sunshinedaisybliss

All these years, I thought @SophieCedar was my friend. But why would a friend send me this? Surely you would only ever share this with someone you don’t like.. someone you hate, even 🤨 And yet, here we are. Unfortunately, I did not read reviews before swiping a big slurp of this on my arm. I calmly put the lid back on the decant, then leaned in for a big sniff... and OH MY GOD I WANTED TO RIP MY NOSE OFF. This smells like a pile of soiled underwear that’s been out in the backyard on damp grass for a few months, vomited on several times by random passers by on their way home from the local $5 All-U-Can-Eat restaurant, and used by the neighbourhood stray cats as both a boudoir for midnight orgies and a bathroom for communal peeing. There’s also a blast of unwashed armpit and a waft of clammy balls, which together just take this to the next level. Beth, you are undoubtedly a genius but please never make this again. The worst part is, I can’t think of anyone I dislike enough to pass this on to 😁 PS sophiecedar, it’s ok I still loves you.

I honestly wouldn’t class this as an “aquatic” - aside from the name, there’s really nothing aquatic about it.. not to me, anyway. So what is it? 😊 First and foremost, it’s a beautiful creamy musk - clean and soft, but definitely ‘pale’ as per the description.. it’s got a beautiful silvery glow to it, but none of the screamy bitterness that I get from a white musk or skin musk. Second is the stunning ambergris - softly sweet and chewy, it lifts the musk into an almost linen-like cloud but without straying over into fresh laundry territory. Last but not least, the sea salt adds a crystallised feel with just a hint of actual saltiness. This is very evocative of nights by the beach, with a full moon reflected on the dark water. Very beautiful, peaceful and somewhat mysterious... just lovely 💗

This is a lovely creamy, softly sweet blend with the vanilla melding perfectly with the bright warmth of the yellow carnation. There is a slight feel of spice to the carnation, but it isn’t really spicy at all. Definitely a happy, sunshiney one. just a note regarding reviews that mention a bourbon smell - the “bourbon” in the name “bourbon vanilla” is not anything to do with the alcohol “bourbon” - there is no actual bourbon in BV, the name is from where it was grown in the 1800s 😊

For me, this is patchouli-lite, and surprisingly soft and pretty. The sugar sweetness reads as very ‘pink’ on me - like bubblegum pink, which is an unusual partner for patchouli! I think this would be perfect for anyone who finds patchouli a bit too much or too “hippie” etc, but I love a luscious old patch so Silky Bat is lacking that oomph for me - however; I feel it’s unfair to compare this with things like Banshee Beat because clearly this was never designed to punch you in the face with gnarly patchouli richness - the two are completely different. Silky Bat is quite lovely in its own right, and a very pretty patchouli that I’m very happy to have in my collection.

When I first put this on, I got lovely wafts of the vanilla, tobacco and cognac and I’m thinking ooh this is nice! Half an hour later and all I have is a cloying cloud of red musk following me around. Red musk, why do you do this? Sadly, this is not for me.. for the same reason I can’t wear Krampus itself - red musk is a big stinky bully 😞

Reading previous reviews, I'm surprised about how this is on me... because I'm not getting all coconut all the time - instead, I get a beautiful deep fig with the smoked vanilla playing seductively over the top and the soft creaminess of the coconut in the background. The overall feel is smokey and rich, with softly sweet undertones. Nothing sharp, nothing plastic, nothing suntan lotion going on here at all - this smoked vanilla is the shit, really. For me, this is everything I had hoped it would be - and more. Simple yet multi-layered, just lovely.

This is beautiful! Simple, but really - there’s no need to be complicated, these three notes merge together perfectly. If you think you might like this, get some. It’s very, very nice. PS and if you’re craving Antique Lace, this is the closest BPAL I have found to AL to date - on me, anyway

Sweet baby cheeses, this is filthy, feral, and frightening! I am a proud member of BPAL’s Stinky Hippie family, but this one made me recoil a bit at first because you put it on, lean in for a sniff, and it slams itself right up on you like being hit with a face full of mud from the bog of eternal stench. Once I recovered from that initial assault, after about 15 minutes, I leaned in again and it’s still gnarly and fierce but not quite as terrifying. Half an hour later and it’s mellowed out and gone all warm and snuggly and earthy - still filthy, but in a good way. This is really quite lovely, and it definitely deserves a place at the Stinky Hippie family table.

You know how sometimes you open up a decant, slap some oil on your arm, lean in for a whiff.. and almost fall off off your chair as you temporarily get swept away by the gorgeousness of what you’re smelling? That was me just now, with Dark Lace. I’ve never been a huge fan of Black Lace - I do like it, but I don’t lovelovelove it. But this Dark Lace is a whole different beast. The BL base is there, but the added notes take it to a whole new level. It actually smells like Dior’s Poison on me, but 100 times better, more rich and velvety. and it has some oomph! I’m not getting any soil, moss or bitumen in any recognisable way - just rich vanilla, tobacco and cognac, and rich musky goodness, although a more earthy base does reveal itself after about half an hour. Surprisingly beautiful.

Dear Reader Does your skin chemistry frequently betray you by turning beeswax into straight up honey? And then does it amp that honey up to 11 so that you end up with a screeching pile of honey on your arm, and all around you, as if you had poured a vat of it all over yourself when in fact all you did was dab the teensiest bit of oil on? And did you, per chance, buy Loved to Death because you hoped it would be all about vanilla bean, blackened and smoked, with husky clove and cinnamon bark, wishing desperately that “a touch of beeswax” wouldn’t count? Well you should have known better, shouldn’t you! WHAT WERE YOU THINKING? We trust you find this information useful. To assist you in avoiding a repeat of this unfortunate experience, we invite you to subscribe to our free weekly email reminder service “Honey is not your friend”.

I have been away from BPAL for a few years while life got in the way, but when I finally returned to the forum.. this was the first thing I tracked down! What I was hoping for - a gnarly fig and patchouli mix all sweet, chewy and rich.. a hearty, syrupy vanilla.. a dusty, dry, woody amber and hopefully no overpowering honey or rose. I think I was taking the ‘nasty’ literally and expecting this to be a kickass blend. What I got - a soft, honeyed patchouli. It’s very dry and dusky on my skin, rather than rich and gnarly. I’m getting a slight smokey wood base from the oud, no rose, and only the slightest hint of the vanilla and the fig. Thankfully the honey is mellowed nicely here by the amber and patchouli - it actually reminds me a lot of my beloved Amber and Patchouli hair gloss, but sweeter. And to me, the patchouli here feels more golden than red or black so the throw is soft/warm rather than earthy/dark/warm. So as a patchouli fiend I’m kind of disappointed that this isn’t the gnarly, chewy, syrupy goodness I was hoping for - but also I’m kind of happy to have this soft and sweet patchouli blend in my collection, for those days when I want to be a snuggly hippie rather than a stinky one. Definitely a keeper!

Hmm... I am a tad disappointed in this. I have the original Boo! perfume oil and it's beautiful vanilla marshmallowy cream goodness, although I've noticed that reviews from subsequent years of Boo! mention it has changed. So I was really hoping that the HG would be the same vanilla/cream variety of the original Boo! perfume, but I'm finding it has a very strong caramel/burnt brown sugar smell on me. And every now and then I catch a hint of lemon smell too. Because of the dominance of the brown sugar, I really have to look for the vanilla... it's in there, but it's really really hard to find. I just wanted a simple, clean vanilla HG and I was really hoping this would be it. Ah well, can't win them all.

Yep... this is lovely. It's everything that I wanted Silkybat to be (but alas, Silkybat was a ghastly nasty disaster for me). The coconut here is very subtle - it's not immediately obviously until you catch it on the breeze where it floats along very softly, but it's really very lovely here. The star of the show is the sugared patchouli though - again, very subtle - definitely not a KAPOW kind of patchouli - with a lovely smokey sweetness. I am SO glad this isn't a brown/caramel kind of sugar - I was really worried about that, but no... there's really no actual 'sugar' smell as such, it's just sweetening up the patchouli. Once again, I am reminded why it's almost always the two-to-three note blends that work best for me... this is another shining example of how less is more can be a beautiful thing.

As a proud member of BPAL's stinky hippie family, of course I had to buy this If you ever do in fact need assistance to locate nearby hippies, this oil will do the trick. Like bees to honey, the hippies will come to you because never in their wildest dreams (and you know hippies have the wildest dreams) could they hope to smell this good. It's patch, it's hemp, it's vanilla - all smooshed up together and making me feel warm and snuggly, like getting into a sleeping bag filled with puppies. The vanilla is definitely smoky rather than sweet, so if I were to compare this to my beloved Banshee Beat (sorry folks, but the comparison is inevitable given the similarities between these two blends) - where BB has that rich heady sweet vanilla making the patch and hemp warm and syrupy, Ask the Nearest Hippie's vanilla is smoky and dry and wispy - overall, the blend is much less gnarly than BB although the hemp in ATNH is not shy. I thought maybe they'd be like brother and sister, but for me they're more like cousins - the connection is there, but with a couple of degrees of separation. BB smacks you in the face, ATNH brushes your cheek. BB is Janis Joplin, ATNH is Joni Mitchell. And let's talk about the cannabis, shall we? Yes it's there. No, you won't smell like the couch at Willie Nelson's place. Or bong water. Or Snoop Dogg's hair. But there is a definite true cannabis scent here - if you've ever smelled fresh, sticky buds then that's the smell you get - and that may scare some people off but it's actually more subtle than obvious, plus it's tempered very nicely by the smoky vanilla and the earthy patch. I also find that once it's been on my skin for half an hour or so the cannabis smell has pretty much gone and I'm left with this gorgeous dry vanilla-patchouli thing going on, which is really quite lovely. A couple of hours down the track and it's faded down to a soft hint of patchouli with hemp in the background, but in the end it's the patch that sticks around the longest for me. In the end analysis this doesn't really knock my socks off, but it definitely does loosen them a little. I'm just happy to have another lovely BPAL to add to my little stinky hippie collection

A tousled, sexy mix of patchouli, vanilla, and hemp. This makes my room smell like all my precious bottles of Banshee Beat opened up their lids and burped. BEST SMELL EVER.

girlryan - it would be helpful to know what in particular you find defines a 'sleepy scent' - lavender is the note that most people immediately go to for recs, but it's not everyone's isnta-sleep solution (for example, I find the Doc Constantine atmo spray great for sleeping, but it's not 'sleepy' smelling really). But assuming it's lavender you're after, I would suggest The Gladdener of All Hearts - Honeyed milk, baby powder, lavender, orris root, sage, carnation, angelica, frankincense, and rose otto - it's an LE from 2008, and it smells like bear hugs and puppy kisses.

Great photos, nathanielhebert! Thanks for sharing OK here are my two new loves... Revenant Rhythm hair gloss (left) and atmosphere spray (right) from the Trading Post; Who doesn't love a dancing skelly, right?

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