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Jeepers man - when I first slap this one (yes, slap - dabbing is for pansies)... it smells just like cherry cola. C - O - L - A COLA /TheKinks Dude, the almond. It's almond overload. Or perhaps I should call it almond overlord - it's that evil. On my skin, almond = cherry cough medicine, it's kind of nasty. "Oh almond husk will be soft and woodsier", I told myself when I read the notes before buying it... "it won't smell like aaalllllmonnnnnnd" I said. HA! I'm a fool, for I was wrong - on me, this could be an almond single note for the first ten minutes. OK so yes, it does get better. Ten minutes in, and the almond has calmed down a little. It's calmond. HAHA I can't help myself. This review is making me nuts. Geddit? Almond? Nuts? OK. Anyway now that the almond has faded the leather makes an appearance, and it's definitely a black leather - not a snuggly/soft brown one, this is the smack-you-in-the-nose shiny black leather from Fetish Goth, De Sade, Whip etc - it has some sting behind it, and a very subtle smokiness. The patchouli is pretty mild at first - sitting nicely with a soft earthy feel that's a good counterbalance to the sharpness of the leather - they're lovely together in the early stages but I find the patchouli comes out over the leather at about the twenty minute mark. That pesky cherry almond is still hanging around, but it comes and goes so it's not always immediately noticeable. What about the oak leaf? Well... I can't find it in here at all. And the bourbon vanilla isn't really a major player - it's just giving everything a nice warm, slightly rich tone but it's definitely not foody. Ultimately, it's the patchouli that ends up being the most dominant note here for me. This really is a beautiful blend - if only it didn't have that stupid almond, it would be perfection for me. The patchouli+leather+vanilla combination is heavenly... just the right mix of dark, naughty, earthy and sweet. But that cherry almond is just killing the mood. I will keep my bottle and hope that the almond mellows out after some aging.

I've found that it really pays to investigate different varieties of a note, because where some will be an evil stench on my skin.. others will not. Coconut is a good example - regular coconut is not always good for me because it turns to super-sweet suntan-lotion-type, but black coconut (as in Body, Remember and also Red Lantern and Death Adder) is pure joy. Coconut husk also works well for me. Rose is generally not good for me - it amps horribly, but I've found tea rose can work (as in Sybil), pink rose can sometimes be OK, and damask rose can also work. I really love vanilla, but some kinds are just too 'foody' and Madagascan vanilla is not my friend (as in Celeste, and the recent SN). Black vanilla is the very best kind for me. Two others that come to mind are jasmine - there's several variants on that one, and of course musk with all its different types (brown, black, Egyptian, golden, white etc). I also know that 'white' anything is a big no-no for me... sandalwood = YAY but white sandalwood = BOO. White florals, white musk, white grapes etc are all just nonono. So another thing to look out for is whether you have a 'colour' profile - for example, I'm usually good with things that are golden, brown, burgundy, purple, just dark in general - not so good with anything white, green, blue. And also watch for descriptors - eg if it says things like 'dark' or 'deep', 'rich' etc then I'm in... but any mention of 'bright' or 'sparkling' or 'fizzy' usually means it's a no. But sometimes even stenchly notes can work if they're in combination with something good - like BPTP's Lucy, Kissed for example has rose and violets *shudder* but it said 'blackened violets and funeral roses' so that was a good hint that those two weren't going to be the 'standard' floral variety of violet and rose and maybe could work, and it also has patchouli, oude, amber which I love - plus it's got 'diabolical voluptuousness' in its description - so I was confident it would be OK and yep - turns out to be one of my most favourite blends so that's a good example of one that was a winner despite having a couple of bad notes for me. So yeah, short version - it's definitely worth trying a few varieties and considering the overall 'mood' or tone of a blend before writing off a note completely

I just looked up "awesome" in the dictionary, and look what I found: So it's official... this atmo spray smells awesome It's smells like the light of a silvery moon, with gentle hints of soft orange blossoms drifting by on a silky breeze. The amber is warm and luscious, and the champaca gives everything a gorgeous golden and exotic glow. It smells rich, expensive, luxurious and gorgeous. It sparkles like diamonds, but feels like your comfiest oldest pyjamas. Really, really beautiful.

Hmm - Atrous, there's a lot of Bedbug imps floating around - if you really really love it, you could post up an ISO and see if you can get hold of a bunch of imps.. if you get enough, you could make your own bottle of it! But for alternatives.. hmm... if I remember correctly, Bedbug has a slight orange-y like flavour to it? I can't think of anything that's an exact match, but here's a couple you could try: Mother Ginger (reviews here) - gingerbread, French vanilla, sugar, nutmeg, cinnamon, and marshmallow cream - this one has a lovely creamy sweetness, and I got a slight citrus-y kind of tang from it, but is definitely all about the gingerbread. Mother Shub's Gingerbread Temples (reviews here) - reviews on this one are mixed, and I can't remember if I've tried it, but it sounds like it could be worth a shot? Those are LEs, but shouldn't be too hard to find... and aside from those, I second Shub from the GC but Gingerbread Poppet is probably the most gingerbread-cookie-esque BPAL I've come across. In case you haven't seen it - there's a whole topic here about ginger, and one here about baked goods (including cookies) so you might be able to pick up some ideas from those Edited to fix a wonky link.

OK that sounds the same as my little fattie bottle of Absinthe, which as far as I know is from 2004. The label goes almost all the way around the bottle, and has the old-style flying witch on it (sadly, my bottle also leaked a bit): I love the cobalt bottles too! Here's a regular 5ml, a little fattie squat bottle from years ago, and a 10ml for comparison in case anyone's curious: I think the old squat bottles may have come in green glass at some stage? Or am I thinking of a different perfumer? sarandipitee - thanks for posting that pic! The label on The Cat is cute, and I do love those TAL labels

Does it have a regular-type black plastic lid? If so... I'd say your bottle is from around 2004. Niice find! Monday - thanks for posting those pics... the SN bottles are lovely in their simplicity, I think. And I still love the old cobalt bottles, the blue glass just appeals to me so mch more than the brown.

I don't think I've tried Ostara (light, fruity florals are really not my thing) but some GCs that come to mind are: Twinkle Twinkle Little Bat - A sparkly, batty little scent: green tea, melon, mint, lime rind, and champagne grape with lemon balm, mullein, and toadflax. I find this one more fruity than floral - the melon and lime are the standouts - but there is a soft floral tone behind the fruits. It's really zingy and refreshing and... nice High-Strung Daisies - Daisy, pink carnation, pink pepper and sugar This isn't as sweet and/or pink as it sounds - on me it's a really pretty soft floral with a nice fresh feel Kitsune-Tsuki - Asian plum, orchid, daffodil, jasmine and white musk. This one's light and breezy but the plum gives it a hearty fruitilicious base. Zephyr - Lemon, lemon verbena, neroli, white musk, white florals, white sandalwood, China musk, bergamot and a drop of vanilla. The lemon here was way too much for me, but if your skin handles lemon OK then this would be worthy a try. Embalming Fluid - A light, pure scent: white musk, green tea, aloe and lemon. On me this one is pretty true to the noets - clean, fresh, just a hint of soft citrus. And although it's an LE... Flower Moon is pretty much spring in a bottle - a bouquet of vivid, sexy blooms, coated in thick, golden honey... wisteria, swamp jasmine, honeysuckle, daffodil, rhododendron, phlox, and a mix of California wildflowers - the florals here are sweet and almost fruity-like. I'm not sure how hard-to-find it would be, though. Good luck finding the one! And enjoy your spring time

This is just... a mess. I suspected it would be, because lemongrass always creates a stench of epic proportions on me, but somehow the coconut and anise just take it to a whole new level of wretchedness for me. I think the vanilla orchid and mimosa have run away in horror, because I can't find either of them here at all. And just to top it all off, the balsam is adding a layer of sharp greenery that really isn't helping at all. Is it lemon-scented fly spray? Lemon-scented tanning oil? No! It's a mixture of both!! This smells like some perverted genetic scientist somehow managed to cross a lemon with a coconut to produce a pungent balm that he plans to market as a beauty product for stripping the hairs out of the inside of your nostrils. There's something very unpleasant about the lemon + anise + coconut combination, but it's unpleasant in an I-still-want-to-smell-it way.. kind of like how really foul farts are hilarious because they smell so bad. But no - I just... don't want it on my skin any longer and must go wash. This is not Rigorous Love. It's Vigorous Scruboff.

Ooh yes - how could I have forgotten Goblin!! It's like a naughty, sexy dirty beach romp

YAY! And don't worry - your advisor will be unable to hate you when you're smelling so good You should take a look through the For Sale section here on the forum - you'll find people with big long lists of imps for sale, so you should be able to find a nice selection of things to try without sending yourself broke Happy sniffing!!

Hiya RunnerInPink It's been said already, but definitely Obatala. It's a gorgeous fresh coconut - it doesn't really have an 'ocean' aspect to it, but it smells just like 1970s style coconutty suntan lotion Sea Foams Milk and Sea Foams Glass - yep, I would definitely second those recommendations too

I love patchouli, I love vanilla, and I love amber. I do not love honey. Well actually that's not really true - I do love honey, but only on my toast.. on my skin, it does nasty nasty things and makes me smell like baby's vomit. So I had only one concern witth FM&FMWP and that was.. you guessed it.. the honey. But here's the thing - it's OK! The patchouli in this is so dark and moistly grungey - it smells like a big block of hash I was once offered to buy in Bali, earthy, gooey, feral and scary. So what happens is that the honey tries to step up and be all sweet and sickly but the black patchouli says "fuck off, you stupid pile of bee barf" and the honey goes all quiet and sits meekly in the background. This makes the patchouli think it's all tough and manly-like so it starts puffing up its chest and swelling its testicles, striding around like it's the King of Stink, but just when you think ermahgerd this patchouli is going to strangle me - the vanilla amber shows up. And when I say "shows up", what I really mean is that it flies in on a golden unicorn and sprinkles dusky soft vanilla dust over the top of the black patchouli, instantly shrinking its swollen testicles until it gets all embarrassed and stops strutting around. The vanilla amber gets off its golden unicorn (whose name, incidentally, is Gerald) and settles itself down on top of the patchouli and honey, creating a blanket of soft ambery vanilla goodness. The patchouli - by now quite ashamed of its aforementioned display of testicle swelling and chest puffing - snuggles in on the vanilla amber blanket and sleeps peacefully, occasionally snoring but in a cute way. Who knew the patchouli would turn out to be such a big softie? Gerald, that's who - he knew all along. After about half an hour on my skin FM&FMWP ends up being a lovely dry patchouli with a soft amber overtone and just a hint of dry vanilla and honeyed sweetness, and it pretty much stays like that for a good few hours. The patch does retain a slightly bitter tone, which is why black patchouli isn't my favourite kind, but it's still lovely nonetheless. I really love these 'simple' blends with only a small number of notes - they're never any less complex than the multiple-notes blends, but I find that they allow each individual note to sing its own song and retain its own characteristics and that's definitely the case here. I can smell each note quite clearly, but at the same time I can enjoy the mix of them all together. I'm very happy with this one, and I am putting my 2nd bottle into a nice dark box to age for a while because I'm sure it's going to be amazing in a year or two. Oh, and for the record - I didn't buy the hash. It's very unwise to buy drugs from random Balinese people you meet on the side of the road - just a little travel tip for y'all

I only bought a half-decant of this, but my half-imp has about half-sludge and half-oil OK.. this one was a 50/50 chance for me - I love bourbon vanilla, I love cocoa, I love oudh.. but lemon hates me (lemon amps ridiculously on me), skin musk hates me (it goes bitter and sharp), and rose hates me (although white can sometimes be OK). The X factor was the custard - I don't think I've encountered that before in a BPAL so that was the one note which intrigued me. I have been waiting for years for Beth to make a bourbon vanilla + oudh + cocoa blend, so I figured this was as close as I'd get for now and decided to give it a shot. So the lemon is a main player here - but instead of amping up all over the place and being all HI I'M LEMON on me, it's a lovely soft powdery lemon, so win #1: lemon blossom is better than lemon. On my skin, it's like the lemon is there... but it's just dancing around the edges of everything else, and it adds a lovely fresh and clean tingle to the darker notes in the blend. I really can smell the custard - it's just like the smell of a steaming hot jug of custard that you're just about to pour over your apple pie.. delicious, but not sweet or foody. SO win #2: custard accord is awesome. The skin musk is something I definitely could have done without - it's sitting as a top note on my skin, and it's amping more than I'd like it to. And the rose.. well, where is it? I'm hardly noticing it at all, but I can detect a slight floral-ish waxy sweetness which I'm presuming is the white rose. OK - so those are the not-so-good bits.. the omg-crazy-good bits here are the vanilla+cocoa+oudh combination... it's sublime, dark and slightly smokey, and definitely cocoa rather than chocolate. This just makes me wish that all the other notes (rose, lemon, skin musk) weren't in here - once again, I wish I had a Note Removal MachineTM handy because I would rip that lemon and skin musk out of there! A half-hour after I first applied it, the scent has faded significantly and mostly what I have left is the lemon and skin musk, some residual hints of the custard, and the dry duskiness of the cocoa. The funny thing is.. on my right arm, it's quite floral + lemon custard with a clean/bright tone, but on my left arm it's more cocoa + vanilla + oudh with a musky tone . Curious and curiouser. So overall - very very nice. I'm a little disappointed that the uh-oh notes are the stayers - but ain't that always the way? I've ordered a bottle though, because I find that lemon and skin musk tend to dull and soften with age where bourbon vanilla, oudh and cocoa tend to deepen and get more rich, so perhaps in about six months from now this will be more to my liking. But for now, it's soft and pretty and clean and nice.. not my thing really, but very pretty nonetheless. PS this would make a wonderfful room spray. I might sacrifice my half-imp to make up a little spray bottle!

Gah. Can I please get a bottle of this without the juniper berry and white cedar? Those two together on my skin make a smell that brings to mind a pile of pencil shavings with a pine-scented Magic Tree air freshener hidden inside it. What a shame, because there's so much else in here that I like.. and after about an hour they're all there - beautiful soft amber, a hearty musk, dark and smoky oudh and vetiver, warm snuggly leather and a nice woodsy tone from the oakmoss. I'm not really picking up the blackberry at all. Oh well - it was worth a try, but I kinda knew the cedar and juniper berry would ruin this for me

I was sent a tester of this from my decanter, otherwise I would never have tried it because.. jasmine, jasmine, jasmine. Ayup - it's jasmine. Stinky, nasty jasmine. It's really all I can smell, which is a shame because I like a bit of labdanm and benzoin, but.. jasmine. Yuk - my skin just hates this. I envy those of you who can make this one work, because it really does smell lovely in the imp. But unfortunately my skin does horrible things to it.

I've always had a bit of a thing for ambergris, but Silver-Haired Bat really turned that thing into a full-on love affair... so of course I was hoping for this Luper would be something special And it is! As with SHB, the ambergris here is silky and shiny - exactly what it says in the description... it's luminous, glowing, lovely. Dancing softly through that silkiness is the soft golden amber, dusky and gorgeous and doing a great job of keeping the scent grounded, then there's the beautiful golden musk warming everything up like a ray of sunshine. Honestly, I could have done without the orris - it adds a soapy element that I find interferes with all that luxurious warmth from the other notes, but the orris does dry down nicely and eventually almost disappears in amongst the duskiness of the amber. As others have mentioned, this one is a soft, delicate and graceful scent - it's understated and classy, grown-up and sophisticated, but somehow it doesn't have any snobbery about it - it's kind of really warm and snuggly, and I would be inclined to wear it when I feel like I need a little bit of a confidence boost because I find its glowy-ness gives me a good feeling. it doesn't have a lot of throw, and it doesn't last long on my skin, but even when it's almost gone it's still lovely - one of those 'my skin but better' kinds of BPALs. Very nice, and a must-try for anyone who enjoys these goldenesque kinds of fragrances.

At first - BAM!! hello jasmine. Then BAM!! neroli, BAM! rose, BAM! tuberose. It's like my nose has been kidnapped by the Floral Army. An hour later, the army has disbanded and I'm getting a nice waft of soft musky vanilla with a clean tobacco undertone. The florals - particularly the jasmine - are still dancing on the top of everything else though. Nothing special for me at all - this one goes into the "soft feminine floral" category which is just totally not my scene.

I wouldn't have bothered trying this one, because honey is not my friend and that applies doubly to the "sweet" variety of it.. and although I do like apricot as a note, the "white" bit scared me.. and really, cayenne pepper doesn't excite me much.. so yeah, it would have been a big pass. But my lovely decanter sent me a tester, so... test it I do! Surprise surprise - this is actually quite nice. Like, it really is nice. In the same way that fluffy kittens are nice - it's soft and pretty and cute and snuggly. The apricot is very clean - not overly foody, nor too sweet - it's just a nice true apricot fruit smell. And yes, the honey is sweet but not in that horrible cloying strangle-your-nostrils-with-powdery-honeyness way that it can sometimes be. Turns out honey + apricot work really nicely together for me. And the pepper? Hmm.. ok, so there's a hint of a soft spice at the very bottom of everything but it's hardly noticeable - just a nice balance against the sweetness of the honey. Overall, I'd say this has a nice creamy soft feel - it's warm and comforting - everything is beautifully blended and clean and despite what sounds like a very basic blend of three notes it's actually fairly multi-layered due to the tactile vibe it has, but still pretty simple on the skin. Nice, but not a knock-yer-socks-off thing for me.

OK.. so Balame has already said pretty much what I was going to! It's peppery and sweet, musky and waxy, just.. too much dissonance for my poor nose - it's like a big red sticky noise. Oh woe, 13-year aged Sumatran patchouli - where are you? Woe. This is red, like seriously... RED on me. It smells like a cross between a bathroom freshener spray called something like "Berries of the Forest", and what I would smell like if I were trampled in a field of geraniums by a big red lollipop monster. You might wonder how I know that, but I was once trampled in a field of daffodils by a big yellow lollipop monster and I can still remember how I smelled afterward. This is just like that time, but in red.

I got a tester of this from my lovely decanter, and I'm very happy about that because I hadn't bought a bottle and figured this one would just pass me by When I leaned in for a sniff right after first applying the oil, I was greeted by a sharp top note - the twang mentioned in the description, I guess - but it wasn't really citrus-like.. it was more herbal, or slightly earthy - like tangy earth. Is there such a thing as tangy earth? Heh.. there is now! Overall, it smells a bit cologne-like at this early stage. So anyway - that harsh top layer took about 5 minutes to dissipate, then I go in for another sniff and get the lovely golden tobacco that I recognise from so many other BPALs, but right alongside it is the brown sugar/caramel. I know from past experiences that caramel is not my friend (and the mention of caramel in the notes is why I had been happy to let this SN pass me by) - and it's doing what it usually does to me here.. turning into a sharp, nasty burny sugar smell. The tobacco is keeping up - it's really giving that caramel a good fight, but I'm not sure it's going to win. Citrus? Hmm.. OK, since I know it's there then perhaps I'm getting it - it's more a citrus haze than a citrus twang though. Fifteen minutes in, and finally the tobacco has triumphed over that nasty caramel. The caramel is still there, hanging around like a bad smell (literally!), but it's definitely in the background now. But unfortunately the tobacco has gone a little bitter, which is a shame.. I was hoping it would go all warm and earthy but no. If I had a bottle of this I would definitely use it as a layering note, but I'm not sure I would wear it on its own because it's just not playing out too well on my skin - I know there's a lovely warm earthiness in there somewhere, but that bitterness never quite goes away even though I asked it very nicely to please bugger off. But that's bitterness for ya - bloody rude, it never listens.

Awww... right backatcha! Gotta try and help out a fellow Banshee Beat appreciator Yeah.. #OWS does have cocoa in it, but I think it has the right kind of vanilla, and really - on me at least - it was like 95% patchouli so that's why I suggested using it as your base. Another one to look at would be Heretic - that doesn't actually have patchouli in it, but it's very hippie-esque and overall definitely has a patchouli-like flavour (to me, anyway!). And I think you might be right about the vanilla in SO being similar to the vanilla in BB - it has that same tyrupy richness to it. I'm sure eventually you'll find something you love - but in the meantime, keep a lookout for those two prototypes

Yep - definitely worth a try.. and I would recommend getting yourself a bottle of #Occupy Wall Street (if you don't already have it!) and using that as your +patchouli elixir. Personally, to find a Banshee Beat dupe, I would start by trying to find the right patchouli first because that's what gives BB its depth. Then try finding the right vanilla to go with it... you need that black vanilla - the rich, syrupy vanilla rather than the candy-sweet one - and then something for the hemp if that's even possible. And once you've got #OWS, go back to Velvet and slap some #OWS over the top. Go back to Goblin and slap some #OWS over the top. Grab some Tombstone and slap some #OWS over the top. Grab some Morrocco and slap some #OWS over the the top... you get the idea You might also want to go searching for two prototypes - UOH34 and UOH2 - although there is no official confirmation from the Lab on this, many people have speculated that the "UO" part in these stands for "Urban Outfitters" and that UOH34 and UOH2 are Banshee Beat prototypes. For me, neither is a 'dupe' but I can defintely see the connection to Banshee Beat... and even if the whole speculation about them being BB prototypes isn't true, they are both very BB-like. There's some reviews posted of them both (UOH34 here, and UOH2 here), if you want to investigate further, and you should be able to find at least a decant of them here on the forum somewhere

Hmm.. as others have said, nothing from the general catalogue (GC) springs to mind So I would suggest you go search through the 'For Sale' section here on the forum, and see if you can find a decant of: Boo (any year would be OK, but 2009 seems to be the most creamy) - this is a rich vanilla cream.. it's heavy on the vanilla, but worth a try Milk Moon (05 or 07) - this is like a heavy clotted cream, on me it goes slightly sour but most people find it to be very creamy/milky Castitas would work nicely as a base though - so if you're going to go that route, then you could look at layering something like The Lion over it for a lovely golden amber.

Hmm, have you sniffed her? I wonder how prominent the floral notes are. *goes to search reviews* I don't find the floral notes to be prominent at all. I had actually forgotten there were florals until I posted the description. Most floral notes give me a massive headache, but Liz is lovely. YEP! That's exactly what I would have said too.. I'm not a fan of florals at all, but I don't really notice them at all in Liz. For me, it has a lovely smoky/swirly feel and the leather is subtle but gives it a nice warm vibe. And although it says 'feminine' - much like Liz herself (if you're familiar with the Hellboy story).. it's not a 'girly-girl' perfume at all I would definitely suggest you try to track down a decant of Liz here on the forum - look through the sales area, you should be able to find some. The other blend that came to mind is Clockwork Couture: Female, but that was a limited edition run and is very hard to find now.