hackess

Alice-Zarita comparison: Alice is really well balanced on me (and one of my all time favorite blends), so it may be that you amp carnation. I also happen to love, love, love BPAL's carnation notes. Consider those caveats, but I don't find Zarita especially heavy on carnation. I find it predominantly a creamy, sugary blend with no single floral note jumping out at me, they're just adding something a little different to the sweetness I am smelling. Now, Pink Moon 07 is about half spicy carnation, half Zarita's cream & sugar - but Zarita to me is about 80-90% creamy sweetness.

 

I think I may amp carnation, but Alice smelled wrong even in the imp, lol. Maybe I just hate the smell.

Slightly OT: People who *do* normally amp carnation - how do you find Zarita?

 

I amp carnation, usually, and Zarita was all white flowers, which on me means soap. I didn't get much of any carnation from the little Doll Girl.

People whom Catherine goes soap on - Two, Five, and Seven do the same thing?

 

Nope, but Two, Five & Seven is a greener rose on me. That "itty-bitty bit of green grass" is more like sitting next to the only rose bush in a huge yard of freshly cut grass.

I don't think you have to be a true foody, no. Most foody scents turn kinda blah on me (vanilla? Powder. Caramel/butter/cream/milk? Rancid. Chocolate? Moth balls. Seriously.), but pumpkin and its spices are gorgeous.

 

Jack is the only pumpkin scent I've tried that's buttery at first, but it fades so quickly into beautiful juicy peach and apple over warm pumpkin.

These all sound good. Let me know if you find the librarian one! I was hoping Miskatonic University would be the ultimate librarian scent but it's a bit too foody.

 

Penny Dreadful's a pretty good library scent, even though it has florals - the wood in it makes me think of libraries. Still not a strict "library" scent, though it's one I love.

 

What about Dee?

 

MiskU is more of a coffeehouse scent, to me.

 

I'm also on the lookout for the perfect deep, churchy incense blend. It needs to be all serious, without a hint of hippie incense. I think it might be Midnight Mass, hope it comes back this Christmas.

 

Cathedral, or the Cracked Bell?

Ultimate soft rose: Have you tried Lucy's Kiss or London? Neither is as in-your-face as Rose Red; they're both tea roses. Moon Rose, too, though the nighttime flowers killed that one for me.

 

 

I want the ultimate honey scent that doesn't turn wonky on me. I want it to smell like mead or supersweet clover honey, not beeswax. Honey Moon was close. Honey SN was closer. Neither was my perfect honey scent.

 

 

Dark chocolate and merlot.

Ginger and honey.

Vanilla bean ice cream.

I'm really going to need a GC equivalent to Bakeneko. Please help.

 

(Even if you know something similar that's non-BPAL - PM me? Desperate here.)

 

Alice with Katharina, perhaps? I haven't tried layering them to reproduce Bakeneko, but Katharina has the orange blossom, and Alice has the lovely spicy tea.

 

Actually, I should try that if I still have an imp of Katharina lying around...I'll need to mimic Bakeneko eventually too!

It's sweet without being sticky and candy-like. I get a lot of aloe. If this scent had a color, it'd be pale green. It's very pretty - reminds me a lot of Tamamo no Mae.

Imp: Very creamy and yet bright.

Wet: Perfect white florals, without threatening to turn to soap - kind of amazing!

Dry: Nondescript florals. Soft and pretty, but nothing I'd wear. It's definitely chaste. Nothing offensive or sharp about this one!

Imp: Sweet florals

Wet: Wow, that's freesia. I don't smell rose at all yet. As far as florals go, it's a very clean, white fragrance. Very smooth and almost creamy. Fresh and sweet.

Dry: Blaaaaaaaah! Lotus. It's a little sour and definitely still not roses. Oh well, I have Rose Red to keep me happy.

 

If you don't like florals, this scent is not for you. It's like the Queen's garden, blended up with a little cream.

Imp: It's nothing crisp or clean or icy. I'm really not sure I want to put it on my skin, to be honest.

 

Wet: Dove soap, amped to the extreme. It's very clean, but almost literally, like I've had my entire olefactory system washed out.

 

Dry: Just white soap. I don't know if it's just a "winter" scent mutual hatred, or if there's something in Beth's winter blends that my skin corrupts, but nothing that's supposed to smell icy has in fact smelled like winter to me - except Black Ice, and Tulzscha comes very close to smelling like ice. ...and here comes the sinus headache.

Imp: Very woodsy, clearly the sweetness of sandalwood.

 

Wet: Still very much sandalwood. Nothing sweet coming out yet.

 

Dry: Oh WOW. This suddenly transformed into frosting. How did Beth make sandalwood frosting? It even smells like the dry peaks of frosting - that sort of fragile powder scent from meringue? - much more so than oversweet globs of wet sugar concoctions. I'm not really getting any rum out of it, though the sandalwood seems to be dominating everything, even the vanilla -- a nice change for my skin chemistry, which likes to amp vanilla to extremes. It's very pretty, even if it wasn't what I was expecting.

(I honestly don't know which version this is. I received it in a swap, and it has a very cute custom label with "Decant by Korshka" noted.)

 

Imp: for the first time, I can smell every single note listed. The grapefruit is the last thing you're left with, a very sharp crisp note. The vanillas are laced pretty heavily with the two florals, neither more prominent than the other.

 

Wet: Hm, the jasmine and grapefruit are coming through much more now. They're very sour and demanding attention. They're not a good combination on me, unfortunately.

 

Dry: For once, my skin didn't amp vanilla. It's turned into all jasmine, and the grapefruit is still hanging around. It's starting to smell very strongly of cleaning solution.

Imp: Pungent musk.

Wet: The sage is nice and deep, and I keep getting wafts of grape. I can picture a forest sprite with a wreath of twined branches and fruits spilling out of pockets. The musk/civet makes me twitch a bit, though. It's very strong and a little too malodorous and animalistic for what I'm otherwise finding to be a very nice forest scent. If not for the civet, it might have been the only forest blend I can wear.

Dry: Mothballs. Wow. Completely overpowering.

Bottle: Books and distinguished gentlemen's cologne.

Wet: Sweet woods. Like tea, but nutty. If a good spice/herb shop (mm, Penzeys) suddenly ran out of their green leafy stock, leaving just the spices, and then mated with a good tea shop that specialized in herbal teas, their sex would smell like this. I wasn't sure I'd like Mama-Ji but I think it'd smell even better with a dash of cinnamon or a touch of milk.

 

Dry: A little like spice candies. Just sweet enough to smooth out the dry spices, and the cardamom gives it a nice swift kick. This might be another one I have to try on the boyfiend.

 

15 minutes later, the spices are dying - literally. It's stale and a little plasticky.

Imp: Almond and vanilla

Wet: Almond extract, dry and bitter. A bit of ginger comes out as it starts to dry, and I know where the Snake Oil is.

Dry: Ugh. Myrrh. It turns to total incense on me. I actually liked it when it was wet.

 

Until the drydown, I enjoyed Asp Viper. It was a gorgeous spicy cookie with bite and then went very dry and smoky.

Imp: Bah, white flowers and soap.
Wet: Where's the spice of carnation? It was the only reason I wanted to try this one! All I get is sour white flowers - cream is really an atrocious note on my skin.
Dry: All iris, all the time. I've got to start avoiding iris.

Imp: Sweet! Apple!

Wet: This is all fruit, thankfully. The blood orange is the bulk of the scent, and the lemon peel really makes it feel bright. The apple is very crisp, and doesn't go fake on me like most apple scents (Delerium was gross)

Dry: Yup, just sweet tasty fruit. It's a fresh fruit salad and perfect for summer.

Imp: The light chocolate of 13 can't stand up to the heavy rich chocolate of The Candy Butcher. Wow. This is what I wanted Bliss to be.

 

Wet: Um, this is no longer what I wanted Bliss to be. I'm certain it's the cream molesting the delicious chocolate note and turning it all into something that smells horrifyingly like moth balls.

 

Dry: Yeah, cocoa moth balls. Stale chocolate. Must pass.

Imp: Sharp berry - seems a bit astringent. Not a hint of spice or anything primal.

Wet: Carnation's spice is dulled by amber and heliotrope. Color me disappointed.

Dry: All musk and that plasticky tone that heliotrope likes to take on me. I expected more from this circus.

15 minutes later: Hey, the carnation's back!

Imp: Creamy light lemon.

Wet: Lemon zest over white floral perfume. Lots of heliotrope and apricot flower, just a touch of coconut making the scent creamy.

Dry: Vanilla and apricot blossom blend really nicely. The fruit tree blossoms tend to keep vanilla from turning into that powdery vanilla most vanilla candles seem to smell like.

Imp: Why does pink Phoenix smell purple to me? In the imp, it smells like tiny purple flowers, lilacs, peonies, violets. *checks description* Sweet pea. Ah.

 

Wet: Iris, I think. Another purple flower. What the hell? Plasticky. There's the sweet pea I remember, turning horrid.

 

Dry: Is my nose all screwed up? Faintly fruity, but mostly plastic flowers. I don't think I can entirely blame the vanilla for it, this time. *eyes sweet pea warily*

Imp: Light chocolate (or maybe it just feels light because of the vanilla bean), orange...and something that feels just a bit spicy or richer. Nutmeg? The tea, maybe?

Wet: The sweetness of ripe juicy star fruit just under the cocoa, and a slight woodsiness from the sandalwood.

Dry: It's foodsy, for sure, as I don't get any of the floral notes until the very end of the scent's life on my skin. Then the geranium comes out in full strength and I can't stop sneezing. 13 is pretty, but not something I'd wear and risk aggravating an apparent allergy.

Imp: Floral girly perfume; a little sophisticated, but like Greed, it really gives a sense of false status or power.

 

Wet: This is a totally vapid scent. This is the most "perfumey" BPAL I've tested. I'm pretty sure I remember at least one of the "popular" girls from high school wearing something much like this. And yet it reminds me of something about to go sour...

 

Dry: ...And then I realized it smells like our current bathroom deodorizer. Appropriate.

 

This is incredibly well designed. It is exactly what I'd expect a selfish, vapid debutante to wear.

Imp: Vinegar and fruit.

 

Wet: Orange juice, occasional wafts of what could be Smarties candies. Effervescent!

 

Dry: It's much prettier than I thought it would be from the description and from my initial sniff of the vial. Overall very much like fizzy candy.

Imp: Hahahaha! This is a seriously sugary blend. Watermelon Airheads candies and strawberry lip gloss. It just feels like a "wet" scent. Juicy!

 

Wet: Still very heavy on the watermelon. It's like I jumped into a big vat of fruit juice, and I'm floating on a lemon slice. Just a tiny bit sour, but it takes some of that hypersweet edge off.

 

Dry: Ooh, strawberry lemonade! I was afraid this might be too candy-like for me, and it yet might be. It's making me crave a roll of Starburst candy.

 

15 minutes later: I'm still sniffing my skin but I think doing so is giving me a cavity. It's a very fun scent, but it's not my type and I'll end up passing it on.