ladymeag

This was a mis-ship. An interesting mis-ship - I never would have tried it on my own. In the bottle: Cologne-y Antikythera Mechanism - I'm not smelling the mugwort at all and that's a scent I love and know well. On Me: Wet it initially holds as a sharper, dryer Antikythera Mechanism. I think the opium tar is lending a sweetness to this which drives the comparison in my brain. Dry, this smells like a really dry west-Texas cowboy cologne - I can smell the sand now. Can definitely smell the mugwort at this point, it adds a "dry weeds" type scent. This is nice but I find the opium tar doesn't play well with my skin and makes it far, far too sweet. My spouse said it smelled like: maple flavoring and Antikythera Mechanism (and I had not mentioned my own immediate jump to this comparison.) I gave a suspicious look and it was amended to: Antikythera Mechanism in an IHOP.

I was hoping for something kind of like Rogue without the leather - as much as I love leather, it's not always needed. However... In the bottle: You know when you get a magazine full of perfume samples? Yeah, like that - but a men's magazine full of cologne samples. On Me: Yep. Like a magazine full of cologne samples. It has a woodsy back and kind of reminds me of Georgio Armani Code, strangely enough. I couldn't handle the smell for a number of reasons and had to wash it off before dry-down completed. (When I did dishes later, I noticed that my hands smelled like Kirkland Signature Laundry Detergent - I think it was a mix of my citrus Dr. Bronners and the leftover perfume - weird!) I think I'll stick with Rogue.

I ordered a bottle unsniffed because it seemed no one was doing decants for this one! In the bottle: Red ginger - I can see why it's called that. A little of the cayenne comes up to say hello, as well. On Me: Wet, it's ginger and pepper first, a little sweet somehow. Shortly after that, something (I'm guessing in the red or bloody range, since those usually don't work for me) comes forward and starts to add in a pink urinal cake smell - a little sweet, a little well, pink. Definitely heavy on ginger - if it was a little less sweet and missing the pink smell, I'd be all over this - as it stood, I couldn't take more than about an hour of wear and I had to remove it.

Initially, I tried this at a BPAL in-store retailer and it did not smell good - creamy, even. I think the bottle must have been mis-labeled because I got a lab-fresh imp more than a year later to test it again (I just can't give up on the leather!) and this is amazing. In the bottle: Woodsy leather. I smell cedar, pine, and leather - leather that's a little soft but similar to the leather in Red Rider or Captain Cully. On Me: Wet, the first sniff is woody and nutty, then incense starts coming up. The woods are what I'd call "soft" but they aren't powdery at all. Every time my hand waves past me as I'm doing something, I smell something that simply smells manly. Mid-dry-down, the woods go sharp and then die back. The throw, though, even during this phase is almost all incense and tonka and leather but when you get closer, it's sharp-woodsy. At full dry-down it's smoky, warm, vanilla, woodsy, incensey, and fantastic. I'm not getting leather here but my skin has a habit of swallowing the best leather scents. There's something similar here to October 2007 and I can't place it. On my spouse: Wet, almost all sharp woods, which die back nearly immediately and leather comes forward to dominate the scent. Dries down to sweet, incensey, manly leather. Smells a little on my spouse like Iago does on me.

To my nose this one is very sweet - obviously YMMV - it's nearly all black vanilla and tobacco on me, with only a light backing of teakwood. The oak is completely lost. I'm glad someone had aquatic recommendations - they nearly all smell terrible and sharp to me (and then they trigger a migraine. )

I love it when my brain keeps tapping me on the shoulder, as if to say, "Hey, we know something more about that. Keep looking." Some suggestions, based on the combined effect on my brain of the two posts: Diabolus - DRACUL - Black musk, tobacco, fir, balsam of peru, cumin, bitter clove, crushed mint, and orange blossom llyria - IAGO - sinuous black musk, wet leather and vetiver. Marchen - THE BLACK RIDER - Black leather, oppoponax, tobacco, and black amber. RPG - Classes: ROGUE - Soft, well-worn black leather, hemp, and rosin. (this has a sweet-salty effect on me and it's a little like an aquatic. Well, as close as I get anyway.) Sin and Salvation - THE GREAT SWORD OF WAR - Mandarin, tonka, saffron, black tea, cocoa, tobacco leaf, sanguine red musk and five classical herbs of conflict. The Last Unicorn - CAPTAIN CULLY - A cocky light musk with leather, tonka, a dusting of dry woods, and a splash of porter (probably the sweetest of the batch here.) If you don't mind boozy: Neil Gaiman, American Gods - MAD SWEENEY - Barrel-aged whiskey and oak. Hopefully some of those are helpful at all.

I have no idea - I'm not a big fan of the sweet vanillas and love the vanilla in Sonnet d'Automne as well (and the "black vanilla" in Antikythera Mechanism) - if you find it, share the love? I have similar issues with Snake Oil and O .

*poof* - If you're looking for this, please email me.

I'm no help with the aquatic, they're rubbish on me. Can you give us more on the woody scent - what kind of woody? dry? wet? cologne-ish? sweet?

I'm terrible with florals but the only thing I could remember sniffing/trying that had a scent that I would imagine this smells like is Aizen-Myoo, though it has a citrus component that's rather pronounced. Perhaps you could find something heavy on the patchouli, oakmoss, and vanilla to layer together with it?

I was really hoping for less foody pumpkin and more "fresh" pumpkin smell with some spices and some sharper, less sweet vanillas. That's, uh, pretty clearly not what happened here. In the bottle: Gooey caramel pecan pastry. I have no idea where the pecan is coming from or where the pumpkin went but there you have it. On Me: Caramel spice sweet vanilla. Smells like a Yankee Candle caramel - overly sweet. In all of the other Pumpkin Patch scents I could clearly smell the pumpkin but in this one, the vanilla and sweetness really took over and all I got was caramel-sweet vanilla.

As I mentioned in my other Pumpkin Patch reviews, I think these were all too sweet for me. They definitely all carry a pumpkin pie scent as the base, rather than simply spiced pumpkin. In the bottle: Caramel pumpkin coffee. I definitely agree with the Pumpkin Latte comparisons. On Me: Wet, pumpkin spice coffee with a little bit of teakwood peaking in. Picks up cypress as it dries. However, this dries down to pumpkin pie in a sweaty barn on me. Most unpleasant, unfortunately. I think the "dirtiness" of the patchouli is making this smell like a dirty barn - and I've cleaned a few too many of those.

I don't know what I expect out of the pumpkin patch - it seems that it's all sweeter than I was hoping. I think I was hoping for more fresh pumpkin scent and less pumpkin-pie scent. In the bottle: Leather pumpkin caramel pie. On Me: Wet: The sweet pumpkin caramel scent stays but the hay note comes forward a little more. The hay note makes pumpkin smell a little nutty, which is awesome. Leather is missing on me when this is wet but picks back up as it dries. Very, very sweet. Like someone rubbed a pumpkin pie on a saddle in a fall barn.

I wanted to love this so much - some of my favorite blends contain tonka and I was hoping that the single note would be everything I love about all of those scents. In the bottle: To me, this smelled like rum-raisin ice cream. Super sweet, very rummy. But rummy's good, so I'll carry on. My spouse was not so sure - he said it smelled like a stale almond pastry. On Me: As soon as I put it on, I kept having a scent memory dredged up but it took me a while to place it - do you remember The Body Shop's single-note oils that you could mix with carrier lotions and sprays? This one smells a lot like the vanilla one to me, which wasn't a good thing. There was a lot of plastic scent here as well. The rum is nice and sharp as it dries, which is definitely nice but I really wish it were less sweet. No clove or almond to be found.

Okay, I think it's highly unlikely that anyone's looking for a BPAL-a-like of an old-fashioned men's scent that was common in barbershops in the 40s, 50s, and 60s but here it is anyway: The Great Sword of War smells exactly like Clubman by Pinaud. If you want to (or want your dude to) smell like Don Draper would have smelled walking out of the barbershop with a fresh shave? This is it.

I'm kind of surprised at all of the reviews here because I seem to be smelling something completely different. The end effect for me is the very old-school, classic men's scent Clubman by Pinaud. Think barbershops and men in sharp suits. In the bottle: Musk and tonka heavy. Wet: my first thought was: Pinaud hair tonic! Sweet mandarin tobacco; fresh cut pine boughs and pipe smoke. The tonka kind of comes forward as it dries. Dry: This definitely smells like classic men's aftershave/hair tonic like my father used to use - Clubman by Pinaud. I can pick out the tea, mandarin, tonka, and musk with an herbal background. Very masculine!

Here's how I decide: Get a limited, you can always trade it for a GC bottle you know you'll love here on the forum if it doesn't work out. Or imps of things you want to try. I never try GC in bottle form, always imps because it's easier on the budget and lets me buy bottles of things that won't be around long or I know I love. So, by that run in your situation, I'd buy Witch Dance, with the intention of trading it for a GC bottle I know I love if it didn't work out and probably squeezing pennies here and there to buy an imp of Rogue to try to come along for the ride.

Some other suggestions, then, based on what it smells like for you: PERVERSION - Smoky rum, black tobacco, steamy leather, crystalline chardonnay, base of tonka. (Be warned, this loses the leather for a lot of folks. On me, it's soft leather.) THE RED RIDER - Red leather, red moss, and balsam. On me this is mostly a musk-and-leather scent (don't ask me how, I dunno) but on my spouse it's all sweet, warm, soft leather. ROGUE - Soft, well-worn black leather, hemp, and rosin. As this ages, it's picking up a dry woodsy incense smell. This one smells a little sweet on me. I like to layer Rogue with Antikythera Mechanism (Teakwood, oak, black vanilla, and tobacco) - it's amazing together and Antikythera Mechanism is a little sweet on its own.

How sweet is it? The notes on their website for the Winchester oil are: worn brown leather, sweet tobacco leaf, incense, amber, labdanum and smoldering woods. To match that, I'd try Captain Cully (light musk with leather, tonka, a dusting of dry woods, and a splash of porter) Hoggle (Fermented pumpkin, brown leather, dust, tobacco leaf, and dark woods.) Iago (black musk, wet leather and vetiver.) Hellfire (pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke) Of those, I'd say Captain Cully is the sweetest. (My recommendations are almost always missing scents that contain florals because florals simply don't work for me. Hopefully someone else can come in and fill in the blanks.)

Snake Oil doesn't work for me, either - it's way too sweet. I tend to wear masculine scents, so my recommendations tend to fall in that area. My skin chemistry is a little weird, so I think I get incense where other folks don't but anyhow, some general catalog recommendations: Dracul - Black musk, tobacco, fir, balsam of peru, cumin, bitter clove, crushed mint, and orange blossom - this was, for me, what I wanted Cathedral to be. I don't get mint or orange. If you're okay with leather scents (they're vegan if they don't contain honey/beeswax,) Iago - sinuous black musk, wet leather and vetiver - or Rogue (from RPG) - black leather, hemp, and rosin. Iago for me is more leathery, Rogue is more incensey. If you're okay with a little boozy, Hellfire - pipe tobacco, hot leather, ambergris, dark musk and the lingering incense smoke from their Black Mass. If you're okay with spicy, Sin - amber, sandalwood, black patchouli and cinnamon - and it's spicier cousin, Satyr. Both of these are remarkably sexy. If you want to hunt down old LEs: The Seekim - this one has some nice patchouli and hay notes with incense ash. October (2007 or 2010) - this one is leaves and smoke, mostly.

BPAL uses several different scents for leather and "worn" leather tends to smell a little less new-car-smell-ish. More like "expensive new purse." IIRC (because I don't have my notes handy) from protos, Jareth had more of that "new leather" smell and Hoggle had more worn leather smell. Hope that's helpful!

It's a friendly dance-fight, zmulls! Dracul is great - to me it smells like I was hoping Midnight Mass would smell, like an old Catholic Church with oak pews and the lingering aroma of incense from a High Mass (I grew up Latin-rite. ) I don't know that I'd particularly class it as "elegant," though. I think a lot of the elegant scents, especially of a darker tone, are going to edge more toward the androgynous or feminine. There is something particularly captivating, though, about a rugged scent on someone elegantly dressed.

Satyr - It's spicy and sexy and amazing - I was originally going to give it a pass because it smelled a bit like Sin to me but there's more to it than that. My collection grows increasingly masculine and this is more than fine with me.

Hi there! To get here, you likely clicked a link my wishlist or swap thread, thanks for being so thoughtful as to look around for information about things like this! While I greatly appreciate freebies and extras in swap and sales packages, I needed to make a note regarding allergies and such. We have a few food-related allergies in the house that are, honestly, difficult to avoid. The big one is soy - which rules out a lot of strange stuff. I have a (seizure-related) sensitivity to artificial sweeteners and a sulfa-related allergy to sodium saccharine. Household allergies to: beets, tomatoes, eggplant, strawberries, bananas. I do enjoy tea, coffee, spices and the like provided they are soy and artificial sweetener free (you'd be surprised at what isn't!) Here are some odd ones that I never knew I'd need to call out Latex allergy - so no cute Band-Aids or other skin-touching-sticky things, please Polyester allergy Many candles are soy-wax based these days, if you aren't sure please hang onto it for your next package There is also a household sensitivity (asthma-related) to most synthetic fragrance. I usually just avoid non-BPAL scents because so many of them also use synthetic carriers or soy-based products, which we can't have in the house. Other than BPAL, our house is mostly unscented - we don't use scented bath, beauty, laundry or household products. No incense, please, asthmatic child in the home (and we run HePA filters with UV-C sanitizing lights all the time, so the incense would be gone pretty quickly if we did try.) I have a post up in the likes/dislikes thread that is linked in my wishlist for BPAL-related death-notes and other assorted scent-based information. This is linked in my wishlist. Of course, if you include things that I can't have, I'll just pass them on to someone at the office (or in the case of scents and such, offer them up for swapping, frimp them to my next swapper) but I thought I'd try and make sure that everything you pay to ship is loved where it arrives. Thanks so much for being so generous, everyone!

There's been a few more since then - I would add Fetish.Goth to the sharp/fresh category, and Captain Cully should be in there too - maybe in soft/suede or perhaps old/worn. But these are just my impressions - when you read reviews for all these blends, you'll see that the leather notes give very different results from person to person. I would recommend Western Diamondback or Dee if you haven't tried those already, or try layering your favourite leathery BPAL with a little Snake Oil Snake Oil just disappears on me. It's a sad, sad state of affairs with my skin chemistry. I'll give Dee a try, for sure. I avoid trying discontinued and not-currently-available LEs because I don't want to find my holy grail in something that I can't get. I've been buying BPAL since very late 2003 or very early 2004 (I can't remember which) and I've learned to stay clear of needing something I can't get. Thanks for the notes on, er, notes of leather. Captain Cully to me smells like soft leather - the kind you find in high quality belts and purses. DeSade wasn't so much plasticky on me as it was just... not leather. Musky and dusty and, yeah, not leather. Mine (waiting to be handed off in a swap later this week ) changed some as it aged (six years) and did lose some of the sharper note. I know that if I had hunted down DeSade instead of ordered it from the Lab as a GC, I would have been really disappointed.