyone's suggestions, though!

Hi Lovely BPALers, I have been sticking lately to vanillas, ambers, and spicy scents, but suddenly I'm craving something lighter, more sparkling. A friend of mine this weekend had on a scent that I fell in love with--Hermes Jardin Sur le Nil. Very sparkling, and described as a watery floral with a little bright fruit. It makes me want to try to find a sparkling, watery floral from BPAL. I haven't ventured into aquatics too much at BPAL (or elsewhere) because the often turn to dryer sheet on me. I don't like anything too "clean", sharp, or venturing into "cologne" territory. But if there is a bit of floral or citrus added, I think certain acquatics might work, especially if there was light amber or vanilla or something in the background to warm it up just a bit. My thoughts for imps so far are: Amsterdam Lady of Shalott Black Pearl A few in the salon that caught my eye are: Sunrise with Sea Monsters Itasô Kansei Nenkan Jorô No Fûzoku The Lantern Ghost of Oiwa Kiyohime Changes From a Serpent I've almost really liked a few of the Asian inspired scents, for example Earth Rat and Hungry Ghost Moon, but those two became too fruity/sweet on me. I love Xiutecuhtli, which is to me a scent of greenery with a warmth in the background from the amber. Any thoughts or recommendations for me? Am I on the right track with some of my ideas? Can you help me decide which of those 4 salons to try first? Thank you so much in advance!! ~Bea

I just had to check back in to say that I'm working my way through everyone's wonderful suggestions, but I may have already found my dream scent! I've fallen in love with Itasô Kansei Nenkan Jorô No Fûzoku. It's BEAUTIFUL and just what I was looking for. Who knows, though, there may be more new loves out there, so I'll just keep on sniffing!

Well, after reading that a couple other people smelled absinthe, I don't think I'm crazy anymore. I kept wondering if my decant was mislabeled and was actually Pink Mood. In any case, this is a creamy anise scent on my skin. Reminds me a bit of Serge Lutens Douce Amere, a favorite of mine, but this one is much lighter and airier. I'm really liking it so far....

Ditto. Seriously, just what I was thinking.

Deiicide--thanks for your notes on Kiyohime. The way you describe it, it sounds like my kind of thing! Hmelt004, thank you for the new suggestions. I'm almost up to enough for a second imp pack!

Thank you, Milla! I've had very bad luck lately buying bottles unsniffed, so I'll try to test Poisson d'Avril first, but if I'm lucky maybe you'll still have the bottle available if I'm able to track it down and it works on me!

VitaminA and Oakmoss--thank you for the Prague rec. I actually can't remember if I've ever tried this one, so I've got it on my list for sure. I loved visiting Prague, so it would be extra special if I fell in love with the scent. Saralaughs, I've never even heard of Enchanged Wood Florist. I'm off to check it out! Thank you. Dormouse, thanks for the suggestion. I'll keep my eye out for Poisson d'Avil. I'm wondering if I passed on that when it came out due to the rose, often a note of doom for me. How prominent is that note?

Thanks for the rec! I hadn't considered this one yet.

Ooh, yay, now I'm even more excited to receive my Amsterdam imp. Thank you, CaudaPavonis. Reina, another star for Danube, and adding Szepasszony and 51--thank you!

Ooh, thank you, thank you, thank you everyone for your suggestions! Amoraexcena, both Water of Notre Dame and The Lotus Tree sound like they might be right up my alley. Somehow I don't remember even knowing about The Lotus Tree, and I'm always on the lookout for another "skin scent." Yoginispirit, I'm adding another star by Shattered! I appreciate your thoughts on Ghost Lantern. I'm having so much trouble deciding which Salon to buy unsniffed--too expensive to do lightly! Shanghai's green tea note unfortunately does something strange on me, which saddens me greatly because it should be a perfect scent for me. I'll check out Blood Countess, too! Willowtreeling, I think (hope) Lady of Shalott is in my last imp order. Now I'm forgetting what I ended up deciding, but I'm crossing my fingers!

Thank you, Girasol, I'm adding Shattered to my list!