mmcfa2

This reminds me a bit of mi goh

fruit ah fruit and more fruit, mango and spicy and then sigh gone.

I got no other Christmas blends and this one is not for me. I totally missed the wood or resin stages that others got.

this one is a HUGE morpher. When I first put it on, I get cold liquid and stone. Then come the flowers, hot and lush. I don't really like these stages, although they ae not unpleasant. But then BOOM! the incense comes out and I am hooked. Great throw, great lasting power at the end stage, and well worth the wait. Complex and lovely!!

as much as i love all the notes in this blend...

well all together, they go powdery in me and that just is so sad. sigh..

"An aquatic floral with a paradoxical earthiness to it. Much more substantial than most aquatics."

I could not describe it better, and I love it!!

My only wail is the short wear time. it fades into nothingness rapidly and I have to reapply. BUT that is countered by the fact that it is an immediate LOVE on my skin with no wait time for it to bloom. I'd love to find another bottle.

This starts off sweet. I get load of balsam wet, but as it settles it gets drier and much less sweet. After ten minutes or so it is all spice and resin. I'm not sure what note is screaming spice to my nose though. hmmmm.

I do not get the schwarzer mond references though. to my nose the only similarity is the darkness ans the depth

To me this is more midnight mass without the woods..

it gets better and better as it settles into my skin

I loved the first milk moon. I had to try this one too. EXCeLLENT reinvention! he fruit lifts and matures the milk. and the more bitter pomegranate keeps the whole shebang from becoming girly. I'll agree this has hints of Eden to it, but Eden backed by the warmth of the first Milk moon sweetened by honey and dates.

There are no cherries of citrus hidden here, This is white grape and fig and pomegranate. I think fruit sometimes and get fruit punch. This is not it.

I get no funk at all from the milk btw, just sweet creamy goodness.

Wow, everyone! Thank you!

 

I find it very interesting what "real" patchouli lovers enjoy (compared to someone like me who only really likes patchouli when it's well-blended). I have tried the Coiled Serpent a few times and I just can't get into it, but I'll dig around and see if I can find one for her. From your recs today and from the recs from previous patchouli topics, it remains high on the must-haves list for patchouli fans.

 

I do have Masquerade, Malice and Malediction... and Mr. Jacquel so I'll have to reconsider those. Crap. You guys are making this more difficult! LOL!

 

And to quickly defend my Snake Oil choice... isn't giving Snake Oil to a BPAL virgin in the rule book somewhere?

I don't know... I HATED snake oil for the first couple of years I came to love bpal. I like it now, especially as a base to make other things last longer, but it took a while to acquire a love for it. I also was floored to find the patchouli scents that have NOT been mentioned here, smelled NOTHING like the patchouli I know and love. Beth uses it for a lot of different blends, but it is only true to form in the ones I have seen mentioned here.

I'm a big patchouli lover too and I can say that anne bonny will without question be a hit, as would the coiled serpent. I too wore mostly patchouli before bpal ( still do on occasion) URD depends on her reaction to grape. on me it was a silly scent, pleasant enough but not for me. Luperci is a favorite of mine but not until it has aged for a good long while. I can also recommend Mr Jaquel and carcionne d'invenzione ( I'm sure it spelled it wrong) as the woods interpret very much like patchouli, they are on the more expensive end but are GC. I can also recommend tushnamaytay. The lab's patchouli varies widely from traditional so use caution in picking a scent based on that description word alone. I am NOT a fan of many of the lab patchoulies. Caterpillar is not a bad choice either, but is very sweet by comparison.

Snake Oil is a great scent but is not very patchouli AT all, it's very sweet and heady. I like Wanton, but the rose in it all but kills the patchouli. I hope this helps you to narrow the field a bit!

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 adding Omen to my own must try list. Thanks for the heads up!

I'm a big patchouli lover too and I can say that anne bonny will without question be a hit, as would the coiled serpent. I too wore mostly patchouli before bpal ( still do on occasion) URD depends on her reaction to grape. on me it was a silly scent, pleasant enough but not for me. Luperci is a favorite of mine but not until it has aged for a good long while. I can also recommend Mr Jaquel and carcionne d'invenzione ( I'm sure it spelled it wrong) as the woods interpret very much like patchouli, they are on the more expensive end but are GC. I can also recommend tushnamaytay. The lab's patchouli varies widely from traditional so use caution in picking a scent based on that description word alone. I am NOT a fan of many of the lab patchoulies. Caterpillar is not a bad choice either, but is very sweet by comparison.

I'm trying to enable a friend who pretty much only wears patchouli oil. Every day. I'm hoping to give her the most diverse bunch of BPAL patchouli blends I can. And, as wonderful as they are, I don't want to give her too many similar-smelling smutty, sexy, spicy blends. (I'm just not sure she'd be able to tell the difference.) To prevent overwhelming her, I think I'd like to keep it around 10 imps. Snake Oil is a great scent but is not very patchouli AT all, it's very sweet and heady.

 

I went through the patchouli recs topics and found that these were the top ten forum faves (in order of most recommended, cause I'm a dork):

 

Sin

Vixen

Anne Bonny

Depraved

Urd

Tez

Snake Oil

Imp

Greed

Ravenous/Vechernyaya (tied)

 

The only two I don't have are Greed & Vechernyaya. But I do have:

 

Lust

The Caterpillar

Voodoo

Wanton

Tweedledum

and Bloodlust (Which, oddly, wasn't mentioned in any of the patchouli recs topics, but I love it so there. )

 

I also have Asp Viper, Mme. Moriarty, Smut, Snake Charmer and Luperci - all LEs that *I* think are fun and interesting patchouli blends - but I'm hesitant to give them to her knowing many of them are no longer available.

 

So... how would you choose? I think I only need help filling the last 5 or 6 spots because I'm pretty sure Snake Oil, Sin, Vixen, Tez and Imp are going in for sure.

 

Thanks!

wow! This started out SWEET. I actually turned and put it in the GO box... But then...

warm woods, sexy woods, damp with oil not water. resin soaked wood, soft smooth warm wood. Just gah, LOVELY!! Nothing like the dry wood of say.. . cathedral. This is warm and quite inviting and requires absolutely no scent associations to enjoy it. I think the initial sweetness is tobacco perhaps? Anyway wood, spice and resin lovers, grab this one because it is absolutely dead on deliciously sexy

spicy and female without being too showy. This one is quite unique and a must order for me ( I tried it at a swapmeet)

At first this was WAY too spicy and then... and then! WOW warm amber, no powder with a lasting throw that is way better than the sniff at the wrist. It becomes honeyed spicy incense about a foot away. To me it is akin to blood moon crossed with luperci minus the metallic tang of blood moon. Slightly less sexual than luperci and more androgynous.

soft and tenacious. This one smells CLEAN, bu not soap clean, just good living clean Lasts MANY hours, the throw is slight and much a clean skin smell, damp and slightly sweet with vanilla.

Or death cap! sweet creamy dirt

This is wonderful! It starts one a nondescript mild floral . But minutes into wearing it begins to warm and becomes a beautiful resinous scent that wears like satin! not bright, not powdery, nothing but golden warmth that is soothing but not at all heavy.

edit to add: I can still smell this 12 hours later! Now it is all hyacinth, which is unexpected as I think of resins lasting, not flowers!

This is one in the same vein as Tamora and Katharina. I just love it and find it to be the most subtle and sophisticated among the three. It does a very strange disappearing act about 15 minutes into wearing, but then comes back lovely shortly thereafter. It is soft, definitely feminine and utterly lovely. No jarring or discordant notes to be found, they all swell up beneath the peach and support it to become more than it is, but still clearly peach blossom. My husband swears it smells vaguely of incense, but I don't smell that, I just get lovely, warm, fruity floral that is creamy without being too sweet. Another great one!! Bravo Beth, This is the first in a while where my whole order delighted me despite having ordered unsniffed

this is just yummy! Count me among those who could not wear the original 13, it went sour and heavy on my skin. This one though is chocolate then orange then vanilla and round again. The morphing is fabulous and the scent lingers close to the skin. This has a slight throw, I can wear it to work without screaming out my scent but I can smell it some distance from my wrist.

BRAVO!!

I've found in my experimentation that almost all BPAL blends I try go sugary on my skin. That's all well and good, but I'd like _some_ scents that have bite, an herbal bitterness, or a spice that makes your nostrils flare. Any suggestions?

mandrake has the herbal bitterness and is delightful.

while I generally adore dark scents, this one was a bust for me. Started out turpentine and finished the same way

this is just a lovely floral comforting scent. The drydown reminds me of a softer desdemona. I think this is the most delicate of all the bpal I have tried and i find it tremendously uplifting. I wish i had bought more!

I'll chime in for Jazz funeral, deathcap and mandrake! I especially find mandrake and london together to be very like Zombi without the tang of dirt, only the depth of it.

OH YUMMY! I smell fig, and i think olive leaf and then something creamy. it's lovely! earthy, sweet, warm and herbal all at the same time! between this and ceathcap I think I have fould my two very favorite scents!

Faint earth and creamy braised mushrooms with a touch of sweetness. I cannot do it justice with words. my skin loves this stuff! interesting consistiency btw, almost sticky instead of oily.

I sniffed this one from the bottle and loved it. Applied on wet, oh dear gods it smells like some kind of 70's aftershave! EEEWWWWW

but then it dries and morphs completely into a warm woody sexy dirty blend that is just fabulous. I's SO glad i waited out the ewwww phase cause this is so warm and sexy. Imagine curling up in a leather chair in front of a roaring fire sipping some dark honeyed liquid, staring into the eyes of a beautiful man...and now imagine the fire and chair are under the stars rather than in a room and the walls are beautiful old oak trees still firmly rooted in the ground

Or imagine the smell of mr tumnus...

this is truly yummy!

ADDED 2/24/07:

can anyone compare it to last years? Mine has aged so beautifully