minilux

Helle's Belle is a possibility...

HELL'S BELLE -- Sweet, smoky and sensually wicked. A thick, steamy scent, truly sinister in its voluptuous sexuality. The perfume of a demon's favored consort, or of the devil herself. Oleander with wet, sweet mandarin, lush magnolia, a rush of deep musk and a touch of spice

Mme. Moriarty! I think everyone should try it, it's that freakin' good.

I found the notes in a review on basenotes.net and since they pretty much jive with your description of the scent, it seems like whoever posted them must have gotten them from a somewhat accurate source.

Notes for In Love Again are: Top notes include grapes, grapefruit, brimbelle. Heart notes include tulip tree, grapefruit, water lily. Base notes include blackberry, sandalwood, musk

I've never found a BPAL with grapefruit that lasts for more than 10 seconds on me. You might want to try Baobhan Sith, Shattered, Night-gaunt or Croquet.

I used to wear Coco a long time ago and I think it's pretty unique, because I've never come across anything that smells like it. In fact, I've never come across satisfactory dupes for any of my favorite scents from the 80s-early 90s (Poison, Coco and Paloma Picasso).

In an attempt to help/enable a co-worker, can anyone suggest a BPAL that's like Sheseido's Inoui? It's from the seventies and discontinued. I poked around the web and found it described variously as: "rich, warm chypre," "green fresh balsamic," "fruity-floral with a myrrh base," & "floral chypre."

 

Top notes: Lemon, Galbanum, Peach, Juniper

Middle: Jasmine, Pine Needles, Thyme, Freesia

Base: Oakmoss, Cedarwood, Myrrh, Civet, Musk

 

Most reviews called out the galbanum, peach, jasmine, freesia, myrrh, and (on occasion) oakmoss.

 

Thanks

In the BPAL realm, Fae (A brilliant, ethereal scent: white musk, bergamot, heliotrope, peach and oakmoss) is the closest that comes to mind. Some of those notes are in Guerlain's Mitsouko as well.

I could use some help in converting someone. My husband's best friend, and a good friend of mine as well moved to China to marry a woman from there. I want to send her some BPAL as a present as I hear she has a love of perfume, but I want to make sure and pick things that will be close to what she already likes.

 

I know how to do searches icon_wink.gif I just know that some of you may be particularly aquainted with these perfumes and might have some fabulous suggestions.

Chanel No. 5, especially in its parfum form is a really strong and intense scent and the closest I've found in BPAL is maybe Dance of Death. And I may be crazy for suggesting this, but something about Brisingamen has what I think of as a Chanel vibe, though it's nothing like Chanel No. 5.

There's a powdery sweetness about White Light, Anthelion and Lionheart that does not agree with me at all and I've gotten the same feeling from Black Opal. Though I should warn you I have the chemistry from hell, so it's entirely possible that I'm the only person on the planet who would make this comparison.

Zephyr

I wish I could say, "yes, there's something here that smells exactly like jasmine tea!", because it's a smell I've been looking for for years. I haven't found it in the BPAL catalogue, though it may partly be because my chemistry amps the BPAL jasmine to insane headache-inducing levels. If you happen to have a more agreeable chemistry, you might want to try Phantasm (which has both jasmine and tea in it), and I believe there are a few Salon scents for Asian artworks that have tea in them and may also have jasmine, so you might want to check those out. Good luck! And if you ever find something that's a dead ringer for jasmine tea, please send me a PM!

I had such high hopes for Casanova myself, but it's one of the masculine scents that just proved to be way too masculine for me. You had me totally stumped with your question, but suddenly one day it popped into my head that Dorian might actually complement it and feminize it without totally ruining it. I also wonder if one of the lilac blends like Villain or Whitechapel might be a good match as well. Good luck!

I couldn't wait to get my hands on this puppy, because lilac fougere + leather sounded awesome. Alas, I am getting mainly lilac and the leather hasn't made an appearance at all, so I actually find this to be more feminine on me than my favorite BPAL lilac, Villain. I'm going to hold onto this bottle, though, and see if the leather doesn't make an appearance with a little aging.

Holy butterscotch, Batman! Butterscotch is one of my least favorite scents (and tastes) ever, so no matter what glorious scent this might potentially morph into, I absolutely cannot get past the initial blast which screams butterscotch to me. This little impling is going to a new home pronto!

Based on my own predilection for straight up dark and dirty patchouli, I wouldn't even consider trying to convert a fellow patchouli lover with any of the red patchouli scents, because it never really smells like patchouli to me. I would, however, consider:

The Coiled Serpent

Omen

Tezcatlipoca

Greed

Masquerade

Sin

Dance of Death

and possibly (I don't like them, but so many others do that there must be something I'm missing) :

Anne Bonny

Urd

I'm not big on foody scents, but I'd like to recommend Sudha Segara which is really beautiful, sweet and a bit spicy without being foody.

It's probably a buttery note. I've never tried Sugar Cookie, but Gluttony and Jack make me gag just thinking about them. You may want to steer cleer of Grog, too.

Aquatics are generally my least favorite type of scent, because they virtually guarantee a headache and/or allergy attack. I had to try Caliban, though, because hell, it's Caliban. So, I could not have been more surprised to discover what a lovely clean scent this is. I wish I had gotten some fern, because I can't say I detect any, but overall I am happy that Caliban has broken my 0 for 10 billion record with aquatics.

Because my chemistry sucks, it more or less cranks up the amber to the detriment of all the other notes. Unless I'm having scent memory delusions, this reminds me a lot of some of the Beth experimental blends that were floating around a year or so ago. Even though amber is one of my arch-nemeses, something about these dark amber blends is perversely intoxicating. 99% of the time they're the last thing I would want to smell like, but I might keep a little smidgeon for the 1% of the time when I find myself in an amber-craving pervert phase.

The Tez is so unbelievably gorgeous and addictive, that I'm not sure I can articulate anything remotely intelligent that hasn't already been said. If you like deep, rich, luxurious scents, you must try it. And I can only imagine what it does with a more masculine chemistry, but I would not be surprised if any guy wearing it found themselves with a trail of admirers.

Lust easily could have turned into miniluxbane with the tag team of red musk and ylang-ylang (and I confess it did give me a bit of a headache, which I'm blaming on those two ). I find red musk to be the most brazenly sexy and intoxicating of Beth's musks, however it really is not really a me note, so it was ultimately the lure of patchouli that got me to try this. Much to my surprise and despite its tendency to be a bit powdery, I find this stuff amazingly addictive and intoxicating, and I can't stop sniffing my wrist when I wear it. I wouldn't be at all surprised if there's some secret voodoo ingredient in this or lust spell cast over this blend.

I must be a glutton for punishment, since I decided to give Vixen another whirl because people are always raving about it. But, I'm afraid it is not meant to be, because it is so syrupy and sweet on me that I can't stop thinking that it should be poured over pancakes rather than worn as a perfume. Bleccch!

I could have sworn I tried this and hated it, but now I'm thinking that my fear of the f-word (f****incense) kept me from trying it in the past, because I freakin' love this stuff. To me, it smells like an asskicking blend of patchouli, cedar and possibly something peppery (which are all good things in my book), and maybe I'm imagining it, but I'm also going to blame/credit it for some really wild and vivid dreams. I need a bottle of this stat!

Hey Punky, if you're not a patchouli-phobe, you might want to try Masquerade and I'll second clover's Sin suggestion. And if you're looking for something clean and fresh, you should try Embalming Fluid. I think it was Embalming Fluid that finally broke my massive losing streak of powdery scents.

ETA: You might want to try Perversion, Urd and/or Sudha Segara as well. (I've only just had my first cup of tea, so my brain is verrry slooow)

Ha! Black Phoenix was one of the other culprits I asked Beth about, and I believe Spellbound might have been the third. White musk generally does not go powdery on me at all. If anything, some of the white musks are a bit too masculine, but I'll take masculine over baby powder any day.

I bet it's musk. A good number of musk scents (especially black or dark musk for some reason) turn to baby powder on me. A good number of scents from my first order turned to baby powder, but they didn't have any common notes that I could tell, so I emailed the lab and Beth said it was probably musk. Snake Oil was definitely one of the culprits. To this day, the one thing my boyfriend can say that is guaranteed to make me cringe is "do I smell baby powder?"

I would also advise reading reviews before ordering. If lots of people are saying something smells powdery, then I stay as far away from it as possible.

question... so far every orange one i've tried has been really bright and just ... i dunno ... not right to me. i love citrus typically, but ... what gives? are there any darker more fuller and deeper orange scents?

Depending on your relationship with patchouli, you may want to give Masquerade a try.