Similarities Between BPAL Scents - GC and general discussion

[strahlend]

You've already got a lot of ideas to work with here, but my recommendations are:

 

Lady Una - Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices.

 

La Petit Mort - The scent of warm, damp skin flushed with the glow of passion, touched by the luxuriant potency of ylang ylang and myrrh.

 

And I agree that A Wonderful Light and Womb Furie might work for you too.

[lookingglass]

I'm an O lover and have to also 2nd: Haunted, Womb Furie, Dragon's Milk, Bastet, Lights of Men's Lives

 

and will add

 

Thousands of Lights (it's like Bastet light, to me-super snuggly)

Door-for a punchier honey

Tobacco Honey-smokey, sexy honey

[chewy525]

I'm not an O lover, but I really like A Wonderful Light from the Yules and many people compare that to O.

Thank you Patina! I appreciate you mentioning that to me

 

I'm an O lover and have to also 2nd: Haunted, Womb Furie, Dragon's Milk, Bastet, Lights of Men's Lives

 

and will add

 

Thousands of Lights (it's like Bastet light, to me-super snuggly)

Door-for a punchier honey

Tobacco Honey-smokey, sexy honey

Thanks so much

 

You've already got a lot of ideas to work with here, but my recommendations are:

 

Lady Una - Honey musk, green tea leaf, blackberry leaf, vanilla bean, and fae spices.

 

La Petit Mort - The scent of warm, damp skin flushed with the glow of passion, touched by the luxuriant potency of ylang ylang and myrrh.

 

And I agree that A Wonderful Light and Womb Furie might work for you too.

Thanks so much!

[chewy525]

Dragon's Milk! Absolutely! It's my 'warm blankie, snuggled with the kitties and a hot cocoa' sort of scent. I love it.

 

Eclipse is also a lovely scent, if you like almond and cinnamon as well -- it's a more amped-up scent but still has that warm sweet comfort to it.

 

If you like a little booziness in your scent too, the LE Spooky is gorgeous, as are both Grog (butterscotch, the booze adds a gorgeous little edge to the sweetness) and the LE Egg Nog.

And to think, I just gave my Dragon's Milk to someone. I was sending some frimps and just grabbed randomly. Note to self: sniff frimps before sending to someone else.

Thank you.

[ViolettaMort]

Hi guys I'm new and I'm actually looking for a scent similar to the mix of patchouli, vanilla and lavender. - I'm more of a classic Gothic smell. If anyone can help me find either one of the scents that'll be great.

 

 

~VM

[subtlesiren]

Hi guys I'm new and I'm actually looking for a scent similar to the mix of patchouli, vanilla and lavender. - I'm more of a classic Gothic smell. If anyone can help me find either one of the scents that'll be great.

 

 

~VM

 

First off, ! Tombeur, from the Vampires Don't Sleep Alone line has all of those notes. The patchouli and vanilla are more prominent than the lavender, but it probably depends on skin chemistry. It is a dark, sensual scent. And it definitely has that Gothic vibe you mentioned!

[Monday]

Hi guys I'm new and I'm actually looking for a scent similar to the mix of patchouli, vanilla and lavender. - I'm more of a classic Gothic smell. If anyone can help me find either one of the scents that'll be great.

 

 

~VM

 

Hi ! Dance of Death (Ars Moriendi) has a purple dark gothic scent even though it doesn't have lavender in it. It also smells slightly old-fashioned .

 

Dance of Death: A gloriously elegant representation of Lady Death. Dry, bone-white orris, black musk, serpentine patchouli and our murkiest myrrh.

[Eschezhivet]

Hmm, not all of these are currently available GC scents, but I was leery of starting an entire topic just for a question that might turn out irrelevant or... something. You see, I've been reading reviews and bookmarking potential scents-to-try by the boatload, and I noticed that a lot of the ones that caught my attention tended to mention wood and/or resin. Going back and reading the reviews for those particular scents back-to-back, I started wondering how similar they were to one another in person (especially since I am such a newbie to perfumery in general). For some, like Yggdrasil, there were enough mentions of other notes that I could imagine the difference without difficulty, but for others, I was a little less sure. I found one discussion of comparison between resin/incense scents, but not a similar one for the woods.

 

So! tl;dr -- can anyone tell me how the following scents compare to one another?

 

 

Ochosi

Tristran

Aziraphale

Bony Moon

Lear

 

Mandrake

Norns' Farmhouse

 

(and any others?)

Edited March 26, 2012 by Eschezhivet

[Vega]

So! tl;dr -- can anyone tell me how the following scents compare to one another?

 

 

Ochosi

Tristran

Aziraphale

Bony Moon

Lear

 

Mandrake

Norns' Farmhouse

 

(and any others?)

 

I'm probably a bit late, but I hope this still helps!

 

Of your list, I've only tried Ochosi, Aziraphale, and Lear. They are completely unlike each other. Ochosi smells evergreen (from the spruce); Aziraphale is extremely dry, pale wood; Lear is woody but also strongly herbal (from the sage and bay). Keep in mind that each wood note has its own distinct scent, and other notes in the blend also contribute to the whole scent. So even though all those blends are "woody", I'd say that they'll all smell very different from each other.

 

*looks through notes lists* I haven't tried the others, but these are my thoughts on them... Tristran will be pretty complex, since it has many different notes. Mandrake is probably going to be earthy and "rooty". The Norns' Farmhouse may be very green and less woody. Bony Moon is probably going to major on sandalwood and cedar.

 

Hope this is helpful.

 

 

ETA: A-ha, dug up some old threads for recs if you're looking for especially woody scents.

Edited April 10, 2012 by Vega

[Eschezhivet]

I'm probably a bit late, but I hope this still helps!

 

Of your list, I've only tried Ochosi, Aziraphale, and Lear. They are completely unlike each other. Ochosi smells evergreen (from the spruce); Aziraphale is extremely dry, pale wood; Lear is woody but also strongly herbal (from the sage and bay). Keep in mind that each wood note has its own distinct scent, and other notes in the blend also contribute to the whole scent. So even though all those blends are "woody", I'd say that they'll all smell very different from each other.

 

*looks through notes lists* I haven't tried the others, but these are my thoughts on them... Tristran will be pretty complex, since it has many different notes. Mandrake is probably going to be earthy and "rooty". The Norns' Farmhouse may be very green and less woody. Bony Moon is probably going to major on sandalwood and cedar.

 

Hope this is helpful.

 

Ahhh, thank you! Honestly I got a bit ~WILD WHIRLING WURDZ??~ before even making it a quarterway through all that unexplored potential I'm curious -- what do you mean by "pale"?

[TheFrenchWaffle]

I finally got around to testing a few imps that I received in a swap (Pepper, and War). I fell in love with these two, are there any scents similar to either of these? Shub-Niggurath seems to almost match War, but I am having a hard time finding anything similar to Pepper.

[Vega]

Ahhh, thank you! Honestly I got a bit ~WILD WHIRLING WURDZ??~ before even making it a quarterway through all that unexplored potential I'm curious -- what do you mean by "pale"?

(Sorry again for the lateness!) The wood in Aziraphale also smells light and dry and gentle, as opposed to heavy or intense or thick. I also strongly associate colours with smells, and the colour I get from smelling Aziraphale is a very light brown, almost like old ivory. I guess that's what I mean by "pale wood"!

 

I'd also suggest looking at the review threads for the blends you're interested in, to get a good range of impressions!

[alterosen]

I finally got around to testing a few imps that I received in a swap (Pepper, and War). I fell in love with these two, are there any scents similar to either of these? Shub-Niggurath seems to almost match War, but I am having a hard time finding anything similar to Pepper.

I would give Hermia a try - it has that sweet pink pepper that makes Pepper so interesting but is a bit more golden in feel.

Edited June 12, 2012 by alterosen

[catalyst]

I just found out today by accident that these are all pretty similar:

 

Herbert West - "Aftershave, embalming fluid, and splatterings from a panoply of reanimation reagents."

 

Rocking-Horse-Fly - "Shellacked wood, sap, sawdust, and privet."

 

Embalming Fluid - "White musk, green tea, aloe and lemon."

 

Sea of Glass - "A scent of inimitable purity, crystalline grace, and limitless light."

 

I tried on Herbert West, and in my review mentioned how I was scared off by the description. What I didn't realize is that it literally meant Embalming Fluid as part of the notes on it. Embalming Fluid is the only one of these I haven't personally tried, but the Herbert West reviews say that it's almost the same as Embalming Fluid but with a bit of aftershave added. I do get a little musk in it too. Rocking-Horse-Fly is very similar, but more green and almost sharp. Sea of Glass definitely has a floral in it that makes it too feminine for me, and it's more aquatic than the others, but still very similar.

Edited June 28, 2012 by catalyst

[jamcde03]

just recieved a frimp of lights of mens lives and was struck by how similar it is to blossoms in springtime- beeswax all day. BIS is fruitier where LOML is spicier, but if i had discovered the GC first i probably wouldnt have sprung for the luper

 

just recieved a frimp of lights of mens lives and was struck by how similar it is to blossoms in springtime- beeswax all day. BIS is fruitier where LOML is spicier, but if i had discovered the GC first i probably wouldnt have sprung for the luper

[DJ Sin]

Is the Red Queen similar to Conical Beast?

 

They both have black cherry listed as their top note?

[alheimurinn]

I don't know what it is about this one exactly, but I am absolutely in love with it. I'm very new to BPAL and to most fragrance oils or perfumes in general so am still not great at picking out the specific notes yet. Maybe it is the amber, or the musk? I want to say it is something resiny, but in a sweet-smoky way? Does that even make sense? haha -

 

Does anyone have any recommendations they could give that are maybe similar in scent or just similar in the feel of this one?

 

The only other ones that I have taken a liking to, though not quite as much, are Spanish Red Carnation and The Lurid Library - again, any similar scents/similar feel to these?

 

Would be very grateful for your help.

Edited February 2, 2013 by alheimurinn

[Balame]

Weirdly enough I haven't tried any of the oils you mentioned, and I've been a fan of BPAL for years - chalk it up to the Lab's endless catalog. I'll try and help out though! It sounds like you're into darker scents? I like vetiver as well (most people either love it or hate it) and it's likely the smoky-sweet scent you're getting from Prurience.

 

I think you might enjoy Azathoth (Tangerine, saffron, vetiver, black amber and cedarwood). It has both the vetiver and amber you like from Prurience, and the tangerine/saffron give it a citrus edge. The Lab also released a Haitian Vetiver single note in October, so if you're open to tracking down LEs, you may want to try that. Some other recs:

 

Silas Ruthyn (Opium smoke, opium tar, mandarin, dark musk, patchouli, tonka, vetiver, and frankincense.)

This is a Dark Delicacies retail oil, but you could probably swap for it as well. Lots of matching notes between this and Prurience: the musk, tonka, vetiver. I imagine all the opium would make it nice and smoky.

 

The Great He-Goat (Haitian vetiver, Egyptian amber, carnation, black musk, pomegranate, patchouli, and smoked ginger.)

 

Kroenen (Shining black leather, gleaming metal, labdanum, and myrrh.)

This is one of my favorites, it's just a beautiful vetiver with sweetened incense, resin and a hint of metal.

 

Jacob's Ladder (Golden amber, galbanum, benzoin, ambrette, rockrose, costus and tonka.)

This is quite a bit lighter than the things you've listed, but it has THE most stunning amber.

 

You'd probably dig tobacco blends as well, so keep an eye out for scents that include it. Hellhound on My Trail and The Antikythera Mechanism are pretty popular.

[crimescenecleanup]

It sounds like we have similar tastes...I'll try to come up with a list of vetiver and carnation heavy-blends that you might like.

[alheimurinn]

Balame, thank you for the suggestions. Will definitely add those to my must-try list!

 

crimescenecleanup, would love if you could come up with a list of vetiver and carnation blends.. the vetiver must be something I am drawn to - I have a bottle of vetiver essential oil, and from that alone I wouldn't have thought it was something I was too keen on, but there must be something to it mixed in with the different blends that I like.

 

Thank you both.

[Foxdreams]

I'm generally a big fan of resin/amber/warm notes. I love honey, cream, and vanilla smells, and on me Alice smells creamy and amazing with carnation spice.

 

I can tell already from my imps I'm not a fan of boozy or thick, choking incense or harsh white or linen scents. (My other favorites are the Night-Raven and Kitsune-tsuki, if it helps.)

 

If you have good recommendations I'd love to hear them!

[musikmegs]

I haven't tried Alice yet, but it's on my list! Based on my limited experience I think you might like:

 

Mouse's Long and Sad Tale (Mad Tea Party): vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea, and white sandalwood. On me this is creamy and sweet yumminess.

 

Morocco (Wanderlust): Arabian spices, warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood, and cassia. On me this is warm, dry, sweet spice. The scent description mentions incense but it is definitely not heavy.

[TheIceMaiden]

Alice is one of my favourites too! I second the above-recommendations, plus:

 

Here's three from the General Catalog:

HIGH-STRUNG DAISIES: Daisy, pink carnation, pink pepper, and sugar.

This is a sweet, almost candy-like carnation scent.

 

MAIDEN: A gentle vision of purity, goodness and virtue: white tea, carnation and Damask Rose.

This is a beautiful carnation scent with hints of tea and rose.

 

QUEEN ALICE: Carnation, posies, and white amber with a hint of inky treacle, sandy cider, and wooly wine.

This is a spicy, foody carnation with lots of cider and sweet treacle.

 

Plus three Limited Editions, which may be hard to find, but are worth trying if you do find them:

LITTLE FLORA: Peonies and cream.

This is a very rich cream scent, with peony.

 

KATRINA VAN TASSLE: White rose and honeyed cream.

This is very similar to Alice, minus the carnation. It's a beautiful rose note on a rich, creamy background.

 

KLARA: Honey dusting powder, mandarin, iris, ylang ylang, tea rose, and carnation.

I haven't yet tried this, but the reviews said it's similar to Alice.

Edited March 3, 2013 by TheIceMaiden

[neptuneanblues]

I haven't tried Alice yet, but it's on my list! Based on my limited experience I think you might like:

 

Mouse's Long and Sad Tale (Mad Tea Party): vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea, and white sandalwood. On me this is creamy and sweet yumminess.

 

Morocco (Wanderlust): Arabian spices, warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood, and cassia. On me this is warm, dry, sweet spice. The scent description mentions incense but it is definitely not heavy.

 

I agree with these two recommendations, and add Vasilissa: creamy skin musk and blushing pink musk with soft sandalwood, white amber, dutiful myrrh, and star jasmine.

[Foxdreams]

I haven't tried Alice yet, but it's on my list! Based on my limited experience I think you might like:

 

Mouse's Long and Sad Tale (Mad Tea Party): vanilla, two ambers, sweet pea, and white sandalwood. On me this is creamy and sweet yumminess.

 

Morocco (Wanderlust): Arabian spices, warm musk, carnation, red sandalwood, and cassia. On me this is warm, dry, sweet spice. The scent description mentions incense but it is definitely not heavy.

 

I agree with these two recommendations, and add Vasilissa: creamy skin musk and blushing pink musk with soft sandalwood, white amber, dutiful myrrh, and star jasmine.

 

This is great because several of these suggesstions are on my list for my next imps! (Mouse, and Vasilissa especially)

 

Glad to know I'm on the right track here.

 

I actually did try Queen Alice--it was in my last imp order--and it became this super-sweat cherry wine smell on me. Little too boozy for me, but dried down to a nice powder.

 

However today I'm wearing Hellcat, which is supposed to be rum/boozy, and it's dried down to a gorgeous honey-vanilla-almond-spice! Color me surprised, I might need a bottle.