Diana

Samhain 2005 version

 

I bought my 2004 new from the lab, but I really don't remember it smelling like this. Then again, hundreds of oils have passed under my nose since last autumn, so maybe I am just not recalling it correctly. Plus, in comparison to my now 1-year old bottle, it is so different.

 

In the bottle: Watery, slightly cinnamon. Doesn't really smell like Samhain at all. It's almost like a really watered down cinnamon tea.

 

On, wet: There are vague apple & leafy notes, but to me it still seems very faint. There were a few places where the oil gave me a contact cold sensation. Weird.

 

1-5 hours later... Ah, there it is. NOW it smells more like the Samhain I remember. I did slather on very liberally, and it still seems less potent than my aged bottle, but WHEW! it's ok! The familiar scent of woodsy, wet fall leaves, smokey hazes that drift in and out with just a wee touch of apple & spice in the background to round it all out.

 

I'm glad I have refilled my huge stash of this oil. It was one of my first BPAL true loves, and remains to this day one of my favorites. I do think I'm going to stick with wearing the 2004 version until this batch has a chance to more fully develop.

I'll echo the chorus of "this is nothing like I expected." Not that I really had any expectations. I just saw "musk" and got all click happy with the ordering.

 

In the bottle, this seems watered down, but I think all the 2005 Samhain blends kind of smell that way for some reason. Especially in comparison to their 2004 counterparts.

 

Anyway. Putting this on this doesn't go boozy on me at all. Instead, I get warm cinnamony-ginger sugar. Kind of the evil bastard child of Gingerbread Poppet and Wrath wrapped up in a warm blanket. A tiny hint of smoke erupts about 20 minutes later, but kind of peters out after a moment. I can barely smell any of it at all now. The musk is there, but I can only briefly catch wisps of it now and again; if I try to purposely smell for it, I can't detect anything but the gingerbread smell. I will state, that if thugs smell like this, I really need to meet more Detroit arsonists or something.

 

This is nice, but a little faint and not quite where I want it. However, if history teaches me anything, it's to try an oil out, leave it on a shelf for a few months and try it again. I have a feeling this is going to be amazing once it has a chance to sit for a while. I think the musks will really develop into their full potential if I leave it be.

 

Devils Night, it's not you, it's me. I will revisit you soon. In the meantime, get meaner!

I was waiting so long for this bottle to show up, and it did not dissappoint!

 

I slathered this on from the bottle. It felt thicker than usual. The scent was very woody and there's a noticable note of incense, like frankincense in the background.

 

The woody note (which smells very similar to Golden Priapus to me), stays on ALL day. It didn't really lessen much, but I like it, so nyah.

 

The leather smell was very faint and there was a subtle basenote, which I'm guessing was the parchment. But overall, it's a warm, slightly sweet, strong, fabulous oil. This is definitely in my top 10. I put this on yesterday and can still smell it this morning. Words just cannot do this justice.

 

Out in the Garden

six or so RG scents, along with a trowel, a spade, and a pair of gardening gloves.

 

 

Expounding on that idea, I found this, which may be more than you planned on spending, but perhaps you could find a little terrarium and seeds to some of the Rappaccinni Garden series and include them with imps of the BPAL versions. Baneberry, Belladonna, Wolfsbane, Black Hellebore, Moonrose (you could get moonflower seeds for this), and Mantis (and a plastic figurine of Brak).

 

I found seeds available here, but I know nothing of this vendor personally.

Oooh. Another fougere scent.

 

Fougère

(pronounced 'foo-jer')

Fougere fragrances are one of the most popular men's families. These will often contain Lavender and Oakmoss.

 

The term 'Fougere' is French for 'fern' but fern's don't actually smell like this. The name derives from a now discontinued fragrance by Houbigant called Fougere Royale (Royal Fern) which was the first fougere fragrance.

 

This in the bottle and on the skin immediately reminded me Villian, another fougere. Except this isn't as citrusy. Instead, it starts out with a very gentle lavender. This settles a bit and becomes less prominent. The rosewood warms up after a while and becomes noticable. I unfortunately didn't get much of the other notes (perhaps another time).

 

While I did like this a lot, it didn't seem to last all day like a lot of other scents, and had weak-to-minimal throw. I loves me the throw.

 

It's a nice, subtle scent; this would be amazing on girls who like something light and different, or on boys who want to smell very, very good.

Chocolate/Candy theme packaged with samples of gourmet chocolate:

Bliss, Gluttony, Vice, Jailbait, Trick or Treat, Sugar Skull

 

Tea sampler with lots of various teas & a tea ball & a nice mug:

Severin, Dorian, Kumiho, the Dormouse, White Rabbit, Shanghai

 

The Undead pack with a zombie/ghost DVD or two? Heh.

Zombi, Burial, Kuang Shi, Ghost, Embalming Fluid, Haunted

 

I'll add more if my brain cooperates.

My mother really likes Obsession night, but it makes me incredibly dizzy whenever she wears it. And being the enabler that I am, I'd like her to try a BPAL version of it.

 

Any recs?

 

Hmm. I've never smelled it myself, but the notes are listed as:

Bergamot, Bitter Orange, Mandarin, White Floral, Angelica Root, Gardenia, Rose, Muguet, Night-Blooming Jasmine, Vanilla, Tonka Bean, Amber, Labdanum, Sandalwood, Cashmere Wood.

 

So a vanilla-jasmine-citrus? Granted, there just aren't specific duplicates, but you might be able to find something close using the search engine.

 

What I came up with:

The Haunted Place The moment before the ruin, frozen. The scent of captured glory, of glowing pearls and rubies, of golden sunlit joy and regal grandeur: red rose, Tunisian amber, blood orange, toasted vanilla, heliotrope, gardenia and red musk.

 

Zephyr A gentle white scent, breezes laced with the scent of springtime blooms and citrus. Lemon, lemon verbena, neroli, white musk, white florals, white sandalwood, China musk, bergamot and a drop of vanilla.

 

Peitho Lusty myrtle and jasmine with red sandalwood, stargazer lily, and clove over an opulent, rich bed of warm musk and bourbon vanilla.

 

I have no idea if any of these even come close, but it's a starting point.

I put off wearing this until today because I was too afraid. Based on the not-so-favorable reviews and the way it smelled in the bottle, it just sat on my shelf.

 

In the bottle, it smelled reallllly super perfumey in not a good way. Like Windsong or some drugstore perfume from the 70s. Ugh. THIS is why I never put it on.

 

Today, it touched my skin! The perfumey quality lessens within a few minutes. NOW I get violets, but only briefly. A shame, since I really love violets. I can sort of detect something really faintly green & herbal, almost like aloe. The spots where I applied it are chilly!

 

The perfume smell becomes a bit more powdery. It definitely has an ozone quality to it, but only just. The powdery smell reminds me of days when I was little and my mom would be doing laundry. The smell of the detergent for my brother's baby clothes, freshy starched & ironed cottons. And just a tad of the violet mixed with baby powder.

 

Huh. Totally not what I expected. It's pretty and clean smelling. Not something I'd wear every day, but this would very much would be a nice summer scent (and today is so not the best day to wear it—cold & overcast!). I'm definitely keeping my stash!

This was the CN oil I was most hesitant to try. Anytime I think I saw the word vetiver associated with an oil, I shrink away and quickly apply something else. However, I got the whole Odditorium, and I recently wore something with the V that wasn't completely awful. I'm so brave!

 

Putting it on, I can smell the vetiver, but it's pretty faint. What is more obvious are the lime & lemon notes. They fade fairly quickly, though leaving a smoke scent (I thought I was smelling woodsmoke this morning and realized it was me!). The smoke becomes less evident, then next the leather comes into play. A rich, black, cool leather. What's left now is a bit of a musky scent with a bit of clove and a tiny bit of smokey leather, and just a fractional note of vetiver (enough so I notice it, but not so much that I need to scrub this off ASAP.)

 

This is actually quite nice, and I'm surprised at how much I like this!

To echo everyone else, yes, this smells dead on like buttered popcorn in the bottle.

 

Putting it on, it's mostly a rich, creamy butter smell with a hint of salty popcorn under. Butter is really the main component. It also blossoms into a wonderful, buttery-caramel note, which reminded me greatly of Gluttony.

 

This was actually very suprising. I didn't expect to like it at all. It did change enough from the bottle smell to skin smell (though it is subtle) for me to like wearing it.

 

This didn't seem to last very long on me, but that may have been because it was a "roll out of bed, throw on clothes, apply BPAL" day. I'll have to give it another go on freshly washed skin to see if it lasts longer.

Putting this on, it exudes a rush of fragrance of lush, ripe, wet fruits. It's a different fruit smell than either Fruit Moon or Mi-Go. It's mostly pear that I'm picking up on, and a bit of fig.

As this wears on, it stays really lush and wet smelling. The florals start to kick in a bit, but they (the gardenia & plumeria) seem to fill the capacity of wet juicy fruity florals, so they mingle in with the already established fruits. The rose occasionally peaks out, giving it a scent slightly reminiscent to Persephone.

This totally makes me want to sit outside in my parents' back yard, eating juicy, dripping wet figs right off the tree that have been warmed by the sun. Yuummm.

Florals are usually a 50-50 chance gamble for me. Barring that, I ordered up some Beatrice, which doesn't really have notes listed.

 

This smells pretty much the same all day from the bottle, to wet on the skin, to drydown.

 

I don't really get spices from this at all, though there is something in there that might be carnation, but I can't really tell. I can't detect any specific flower, but I wouldn't be surprised if there was orchid & rose & lily & iris in there. I wouldn't describe it as creamy, either.

 

It isn't offensive, but it hasn't really got any OOMPH behind it (for me anyway). It does remind me a tiny bit of Bearded Lady, but I like the sweeter florals in that one better.

 

It's a fairly innocuous scent, kind of reminiscent to a floral scent I get from shampoos & conditioners I tend to use. It's nice, but I like my scents to have a bit more bite to them. I do think my mom would love this, though. She likes delicate, soft blends like this.

Sounds like maybe Rose & Almond might be issues for you?

 

Shame Sin didn't work out for you... it's one of my favorites!

 

Anything with Red Musk is TEH WIN, I think. (see also: Schrerzade... amazing AND long-lasting) It's musky, it's slightly spicy. Totally sexy.

 

I'd also recommend:

Lust

Kabuki (untraditional spicy–anise!)

Wrath (spicy like the Big Red gum)

Bengal (which doesn't last too long on me)

Golden Priapus (similar to Snake Oil with more "wood" huh hhuh huh)

Chimera (also spicy-cinnamony)

The Lion (I found this to be a bit too "dry" smelling for me)

 

 

Maybe also Kathmandu, but it's been a while since I've tried out my imp.

Every once in a while, I'll get a random catalog oil without testing it first, just based on the description or the notes. Here's a good example.

 

When I open the bottle, this smells strongly of orange blossom. That doesn't bode well for me, and I have actually put off wearing it because of that. I can only take it in small doses (like in Catherine), otherwise I find it overwhemling & nauseating (Seraglio).

 

Throwing caution to the wind (after double checking that there is, in fact, no orange blossom), I slather it on. It starts to develop a more strong orange note (no blossom). It smells almost of orange lollipops. Mmm. It's sweet, juicy, and more than tolerable.

 

As it wears on after a few hours, the juicy fruit note moves aside and the sandalwood becomes stronger and more evident. The sandalwood never becomes all that strong though (which is a shame, because i LOVE sandalwood).

 

The overall effect is a soft woody note that you'd smell while drinking orange juice.

 

This totally works.

these are ones i consider to be floral/rainy scents (some are slightly more aquatic than others):

empyreal mist, lightning, tempest*, ulalume, szepasszony, desdemona, danube

 

 

*especially a lot.

OP??

 

sadly the violets barely came through for me on ultraviolet which is why i suggested it...

it was all ozoney and aquatic....but very rough around the edges...like a tide i suppose...

 

chemistry surely is an amazing thing......

 

OP - original poster

 

Ultraviolet was very violety on me. And a tiny bit of eucalyptus. And not really any aquatics. Crazy, eh?

My tastes trend away from floral and food scents, more toward rain/ocean/water and earthy mossy flavors.

 

Hmm I did some searches for "aquatic" "ozone" "marine" "rain" in the database and came up with some Aquatic/Ozone varieties you might like:

Tempest

Nyarlathotep

Hurricane

Szepasszony

Danube

Ulalume

Bayou

R'lyeh

 

Earthy/Mossy:

Burial

Nocnitsa

Nosferatu

Thanatopsis

Greed

Fallen

Crossroads

Omen

The Apothecary

 

hopefully some of those work out for you.

This is the bastard child of 13 and Cerberus.

 

Out of the bottle, and wet on the skin, this smells almost identical to 13. Almost too much so... it's got that oily, somewhat artificial orange note over a kind of oily chocolate note. It's close to being too much for me to wear in the morning, as it's almost a bit toooo cloying.

 

As this settles in, though, the oily/fake notes fall away, and the fig and slightly lemony notes come to the forefront, smelling almost like a lighter version of Cerebus. NOW I really am starting to like this. The deep notes aren't as deep as Cerebus, but the dried, sweet fig has an almost woody characteristic, and it's lightened by the fairly faint, but perceptable citrus. YUM.

 

 

edited for english.

Severin is earl grey tea, which has some bergamot in that component.

I am absolutely stuck on picking out a scent for my Mom (to be a Christmas gift, and to be

 

So what do you think is a great herbally, green scent, keeping those things in mind?

 

Thanks guys!

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Mad Hatter this 'twas minty/greenery with a bit of lavender

Ides of March (if you can get this) rosemary, bergamot, lemon rind and vervain with costus, benzoin, gray amber, cardamom, white narcissus and iris.... the cardamom on my was warm and green at the same time

Rome —cypress, juniper, chamomile and rose, though i can't remember how rosey this actually is

Tulzcha (another one that may be difficult to get a hold of) mint mint mint and cucumber

Wilde, Lear, & Villian also may be some to try. they're technically "men's scents," but i find them pretty green and definitely wearable by a woman

Embalming fluid haven't tried this out (yet), but it usually gets good green/herbal/clean reviews

 

 

edited because english escapes me

I forgot about Seraglio. Very orange blossomy. Initially it has some almond, but the main note (on me at least) is orange blossom.

I looked up Utterly Nutterly. It seems to be a blend of almond & hazelnut.

 

Oils with hazelnut: Black Pearl, Hellcat, Danse Macabre, Pumpkin Patch 2, and Gluttony

Oils with almond: Eclipse, Voodoo, Inferno, Hellcat, Bastet, Hecate, Queen of Sheba, Salome, Seraglio, Eden, Port-au-Prince (and a few more that don't have it listed...)

 

Since Hellcat seems to have both, that might be a good place to start. I didn't get much hazelnut in Black Pearl, just screaming iris. Gluttony is good too, but very rich & sweet.

 

hope that helps

I originally got Snake Charmer in my House of Mirrors bottle. I finally got my HoM, and I'm annoyed with myself for not trying this *before* CN went bye bye.

 

Holy Wowzers.

 

In the bottle, it's very citrusy, with a slight pine note to it. Kind of like when you drink orange juice after you brush your teeth and run around going CHA CHA CHA? ok, maybe not.

 

On the skin, the citrus note kind of goes away, but not entirely. This slightly aquatic, slightly piney, slightly musky. It reminds me almost dead on of a Sephora perfume from a year or two ago called "L'eau Bleu Relaxant" which lists notes as Green Pine Floral(Jasmine, Violet) Musky Woody. At times it is a dead on duplicate, at times it takes on a more masculine cologney-old spice kind of scent to it. Either way, I freaking LOVE this.

 

 

This is a light, slightly masculine, clean scent. I dig.

ymmv, but i found buck moon & yggdrasil to be veeeeeeeery similar.

In the vial, putting it on aaaaaaaaaall the way through drydown hours and hours and hours later, this hardly changes at all.

It's mostly rose. In fact, that's the main note. It's a velvety rose, not a sharp note like a tea rose, but kind of fuzzy and soft. The leather note is so so so subtle.

You can tell there's something else going on other than the rose, but the leather is barely there and only just noticable. If you knew it was leather, you could probably pick it out, but if you didn't know the specific note, it just kind of blends with the rose and adds another dimension to it.

This lasted incredibly long & well also.