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I have a gift card and anxiety over what to get
Billie replied to fallwcyc's topic in Recommendations
Can I ask how much is on your gift card? That would affect my decision-making for sure. Unless it's a lot, I'd recommend trying multiple GC samples over blind-bottling anything, especially since you've already had some surprise fails in the past. Can I also ask what the scent was that ended up smelling like bubblegum? That way we know which notes not to rec you. For a delicious non-soapy aquatic I recommend Obatala, and for honey and vanilla I'd suggest picking up hair gloss in Honey and/or Miel et Ambre and Bourbon Vanilla. -
As the title says I have a gift card and so much anxiety over this year's scents that I basically shut down and never ordered Dark Macadamia which was the one I was most interested in. I think I'm just looking for something different this time but panicking because the last time I bought a bottle blind it ended up not going well. And that was a scent I was so sure would be good. All the notes were winners. Just apparently they all came together to smell like bubblegum to my nose. I think I really want to try something aquatic. Something like stumbling upon an ancient ruin in a forest on a rainy day. But some aquatics frimps I had gotten smelled like soap to me and others seem to very green scented and I have yet to meet a green scent I like. Searching through the site is just making the anxiety feeling worse. So I'm asking if anyone has anything they might recommend. I think I've settled on The Woodland So Wild as my other scent, but this years Lupercalia has so many interesting sounding ones. Like the Very Gods and the Achilles and Patroclus one are stumping my imagination on how they would smell. Plus I love honey and bourbon vanilla and they're everywhere this year. Normally when I get like this about things I just don't buy. I throw it out of my mind. But I will absolutely forget that I have a gift card if I don't use it soon.
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My nose and brain don’t know the difference between apricot and peach. *shrugs* This is juicy and fresh and simple at first, but as the notes behind the apricot bloom on the skin it becomes surprisingly sophisticated. I’m considering a bottle purchase.
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2026 version. I have a tough relationship with amber. It tends to read as “the powdered and unwashed” in my mind, a sort of head-shop resin seeping from the pores that someone tried to cover up with cheap talcum powder. And wow, the first time I sniffed my Alleviate decant, I noped right out of there. But I’ve set a goal to review more of the scents that I purchase, to have a better record about what I’ve enjoyed or not, so I did in fact skin test this later, and it did get better! What is aaaaaaaall amber when wet quickly gains a juicy peach note upon drydown. I just wish that lasted longer. “Sugared amber” is definitely the right description for the scent that hangs around past the 10 minute mark, and while the sugar makes it more wearable that straight up amber for me, this blend just isn’t really my thing.
- Yesterday
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For the first 5 minutes, this was the juicy, sweet pear scent of my dreams. It was the best pear I’ve ever smelled! But just like the reviews above, it disappeared within 15 minutes and left just the faintest hint of sweetness behind. I’m gutted because this was perfect while it stuck around.
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This is oh so yummy! I haven't worn it since last summer, so with another year of aging, my bottle is even better. Snake Oil and Coconut....it's better than a Mounds Bar! The Snake Oil is more prominent than the coconut on me, but that's a good thing. If I want to amp the coconut, I can layer with with my SN Coconut Tree.
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2026 version. You ever smell a vial and start to giggle? And then you put it on and you're just grinning like a goof? Joy-inducing. Truly what a fun scent. If you think you're not a melon scent person because watermelon can read too jolly rancher or juvenile, this is a melon a for you. Here is the notes I wrote the first time I wore it: I wore it to a meeting today, and there was a fruit tray. What is on every single fruit tray? Mhm. You already know what I did. When everyone was looking at the screen, I nibbled that honeydew while smelling my wrist. No shame. Incredibly close, but my fruit was under ripe, so this absolutely is a syrup glazed ripe honeydew scent. Not getting cake, definitely getting a nice blobby of cream. Full size for sure.
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Most cake scents don't agree with me despite my loving the idea of them - but the same cannot be said for Let Them Eat Cake. it smells so much more to me like the cake batter (raw eggs & all!) than it does a baked cake. And it takes me back to a specific childhood memory: baking a confetti sprinkle cake with my mom for one of my dolls because it "was her birthday" - The finished cake went uneaten but I'd loved licking the spoon from the mixing bowl. It wears light but gourmands can feel a bit heavy & overbearing sometimes, so I'm happy to have it close to the skin. I didn't think I'd love this as much as I do.
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Milk Moon: Milk & White Musk
brwnpaperhag replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
I got this because I can’t get enough of the Bpal milk scents. This is the same milk in snake milk - warm and milky, almost heavy, but I think the musk keeps it in line. I agree, I don’t get anything super musky, but it must be doing something because snake milk can get almost too heavy handed, and this one just stays singular, no morphing. I don’t need a bottle of this because I love snake milk, but if I could, I would buy it to add a laconic edge to some of the gourmand scents that fade too quickly on me. - Last week
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I primarily get a painterly, blended combo of fruity fig and a fine soft petaled rose and gentle resins. Thyme adds a savory herbal nip for interest and a sun-warmed mediterranean vibe, and on the flip side the orris just makes it smell softly powdered and 'perfumey' in a good way. It doesn't evolve much from the initial application to the dry down and fade out, but that's OK because I agree with the previous review about how soft, subtle, and poetic this perfume is. Sappho is really easy to wear, but if you slow down to sniff it carefully, it's not at all boring. I grabbed an imp of this one, but now I kind of wish I had just blind bought the bottle. 🤣
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Initially melon hard candy, but softened beautifully with aging into a plausible juicy melon. Cake is never super prominent but there is soft cream vanilla. Bottle.
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Heavily dragon’s blood lily. Maybe the label is influencing me but this one seems red and yellow. I’ll have to wait for aging to have a final judgement
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Milk Moon: Pumpkin Spice & Condensed Milk
amoray replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
Oh it starts off sooooo sweet. That condensed milk note is sweet, but it works for me. Sometimes milk notes go very wrong on me. It smells like a deodorant I have that is pumpkin spice. It's very creamy and sweet. As it dries it turns into something similar to pumpkin spice everything, but it isn't dry like spices. It's like you took the dredges of a sweet PSL with all the delicious syrup and poured it on your arm. It's spicy but never dry spicy, a sweet pleasant spice. I will be layering this with everything come fall. -
I want to eat this. Luckily, I have a hookup at my local farmer’s market who sells me whipped raspberry honey, and I can eat THAT, which is basically the same thing.
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This review is for the 2026 version (which has the same description as the original, but I know sometimes components can vary from year to year and change a scent slightly.) Right off the bat this smelled like a pina colada to me, lots of coconut and pineapple are present. Then a lovely nuttiness comes out, though unfortunately with that floofy marshmallow note alongside it, there’s about 30 minutes of early wear time where I smell like a salty boiled peanut. (#IYKYK. Sadly this happens to me a lot with any kind of scent that has notes described as creamy or whipped etc.) After that phase, the fruity notes burn off a bit and it’s a scent that is distinctly vanilla nut, and at that point it stares very close to the skin. Early moments of wear are joyous and bright and I wish the scent remained that way, so I’ll wear my decant but will not upgrade to a bottle.
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My experience is a mix of all of the above, in a good way. When I dabbed on my tester before a meeting, I sat down next to a friend and she immediately grabbed my arm and took a big sniff, demanding to know what I was wearing. So yeah I FS'd this one.
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I had to put this AWAY because I got pregnant immediately after buying it and my sense of smell went into overdrive and is now permanently changed. But if anyone's interested, 3 years on, the attack lavender has really calmed down in my aged bottle. It's gorgeous out of the gate now. (I still like incense resins, but I like orchids and vanilla a lot more than I used to.)
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White Honey, Strawberries, and Vanilla Cream
Leopard403 replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Lupercalia
For this review, I had literally written the sentence “This smells familiar, but I can’t put my finger on why” and then I had an experience that was part visual memory and part olfactory hallucination, and it came to me. Many moons ago, the TP released a line of bath salts. I was still fairly new to BPAL at that time and was only bold enough to purchase one kind of salt: Kitty. And here’s her review thread. That’s what this reminds me of. WHS&VC smells a bit like strawberry candy and white cake. Had to search white honey and basically it’s a milder version of the usual stuff, so it makes sense I might interpret that as cake. The scent is just shy of smelling like “strawberry sugar” (maybe red Pixie Stix? or Strawberry Nesquik powder?) but something keeps it just slightly grounded. It’s girly and flirty and really nice for spring. (As an aside, who do we petition to bring back those bath salt scents in perfume oil form??) . -
Milk Moon: Milk & White Musk
doomsday_disco replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
I didn't order a decant of this one, but my decanter kindly included a tester in my decant order. The milk is the star of the show in this duet. It's definitely a dairy milk note and not a plant-based sort of milk. I don't really know what to say about it except for that it smells like cow's milk, and it smells, well, milky, but it doesn't go funky like some dairy notes are wont to do on my skin, and it doesn't morph into butter, so that's nice. The white musk in this is confined to a background role. It's not an effervescent sort of musk, nor is it too clean. While I don't feel the need to upgrade to a bottle of this myself, if you're looking for the closest thing you can get to a milk single note, you should give this a try. -
Milk Moon: Matcha & Pumpkin Rind
doomsday_disco replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Duets & Menage A Trois
This smells like spiced pumpkin mixed with matcha (and the matcha does have the bitter, somewhat vegetal quality of matcha and does not smell like the Lab's standard citrusy green tea note). I was surprised how heavily spiced this smelled in the decant and when I applied it to my skin, and I thought for sure it would burn me like Nocturne Alchemy's Scaretastic Tea does (which is another pumpkin spice and matcha scent!). However, despite this smelling like I fell into a vat of pumpkin spice, this didn't leave any redness or welts on the back of my hand. (That said, I would never risk applying this to a sensitive area like the crook of the elbows or the neck). Both notes cozy up to each other and are present throughout wear, with the spiced pumpkin being the stronger of the two notes, but eventually, the spices do calm down after several hours, and it smells like syrupy pumpkin with a touch of bitterness from the matcha. I like this and will definitely be keeping my decant, and I'll have to retest it to see if I need more before it goes away. (I think it really depends on if I can only wear this on my hands/wrists or if I'm able to slather it without it aggravating my sensitive skin). This will be great to wear in the autumn. -
The drydown of this is like a soft purr. Something in this is reminding me of a scent I've smelled before but can't quite put my finger on. I think there is something, lightly, just a wee, reminding me of Owl Moon. It's like a creamy version, but there is definitely a tinge of funk. I quite love it.
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I was thinking the same Thank you for your thoughts.
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It's been out of stock for a couple of years, or at least four or even more? I think it's not officially discontinued but I wouldn't have high hopes for its return.
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Spring Wildflower Honey, Grass, and New Mown Hay Atmosphere Spray
doomsday_disco replied to doomsday_disco's topic in Atmosphere
I can smell the soft petals of the wildflowers mixed with some green grass and some warm hay, all sweetened by some honey. I've tested this on a paper towel twice, and both times, I could smell all of the listed notes at all times, without any of them fading away. If I spray it just in an open area, like over my couch, I get the blast of green but get more honeyed wildflowers in the throw. It's a very pretty spring scent that makes me think of a green meadow dotted with yellow flowers with some hay nearby. I don't get to use my atmosphere sprays as much as I used to these days, so I probably don't need a whole bottle of this one, but I'll definitely be keeping my decant.
