ivyandpeony

I haven't tried Fruitcake yet... But given the number of desperate ISO posts I am seeing, I figured that there would be a lot of interest in figuring out the best way to make yourself smell like it when your imp runs dry. I'll be watching with curiousity (and tearing into my next package with Fruitcake lust!) I may eventually merge this into one of those big pinned threads if the fervor wanes - I also need to figure out which one we've focused the discussion of unreleased scents in, or if we've done that in both, move posts over to one or the other. One of those new-years-resolution kind of things.

Hermia has pink pepper which, combined with the amber, makes a really delicious spicy blend. And I love the spicy floral Le Mort Qui Danse. The pepper with the delicate white florals is such a unique combination.

I got a really bad stomach virus about 10 days before Christmas with queasiness that hung on for days and days. The only smell that I seemed to be able to tolerate was evergreen-based BPAL (seriously! Food - blech! Christmasy candles - barf! and so on) and I think the piney, evergreen forest notes soothed my stomach. Mistletoe and Dublin were my best friends for those dismal days, although I'd say listen to your stomach and if there's a note just seems wrong to you, steer clear. I guess that advice goes for any aromatherapy though.

One of the prettiest pine scents I have ever tried - and I don't associate the adjective "pretty" with pine. Although it's assertive when it's wet, as pine will be, the pine backs off and Capricorn develops into a gorgeous, cold-forest scent. Despite my assessment of Capricorn as "pretty," it's not girly. I'm sure men can wear it and that it will flatter them infinitely. I am just especially excited because so many scents with mostly masculine elements will become very dry and manly on me, much drier and manlier than I want to smell. I think the ambrette may be the secret ingredient here that is giving Capricorn enough sweetness to balance the manly woods, evergreens and tobacco. Beautiful!

This is a very heady floral when wet, but it dries down to a lovely, yet hard to describe scent. Sweet-fruity from the lotus, spicy from the amber and sandalwood, and something that makes it sexy and sultry - maybe the passionflower? That would fit the description, wouldn't it? I am with the reviewers who find something sparkling and crystalline about Sea of Tranquility; I also agree with the assessments that it's quite the elegant lady's scent. I'm thrilled that I had a chance to try it.

Oh my, I am so painfully smitten with this blend it isn't funny. In the bottle, I get a jasminey-foody smell, but this dries down to something very reminiscent of the legendary Honey Moon on me. If you are familiar with it, I would describe Hony Mone as Honey Moon with more jasmine, a noticeable touch of honeysuckle and with a fruity note singing backup instead of the thyme that seems to anchor Honey Moon for me. The most important thing for me is I smell no apricot standing alone, it's blending so perfectly with the honeys, the fruit and the jasmine. An apricot note has ruined a few BPAL experiences for me (Katharina, Siren, March Hare... ) and I feared it was going to happen here. I tend to find that jasmine backs off a bit as a bottle ages for a few months, so maybe I'll detect a bit more fig, tonka, almond or apricot when this one's older - but for now, the honey, the honeysuckle and the jasmine are pretty much the triumvirate. If you don't like sweet, you won't like this one, then again, if you don't like sweet, what are you doing buying this after reading the list of notes? This is feminine and gorgeous, although it's so heady that it may be a bit much for the close quarters and warm rooms this time of year - I'm picturing wearing this when the days begin to warm up and throughout the summer.

In more than three years of wearing BPAL and hanging out around in this forum, talking about BPAL at length, I have never heard of a scent having the effect that you're trying to achieve. Maybe once the dog has calmed down, you would be his least favorite in the room if you chose correctly, but I can't imagine any BPAL or commercial perfume working to literally repel a dog unless it was used in huge amounts or sprayed in the dog's face (which I would never, never advocate). If such a simple dog-repelling scent existed, postal employees would start dousing themselves in it and Beth could retire to the Riviera for having come up with such a brilliant, peaceful solution to dog attacks. The scents that you find strong or slightly offensive - like Saturnalia - may in fact be loaded with musk &/or civet bouquet which my dog would probably love even more, stinky animal smells. Although in my experience, I find my dog's pretty indifferent to my BPAL one way or the other - he's curious if he sees me actually opening a bottle, but he doesn't try to sniff and lick my wrists, neck, etc. any more than other body parts. But other dog owners may have had different experiences and if so, perhaps they'll post about them here. I'm sorry your aunt is so inconsiderate, but I think zenvodunista's advice might be the best - maybe even enlist your whole family to dress down and kindly say to your aunt, "Excuse the blue jeans for such a nice occasion, but I didn't want Rowdy to mess up my clothes like he has every other time I've visited."

I may fantasize for the rest of my life that Ice Prince will one day return *dreamy, Tiger Beat-worthy sigh* I would order bottles. And if Beth ever decided to bring back either of the winter bath oils as perfumes, my gibbering and drooling would be shameful. The Ice Prince is just such a gorgeous winter scent. I smell a lot of pine at first, when I sniff the bottle it's all I smell - but when I dabbed this on the back of my hand and later when I poured a bit into warm water, the pine immediately began to back off. It becomes this gorgeous, sweet white musk with a bit of pine in the background. The plum and lily and bergamot don't stand out as individual notes, but I think they are contributing to that bit of sweetness. I just want to slather it all over myself. The Winter Maiden is pretty girly to me, but I think either sex could enjoy smelling like The Ice Prince. I can't compare The Ice Prince to anything in my memory - Skadi and Ice Queen didn't suit me when I owned them several years ago, so I don't have a strong memory of them and in general I haven't worn too many of the scents with pine. Slobbering Pine is all pine on me and this is very different. If you were one of the lucky people who ordered it before it sold out, I hope you enjoy it as much as I do - if not and you get a chance to grab some, I would say "Go for it!" (I reviewed the bath oil experience - the amount I used, moisturization, scent throw, etc. - in more detail over in this thread for those who are interested.)

If either of the winter bath oil scents returned as a straight up perfume one day, I would be all over them. They're both absolutely beautiful enough to be standalone scents. The Winter Maiden has a sweet berry quality, but the white rose makes it girly and the very light evergreen notes are what seems to make it snowy, as opposed to the snowy notes that you find in a blend like Snow Moon or Snow Bunny (I haven't tried the 2007 "snowy" Yule scents yet so I can't compare to those). This could be a cousin to Dublin, like Dublin with icy blackberry, but not the swarthy version of blackberry that can have a sharp herbaceous edge. Now that it's been on my skin for hours, I do smell soft amber as the blackberry, rose and snowy notes have faded a bit. Two capfuls in my bath this evening gave me fantastic scent throw and great moisturization. I don't feel greasy at all but when I went to wash my hands several hours after bathing, the water beaded up on the back of my hands. I really like the oil formula - it seems to be an ideal combination of oils, not too heavy nor too light, and it disperses very well in the bathwater instead of making an oil slick that you feel around you. (I reviewed the bath oil experience - amount used, moisturization, scent throw, etc. - in more detail over in this thread for those who are interested.)

Have you ever tried Lady MacBeth? It has red currant and thyme notes. I find it more fruity than herbal and I don't get a lot of wine from it, although many people mention that as a prominent component. I'm not familiar with the B&BW scent you loved so, but I'd think she would definitely merit a try.

Good luck with your detox - I think even your 12 hour stretches have had to have a positive effect. I don't know if anything can make your cravings disappear completely, but I have read that the smell of peppermint can help decrease your appetite. GRR from the Panacea series, Lick It in any of its incarnations, Pain, Cathode, Nuclear Winter, Tulzcha all are really pepperminty to me. I think Tokyo Stomp and Snowblind could make you hungry, although YMMV - there's lots of peppermint but also all kinds of creamy vanilla goodness in both of them. Shattered might be the one-two punch you need, grapefruit and mint!

Bumping this one up for the benefit of the Hocus Pocus candle fans

I'm bumping this for self-serving mod reasons, pay no attention to the goofy lady behind the curtain. But of all the spicy BPALs I love Chimera and Snake Oil the most. (I just started typing "Snake Road", I must have Silk Road on the brain!). I am really looking forward to seeing how War ages - I think it could become Chimera driving a monster truck.

I think the most readily available scent with the truest pineapple note that I have tried is Drink Me. It's a very pineappley-bakery scent to my nose (a little too rich, buttery and caramely for me even) but it has a charm all its own. There are a number of blends that have a tropical fruit feel and it seems to depend on the nose sometimes as to whether people pick up pineapple, banana, or something else... but trying lots of things is fun, isn't it? The only blends with pineapple included in the note list seem to be Mi-Go Brain Canister (an LE from spring of 2005) and Shango, a GC blend. If you click on this link you should get the results of a search of the Reviews for the word "pineapple" - you can take a look and see all of the scents people have detected this elusive note in. If it doesn't work for some reason, you can duplicate it like this: search for "pineapple" highlighting the Reviews subforum only, specifying that post text and titles should be searched and results displayed as posts (as opposed to topics).

I think that's very true! No matter how many times I hear how good geranium and rose geranium are for SAD and PMS, if they are dominant notes in a blend, I feel like I am trying to swallow some kind of thick, nasty medicine. But amber and vanilla? May or may not have any proven therapeutic qualities, but they definitely me feel all better. Also, I thought I'd post links to some related threads that may be interesting or helpful - BPAL recommendations to help with depression as well as using TALs to improve mental health. As the mod for this section, I don't mind if TAL talk spills over here - so I can definitely second those recs for White Light, which is a real mood lifter for me, as is Lionheart. They smell very different, but both have a warm and comforting feel to me. A few years ago my usual November-onset SAD was accompanied by a significant loss and a huge health scare for my husband, and Lionheart was a life saver.

I had only sniffed this in the bottle, and I thought I wanted to try it, but not necessarily desperately... Now you throw that at me. Good thing I haven't placed my Sea of Tranquility order yet! Currently I have been wearing Bakeneko lately for that warm spicy tea scent, just perfect for the chilly days we have been having. I noticed that Cordelia doesn't get mentioned a lot in the tea scent discussion - I don't get the green tea as the dominant note in it (it's hard for anything to dominate lilac, wisteria, osmanthus &/or cedar on my skin!) but it has the same feel that I get from Shanghai, Embalming Fluid, even F5, like a sophisticated and more complex cousin to those scents. If you like those and haven't tried Cordelia (and aren't completely opposed to florals), definitely slap that baby onto your next imp order! I love the lab's white tea note too, I find it a little more delicate and floral and less "juicy" than the green tea note. It's lovely in The Fox Woman Kuzunoha Leaving Her Child and of course in Kumiho (another fox woman! Coincidence? ) It rocks in Maiden and the original formulation of 13 too.

Hi Christine Daee - I just found this on the Body Shop's site (I don't know that they have been so forthcoming with their perfume descriptions in the past!) so it should be pretty accurate: White Musk: Top notes: velvety musk, floral lily and sensual ylang ylang with hints of fresh galbanum and basil. Middle notes: velvety musk, oriental jasmine, floral lily and rose. Base notes: velvety musk, oriental jasmine, floral lily and iris, rose, sweet vanilla, fresh amber, patchouli, oakmoss and vetiver with hints of fruity peach. I would say to my nose, I get a vanilla-y, light musk, although I can see where there definitely must be light amber/patchouli and other earthy basenotes now that I have been told they are there Those florals are very well blended and/or added with a very light hand, I think! Dorian, Victoria and Zephyr come to mind immediately, but I will definitely put some more thought into it.

A specially crafted Panacea for SAD would be an awesome addition to that line - I'd be ordering a bottle tomorrow! Citrus seems to be a moodlifter that gets real results, so if there's a blend that's already among your favorites with a lot of citrus notes, work it into rotation. Moxie (which is one of the Panacea) is orange with ginger and it's quite uplifting, I find. Just dabbling about to see what is on the internet, I see bergamot specifically mentioned quite often, so perhaps that's another note to seek out. I will respond at greater length when I have a little more time, but rest assured, you've got plenty of company, and spring is coming!

To answer the most important question first - no, I don't smell pickles And I don't smell "fur" either, but what I associate with the smell of fur is Fritos - anyone who has a bulldog, a bull terrier or a related breed should be able to relate to that. So for me to say, no fur smell, is a good thing, unless you are looking for a tortilla-chip-scented BPAL. In fact, it would probably be much easier for me to list off things that Ivanushka does not smell like, because it's such a difficult perfume to describe. It doesn't smell like any other BPAL I can recall smelling. It is light, and warm, and musky. It's sunshiny without being bright - dappled sunlight on leaves. Not too dry and not too sweet. It has a powdery feel but isn't baby-powdery. It's beautiful and evocative - I close my eyes and picture the forest and different scenes from the story. And I wub the little deer on the label too.

Welcome to the forum & the BPAL world, Janet I thought this thread might be helpful to you, so I figured I'd cross post your request in it. If Blood Lotus is staying true and not getting sweeter on you, that can mean a lot of good things - it may mean that you just don't have a taste for overly sweet scents but that your chemistry doesn't really make things overly sweet. Lotus can be a very sweet note - some people liken it to bubble gum. Although the scent description doesn't include notes, most of the "Blood" scents contain some dragon's blood resin (and from my experience with Blood Lotus I think it does), which also has a lot of sweet qualities. Jezebel may be too sweet for you because it has a very dominant honey note - Hellfire contains tobacco, which can be sweet on the skin (my chemistry does not do this, but I know people on whom it does have this effect). In Calliope, almond could be a culprit, and Vampire Tears has a couple of "sweet" florals, honeysuckle, wisteria and white ginger, as well as green tea, which I find to be a sweet note. This doesn't mean that you will have to avoid entirely every BPAL scent that contains honey, tobacco, almond, sweet floral notes, fruit, cream or vanilla (those are the most common sources of sweetness I can think of) - but you will probably need to look for blends that also contain some dry, spicy, earthy or woody notes to balance the sweetness. You probably will have to try a lot of stuff, just to get to know your own chemistry and to get your nose acclimated to your likes and dislikes, but that can be fun, and it's not like you have a deadline or this is a contest or anything. Do expect things to morph a good bit from the wet stage to dry, it's in the nature of the beast for BPAL - but hopefully as you go along and narrow down your choices, you will end up liking the long term results just as much as that first swipe on your arm.

This is my favorite of the 13 new retail-exclusive blends. If I had to choose only one adjective, it would be "sublime." Like GRR and The_Witching_Hour, I immediately picked up a hint of a note that's in Storyville - I wonder if the same vanilla is in there, and maybe a secret blend of spices. Since Storyville is one of my favorite blends ever, that may have been my "you had me at hello" moment. But Wezwanie/Hold is no poor girl's Storyville, it has a character and beauty all its own. The hazelnut is a background player to my nose (which just goes to show you how different our noses can be, that sookster's nose gave her a peanut butter vibe!) It's mild when wet and as it dries down, I think it serves as a glue to hold everything else together. This was happy news for me, since hazelnut was the note that gave me pause when I first read the announcement and wondered which of these new blends I would like. Otherwise, it's like a greatest hits list of my favorite notes ever. Overall, this is a warm, spicy blend that some may find comforting, some may find sexy - I think it can be both, or whatever you want it to be. It's anchored by the resins, sweetened by the honey and vanilla, and spiced up with the red sandalwood, and the whole is greater than the sum of the parts. I am going to be reaching for this one throughout the winter!

In the bottle, sweet honey, fruit and florals, all nicely balanced - but this one morphed a lot as it dried. Sometimes I don't like rose geranium if it's overly green, like broken geranium stems, but the one in Mad Kate is more on the rosey side, like an herbal rose, very lovely. The ultimate result on my skin was that the tart edge of currant, the honey-waxiness of the beeswax and that unusual rose geranium note all faded away or were overcome by the gardenia. This gardenia is gorgeous and perfect, like you're not only walking by a gardenia bush, but you've picked a blossom and you're holding it close to your face for a sniff. It has crazy throw - on my drive home I could smell gardenia even though I had applied a tiny bit and it was covered by my sweater! I decided not to buy a bottle now, afraid that I might be overwhelmed if I had Mad Kate applied on all my pulse points, but I think I will keep it on my wish list - over the years, I can't count the bottles that have struck me like this one, as if everything inside is fresh and new and all the notes are at a freshman mixer getting to know each other. Nine times out of ten when I have a bottle with that vibe, I pop it in my BPAL drawer, take it out to try again in a month, and have something fantastic. In particular, I find blends with what seems to be a bossy jasmine, gardenia or patchouli note to really benefit from a little bit of aging. I think Mad Kate is going to be a bottle that''s worth the dollar outlay and a little time investment.

They are different scents... Carnivale was a GC scent that was discontinued in October 2004. But when the Carnaval Noir series debuted in June of 2005, it was resurrected as an LE with that series, so there are probably more bottles of it floating around than many of the other scents that were discontinued in that "fell swoop" of 10/04. Carnivale is "sweet wild berry, spicy carnation and heliotrope layered over deep amber and musk."

SIN. Best cinnamon and patchouli ever. It reminds me a bit of Blue Skies and Fluffy White Clouds, which seems to have some spice in it vs. Tramp's super-green patchouliness. (If amber &/or sandalwood don't play nicely with you, it may not work, but otherwise... Sin is the ultimate. )

You should definitely have a peek through this thread - Forest and Woods Scents - there's been lots of discussion there.