celestia

This thread has always been one of my favourites to spam! And even though I'm usually giving recs, I've only just returned from hiatus so now I have an excuse to resurrect it! 

 

1. Elf v4 

2. Black Lace

3. Ava

4. Amaterasu v3

5. Thomas Sharpe

 

I realise I already have an extensive list of matching /similar scents in my profile (both icon wall and accent profile in my signature xD) that I'm aware of, such as Antique lace Zorya polunochnaya, l'estate, bfja etc , so if you can avoid repeating those and recommend things that were released in the last year and a half, that'd be super! (anything similar to Thomas Sharpe regardless of year, would be killer too) 

♔ Tanuki no Hikifune

In the Bottle: Drippy juicy honeydew melon, like the innermost meat of the real fruit.

Wet: Hnnggg, THIS IS SO GOOD. It's delicious, sugary-sweet, in the way a super ripe (but not quite overipe) honeydew melon would smell like. You know when you cut up a full melon and you get the innermost meat nestled in with the seeds? The sweetest part? Yea. It smells like that. It starts to take on a bit of a LUSH-like headshop profile. A mishmash of musks, citrus, and generic florals. It captures honeydew melon as a perfume pretty accurately. Colour me impressed.

Drydown: It's a litle more perfumey as it dries down. It's still fairly candied, sugary-sweet, a little less realistic than from the bottle, but still pretty delicious. I get a trace of lemony citrus, which kind of reminds me of LUSH's Rock Star. It starts to amp which isn't fantastic to me as I generally hate lemon, but that honeydew melon-meat note is to die for, and everything else in this blend is forgiveable. I don't actually feel like I get any musk from this. The honey just smells like part of the melon, honestly. It picks up an almost sparkly perfumey profile in this stage, not quite like a commercial perfume, but close.

TL;DR: Innermost meat from a super ripe honeydew melon

Is there anything GC or currently available that can be compared with Hesiod's Phoenix? I searched this thread and found a couple of recommendations for things that are now DC'd themselves. Any suggestions very welcome as I'm losing hope of finding any more HP!

 

If you have the amber-heavy version, there are certainly reviews drawing GC comparisons between The Lion and Aelopile.

Thank you! I will look into these two! Do they still make Antique Lace or has it been discontinued? I love that scent so much, but mine is empty and I could not find it online in their listings.

Short answer, no. But long answer is that they made a limited edition batch (two batches, really) some time in the middle of May 2017. So you'll see newer Antique Lace floating around for its retail price (they were almost double the price of the GC range).

Early reviews claimed that they smelt identical, but have since changed stance. I personally find the new AL to smell a little different than the original (it has a stekkjarstaur-like, fluffy, sugared white-mallow vanilla note)- and I still remember what the original smelt like when I had a fresh imp of it. Zorya Polunochnaya's vanillic note reminded me more of the original Antique Lace, though! If you like both Mouse's Long and Sad Tale and Antique Lace, you would most probably like it too ;D

 

It apears that you really like florals, and particularly creamy/slightly vanillic ones? and lily? haha.I see from Mouse's LST you also like sweet pea. And from Alice, that hint of carnation?

 

Serving Fish

You'd be hard pressed to get fishier than this: gilded sweet pea, pink musk, and vanilla sugar.

 

Desdemona

Innocent, soft and pure: sweet pea, carnation and water lily.

 

Juliet

Sweet pea with stargazer lily, calla lily, heliotrope, honeysuckle, white musk and a touch of fresh pear

 

Victoria

Graceful vanilla musk, tea rose, and stargazer lily

 

A Thousand Thoughts and Hopes and Joys

And cares long, long, forgotten: joyful sugared carnation and vanilla freesia.

 

I also peaked a look at your favourite notes and they mention vanilla and cherry:

 

Monster Bait: Bloody Mary

Chunky, glistening red fruits with sweet cream accord, black clotted cherry, and powdered sugar!

 

Cherry Sugary Cookie

[no additional description]

 

Texare

This scent is inspired by the colors of the yarns she chose that day: raspberry pink, cherry red, sky blue, and lime green, all swirled with frankincense, black oudh, mallow root, and sweet wooly vanilla husk.

♔ Kwamie Cotton

 

I am dead-set, the luckiest person alive. I am so fortunate to have such amazing BPAL fam track some down for me to test and own;_; <3.

 

In the Bottle: Sweet, clear, aquatic strawberry hard candy, and cotton candy tinged clean floral

 

Wet: The star note is the sweet, candy-like, strawberry cotton candy (but the kind that has already been liquified). It’s a sugared, candied kind of strawberry note, smells like a translucent blush-pink, in a stained or tinted lip gloss, kind of way. I find it a tiny bit comparable to the strawberry and cotton candy note in Battle Fairy in Training.

 

The bottle also has something herbally, slightly woodsy, but most of it evaporates on skin which is a relief. I can't tell what the herbal-esque note in the background is, and though I don’t like it so much. It kind of, almost reminds me of anise and lavendar in characteristic rather than profile. It has this almost medicinal, sour characteristic. It’s also a little ferny- but I can’t actually isolate it. It’s so fleeting that I don’t really get much of a memory of it, and I’m quite happy about that. I only catch whiffs of it if I inhale deeply, but it’s very, very faint- and dare I say, it almost lends to the depth of an otherwise flat, and one-dimensional blend.

 

There is also a clean watery almost aquatic floral present (you know when something is aquatic , kind of like the cherry blossom in Hanami, with a perfumey facet. And then I get this gentle woodsy note that kind of reminds me of the woodsiness I get from Volcano in Springtime.

 

Drydown: This is all translucent hard strawberry candy with a hint of spun sugar/fairy floss. It reminds me of what they might put in an upper end cosmetic, lip-gloss product. I didn’t get cotton, I didn’t get “massive, huge, fluffy, snuggle cuddly plush toy” either. It’s definitely sweet, which I think hasn’t been mentioned, but it’s a gentle sweet- a cosmetic and perfume counter, kind of commercial candy-strawberry kind of sweet. The colour of the oil is by far, the prettiest pink I've ever come across! It's not a transcient scent on me either, as the scent is pretty on par in strength with some of my other blends, so I can't really call it a skin scent... but YMMV.

 

TL;DR: Sweet cottony-candy-ish blush-pink, translucent commercial counter, fruity-strawberry candy lip gloss.

♔ Reflected Vulva

 

In the Bottle: Outrageously sugared and creamy pink sweet pea floral, and a warm, white sweet coconut.

 

Wet: This is so good. There is a creamy, candy-rich sweetness in this that hits my olfactory senses the same way Strawberry Sufganiyot does, and although none of the two smell alike, it’s a gloriously, gloriously sugared and creamy- almost gourmand and dessert-like scent, with a bit of floral to round it out. Everyone who owns this blend can probably attest to the presence of coconut, and this might be the reason for that sugary, creamy gourmand aspect. The sweet pea is delicious in this, almost like the Sweet Pea SN, but heavily sugared instead of the tinge of freshness present in the Single Note released by the lab. The cherry blossom here is barelyt an accent but it reminds me of the watery, almost aquatic (but not salty!) , and slightly sweet freshness I get from the cherry blossom in Hanami. It kind of also reminds me of the cherry blossom note in Chastising Your Dragon, only much much more dialed down, in addition to the absense of any sandalwood. It's really hard to pick out though, and I imagine most will just detect mostly a candy-rich sweet pea and a pink coconut floral.

 

This is my absolute favourite coconut despite not having been listed in the description. It doesn’t smell exactly of Ivory Vulva (as in I can’t isolate it from the blend) but the olfactory properties are reminiscent of each other, and I can feel if I layer Ivory Vulva with the lab’s Sweet Pea SN, I’d get a pretty accurate dupe. (I have since done that, which you can read about here.) The coconut actually reminds me a little of Aphrogenes, which shares a similar coconut on my chemistry.

Drydown: Mmmmmmm I don't know how it came to be, but this is such a gorgeous creamy, blush tinted, perfumey coconut-pink floral, especially with the sweet pea and cherry blossom being almost as strongly present (perhaps even fighting for dominance) with the coconut in the forefront. Coconut lovers and enthusiasts of sugared florals, you might want to give this a try…if you can track it down.

 

TL:DR: Gorgeous sweet, sugared, creamy, perfumey pink coconut floral

♔ Mouse's Long and Sad Tale

Ah, one of the first scents that stole my heart almost a decade ago. I didn't know what to expect from sweet pea until I smelt (and fell in love with) this. I stopped wearing it because my chemistry morphed- but after morphing again it seems that it's back in rotation now!

In the Bottle: Sugary, pink, vanillic sweet pea- almost cotton candy like.

Wet: Dried, slightly warm and musky sweet peas..hmm - almost gourmand on me. I really love this- the amber is beautiful and light, but far from citric or heavily resinous. It's a creamy pink tinged amber, almost apricot coloured scent on me.

Dry: The blend settles more vanillic on me- like , almost cotton candied, vanillic sweet pea musk. It's a gourmand floral scent on me..not necessarily in the way of being foody or candied, though.

TL;DR: Pink, vanillic sweet pea floral musk

♔ Pele

 

In the Bottle: Light, sweet white floral and cool tropical breeze, with a very faint trace of slight fruit

 

Wet: This is such a pretty scent! I put this off for a while because my chemistry started to morph and wasn't sure I should commit to a bottle, but it's reset on me to a beautifully gentle sweet, slightly fruity, white floral and tropical breeze- for some reason I pick up hints or remnants of coconut- the commercial kind you find in tanning oil. And I know I said breeze but there's something really warm about this blend. I don't get steamy warm- maybe a cool breeze in a tropical climate? or that kind of warm tropical breeze near the sea that isn't cold, but feels almost cooling.

 

Dry: The coconut is ever so faint and kind of melds with the white floral- it reminds me of plumeria. i'm getting a coconutty white floral, it's still warm and tropical - but it's also creamy and clean at the same time. It's almost like a warm, tropical breeze has picked up the scent of some lush plumeria blooms and blown it in my direction.

 

TL;DR: Lush, clean, creamy and slighly sweet- a light, warm tropical white floral breeze

I have discovered I love the smell of berries and I have been desperately searching for the ultimate warm jam scent. I've tried knave of hearts, eat me, and eat the strawberries the two of the latter being the closest but not quite there (eat the strawberries was too green/fresh and the currants in eat me are so close but the cake scent sometimes overpowers the currants) any recommendations?

Off the top of my head, and depending on how your chemistry amps the jammy aspect of red berries:

 

Zombie Apocalypse, Gollettes, Strawberry Sufganiyot, and Raspberry Sufganiyot.

 

There aren't a whole lot of options for other berries, even blackberry jam scents are kind of really scarce. I love MB: Closet but the Blackberry note in it amps on me , making it smell a little jammy, while Blackberry jam and scones amped the scone/bakedgoods aspect... You might have better luck there!

Ohhhh my welcome back! Do I have a list for you! Will cone back to edit as I'm on my phone atm DX and might look silly with random typos and badly placed sentences

I think the prettiest scents I own are delicate, sweet sugared florals with some feel of innocence. At least that's what I call to mind when I think of pretty, beautiful, pleasant, and delightful- more so than any other descriptive like 'gorgeous' or "glamorous". For this reason, I've omitted a bunch of scents which could otherwise share multiple categories (such as vanillic heavy borderline luscious Antique Lace, the playful Titania, barely sultry Bearded Lady, or even the darkly beautiful Lady Lucille Sharpe etc)

 

Ava

BFJA

The Bride

Cascading Blossoms

Cave of Treasures

De Vos' Unicorn

The Girl

Hime Gyaru

Midnight on the Midway (OG)

Reflected Vulva

Serving Fish

Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree

Snow White

There is a Garden in Her Face

Let me know how it goes! And yea I know exactly how you feel! I'm still persisting in my search for my unattainable. T.T sympathies all around!

Ugh! I have spent WAAAAAAAAY too much time trying to find this; Osiris v4.

I am totally in LOVE with it, but my imp is almost empty :'(

I know it is a long shot...but does anyone know of a GC scent that compares?

The reviews section has a lot of comparisons between Osiris and LE scents that can not beuhh found anywhere, either!!

Oooh I just tested this the other day! It's not familiar scent territory for me, so I'm not sure how much help I'm can be, but I get a resinous Black Lace (BL) with a dark teak-like woodsy kick. The closest comparison I get from others regarding BL has been Perversion.. so maybe that layered with the dark woodsy Antikythera Mechanism? (I haven't ever gotten to sample either but that would be my guess!) .. maybe a dab of Haloes to recreate that slight golden touch and sweet creamy woods that Glowing Vulva shares with Osiris v4)

 

The other suggestions I have are harder LEs to track down so.. I'm guessing theyd be of less use.

Thank you both for all the recommendations! I do have The Bride, Cave of Treasures, and Sanguinem Menstrum. I love them all, but I think the florals in the first two, and the red musk in the last take over the scent. I think Celestia is right, I really love the honey dominate blends You guys have given me so many great suggestions! I will start hunting for some of these! Thank you!

In that case, armed with that knowledge for your desire to experience honey/amber and honey/light musk dominant blends, let: Blossoms in Springtime, O, Harikata, The Lights of Men's Lives, and This Wan White Humming Hive be your first hunts!

 

Let us know how you go!

Thank you Celestia for the recommendations! I have a few on that list that I haven't tried in a while, so I will have to take them out and re-test them! And the others I'm going to go read some reviews and see what I can find. L'Estate has been on my wishlist forever, and I recently snagged a bottle, so I'm excited to see how it smells! It sounds like we like a lot of the same scents!

You are super welcome! I can never resist answering honey/amber blend requests! Haha. I hope there's something that works for you!

 

I don't get much honey per se, from L'Estate but it is indeed a glorious golden blend! I was also actually super excited to read that you love Lady Una and Blooming Flowers of Spring. Lady Una is mostly honeyed tea and light musk on me, it's my favourite dominant floral-honey blend! The Bride also has honey musk as aforementioned in my post, but it's not so honey-centric like Lady Una is, it's a lot more fresh clean due to the floral (magnolia) in that blend..which is also quite dominant! I get more honey from Cave of Treasures (and it also has amber!) but that too is also quite floral-dominant, but they are indeed absolutely beautiful floral-centric honeyed blends abd worth testing. Who knows, your chemistry might go either way ... It might be all honey musk and honey/amber on you!

 

Since Blooming Flowers of Spring was predominantly also very honey-centric on me, I thought you might prefer more honey dominant blends ( without a lot of extra stuff, like red musk or tobacco, which I find can overwhelm an otherwise very honey-amber-centric blend.. but you might love them even more, hence I added some anyway. You might like to try them if they don't contain any notes you are adverse to).. but yes! I took a peek at your wishlist and we do seem to like quite a bit of the same scents Yayyyy! I'm going to shut up now because I could go on about honey and amber all day.

Anyone have suggestions for scents that contain honey with musk and/or amber? That scent combination is absolutely intoxicating to me. I have Lady Una, Swift as Light, Blooming Flowers of Spring, Faun, and recently got Vagina Treasure hair gloss. I love the slight skankiness of the hair gloss.

I veer to the lighter, sweet side of the scent spectrum. So your tastes might vary! These are my personal favorites:

 

Blossoms in Springtime

Vanilla bean and vanilla blossom, golden honey, antiqued amber, beeswax, copal, lotus blossom, and helichrysum.

 

L'Estate

Nepalese amber, vanilla infused amber, golden musk, sandalwood, golden lily, sunflower, and honey myrtle.

 

The following may be of interest depending on your chemistry and scent preferences:

 

Anactoria

Golden amber, white honey, red currant, daemonorops, kush, and Arabian musk.

 

Imaginer

honeyed patchouli, Madagascan black pepper, fossilized amber oil, beeswax absolute, massoia bark, Egyptian myrrh, and a thin thread of blood-red saffron.

 

Mrs. Bunce

Tobacco leaf, amber, sweet golden musk, blonde sandalwood, and hay sugar.

 

O

Amber and honey with a touch of vanilla.

 

 

Imaginer

honeyed patchouli, Madagascan black pepper, fossilized amber oil, beeswax absolute, massoia bark, Egyptian myrrh, and a thin thread of blood-red saffron.

 

Tomoe Gozen

Red currant, golden amber, blackberry, honey, and pink pepper.

 

A Wonderful Light

Three radiant ambers with honey, linden blossom, bourbon vanilla, and orange zest.

 

There are also scents like Cave of Treasures, The Bride,andThe White Witch which contain honey and amber but are more supporting background notes than dominant components, so I've neglected to include them.

 

I noted it in the testing thread but now that I've compared then both, I admit it's strange for a batch variation...mostly because it doesn't seem to have happened to anyone else in the reviews.

I have two versions of Mother Ghost... One is a light pale yellow oil which prompted me to hunt down a bottle, while the bottle I have on hand is an ambery red (which I understand happens with amber aging). This redder version has more vanilla and amber .. And smells a whole lot deeper and richer than the one from the decant. Also strange because certainly the oil in the decant is supposed to age faster than the bottle, hah... Also peculiar because the vanilla from the redder version smells more like vanilla bean SN... Much different from the vanilla presented as the pale yellow oil, which is a lot lighter.

Once again, thigh, I'm scrutinising the peculiarity of another bottle with not much time between the release being so different to each other. I can't even use "age" as an excuse for difference (last time this happened was with L'Autunno, also with the red-end oil)

I'm wondering whether I should hunt the pale yellow version too.. because, I did seek out a bottle because of it DX

 

I have two decants and a bottle of Mother Ghost, all are pale yellow and smell identical (which musk dominant on me, and utterly gorgeous). I had planned on getting a back-up bottle and now I'm worried it won't smell like the MG I love! Is the white musk still detectable in the reddish coloured one you have?

I totally had no idea there was a batch variation for this...

The current summer weather and my current chemistry change also means that this could very well be different to be again by November. So take with a grain of salt.So to be honest, it makes it sooooo hard to say, I'm afraid..

 

Both versions are utterly gorgeous and spectacular on me. I might have to track down the normal pale yellow one to have both versions (and because as I'm mentioned earlier, it was the version I fell in love with)... One feels like a summer version while the other feels more suited for winter...

 

I could definitely pick up the white musk and orchid in both versions, it's just the amber version was a lot more deeper, richer and sensual.. it had this added overlay of vanilla bean SN (or some stronger concoction of vanilla amber) lol

 

fwiw... I had no idea there was a batch variation for MG either...until I had them both in (and on) my hands.

 

And if it helps any, no one else seems to have reviewed the version I got, so chances of you getting it will probably be very rare. So you should be safe!

I noted it in the testing thread but now that I've compared then both, I admit it's strange for a batch variation...mostly because it doesn't seem to have happened to anyone else in the reviews.

 

I have two versions of Mother Ghost... One is a light pale yellow oil which prompted me to hunt down a bottle, while the bottle I have on hand is an ambery red (which I understand happens with amber aging). This redder version has more vanilla and amber .. And smells a whole lot deeper and richer than the one from the decant. Also strange because certainly the oil in the decant is supposed to age faster than the bottle, hah... Also peculiar because the vanilla from the redder version smells more like vanilla bean SN... Much different from the vanilla presented as the pale yellow oil, which is a lot lighter.

 

Once again, thigh, I'm scrutinising the peculiarity of another bottle with not much time between the release being so different to each other. I can't even use "age" as an excuse for difference (last time this happened was with L'Autunno, also with the red-end oil)

 

I'm wondering whether I should hunt the pale yellow version too.. because, I did seek out a bottle because of it DX

I think it's not specific to Bensiabel, but all the other scents name dropped in that thread share the same or similar issues, so while your particular scent might not be explicitly listed, the thoughts surrounding them might answer your questions

There's a similar one here:

 

http://www.bpal.org/topic/3142-different-smellscolors-same-perfume/

 

I posted in it, also talking about batch variation, just last month, which is why it came to mind so easily

Now that we're entering summer, I've cracked open Reflected Vulva, the only spring/summer coconut scent I still own (I got rid of the rest as I'm really picky with what I keep). Coconut isn't even listed in the description, so it must have been some ninja stealth note, but it's the nicest, creamy pink coconut scent, especially with the sweet pea and cherry blossom being equally at the forefront.

 

 

My other favorite summery coconut scents have been Body, Remember and Tiki Princess.

♔ Phyllocrania Paradoxa v1

 

I've aged this for almost a year in the hopes that the undesirable notes I'm getting will have mellowed out by now.

 

In the Bottle: Powdery white vanilla cologne-like musk, accompanied by a slight tang that reminds me of sweetened rust, or metal.

 

Wet: The vanilla note reminds me of the powdery vanilla cream musk in a lot of vanilla orchid scents – not quite as rich and full bodied or sweet as Elf v4, XCDL13, Antique Lace, or Celeste- but that could be the sassafras others have mentioned. I definitely do not like the extra, almost metallic-like tang I’m getting. And although I don’t really smell root beer or sarsaparilla…or anise, I’m willing to bet it’s one of these notes turning metallic on me… If I were to describe it, it smells a like a slightly sweatier sugared cola flavour.

 

Drydown: The vanilla itself is lovely, wearable, though lacking in what the other aforementioned vanillic scents have had. I would class it as a white vanilla rather than a golden kind of vanilla, similar perhaps to Pediophobia or the lacy white vanilla in Mrs. Valentine. It’s a white vanilla that turns powdery, musky and sandalwood-y, perhaps even less sweet. If only this sassafrassy anisey tang would disa[ear. My chemistry is definitely helping me ruin this otherwise beautiful, powdery sweet, white vanilla, sadface... coupled with the fact there is something my olfactory senses are picking up that I just find disturbingly off-putting. Oh well, that's what happens when you're really picking with vanillas T-T

 

TL;DR: Musky white, powdery vanilla cream with tangy cola rust

♔ Love

 

In the Bottle: Buttery pink rose mallow

 

Wet: Well, I smell sugared pink rose, faint powdery marshmallows – and a slight cream-like buttery note, which I suppose is the chemistry between marshmallow and vanilla cream. It’s not a Madagascan vanilla cream, it’s white-ish vanilla cream. It’s a lot butterier than the whipped vanilla cream note in Volcano in Springtime. It also acts as a supporting note to add body to the marshmallow and rose notes. The pink rose is naturally sweet, a little green- though definitely sugared… and smells like the kind of scent you’d be happy to find in a delicate jar of night cream.

 

Drydown: I don’t get much of the marshmallows anymore, I think it got absorbed by the pink rose, which now smells both sugary and powdery. I don’t get much of the strawberry either, maybe the pink rose is a tad juicier with a small drop of candied strawberry, but not more. It’s predominantly powdery pink rose with vanilla sugar stolen from marshmallows.

 

TL;DR: Powdery pink rose and vanilla sugar.

♔ Gothabilly

 

In the Bottle: Cherry flavoured starburst chews and brilliant golden amber-y musk

 

Wet: Okay this smelt pretty cool in the bottle, because I love lollies! On skin, it turns into a muskier maraschino cherry base, a little less sweet than the confectionary scent I got from the bottle- it carries a little bit of almond essence. There is a lovely, sweet creamy vanillic note which must be the black vanilla. It reminds me of the cream accord from MB: Bloody Mary, though much more subdued, muskier and less-sweet. I can’t detect any liqueur in this at all, if anything I get more of the Egyptian musk which reacts with the vanilla to create a sort of amber-y note in the blend. It’s really nice and smells quite similar (though less bright) to NAVA’s Garnet, but more fruity-rich.

 

Drydown: The drydown is a little disappointing as most of the scent has become but a faint whiff. The maraschino cherry note has faded the most, the musk has become powdery- and the creaminess has faded quite a bit, still somewhat faintly fruity and sour-sweet.

 

TL;DR: Creamy maraschino cherry flavoured confectionary chews