alterosen

Crawdad!

And Titania - I guess fruity does it for me too!

The Lurid Library seems nicely woody though there's none in the description: Incense-tinged scent of forbidden tomes & the musk laden remnants of infernal servants.

And you have to love the name

I'll also remark that the teak note that everyone loves in Antikythera Mechanism and Glowing Vulva is the same one as in Pumpkin #5 (2008), in which (crucially for me at least) it appears without vanilla.

I think you meant to say Pumpkin #2 ('08) (black musk, leather accord, tonka, oppoponax, teak & orangewood) since Pumpkin #5 ('08) was the fruity one with strawberry. Just to confuse things, Pumpkin Patch #5 from 2005/06 was a woody scent (pumpkin with five woods, English ivy & galangal) & is well worth seeking out. It's not very sweet & the pumpkin is definitely a bit player.

I'll second the Pumpkin Patch #1 ('05 & '06) - my favorite apple.

It has more spice than Fearful Pleasure & smells more like baked apples than cider (FP is maybe juicier smelling? I don't get smoke so much as a lot of oakmoss).

Jack is definitely worth trying, too.

It's a shame about the patchouli because Samhain is a nice spicy apple with dry Autumn leaves. On me, I don't sense the patch in it at all.

The LE Rose Red is one of the least sweetest rose scents.

It's very intensely rose & has a distinct earthiness that evokes stems & leaves.

You should be able to find a decant easily since it's been available the last couple of Yules

A good general catalogue equivalent would be The Rose from the Marchen section.

While not as intense or long lasting, I find it quite similar.

I liked the dandelion note when I tried Roadhouse - green but not too sharp.

Fairy Market is an interesting floral with hints of fruit & greenery. The candy doesn't make much of an appearance.

Other than that, I'm not much help cause I like a fair bit of sweetness!

You might want to try Velvet:

It's the ultimate warm cozy sandalwood scent - starts out strong on the cocoa, then the subtle spiciness of the myrrh comes out, followed by sandalwood with a hint of vanilla.

I love it in cold weather & at bedtime

There's no floral notes in it at all so you should be safe from Shalimar-likeness. Stay away from Dragon's Bone as it has a strong orris note (which smells a bit like violet to me). Brown Jenkins also has both sandalwood & orris but is more subtle.

My favorite spicy blends are Clemence, Plunder, Bengal, Shub-Niggurath, Saw Scaled Viper, Phantom Calliope & Pickled Imp.

And I would give Morocco & Snake Oil a try, anyway, just to judge for yourself. You can always trade 'em away!

I immediately thought of Pumpkin Patch #5 ('05 &'06) - Pumpkin with five woods, English ivy & galangal root. It has nice spicy wood notes with light pumpkin & is not that sweet.

Pumpkin Patch #4 of the same years (Pumpkin with sandalwood & orris ) is one of my favorite comfort scents, but it reminds me of baking bread rather than pie. I get a sort of sweet yeastiness from the orris & sandalwood combination. YMMV of course

I believe CoopieCat & mspixieears are talking about the 2008 Pumpkins both of which are not terribly foody & have many masculine components:

Pumpkin II: black musk, leather accord, tonka, teak, opponax & orangewood

Pumpkin IV: white sage, cherry tobacco, honey, smoky vanilla, cedar & pine

Good luck with your enabling!

I really like this one.

I mostly get sweet snow, a bit of pine/juniper & well-behaved berries.

Very pretty. I'll have to dig up my Skadi decant to compare but I think this one is quite a bit softer with less evergreen. On my skin, it stays close but sure lasts nicely (9 hours so far).

I was really on the fence about ordering this because I was iffy about a lot of the notes but I'm sure happy now that I did!

Have you tried Phantom Calliope (black cherry, patchouli, cassis, cardamom & verbena)?

I don't really notice the patchouli - it's a deep dry spicy cherry on me & lasts forever.

One of my cold weather favorites.

What about Bengal (skin musk with honey, peppers, clove, cinnamon & ginger)?

I definitely get cinnamon & musk from it but the other spices are present, too - many people think it smells like chai tea.

Pickled Imp is also very cinnamony but not as sweet as you might expect. Maybe you could layer it with something musky?

Parlement of Foules is one of my faves, too. It smells like roses & raspberries to me.

Katrina von Tassel is very soft, sweet & creamy.

If we stretch your parameters to 19th Century literature, there's a bunch of things in Bewitching Brews:

Coleridge - Kubla Khan

Dickinson - I Died For Beauty

Keats - Ode on Melancholy, La Belle Dame Sans Merci

Shelley - Ozymandias

Swinburne - Hymn to Proserpine

Yeats - Ephemera

That's just in one category - I know there's many more

I'm feeling too lazy to check dates to see who qualifies as Victorian.

Pirate Moon!

Crowley- infernal musk smells pretty red to me

The Grindhouse is indeed yummy.

Also joining in on all the Mme Moriarty love - for sexiness, I would choose this one over Snake Oil anyday (my DH would probably protest since he likes SO more than MM, but vanilla & I have a troublesome relationship)

My favorite apple by far is Pumpkin Patch #1 (the '05 & '06 version). Pumpkin w. apple cider & mulling spice - basically spicy baked apples. One of my first BPAL loves.

I can't wait to try Fearful Pleasure & see how it compares!

Scrumptious!

On me, this is a peppery citrus/fruity floral with a background of non-powdery amber. Not too sweet, not too peppery, not too in-your-face floral - another perfect summery fragrance.

I can't get enough of Dorian right now, with Lady Una a close second. So, I guess I'm with the other people who've been recommending the tea scents (though sadly, Severin is pure bug spray on me) Last summer, I was wearing Titania & Mum Moon a lot for that sweet fruity floral kick. It's only moderately humid here, though, those two might be too strong if it's sweltering.

I love using slices of the BPTP soaps as sachets in my clothes drawers & in the totes I store my linens. Even a small slice really infuses things nicely & you don't have to worry about oil stains. My favorites are Shub-Niggurath, Dorian & Snake Oil. Perhaps Miskatonic University would fit the bookish vibe you're after?

I really like Phantasm (green tea, lemon verbena, jasmine & neroli). The tartness of the tea, citrus & verbena keep the jasmine from overpowering everything in sight. It's a great summer evening fragrance (provided you can wear lemony scents without having them turn into cleaning products). There are similarities to Embalming Fluid & Shanghai but I feel it's a bit more girly/feminine because of the jasmine.

I cherish my imp of Parlement of Foules so I was very happy it was re-released this Lupercalia & I could order a bottle.

When I first tried it, I was expecting it to be very close to Rose Cross since they both have similar notes (white rose & resins/rose & frankincense) but they're really quite different.

I must be the only person who's getting the smell of berries from the resins in this

It's more pronounced in the 2006 version than the 2008, so it might be partly an aging thing but is most likely my odd nose At least there's no sign of molasses.

For me, this is a lovely light sweet rose with a few raspberries on the side - yum! Very much a warm weather scent, while Rose Cross is more resiny & cozy so I prefer it in winter. They both remind me of the scent of old roses rather than that of modern varieties.

I adore this scent!

When it came out, I thought the notes all sounded nice but knew I would have to try it before I could justify a bottle purchase. I finally found some in a swap & moments after I tried it on I was trawling the sales pages for a big bottle

I was a bit afraid after reading the reviews that the blackberry would go bad, but thankfully, no cat pee, just tart berry goodness with a honey background. I often amp vanilla & find it cloying but this combines nicely with the green tea in a similar fashion to Dorian though there's no citrus listed in the notes.

Honey & blackberry are generally scents I don't really get that excited about but this combination with the Dorianesque vanilla tea & musk with hint of spice is incredible.

My only quibble is that it's quite light & requires slathering & reapplication throughout the day if, like me, you want to be surrounded by a Lady Una cloud. Fortunately, I now have a bottle on the way & can try doing some layering with lotion & major slathering. I imagine this will be one of my warm weather staples.

Gorgeous in the vial; nasty strong baby powder on my wrist.

Sometimes cinnamon behaves this way & ruins a blend for me by turning super sweet & amping like crazy. If only it would stay smelling like cinnamon - I'll take redhots any day over this stupid powder!

Sigh.

Hours later there's a hint of musk & rum.

For some reason, Imp smells like peaches & black tea to me. The notes don't suggest tea (peach, amber, patchouli, musk) but that's how my nose reads it. You may find it a bit sweet, though. I think it's really yummy.

Your best bet for finding those discontinued scents is the swap & sales threads or to post an ISO. I've found people to be very helpful & generous (all you fabulous evil enablers out there, stand up & take a bow!)

Good luck!

I was surprised by the green aquatic-ness of this wet. I was expecting something along the lines of Fae because of the notes but they're really not similar at all. I'm not sure if it's my cup of tea but my 4 year old son wanted to wear it, so there's some support for this one in the household I'll have to revisit it later.

Great review before this one!

I'm on the fence about this blend. I love the smell of it wet (I spilled some on my table & it smells grand) but on me after drydown it's teetering on the edge of becoming baby powder. I suspect the amber is the culprit. The creaminess is really lovely but I haven't decided if it's too cloying or not with that hint of powder. I'll have to try it a few more times because I want to like it

I agree with whoever mentioned the similarity to the Body Shop's Woody Sandalwood (& that I wore for years)

I William Blake & I was really looking forward to this one because it has so many notes that I adore. Unfortunately, I got the super cedar effect with sour wood/pencil shavings overpowering everything else. I never sensed any rose or sandalwood & the spices only came out faintly after hours of wear. Someone else mentioned Pulcinella & Teresina & the cedar in it behaved the same way on my skin, amping like crazy. No fair! I love the smell of cedar - why doesn't like me? Perhaps it will be better on the husband.

Pumpkin Patch #4 from 2005 & 2006 (pumpkin, sandalwood & orris) is a nice slightly spicy scent that has a bit of a yeasty component to it according to my nose. I find it very comforting & it definitely fits into the baked goods category without being sickly sweet (unless you slather) It's not that rare, so you should be able to find some on the swaps page.