Rosabella

I recently sniffed the original formula Jergen's Lotion and it was so nostalgic for me. So I did a search for scent descriptions containing both cherry and almond at BPAL but none were found. Is there an oil that smells like cherry & almond even if those aren't the ingredients? One with no resin/incense notes? Also, is there an oil that smells like Lust without the patchouli? Thanks!

Fruity, with a touch of clean green plants; no dragon's blood, no throw. And I thought I was gonna love it! Off to swaps.

Mmm, this smells like the original recipe Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice tea! (Which has been slightly changed over the years and now it's called Bengal Chai or something, but I digress.) I love the bite of ginger and pepper in this that balances the sweeter base notes. Different than the usual cinnamon-dominant spice scents you find in all manner of products for the holidays, it's more exotic. It's really quite delicious, and as a room scent for Fall and Winter would be so warm and welcoming. I love to smell it but I don't want to smell like it; it's so spot-on to the tea (to my nose and scent memory anyway) that it strikes me as a little odd to wear it on my skin. Since I was looking for a really wearable spice I'll put this in swaps. It's a fabulous spice scent though!

OH! Absolute Spring in a bottle!!! This is beautiful on me. Wisteria and the fresh green of flower stems and new grass, a cool tender Spring breeze, with maybe a touch of hyacinth? white lilac? freesia? in there too. Not grey, but pale lavendar flowers come to mind. For a high light floral, this has great throw and amazing staying power - usually these kinds of crystalline scents disappear within seconds of touching my skin, despite my love for them. I don't get any powder or deodorant notes from it at all, it's just gorgeous!

I just tried Block Buster and it's like spiced baked apples and cloves, nice for fall if you like foody scents.

In the bottle, I get no violets (I was hoping to!), florals, ice, or aquatics, no soap or powder either; just a generic "cologne" scent, not bad but not remarkable. On my skin this smells the way White Linen smells on me -- astoundingly bad! I've always liked that perfume on other people but when I tried it myself it transformed into a choking cloud of bug spray/hairspray. Numb does the same thing; there must be an ingredient in both that most defiantly (and I do mean defiant; it will NOT work for me) disagrees with my chemistry. So you can't really judge by me, but if White Linen works for you maybe this will too! Up for swaps. 10/26 ETA: Now that the bottle has been sitting around for a while, I do detect a slight hint of violets if I sniff at it unopened. I wish this really became a violets-in-the-snow scent on me. Sigh.

Snake Oil just doesn't work with my chemistry; it was either overwhelmingly sweet, or overwhelmingly powder everytime I tried it. Smells good on the person I gave it away to though, and it had a really strong throw, so I can see how it's a favorite when it works. (Snake Charmer on the other hand is great on me!)

I was just going to post about this very idea: Has anyone come up with their own mixture of catalog oils to make an Autumn scent? I can't afford to order The Pumpkin Patch, and don't want every scent in it anyway, so I was wondering if I could mix something up myself. Smokey-woodsy-pumpkin: Jack+Hamadryad+Djinn? Jack+Yggdrasil+Brimstone? Jack+Black Forest+Djinn? Cider-leafy-pumpkin: Jack+Verdandi+Ulalume? Cocoa-nutty-pumpkin: Jack+Hellcat? Jack+Gluttony? Thank you for the Jack+Burial suggestion, Nachtwulf!

Samhain 2004 In the bottle, this was delicious - sweet, buttery, spicy pumpkin, sharp fir trees, a deep resin: Autumn in a bottle. LOVED it. But with only dots on wrists and inner elbows - OH NOOOOOOO! Overwhelming patchouli (I hate it yet my skin chemistry blows it up all out of proportion) and that nasty smell when your jack o'lantern has been sitting out on the steps too long after Halloween and the burnt innards have started to rot and grow mold. Had to wash it off - and even with repeated scrubbings I could STILL smell the patchouli the next morning. Tried it once more after a week or so hoping it was just chemistry the first day, but got the same result. So so sad I can't wear this!!! It's the fault of my chemistry, not the perfume.

Thanks very much for your help, Clover!

Several of the scents I'm looking at for Fall are reviewed as having an apple-cinnamon or cider quality to them: Block Buster, Verdandi, Hesperides, Jack. Can someone who's tried them tell me the distinctions between them? Which one's most Autumn-y? I don't want to order too many things that smell the same.

How about White Rabbit versus Dorian, which one has more of the black tea smell?

Nocturne is an excellent classic violet scent, I'm wearing it now. On me the lilac in it acts as a background note, it's not strong headachey lilac. Reminds me of an Avon perfume from years ago called Raining Violets. Love it. ETA: Faustus was a freebie imp and it has grown on me more and more. The violets are deeper and sweeter, sort of candied rather than fresh violets, and the frankincense/cinnamon combination has a really unique resiny warmth. I wouldn't have thought all these notes would work together and never would have ordered Faustus myself based on its description, but I like it a lot. It's really comforting on a cold day, feels cozy to put on before bed, and for some reason soothes a queasy tummy for me. I've had the imp for several months, when it was new I think I got more of the violet and the spiciness seems to have got stronger as it ages. Really doesn't smell masculine at all on me.

I was just searching for a "best tea" thread and found this one; sounds like the same type tea scent I'm looking for. Not a sugary-fruity-spicy-vanilla-flavored kind of tea, just a regular cuppa with that brisk Lipton smell! To those of you who've tried most of them, which of the tea scents smells the most like a cup of strong black tea or Earl Grey (I do like bergamot), as the dominant note? Dorian? Severin? White Rabbit? Dormouse? Thanks!

This was a freebie from the lab, as a rule I can't stand perfumes with rose or lemon as the main note. Much to my surprise, I'll actually wear this! I still have to be in the mood for rose perfume but this is the only one of the BPAL roses I've tried (Persephone, Pride, Spellbound...) that really works with my chemistry. In the imp it's lemon oil, a bit astringent, with rose in the background. On the skin, lemon juice and just-bitten-into green apple blend to a high fresh crisp slightly tart note and the rose develops to just a step or two ahead as the main note. But unlike the potpourri, old lady, powdery, or cloying tones that rose usually turns to on my skin, this is a fresh cut delicate pink rose from the garden after a cool Spring rain. The sharper note of the lemon/apple really balances it out. No Lemon Pledge smell either! A feminine, pretty, Springtime floral with a breath of fresh air.

I'm the same way. Cold unless it's over 70 degrees. I find that Faustus is really warming. (It also makes me feel better when I'm crampy and nauseous; I've wondered if there's a therapeutic oil in the blend.)

I absolutely LOVE this. So gorgeous! In the imp and wet, glints of citrus-orange top notes over musky white magnolia petals, and a subtle touch of spice. On the skin, everything blends and warms to a deep creamy sultry spicey floral; sensual, sexy, husky and languorous. It makes me think of film noir femme fatales: Lauren Bacall saying "You know how to whistle, dontcha Steve?" would have smelled like this. The magnolia is lush, heady, almost waxy, with a hint of vanilla, combined with and grounded by a perfect second-skin musk; the spice (don't know what kind; not cinnamony) and an incensey note develop and deepen to create a smokey/powdery feeling as a base or background. The oleander and mimosa remain to freshen the magnolia and keep it from becoming too sweet or cloying, yet they're so well blended they don't stand out as separate notes to compete with it. All the notes, really, are expertly combined so this comes across as a unified scent. The most beautiful new perfume I've tried - BPAL, oils, commercial - in years. Lovely throw, stays true and lasts all day. And, it melds so well with my chemistry (the first BPAL where someone asked to sniff my wrist!) I ordered a bottle just days after receiving the imp because this has to be my new signature scent! Thank you, Lab!

That sounds really good!

This was odd: First time I tested it, I couldn't smell a thing. Second time, with a heavy application, I got the faintest hint of light sweet flowers but it disappeared in minutes. Third time, I got petunia and phlox, high and sweet, and it lasted all day. Those are the only flowers I get out of this though, none of the heady humid white blooms other reviewers have noted. The petunia & phlox don't seem to meld with my skin, they just sit on top, and something about it reminds me of the smell of the knock-out gas used by the dentist when I had a tooth pulled once. Since the scent has been developing over time (the three tests were over the course of 2 or 3 weeks) I think this may need to age for a while, and I'll give it another go. ETA in July: Nope, this never works on me. Stays cold and sickly smelling. I love actual night-blooms; they just wouldn't come out in this.

Imp: Powerful. Jasmine, maybe a hint of honeysuckle?, a bit of that almost-cheesy polleny smell of buttercups (which I like). A tiny dab'll do ya, this is potent. Wet, dry, and forever: Overpowering headache-inducing jasmine. I was SO hoping I'd get the all-honeysuckle effect others talked about. Had to scrub this off.

The Unicorn!

Thanks for the ideas everyone!

Bottle: Clean tart lemon juice, tiny hints of something sweet, something green, something maybe cinnamony. Skin: Whoa! PINE! Very pitchy-pine, almost turpentiney. VERY strong, I can't smell any lemon or anything else, on my skin or in the room. This stage could work as a Christmastime room scenter - especially if you've got a fake tree and want the smell of a real one. I wouldn't want to wear it though, it's sinus-clearing strong pine! Drying: Lemon top note comes out over the pine quickly. Pine becomes less overpowering, but the combination is kind of like lemon and pine scented floor cleaners. My nose is still so knocked out from the pine in the wet stage I can't tell if any more subtle notes come out as this dries. Final: This fades really fast, after 20-30 minutes all that's left is a whiff of Lemon Pledge furniture polish. This oil is not for me!

For Laurel, looking for Druidic scents for the men: Ulalume and Hamadryad are both very outdoorsy-woodsy-crisp breeze-creative scents. I like them both on me, but they're gender neutral so I think they'd also be great on any dark, sexy, sensitive poet type guys you might have in the wedding party. Congratulations to all the betrothed!

Hamadryad smells like Autumn to me - the dry, spicy scent of fallen leaves with a crisp Fall breeze on top. On me it's a gender-neutral outdoorsy sporty scent, I quite like it. I think it would be great on a guy too. (I'll let you know when I get one!) Faustus doesn't so much smell like Autumn as make me feel good wearing it in Autumn. It's an unusual violet & cinnamon combination, very warming and cozy on cold days. I think the site calls it gender neutral but to my nose it's really feminine.