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FLEDGLING RAPTOR MOON Why should my sleepy heart be taught To whistle mocking-bird replies? This is another bird you've caught, Soft-feathered, with a falcon's eyes. The bird Imagination, That flies so far, that dies so soon; Her wings are colored like the sun, Her breast is colored like the moon. Weave her a chain of silver twist, And a little hood of scarlet wool, And let her perch upon your wrist, And tell her she is beautiful. Warm, soft tufts of down and gleaming tawny feathers: clove, toasted sandalwood, aged patchouli, bourbon vanilla, carnation, massoia bark, hinoki wood, and West Indian Bay. Got to sample this at the WCWC. Much, much softer than I would have expected, given the clove and all the woods, even in the bottle. I had been worried the clove, patchouli, and sandalwood would dominate, but they all play very nicely in the blend. I get mostly a spicy vanilla/carnation blend, like a woodsier version of Morocco, with just a touch of clove. The sandalwood is the only other note I might be able to pick out easily. Though it stays pretty close to the skin (again, very soft), it lasts a long time without much morphing at all. It was some 8 hours ago I put a drop on my wrists, and I can still pick up on it enough. This might just be a must for vanilla lovers. I'm not in that group, but I'm now seriously considering a bottle. ETA: I did end up acquiring a bottle of my own, and worried (a lot) after reading most of the reviews here that it would be wildly different from the bottle I sampled. But no! My bottle is very, very carnation on me (yay) and everything else is tough to pick out, but it makes the carnation more spicy and woodsy and less floral. It's still more "soft" than anything, but I adore it. I will recant my earlier statement about vanilla lovers. I think I must have been amping the hell out of the vanilla at the time, or it was the WC bottle, but I'm no longer getting much at all. Overall, I love this and want backups.

So several years ago, my favorite perfume was Demeter's Linden. Then my bottle leaked everywhere and I haven't replaced it. I've been curious to find a similar green blend in BPAL's catalogue, but so far, no luck. My first purchase included a bottle of The Unicorn, which was just far far too floral. And for a short time, I'd acquired a bottle of Spirits of the Dead, where the linden was definitely a bit more apparent, but only for a minute, before the scent became totally wood on me. I don't expect to find anything quite so literally linden (I've done my search for the note, but it just doesn't look like it gets blended with anything overly promising for me) but I would definitely settle for something bright, light, and green. Thusfar Envy has been my go-to green scent, but it's a bit darker than I'm looking for, and doesn't last very long on me. I tend to amp florals way the hell up, so I'm a bit wary of them, but I'm willing to try just about anything. Any thoughts?

Pale moss, white kelp, sea buckthorn berry, ambergris accord, Somalian frankincense, rose geranium, and salt. I mostly get the salt water fragrance, but it's a feminine kind of salt water. Wouldn't be able to pin down anything else in it, except that it's vaguely greeny-floral. Reading that there's some kind of berry in it, I could believe it, but it's nothing I pulled out on my own. Reminds me a LOT of Thalassa. It's close enough on me that I'm not sure I need a bottle of both, but this one is really nice. I'd recommend it to fans of the salt water scents.

Glad to have snagged this. It does go on very green apple, but seems to soften after a little bit. It definitely reminds me of Snow, Glass, Apples in that next stage. Most bpal apple scents fade on me entirely, but this one kind of sticks around. It fades into a very nice, soft, fresh kind of musk, which I love. There isn't much throw, but it's there, and that suits me fine.

Holy cow I think this might be a rose I actually like. I was absolutely prepared to dislike this one, but gave this a test, because I love carnation and bergamot and the imp didn't smell too offensive. The result is very clean, slightly sweet, and more green than I would have expected. I can totally see where people are getting soap, but I don't mind that in a fragrance at all. Something is balancing the rose here really nicely, and I think I may end up going through my imp. Absolutely not what I would have expected.

Based on the reviews, I didn't expect to like this one, since "sweet", "fruity", "candy", and "floral" are all things I tend to avoid. I thought I was safe. I sampled this one at will-call, however, and adored it. It's soft and pleasant and I'll totally second the "skin-scent" description. Very faintly, I get the pear (the same one from Ginger Skulls, which is the only other pear scent I've sampled) but mostly it's kind of a nicely blended creamy-and-vaguely-smoky type thing. The coconut I get is more husk than fruit, the florals are only barely there (which is a little bit of a bummer, because I do actually really love carnation), and the incense is pleasantly mellow. It's really a perfectly unobtrusive oil and I'm so pleased I gave it a try.

I've not tried it, but in this thread it gets compared to a few others, like Zephyr, Regan, Megaera, and Kitsune-Tsuki. It was also compared to a couple LE's in this thread.

I was hoping to get more ginger out of this, but I'm not disappointed that the result turns out to be spicy pear instead. It starts off a bit sweet and artificial, but dries down to a really gorgeous blend. I need to order a bottle immediately.

A nice, dark amber with a lot of throw. I'd agree that the musk mainly just tones down the sweetness. Not a terribly complicated scent, but it ought to be pleasant enough for amber fans.

Straight up, exactly what my dryer sheets smell like. I can't even pick out individual notes, it's just too precise.

I got this as a freebie from an ebay purchase, and pretty quickly ran through the goblin squirt. I did not expect to like it, since my track record with the popular scents has been pretty bad, but man... I love this. It's definitely evocative of [what I remember of] spring, and the fresh, wet earth scent is fantastic. It's really what's lacking in most other "spring" scents. It doesn't make things smell dirty or dusty at all, but adds a relaxing earthy coolness I can't get enough of. My only problem with this scent is that it does go slightly stale after a couple days, and smells just a bit more perfumey than I would like. It's almost, almost enough to talk myself out of a bottle purchase. But then I just spray a little more, and fall in love with the fantastic fresh scent, and start wondering if I can order this by the gallon.

What a weird, weird blend. I had to try it. I definitely get cucumber and woods at first (definitely reminds me of Antikythera Mechanism in all the good ways), but then TONKA! It becomes the TONKA! show for a while, and is very, very, very strong. When that settles down (a few hours into wear) I really enjoy it. The cucumber doesn't seem to totally vanish, and there's a slight coldness from the sage (though if I didn't know there was sage in here, I'd never pick it out) and what I think must be the coconut. I had been expecting something a bit colder, but this might actually be a winter scent (go figure). The TONKA! phase is perfumey as hell and borderline nauseating, but the scent a few hours in might be worth toughing it out. It's certainly unique enough to warrant a lot of consideration.

My first reaction was "what it says on the label." But in retrying it, I am finding it much fresher and lighter than I expected. It doesn't have much throw, and I can definitely see where the "cologne-y" description is coming from. It's got some wonderful papery notes, some wax, but I'm thinking those candles must be ocean scented, because there is a definite freshness to it. Still, I had worried about the incense, and that's not something I'm getting out of this at all. May have to become a bottle purchase.

Not sure if it's the gunpowder or the rusty nails, but I definitely get a metallic vibe from this one. The woods and smoke make a great base for it, though. Once it dries, it's a lot more subtle than I would have imagined. Definitely more like bonfire smoke on the air rather than sticking your face in it, and any hint of barbecue (which is a bit prevalent when this one is wet) seems to fade away. Overall, it's a pretty straightforward, "what it says on the label" kind of scent, with a surprisingly soft drydown. Not positive when I'd wear it, but I'm enjoying it.

I haven't smelled RSVP, but if he liked Dee and lavender, you might want to give Casanova a shot.

Misericordia from the Vampires Don't Sleep Alone line has the same lavender and magnolia as far as I could tell, and smelled really similar to Yvaine in the bottle. The lavender didn't last as long as I would have liked, and the other notes give it kind of a smokiness, but it was a similar enough scent that I decided I didn't need it as long as I had Yvaine. I'd give it a try!

This one is a lot less mellow than I would have imagined. If there was such a thing as spanish moss juice, it would smell just like this. I don't get any lilac, just something green/dark purple and syrupy. It's surprising. For the notes listed, it's just not mellow enough for me. Still, though, interesting!

This is definitely a weird one. I'd tried this at Dark Delicacies, really liked it, and then came to look at the reviews and see stuff like "fruity" and "floral" and "candy"... and I started to wonder what the hell I'd smelled (and get a little concerned about the investment I'd made on a partial bottle). That partial finally showed up today, and well... I like it. It's not one that I think stands up horribly well to scrutiny (which is fitting, I guess), but the throw is lovely. I get mostly light orange blossom and woods, with kind of a juniper/bergamot coolness. I would have no idea what I was smelling if I didn't have the notes in front of me, though, since mostly this is just a great and interesting perfume. I think I'll probably be very careful not to slather this one, but lightly applied I think it could become an excellent (and relatively feminine) every day scent for me, which is not something I'd say often about florals. It really is gorgeous, and I hope more people give it a chance before it goes away.

I think you need to try Aziraphale. It's blonde and light, but academic and sort of on the "one of the boys" side of things. Cordelia might fall into that category as well.

Doing a search, I found Hot Couture mentioned in the "Looking for a BPAL that resembles a favorite perfume?" thread, where Liz was mentioned. (Specifically, a member thought someone was wearing Liz, and it turned out to be Hot Couture instead) and in the reviews for Bewitched, where a member said it was very similar to Hot Couture. (I'm afraid none of those notes are things I'd pick up on my own, so I can't lend my nose to the search, but I can lend my internet-search-fu.)

Tempest is so far my favorite pure aquatic, so kudos on that choice. If you like Thalassa and Lightning, I might recommend looking at Jolly Roger if you're curious to branch out a little. Cthulhu is another ocean aquatic that I enjoy, though it has a little green in it. That's an awesome selection you've got there, though! It should definitely keep you entertained for a while.

An awesomely generous forumite sent me a partial bottle, and wow... I'll just say right away that I can't pick out any definite notes in this one. I can see where people might be getting nail polish or nail polish remover, but that smell mostly comes across as the "clean man" thing to me, then pretty quickly gets processed as something yellow/green. ETA: I don't really have a problem with the smell here that I can identify, but it is super strong and pervasive and doing something not entirely pleasant. I don't dislike the smell, and actually want to like it quite a bit, but it's sending me to headache territory instead. Not sure what's up!

A wonderfully generous forumite sent a tester to me, and this may need to become a bottle purchase. Certainly getting dust, some kind of papery wood (not exactly paper, though) and some gentle, waxy vanilla that just makes me think of candlesticks. Not really getting much I'd identify as leather, but there is a certain warmth to the blend. It's definitely sweeter than I would have imagined. I haven't usually liked the vanilla scents, but here it's perfect, completely tempered by the slightly bitter woods and dust. I love this a whole lot more than I would have thought. Definite future bottle purchase.

Thank you! I'll definitely look into anything GC. Y'ha-nthlei sounds awesome, and Selkie definitely looks worth tracking down (but oh no... rose!). Milk makes me nervous, but the reviews for Sea Foams Milk all sound pretty intriguing, so I think I'll make a point of trying that one. I had an imp of Bayou that I enjoyed, but remember that one being kind of borderline too floral for me. May have to give it another shot, with this use in mind!

Would anyone have any recommendations for a mermaid princess costume? I'm working a version of Ariel, and I'm a bit stumped. I've tried the obvious one, Thalassa, but found it a bit too salty and surly. At present, I think I'm going to go with Sturgeon Moon, since that's the prettiest aquatic I have, but I'm curious if there's something else out there I should be trying! (reference picture, for the color)