ivyandpeony

Oh, no worries at all! I didn't get a backseat modding vibe from you And my posts are "member opinion" not official mod talk, I'd use VOG for that.

You are right about that, ephemera... but it would be good if newbies read the guidelines thoroughly and tried using the search engine/contacting a moderator to find the information they want before starting threads like this one, considering there is a nine-page existing thread on the subject.

That's a lot of angst over a $25 purchase. Visit this thread, where the subject of natural perfumery's been discussed at lenghth and just make up your own mind when the order arrives.

I bought a bottle of Hermia unsniffed when that scent when live, I thought it sounded so good And I think the description of your bright-orange imp sounds much more like my bottle. There's a lot of pink pepper in it, which is spicy and sweet - I can't say that it actually goes so far as to smell like cake to me, but still, much closer to that description than to the way you describe the second imp. I think it is fairly rare that something actually gets mislabeled at the lab, but between the naturally sourced ingredients and the way aging affects the perfumes (especially bottles vs. imps) the batch variations can seem really drastic sometimes.

Now I'm wondering if someone just got distracted while decanting the Possetts scent and wrote the wrong name or something - I don't think there are any BPAL names that come close, though, so at least you can eliminate one possibility. I've found complete mystery vials when cleaning out drawers and boxes - you know how some of those boutique perfume shops make their own samples for you? They will put them, unlabeled, in a tiny zip-loc bag and put the label on the bag. Like that makes sense. Or even commercially prepared samples sometimes won't have any label or identifying info on the vial itself, they'll use a fancy foldover card that the vial hangs within. So those are always a lot of fun. I don't know if having a mystery name to start with is any more helpful than having no name, though!

I've been around here just a little bit longer than you, but I've never heard of a BPAL called Snow on Bare Shoulders, not even a prototype that's been out for sniffing at Will Calls or what have you. Possets has a Snow on Bare Skin - I wonder if what you have could be an earlier or alternate version, in the vein of BPAL's Lick It, Lick It Again, Lick It One More Time, etc. Maybe some of the Possets enthusiasts could tell you if you asked in that thread.

Hetairae is a gorgeous scent and I do get lots of clove from it, but it is also pretty sweet from the fig and honey. And I may be an oddball, but Pickled Imp definitely falls in the "sweet" category on my skin - like all BPAL scents, YMMV (your mom's mileage may vary ) but I thought I'd mention my experience. It seems like clove is in more BPAL scents with sweet and fruity notes than dry, tobacco-y or spicy ones, but there are a few - Malice and Dracul are two that came to mind. The Smiling Spider definitely gets mentioned most often as the scent that's most like clove cigarettes.

This particular list is a work in progress and even though I am posting it in December 2009, in reality I am quoting a post of mine from sometime in 2008 that hasn't been updated for a while. But watch for that little "edited" line at the bottom, I will update it. This is a list of the most commonly noticed BPAL-to-commercial perfume "smell alikes." if you happen to notice something that seems oft-discussed that I've left off, feel free to drop me a line. If you enjoy discussing this sort of thing, have some comparisons to share or some questions to ask, this thread is the one for you. You'll find it very helpful to search for the perfume name and company within the Recs subforum - it may have its own thread. If it doesn't, and you want to start one, that is fine. You may also find this thread helpful - if you can provide a list of the notes that are in the commercial perfume, people can more easily help you match BPALs that contain those notes and share their experiences about which are dominant in those blends. I will periodically add links here to threads that have lots of discussion and suggestion - if there are only one or two replies to someone's request for a smell-alike or similar scent, I'm going to wait until it's a juicy enough topic to earn a link here. This first list is for specific scents that are very popular and will link you to threads about them if they exist - and when particular BPAL blends have been identified by members as similar, I've attempted to list them for your convenience. Alien by Thierry Mugler: GC 51, UFO related coincidences completely unintentional according to the Lab Angel by Thierry Mugler: GC Xiuhtecuhtli Body Shop White Musk (find and discuss other Body Shop fragrances here, too) Butterfly - Hanae Mori Chanel No. 5: GCs Ozymandias, Dance of Death Chanel No. 19 CK One: GC Vicomte de Valmont; LE House of Mirrors Flowerbomb by Viktor & Rolf: GC Xiuhtecuhtli Jo Malone Red Roses: LE The Peacock Queen Old Spice: GCs Dracul, Omen; LE Count Dracula, Mr. Jacquel (Yes, lots of us LOVE Old Spice! ) Opium by YSL People of The Labyrinths - Luctor et Emergo Poison by Dior: Venom (sadly discontinued), GCs Spellbound, Shadow Witch Orchid; LE Dark Delicacies Shalimar: GCs Vixen, Haunted, Snake Oil, Ravenous; LEs Jacob's Ladder 05, Stardust 05 YSL Yvresse (fka Champagne) - GC Bon Vivant There are a few companies that members seem to really like, and you can find links to threads discussing their scents here: BPAL blends that resemble Victoria's Secret fragrances BPAL blends that resemble Bath & Body Works scents BPAL blends that resemble Aveda scents

Be sure to check out the Lush similarities thread that's pinned at the top of Recs - there's been some B Never discussion there too. (You can search the thread using the "search topic" box that appears at the top and bottom of the topic itself. )

It might be worth talking to your doctor/allergist about it - but it does seem to me that if you are allergic to something in food form, the essential oil made from that food could trigger an allergic reaction. I have heard of people who are allergic to shellfish or nuts who can't even handle those foods or prepare them for others. I remember hearing somewhere that black pepper and pink pepper come from unrelated plants, so that might be something worth researching - if that's truly the case you might be allergic to one and not the other.

Benadryl cream/ointment or hydrocortisone cream will work pretty quickly to set you right. My husband and I both have itchy, reactive skin so we have both on hand all the time, not specifically for BPAL related problems of course.

The list I compiled in the first post came from posts that people made in the big "comparisons" thread as well as comparisons from reviews. What I did was search for "Antique Lace" within posts, within the Reviews forum - I got 41 pages of results because it pulled all of the AL reviews from that thread, too, but I skimmed those pages looking for a pattern, where more than one or two people mentioned that a scent reminded them of AL, and if there were some comments that seemed to be typical that stuck with me, that's where those comments came from. so THESE comments are mine, from the ones I've tried. LEs Atrocious Attic - definitely see the resemblance, although there's more violet and more of a powdery quality. Bearded Lady - I don't remember BL well, but I do remember that it went sharp and odd on me, so I didn't get a resemblance. Berenice - definitely a lineny floral, worth a try if you track it down Black Lace - much darker and muskier than AL. I wouldn't seek it as a replacement because I find it so different and it is so hard to find - you'll swap your dearest bottle or pay through the nose on eBay. Boo (current Halloweenie) - One of the few vanilla scents that's ever gone a little plasticky on me, but a lot of people are loving it and I can see why they are making the comparison. Cottonmouth (current Carnaval Diabolique) - I need to revisit this one. Enraged Bunny Musk - I can see a resemblance here, on the powdery/lineny side as opposed to the vanillic side. The Girl (current Halloweenie) - definitely! One of those scents like AL that reminds you of vanilla even though vanilla isn't listed as a note, has that airy quality too. Hope and Faith (current CD) - Very similar, but if you do not like rose or violet respectively, you will not like these. They are very strong on their respective floral notes. La Fee Verte - never saw the vaguest resemblance. This one's very heavy on the honey and anise-y absinthe notes on my skin. Love's Philosophy - much creamier and sweeter than AL on me. Monsterbait: Underpants - Also a lot creamier and sweeter than AL to me. Opuhi - don't get much resemblance, it's more similar to Regan to my nose. The Oval Portrait - maybe a vague resemblance, much more floral, and that's lots of honeysuckle/white florals. Pink Moon 2007 - See Hope and Faith - to me this is like a carnation version of those scents. Snow White - I find Snow White to be unique, I am one of the few people who don't smell vanilla, coconut or almond in it. Nothing about it reminds me of AL. White Rose - It is a clean and crisp scent but I don't find it very close to AL. GCs Black Opal - definitely, whatever gives it that crisp mineral quality is similar to the crisp linen note or notes to me. Dirty - on my skin, this one almost veers to ozone instead of clean linen. Nope. Dorian - I'd say it's worth a try, the lemon & fougere add a crispness to the vanilla. Can be too masculine on me at times. Euphrosyne - this one's hard-core gardenia on me with very little of anything else. Lyonesse - definitely worth a try as well. Has an airy vanilla quality. Morocco - not much resemblance to me, but lots of people disagree. I find it much spicier, more carnation-heavy, very little vanilla. Mouse's Long and Sad Tale - definite similarities. Peitho - very floral on me, little vanilla. Regan - a lot heavier and sweeter than AL without any linen or airy quality Vechernyaya - mostly a white musk blend on me Victoria - heavily floral but with a creamy vanilla undertone White Rabbit - this is a creamy, honeyed pepper on me, no resemblance Zephyr - a lemony white musk on me, very little resemblance others Haloes (Retail Exclusive) - One of those occasional odd experiences - I could barely smell this on my skin when I first got a decant; when I bought a bottle at WF I loved it at first but every time I wore it, it faded in about 30 minutes so it eventually was re-homed. So I just don't know this one well enough. so... there you have it from me =)

Here's the official announcement Beth made last week about it - she doesn't know yet if they're going to have to discontinue it permanently or if they'll be able to overcome the component problem. And one modly note - if you haven't had a chance to read over this topic, please take a quick look at it - and please take any discussion of other companies' scents to their respective threads in Retail Therapy and/or to PM. I've actually had to send a couple PMs about this lately in other threads so I figured I'd go ahead and mention it here. It's certainly not something that I send reminders or warnings over, just a housekeeping thing, and I think it's pretty well explained in my posts there, but feel free to shoot me a PM about it if you have any questions.

This comment is just to point out the differences in skin chemistry & perception, of course, not to invalidate Beevee's comparison - her post just jumped out at me because Brit was one of my go-to scents before discovering BPAL and I still get fond memories when I smell iam very fond of it although I can't remember the last time I wore anything other than a BPAL perfume. (I still get the shower gel in my Christmas stocking from my MIL. ) On me, Brit has/had tons of lime and green notes, and even after drying down it never was anywhere as warm and spicy as Morocco. But then again, on my skin, Morocco has lots and lots of carnation that never goes away and I don't get any vanilla from it. (Add to that the batch variations you get from natural perfumes - enough occur in Morocco that I think there's an entire thread in Chatter discussing the variations in Morocco, whether your version smells heavily sandalwoody or carnationy, etc., and you can really start getting confused ) It has me thinking, though, if I personally were to want to replicate Brit, I might be able to layer Morocco with something a little bit green and citrusy. I wore Anais Anais in college and I haven't been struck by a BPAL that reminded me of it yet.

AmandaKay, those three scents are the only ones that actually include tomato leaf in the description. I did a search in reviews and found that some members have caught a whiff of this elusive note in Envy, Hemlock, Black Hellebore, Belladonna (makes sense to me, all are green abd herbal scents ), Pruno (which did playfully mention ketchup in the description) and oddly, Aizen-Myoo (not that I doubt them, my skin has made odd notes that you'd never expect out of certain scents too). Pruno seems to be love it or hate it scent, so if you haven't tried it I feel sure you can track a bottle or decant down very easily in swaps and all the others are GC. Tomato leaf also seems to pop up in the odd bottle of Chaos Theory. It may not be as popular a note as vanilla or amber or sandalwood, but its devotees really love it and one of these days it wouldn't surprise me if Beth gave them another scent.

bumping this one for your Halloween chatter =)

Red musk has proven unique and so popular that it eventually spawned its own thread - if you want to take a look at it, you can find it <a href="http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=48594" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.

Too-large signatures continue to be a bit of an issue around here, so we would appreciate it if everyone would double check theirs. We do continue to monitor them and issue reminders (or warnings). We also appreciate when members report problem signatures. I've quoted a couple of important things below from past announcements/posts that may help you with any signature problems you are experiencing and I'm including a few tips. Some people have told me they don't know how to determine pixel size - to do so, right click on the image and choose "Properties." Among other info listed, you'll see "Image Dimensions" which provides the width (first number) and height of the image in pixels. Look at the box size that shriekingviolet posted in the second quote below - if your signature is significantly taller or wider than this visual guide, chances are you need to edit it. Unless you are especially skilled at resizing images, chances are you will just need to remove some images. It's very possible that you can exceed the height and width maximums without using up the maximum 8 images allowed, depending on the size of your images, so don't rely on the number of images alone to keep your signature within the guidelines. If you have signature questions, feel free to PM a moderator or administrator - just be aware that we aren't able to create signatures for you or work out problems with coding if you are having trouble due to the constraints on our time. There are some threads in Forum Questions that you may find helpful: Adding links to signatures and Formatting signature pictures. You can ask specific questions about Dragon Cave, etc. in those threads, but be aware that any info you get from forum members other than moderators that is in conflict with the guidelines (i.e. the number of images you can have, the size of images that are permissible) can get you a reminder or a warning if you decide to rely upon it. When in doubt about those issues, read the guidelines and if still in doubt, ask a moderator. We're giving everyone two weeks (until July 6) to comply. After that, we'll be issuing reminders to offenders. A special note to Dragon Cave players: you must keep a close eye on your signature if you want to post them there. As your dragons grow, your signature might grow beyond the guidelines. Some adult dragons are taller than allowed, and having multiple adult dragons is likely to exceed the signature maximums. As warnings will be issued on a second offense, you won't want to let any developments of your "pets" surprise you. ... Some helpful Dragon Cave info as well as a visual aid for sizing your signature: Thanks savage rose! Basically if your signature can fit in this box: and there no double rows of images** or images taller than 100px, you're square. If you have text in your signature that goes wider than that box it's ok. Your row of images just can't be any wider than that. **except in cases where you images are so short that their combined height is less than 100px, which is the height of my avatar if you need a visual guide.

I think maybe with me, the linen notes in AL are similar to the crisp/crystalline notes in The Girl and that's part of the similarity I'm noticing, too. With MLST, I don't get the musky undertones and I tend to amp the sweet pea (which doesn't bother me, it is one of my favorite GC scents ) With the way that our chemistries can vary, it's definitely another one worth trying for anyone who missed out on buying AL or who wants to try to conserve their supply until we know if it will be around permanently again.

I found this over in BPAL Chatter and had to quote it - until Hillary mentioned it, I hadn't put these two together. Both are vanilla-y, lightly floral light musks (I know The Girl doesn't have vanilla listed as a note, but neither does Antique Lace!) AL is deeper and richer, The Girl is brighter and more crystalline. But if you like AL and are upset about its hiatus, try The Girl.

I have a feeling that this would be a violation of the vendor's terms of service with PayPal - best bet would be to e-mail the Lab to find out. You know that PayPal wants those fees, no matter how good your intentions are. I think the only issue that you open yourself up to personally by doing this with a vendor is that you probably are waiving any rights to dispute the transaction if you have a problem with your order, so in general, I"d only do it with someone I really, really trusted - some smaller e-tailers who use their accounts for personal and business purposes probably can get away with it if they don't receive too many "gifts." Delphinine, how long has it been since you placed a large BPAL order w/PayPal? They instituted a limit on characters in the comment box a while back (300 characters max). If you don't have room for everything you need to say, you can just say "details to follow via e-mail." Then send an e-mail to the answers@bpal addy with all your order details and be sure to include your PayPal e-mail addy if it happens to be different from the one you are using. I always tell them the amount of money I sent, when I sent it, include the transaction number PayPal assigned, etc. although I don't know if that is all necessary, it's a Virgo thing. Anyway, Bill or another helpful CS rep will match it up w/your payment and all will be well.

The more colors they add to a tee, the more exponentially expensive it gets, which is why they try to limit those designs to one or two ink colors - that's probably why they were able to be more creative with color on the label. Not that lots of color on the lunacy tees wouldn't be fun but Ted & co. want to keep them within a more affordable price range.

I love Aeronwen, too, and having tried a lot of BPAL scents I really haven't found anything like it. (I love the word "misty" to describe it, that's perfect!) If anyone has noticed a resemblance to something else, I'd be thrilled to hear it - in the meantime I think I am going to have to get another bottle for a back up once the Carnaval scents aren't available anymore.

IIRC the key contact person at Healthy Living is also a forum member but for the life of me I can't remember her name! I will take a peek around and see if I can jog my memory - if I can't find it and no one else pipes up, you might just want to call them. This is the contact info from the first page of the thread.

I'm not the first person to notice a resemblance based on what reviewers have said so far - so if you loved Gluhwein from last year's Yule Inquisition but have had trouble tracking it down, try Soothing System. You won't get the spices, but I found the wine note to be the same, to the point that I immediately thought "GLUHWEIN!" when I opened the bottle. From there a dab of whatever spicy blend floats your boat: I haven't tried any yet but I think Bengal, Plunder, Sin, & Al Sharain could all be good layering candidates (not that S.S. isn't nice on its own, but if you're seeking the Gluhwein effect.)