sqwook

Lovely!

Wet: a women's "cologne" type fragrance. There's a note here that reminds me a bit of the vanilla of Black Opal, actually, but a bit more bold/bright (maybe the cedar?). (Though I did a side by side comparison to confirm it, and of course they're nothing alike when they're actually side-by-side. )

Dry: Others compare it to Lyonesse but I don't get that at all. For me, the drydown is very much like that of Death & Life Completed, perhaps even warmer/spicier/softer, and without the slight tinge of floral that Death & Life Completed has. Same resiny, delicious, warmth. Love it! For me, since I have a bottle of Death & Life Completed, I'll stick with that. (And please note - the wet phase of these two are nothing alike.)

I think that folks who like Bezoar should also be sure to try Oblivion. They're not exactly the same, but even in a direct side-by-side comparison (well, arm-by-arm ), once they each have a chance to settle down, they have a vibe that is extremely similar, with Bezoar more calm and perhaps musty, and Oblivion spicier and a bit sharper.

eta: by settling down, I mean maybe a half-hour or hour after applying.

Embalming Fluid! (If the name is holding you back, fear not - it's all lemony-and-lightness, and as refreshing as a sparkling Limonata.)

I think Miss Lupescu & The Lady On The Grey are lovely. I'll confess, though, a fondness for scents that others think are 'too perfumey', such as 'Death & Life Completed' for example.

Miss Lupescu was a spicy soft faintest-tinge-of-cinnamon on me.

The Lady On The Grey started off herbal/cologne-y almost tinge-of-citrus on me, and then did this major morph to a soft ambery close-to-the-skin scent.

Neither is really floral.

the gaiman blends perpetually break my heart. none of them smell right on me. I kept buying Stardust ones, and having to sell them. Even Fairy Wine, which smells the best on me, isn't bottle worthy, really. I think THINK that I like Jasmine Cottage but I haven't worn my imp in a while. I have been hesitant to try any of the Graveyard Books because of the general blahness (on me) of the other scents. They all either smell too manly on me, or too perfumey....

what are some of your impressions of the GYB scents?

Hm, it sounds interesting! Without having smelled it, it's hard to say with so many notes what may have been prominent. Here are some ideas from things I've tried, with the ones I like more at the top:

Salome - almond with star jasmine, oakmoss, red sandalwood and Egyptian musk.

Fallen - Cherubic white sandalwood and golden musk with a dark halo of amber, a breath of imperial florals, unbending woods, and the shadow cast by vetiver and violet.

Titus Andronicus - Dark musk and black amber with frankincense, red sandalwood, neroli and bergamot. (but there's no jasmine listed)

Moscow - imperial rose, carnation, lush jasmine, lily of the valley, dark musk, amber, bergamot and gilded tangerine.

Two Monsters (from the Salon) totally felt like your description to me - mossy, trees, earth - the whole forest. (The Salons are not available as individual samples from the lab, yet you may be able to find some on the forum.)

Yggdrasil is without the soil/earth - all fresh green forest. I love it.

Fire of Love is the autumn- like a carved wood cabin in the woods in fall.

You might try Wolfsbane, too.

Whatever you order to try, I'm interested in hearing what you think!

Hmm, this comment makes me want to try Antique Lace to see if it's the linen or some "tea" scent that I can't stand. In the name of SCIENCE!

 

In the name of SCIENCE! you should also try Wensleydale. It's just soap and cotton fabric, so it might answer your "do I hate linen?" query in a hurry. (Dirty is probably a better choice, but Wensleydale is on Gaiman theme, so I have to suggest that one. )

I've tried Dirty and found it inoffensive but totally not me, because of that squeaky-clean-laundry scent. I've steered clear of Wensleydale because I hate soap, too. (After looking at Dormouse's notes, there's no linen or cloth / laundry listed, so maybe it *was* the tea, weird, weird, weird. I have no idea.)

Thanks for the great reply (and your superior editing skills!) The same ick note from White Rabbit is in Dormouse so I think it is the tea! I like Antique Lace which has linen so I am inclined not to think it is that.

Hmm, this comment makes me want to try Antique Lace to see if it's the linen or some "tea" scent that I can't stand. In the name of SCIENCE!

Jasmine Cottage I've tried, though it was very early in my BPAL experience, so I can't say how much jasmine there is compared to other stuff, since I no longer have the imp. Here are my notes: Clean, light, green, only very lightly floral. Very similar in feel to Anubis, which is less floral.

For me with Nanny Ashtoreth, the honey was not a strong component at all, and it is sometimes a problem scent for me. From my notes: Warm woods are the most prominent scents, in the same family as Antikythera Mechanism (sweet woods). Less sweet more woody than Antikythera Mechanism, and I preferred A.M.

Mr. Ibis had a men's cologne feeling for me which wasn't bad yet I also am not sure I'll wear it.

(As an aside, there's something I hate in many aquatics too. Like, HATE!!11!!11!. And White Rabbit was among the worst, I was flabbergasted, and disappointed. I blame it on the "linen" though, not the tea.)

My faves from the Gaimans are Miss Lupescu & The Lady on the Grey.

I would swear I'm getting cinnamon in Sundew. And if I banish all the sundew-floral/flower images from my mind, I think this would be a great harvest-fall-spice blend. On me, it smells like what I thought The Lion would smell like based on everyone's reviews.

So I've only tried it once, which isn't much of a test I know, yet I wanted to share, because I know others had an experience of a "feeling of passivity" or being "dislocated from the world and my self", and I have to say I felt the same way. Like it was really clearing my mind, and that was a not-good (somewhat scary to me) feeling. It was a bit unnerving, which has made me hesitant to try this out again before going to work, which is (ahem...) when I need the most TAL help. All this said, when there's a time it feels right to try it again (a feeling of panic in the evening or a weekend perhaps) then I definitely will, because I'm curious if that was just an odd fluke.

(And as an aside, I've found that Lionheart has provided exactly what I had been looking for in my personal situation, which is why I bought several TALs to try at once, so it *is* a happy ending.)

Scent: Umm... clove, berry, bright, something maybe mint, ???. I don't wear it for the scent, but the scent's not bad.

Rock on. This TAL works. I love it. I dab onto my chakras in the morning before getting dressed. (And then put on some other BPAL as my scent for the day, on my wrists.) I have found that doing this, taking time for myself in the morning and gathering energy, to be absolutely invaluable, and it totally works. As angelicruin said, anxiety at work is decreased, and I can get through, despite similar stressors as before. Love, love, love.

I don't think anyone has yet mentioned Belle Vinu from Marchen. The listed notes are: Red sandalwood, vanilla, rosewood, osmanthus, and white peach.

 

To me it's got a very strong fresh peach smell, but somehow not in a really foody way. And I find it very, very addictive

Oooooo, I agree with Belle Vinu - it's lovely and NOT FOODY. It's just really pretty & nice. Like an ACTUAL peach, not like peach-scented something.

Izile, good question.

I use Hackess' spreadsheet, and I don't rely on color coding (like Inventrix, because it's not searchable/sortable). Though I did assign a color to each category name, just so that it wasn't such a huge monolithic spreadsheet. I hide the LEs/Disc for the same reason - because I'm sticking to GC for the most part.

I have a Status column that indicates when something is Wishlist or, if I have it, where it came from (date of purchase & from who if on the forum). I keep the wishlist scents sorted up at the top of the file so they're always easy to reference.

I have a sort of "Then what" column that is what I'm doing with it - Keep the bottle, keep the imp, swap, meh/undecided. Also, if I did swap it, who it went to. My list is almost always sorted by this column, so I can quickly see what I have, what I have to give away that someone else might like, etc.

I'm trying Antony again today, and I HIGHLY recommend it. At first I was dubious. But if I clear my mind of all my pre-conceptions, it is really like the southwest, perhaps better even than Coyote.

A quick search in my spreadsheet of bpal turns up the following mostly non-LE:

Lilium Inter Spinas - Hibiscus syriacus, white sandalwood, lily of the valley, apple blossom, and green fig

Suspiro - Ylang ylang with white plum, white orchid, jasmine, calla lily and lily of the valley

Dragon's Eye - A piercing, radiant perfume: dragon's blood resin, lily of the valley, lilac and galbanum.

Wings of Azrael - Warm myrrh swirled with a bittersweet blend of violet, Lily of the Valley, juniper, cypess and cajeput

Belle Epoque - Sweet opium, Lily of the Valley, vanilla, mandarin and red sandalwood

Madame Tracy - tea rose, ume blossom, geranium, lily of the valley, violet, and heliotrope

The Queen of Hearts - Lily of the Valley, Calla Lily, stephanotis and a drop of cherry

Hymn - perfect rose absolute and Palestinian Lily of the Valley with olibanum, labdanum, frankincense and myrrh

Bilquis - Honey, myrrh, lily of the valley, rose otto, fig leaf, almond, ambrette, red apple, and warm musk

The Penitent Magdalen - Immortelle, lily of the valley, gaiac, amber, honey, white sandalwood, almond flower, blonde musk, and hyssop.

La Mort Qui Danse - Black pepper, white ginger, Calla lily, and lily of the valley.

Moscow - imperial rose, carnation, lush jasmine, lily of the valley, dark musk, amber, bergamot and gilded tangerine

Judith Victorious - Chestnut blossom, lily of the valley, King mandarin, French magnolia, and golden musk.

Endymion - d'Anjou pear, Lily of the Valley, bois du rose and white musk

The only one I've tried of these is Judith Victorious, and it didn't strike me as floral, so I wouldn't start with that one. You could read the reviews for some that have your no-go scents like myrrh, to see how strong others found it where it's listed. Suspiro sounds beautiful.

Wet: dust and oil, reminds me of a kind of thick/sludgy oil that is used in lapidary work (ETA: not that anyone cares but to clarify, I'm sure the oil doesn't start out sludgy, but since I work in shared shops, I've never seen it not be. )

Dry: Dusty sandalwood, dried grass, not at all sweet, a bit sour, soapy?, hm... I needed to retry this on a different day, which I'm doing now. There's a sourness that I really didn't expect, given the notes. I think I've let my expectations taint reality; this is so much higher / more sour than I was expecting that I can't reconcile to it. I want to like it but I just don't. I had the same feeling with Scarecrow, so I wonder if it's the lab's grass/sedge scent that disagrees with me.

My favorites that smell like wood (to me! ymmv) are -

Danse Macabre - Really beautiful woods, dries down to a quiet sweetness. Really smooth and gentle, nothing macabre here.

Nanny Ashtoreth - I smell the wood in this more than the other notes - totally not what I expected from the listed notes, and GREAT.

The Antikythera Mechanism - Is it the wood that makes this so awesome? I have not idea, but I love it.

Cathedral - Cedar, fresh-cut, bright, and peppery. Woodsy.

Coiled Serpent - Woods (cedar?) and spice, warming. Really good.

Intrigue - It's woodsy chocolate at first (which I thought I'd HATE but it was better than it sounds), then a calm quiet woods, soft, smooth, reminded me a bit of the softness/smoothness of Mandrake.

Oblivion - Mmm, spicy peppery wood. Spicy and unexpectedly delicious. Like an import shop filled with awesome things made of wood. I'm just trying this now as I type, so I don't know yet how it wears, but it's great right now.

ETA: I love Aureus, too - yet I swapped my imp because my SO always said it smelled too much like patchouli, which is really not his fave. I didn't get that so much, and one day I'll probably end up with another imp of it.

ETA2: Edited to add newly tested scents.

It really depends on body chemistry because what works for sqwook sure doesn't work for me.

*LOL* Yeah, I know what you mean - I feel that way a lot of the time when I read people's recs. And actually, of those listed, Aglaea & Has No Hanna don't really even work for me, either, scentwise; it's just that they seem pretty happy.

Here are mine for that. Ymmv. Though I defy you to try and be morose while wearing Persephone. It just doesn't compute.

(Also, as an aside, you should actually try to physically smile even if you don't want to. It has been proven that this will improve your mood, and it's easy and free.)

Aglaea - happy and sweet.

Persephone - happy, smiling, without guile.

Has No Hanna - happy, light.

Mag Mell - joy, calm/peace.

Sunflower - sunny, light, innocent, joy.

And also possibly-

Yggdrasil - though this is more radiance/confidence for me, not exactly just happiness per se.

Death & Life Completed or Manhattan - confidence (esp in a work situation), not exactly just happiness.

Anyone and everyone still on the lookout for something smoky/campfire/bonfire/fireplace should DEFINITELY check out Rumpelstilzchen.

You might want to try The Little Sparrow. Somehow I'm getting a dusty/oil smell from it.

(Troll, on the other hand, was a sweet evergreen / plants / almost-apple on me...)

Have you tried Coyote yet? (It's not clear from your comments.) I'd try it on its own, too, because I don't think it's particularly dry-smelling, and I have sometimes sensed a watery-ness. (Or I could just be weird. It's been known to happen.) It doesn't have sagebrush / real high-desert, but it's definitely nice.

Wet: amber straw gold dusty herbal

Dry: Metallic rosebud, turning powdery rose. This is the first oil that has gone powdery on me in a not-really-good way - amber does *not* usually act this way for me, so I'll blame the rose. (I'm always ready to blame the rose anyway.)

Reminds me of my grandmother, so I'm keeping the imp for now, but rose is my nemesis.

For those who are looking for something similar to Angel by Thierry Mugler, if Xiuhtecuhtli isn't doing it for you, you should try The Antikythera Mechanism. Yum! Hm, I might have to try layering the two...