izile

<3 <3 <3 This is definitely in my favorite scents family. The bourbon vanilla takes a more creamy than vanilla note, and combined with the honey and rose otto, it's loosely in the same family as Nymphae Avernales and Dawn: Maiden - but there is a nice, deep, lingering light fig note that just blends gorgeously. It reminds me of the fig in Carnal (another favorite) but not as domineering. I guess that's the "white" aspect of the fig - but it balances well and it has good through and lasts a long time and I just sat there snuffling myself going - DAMN - I smell GOOD!

I grabbed this one, because in the bottle, I got a great gardenia smell with just a bit of lemon verbena - never noticed the jasmine, and the vanilla was nice and subtle. Wore it today, first time by itself for a full day. Yup - totally different, it's gotta go. French Vanilla, how much, specifically FRENCH vanilla. Gardenia? I dunno, no gardenia here. Jasmine, maybe a touch of powder from that (I tend to baby-powder-of-doom on jasmine) and a lingering edge of lemon verbena, just a light little herbal citrus hint. But *BAM* I smell more like old style French Vanilla ice cream than anything else. That is not a good thing to me.

I really liked the scent of this one, but it was very hard to detect. Whereas other hair glosses I could spray directly on my hair and then smell them on my hair for hours, if not all day (honey lasts FOREVER), this one I had to spray in my hand then hold my hand over my nose to get a good smell at all. It smells lovely! Very light and balanced between an herby, true-to-life mint, and a not-too pine-forest or gin-like juniper. It also only lasted about 30 minutes at best before I couldn't smell any traces, even when huffing my hair. if you think the others are far too strong, it would probably be good for you. But it's way too weak to keep, so on the swap pile it goes. --------- EDIT: smelled a whole bottle at the lab's table at NYCC - apparently it's just me. Shook and sniffed straight from the bottle at the table and got next to nothing. Tried wiping some on my hair - nada. Apparently me and this scent just cancel each other out somehow. Weird.

Absolutely gorgeous! It seemed a little old-lady powdery in the bottle at first, but once it hit my skin it balanced very well. Reminds me HUGELY of Dawn: Maiden, which is one of my favorites. Lasted well, and had decent throw, too. Can't wait to try it in a bath.

In the bottle: A Vetiver punch in the nose. After that fades away, I'm left with a little nasal tingle that reminds me of pickles, I'm assuming that's the gingergrass. Wet: Where did you go?? I just put you on? Hello? anyone? oh, hi! OK, ginger cream, that's nice. But man, that vetiver pickle is hanging on in the background. Dry: fades FAST and I end up with something that smells like a slightly pickled/gingery wet, rotten, wooden stick. Oh, and for the record. I am well acquainted with kudzu. It is endemic all over the area I grew up. Kudzu does not smell at all like vetiver.

In the bottle: smells like fresh green florals, bright and spring-like. Lovely! Wet: stays pretty much the same, but less sharp green, more soft petal, and a little bit of vanilla starting to round out the edge. Dry: Like a weaker version of wet, but something odd is catching on the edge. Hard to define. It's not really pleasant, but not a complete turn off as you really have to huff it to notice. It's a little dusty? musty? Like maybe the flowers got cut and put in a vase in a retirement home. EDIT: (10 min later?) PURSE CANDY! That's what it is. It smells like floral candy that's been at the bottom of grandma's purse since the Nixon administration.

in the bottle: First and foremost I smell the labs not-mint snow note. This is the same snow note I remember from 2009's Snow Maiden and/or First Soft Snow. Otherwise, that and a little light floral, probably the honeysuckle. Wet: BEAUTIFUL. I get more honeysuckle and pear than snow, but the snow is still there. No odd "ozone" scent that I had worried about. Dry: it's starting to get a little powdery on me (was worried with the amber and musk, but it's not ALL powder, definitely mossy, soft, sandalwood-y. The snow and pear and floral of the wet type is almost completely gone and replaced by this very soft, kind of cuddly/fuzzy scent. Liked it better wet.

I. LOVE. THIS. I had thought it was going to be a rather iffy scent, but LOVE. In the Bottle: beautiful, bright, crisp, ripe, sweet, juicy pear! Wet: the best pear you've ever eaten, the perfect pear with just the suggestion of honey and a gentle side of vanilla cream Dry: Lovely balance. There's still mostly pear up front, and a beautiful pear at that, but there is a warmth now from the honey that wasn't there 5 minutes ago, and the vanilla cream has stepped up and balanced as well. To me, this reminds me a bit of a not-floral pear version of Josie, which is one of my favorites, so this is a total keeper!!

I'm having a harder time smelling this one out of the bottle. Not sure if it's because it's milder than my other stuff, or if it's because I've got the hot tea and honey out for the beginnings of a little one-sided congestion and post-nasal drip. In the bottle: very light, very powdery, hard to smell much behind a little sweet, a little soft and a little rose Wet: hasn't gotten much stronger, starting to remind me of Dawn: Maiden - which is a favorite, but how similar are they?? Dry: Definitely reminding me of Dawn: Maiden with the rose and honey. I will want to come back and try this again when my nose is 100% (I'd say I'm 75-80% right now) and do a death-match to see how close it is to Dawn: Maiden when one's on the left wrist and the other is on the right.

LOVE! In the bottle: I get really sharp bright lemon up front, but not like lemon pledge or lemon dish soap, like good lemon ZEST. There's some sweetness behind it, a little cool mint, but big lemon up front. Wet: More balanced, I'm aware of the vanilla cream more, but not overly vanilla. There's a bit of cool to it, but not really icy. More like Pink Snowballs than Nuclear Winter. Dry: Love love love. I have bright bright citruses with a snowy/cool background and a good balance.

In the Bottle: Very juicy and pomegranate and fruity with a kind of cologne back. Wet: Almost immediately the pomegranate and fruit/juice starts to fade and oak and baby powder start coming forward on me. I did test this on the fella, and while it was wet on him, it stayed very juicy and fruity, the cologne-y part just got a lot stronger. Dry: Almost entirely baby powder on me, maybe a little oakyness to the baby powder, but that's pretty much it. On him, the juice started turning really sour smelling, no oak or other woodsy notes, just like bad cologne had turned or pomegranate juice got old and went sour. Dry HOURS later: Several hours later it smells like a pomegranate version of Cykranoshian Catnip. It's got a very similar woodiness, hint of something "spicy" but not "spices" like cinnamon or clove or nutmeg, and a pomegranate edge. Took a long time for it to turn decent on me, but I still get too much baby powder to want to keep this one around, esp. since it goes wonky on the fella and it is definitely a more masculine scent to me.

Anyone ever found a BPAL that was like Lush's Turkish Delight? I love the smell (kind of candied lemon and roses) but it doesn't really linger the way I'd like.

Thanks for the suggestions! My friend plays a character that's kinda a halfway point between those two, and I've been trying to enable him. Testing and testing and so far the only thing that works on him is the Ninth Cage. 0_o. Weird.

Fun! I like the idea of 10 being Schroedinger's Cat! (I don't like banana) Other fandom questions 1) Darth Maul 2) Ring Wraith and man, I wish I could request for someone to find out what the RPG Neutral (maybe chaotic) Elven Rogue combo smells like. Somehow hasn't shown up on the review list yet.

Hmm, going to bump this thread 'cause it seems very close. Met a new guy, things going well, he has a LOT of commercial colognes. trying to tempt him away into the land of BPAL, at least for some options. Unfortunately, the notes he seems to like are the ones I avoid (but they do smell good on him). He likes pine, evergreen woods, and aquatics, kinda in that order. I guess I should really find out the names of the colognes he owns so that might give people who at least know about commercial stuff a better idea. I think the other day he was wearing something by Issey Miyake. Thoughts for particularly light/fresh/clean pine? (to me, a lot of BPAL's pine scents have been exceedingly dark, sappy, and heavy)

Another very surprising one to me. In this one, I expected watery aquatic notes. But all I get is lemon pledge. It went on wet as WOW LEMON! it is now dry as slightly dusty lemon pledge. I love New Orleans and used to spend a lot of time there as a sophomore in college, and this is too bright and clean and not at all watery and way all too lemony for the New Orleans I remember.

I have to admit, I was a little surprised/confused when I compared the note description to what I smell. The first thing that jumps out at me is the aquatic nature. It's very clean, but definitely aquatic. As it fades, it becomes a little more flowery, but trees/woods I never smelled. Water when wet, soft flowers when dry.

I had wanted to skin test all the Dawn scents at D*Con, but Dawn: Maiden was the one that screamed "TAKE ME HOME!" No death-notes like the Priestess, not sharp, bordering on acric like Mother, Dawn: Maiden was just lovely from start to finish. In the bottle, I'm reminded of a slighly fruity version of "The Rose." I know there's no fruit notes listed, but many actual roses do have fruit-like notes, and there was a light hint of that to this rose. I couldn't smell much of anything else in the bottle. Wet on the skin, it becomes a bit more complex, it's sweet, but not at all smelling of "honey" the way the recent apiary scents do, or like "O" or other honey scents have, to me. It reminds me of the honey in Lady Una most. The rose starts to get some friendliness from the other flowers, there's something kind of sunny smelling, I assumed it was the heliotrope, though, in retrospect, the sweetness could have also been to do with the honeysuckle. Dry, it lasts for hours, has a good throw, and I smelled of sweet - but not at all candy-like - roses with a hint of fruitiness that lingers. The "milk" note never showed up on me, and I can't say I ever smelled an olive blossom to know if it were there or not. The guy I was with kept smelling me and telling me how nice it was. Bonus. It was great for the Steampunk Ball, too.

It's July 4th. I'm throwing a cookout in my backyard. . . I have 4 hours to figure out what BPAL to wear! ACK! Last time, my natural inclination was to go along with the kind of clean, crisp, plant-y thing and I wore Enchanted Florists, but it was just so soft it completely disappeared. I am also considering starting with a Snake Oil Bath Oil base (as there may or may not be persons unmentioned at this gathering whom I might want to smell very yummy to). ---- Also, may start going on weekly picnics to see movies in the park with a guy friend whom I know LOVES my BPAL habit. I've ALMOST got him enabled, so suggestions for that too. Basically, what do you wear/suggest when you know you're mostly going to be outside, and possibly around a lot of people?

I like both Yvaine and Josie for magnolia, but they go in two completely different directions. The lavender in Yvaine can be very strong (well, mine's probably a couple of years old, too, so it might be aged yvaine is very lavender strong). Josie is probably my absolute favorite, the balance of slightly honey-sweetened peaches with the magnolia is just so very evocative. I wear it when I want to be reminded of home (Mississippi).

This reminds me of a lot less orange version of Knick-Knack. In the bottle, i was really excited. It's dusty/mossy tree bark with a spicy-orange kind of smell. On my skin, I'm not very aware of the orange at all. It's very cedar-y. Spicy wood, warm, still a little dusty-mossy-barky. But oranges? They're booking it out the back, high-tailing for the hills and I'm not sure they'll come back. This might be a very good scent for a guy. But, it's different enough and pleasant enough that I'm not going to put it out to swap anytime soon.

wet.. . weird. . . it almost immediately reminds me of that woody-forest note used in the Winter seasonal LEs. . . except. . . cinnamon, red hot cinnamon candy (am I insane?) it's like if those candies grew on a tree, this would be that tree. drying, the honey is trying to assert balance, but I'm not sure if it's going to be able to. It is a very dry spicy scent, I agree with saralaughs there. It's nice, but I'm not really a cinnamon wearing girl, so off to the swap pile it goes.

wet: oh, I agree, very sharp and green and herbacious! Not really tomato-plant-y as something more wild and non-edible. as it's drying I'm still waiting for the honey. . maybe a little bit of sweetness in the background as it's drying down. But very little. It's kinda nice . I smell like I've been tending my garden, as I should.

Wet this smells almost identical to Suck It, to me. As it's drying, the honey is coming out more, but the "fruit+brandy" aspect smells just like Suck It to me.

I had really wanted this to work. Even though I'm not entirely familiar with all of the notes as scents on their own. In the bottle it did smell kind of omni-floral, though I got no hints of flaming windmills or anything like that. Just light (not at all magnolia) mixed wildflower bouquette. On me. . dishwashing soap. Full power, that's all she wrote. I've never gotten the dishwashing soap reaction to a skintest before, so I wonder what caused it. But yup, hours later, it smells like I'm doing dishes. Disappointed.