ivyandpeony

I love Skin Sin from Lush, which has their black currant scent. I have read comments on the NA Lush forum about some of the black currant products - there are a number of people who pick up an off note from black currant that reminds them of body odor. I do know what they are talking about, because I have picked up a whiff of that from different berry notes at different times. But it makes me wonder if there's some American prejudice against black currant, at least among rabid Lushies! I would add Gomorrah to the currant list - the notes don't specify whether it's red or black, but the blend is incredibly rich and fruity and doesn't have any of the tartness that I associate with red currant. The blend where I really detect the most black currant is Eat Me - of course, there's lots of vanilla and bakery cake supporting it, so if you are not a foody person, you may not like that one (I see it did not make your list). Of the list you've compiled, Masabakes & Bordello are the only ones I have worn more than once (neither Lurid nor Medea worked well enough for more than a preliminary sniff, swipe, and wash-off, unfortunately). Masabakes is extremely spicy on me and a little more heavily fruity than I like, but I think that you should definitely try it in your quest! And I have always associated the deep, sweet undercurrent (no pun intended) of Bordello with plum, but I may have to pull out my imp and try it again to see if I smell black currant in there.

I got my Carnaval Diabolique order on Thursday and Gennivre is fabulous honey! (YMMV though... my friend who was here sniffing with me said she smelled incredibly strong mint and didn't like it at all. Poor girl! ) Bengal does have a honey note and I love it so - therefore I was heartbroken when it made me break out in those infamous cinnamon welts. My first solution was to dilute some in a roller bottle, but somehow I just feel wrong about that. (I'm so weird). Then a friend frimped me Bengal and Sudha in a swap, and a light bulb went on. I mixed equal amounts of Bengal and Sudha Segara in a little roller bottle and the combo is DIVINE. It's sweet, spicy, creamy honey deliciousness. You certainly don't have to commit to mixing up a bottle's worth, just try it layered on your skin...

I second the White Light and Lionheart recommendations! Lionheart helped me through a period of grief when I really got stuck and was having trouble moving on. Many of the Halloween and all of the Dracula blends are new, so no one has tried them yet... If you find incense/church scents comforting, All Saints (LE), Cathedral or Kostnice might be nice. Vanilla, lavender and patchouli all have calming qualities - so while Old Scratch might not sound like the name of a comfort scent, I find it very comforting! Almost any of my vanilla favorites seem to have that effect on me (The Mouse's Long Sad Tale, Black Opal, Antique Lace, Lyonesse).

This one is beautiful - I will start by saying that you absolutely must try this on your skin. In the bottle, and wet, you will get the impression that it is nothing but cherry. Cherry in giant neon letters... cherry turned up to eleven... but there's so much more to The Phantom Calliope. Within minutes, the cherry begins to back off and the patchouli and spices start to emerge and oh my! You end up with a rich, gorgeous scent of spiced fruit, nicely balanced and with the cherry behaving itself like a proper lady. It has me dreaming of autumn and the holidays, with the scent of fruit and spices in the air as you're baking goodies for your family or making a fruit compote to accompany Thanksgiving dinner. If you are a fan of Blood Moon or Alone, the cardamom here is reminiscent of the cardamom in that blend, warm and smooth. And I can't compare the cherry to any that I have experienced in other BPAL blends - it seems darker and richer than the cherry that I love in The Queen of Hearts, for example. But it isn't overly cloying and sweet either, maybe because of the verbena. If you were passing on this one simply because of the cherry, I implore you, don't let it pass you by! It's such a dark, lovely scent.

Honey Moon is my complete holy grail honey scent... it's so gorgeous. I will be sad when mine is finally gone one day. But as long as I can keep slathering Hetairae, Sed N.S., and Jezebel I will be just fine. O tends to be more vanilla than honey on me, and Sudha is sweet ginger. I adore them both (have 10 ml bottles stashed away) but because of the way they smell on me, I didn't think about them as honey scents til they were mentioned here. I never stop marveling at the different things our chemistries do to these scents!

Hi Revenant - welcome to the forum! I found a previous thread titled "Southwest and Desert Scents" so I merged it with yours, so you can peruse some of the earlier suggestions about scents that evoke thoughts of this area. I was going to suggest Nocnitsa - yes, it's named after a Polish witch, but it has a cool night feel with the smell of evergreens floating in the air. Black Forest is also a good candidate (pine with ambergris, black musk, juniper and cypress), and I find Thanatopsis (pine, juniper and musk) to be gorgeous on the skin and as a room scent.

I can't wait for my Carnaval Diabolique order - not just for the awesome CD scents- but because I ordered a bottle of Bitch. I'm really looking forward to trying it, since I have had the two nastiest PMS months on record. (Yes, the government tracks my PMS because it's that dangerous. ) It's awesome that Beth came up with a Panacea blend for PMS.

I've got a bit of an old Autumn Lodge stash & I find it similar to Samhain (at least the 2005 version), although I find that Samhain has many more nuances on my skin. At a recent visit to a YC shop, I didn't find any of their autumn scents to have that je nais c'est quoi of Autumn Lodge - that combination of sweet spicy smells and burning leaves that my nose picks up.

Due to the increase in the numbers of members - and new members - I am going to archive threads a little more quickly than I had been. Once you've had a topic up for five weeks and it hasn't been active for a while, it's subject to being moved to the Post Cemetery, although it may not be moved immediately. The topics that are most likely to get moved directly there are the ones where you're seeking specific recs for a specific person (you, mom, a friend, etc) based on past likes and particular notes - something that's not likely to be of use to other forum members in the future. If you started a new topic that's relevant to others and/or of general interest, chances are it will be left here - although I do reserve the right to merge it with another topic down the road. And it goes without saying, but I will mention it - if you start a duplicate topic, it will be merged and you will receive a warning. We've worked very hard to compile the information in this pinned section for you, so please look it over first - it might answer some of your questions! And of course, use the search engine before you start a new thread. If you have any questions or problems, feel free to PM me.

This is another thread that I thought would be just fine "unpinned" since it shows up easily upon a search for "holiday*" in this subforum. We're big kids and we can use the search engine (if not, it's time to learn! ) As always, you can PM me if you have problems finding a topic in this subforum or if you have any questions!

I decided to unpin this topic because the pinned area seems a bit cluttered, and this seems to be a topic that should be quite easy to find with the search engine - all that's necessary is the word "interview" on the Recommendations subforum.

I am planning to merge some threads into a big foody deliciousness thread, so I appreciate your idea, Hollibear. I figured something like Cake, Candy, Cookies and Sweets would cover it - what do you guys think?

I love the original title of this thread - "i don't want to smell like a baby's bottom..." I just altered it slightly, though, so if people are doing a search by thread title it will be sure to turn up. I had a happy experience recently with Enraged Bunny Musk! When I first tried it, shortly after receiving my package from the lab, it was nothing but a sickly-sweet baby powder on me. But since I am a terrible packrat and procrastinator, it went into the BPAL drawer anyway. I figured, well, I will try it once again before I swap it away in case it's my hormones, something I ate, a bug flew up my nose... Tried it again a few months later and hooray! It is gorgeous linden blossom and white musk - like a longer-lasting, stronger cousin of The Unicorn. So there can be happy endings to the baby bottom stories.

I thought it might be time for us to revisit this topic. So many new scents have come out since sarahjay started this thread last year... any new ideas for all of us?

Hi Neuilly - what, the word "figgiest" didn't come to mind? Here's the figgy thread, and I am sure you'll get some more suggestions after this pops up on the front page!

I have the same allergic history you do, Maddi - no known skin allergies and a few episodes of mysetry hives (although I am allergic to penicillin). I haven't broken out from Dixie Love Perfume, although I do think it may have a bit of cinnamon in it. If you have tried Love Me from the Voodoo oils, DLP smells a bit similar to me - and I think there's a bit of cinnamon in Love Me. The skin on my neck is definitely the most sensitive I have - so I will use caution in applying DLP there! I usually apply BPAL on elbows, wrists, cleavage and then a bit on my scalp at the back of my neck.

Maybe something fresh and light would work to please everyone's noses, myoubi - here are some you could try: Shanghai (lemon verbena and green tea), Embalming Fluid (aloe, green tea and lemon), Zephyr (clean white musk and lemon), Dirty (lovely clean super-light floral), Kumiho (white tea and ginger), Sudha Segara (creamy but bright ginger). I think anything along those lines would probably avoid the cloying, heavy scents you seem to want to avoid!

Drewreporting, I would definitely go ahead and try Masquerade and Vixen! If Karma perfume is fading on you, they may not seem heavy to your nose - I have Karma also and it is pretty strong on me. So sometimes it's a matter of personal preference, body chemistry, or a combination... Masquerade is my favorite "Lushy" BPAL. As for aquatics, you should check out this thread to start. If you reply to the thread, it will get bumped up to the front page of Recs and you're likely to get some good input including more recent releases.

I wonder if there's cassia in the blend - I don't think that it technically is considered to be the same plant/species, etc. as cinnamon(?) Cardamom also smells similar to cinnamon in some blends to me. Sorry that you had a reaction though! I have had reactions to a blend that I have worn safely before, so it's not totally uncommon. Some things to try - make sure not to apply after a shower or bath; apply unscented lotion as a barrier between your skin and your BPAL; don't apply when you're feeling warm, overheated, or have been especially active; and/or try making a diluted blend with a bit of carrier oil in a separate bottle and see if that prevents a reaction.

Just adding my support for Queen of Sheba - it's so spicy on me, I love it - and Baghdad - the rose is a background player if I even pick it up at all. And Al Sharain is super spicy clove on me, very edible but not overly sweet.

I think you hit the nail on the head - you should have made him try some things on his skin instead of letting him just sniff the imps and bottles. The scents can be so intense and overwhelming from the bottle, especially if you aren't accustomed to oils. Add to that the fact that he sniffed tons of them, and that could account for it all blurring into one big smell for him. Maybe you should try this for your future encounters. Every time you get together with him, swipe each of his wrists with a new scent. Let him smell them wet, then don't let him smell them again for 30 minutes. I think he'll be amazed by the development of the scents. Are there any commercial scents that he likes? You can google those to figure out what notes are in them, and let him try BPAL blends with those notes.

Josey! Law school hasn't changed you.... yet. I gave Eat Me a whirl yesterday - despite the description including "3 vanilla cakes" this one is crazy fruity on me. The currants are remiscent of, but not identical to, the plum in Snake Charmer - they actually seemed a little boozy. Eat Me & Mouse's Tale seem to be doing such wildly diverse things on different people, I think the only logical thing to do is to treat yourself to both of them so you can decide for yourself. After all, there are only so many things you can indulge in when you're studying for the bar, but perfume is definitely on the OK list, isn't it?

I'll do another try of Eat Me this weekend and comment on it, since I have only tried it once from the imp when I was trying a bunch of other imps (in that Yay! my order is here kind of frenzy ) But I am a huge fan of Antique Lace as well as the Mouse. Neither one is foody to my nose in the least - I'd categorize AL as a rich, musky vanilla with floral tones and MLST as a light, powdery floral vanilla. On me, MLST has a lot of sweet pea and white musk evenly balanced with the vanilla - whereas AL is predominantly vanilla. So, I owe you an Eat Me review...

I'm late to the party, but Silk Road is my summertime substitute for Snake Oil. It seems to have the same spices but much less heavy sweetness (and while I don't really get patchouli from Snake Oil, I definitely don't get it from Silk Road). I was very patchouli-averse until entering the BPAL universe, so I sympathize - but we have the best smelling dirty hippies anywhere. And I have really grown fond of a lot of patchouli blends in the almost-two-years of BPAL sniffing and wearing I've experienced, so write yourself a note and see where you stand two years from now. A lot of people find that their tastes change!

Isn't there a politer way of saying that, or at least explaining what you don't like about them? The artworks that each Salon scent is based on are featured on the Salon page of the Lab's site. I took that as irony — mistaking known artworks as being Macha's design, then pretending they weren't up to her usual standard. A joke, not a slam. *shrug* Maybe a , , JK or something could have been included, if that's what was intended. Irony and sarcasm don't translate well without vocal inflection and facial expressions, as we all know, even when they're intended in a humorous way. I'm as irreverent as anyone around here, but that just came off as a blunt and inconsiderate comment to me - hence my post.