Sakura Tsukikage

The Lilac Wood is one of my favorite BPAL scents, and I hope it comes back someday! I actually got a lot of lilac from the GC scents Veil (White sandalwood, lilac, gardenia, violet, orris, lavender and ylang ylang) and Nocturne (Deepest violet touched with lilac and tuberose), but again, judging from the reviews that's not true for everyone. Cave of Treasures I haven't tested on skin yet, since I've had a cold since practically the day after I got it and can't smell a thing, but it smelled really lilacy to me on first sniff! I also get a lot of lilac from Fairy Tales and Lies, so maybe it comes out on me. Penis Admiration (Lilac, ho wood, smoky vanilla, galbanum, and tonka) isn't my strongest lilac-dominant scent, but it is really lovely all the same, so I thought I'd mention it here. I've always wondered how similar it might be to Ashlultum, but I haven't tried the latter. They don't have similar notes, necessarily, but Penis Admiration comes out to a smoky, woody vanilla lilac on me, which does seem similar to descriptions of Ashlultum. Ville-Marie from Pretty Indulgent doesn't come out super strongly lilac to me, ironically enough, considering the notes (Madonna lily, crabapple blossom, Begonia Juliana, dendrobium and phalaenopsis orchids, and five varieties of lilac), but it does have a lot of the soft, velvety sweetness I associate with BPAL's lilac note (I got that "feeling" of lilac from Ghost Revelry and The Unicorn Rushing etc., too, quite a bit). I get more lilac from the above perfumes, though.

I actually had this same issue. In the checkout screen, at the very top, there's a button that says "apply account balance" and should have the gift certificate amount. You have to click that button to get the gift card applied to your order, and after you do, it should show up on the screen as a credit to your order down near the checkout button. Hope that makes sense!

Paladin!!! A thousand times. It's sweet, light, complex, and gorgeous. I can't wear masculine leaning blends, and I've always shied away from leather and metal, but Paladin is one of my must haves, I've gotten lots of complements on it. Paladin- Immaculate white musk, sweet frankincense, bourbon vanilla, white leather, and shining armor. Definitely agree with the recommendation of Paladin. That's pretty much how it reads on me, too, and I'm also not into "masculine" leaning blends too often. I really love the vanilla in Paladin and how it plays with the other notes. I think the armor note is a bit more dominant than the leather, but it reads as a leather blend to me as well, and it's a favorite of mine.

Speaking of Pretty Indulgent, I find Peacocks, the Salon scent, to be a lovely dewy, wet floral, though it might be more later spring/summer. It works really well on me! Notes are: Asian pear, white musk, bamboo pulp, violet, ambergris, sugar cane, night-blooming jasmine, plum, freesia, and moss. It seems like a few other Salon scents might be nice florals that could work for this purpose, too, but I can't speak to those, not having tried them.

I wasn't really on top of writing reviews last year, and I don't think I wrote any for the Lupercalia scents I ended up getting. However, maybe I can rectify that just a bit now! First of all, I definitely agree with the reviews above me--this is a sweet, candied violet scent that gives a sense of sugared woods underlying it and somehow manages to feel sophisticated as well as sugared and candied. I agree with the not too sweet candied violet scent description, and I also get the comparison to a candy heart. There's a definite sense of wood to this, even though the sugared violets are the dominant note. The sandalwood is recognizably sandalwood to me, if very soft, but it doesn't particularly strike me as white sandalwood, even though I can recognize the white sandalwood note BPAL uses elsewhere (and which I'm a big fan of) if I concentrate on picking it out. At first, as this goes on, I don't get violets, more of a caramelized, candied sandalwood with a hint of the orris root if I think about it--I think the orris is interplaying with the sandalwood at this point to create that sense with the sugar. This changes, though, as it dries down. The violets come out, and it becomes recognizably a sweet violet scent. I also definitely get a sugary sweet note that seems to be almost cooked/crystallized, though not to the stage of caramelizing, like the coating of sugar over the candied violets. I also still get that underlying sandalwood, and to me that also feels sweetened and sugared, as if that sugar crust is coating the sandalwood as well. This is not a light or airy or elusive violet scent to me, as many violet scents can be, and it isn't a green one--it is grounded, warm, and sweet, somehow rather substantial, with the sandalwood heart and base and the rest of the scents layering the violet. As it wears, I feel like the powdery, almost creamy, orris develops more presence. It's sweet but not too sweet, soft, and very very nice. I wore this scent today because I wanted a strong violet scent (I've been on a kick for violet scents lately), and it did not disappoint me in the least. It's one of my favorite violet scents from BPAL, actually. It reminds me a bit of the Sweet Violets scent I have from Haus of Gloi in some ways, but that has a weird note on me to start as the sugar resolves into something recognizable, and this doesn't, and Fleurette's Purple Snails has far more complexity and depth and becomes sweeter and creamier as it wears.

I love cherry blossom scents! (As might be guessed by my handle here, I suppose.) I have, and love most of the ones mentioned about, especially Voyeurs Among the Cherry Blossoms, Hanami, Jingu, The Fox-Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child, and Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree, as well as Aizen-Myoo. More recent scents include Reflected Vulva (Sweet pea, cherry blossoms, and sugared cream), one of my very favorites, but unfortunately it's highly sought after and hard to find these days. It's deliciously sweet and almost frothy. Another Lupercalia scent from that year, There is a Garden in Her Face, is a soft floral that also includes cherry blossom, but to me it's clean, gentle, and the other florals are more dominant (Cherry blossoms, pink roses, and graceful white lilies under a sheen of pale honey). Poisson d'Avril 2012 is another soft, sugared, sweet floral scent that includes cherry blossom, but again, it doesn't strike me as dominant there (though it is a lovely scent, both years, though I think only 2012 includes cherry blossom). Another one of my favorites is Aphrogenês (Orris root, iris, white honey, white sandalwood, coconut, and cherry blossom), which is a soft, gently sexy scent that actually does strike me as showcasing the cherry blossom a bit. There's also The Phoenix in Spring (Dandelion florets, cherry blossom, spring wildflowers, and myrrh), which is a fresher, greener, and deeper cherry blossom scent. Cheshire Moon (2008 and 2013) is a very fresh, fruity scent with cherry blossom, but it doesn't stand out to my nose. And then there was The Elephant's Leash (Peach blossoms and cherry blossoms with red musk, Oaxacan amber, copal, lilac, and white sandalwood) which is a bit deeper and more resiny. Bakeneko (which is also a bit rare, I believe), also has cherry blossom, but it strikes me as more of a spice scent (Warm amber musk, Satsuma tangerine, black tea leaf, cardamom, cherry blossom, and cinnamon). I haven't tried this one, but Before the Snowy Window (Snow-dusted cherry blossom, passion flower, peach musk, and tuberose) also has cherry blossom. Pink Mood also has it (Vanilla, star anise, cherry blossom, peony, violet leaf, and neroli) alongside anise, a bit like the GC Kyoto. Those are all LEs, but there's also the new unimpable GC in the Kabuki line, Little Sister is Watching You, which is a very pure cherry blossom scent with a hint of electricity/aldehydic notes. I love that one!

Tonka and benzoin can be very like vanilla, so you might want to try seeking those out, too?

I hope the Vicomte works out for you!

The mint/ambergris/floral combination might have something in common with Vicomte de Valmont? The notes are: ambergris, white musk, white sandalwood, Spanish Moss, orange blossom, three mints, jasmine, rose geranium and a spike of rosemary. There's also the discontinued Utrennyaya (Osmanthus, Damascus rose, violet, delphinium, white mint, palmarosa, and white sandalwood) for a mint/floral combo, but that's probably ever harder to find, unfortunately.

I hope you can find some!

I'm not sure how sweet you want, because it doesn't sound sweet at all, but there's also Pottaskefill out of the current Yules, with notes of: Salt licorice, birch tar, black pepper, and leather. If you're interested in atmosphere sprays, too, the recent Halloween LE Licorice Whip was black licorice and leather, I believe. In terms of scents in the GC, they're a lot less heavy on the anise/licorice impression than the ones listed above, but the anise is still noticeable in: Kyoto - A gentle, soothing blend of cherry blossom, white sandalwood, and star anise. The Robotic Scarab - Polished metallic notes, glossy leather, frankincense, star anise, and thin lubricating oils. I've tried both of them and like them, but they're definitely more floral and metallic respectively than licorice. But mentioning them anyway in the spirit of completion, and because they're GC!

I haven't tried it myself, but the older LE Marotte might be what you're looking for! Notes are: Golden pear, amber, fig leaf, oakmoss, bronze musk, mahogany, patchouli, and a smattering of glittering pyrite.

This scent is wonderful, simple, and gorgeous. I love it. It's so, so marshmallowy, you can almost taste whatever makes marshmallows fluffy, sticky, and gooey on the inside when you smell it. It's fluffy and sugary and soft. As it wears, it gets more and more sweet on me, and gives me the impression of the melty inside of a marshmallow, with sugar. It's like a sugary marshmallow SN. It's not really complex, and it is vanillaed, for sure, but in the sweetest way possible, definitely more marshmallow than anything else. It's foody, but not intensely so, it's just very . . . marshmallow. It's sweet and simple, and I absolutely love it. I, too, am going to want more bottles. This actually did last a while on me--pretty much all day--but I don't tend to have trouble with scents lasting on my skin, either.

This is such a lovely scent! I wasn't sure how this one would turn out, since I'm a bit dubious when it comes to anise/licorice notes in scent, but I absolutely love it. It smells very sweet to me in the bottle, and on skin I get an immediate hit of sweet orange wafting around me, sugary and almost creamsicley, but not necessarily anisey. Closer to my skin, I do get the lavender and it deepens the scent just a bit, melding with the anise to give it an herbal depth of a sort--herbal isn't quite the right word, because it's so sweet and candyish, but it's the only word that comes to mind, but if you're afraid of herbal scents, I wouldn't say you need to be worried about it, it's just deeper and not quite as candyish close to the skin. As it wears, the sweet orange dominates (and there's definitely a tangerine quality to it), but more anise moves into the waft--but I still love it! I agree with the sense of sugared vanilla candy with sweet, gentle anise and a hint of lavender described by other reviewers. It had great sillage on me, and it lasted much longer than I expected! I put it on around noon and I could still smell hints of it when I was heading to bed, though it was very light after about five hours. Still, I didn't expect it to last that long. This is such a sweet and lovely scent! It's unusual for a holiday scent, but it also seems to really capture the feeling of Christmas and the holidays for me. Still, I think you could certainly wear it year-round!

I guess it can be a bit hard to find, but I have seen it come up on the sales pages often enough!

I've actually recently been looking for scents with the exact same element/elements! Tamamo-no-Mae is the most pure/straightforward rice flower scent I've worn from BPAL, I think--it can come across a bit soft peachy on my skin, and there's a very soft and gentle element of incense/sandalwood, but to me most of the other notes seem to play into and enhance the impression of rice flower (with a hint of rice candy, like the ones you can get in most Chinatowns). I'd be really curious to hear what other recs people come up with.

Wow, what awesome photos. Love them!

In the bottle to me this is very much a milk chocolatey type scent, but if I really sniff I can tell that it's a deeper, darker, drier cocoa combining with the white chocolate to produce that impression, and a fruity overtone. On the skin, I get more of the fruit, a very golden peach and a bit of starfruit to add extra tang. I agree with the reviewer above me who mentions apricot, because something about the combination of the peach and the other notes gives me that impression of apricot. I can tell the honey is melding with the fruits and chocolate to make everything sweeter, and I definitely get a nutty undertone that must be the massoia, as when I really sniff deeply it does remind me of coconut. Mostly this is sweet, very sweet, very fruity (and yes, almost boozy in a way) peaches and starfruit over a creamy chocolate base. Overall, this isn't really my thing, but I can definitely see why someone would like it. It lasts for several hours on my skin before becoming a rather close to the skin scent, but I can still get whiffs of it from my wrists as I type.

I really like the idea of layering Kyoto and Kabuki, and somehow that never occurred to me. I'll have to try that sometime! I might not be the best person to respond to this thread, as I love florals! But what I've noticed from other people's posts is that often a heavier note that can kind of tamp down and sit on the florals can make them work for people when they otherwise wouldn't. So you might try looking for florals with red or dark musks, dragon's blood, other resins like myrrh or labdanum, or vanilla, or some combination of the above. Also more complex scents where florals might not play as big a role. I'd say Titania is very fruity and sweet and Snow White is very popular even amongst people who dislike florals, to second some of the recommendations above. Ravenous, Lyonesse, Vasilissa, and Croquet are all other scents with florals that don't read as pure or predominantly floral to me, and Vasilissa shared a bit of the same feeling as Mouse's Long and Sad Tale, in my opinion (though they are quite different scents, I somehow get a similar vibe from them). Some of the Ladies of the Grindhouse scents from Carnaval Diabolique (which are pretty complex, I think) might fit the bill here, though I've mostly tried the maybe more overly floral ones myself! But some of them have one or two floral notes and then a lot of others to complicate it/smooth it out for you, perhaps. I've also noticed that a lot of people who aren't necessarily big traditional floral fans really love carnation, though it can often go a bit too sweet in a way for me, actually.

I think Sea of Glass is an aquatic lily scent--I definitely get a sense of lilies from it, though the aquatic is a bit piercing on me. Still, it strikes me as almost regal, so you might want to give it a try!

I love Eldritch Drunken Constellations. To me it feels frothy, bright, and almost misty, yet also smooth and creamy, as described above. The eucalyptus sap that's listed smells very different than regular eucalyptus does and adds a bright, clean feel, I think. Anyway, it's in no way sinus clearing. I think the white tea is probably the dominant force in it, but the ambergris adds a lot, in its more clean, foamy, bright guise. It's one of my favorite LEs. I haven't tried Curved Sky, but I thought all the Fragmented Alice blends that I tried were weird--in a glorious sort of way! Very . . . "why does this work? This really shouldn't work, but it did" sort of feeling. So I guess my advice is don't let their weirdness put you off!

This is gorgeous! It's a very full, womanly floral, very sweet and soft and ladylike, but not in an overly proper sort of way (the kind of lady that the inspiration seems to be is quite fitting, I think!). It's a little heady at first, but very much sweetened by the vanilla and honey in a way that smoothes that out rather than amping it up. The florals are creamy and smooth, and it does strike me as old-fashioned--reminds me of a high-quality hand cream that a Victorian lady might have used, but in a good way! I get a lot of gardenia, some jasmine and a little rose at first, but as time wears on I get a gardenia/jasmine mixture over the top of the honey and vanilla and less of the rose. I don't notice the frankincense, but since these flowers could be overly heady and they're not, I'm assuming it has something to do with that. I get more of it on the far dry down, where there's a sort of warm--not spicy but almost spicy, the way frankincense often strikes me--undertone to the sweetness, melded with the vanilla and honey. For a while there's a lot of honey over the top of the flowers in a way that does strike me as a honey dust or powder, but not in a powdery way, just not sweet, sticky, and gloopy the way some BPAL honey strikes me, but later on it becomes more of a harmonious honey-vanilla-frankincense base for the gardenia and jasmine. Still not a lot of rose, just hints of it, very gentle and sweet but a bit more fragrant-perfumey that way that rose is at times. I agree with the florals being light and airy, and it strikes me as refined and old-fashioned and womanly. And I'd also say it has a subtle sexiness to it. A ladylike sexiness, though that seems like a contradiction in terms. I really love that vanilla-jasmine and gardenia combination, and I love this, though I doubt I'd wear it every day.

I also really adore ambergris and I tend to really like most blends that have it, even if it's very much a supporting player. I haven't tried Autumn Overlooked My Knitting (yet! It's on order!), but I know in the GC Lyonesse, as mentioned, and Y'ha-Nthlei both have it, with Lyonesse sweeter and Y'ha-Nthlei more brisk and aquatic. I haven't tried Prince Lir from the Last Unicorn collection, or Antony from Illyria, but they're both more masculine type blends that have it listed, and Prince Lir might be sweet with the vanilla fougere there. Most of the blends from the lab I have where I really love the ambergris or it stands out to me are LE, I admit. Last year's Eldritch Drunken Constellations comes to mind in particular. It seems to be in blends that feel very comforting to me or rather aquatic/salty, or sometimes both, it seems.

I know that for me the scent that convinced me that patchouli didn't have to be the dirty, unwashed scent I always envisioned and could instead be very sweet and rich was Ravenous (Red patchouli sweetened by orange blossom), and it also has orange blossom. I find it very comforting and pleasant, which utterly surprised me, since I was a big patchouli hater up until then!

In the bottle, this smelled very elegant and floral to me, but a bit . . . I don't know, maybe just flat, it didn't grab me, and when I first put it on, I got mostly plum and rather high-pitched flowers, with an almost waxy or scratchiness to the plum. But that faded very fast as it warmed up, and I got the most juicy plum I've gotten from a BPAL scent so far, with sweet, sweet springy flowers. I definitely smell daffodils, because I can pick that scent out as the one that reminds me of spring so strongly, and though I absolutely love jasmine, I'm not noticing it standing out here, but there's definitely a depth and sweetness and brightness and roundness to the flowers overlaying the plum that the daffodil isn't bringing on its own. I don't really get much musk, but there's a clean bright feel to the scent that I associate with scents that have white musk, and it's probably anchoring the whole thing, because this lasts and lasts on me in pretty much the same state once it warms up. It's been over twelve hours now and it's still going strong in pretty much the same state, though the throw has diminished a bit. This is a gorgeous, bright, springy floral and playful juicy plum scent, and I love it. I'll definitely be wearing it a lot in the future! A total winner. (It's funny; I've tried five scents from the Diabolus category so far, and I've loved all five of them. Interesting!)