Salem

And, a discon'd blend that might not be too too difficult to track down: Kunstkammer: A sensory jumble, a true cacophony of odors: black pepper, benzoin, blood orange and olibanum. And again, I get definitely get a blood orange, but in this blend, it comes across as almost candy-like, though I tried this awhile back and rehomed it so I can't verify.

Yes yes yes! I don't post much but Kunstkammer is one of my absolute faves and definitely sounds like it'd fit the bill. It's very orange, almost medicine'y to me. Smells like orange flavoured liquid child paracetamol with a darker edge. I haven't smelt anything else that comes close.

I've searched and found no particular thread for this so forgive me if I've missed something.

I have a current obsession with Kunstkammer, always have but recently it has gotten worse. To me it smells like old orange medicine and that's what's sparked this sudden urge to generally smell like any sort of medicine. So! What other oils have that medical note? Doesn't necessarily have to be a sweet cough syrup note although that would be nice. I find Absinthe falls into this category too, so perhaps down that route also? Although not too heavy on the old aniseed as it can give me a bit of a headache.

Thanks in advance!

I'm hoping this is the right place and I won't get slapped wrists.

 

Absynthe by Christian Lacroix - My OH smelt this in one of those scratch and sniff catalogues and really liked it. Now, he already has a couple of BPAL imps and isn't one for store bought chemical perfumes so I'm wondering if there's a BPAL that's close to it instead. It's unlike him to want something that could be potentially tested but I don't want to poo poo his interest as I'd love him to wear more smells apart from the occasion dab of Whitechapel (which I love) or Fenris Wolf.

 

The description is -

 

"Seductive fresh spices and earthy greens infused with smoky woods"

 

Thanks!

Not to be obvious, but have you tried Absinthe?

Absinthe

(Bewitching Brews) - Fall under the spell of our Green Fairy! An intoxicating blend containing wormwood essence, light mints, cardamom, anise, hyssop, and the barest hint of lemon.

I've not tried the Lacroix fragrance, so I'm not sure if it actually smells like absinthe. I can assure you, however, that the BPAL version definitely does. To my nose, the strongest note in both the beverage and the BPAL is anise. You can find other anise-containing blends here.

 

You might also take a peek in these threads to get layering ideas:

 

Recommmendations for Green Scents

Campfires, bonfires, fireplaces, burning wood and leaves...

Oh I have Absinthe already. The Lacroix perfume doesn't smell like the tipple at all, unfortunately. Thanks anyway!

I'm hoping this is the right place and I won't get slapped wrists.

Absynthe by Christian Lacroix - My OH smelt this in one of those scratch and sniff catalogues and really liked it. Now, he already has a couple of BPAL imps and isn't one for store bought chemical perfumes so I'm wondering if there's a BPAL that's close to it instead. It's unlike him to want something that could be potentially tested but I don't want to poo poo his interest as I'd love him to wear more smells apart from the occasion dab of Whitechapel (which I love) or Fenris Wolf.

The description is -

"Seductive fresh spices and earthy greens infused with smoky woods"

Thanks!

I've got my Samhain 07 and Dia De Los Muertos 07 for autumn days. I just wish Samhain would calm down on me and not make me endure an hour of pine needles before going to the yummy apple side.

This is from an imp of the '08 version.

In the Imp - Sort of smoky chocolate almost. It isn't giving off much scent on the second sniff, I think it's either very faint or my senses are completely overpowered already. I get a bitter sort of cider apple in the background - maybe like one of those chocolate covered apples!

Wet - This is the pine needle right? This weird public toilet cleaner smell.. argh. The apple cider smell is morphing into almost.. dare I say it.. urine smell with the backdrop of the pine needles. This is seriously not good. I'm actually really gutted.

Drydown/Dry - This is more like it! Yes! It's mulled apples - not fresh perfume apple like say.. The Hesperides.. it's more "If it wasn't my wrist I'd try and drink it". This is walking down a leaf filled path on a cold autumn evening/night. I'm so, SO relieved that this works and the little hiccups at the start disapear within minutes. I can now sleep easy with my '09 5ml order.

How to put this down without sounding like the black sheep. I'm incredibly gutted and upset about my experience with the old Snake Oil.

Sniff from the imp - This smells familiar. Familiar but missing something.

Wet - A bit.. dare I say it.. acrid? It's spicy, exotic and sexy don't get me wrong, but it's almost bitter.

Drying/dry - No, no, bad Snake Oil! No industrial toilet cleaner, bad! This turned awful both times I've put it on my skin and let it dry. No vanilla, and I love vanilla. I even tryed layering a sugared cream scent with it but that morphed it into a beast and I had to scrub my wrists.

I'm absolutely gutted. I love heady, spicy scents and I love vanilla and usually they both work on me. The OH liked it but I'm just not sure. I'm going to give it another go in a couple of weeks - scents just don't seem to be playing ball on my skin at the moment (ones that usually work too).

You're all great, thankyou ever so much. Now to see if I can get a couple of these in time for next month, eek.

I read a review of Noir, in which the reviewer says it smells exactly like a rose talc her mom used to wear. It also has lily in it. Sound appropriate? The problem--- discontinued.

Booooo!

Here's some things that might work and are available:

 

Black Phoenix: Our signature oil. A dark, languid scent. Promotes hedonistic tendencies and extreme self-love. You won't stop kissing mirrors for a month. A few people have said this smells like a sweet rose talc.

 

Les Fleurs Du Mal: Features a rose base, softened with lilac and wisteria. Same here, the rose goes a bit powdery.

 

Van Van: A venerable voodoo blend, used for purification of the spirit and to amplify positive personal power. This has got to be the closes thing to talcum powder out there in the Bpal world.

Van Van sounds brilliant due to the smell and vibe of the perfume. Fleurs too due to possibly the lilac. Ahh, thankyou very much! Now I must hunt for these lovelies.

Hello lovely BPAL people. To cut it short, my mum is getting married next month and I'd really love to make her a little imp set up for a present. I know from a conversation yesterday she's looking for an oil that smells like the old french boudoir talcum powders that she remembers from her childhood. I know she also loves white roses and lilly of the valley and I was just wondering for those 3 vague scents what would be the best? I know there are topics perhaps for the roses and lilly but I've searched for the talc and can't find anything, forgive me if there is!

Thankyou very much.

Thankyou ever so much, they definitely seem like the scents I'm looking for. Time to scan the for sale section and see if I can get my greedy little hands on something.

Bit of a different road for this subject but I was wondering if anyone could recommend me an oil or two to, well, cheer me up? I left home recently for the first time and as much as I'm happy - I miss my mum terribly. I know it sounds daft and at 23, living with my fiancé, I should be fine.. but days (like today) it just hits me like a bag of bricks. Between that and my work life not always being the greatest I just want a scent that'll cheer me up, make me realise it's not so bad and calm my anxiety a little. Anyone?

I was stupid excited to get this in the mail this morning.

Imp - Freshly made honey and lemon drink. Odd! Amazing but odd. There's a bite to it from the lemons and somehow from the apples and rose I'm getting a sweet honey smell. I had to resist to pour the whole imp over me right then.

Skin - Oh crap. I'm not sure about this now. At first it was apples, apples and green which to me is great. Now? Now it's turning into lemony rose polish. Bitter and almost chemical smelling. Wrist away from my nose it's turkish delight but up close it's heady and soapy. I'll have to see how this goes after an hour or two, I'm just hoping something softens.

Edit - Dry - It softened slightly. The man quite liked it but I wasn't completely sold. More apple did come out though. As the man put it "It does smell like an airfreshner, but a non chemical one that you wouldn't mind spilling on yourself now and again". Sums it up for me really.

I have a decant of El Amor Y La Muerte and I'm guessing it's gone real bad. I don't know how old it is exactly (I've had it just under a year) but it separates as soon as you leave it alone for a couple of minutes and the smell? Well, it's more old frying pan oil then clove, sandalwood and rose. Could this just be one for the rubbish bin? Or am I missing something? It made me cough a little when I smelt it I have to say. Also, I don't think I've opened it more than 4 times since having it and all my oils are stored away from light and warmth. Sad sad sad.

 

It can't be more than a year old - the Retail-Only Salons came out in October of last year, I believe. I did some decanting when they first came out, and I remember El Amor being pretty funky in the bottle - and it was one that I had to roll very well to get the layers to blend. In short, don't let the separation phase you - it just means that some components are thicker/heavier than others. Have you skin-tested it? I've had the rancid oil scent happen only a few times - and only once was the oil actually bad once it was on my skin. That said, if the decant was somehow contaminated before you recieved it, you may well have a stinker on your hands

I put a little dab on my arm and left it as long as I could stand the smell and it didn't seem to change.

I might try it again but I'm wary of smelling like week old fries. It smells almost like pepper in the bottle too, which is odd as I can't remember it smelling like that before. I'm wondering if it's destined for imp heaven.

I have a decant of El Amor Y La Muerte and I'm guessing it's gone real bad. I don't know how old it is exactly (I've had it just under a year) but it separates as soon as you leave it alone for a couple of minutes and the smell? Well, it's more old frying pan oil then clove, sandalwood and rose. Could this just be one for the rubbish bin? Or am I missing something? It made me cough a little when I smelt it I have to say. Also, I don't think I've opened it more than 4 times since having it and all my oils are stored away from light and warmth. Sad sad sad.

No one has mentioned Hone Mone, which is white chocolatey apricots and figs to me with dollops of honey.

Oh my, that sounds amazing.

Salem, for something new and lemony, you might like Ave Maria Gratia Plena (rosewood with Sicilian lemon peel, red Mysore sandalwood, pale musks, sweet mountain sage and a dusting of lily, night-blooming jasmine and orris) or Coral Snake (Snake Oil with blood orange, red apple, lemon peel, plumeria, and gardenia); last year's #5 from the Pumpkin Patch had pumpkin with benzoin, bourbon vanilla, lemon peel, neroli, blood orange, and red ginger, if you can track some of it down.

 

I put on Snow Glass Apples today and I think it's a great late-days-of-summer scent. So many apple blends are warm and spicy, but SGA's got a coolness about it so it's not too intense for days that are still warm and it reminds me of the cool days that are coming.

They all sound amazing actually. My want list is starting to hate me it's getting so big. Is Snow Glass Apples more a clean crisp apple? As I'm really into that at the moment (I can smell that when Lilium Inter Spinas is wet in the bottle and it makes me smile)

If I was going to pick 4 from your list for you, they would be:

 

Snake Oil - because it's warm and spicy and you should also like its sweetness since you like Midwinter's Eve

Port-au-Prince - sweet and spicy and warm yet completely different from Snake Oil.

Seraglio - You may get a little bit of similarity w/ Port-au-Prince because they both have almond, but because they are so different, I'd really try both. This one's got some orangey-ness that makes it a little foodier.

Al-Sharain - now here you will smell a bit of orange again, but it's completely different from the others. Very, very spicy, the peach is stronger than the orange to me and the patchouli and incense make it deep and autumnal.

 

I think you should also try the LE Samhain, it's the quintessential warm and spicy fall scent to me, but without having a foody element.

The more and more I read the more I tell myself I need Samhain. It just seems to sum me up. Al-Sharain sounds absolutely wonderful so I'm going to search for an imp of that now. Are there any lemony spice blends? I'm worried I'm going to end up with a stack of similar smelling ones because I'm scared of changing from my usual "spice, sandlewood and patchouli" order.

I'm a newbie when it comes to pumpkin so I've scribbled out Jack for now, thankyou!

Blood Countess sounds amazing too. Another one for the list.

I'm getting a little obsessed again I feel.

Having been away from BPAL for a little too long I'm struggling to remember all the lovely knowledge I picked up, so here I am appealing to the veterans!

Basicly here in sunny England it's getting a little cold most days which makes me want to break out the autumny winter scents already. I've wrote myself a little list in notepad and wondered if I'm on the right track -

Zombi

Bordello (a recommendation as it's not the easiest to come by Midwinters Eve anymore)

Snake oil

Jack

Old Port-Au-Prince

Seraglio

Al Sharain

I'm looking for real warm, spicy, old scents. I don't want to buy 2 different ones that have the same under tones though, as I've done that numerous times before. I need to weed out any that might not be right and perhaps narrow the list down to 4? And to give an idea of what tickles my fancy - I absolutely adore Brown Jenkins and Midwinters Eve (07).

Thankyou! And hopefully this isn't treading on anyones toes.

Brilliant, thankyou. I saw Bordello mentioned a minute ago (I clearly was being blind, doh!) so I'll definitely check that out. Are the Midwinter's Eve from past Christmas' the same as the 07 blend? (Daft question perhaps).

Hopefully I'm not being completely blind when I ask this -

I got Midwinters Eve 07 a while back and absolutely fell head over heels for it. Does anyone know any other scents like it? To me it's perfume perfection.

My first review, arg.

In the bottle - Flowers, almost bitter. I definitely get the carnation and there's a slight lingering of the sweet pea. One sniff? Smells pleasant, 2 sniffs? Bit heady, 3 sniffs? Headacke time.

Drying/dry - I just couldn't get to grips with it. I wanted a floral, light carnation smell but to me this is perfumey heady sickly floral and reminds me of a sweet from my childhood that I'd rather forget. The more I smelt it, the more I wanted it off my wrists. I'm sad as it seemed like it could of been amazing but I don't think my skin likes the floral notes and just turns them into a sickly grating headacke. I only got my imp this morning too. Oh well!

I love engulfing myself in the Holiday season as well.

Yay! Scents are one of the best things about winter time.

So far it seems like I'd do well with getting Midwinter's Eve and the Yule collection. I'd love Hymn too but if I ordered it now I doubt it'd be here in time for christmas and noone seems to be selling it at the moment .

But thankyou to everyone! No doubt I'll end up with everything that's been recommended here.

I'm a HUGE winter person and when this time of the year comes around I like to engulf myself in the scents, sounds and feelings of it all. So being new I need a little help when it comes to choosing and deciding. What I'm looking for really are cold winters night warming smells and cold white flower smells. The former being perhaps church smells, oranges with cloves, sandalwood, old time smells, something that sums up the spices and incense of christmas with a touch of vanilla to soften it perhaps. The latter is more a snowy, girlie perfume. Lilys perhaps, something floral but vintage that works well with cold winter days. I'll go with anything on those lines as long as I can stay away from any lavender notes (headaches ahoy ), anything too green and pine, leather and anything with geranium (again, big massive headaches).

Thankyou ever so much to anyone who can help, and anyone who can think of a scent and who may have a little to sell or share please get in touch.

x