ivyandpeony

Pepper (from Good Omens) is just full of that delicious pink pepper that I smell in Hermia and Teenage Cannibal. In the bottle and when it's wet, I can't even smell anything else! It's such an awesome note, it's got a certain pungency that makes it almost chewy when it's wet (do I sound like a pompous wine critic? ) I'll be excited to see the role that the black pepper plays in Clemence (from the Grindhouse update a couple days ago).

paperrose, did you ever get a chance to try Chiroptera? I think it's pretty difficult to find these days, but I do remember a lot of honeysuckle in it (I, unfortunately, amped the lemon balm and sage in it until I smelled like some sort of delicious kitchen concoction instead of the floral delight that I wanted to be. Those who get an overall floral vibe from it love it though.) Schlafende Bagneuse from the Salon is very pretty - the honeysuckle doesn't completely dominate, but the notes in it give it an overall "bright yellow" feel and complement each other wonderfully. (The notes are skin musk, white cream, honeycomb, yellow rose, King mandarin, chrysanthemum, golden amber, honeysuckle, and wide-throated yellow monkey-flower accord).

No problem but thanks for letting me know! The stuff that I would like to avoid here is more of the "Oh, you must go buy Bottle X from Arcana - MMU - Dawn Spencer Hurwitz - Chanel - Bond No. 9 - etc., it's the best (insert note, category, mood) scent out there." We've either got newbies asking for BPAL recs here and the BPAL catalog is confusing enough for them, or we've got members who have learned the forum well enough that they can explore Retail Therapy and learn about some other companies if they're interested in exploring perfume even more thoroughly. Although I wasn't here at the inception of the forum, when it was organized this section was put under the Lab discussion umbrella, so for that reason and for the sake of clarity, as I took over this section and the forum reached 10,000+ members I felt that it was important to emphasize those points. It's not that I want to stifle discussion, and it's kind of hard for me to explain it without sounding like that is the result anyway... I hope you guys understand where I'm coming from? As I've said before, drop me a line if you want to discuss this or any other issue around here. Back to the question at hand, I'm no help on the cave suggestions. I amp that earth note so strongly that everything the lab's ever made with that note, whether it's earth, soil, grave loam or what have you smells like a cave on me. So I could tell you Zombi, Madeline, Queen of Clubs, because they all smell like wet potting soil on my skin and your guy could then end up smelling like a total girly-man.

I don't know of a blend that has all of those notes, but I think Juliet might be worth trying. It's a clean, sweet floral and it does have the heliotrope and honeysuckle notes. I don't care for very dry or for masculine blends either. And dragon's blood and leather are notes I can very seldom wear. Of the blends you haven't tried that I am really familiar with, I love Spectre (but it is incredibly hard to find, you'll fight like a madwoman for it if it pops up on eBay). Virahotkantita surprised me immensely and is a favorite, I usually amp cedar to the detriment of everything else but not in this one, so it turned out to be a lovely lilac blend for me. I also love Melancholia. Dragon's Eye is too dragon's blood-y for me; Ouija too dry; Himerus, Viola, Bad Luck Woman Blues, Villain, Crowley & His Station all ultimately too masculine for me to love. I don't find Famine to be lilac-y at all - it has a beauty of its own but as a smoky tea blend, not as a floral. It is just a wee bit on the masculine side while still being gender-neutral IMO. And some of the blends that didn't work for you are favorites of mine (Rose Moon, White Moon, Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree, & Pontarlier) although I wouldn't categorize any but Spirit as predominantly lilac either. Ultimately, no one has an identical chemistry to yours, so don't rule too much out completely.

just giving this its every-so-often-bump. Thanks for reading and drop me a line if you have any questions!

I'd just message the seller and find out where s/he got them. I think it is probably wikkidraven here on our forum, her etail site name matches the seller name on the auction.

Your meet and sniff may have broken up by now, just thought I would mention for any newer BPALers who are there. If you haven't seen that type of imp before, that's the original way that the imps were labeled... the world-famous tarted imp!

Beatrice33, I haven't tried L'eau d'Issey - but as far as lightly aquatic florals without sharp heavy floral tones that might match up, I'd recommend trying Szepassony, Amsterdam, Lady of Shallott, Desdemona, Ophelia, Moon Rose, Xiuhtecuhtli, Leanan Sidhe and Machu Picchu. There's a retail exclusive Salon called The Black Swan that seems like it might be up your alley too - the notes are water lily, peony, seaweed absolute, lotus, Spanish moss, violet leaf, and marine accord. (I don't care for aquatics much at all and I find The Black Swan to be gorgeous.)

You may have to do some layering of something vanilla and something almond to get exactly what you want, reina... A lot of people find Dana O'Shee to have a marzipan quality but if it doesn't have enough almondy oomph for you, I find Queen of Sheba to be very almondy. With vanillas, I have to rely on what they do on my skin and not what other people say they will do - it seems like one person's delicious and sublime vanilla can be another person's plasticky artificial vanilla candle. But I happen to get lots of dominant, creamy vanilla from Love's Philosophy, Opuhi, Egged Mailbox, and O. Not all of those are easy to find of course, but if you have any of them on hand they're what works for me.

sooo.... anyone who's tried Violet Ray and Bruised Violet Compound wanna compare and contrast them for the crowd? (I will probably order imps of both with the next update, but would love to hear comparisons of them from the violet connoisseurs around here.)

In addition, you can go to the top right of the page and enter the word "charmer" in the search box to get a concise list of all the mentions Snake Charmer has received in this thread - much easier than trying to read all 36 (or however many this number grows to in the future) pages. It's been a topic of conversation a few times, so many people love it!

Vetiver is a note that is usually really bad on me - and I can still recommend Azathoth to people. Ultimately it was too masculine for me (I'm mostly a girly-scents kind of person), but the tangerine and saffron give it a brightness that really brought out the fresh grassy qualities of the vetiver. I haven't smelled any of the L'Occitane versions mentioned here, but since Azathoth's now a GC blend it's a low-risk recommendation, no stalking of eBay or selling of kidneys required to give it a try.

I love purple scents. I will add to the love that Horreur Sympathique is getting in this thread, although I will probably put it away for warmer weather since it's very rich and heavy on me (just a matter of personal preference). I got a sniff of Violet Ray over the weekend and although I haven't tried it on my skin yet, I think it will be a great choice for purple-lovers who also love violets. New scents that I haven't sniffed, that I'm thinking could the Purple Pantheon, are The Coil (just read that description - Ozone, eucalyptus and mint with purple orchid, passionflower, white ginger, and purple lotus?!) and Bruised Violet Compound. On my skin it will depend on how much the minty-ozoney qualities dominate the coil and on how much the earthy elements are balanced by the violet & currant in BVC.

I'm sorry you are having such bad luck, Apple! If you get a chance to try Formula 54 without having to sell plasma, go for it - after reading about your experiences, though, my advice would be not to break your neck to get it. If you amped florals in Block Buster and The Clod and The Pebble my feeling is that you will amp the florals in F54 too. The clove in it is definitely a back-up player and not a dominant note, IMO, it's all about the rose and the musk.

I'm in the camp that loves Underpants and really likes LP. For me, Underpants is very complex - if you pushed me to classify it as a vanilla scent, I would, but there's so much more going on with it. The sweetness is balanced nicely with the sandalwood, it's very deep and sexy. On the other hand, I'd need no pushing to classify LP as a vanilla scent. It's a lighter, creamier vanilla ice cream scent. Saffron can be sort of medicinal to my nose at times, but I don't find it to be so in LP - instead it gives the vanilla a unique twist. If you have the opportunity to add both to your collection without selling a kidney to get the Underpants, you should go for it - you should have no problem swapping either for something that suits you better if you decide you don't like it. Underpants is holy-grail popular but LP ain't chopped liver, it has plenty of fans.

It's hard to have the patience to age Snake Oil - I am one of the people who likes it both brand new and ancient and in between, so if you do too, just use your bottle and enjoy. If you want to age a bottle, order one and stick a label on the top with the date on it, then put it in the back of a drawer for a while and take a sniff in a couple of months. And you'll never have trouble swapping away or selling a bottle of aged Snake Oil so if you find that you don't like it or have too much on your hands, there's an easy out. As far as Snake Charmer ever being released again, there's just no way to tell, but here's the lowdown on when and how the Lab has reissued the retired LEs that have reappeared temporarily. Since 2005, the Lab has resurrected anywhere from one to seven discontinued scents and offered them as LEs to commemorate its anniversary in November - but of all those scents, only one was originally a limited edition (Midway, in 2007) - so LEs coming back for that event are very rare. The rest have been general catalog blends that had been discontinued. The LE series that spawned Snake Charmer, Carnaval Noir, actually returned for a short period of time, the first & only LE series that's done so (it originally ran from June through September 2005, then returned for a very brief run in April 2006). If the Lab were to re-run an LE series again, it seems to me that CN would be low on the list since it's already been done, another "odds against Snake Charmer" factor. Most of the blends from the Springtime In Arkham LE Series, from the spring of 2005, surprised us all when they came back as additions to the permanent catalog the next year, also a first & only event. I don't think any other LEs have made it into the general catalog but if I am forgetting something, I am sure someone will remind me! Finally, there are the LEs that have appeared multiple times, but they are usually seasonal ones that return as the occasion rolls around the next time, anything from Beltane to Halloween blends to 13 to Yule blends - sometimes they're the same formula, sometimes reformulated (the lab is usually clear on that, using the same description if the notes are the same, listing tweaks if they've changed some things). There's a thread here that discusses why LEs are limited that may shed some light on things, too.

captainoats, here was one suggestion from just up the thread a little bit: Can't help with Lunar Eclipse, but the floral aspect of Cheshire Moon reminds me so much of The Unicorn, a misty, ethereal white floral scent. I'm not sure how to add the cake-y note without adding other notes as well. I too love Cheshire Moon, and although I havn't sniffed the Unicorn OR Eat Me, I'm wondering if Eat Me, The Unicorn, and Cheshire Cat could be layered or blended together to get something similar, since Eat Me has the cakey/vanilla, Unicorn has the floral, and Cheshire Cat has the fruit.. I think I'm going to try it out once I get some more imps. It might not work or be exactly the same.. but would proabably be yummy! A shortcut you can try to search longer threads (you may not find much for this particular search since Cheshire Moon's fairly new, but I like to throw this hint out every so often for newer members) - when you are in a big ole thread like this one and want to find just the posts where a certain term has been mentioned, go to the search box at the top right of the page. The default on most skins is set to search the current topic that you are in, so you can just type in a term and get all the posts that mention it. It can be very helpful for this thread, the GC similarities thread, the discons thread and the Lush thread - even the longer threads about certain popular notes like vanilla or rose.

I'm not sure what I would recommend - I think that your response to certain notes can be really personal even when they're recommended for particular uses in aromatherapy. But in case you haven't poked around Recs in a while, you can review the discussions on calming & relaxing scents for ideas on those & recs for studying, learning and exams that could help you focus (you may have already found that one). I think whatever makes you feel confident is probably your best bet, as long as it's not something that also makes you so cozy and sleepy that you won't be alert and together for your lessons and test. And maybe use a light hand if you decide on something that's on the sexy or heady side, in case you have a driving examiner with a sensitive nose.

I don't have an immediate answer to your question, but since you are so new to the forum you might not know that BPAL discontinued selling single notes a couple of years ago. It sounds like you weren't convinced that was what you were looking for anyway, I just figured I'd mention it in case someone else came along and was unaware. And I think that Bath & Body Works may have stopped carrying the Henri Bendel line across the board in favor of Slatkin products - they don't have them on their website anymore and the couple stores in my town don't have any more HB either. I don't know if the actual HB store carried the stuff or if it was a special line they only produced w/ Bath & Body Works. There used to be someone on the forums who worked at B&BW, but I can't remember who it was - but maybe someone knows more?

Monoi de Tahiti, vanilla, white coconut, tuberose, ylang ylang, white musk, red hibiscus, and neroli. One caveat, the pollen counts in my area have been insane so I've been extremely congested! They've dropped enough that I've started to test my Tikis, though, and Tiki Queen is first up. Of all the notes, tuberose dominates on my skin, and this is just fine with me. It's one of my favorite notes and I don't find it in as many blends as I would like. The monoi is there playing second fiddle but still detectable and it's a lovely companion to the tuberose. I believe the hibiscus is what provides the sweet-fruity-candy vibe, and as Tiki Queen dries down it becomes a unique and feminine combination of a fruity-sweet base topped with swirly white florals. For me, the danger notes in TQ were the coconut, neroli and ylang ylang - none of them are complete deal breakers for me in a blend, but how they play along determines the final outcome. I'm happy to say that all three seem to be support staff and they surely contribute to the sweetness, but I can pick out none of the three individually. All in all, this one is really a winner, a tropical floral like no other BPAL has released before. If anyone longs for tuberose the way I do? Order it immediately! And this is a must for any white floral fan as well.

TigerKatze, I think you are right - I believe that anyone who decides to search BPAL in the hopes of finding a replacement for a single scent is going to end up frustrated and disappointed. BPAL blends do smell very different from one person to another depending on each person's chemistry and there's no way to predict for sure that any particular blend will work on you until you try it on your skin, and that can be very frustrating for some people - I think there may even be a standing thread now for relative newbies to rant about how everything they've tried smells bad to them. The people who do end up turned on to BPAL seem to start enjoying the process of trying new perfumes and figuring out which notes work for them and which don't, with the added bonus being that you find perfumes you like along the way - people who find that frustrating or just not a fun way to spend any time end up uninterested in BPAL. I have a group of friends who couldn't be less interested in my perfume hobby, I have a group of friends that could sniff and try stuff with me all day. Neither group is any better or smarter than the other, they just have different interests. If you feel like you're falling in the group that wouldn't enjoy the trial and error process, though, it is going to be doubly frustrating trying to find a match for something that you used to wear. Another reason it can be hard for a newbie to find something that's similar to a favorite perfume if you're asking in Recommedations: you have to get lucky and find someone who's not only familiar with that perfume, but who has also tried a lot of BPALs, enough that they may be able to come up with something similar. Folks are always happy to help you match up notes when you have a list of the notes in your old perfume (they even go find lists themselves!) but it's just a matter of luck as to whether any members who frequent this area have tried the particular perfume that someone's hoping to replicate. As far as availability and ease of purchase, you may be a little off the mark though. You might be surprised though at the number of people in the US who do not have access to retail locations that sell BPAL - Europeans are far from the only underprivileged in that number. Other than the Lab itself (which is open only once a month) I think there may be 4 locations (a salon in LA, two Whole Foods in GA and Shelldoo's salon in PA) that sell BPAL at retail. I can't speak for mailing times for personal packages like the one that you're waiting on since I have no idea what method of mailing it went by, but most lab orders are arriving within a month these days even to international customers. I think they ship by Global Priority mail which arrives pretty quickly. There's a thread here in Recs about enabling friends where people can post their suggestions for what to include in an imp pack - I definitely agree with you that being able to try scents first hand would be the most likely way to really get someone interested. I'm familiar with Goth Rosary's sample scent pack and I don't know if that format would work well w/BPAL, though, since trying it on your skin is of such importance - many things I sniffed in the imp or bottle I wasn't wild about, but on my skin they were another story. I'm sorry that you haven't found what you are looking for yet - I don't know for sure that it exists, but maybe when your package arrives you will find a couple of things that intrigue you even if they don't duplicate your beloved perfume. And from there, if you're still interested, you can post that list and ask about what's worth trying next, and so on and so forth.

I have seen just a few of these pop up lately so I figured I'd bump this in the hopes that more people will have a chance to read it. Thanks!

I haven't made it through the whole collection yet, but I wore Tiki Queen today and there is a whole lotta tuberose in there for the Michael fans. I got no detectable coconut for the coconut phobic - it's an unusual blend, the hibiscus makes it sweet and juicy and almost a little fruity with the white florals on top.

If it was my dad? (or my husband) I would trust my own sense of smell! My husband has about four things that he says perfumes smell like: baby powder, cookies, an old lady and patchouli. At least that's when he doesn't like them very much, otherwise he'll say, "Oh, that one's nice."

I think it's very helpful to post when you find a not-so-rare, or even a still-available LE (like Mme Moriarity) that resembles a harder to find one. So it counts! Be sure to share when you find time to do a side-by-side comparison, too.