sunshinedaisybliss

Imagine if you were able to make your hair smell like soft, warm patchouli with hints of sweet vanilla and the fresh organic scent of hemp... imagine if every time a gentle breeze lifts your hair you let its scent cuddle you and smile quietly to yourself because you know nobody else smells as awesome as you do. And then imagine if as a bonus you got soft silky hair. Imagine no longer, my fine smelling friends, because you are able to! Right here, with this wondrous stuff!! It's no secret that Banshee Beat is my One True BPAL Love, and I have long been in the habit of anointing my locks with dabs of BB, so it's no surprise that this hair gloss fills me with joy. But even I am surprised at just how nice it is! Where BB is quite bombastic in its patchouli-vanilla-hemp-iness - there's no hiding that gnarly goodness BB delivers - this RR HG is much softer and subtle... overall sweeter and less oomphy. The scent is the same, but where Banshee Beat goes to 11 - Revenant Rhythm goes to about 4, but don't get me wrong... whilst I'm all about the gnarly uberness of BB, I think it's completely appropriate for a hair gloss to be less strongly scented. I get around 3-4 hours of good scent in my hair from this - after that it starts to fade pretty quickly but I can still detect little hints of fragrance up to 8-10 hours later. Previously, Amber & Patchouli HG has been my go-to... sorry, A&P, but you're going to be neglected for a while. I would also like to mention that this is the first hair gloss I've bought that actually sprays a soft mist - all my other HGs squirt, which makes them a little difficult to apply. And here's the most fabulous thing of all - this is the only hair gloss I've tried so far that doesn't weigh my fine hair down and make it my hair icky. Some may say that's just lucky, but I say these are two more reasons why RR HG is magical. Now all I need is RR shampoo and conditioner and some RR body lotion so I can smell like this from head to toe, and my life will be complete.

So when the Lupers came out, I thought... nope, nothing here for me. But Ivory Vulva did catch my eye because whenever I see 'golden amber', I get a little warm in the trousers area. So I ended up buying a bottle from another BPALer, and when it arrived I excitedly dabbed some on and waited for the golden amber goodness to waft over me. Imagine my disappointment when I realise I'm surrounded by a cloud of aroma d'peanut butter! Yes, you heard me - peanut butter. Damn you macadamia - why did you have to be here? I should have known that any 'nut' note would override everything else in the mix, but I was blinded by the prospect of golden amber (and possibly distracted by the warmth in the trousers area). When I manage to poke my nose through the macadamia madness, I find a lovely sweet and creamy marshmallow, a soft and earthy coconut, but no amber. This reminds me so much of Wezwanie/Hold... it would have been so beautiful if it weren't for the stupid nut note. So for me, it's not Ivory Vulva... it's Nutty Vulva and that's never a good thing.

Ooh! That is still my favorite brand name perfume to date when i want to spritz it all over on my clothes and stuff. Dont suppose you have any bpal recommendations that are similar to hypnotic poison at all? That is my favorite vanilla scent yet. Yep - Hypnotic Poison has actually been mentioned a few times on the 'Looking for a BPAL that resembles a favourite perfume' topic and also there's this topic for Dior perfumes My comment there was: I'd like to add to this - The Girl is way more jasmine-rrific than HP. I would also now mention Sybil, which has Egyptian Musk and a lovely dry bourbon vanilla but also tea rose which makes it different to HP in flavour but similar in tone, and Cabaret Goth has a similar musky/vanilla thing going on although neither of those notes (it's the amber in CG that makes it HP-like) . Others noted in that topic are listed below (although I can't say I agree with them all!) Vain Sorceress from the Trading Post Dragon's Milk Perversion Lovers With Rutting Cats (Shunga) Hamadryad Faiza the Black Mamba (CD) OK, end hijack of thread! Sorry folks

My big favourite in this category is Khrysee (Vanilla amber and orange blossom) - reviews here - so simple, but so very beautiful (and also, sadly, so very hard to find). Although it's not an orange blossom or neroli blend, one of my favourite 'orange' BPALs is Lilith and the Giant Crab - Tangerine cream, benzoin, white sandalwood, white pear, tonka, and ambergris accord - reviews here. I don't see it up for sale very often though. In the GC, my picks would be: Vixen (the innocence of orange blossom tainted by the beguiling scents of ginger and patchouli) Akuma (blood orange, neroli, and raspberry) Hunger (Black narcissus, orange blossoms, and vanilla) Seraglio (Sweet almond and Mysor sandalwood enveloped by a heady veil of Bulgarian Rose, neroli, nutmeg, clove and orange peel) From the Snake Pit - Australian Copperhead (Snake Oil with acai berry, amber, cardamom, neroli, and smoked vanilla) Old Demons of the First Class (Siberian musk, black clove, opoponax, tonka, black pepper, and neroli) is a worthy inclusion for something different to the typical 'fruity' or 'citrus' blends Oh, and Oceans of Love and Millions of Kisses (orange blossom and honey) bath oil is absolutely divine. *with apologies if any of those GCs are discontinued - I haven't been keeping up with recent news, sorry.

Oh you're very welcome! It's funny - not many people know about Lucy, Kissed.. I think it was one of those things that got a bit lost amongst the big lot of Halloween releases that year, but I think it's quite a masterpiece I hope you're able to find some, and when you do... I hope you like it!

ziggystardust - I know it's been a while since you posted this, but as soon as I read your list I thought of Lucy, Kissed - it was an LE from the Trading Post, but you should be able to track some down Lucy, Kissed Diabolical voluptuousness, a siren song from the grave: juniper and yew brushing against blackened violets and funeral roses, red musk and hot blood, veined white marble and icy, brittle musk, all pulsing with the sinister, hypnotic scent of patchouli, amber, oude, and cubeb. I know that might sound like an odd mix, but it's a deep warm and sensual patch/musk/smokdy rose - kind of like Snake Oil + Vixen + Midnight Kiss + Rose Red had some sort of illicit romp and Lucy, Kissed is the feral lovechild borne of their tryst Reviews here.

The most recent one I've seen is Vain Sorceress from the Trading Post. HP is one of the very few commercial perfumes that I love, and I haven't yet found a BPAL that is a total smell-alike. The Girl has a similar feel, but it's crazy hard to find. You should also try The Antikythera Mechanism or Stimulating Sassafrass Strengthener, if you haven't already. But for me, what I love about Hypnotic Poison is that gorgeous dry dusky sandalwood and the sultry vanilla + musk combination - my skin doesn't play out any of the florals or fruit notes at all - so those recommendations may be way off for you, depending on what it is about HP that you love

Hi littleflight As Mountaingrrl mentioned, the Recommendations section has two topics: Best BPALs for SUMMER - is it hot, sweltering, sticky outside? and Scents for summer into autumn so you'll probably find those helpful I think in general, people associate the lighter, brighter blends with summer - in particular, citrus notes like lemon/orange/lime get mentioned a lot... and there's also the sweeter florals that we associate with summer - eg jasmine, gardenia etc. The more 'fresh' scents (eg notes of cucumber, tea etc - green things, generally) also work nicely. But don't be afraid of wearing your foody/autumn blends in summer - often a bit of heat will work magic with certain BPALs and give a scent a whole new vibe in the warmer weather. Personally, I love wearing Snake Oil on stinking hot days because all that vanilla and spicy goodness just gets better and better the hotter it gets

LOOK OUT! A GIANT RED VELVET TRUFFLE CAKE IS BEHIND YOU!! LOOK OUT! A GIANT RED VELVET TRUFFLE CAKE IS IN FRONT OF YOU!! LOOK OUT! A GIANT RED VELVET TRUFFLE CAKE IS SITTING ON YOU!! LOOK OUT! A GIANT RED VELVET TRUFFLE CAKE IS CLIMBING UP YOUR NOSE!! That's my experience with this, it smells like someone has grabbed me and smashed my face into a red velvet truffle cake and I have bits of it stuck up my nose and in my ears and it's FOLLOWING ME AROUND AND IT'S ALL I CAN SMELL. This smells like a boozy, chocolate-y, velvety-, red velvet cake liqueur. Dastardly.

Bourbon vanilla, Indonesian patchouli, raw coffee bean, and Himalayan spices. Yep - this one sure is a morpher! At first, it goes on very buttery vanilla with a sharp twang of bitter spice... but as it warms up on my skin, the buttery business starts to fade and the bitterness too... the spices start to swirl and the bourbon vanilla gets more rich... mmmm, yummy. For a minute or two... and then... The coffee bean is perhaps the strangest thing in here - it's coffee, Jim, but not as we know it. Rather than the usual coffee-as-a-beverage-or-brewing small, this little bean has a slight green edge to it, like it hasn't yet developed its dark brown exterior and still has the scent of the tree. And definitely something nutty going on in there too - I definitely agree with bheansidhe that it reminds me of Wezwanie/Hold with that creamy/nutty vibe. And the spices seem to be a bit of a mix - not just brown ones - I'm pretty sure there's some dried green herbs in here too. No, not that kind of dried green herb - I mean like coriander and bay leaf. It's not until about 20 minutes in that the lovely Indonesian patchouli makes an appearance - dry, subtly sweet, earthy and warm - it's the perfect antidote to that vanilla/spice/coffee combo which was starting to become a little too sickly sweet for my liking. I dunno... this is just a bit strange on my skin - it can't seem to make up its mind whether it wants to be a sweet vanilla spice cake or a warm patchouli spice cake. Mmmm... warm patchouli spice cake - is there such a thing? If not, there should be. One hour later, all that's left on my skin is a slightly sour vanilla cream, hints of nut and remnants of spices - not overly pleasant, but not completely nasty either. Just... strange.

Monday has pretty much written my review for me here ^^ Applying this from the bottle, I have a sadface I didn't buy this initially (I have no idea why not, since I am an oudh and amber lover!) so I finally managed to track a bottle down all these months later - having read the reviews from so many people about this awesome amber and amazing oudh. So why none of that for meeeeeeee? This one is... erm... weird at first. If I didn't know the notes, I would have said it's got red musk and mahogany in it. Wut? Yep. On my skin, this turns into dry cola (which is what red musk does to me) with vanilla-ish wood. It spends the first 20 minutes like that - doing this weird cola + dark wood thing, but with a slight bitter furniture-polish-y edge... but then about half an hour in, the amber comes out - glowing, warm, beautiful. Now it's making more sense... that sweet cola smell is fading, and the oudh is more up front. The labdanum adds a sticky resin base that's a really interesting partner to the soft duskiness of the amber. After about 40 minutes, I'm happy with the way this smells - the lovely golden amber is holding strong, the oudh has mellowed to a gorgeous warm woodsy sweetness, and I'm really lovely the sticky labdanum. But I have to lean in real close to get a good hold on the fragrance - it has very little throw, and it's fading pretty fast. One hour in, I'm left with just a hint of the oudh and labdanum, and just a soft breath of the amber. And remnants of cola.

I think it depends on what you want - is it the floral aspect that you're most interested in, with vanilla as a backdrop... or vanilla at the fore with subtle floral tones? And are you looking for sweet florals like Mouse's Long & Sad Tale, or... ? I was thinking of Liz for a nice neutral vanilla with subtle hints of floral but a nice smokey/leathery undertone - have you tried that one?

Welcome back Lucius For your bubblegum thing - definitely Jailbait, for sure! For a more grown-up version, try Hollywood Babylon or Aunt Caroline's Joy Mojo. And you might also like to try Courtney (from the Paranorman series) - reviews here - I got more grape-y than bubblegum-y but I was definitely the odd one out there If you like rose, then Lilith's Bubblegum and Roses (reviews here) might be worth checking out. Loli Goth is gorgeous - probably just like what you're looking for - but it's very hard to find, so you might want to try the others first The BPTP Courtesan blends might be worth checking out - Celeste is a marshmallowy/pinky/vanilla, and from the Eros Inquisition L'Essence de L'Engouement is a beautiful vanilla/pink candy/strawberry/orange blossom blend. And for your naughty ladies - check out The District collection for some lovely fruity blends. Of course there's also all the lusty blends of the GC - things like Depraved, Debauchery, Wanton, Vixen etc - most of those don't fit your description scent-wise but might be worth investigating

Yeah.. it is... and honestly - for me - it's nothing at all like Glowing Vulva so by all means try and find some to test, because it is a beautiful scent, but don't go crazy paying loads for it in the hope that it will be a GV-alike Sadly, Glowing Vulva was not my friend - something about the teak + lotus + cream went sharp, sour and nasty on my skin - so it's not something I have tried to replicate. However I would agree with the suggestion of Haloes - it doesn't really smell like GV at all, but it has a similar feel with that 'glowing' creamy vibe that GV has. Also, the Mahogany Hall atmo spray reminded me of GV quite a bit. Another blend that got a lot of GV references in reviews is Goblin Sack, however Blossoms in Springtime is definitely the one that draws the most comparisons. I just wanted to mention that there's a partial bottle of Glowing Vulva on eBay at the moment

Due to the mention of honey, I dithered over whether to buy this when it first came out - even though every other note is a fave. I do love my patchouli, so I wasn't sure about this 'honeyed patchouli' business - would the dreaded honey mess up my beloved patchouli? But when a lovely forum buddy offered me her backup bottle, I knew I had to give it a try So when Imaginer first hits my skin... guess what I get a big blast of? Yep - honey. Uh-oh, I think, this is like a nightmare straight from a Clive Barker story - one in which an evil fiend creates a perfume blend with perfect notes but they add honey without telling me.. as I apply it to my wrist there's a tortured shrieking sound and I look down in horror to find my skin is peeling off down my arm in one long piece and then it goes running off at full speed on the fleshy stubs of what used to be my fingers to scrub itself clean of the ghastly honey. But I tell myself to just wait... be patient... maybe the honey will calm down... and praise the perfume gods - it does! In fact it almost disappears completely after about ten minutes, at which stage a beautiful earthy/woodsy vibe comes out - the patchouli and bark together create a lovely deep warmth. And I can also smell a nice clean myrrh down at the base, with a delicate pepper just playing around the edges. The beeswax is definitely in there, creamy and soft - just how I like it. Later on - about 20 minutes in - a gorgeous golden amber glow comes in, brightened softly by just a teensy hint of the saffron - gorgeous. It's all dreamy, luxurious and mysterious now - dark but golden, smokey but sweet - really enjoyable at this point. Unfortunately, after Imaginer has been on for about 30 minutes it's kinda lost all that lovely complexity - everything has melded together and I'm getting pretty much just a sweet honeyed amber with a hint of woodsy earthiness - it's quite... uhm... perfume-y - thankfully the patchouli stops it from ever completely crossing the border into Soapville, but it's verrrrry close. And after an hour, I'm left with just a very soft powdery honey-ish sweetness as a memory of where I applied the oil. So I guess the honey ultimately did its usual evil and overstepped its boundaries... I do like Imaginer, but I'm disappointed that the middle stage - when I was getting less honey and more everything else - didn't stick around to the end. And overall, it's just a bit too diluted for me - I like my smells to have a lot more depth and presence. Side note - if you liked Feed Me and Fill Me With Pleasure but found the patchouli too strong... give Imaginer a try, it's very FM&FMWP-ish but has far less oomph (and lacks the lovely warm vanilla). I also think Tricksy lovers will enjoy Imaginer - the honey/patchouli combination is very similar.

Err hello... are you me? This is the exact same problem that I have with rose - and I actually love the smell of rose, I think that a gorgeous full-bodied red rose in the garden is one of the most magnificent smells in the world - but as a perfume note on my skin it just drowns out everything else The only rose blends I've had any success with are Sibyl - lovely soft/dusky tea rose, but even that one is borderline too much rose sometimes - and Lucy, Kissed (BPTP) wherein the rose is no match for the patchouli/red musk/oude/etc. i have learned that black rose is occasionally OK, and sometimes the paler roses like white or pink might behave themselves, but overall rose is a bust for me. I think it's just a case of try everything you can - if you see something where the other notes are winners, you may get lucky... otherwise, like me, you'll just have to concede defeat and accept that rose is not your friend.

I have a bit of a love-hate thing with cherry (and BPAL's almond note, which almost always smells like cherry on me - like in Black Phoenix), but Gothabilly is an exception... love that one. Sadly, it is hard to find

The first thing that came to my mind was Absinthe

Nope - it's not a leather blend at all.. the notes are: Bay rum, bourbon vanilla, galangal, hyssop, High John the Conqueror root, tobacco, life everlasting, and brimstone. which honestly isn't very helpful because it's hard to imagine what all that smells like! But what made me think of it for you is the gorgeous spicy/peppery feel that it has - it doesn't smell 'spicy' as such, more smokey maybe... like a smokey pepper with a really deep warmth. I know it's not what the 'leather and pepper' you were asking about, but I do love a good leather/spice mix myself and Hellhound is not that but I like it very much and I think you might too The only down side is that it's kind of hard to find, but maybe read through the reviews and see if you think it's worth hunting some down

It's not actually leather/pepper, but have you tried Hellhound On My Trail?

Hmm... this is definitely very very naughty When I first apply the glop there's a full-on battle happening between the red musk and the leather for title of Dominant Note - at first the leather is KAPOW in your face, all hot black and steamy, then the red musk bubbles up to the surface with its warm rich cola-like syrupy goodness, then the leather comes back BLAM but the red musk comes back POW and so it goes for a few rounds until they finally settle down and let the patchouli come out. The patchouli is all like "dude, mellow out" to the leather, wraps its sweet earthy arms around the red musk and says "it's ok bro, you don't have to win", and because red patchouli is just that persuasive the leather and red musk do what they're told and calm down a little. That's when the red patchouli grabs its friend bourbon vanilla and says "you can come out now, it's safe" and suddenly there's a riot of dark rich vanilla goodness wafting under my nose. All together, the musk and leather and vanilla and patchouli create a hot, wickedly naughty mix that is definitely not subtle - it's very rich and strong - and yes, very much like Eldritch Dark but without the rose. Definitely not for those who enjoy soft fragrances... this smell doesn't just follow you round the room, it runs around smashing into all the furniture and scaring the cat. So that's the good side of Naughty Glop... the not-so-good side of it for me is the consistency. It's very runny - moreso even than a lotion or creme - this is almost as liquid/thin as water, it's actually about the same as my coconut oil when that's melted. And it's very greasy/oily on the skin - it doesn't absorb for a long time, so there's an oily film on my skin for quite a while.. even after I've rubbed it in as best I can. I really don't like things that feel greasy on my skin, and this definitely does. And here's the thing... although the smell of this is pretty amazing, it's also pretty full-on... to the point where it's kind of too much. It's rare for me to say that - I generally like my BPALs to be rich and dark and strong, but this is taking things a bit too far. In future, I'm going to put just a few drops of this glop into a mix with another moisturiser and use it that way, because I'm not sure I can walk around all day with this uber-strong naughty business wafting around me, it's overwhelming. .

2013 version - via a tester generously gifted to me by the lovely OctoberGwen! So this is pretty much the same as the original Skadi, but just fresher and more vibrant. The only slight difference I can tell is that the pine in here is much more subtle than it is in my decant of the original. I find that BPAL's 'snow' notes vary greatly - some are nasty soapy ozone on me, some are minty-cool, and others are sweet and bright. This one is the latter - fresh, sweet, wet snow. The berries here are a major player, but they're not really 'fruity' as such - like raspberries or similar - more like forest berries... green, woodsy, dry rather than sweet. Overall I find Skadi translates as green - like forest green... so it smells exactly like walking through a lush pine forest that's blanketed in snow. As with the original Skadi, I find that this is a lovely scent experience but not something I would wear as a perfume. But I'm very happy that this one made a return, since it's so loved by so many

Many thanks to the lovely OctoberGwen for passing her tester of this along to me! So this is that slushy kind of snow note that translates to ozone soap on my skin... it does smell like a grey winter's day, but unfortunately that's just not a smell that works nicely on my skin - nor does it appeal to me in any way as a perfume. I don't get anything 'trees' related, nor any kind of smoke, so I'm not sure what that aspect of the description is about. Ultimately this ends up smelling like shampoo on me - ozoney and soapy. With a hint of sharpess... like a cheap after-shave or men's cologne. Not for me at all.

OctoberGwen, being the fabulous lady she is, generously passed her tester of this on to me Soooo... hmmm... what an interesting little mix this is! When I first took the cap off of the vial (before I knew what any of the notes were), I swear I smelled apples. But no - no apples in here! So now I see the notes list, and I guess it was the pear that initially hit me... but this isn't the pear I'm used to with BPAL... it's beautifully juicy but not sweet, and with a distinctive woodsy undertone - not really obviously PEAR like it often is (like in The Vine, which was obvious PEAR to me). Then when it first meets my skin - I get that warm, buttery, powdery-cloying thing that honey always gives me... so I'm thinking 'oh no, there's honey in here!' but no - no honey in here! So that must be the oats? Then that honey-like sweetness completely disappears (I mean - completely disappears!) and I can really smell the oats/wheat - it's a fresh, warm smell - kind of like the scent of bread baking, but not quite. Underneath all this is a subtle hint of the wine - nothing too obvious, but there's a definite bed of soft fruit with a hint of spice underneath everything else. Once everything fully dries down, I am left with a soft and slightly woodsy pear that's lost the 'juicy' aspect and gone quite dry and dusky. And just the slightest hint of the spice/fruit from the wine. Very pretty, and quite unlike any other 'fruity' blend I've had from BPAL before. This does have a gorgeous summery-outdoorsy feel, but somehow it also feels like a cosy kitchen filled with the smells of warm bread and juicy wine.

It might take some effort to find these, as they've been discontinued for a while now, but for tropical scents you really can't go past the Atomic Luau Lounge series. Reviews here In particular: MAHANA Peach liquor, almond syrup, orgeat syrup, and pineapple cream de cacao. PAHOEHOE Grenadine, banana, and coconut rum. UPA-UPA Spiced rum, coconut, pineapple, and vanilla. And of course, this one: : TIKI PRINCESS A frothy, cold coconut perfume, pure and sweet, with gentle wafts of plumeria, pikake, and ala ala wai nui. I always get a lovely tropical vibe from Shango (red apples, banana, chili pepper, coconut, pineapple, pomegranate and sugar cane), and Black Pearl has a gorgeous coconut/musk/nutty with a hint of tropical floral thing going on. Another one to consider is Wembley (white musk, banana, orange blossom honey, pineapple, and mint), and also Pet Magah Bird (blood orange, black plum, sugar cane, guava, frangipani, coconut, pimento berry, violet, caramel, and pear) is also a full-on tropical fruity fest. Another beautiful tropical-island LE to look for is Velvet Tiki (Gold-washed frangipani, vanilla flower, vanilla bean, coconut, hibiscus, papaya, pineapple, bouganvilla, passion fruit, and three orchids). I also heartily second OctoberGwen's suggestion of Nightmarchers - that one's quite unusual but really sumptuous. Sorry for recommending things that are no longer available, but an ISO post should be able to help