BetteNoire

Don't sleep on Persephone, either. It's simple, just pomegranate and rose, but it's fresh and fruity and lovely.

Pepper from Good Omens is GC, though unimpable, and has pink pepper and rose. It's lovely, I highly recommend it.

Brisingamen is back in stock! If you haven't tried it, you are missing out. :-)

My Little Grotesque was absolutely stunning, which actually prompted my resurrecting this thread. I missed it due to money, but can stop thinking about it. Oh well, a couple current Lupers look promising, and I have Bastet and Mama-ji.

ARISE, CHICKEN.

I need more cardamom in my life. What are your favorites? If they are GC, so much the better.

I'm not good at going first, oh no.

I can smell all the individual components if I think about it, but this Goblin really just smells like Christmas when you were a kid - magic and sparkles and sugar and snow. It smells like walking through a forest of mixed evergreen and deciduous trees, snow falling, while eating an amazing sugar cookie. I don't really get any cinnamon at all, but I'm not missing it either.

So glad I got a whole bottle, and I've been spraying every room in my house today, feeling like Carol Kane in Scrooged. :-)

Every once and again I put on Snake Oil and wish it were heavier on the spices. Saw Scaled Viper is exactly what I've been craving on those days. It's the truest to Snake Oil of the Snake Pit blends, it seems less like SO plus other things and more like a tweaking of the original.

The cinnamon is very realistic, no red hots or Yankee Candle here, and surprisingly sophisticated. The ginger almost has that "clean", fresh edge that ginger sometimes takes on, which actually keeps the Viper from going too far into foodie territory, thank all the gods.

Overall, so very pleased. And it doesn't give me hives so far. Fingers crossed!

Mouse's Long and Sad Tale. It's very quiet and unobtrusive, but lovely.

Thanks for the help guys, I sent the email directly from my email client and had a response and fix within an hour.

Chinkee, I'm sorry to hear you're having issues also. Which email client do you use?

Does anyone know if there's a good alternate way to message Customer Service at the Lab? I've sent 2 emails through the website form and waited a week with no response about the fact that a gift certificate I got for Christmas isn't working. Normally CS is prompt and fabulous, so I'm wondering what else to do.

I've tried Tattie Bogle and Agnes Nutter, and it's definitely the cordite smell from a firework or going to a gun range. Definitely give it a try, I think you'll be pleased.

ARISE, DEAD THREAD!!!

I've recently fallen in love with the Beth's gunpowder note, it meshes so well with my skin.

So, gimme some good gunpowder recs, please?

My Baby and a Baby Goat is creamy and buttery. It's currently available, and very pretty.

Definitely try those. I'd add Jiggery Pokery from the Scalia line, and Pepper from Good Omens. Both have a bright, citrus-floral feel that make them sisters to Happy.

Arcana might be up your alley. Smells like a new age shop, but not incensey. It's more clean and herbal, in the same sort of family as Aveda's lighter scents.

 

I had a hard time when I first got into BPAL because I had a tough time separating out which notes I love, which ones I like the idea of but don't actually work on me, and which I like in the air but not on my body.

Keeping an excel spreadsheet and tracking my best notes by the blends I tried has really improved my ability to blind buy bottles successfully, and to pass over others without guilt.

 

Yep. And I've also done a lot of falling in love with the concept behind the scent but not so much the scent, or loving a scent I wouldn't have tried on my own because the concept doesn't really do much for me. (Frimps are great for the latter!)

Good lord yes to the concept issue. Case in point: I have a toddler who's in love with goats, seriously. Every petting zoo, hugs every goat. But milk and honey scents don't smell good on me, after long trial and error wanting them to.

So I didn't buy My Baby and a Baby Goat.

Elf is the exact opposite. I've never had a thing for elves or played them in RPG's, but the misty pine and violets is SO GOOD.

I had a hard time when I first got into BPAL because I had a tough time separating out which notes I love, which ones I like the idea of but don't actually work on me, and which I like in the air but not on my body.

Keeping an excel spreadsheet and tracking my best notes by the blends I tried has really improved my ability to blind buy bottles successfully, and to pass over others without guilt.

Ever open a bottle from BPAL and find yourself unable to speak in anything but curse words and moans? Yeah, me too. That's Mama-ji.

I was so hesitant to buy this because of the polarized reviews, until I got to test some at a Meet and Sniff. The very next order, my own bottle came to me, and I've been wearing it at least 3 times a week. I'm going to try to really do this the proper justice.

Mama-ji is definitely related to Morocco and Scheherezade, as others have said. The best way to get a feel for it is to take a bottle of Morocco and an imp of Scheherezade into your kitchen. Open a jar of cardamom, a jar of nutmeg, and both BPALs, then (mentally or really) add a few carnations and some unidentifiable, elusive, velvety flower smell. If that's rose, I need to know exactly what kind immediately, because it's a freaking unicorn rose, not soapy or sharp or sour, just pure velvet.

The result is warm and spicy and exotic and refined. It's gorgeous, and kind of does make me feel like a goddess.

Probably because she is a mother but also a well-rounded and awesome human, Beth has a real talent for "mother-goddess" scents. Somewhere in modern society's eye, mothers became lame and sexless and unkempt, chasing after children, harried and exhausted. Mama-ji, like Brisingamen (my other favorite) is not a MOM Perfume. It's a mother goddess, the kind who likes sex because of course how else did she have kids? She's a lover, and in her prime of life. It's equally appropriate for hugging a child, going to work, a nice evening out, a sexy evening in, whatever. It smells like a grown-ass woman, eternally comfortable and powerful in her own skin.

Hell yes.

Oh my dear Pepper. I love Pepper, since the character in Good Omens is so much like how I was at that age, so I had high expectations for this scent.

Pepper is stunningly gorgeous. The tuberose and English rose and gardenia could be way too damn much, but they stay very well behaved. I think the blood orange and pine really ground the flowers and keep them fresh and real smelling rather than perfumey.

The ginger and pink pepper make it sassy and spicy and keep the other notes from going too sweet for my taste.

Overall, this is one of my top ten favorites. It's so fresh and beautiful, and smells perfectly like a springtime garden. Please, everybody go buy this so it's never discontinued.

Seconding Pepper, it's a floriental for sure, but the pine undercurrent keeps it different and youthful.

Marquise de Mertuil is also in this category. The peach is a neat twist, and don't be scared of the vetiver. This vetiver just smells warm and dark, not acrid or scary.

I'm going to add Kitsune-Tsuki, Elf, and Pepper (from Good Omens).

Brisingamen brings me back to earth. The amber is very skinlike, but something in it is bright and sunshiney and warm.

My co-worker who is a nerd and who I nerd out about BPAL to, even though he could not care in the slightest, just confessed to me that he likes Donald Trump's cologne. I immediately found the notes:

 

The fresh mix of basil, citrus, cucumber, green notes and vetiver give this scent an airy coolness that is never overpowering. The smooth aroma of wood adds masculinity, and a touch of mint gives this cologne a crisp and energetic feel.

 

And promised him I'd find a BPAL corollary. Ten seconds of searching has not come up with anything yet. I'm obviously going to keep trying, but if this looks familiar to anyone, let me know! I'm not much for the fresh or minty scents, so even if I started to read a note list like this, my eyes would glaze over before I got to the end.

Sunqist, maybe try Lear? Its' white cedarwood, blue sage, and bay leaf. It's an herbal/woody scent with that airiness that Trump's copy mentions. It's light but lasting and very masculine in a refined way. Honestly, it's all I would ever wear if I was a guy.

I wish this was GC. I feel like a freaking wood nymph wearing this, it's epic. The aspen is a beautiful piney note without seeming medicinal, the honey and berries never get too sweet, and the violet note is stunning.

I will cherish this bottle to the last drop.

I am so surprised that no one had mentioned Medea in this thread. It's so lovely. Kind of has an expensive glass of red wine that you sip sitting outside by the sea at night.

I'm not good at describing it, but it's mysterious and sexy and beautiful.