Honey

Just wantzed to add my bit about a Giant Vulva substitute: I have an aged (cobalt) bottle of Xiuhtecuhtli, and it smells very, very similar to my GV. Xiu seems more.. orange, though. Spicy orange blossom. But the rest - the sugary, slightly musky floral quality - all GV on me. Xiu will be my go-to scent in case I happen to finish my 2 GV bottles. A little different than GV but from the same scent family: Blossoms in Springtime.

I am not sure.. Boomslang has cocoa, and that worked for me. But many Thirteens have cocoa, and they didn't smell just as nice. The milk chocolate in the latest Valentine's scent with the macadamia and coconut was great on me, too. So it cannot be milk per se. White chocolate hasn't really worked for me (as far as I can recall it). But I think that, in general, I should stick with cocoa notes and stay away from the chocolate notes. Sometimes cocoa may be iffy on me, but that could be due to other components that do not work with my skin chemistry.

OK, I'm wondering if I'm the only one having this problem.. To me, there are two distinct chocolate notes that the Lab uses (to me, I want to stress this): one that is heavenly, dark and rich - and one that is waxy and smells like a scratch-n-sniff postcard. Good chocolate: Boomslang, Milk Chocolate with Macadamia Nut, Coconut, Button Mushrooms, and Marshmallow Bad chocolate: Bliss, Velvet, any Thirteen I have encountered so far What could the issue be? Is it me, or are there two kinds of chocolate that are used in the Lab's blends? I can never be sure if a chocolate scent will work for me. Most of them are horrible on me, but I cannot ignore them completely in case they are really awesome! (The kind of awesome I hope Candy Butcher will be..)

I cannot talk for Van Van per se (although I have two imps - will check whether I have "two versions" as well), but the same thing happened to me with Kuang Shi: one is a beautiful mango-mandarin-sandalwood (my bottle from 2007), one is tart orange, very cologne-y and rather meh.

DCCXL Opening the bottle, I get a very strong Snake Oil scent: spicy vanilla, rather aged than fresh SO (rather deep and strong than light or sharp). The funny thing is, I received this bottle in a swap from another forumite who had gotten a fruity note with the Snake Oil, something like pear. I therefore expected something like The Vine or The Perilous Parlor, but what I smelled was completely different - yet interesting! So hard t describe what I smell! I do think this is a very masculine blend or unisex at least. I want to say that I smell spices: turmeric or even a dash or cumin. Soft, creamy and savory. This blend is mostly spicy/woodsy and vanilla. Blonde wood comes to my mind as possible component. But there is also something soapy about this scent (maybe that's what I also detect as "creamy"). When I compare this to some pumpkin blends that turned out to be rather savory (The Changeling or Pumpkin I 2008) this fits about into the same or at least a similar category. Maybe there COULD be something fruity in it after all - persimmon perhaps? Also some very mild resins, but that's just guessing! I would recommend this blend to anyone who is looking for something unisex/masculine that is based on a soft & sweet Snake Oil with underlying spicy/savory/woodsy notes. Fun to test this, but I guess I'll try to swap this for another CT blend. ETA: Now I KNOW what this slightly sweet yet fruity/woodsy note is - acacia! Just think of Good from the RPG series with Snake Oil! It has this sweet/dry/powdery/woodsy/spicy appeal to it! Yay, note identified!

I can't believe there are only three reviews for this scents! Alright, here we go (haven't done any reviews in a while). This is a very floral scent alright! White and maybe some yellow flowers, rather sweet than fresh or clean. This is what I would describe as "girly perfume." The more the perfume dries down, the more I get a sugared lemon/orange vibe wafting off my wrist. This is like a commercial perfume or even a facial cream or shampoo scent - but in a good way! Remember those beauty products that don't have a very distinct scent (so no coconut or sandalwood) but that just smell white, girly, pretty and make you feel all comfy and well-cared for? Yes, that is such a scent. And after a while - I agree - there is definitely a strong mix of orchid (vanilla orchid?), lemon zest and maybe even vanilla musk. I believe this would layer really well with Tiki Princess or another coconutty scent to add some more depth/texture/twist. I don't get any pine at all, but there could be some fruit.. just cannot put my finger on it.

Yep, that's coconut incense alright! Very coconutty, husky and earthy. The musk scares me a little, but the coconut and the champaca blend nicely nonetheless. This is not my usual scent, but I think I will keep it to see (smell!) how it ages.

Alas, this is not working - neither for my boyfriend nor for me. It's mainly honey and tobacco that I smell. Kinda like an ashtray, but I think that's because tobacco never seems to work on me (or smell good to my nose). It's sickly sweet and strong. After a while, the myrrh comes out and blends nicely with the other components. I'd say this scent is very masculine, but that could be caused by the very dark and smokey overall appeal.

I also bought this because many of the listed notes remind me of Giant Vulva which is my absolute favorite BPAL scent at the moment! When I first opened the bottle, a creamy note (similar to the one in Love's Philosophy) hit my nose. On my skin, this creaminess mixed with a sharp and almost fruity tartness which I assume was the amber mixed with a very spicy dark honey. The beeswax note is exactly like the one in Giant Vulva or Half Elf v5. The floral notes, which come out after a while, are what I'd describe as mature - not girlish, not old lady-ish.. but mature. And very regal. BiS has a rich honey note that blends well with the amber and the spicy copal. It is, however, not a light scent like GV or HEv5 but something I'd wear to special occasions or in the evening. I like it but it doesn't quite hit the spot such as GV does.

I was just about to edit my post and say it might be TKO. I browsed the "Perfect Lavender" thread and all the mentioning of TKO as 'lavender vanilla' had me thinking.. Yep, I guess that could definitely be it.. nothing masculine about my imp (re: aftershave in Tony). It would be great to hear more suggestions if someone has another idea, but I guess I should track down a bottle of TKO and compare. Thank you! ETA. Weird double-posting within a post.

OK, this is gonna be super hard. So I'm hoping you guys can help me out here! I have a decant with an unreadable label. Not one word or letter to be figured out. The former name must have been written on the paper with pink/purple/magenta ink and was secured with tape. Alas, the color bled out and soaked the whole paper in a pinkish hue. The oil is yellow. It smells very sweet, like fresh laundry. A mixture of lavender and cotton candy/sugar come to me mind. This has a very creamy, slightly floral quality. It's strong and has a long staying power. Most prominent seem lavender and sugar.. it reminds me of Dorian, but instead of lemon, here we have lavender (I think at least). It's very well blended, so it's hard for me to make out individual notes. Some other ideas would be: cotton (blossom), lilac, some other faint citrus perhaps? If - by any weird chance! - the original decanter reads this and remembers using a pink pen for a scent that is similar to my description, I can provide a picture of the label (if that were any helpful). I am really desperate as I LOVE this scent and want more of it!

I hope I'm not too late with my reply, but I have White Rabbit and Kuang Shi with that label, and they're both from 2007. If that helps.

Dana O'Shee - Cannot wear it (too sweet/marzipan-y), but it's a good suggestion. White Rabbit - Have it, but it has gotten less creamy and a bit sour/spicy (the ginger I assume) with age (have it since 2007). Pussy - Always wanted to try this, but I am worried about the brown sugar which normally tends to smell like burned coffee on me. Elegba - Totally on me MUST GET list. I am a coconut lover, so go figure. Antique Lace - Oh, if it were possible.. Dorian - Have it and will see how it smells with age (already love it fresh, so nothing lost there). I almost ordered The Vine, but I was worried about the pear. Perilous Parlor also has pear and vanilla and was really plastic-y sweet on me. But I might try to get a decant. Blossoms in Springtime seems like THE scent for me, so I can hardly wait for it to arrive. Thanks for the suggestions! Although I love vanilla/tonka and even creamy vanilla flower, I really want to try actual cream notes (like cream accord), as I'm trying to find a substitute for Love's Philosophy.

I am looking for a scent suggestion for a cream note. The tricky thing is.. most cream scents that I know of have death notes in the mix, thereby making them unwearable for me My death notes include: rose, violet, aquatics, dragon's blood, patchouli and must sweet fruits (raspberry, strawberry, peach, etc). I was lucky to sniff some Love's Philosophy (which is hard to get, alas), and I think I'd love Glowing Vulva (also hard to get). So, are there any other scents available that could work for me? Something with vanilla/lilac/beeswax/light florals?

I had a hair oil that had similar notes as your perfume, just not as strong. I added an imp of Hunger (Black narcissus, orange blossoms, and vanilla) to the oil, and it smelled amazing and worked well with the Asian feel. I guess that you could like Hunger on its own because it is a soft vanilla floral. 51 is a great choice if you like fruity-floral over a musky-woody base (Luminescent, glowing, and otherworldly: green mandarin, neroli, honeydew, white amber, guava, freesia, white and green musks hovering over desert scrub, smashed wood, and the dry, biting scent of night air over the Groom Lake salt flats). It's an awesome high-class perfumey blend to me. I am sure there are many LEs (Lupercalia or even from the "Halloween Apples") that have fruity-floral notes with an Asian or simply bright spring feel to them.

This indeed smells like a floral commercial perfume! Or, to me, it smells like a perfume blend used in a classy shampoo or hair mask. The nutty pumpkin is detectable but disappears very quickly. The guava and red current add a fruity note to this scent, and one that I like a lot! The floral and sugar/vanilla mix is a really lovely blend! But there is a.. kind of marine/ozone note to the scent that might be the reason why it doesn't work for some people. Maybe that is the tiare? I don't get any strong individual notes, but PP is floral, sweet, juicy and almost.. Caribbean. Like a late summer scent really. I guess I will keep this one and wear it in about a year.

Very masculine and cologney. String lavender, coriander and booze. Interesting and different.. but so not for me!

This is very medicinal and dirty! I guess there are notes of dirt/earth, patchouli and black berries (current or cherry). Yep, the sour cherries in Blood Kiss that do not remind me of Maraschino (marzipan) cherries! So.. this could be the lovechild of Lawn Gnome and Blood Kiss I think. Interesting but not for me.

Gah! Not at all what I expected! This is sharp, tart and bitter.. not sharp, soapy, light and sweet as I had hoped! I don't think this is the usual ginger or jasmine scent. Wow.. this turns into cat pee on my skin I think. No!

This is very nice, light and green. I don't get much (or any) tea, just green flower stems and leaves, bit like in a flower shop.

Yep. This is opium and poppy! But very, very soapy.. I guess those two components are not really for me!

Wow, this really is green tea with lemon! Reminds me of Dorian minus the vanilla and with a stronger tea note! I don't get any neroli or jasmine, but those might appear after it has dried and warmed up on my skin.

I guess this does not really work for me. It is the kind of vanilla that does not agree with my skin, and patchouli.. mostly miss than hit really. And the hemp.. well, this is very hippiesque indeed, but so not for me!

This smells like.. White Chocolate Martinis I guess! Dusty/dry white chocolate (bit papery tough) and some fizzy fuzzy booze! I cannot decide if this is rather pleasant or.. if it's a bit rancid and like bathroom cleaner. Hmmm.. verdict: it DOES smell like those martinis, no doubt, but I am not sure if it's gonna work as a perfume.

Bottle: Smells.. brown. Dark, earthy, sharp, nutty, slightly creamy and sweet. Wet: Smells like sweet toasted wood. Dry: Smells a bit like cologne, rather masculine. It has a light sweetness to it, though, and there is not one note that goes bad after a while. Still - not my kind of smell at all, sadly.