apinchofsugar

This started off smelling as other people have described -- spicy, musky, sort-of Dorian. But now that it's settled down on me, it's all vanilla sugar! With an undercurrent of some spice, but it's barely noticeable. Basically, it smells like Boo (circa 2009)! (Which means I love it. Lots.) Finally, skin chemistry made a blend work for me.

What I'm saying is a 1mL sample of oil for $3.50 isn't totally ridiculous, especially if, given your background, you are familiar with how traditional houses price their products -- particularly their eau de parfum which is way diluted. You get a lot more mileage out of straight oil. Now, if your argument is that the samples should be free, I can't really disagree. But again, your judgment call on what luxury is or not. Erm... This is really besides the point of the discussion, but you can get a 1 ml sample of Chanel perfume for $3. You can also get a sample of pure parfum oil for as little as $9. Usually though, I just go to department stores and boutiques and test things for free or ask for for samples. Sales ladies are often pretty generous.

$25 is probably equivalent to a teaspoon of 1 scent of Chanel perfume diluted in alcohol. But you can make the judgment call on luxury and worth for yourself, I suppose. $25 on perfume samples is a luxury for me, so it does matter.

Okay, I will come back and write a more formal review of this later, but I just got my bottle and I have to gush about it before I forget. At first, I dabbed some on and in the wet stages, all I got was that powdery amber and some spice underneath that. It was baby powder doom! Which made me sad because I love carnation. I decided to still give it a shot and so I left it on. Now, about an hour later, I AM IN A CLOUD OF CARNATION HEAVEN. No more powder, just spicy, sweet, creamy, slightly cinnamony carnation wonderfulness. I looovvvee this. :love!: (This is for the resurrect, obvs., because I am but a poor law student who cannot afford to buy original Hod.)

Titania has a similar bouquet but lacks the woody element. Spirit Of The Komachi Cherry Tree seems like it may be similar but is probably a more spartan scent. Les Bijoux sounds like its a similar styled scent although it has different floral and fruit notes. Peach & apple vs Pear, and rose versus jasmine et al.. Thanks for the recs! Maybe if I take Titania and layer it with something...

I think I have issues with musk, which I didn't realize until I noticed this pattern of me SERIOUSLY amping certain perfumes -- that's right, with musk. If I'm wearing musky scents, I'm usually drawn to the white/pale/crystalline/skin/etc. musks, so I haven't really noticed it. But when I venture into other, stronger "colors" the amping is noticeable and makes me kinda nauseous. I even have a period of a few hours during Mlle. Lilith (which is only pink musk, as I recall) where it's like WHOA, way too much. I almost ran out of the middle of the class to wash it off. Was it this thread, where I read that maybe certain people are just musky, naturally? Maybe I don't need any extra oomph. (And maybe I shouldn't buy that bottle of Mme. Moriarty, sadness.)

I admit maybe I like these perfumes because they are just freaking adorable, but anyone have any suggestions for similar scents to Gwen Stefani's Harajuku line of perfumes? I'm particularly interested in Music: (It's called a delicate floral on the site.) Top notes: sparkling pear, clementine Mid notes: sweetpea, jasmine sambac, honeysuckle Base notes: sleek woods, vanilla, skin musk At first glance, it seems like Juliet would be a good copy, but the pear is not as strong in Music as it is in Juliet. Anybody have any other recs? Thanks!

I second all the above suggestions and would like to add in some of the Marchen things -- fairy tales, after all! Particularly Rapunzel and the Miller's Daughter. (Heh, I wonder what it says about me that most of my favorite BPAL scents are being recommended to 14-year-olds...)

Ah, the much-hyped Miskatonic U. I got it as a frimp off my wishlist from a wonderful forumite, and now it is here for my sniffing pleasure. In the bottle: Why HELLO Irish coffee! Something brighter and sharper behind the soft and sweet coffee notes, though. Applied, wet: A LOT nuttier – it smells less like Irish coffee and more like hazelnut coffee now. Very sweet, but there's some other scent notes creeping in – this must be the dust or paper, because it smells like nutty coffee layered over something slightly… cleaner. Dried down: Whoo, the dust and paper notes got a bit stronger now and the coffee has faded quite a bit, but I like it. It's… strangely enough, kind of floral?!? It's balanced – it gives it an impression of being more perfumey, rather than smelling like I rubbed a candle all over myself. It smells kind of like Snake Oil on me, but nuttier. This is probably what sets it apart from Jack (which just makes me smell like a pumpkin pie candle) – it has the impression of coffee, but it doesn't whack you over the head with it. Verdict: I like this! I need to test it again when my skin chemistry isn't all wonky. (Which I suspect it is, as the moment, since it's my time o' the month….) But methinks there is a bottle of Misk. U. in my future.

Got a bottle of this from a swap. In the bottle: Wow, that's a lot of tea. And a lot of mint. And... rice wine?! I am guessing that's the rice wine, because I'm not too familiar with alcohol notes (I usually go running in the other direction). Maybe the wood is in there, too. Unfortunately, those scents combined smell, to me, like... yes, Play-doh. Florals, come rescue me. Applied, wet: Oh phew. Here are the florals coming alive - lily and cherry blossom, yay! There's still that Play-doh-esque aspect I can't shake, though... Dried down: Wow, okay, it got a lot better. The tea went in the background, which helped a lot. Now it's a minty floral, which is super interesting -- nothing I have ever smelled before. It's nice and clean, and very clear. There's still some booze in here, I think, but it's working. Verdict: Decent once it's dry. I'll be keeping the bottle around. I don't really have much mint in my arsenal. It's a soft, but very clean, scent, which I think I need.

My first sugar scent! Very excited. In the bottle: Sugary, but with a distinct tartness and a background of strawberry. What does this smell like?? It smells familiar... oh! It smells like Smarties candy. :\ Applied, wet: Nope, no dandelion. (Darn, I was hoping for some nice green to counterbalance the sugar, since I love green smells.) Instead of the dandelion, some strange creamy note comes into play, which reminds me a lot of fresh Snake Oil - ALMOST powdery and a little Play-Doh-y. On top of the Smarties candy scent, it just smells... weird. Not a good sign! Dried down: Despite the really weird-smelling wet stage, my skin chemistry seems to play really well with this once it's dry. (This is about 1 hour after first application.) Now it smells AWESOME. I'm only a dabbler, but when I put my nose to my wrist, my skin smells like the inside of a marshmallow. Creamy and sweet without being fake. I get no "pink" or "green" smells from this at all, just gentle creamy white-sugar sweetness. It is almost like a vanilla scent, but it's not. Oh my gosh, I love it! Verdict: I really, really love this once it's dried down on my skin. I don't have any sugar scents yet, and I'm just glad this worked on me. I have to admit the fresh, wet smell is simply weird on me, but it's worth it to get to the dry stage. I'll just have to apply it a little bit earlier before going out the door in the morning.

Festival of Anuket is a great cologne-esque scent - it's bright and clean. As soon as I sniffed it, it struck me as either male or gender-neutral. Just throwing it out there!

Snake Oil can be a little heavy on me - I have to be in the mood for it, but Cottonmouth is a nice compromise between Snake Oil and the clean light florals to which I usually gravitate. (And can I say how much I love the snake pit labels? So cool.) In the bottle: This is so hard to describe with my neophyte nose. On top, there's a bright clear floral, but not very strong. Slightly... fruity! Just adds a little something sweet on top of the spice and vanilla of the Snake Oil. Applied, wet: Doesn't smell much different than in the bottle. The spice and vanilla comes much more to the forefront, though, but there's still that counterbalance of sweet florals. Dried down: Haha, I can detect that little bit of powder coming alive from the Snake Oil base. Although, my imp of Snake Oil (aged about 6 months) lost all powder and is spicy and lovely, so I expect the powder aspect of this to go away with time as well. (And it's nowhere near as powdery as fresh Snake Oil -- on me, that is. Just a hint.) Verdict: I enjoy it! Like I expected, it's a less "heavy" alternative to Snake Oil. You still get that nice spice and vanilla, with something bright layered on top.

My second review ever! This was the first bottle purchase I ever made, along with Yvaine. The Stardust scents are what drew me to BPAL in the first place, actually. In the bottle: Wow, it's like I'm falling into a bloom of wildflowers. There's also a nice sweetness behind the florals -- which is the sugar candies, I am guessing. Upon first whiff, there seems to be a commercial-y vibe to the scent, which is probably due to all the florals, but the candy note adds that je nai se quoi of BPAL. Applied, wet: Oop, here comes the grass note. A little bit sharper, now, but still very sweet and soft and floral. It's like running through sugar and wildflowers. A barely-there incense note comes to life, but the florals are balancing it out well. The candy is there, but in the background. Dried down: About the same as wet, but there's a little more powderiness to the smell. Not so much that it makes you think of powder (it still smells like a floral perfume on first whiff), but it's there, I think. Verdict: All in all, a great floral. It's sweet and flowery without going too far into soap or powder territory. It smells a bit like a commercial perfume, but again, the sugar candies (and incense) adds a little something extra to make it interesting.

This is my first review! Ever! I figured I should become more active on the forums, so I'm going to try to go through my (small) collection as I wear it. Starting today. I wasn't around for the old Strawberry Moon, and I'm not a huge berry person, but I was encouraged by the green and sugar notes here - I was hoping for a realistic strawberry. In the bottle: Smells like sugary strawberry candy - actually smells quite a bit like Bubblicious strawberry bubble gum, but I can detect a bit of floral lurking, too - perhaps the strawberry flower? I don't get much of the dandelion or vanilla notes. Applied, wet: The smell alternates between the strawberry candy and the awakening of a nice, subtle herbal note - the dandelion sap coming alive! Dried down: I'm amazed to see the reviews saying that the sap and green notes come to dominate, because on me, they're in the background. The end result is (I think someone said this before) just like the flavor of those ubiquitous strawberry candies with a soft center -- it's like my nose has turned into my mouth. (It's the weirdest thing!) Once in a while, the green notes come alive again, so it actually ends up balancing very well. Verdict: I really love it - a great early summer scent. I've worn it quite often since I've gotten it. It's not totally a realistic strawberry, but it's probably as close as anyone can get.