ivyandpeony

Hi saracakes, and welcome to the forum! I am sure you will get some suggestions here, but you also might want to check out this thread, which covers all kinds of chocolate recommendations. Good luck!

Wow, euterpe414, if I ever figure any of this out I will definitely share with you, because we have got some similar DNA or something. You have some things on your lists I didn't think to include when I made mine (and I included some you didn't), but everything on your YES list works on me, everything on your NO list doesn't. I had approached my analysis a little bit differently, like marlena did, by rose type. If anyone's interested to see it, here it is... if not, feel free to skip it and continue the rosy chatter The Yes List: Bulgar Rose (Psyche… : but not Gypsy Queen) Bulgarian Rose (Rose Moon) Damask Rose (Maiden) Damascus Rose (Abhisarika, All Saints, Utrenyaya) Gallic Rose (Pontarlier) Moroccan Rose (Three Brides, Harlot, Lucy Westenra… but not: Rapture, Pride) Musk Rose (Kali, Titania) Red Rose (The Haunted Palace, Pulcinella and Teresina) Somalian Rose (Harlot, Queen Mab) Tea Rose (Euphrosyne, Marie, Rose Moon, Wilhemina Murray) Turkish Rose (Bearded Lady) White Rose (Parlement of Foules, Snow Moon, Ace of Hearts, Eternal, The Reaper and The Flowers, Ophelia, Dublin) Yellow Rose (Schlafende Baigneuse) And in general: Alice, Rose Red, Rakshasa The No List: Sumatran Rose (Desire) And in general: Black Rose, Blood Rose, Desire, London, Lucy’s Kiss, Moon Rose, The Peacock Queen, Wildfire I will have to go through & make some additions, like Kurukulla (although I am not sure if it's one or more of the roses, or one or more of the lotuses that do it in for me).

The Sailor's Den, from the Salon, has a very salty quality.

Well, there isn't a stand-alone thread about blends that are similar to Dublin, so no wonder you couldn't find it, dzurlady! What we do have is a couple of threads pinned at the top of Recs. One is for finding things that resemble favorite LEs, the other is for comparing GC and discontinued blends that you find to be similar. Here is a really quick way to find something simple in a multi-page thread. Open the thread where you think the information you need resides - any page will do. Scroll down to the bottom of the page, until you see the last post. At the bottom left, directly under the last post, you will see a box with the words "Enter keywords." Here, type in Dublin (or Hellion or Morocco or whatever your heart desires) and then click the button right beside the box that says "search topic." This will give you every post within the topic that contains your keyword. What I will do is leave this thread active for a bit so we can get some comments - then I will most likely merge it into the GC & discontinueds thread for the sake of keeping all those comparisons together. And I will make a note to dab on a little Dublin today - I haven't worn it lately, I have been wearing lots of resiny-spicy-gourmand things. So a change would be nice, and I can ruminate on this question a little. I'm thinking some layering might help you achieve what you are looking for, since I saw a reference to Skadi and thought that a bottle of Dublin would be easier to find... Oh, one other idea, Canpake Although it might not have helped in this case - when it was announced that Dublin was discontinued, there wasn't an opportunity to order one last bottle - you can subscribe to forum announcements. That way you can come by the forum as often or as seldom as you like, but you will get an e-mail anytime that the Lab announces updates (discontinuations often are announced then), eBay listings of rares, and other stuff like that. (The story with Dublin was that one of the Lab's artisanal suppliers had to close shop - they supplied single note components for Arachne, Dublin, Empyreal Mist, Mantis and Neo-Tokyo. So those five blends had to be discontinued. It was announced with the Thunder Moon - Blue Moon update.)

Rose geranium isn't an actual rose - it is a member of the geranium family but the scent of rose geranium essential oil does have a floral quality reminiscent of rose that gave the plant its name. I smell a lot of herbaceous, spicy notes in it as well - to my nose it really does smell like a combination of geranium leaves and roses. But it may be that those spicy green geranium notes don't agree with you, so those rose geranium blends aren't working out. I did a quick search for rose geranium scents for you and got: Ligeia (from the Maelstrom series), Rage, Resurrection of the Flesh, Garden Path With Chickens (although I don't smell it in there at all!), Vicomte de Valmont, and possibly Kostnice (although it's listed as geranium rose). I am pretty sure it's a major component in the PMS Panacea, Bitch, also.

Two threads that I think some of you might also want to take a peek at here in Recommendations: recs for the longest lasting BPAL scents, and recs for oils that have both throw and staying power. If I apply directly from a 5 ml bottle, at a minimum I tip it onto a finger once for each wrist, once again for cleavage, once again for behind ears/hairline/run fingers through my hair. I also have a lot of oils I have decanted into roller bottles and then I just roll on till I am happy with the cloud.

Since these two returned with the Yule LEs this year, you are absolved of your evilness. You'll have to think of something else naughty to do if you want to maintain some kind of evil enabler standards. I think that a lot of people who haven't found quote the "right" rose for them and who had not been able to try Rose Red or the Peacock Queen will be really pleased with one if not both. I couldn't tell you what is in each one of them - I can wear Rose Red and it smells gorgeous, like I am sticking my face in a big bouquet of fresh cut roses. But The Peacock Queen gets that dreaded powdery old rose quality on me - which also happens with Black Rose, Blood Rose, Desire, London, Lucy’s Kiss, and Moon Rose. Just to show you how serious I am about this... I even have a Word Document where I did a search for all the BPAL rose blends, sorted out the ones I could and couldn't wear, listed the types of rose the Lab uses and tried to figure out if there was a common type that was killing certain blends for me. But I can't really tell from the descriptions alone, and there are some types that appear in blends that I can wear and blends that I can't wear (for example, Moroccan rose which is in favorites Three Brides, Harlot & Lucy Westenra, but also in Delight and Rapture, which I can't wear at all).

Are you sensitive to citrus, Nia? Or are the spots where you're using Phobos getting any sun exposure when you're wearing it? Citrus oils are notorious for causing photosensitivity and the grapefruit in Phobos may be concentrated enough to be causing problems for you, either combined w/sun exposure or because you're particularly sensitive to it.

I think I like you. I am going to do a little mod-thing and add anise, aniseed, licorice, liquoirice, and fennel to the subtitle, so this can serve as the thread for people searching for those scents forevermore. I was surprised there wasn't a thread dedicated to this already - after three and a half years, there are only so many things that haven't been covered in Recommendations, you know? I need to go peruse the Will-Call threads to see what people thought of La Befana. I have it in my head that candy charcoal = licorice, and that kept me from ordering a bottle (I am not a fan of licorice smells or tastes, I don't even like fennel as a vegetable ) But of course, if it has licorice, the licorice lovers can rejoice!

Here's a tip for searching longer threads, just FYI (cut and pasted from my post in Beyond Perfume): Open the topic that you are interested in - for example: "Bottles, Containers, supplies galore," "BPAL in Oil Burners, Warmers, Diffusers," "Solid BPAL Perfumes." Then scroll down to the bottom of any page of that topic, where you can see the last post on the page. Right below the last post, you will see a box on the left that contains "Enter Keywords" with a radio button beside it that's labeled "Search Topic." This handy feature will find a list of posts for you within the topic that contain your search term. So if you are only looking for atomizers, search the "Bottles" topic for that. You are thereby relieved of the giant pain in the ass of reading 18 pages of posts looking for what you need.

I'm pretty sure that BPAL has never made a blend with a blueberry note. Maybe someone will mention something that reminded them of blueberry, though. I searched the reviews forums for mentions of blueberry and this is what I found. To replicate the search, search for blueberry, highlight the Reviews subforum, choose Search All Posts and Show Results As Posts.

Hi miyamo! Welcome to the forum (and Recommendations). I'd definitely put The Candy Butcher on the list - it is only available as a 5 ml bottle as it's one of the Carnaval Diabolique LEs, but you can always try to find a decant from a fellow member in the swaps/sales threads or pursue swapping your bottle away if it doesn''t work for you. It's definitely a dark chocolate scent but with a certain creaminess that makes it seem like more than just chocolate to me, like a chocolate baked good. I can't guarantee it = chocolate chip cookie, but I do think it's worth a try. The closest thing in a single scent (i.e. no layering required) that I can think of is Lump of Coal, which smelled like brownies baking in the oven, very similar to the smell of chocolate chip cookies to my nose. I almost hate to mention it because it's incredibly scarce and hard to find, as it was only available during the Yuletide Inquisition 2 years ago, and was one of three scents you might have received if you were deemed to be naughty. There are lots of very skilled layer-ers and combiners around here so I have a feeling you will get some good suggestions that will top mine.

I think Saw Scaled Viper is the new Inferno. (Inferno used to be the guaranteed skin scorcher... ) ClareN's theory about varying levels of cinnamon or cassia in different blends makes a lot of sense to me. It could definitely explain why you could wear certain blends with these spicy notes and others could give you redness and burning. I have had some success diluting spicy blends - Bengal and Al Sharain both gave me the dreaded cinnamon/cassia welts, so I diluted each by about a third with jojoba oil in roller bottles and it seems to have done the trick. I'd advise doing this with a small amount and testing it on yourself a few times before diving in and diluting an entire 5 ml bottle - once you've diluted an oil, it is not kosher to swap or sell it on the secondary market. (Basically, it falls under the same rules about swapping or selling a product made with BPAL - you've literally made a new product, 66% Strength Bengal for example.) Another option for wearing spicy blends can be to make yourself a lotion with them - they are usually quite strong scents, so an imp's worth in 8 ounces of unscented lotion can dilute it enough that it doesn't irritate your skin but you can still enjoy the scent. Another thing to experiment with in small scale first, make a teeny amount and test it on a small area of skin before applying it with abandon. And there's always the scent locket or the room scent option. But if you suspect at all that you are actually experiencing an allergic reaction rather than the kind of sensitivity to "hot" spice notes people have described, cross these ideas off your list and swap that oil away, pronto. What Myotis described sounds like the classic reaction, although I also get a little burning in addition to turning red where I have applied something spicy - but itching, hives, welts that spread beyond the spot where you applied the oil, are all indicators of an allergy.

If you love 51, you need to get your paws on a Silver Cloud ballistic from Lush. It's one of the Christmas LE products for this year - I didn't check to see if they are on the NA site yet, but they were in the store here in Atlanta when I went on Sunday and I got one. Now, I rarely find Lush's descriptions of their scents to describe them that accurately, and this one's no exception. Here's what I got from the UK site: As it hits the water, a whole concoction of sweet orange and lime essential oils, laced with floral gardenia fills your bathroom with a reviving scent. Close your eyes and you`ll feel like you`re floating on cloud nine. Open them again and you`ll find yourself surrounded in a tiny shoal of silvery sparkles in the turquoise blue water. Matched with Mark`s fruity fragrance, Silver Cloud is one of Noriko`s finest creations. I haven't bathed with mine yet, but I was huffing it this morning and trying to put my finger on what it reminded me of when I made the 51 connection. It's very similar to the early stages of 51, bright fruit and white florals - which is very unexpected and refreshing for a Christmas product. I'm really rationing myself on baths right now since we're in a terrible water crisis, but I'm looking forward to trying this one out and until then, I'm letting it sit on my dresser in a little dish as a pomander.

Just a quick note about searching. If you are looking for a thread that you know you have seen and are having trouble finding it, please do the following. First, try a search by topics only. Also limit your search to the subforum where you think you saw it by highlighting that subforum in the search form. Try Recommendations, of course, but sometimes you will have seen a thread in BPAL Chatter that covers a similar topic that doesn't exist here. Anyway, limiting to topics only will definitely help keep your results to a manageable number and limiting to subforums narrows it even more. If you still cannot find the topic, please do not start a new thread asking where it is located. PM the moderator(s) for the subforum where you expected to find it for assistance.

The thread is here. Try using the search term "TAL" searching titles in Recommendations.

I would definitely e-mail customer service for that one, TofuWarrior. The folks at the Lab are the only people who could have the definitive answer for that question.

Random comments on the scents people have brought up in the last handful or so of posts... I wish I didn't get the peach in Tamora, I think it's what keeps Tamora from working on me. Peach wants to turn sharp and unpleasant on me 90% of the time. *shakes fist in peach's general direction* But I can wear Aglaea, which really surprised me! Possibly the only peach scent that works on me. I am sure the other components in each blend bear on that too. But at least peach doesn't ruin two gorgeous amber scents for me. I love Old Scratch and that poor bottle gets neglected I am glad you mentioned it, styro! I bet it's aged a bit and is probably even nicer now. There are several blends I have where lavender serves as more of a glue to hold things together, or to add a little brightness, and I don't really notice it. The Emathides is one, Old Scratch is another and you know what the third one is... Dolce Stil Nuovo. Which has golden amber. I'm really developing an appreciation for the lavender-amber combination now and I don't find those three perfumes to be stereotypically masculine at all. I don't know that I would recommend OS or DSN to someone who was clamoring for a scent that was really heavy on amber, though. I was so excited when Brisingamen went live (I think I can even remember it, was it with the first Pink Moon update?) I immediately ordered a bottle. The strangest thing happens with it, and with Bastet too. I cannot smell either one of these perfumes on me. I smell a little fragrance in the bottle, but I apply some to see how it works on my skin, and wow, it's just a big bunch of nothing. I have heard of this happening to other people with random scents, so I am not shocked or horrified or anything, it was just very weird when it actually happened to me. I have received frimps of both here and there over the past two years or so, tried them again, no dice. I think the spiciness of Snake Oil is reminiscent of pure amber. But it seems to dry down differently on me than blends that I know contain amber. I have to admit, I do not have one of those noses that knows all. Then there are some amber-containing blends that don't smell like amber on me at all. Mouse's Long & Sad Tale is all sweet pea and vanilla on me for hours and hours, 51 is white floral-fruity notes for hours, Lyonesse lets the vanilla talk the most, Verdandi is all apples. I love them though and I am sure the amber is part of what gives them so much staying power, depth and sweetness.

I love B Never gel and I think Honey Moon is a great follow up to B Never shower or bath too. The Honey Bee ballistic is nice (if you can overlook the rhassoul mud in the bottom of the tub afterward), but my absolute favorite Lush honey products were Honey Lumps (aka Honey Comfort) ballistics and Flying Saucers bubble bars. They've been gone for so long now, only some hard core Lushies probably remember them. I have been hard pressed to find anything that smells like Tramp on me - I have a chemistry that makes dry notes drier. Lots of people have found Luperci (one of the Valentine LEs from 06 and 07) turns into Tramp on them... no such luck for me. But yesterday I used some Tramp lotion with Mantis and it was fabulous together. Of course, Tramp lotion was a one-off forum special and is hard to find, Mantis was discontinued a while back. I guess I will enjoy the green patchouli cloud while it lasts. And I heartily second the Potion/Alice combo. If you love one, you are denying yourself so much by not trying the other. I was excited to see that Fluff Ease & New Orleans are nice together - I haven't had a chance to sniff it yet but there's a Lush store in my city, finally - so I am planning to get over there to sniff all the new hair stuff. I love New Orleans! But Flying Fox and Godiva are a bit much for me... is the scent of the Fluff Ease as strong?

You may get some good ideas from this thread - I am not crazy about herbal scents in the big picture, but the best match for herbes de provence I ever tried was Ides of March. There are lots of different herbs in it and no single herb dominates.

I immediately thought of the King of Hearts - the description reads "rosewood and black cherry with white musk, red rose, red musk and a spark of lavender" but I got tons of wood with deep fruity notes from it. Much more woody and less sweet-fruity than The Red Queen, to my nose (and on my skin). But you should try both of those!

Angel Slurry, I may not have had quite enough caffeine to articulate what I am thinking here - but I think I am seeing a little pattern. It seems like perfumes that have some dry notes like woods or vetiver to balance the sweetness or give it some depth seem to be working out for you. I have a friend whose chemistry amps sweetness a lot too and although she can't wear vetiver, I have seen a blend that smells like a pile of sawdust on me blossom into something lovely on her. So this can be a good thing. Anyway, reading over the list of things that you are interested in trying, I would first try Death Adder (vetiver!), Thanatos (has some nice dry woody tones), Highwayman (vetiver again, to help wrassle the jasmine into submission) and Les Infortunes De Vertu (the leather notes made it very dry to my nose). I think you should try the others as well, you don't want to miss out on something that could be fantastic on you, and as you know, you really can't predict exactly what your chemistry is going to do. White Rabbit could work if the pepper and linen notes offset the sweetness enough (it's a scent that seems to smell vastly different to, and on, different people) - pepper is usually a "drier" spice to my nose rather than a sweet one. Snake Oil is a favorite of mine and although it's intense vanilla, I don't find it foody or overly sweet - but I found the berryish note in Australian Copperhead was too much for me. And the rose note in Wanda is one that I can't wear, but the leather could balance it nicely for you. One of my great disappointments that smelled beautiful on my sweet-amping friend was Grandmother of Ghosts (laurel, stargazer lily, splintered woods, peony, mandarin and white musk, pale pepper) - on me, overwhelming cedar, on her a gorgeous musky floral, no single note dominating, with nice spiciness added by the woods & pepper. If you're looking for a wild card for your next imp pack, that would be my suggestion.

Wow, I have googled Mari Mari and I can't find the notes anywhere - I was surprised Basenotes.net didn't have it listed. I figured with a list of the notes you usually have a better shot at finding a match. Maybe someone else will have better luck than me, or will be familiar with it!

This is a really useful thread for me, because nag champa/champaca just clashes with my chemistry something terrible. I had my fingers crossed for Pumpkin Patch 2 this year, hoping the tobacco, tonka & carnation would beat the champa into submission But it was not meant to be! However, those who adore nag champa blends need to get to the pumpkin patch and start digging for PP 2. I predict you will love it.

I had the same experience as Elizabethm, evilmistressoftoast and others who were just overwhelmed by the gooeyness of PP 3. PP 2 was worrisome from the time I ordered, since champaca can mess up a blend for me - I think it would be lovely on people that can wear that note, though! And I kind of knew that 4 wouldn't like me too much because of the sage, which I turn into bandaids. So if you've been paying attention, you might already have guessed that I love No. 1 and No. 5 this year. No. 1 is light, fruity and sweet, and No. 5 is spicy and rich. So they would be my recs. If any of them feature a particular problem note, my advice would be, don't take a chance. Pick the one that sounds like the best match for your skin chemistry and your preferences. The notes that I knew were risky fulfilled my fears and blew it for 2 & 4!