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I can't think of anything in the GC with freesia, apart from 51.. and Mad Kate has already been mentioned, but here's some from the LE/unimpable lot that might be worth trying if you can hunt down a decant - Nymphia (LE): White rose, apple blossom, spun sugar, mango, cucumber, freesia, coconut, and lavender. Reviews Octopus and Abalone Diver (Lupercalia LE): Ambergris accord, water lily, freesia, sea spray, molluscan seashell accord, and driftwood. Reviews Peacocks (Salon): Asian pear, white musk, bamboo pulp, violet, ambergris, sugar cane, night-blooming jasmine, plum, freesia, and moss. Reviews The Smilin' Servitors' Hyperdimensional Holiday Hits (LE): freesia, eucalyptus, and yuzu, with sicilian lemon, massoia, opoponax, night-blooming jasmine, white bergamot, and copaiba oleoresin. Reviews Jasmine Cottage (Neil Gaiman's Good Omens): Camellia, jasmine, heather, orange blossom, osmanthus, wisteria, thyme, angelica, freesia, granny’s nightcap, and English wildflowers. Reviews Sunrise With Sea Monsters (Salon): Ocean mist, kelp, ambergris, amber, white pear, osmanthus, freesia, and seafoam accord. Reviews The East (Neil Gaiman's Stardust): The scent of the winds beyond the wall: bluebonnet, passion flower, freesia, jasmine tea, mint, thyme, and redcurrant. Reviews To search for a particular note, the easiest way is to go to the Advanced Search option, type in what you're looking for (eg freesia).. select 'Forums' and then choose 'Reviews' from the topic list, then check the button that says 'Display results as posts' - that will bring up any reviews that mention your word. Hope that helps! edited to fix a busted link

This is definitely the one I like better out of UOH2 and UOH34.. this one has a nice soft patchouli and something kinda warm and snuggly behind it (where UOH2 was over-the-top hardass patchouli) - it dries down to a really lovely creamy patchouli with a touch of powderiness. There's a top note in here that's a little bit sour to my nose, but it comes and goes (the top note, that is - not my nose). I feel like a traitor for straying to these prototypes, I should have known they wouldn't be as splendid as my beloved Banshee Beat. But still.. UOH34 is nice in its own right, and if you're one of the people who found Banshee Beat just Too.Much. then this one is probably worth a try.

Wowsers.. this patchouli is mean - on my skin, UOH2 could almost be a patchouli single-note.. but not the nice soft snuggly kind of patchouli - this is the snarling, dark and earthy kind of patch that scares people The hemp is also very present, and it does interfere with the patchouli quite a bit. And then suddenly, just as I was thinking OMG this is a bit too much kickass for me to wear.. I go in for another sniff, and it's almost gone! How bizarre.. such a massive change in just a couple of minutes. So in the end, I'm left with the remnants of strong patchouli (which dries down a little powdery) and the undertones of hemp with something rather woodsy - like a damp, dark wood. I can't really say that I've noticed much vanilla at all. Given my extreme love for Banshee Beat, I am a little disappointed that this proto didn't live up to my hopes/expectations but I really can't complain because I have Banshee Beat and I loves it - and it's the vanilla in BB that I particularly love. But if you enjoy a good strong patchouli note, then you'll probably love this one!!

_shell_bells - for buttered popcorn, you really can't beat Shill - the description is 'Gloriously innocent and guileless: pure buttered popcorn!' and reviews are here - it smells *exactly* like buttered popcorn. But the bad news is, it's hard to find because it came out as part of the Carnaval Noir series which has long been discontinued. A close runner-up is Trick or Treat from the Halloween 2009 series (or the original 2005 version) - the description is 'The sticky sweet scent of candy corn! Even cornier for 2009! - cuz corny is how we roll at BPAL!' and reviews are here.. that one's more of a candy corn smell, but it still has the buttered popcorn thing going on - and it should be much easier to find than Shill For buttery vanilla, the best one I can think of is a prototype - BTCS (reviews are here) - some people found it more 'butterscotch' than 'butter' and the reviews vary a lot, some mention nuts and/or chocolate, but on me it was a really buttercream-y vanilla. Again, that one's going to be hard to find.. but I really can't think of any other vanilla that's totally buttery.

I'm going to keep an eye on replies to this, because I really like Scent of Angels.. but I find Possets' oils just don't have the quality of BPAL's and that particular one doesn't last long on my skin. And also because every time I try Scent of Angels, it drives me nuts because all I can think of is "which BPAL does this remind me of?!?" - I know there is a BPAL, but I can't place it!

Yeah.. I agree that Halfling has an oatmeal vibe about it - but there's also a slight berry-like tinge and a little bit of spice behind it, so it's not completely oatmeal.. not on my skin, anyway. Cockaigne is another blend that people say smells like oatmeal cookies.. but that also has a wine/berries tone. Dana O'Shee reminds me of oatmeal with almond milk and honey. Oatmeal has also been mentioned in reviews for Brood XIX so that might be worth investigating. But I really can't think of any BPAL that has an avocado note, or smells like avocado - sorry! EDIT: I just thought of something.. one of the Dark Delicacies B Movies blends - That! The Terror From Over There! The description is 'A swarm of chittering greens, smooshy kiwi, and wasabi' but you should check the reviews to see how people found it - to me it was really green and fresh.. slightly peppery from the wasabi, but it definitely has a cool green freshness that's kind of avocado-like. It's probably worth searching around to find a decant, and maybe then you could layer it with something oatmeal-y to get the smell you're looking for .

It's still overwhelming sometimes, even when you've been around a while The tricky thing with prototypes is that the reviews can be in a couple of places, depending on what kind of prototype they are. For the bottles that were sold via the Trunk Show events, you'll find those reviews at the 'Event Exclusives' topic that you've already been to.. but there's also an 'Unreleased Scents' topic here - that's got things that were given out as special frimps, Will Call exclusives.. and even some prototypes as well - so those two threads are kinda muddled up a bit.. if you're looking for something, you should check both topics. Oh, and if you have a prototype that doesn't have any reviews posted yet, you can click the 'Start a new topic' button and then post your review As for swapping your prototypes bottles - that's no problem, you just put them up in a regular swap post like you would any others.

When this first arrived, I tested it right away and found it to be sharp, and kinda stinky, so I put it aside for a few days.. hoping things might change. So out it comes again today, and sadly - nope, nothing's changed. The frankincense in this blend is so strong at first that it's overriding most of the other notes. When the frank burns off a bit, the tea is more prominent than I expected, and the woodmoss is very present during too the wet phase. The overall tone for me in the first 10 minutes is fresh/sharp greenery with a woodsy feel. Around 15 minutes in, and that tone changes almost completely - now I can smell the lovely bourbon vanilla (which is deep and rich, rather than sweet).. and the coconut bark is there now too. The opium gives just a little bit of smokiness but it's not really noticeable - it does smell kinda silky at this point. 30 minutes in, and as others have mentioned.. it's faded a lot. I never really do pick up the white cognac specifically, although it does develop quite a boozy tone. Sadly the bourbon vanilla didn't stick around very long. The frankincense is back, as is the oakmoss, so the green-ish tones have returned. This is probably my least favourite of the ".. Lace" series so far - I'd put it on the side of Black Lace because the tobacco in BL reminds me a bit of the top notes in TL and the cognac is very similar. And where Red Lace and Antique Lace have the soft, sweeter/prettier tones I find Tattered Lace has a more smutty personality with the same boozy character as BL. So if you enjoyed Black Lace, I think you'll really like this new one

Suede icecream! This smells like suede icecream!! The most obvious note to me is leather, but it's the soft and snuggly kind.. like a new pair of suede boots. And then there's a lovely clean vanilla mingling with the leather - it seems to be the same (or very similar) kind of vanilla that was in PP v1 - it's not sweet, more an earthy/woodsy kind of vanilla with a slight green tinge. But in v1 the vanilla gave me a sharp, chemical-ish tone - in v3 it's not doing that quite so much, which I'm very happy about! It smells like a cowboy who has bathed in icecream I find that v3 does change a bit through its wear life - it starts off being all about the leather, then the vanilla takes the stage, then the leather comes back, then the vanilla - this sequence continues for a while, until eventually after about an hour.. I've got suede icecream I actually got a Chaos Theory Vanilla bottle that was all leather and vanilla, and PP v3 reminds me very much of that.. except that my CTV bottle was more about the vanilla, and PP v3 is definitely more about the leather. I'm very happy with this, although I do own quite a lot of leather-related BPALs so I'm not sure this is enough of a standout that it competes with my other faves, but it's really very nice in its own right and very enjoyable. Since nobody seems to have invented suede icecream, I'm going to invent a new word instead - I will call this lovely blend of leather and vanilla.. leatherilla

This is a fuzzy little thing.. definitely silvery, it has quite a shimmery feel to it. Although this is very nice in its own right, it's just not for me. The apple blossom is soapy, the anise is weak, and the florals don't give me any enjoyment as individual notes - they're just all kind of clouded together into a soft waxy floral tone. It delivers an almost aquatic feel on my skin, which is kinda weird since I'm not seeing anything 'aquatic' in the notes, so perhaps it's the silvery musk that's giving it that feeling. In colour, I would say this is silvery-blue. I'm sure this would be lovely on someone who can do this kind of blend justice, because it is a pretty scent, but it just hasn't got enough body for me.

This has a definitely spicy tone to it on me.. the leather is really soft, and the musk is snuggly warm, and overall this reminds me a lot of the leather + spices feel of Spanked. But the key difference with Hochelaga is the plant elements - the wildflowers (dry and mellow rather than floral), the sweetgrass (fresh and slightly sharp), the sage (quite herbal and green), the hickory (a nice spicy/woodsy vibe).. and the main one that stands out in this blend on me - the balsam (fresh and after an initial sharpness quite soft and woodsy kinda like Banshee Beat) - those things combined with the leather and musk make this smell like a warm leather jacket that's been hanging outside on a tree. Which I now realise doesn't sound all that appealing.. but think warm musky leather and organic fresh tree smell and you got it In the end, Hochelaga retains a sharp slightly stinky green-ness that I don't really love - the early stages when it was all warm musky leather were far more my kinda thing. But it changes around a bit - at times it's more leathery, at other times more woodsy, so it's hard to decide whether I really like it or not!! A very interesting, multi-layered perfume that I think will really suit people who like those outdoors-y kinds of BPALs.

I don't think anyone has reviewed it yet, VioletChaos! I had the same situation with Sojourn Down the Midway, so I sent a PM to a mod (I think it was Shollin) and she set up a new topic under 'The Kitchen Sink' for me so I could post a review. I think the Bacon room spray proto would go in the same area, so you could do the same thing

As others have already said, the Yule Limited Edition blends are really the very best when it comes to wintry, cold/snow scents.. which means you might need to go hunting around the For Sale area! But usually they're not too hard to find My suggestion would be The Waltz of the Snowflakes - the description is 'The Snow Queen and Snow King greet Klara and the Nutcracker Prince as they journey through the Enchanted Forest: vanilla-laced snow, graceful and sweet, with fir needle and black pine bark.' and reviews are here. Some people commented on the fir and/or pine notes being a bit strong, but I actually don't like fir/pine smells at all and I loved Waltz.. it wasn't pine-smelly at all on me, just a gorgeous soft and clean misty snow smell, like a cool winter's night in the mountains. Snow White is one of my most favourite BPALs (although I only like the '04 and '05 versions).. but honestly I have never thought of it as a 'winter' scent because it just doesn't smell that way to me. But I'd say it's definitely worth trying if you haven't done so already.. because it's just lovely and maybe for you it would be more winter-like If you feel like going rares-hunting, you could look for Frost Moon '04 (a blend of traditional lunar oils frozen with winter mints, shivering eucalyptus, clear lotus, a gust of wind, and a midnight aquatic note) and if you'd like something with a floral tone, there's Snow Moon '05 (the first flurries of snow touch the land, and the earth itself becomes quiet. A scent of purity and silence, soft with falling snow, as dark as Midwinter: an icy flurry over the winter blooms of narcissus, pansy crocus, dahlia, tulip, chrysanthemum and white rose, with a hint of fir and birch). Oh, and Ice Queen (a majestic blend of precious pale musks, brittle winter blossoms, spruce, and frozen winter fruits) - she's beautifully cold. You might also like to check out the 'Snow Scents' thread here, and the 'Winter Smells and Scents' thread here. Hmm.. maybe also the 'The Smell of Night' thread - maybe you'll find some inspiration there! edited for spelling goof-ups! .

I bought this for a couple of reasons.. one being curiosity, and the other being the words "Through this liquid talisman, your possibilities are limitless, and reality is yours to create." I'm a big fan of creating my own reality, so BTC was a must-buy. Scent-wise, it's not really my thing at all. On my skin, it's a lemon-lavender-herbal-rose blend that has quite a lively tone - it definitely has an energy about it. But the lemon is quite sharp, and the rose (dark pink rose, maybe?) is amping on me as it always does. It dries down quite nicely after about 30 minutes, and loses its initial sharpness - I think there might be a hint of a light coloured musk in here - but still.. mainly a lemony-rose. So it's not really something I will enjoy wearing as a perfume, but.. I am willing to spend my day in a lemony-rose haze of stinkiness if it gives me positive fearlessness and expansive courage, and bolsters my spirit. I'm going to wear it all day at work - today being a particularly heinous smorgasbord of meetings, budgets, cat wrangling and deadlines - and maybe it will give me some strength. And if not.. well, reality is highly overrated anyway

As the previous reviewers have said.. this is nothing like what I expected. I don't know what I expected really though.. I guess I was more focused on the 'bog' elements, and the 'Dank' of the name, so I figured this bath oil was going to smell like some sort of murky pond or dark bog. But nope - it's really not dank or boggy or murky at all.. it's lovely! There's certainly some dark, bog-like elements here.. the oakmoss is particularly prominent, and there's a lovely dark/damp forest-like vibe about the fragrance, but what makes this bath oil really sing is the smooth waxiness of the calla lily (truly a stand-out here, anyone who loves the calla lily smell must try this!) and the bright golden soft-sweetness of the marigold. There's also a slight hint of spice in here somewhere. This actually reminds me a lot of the smell of California Poppy hair oil (is that stuff even still around?!?) - it's warm, snuggly, rich and voluptuous, with a golden sweetness. Over time, the lily becomes the most obvious note on my skin.. but that's OK - it's just such a lovely smell, one of the few florals I can tolerate in my perfumes, and it's balanced nicely here by the darker notes so it never crosses the line into FLORAL territory. I think this would have been a huge hit if it had been more widely released - I'm guessing by the lack of reviews that a lot of people passed it over because of the name/description.. but really, it's just so much better than I was expecting. I only have a little decant of it, but if I see this for sale I'm going to snap it up! Thank you to Absinthetics for the tester!!

what a classic review.. and pretty much what I think too! Cleric v2 smells like a glass of ENO. Or like Aspro Clear dissolved in water. There's a strong citrus note which I can't identify as one thing.. it seems to be a mix of lemon and grapefruit and perhaps mandarin - so it just might be pink grapefruit - and that's about it really.. maybe a hint of vanilla and musk. And I do think there's some sort of tea in here. So that's it for me - lemony tea. It's a nice clean/fresh smell, and if you enjoy these soft/sweet lemon-y scents then more power to you, but it's just not my kinda thing at all. And it's almost completely gone from my skin within 15 minutes! Boo!!! Thanks to Absinthetics for the tester

This is a really interesting and complex blend - one of those BPALs that keeps you coming back for another sniff because it keeps changing I was a bit shocked when I first put this on.. there was a really strong fresh green tone that I wasn't expecting - like laying face down in a field of long grass. But it only stayed like that for about five minutes, and then all the sweet smells starting coming out. Sweet.. as in, candy-like without being obviously candy. It really does remind me of the lane at the carnival where all the games are - there's a hint of plastic or rubber, a wisp of smoke, a suggestion of cotton candy and lollipops and fizzy drinks. After a short while, a lovely warm musk comes out, and changes the scent completely into something warm, snuggly, yummy. And then it changes again and I swear there's an aquatic, kinda salty note in here, and maybe a touch of metal. The one thing that stays consistent through all the changes is a good helping of something that's got a really strong energy.. like fear, noise, excitement, competition. You know those tragic but hilarious scenes at the fair where there's a kid with a big wad of cotton candy on a stick in one hand, some creepy stuffed toy tucked under his arm, remnants of unidentifiable food down his t-shirt, and sticky sugar on his other little hand that's tugging at his Dad's shirt while he stamps his foot and chucks a tantrum with tears streaming down his face because he couldn't win the prize on the top shelf? Yeah.. Alley of Games smells like that. eta: thank you to Absinthetics for the tester! .

I've had this on my skin for five hours now.. and it's only now that I'm enjoying it Unfortunately, I'm finding that Chimera v5 has a strong overlay of something that smells like fly spray - it's almost a menthol kind of fragrance, not minty or sharp though.. just kind of menthol. There's a nice dryness here that I think is sandalwood, something slightly nutty, and a touch of sweet spiciness, but.. ick - fly spray

Here's where I'm at with Eat Me v6... Things to go YAY about: Nice rich dark fruit/berry No cat-pee effect from the fruit/berry Yummy vanilla-cake-o-rama Things to go BOO about: Nutty overload! Overpowering fruit/berry This is just a bit too nutty for me. And now whenever the word 'nutty' comes in to my mind, I think of that scene in the Austin Powers movie where he pours himself a big mug of Fat Bastard's stool sample: So yeah - everything that's good in Eat Me v6 eventually gets overtaken by the almighty nuttiness. When I can get past the nuts, I can smell a gorgeous vanilla cake and lovely rich dark red berries, but BOO to the nuts. And I know you want to see this now, so you here go http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxD2VmZiLJ0

Hmm.. reading those previous reviews is interesting, but on me - Mary Celeste v4 is pretty unexciting. I am definitely getting a strong aquatic tone from it - the overall smell is salty and dry, a bit like the top note in Pirate Moon. There's a bit of a peppery or possibly smokey feel to it as well, and my guess for the wood note would be either a pale oak or a blonde ashwood - it's definitely not a dark wood. There is a slight hint of creaminess, but it's hidden underneath the salty aquatic to the point where it's hardly noticeable unless I really pay attention. Overall, this ends up smelling a bit like a sharp, salty cologne - it's like standing on the beach on a cold winter's day when the wind blows sea spray right in your face - kind of fresh and bracing. I was going to say it's like getting your face licked by a walrus, but I thought that didn't sound quite as appealing as the whole standing on the beach in winter thing. Mary Celeste v4 is totally not my thing at all, but I'm glad I got to try it - thank you to the lovely nursekins for the tester!

Hmm.. what an interesting blend! When it first goes on, I pick up a definite citrus note - like pink grapefruit. Then the violet and green/forest elements come in.. this is when it all goes a bit bathroom-cleaner-ish on me for a little while, until the musk and amber come out. There's an undertone of something slightly unpleasant on my skin - it's not a specific smell, it's just a kind of.. off smell (I think it's probably the violet and lily, which are known fiends on my skin). This is definitely not my kind of thing on its own - it's too smelly, in a bathroom cleaner smelly kind of way. But I'll experiment with layering other RPG oils and see what happens!

I have no idea why this is happening.. but on me, Half-Elf smells almost exactly like Banshee Beat I am getting a really strong vanilla vibe, which I think must be the oud interacting with the sandalwood and musk. And a gorgeous sweetness that I could swear is a dark patchouli. Half-Elf to me is woodsy, musky, and rich - normally I can find individual notes in my BPALs but I'm just not getting that with this one. It dries down into a beautiful warm scent and I'm kinda loving it. But seriously, if I didn't know what it was.. I would think I had Banshee Beat on.

Thank you to the lovely saralaughs for passing on a tester of this to me! Sabrina smells soft and creamy and warm and lovely, and slightly delicious. Like puppy's breath It reminds me a little of CD023, but it's not as strong or as dusty.. it has a similar strawberry-like vanilla tone though, and the same kind of soft/dusky sandalwood but they're not really the same scent. It also reminds me a bit of Kitty from the Courtesan series - but without the honey and orchids (and Sabrina is much softer and creamier). There also seems to be a very very soft musk in here, but it's not going powdery on me at all, and there is something slightly spicy but not in a noticeable way. If this is what the final version of Sabrina will be like, then I'm sure she's going to be very popular. This is one of those 'my skin but better' kinds of BPALs that's just really.. well, nice.

Try the bath oils - a little bit in the shower or bath will deal with the chlorine smell.. I find Snake Oil bath oil works the best

I try not to read previous reviews of the prototype blends before doing my own, because I can be influenced by what other people say! But even before I came to this thread, my first thoughts upon applying Morocco v2 was "this smells like TKO!" And yes.. it does smell like TKO. But where TKO is all fluffy clouds of lavender marshmallow softness, Morocco v2 is lavender sitting under a top layer of an amber-like creamy glow, with a dry muskiness. Maybe it's black amber, I dunno. There's also a slight spice element - it doesn't smell spicy as such, it just has a kind of spicy tone about it. And there might be a hint of vanilla here - it's a bit hard to tell. There's a top note that I've smelled before, I know it.. but I just can't place it! I hate when that happens but I'm picking up a slightly camphoric, balsam-like edge when I take a really big deep sniff. The longer it stays on my skin, the less it reminds me of TKO - the initial lavender aroma fades in the dry-down quite a lot and eventually Morocco v2 becomes a creamy, softly spicy scent with a nice complexity. It's one of those BPALs that you want to keep huffing on your arm, because it's just that nice. BIG hugs and thanks to the very lovely mimers99 for generously frimping me a decant of this one