claudia6913

Has anyone found a GC equivalent for Hod? I love the sweet golden scent of this.

I've just found that Rosy Maple (Metamorphosis LE) is very similar to Defututa (GC). Defututa is very sweet, like Rosy Maple, and they are very, very similar to my nose. Defututa is just a bit fuller or rounder than Rosy Maple which is a bit of a lighter, fluttery scent. Rosy Maple notes: Lemon blossom, vanilla bean, huckleberry, sweet pea, rose sugar, acai berry, and candyfloss I don't get any lemon out of this, and not much berry - mostly vanilla, rose sugar, candyfloss, and vanilla. Defututa notes: Olive blossom, honey, smoky vanilla, cinnamon, jasmine, sandalwood, and champaca flower. This is an extremely sweet scent, but the sandalwood grounds it a bit and gives it a rounder scent. I don't get any cinnamon - no spicy scent out of this. The honey sweetens it a lot and the vanilla is delicious.

i belive you can only do that if they have a "cart" set up with paypal, which BPAL does not.

In the imp: This smells like a vanilla skin musk with a hint of greenery. Wet on skin: Still a sweet vanilla skin musk with a bit of something heavier underneath. I think the leather maybe? Drydown: Very warm scent, the amber comes through and is very soft. The leather also seems soft, pliable, and the vanilla swirls around it all. Dry: This is a very soft scent, kind of like Sachs was. It has a tad more throw than Sachs however. Overall this is a sweet light scent that balances all the notes perfectly. Good enough I bought a bottle. =) Bottle impressions: This is much nicer than my decant for some reason - or I'm able to put much more on. Not sure which. However, this is a golden blend, almost as bright as a metal (without smelling metallic - perhaps a golden leather), but with a sweet undertone. The moss and/or clay gives it a bit of a dirty feel, while the orchid sweetens it with a hint of vanilla floral. I love my bottle more than I do my decant.

A lovely fairy sent me a tester of this. Antique Lace is everything I wanted Black Lace to be. Where BL was soft plastic, AL is a soft vanilla floral. Very calming, light, and sweet. However, after about 10 minutes of wear (granted, it was just a small spot) it has almost completely disappeared. Should it ever come back, I'll probably grab a bottle, but it's not something I feel the need to hunt down.

In the bottle: This is all just one big sweet juicy berry with a hint of lemon. Wet on skin: Still a sweet berry, but it has been tempered just a bit. It's being candied now and being topped with a lemon blossom. It's sweet and fun. Drydown: The acai berry and huckleberry are still front and center, surrounded by sugar and lemon blossoms, but the vanilla is way, way in the back, like just a dollop of vanilla. Dry: Thankfully the rose in the rose sugar is not going to baby powder on me. Instead, it's just lending a hint of floral. This stays fairly true - sweet candied berries.

In the imp: It's hard for me to describe because I cannot pick out any one scent, but the blend is nice. Wet on skin: Chamomile comes out, as does a bit of smoke. I expected more of an apple scent to come through. I am getting a "leafy" sort of scent out of it - perhaps the blossoms? Drydown: It's a much softer scent than I thought it would be, but lovely nonetheless. Dry: It's a sort of floral - or more like walking through an orchard while it's in bloom. A little bit of smoke comes out, and I think some gunpowder. Thankfully I didn't get any frankincense (not a scent I like).

In the bottle: Immediately I get a whiff of wet greenery (the bamboo I suppose) and an undercurrent of Snake Oil. I love bamboo so I have high hopes for this scent. Wet on skin: The bamboo blends with the woods and the sweet vanilla from the Snake Oil comes out. Thankfully this isn't going to flat soda on me like fresh Snake Oil does. Drydown: This is taking a while to dry, and is very thin (compared to aged Snake Oil). The ho wood and teak wrap around the bamboo and the black musk seems to dry out the wet green scent of the bamboo. The Snake Oil is still there, attempting to sweeten the blend a bit. Dry: It's lighter than Snake Oil, and a dryer sweet scent with a bit of spice under it all. I really want to see what this turns into after it's had time to age. Fresh I probably won't wear it much, if at all.

In the bottle: I don't know if it's because I've been sniffing my newborn so much lately, or if the oils in the bottle actually smell like a newborn - fresh skin and slightly sour milk. Not unpleasant, just ... weird. Wet on skin: This has a soft white wine scent to it. A little fruity, but still with that undercurrent of slightly sour milk. Not sure what's giving it that turn though. Drydown: It is keeping the soft white wine scent, sweet and a little sour. Thankfully the sour milk note has gone away. Out comes a bit of floral, and I can pick up the honeysuckle - which is awesome. I used to love eating the sap out of them as a kid. Dry: It is a very light feminine scent - sweet and floral. Very girly, which usually isn't my thing, but perhaps when my little girl gets older, it'd be nice to hand this over to her.

This has to be the very first BPAL scent that smells the same on my skin as it does in the bottle. Yummy vanilla slathered sweet pears. It's delicious and comforting, warm and smooth and just oh so wonderful! I'm insanely pleased with this scent and glad I was able to get my hand on a bottle even though it came out before I got into BPAL. I wish the throw was a bit stronger, but I don't mind huffing my wrist for this one. LOL

I finally broke down and got some wand caps. Oh. My. Goodness. As a slather-er, I'm very, very upset that I have not gotten these before now! Ingenious little pieces of glass and plastic. I now have to get enough wand caps for all of my bottles. (And I might have to go and stock up on a few scents since I am now more capable of slathering.) It also makes layering a tad bit easier, IMO.

#505 (bottle received via swap). In the bottle: Smells like a vanilla butterscotch candy. Wet on skin: The butterscotch calms down and I get a fruity sort of scent trying to come through. (I sneezed just prior to testing this bottle and it's not helping lol.) On the dry-down: I'm having a hard time smelling anything at the moment (stupid nose) but I'm still getting a much more creamy butterscotch scent with a sweet fruity type scent. The person I got it from mentioned dragon's blood and I agree. Ether that or a cherry - but it's definitely something red and a little juicy. Dry: This is a creamy cherry vanilla mix with possibly a bit of dragon's blood and another scent that seems to be grounding it, but I can't really pick it out. Overall I like this. It's not heavy, not foodie, but sweet and nice. It does stay close to the skin though.

Frimp from the lab. This is one that I wanted to try, but was so afraid of the citrus notes that I never even thought too much about it. Glad I get to try it now. In the imp I get lots and lots of citrus and fruits. Not bad, but it's definitely in your face. Wet on my skin, the citrus and fruits calm down a lot, and very quickly. It's kind of a fun wacky scent - which makes sense considering. ;p The incense and musk keep it kind of grounded, but you can tell the scent just wants to take off. It's sweet and a bit crazy. I like it much better than I thought I would and will now have to keep an eye out for a bottle. Thanks labbies!

This was a frimp from the lab. In the imp I get a very sharp pine scent. Pine, or any coniferous tree, I seem to amp like crazy. On my skin it's turning to a soapy piney scent. Clean smelling, but like I just washed with a bar of soap ... I forget what brand this reminds me of - it's been forever since I've used bar soap, but it definately smells like a commercial brand bar of pine soap. Yay skin chemistry!

Another frimp from the lab. From the notes, I'm really scared to try this one. Amber is one of those notes that just goes a little ... um, perverted, I suppose, on my skin, and the fact that there are 5 amber's in this ... well, here goes nothing! In the imp it smells like a cleaner of some kind. Not quite pine cleaner, not quite citrus ... but something mixed and in-between those two. I love carnation, and I'm getting just a hint of spice wet on skin, but there is still this cleaning solution over top everything that I can't quite place. It's not horrible - I just don't want to smell like I've been cleaning the bathtub for a few hours. Thankfully, it seems the amber's played nice and didn't end up smelling like an orgy.

This was a frimp from the lab. (From the notes alone, I would not have chosen this for myself.) In the imp it is a very fresh wood scent. Like the saplings you break off and get that green-white inside. And it seems to be staying pretty true to that on the dry down as well. Just a fresh wood, green and maybe just a little juicy. Not bad overall, but not really something I like.

In the bottle: Very sweet and deceptively slinky. I get the honey, maybe a tang of the cinnamon, and bit of a floral. In the bottle, I can see where this is a cousin of O. Wet on skin: The honey is still prominent and wanting the attention all to itself, but it's surrounded by other scents that are clearly willing to fight for it. On the dry-down: I really expected the cinnamon to be a bit stronger in this, and honestly, I was afraid due to the olive blossom it would smell like Extra Virgin Olive Oil. But neither is the case. It's a sweet, slightly spicy, honeyed floral. Dry: This is very feminine to me. I'm not getting much (if any) vanilla or sandalwood. But I do think a bit of the "smoke" from the smokey vanilla is coming out. The honey is almost completely tempered and not fighting for front, instead it's wound it's way to the back to hold up everything else. Sweetly soft and feminine. Hmm ... I'm getting a little bit of a "soap" scent out of this. Not a bad soap, more of an expensive one and so I don't mind so much. But I think it's the jasmine that's the culprit. Overall, I like this blend much better than it's cousin, O - which in the end, smells nothing like it, but it's kind of what I wish O had smelled like on me.

In bottle: I'm getting a sort of creamy, caramelized brown sugar scent with just a bit of the clove. Wet on skin: The brown sugar backs off quite a bit and the clove comes forward, but it's got a sweet edge to it. Someone likened it to clove cigarettes, and I get a bit of that, but like those honey ones, where you lick your lips and get that sweet clove jolt. On the dry-down: Sweet and a little spicy. I'm really not getting any plum, which is sad because I love plum. Dry: This is a sweet clove scent that kind of wafts around. No one thing really seems to be overpowering another. Very nicely blended, warm without being overly so. I realize now after looking up what sassafras smells like that I'm not getting any "root beer" like scent, but more of a sweet woody scent next to the clove. Overall, I really like this scent. It's not overpowering and I think it will age very well. This has some lasting power for sure. I slathered some on late in the day and when I woke up this morning I could still smell it. It was a sweet woody scent that occasionally wafted around me. One more edit: This scent is incredibly layer-able. It gives a sweet clove spice kick to whatever you put with it. So far awesome with Lawn Gnome and my CT: Vanilla.

CT II: DCXLIX I bought this off a lovely forumite who described it as a fruity blend. In the bottle I get something that has a strong resemblance to Autumn Coolness - but with fruits. Perhaps there is bamboo, a bit of cassia bud in there? Or maybe the florals wisteria and lotus blossom? Not sure, but this is very similar. Wet on my skin I think I'm getting some plum, or perhaps a purpleish wine scent. The resemblance to Autumn Coolness is almost completely gone except for the base note. They are similar. As this dries the wine-feel of the scent slips away and the fruit feel comes back. Fruit that is ripe and just picked. Like you're eating it standing under the tree/vine. There are some florals floating around it all - as if some of the fruit plants are still in bloom around you. Dry this is soft and sweet - not foody, but sweet fruits and wafting flowers with just a hint of an orchard (with the grass and leaves and wood all around). I really love this scent. I have no idea what it smelled like fresh, but aged almost 5 years - it's truly wonderful.

I can't believe I haven't reviewed this one yet. Who knows how long I've had the imps and bottle ... sheesh - bad me! In the bottle (that is dated 10/2009 btw) this is very sweet. It is not floral at all, because it's a resin, and the vanilla is just sweet and lovely. Wet on my skin this is just juicy and sweet. Very smooth. As it dries, the dragon's blood resin gives a bit of a kick and the vanilla starts to take a seat in the back. I very much get a red color from this with just a hint of cream. I can almost smell a cherry-like scent, but it wafts in and out. This scent morphs a bit as it is drying. I remember now why I went from having an imp or two of this to searching the forums for a bottle. This is sweet, deep, red, and sexy. The throw is pretty good as well. I know its honeyed vanilla - but I can't separate the honey from the other two scents.

Overly full bottles indeed. One looks like it had a little spillage pre-shipping, or it leaked a bit during shipping. #515 (or possibly 575 - this is the one that leaked a little and make the box smell amazing) Sweet, sweet incense wafted from the box as soon as I opened it, and this guy was the culprit. The number is smudged on the label, but I'm fairly certain it's #515. Okay, now that this has been rolled around and the sediment has been fully integrated, let's try this description again! In the bottle I get a very strong, woody incense. The vanilla is no where to be seen. I'm not sure what the incense is, but it smells familiar. The only incense I'm "familiar" with is patchouli, but I'm not sure that's what this is. Wet on my skin it sweetens up a bit and the incense tones down a bit. I think it's the vanilla coming out helping to temper it. For just a moment there is a slight burst of a clean greenish smelling scent. I want to put it in a "cleaning solution" or "citrus" category. The "cleaning solution" is not something that smells bad, per se, but it's not what I was expecting. As this dries down, the greener scent comes to the fore. I'm thinking it's a green-ish wood scent, like fresh wood. Hmm, I'm not as impressed with this as I was before I mixed the sediment. I can still smell what it was before I rolled the bottle, and the incense is still in there, but it's not a sweet incense any more. It's more woody. Dry the previous tan khaki color now has more of a greenish-brown color to it in my minds eye. Though I do like the dry stage more than the dry down. It's sweetening up and getting greener as time goes by, if that makes any sense. There's still a hint of spice, but now it's way in the back and I can barely smell it. I think this has a more smoky vanilla scent, than a straight vanilla. Yes, the more this dries the more I go back to adoring the hell out of it. Thank goodness! I was worried when I found the 1/2 imps worth of sediment in the bottom that I would hate it now. But no ... now that it's completely dry, there's not a lot of difference between rolled and pre-rolled. It's a little greener is all ... and I'm fine with that. It's got a green/incensey/spicy/slightly sweet scent to it and I adore it. Edit: I just noticed that there is a TON (like 1/2 and imps worth) of sediment in this bottle. I will have to roll it around and possibly come back to edit this description. #617 In the bottle this has a sort of creamy citrus scent to it. Which, honestly, makes me a bit nervous as I've never really tried any of BPAL's citrus blends. I've done fruit, but not the citrus variety. I'm always scared it will end badly. The citrus is not burning my nose, which is good, for some reason I expected that out of citrus. But ... here goes nothing! Wet on my skin I get a dreamcicle type scent. There is orange in this (or a sweet orange-like fruit), but that is not the whole of it. I think maybe some grapefruit as well. (My grandmother has had a half a grapefruit every morning since I can remember - otherwise I'd have no clue what grapefruit smelled like.) The vanilla is way in the back, giving a small hint of creaminess, but not taking over the citrus. On the dry down this is all smoothing out. The citrus' (because I truly believe there is more than one) are front and center, but it seems they are tempered by other things. This is not a foodie blend, like it started out with the dreamcicle wet stage. As this dries a spice comes out. Perhaps it's a very fragrant/spicy wood? I'm not sure. But the more this dries the more of a wood feel I get from it. Dry this evokes the image of perhaps a wooden bowl that was used for a bowl of peeled/cut citrus fruits. It isn't something I feel like nomming on, because I get more the feel of the wooden bowl after the fruits are gone (but their scent lingers on in the bowl). Further on dry down, I start getting some of the vanilla - like maybe there was a vanilla cream topping on the citrus fruit that was in the wooden bowl. The longer this is on, the more it starts moving back to a dreamcicle state. But it's not foodie. It's the memory of citrus' in a wood bowl topped with vanilla cream - and all you have left is the wood bowl and the lingering taste of a yummy citrus/vanilla treat. (Makes me want to lick the bowl, just to get one more taste ... but I will hold off, because that is actually my hand and BPAL is not edible.) I really cannot believe my luck with these two scents! Both of them are wonderful - so much so in fact that I'm having a hard time deciding which one I want to wear right now. Because one of them will have to be worn. I can't just slip them away in the box. I can't!!!

I bought this off a fourmite a while ago with the intention of giving it to my sister to make candles out of. I figured though, I should at least try it out and see. It is ungodly hot out and I've seen others mention that mint notes are great to beat the heat. In the bottle is pure peppermint. Initially on my skin, that's all it is as well. Peppermint. Not overly strong (though I only tried a small dab of it). Dry on my skin it's much lighter peppermint, but I'm not really getting any sugar from it. Also, it is fading very fast. I have to get right on top of the application spot to get a whiff. Not bad, but not for me. I would've loved some sweetness to go along with this. I think my sister will be getting this (or if I get up the nerve, I might do it myself) to make candles out of. I imagine it will smell wonderful that was as well.

This really is a very sweet, light, fruity blend. I've had the bottle for a while (from a forum purchase, so who knows how aged the bottle is, really). It never really struck me to wear it - perhaps because I got it in the fall/winter and this is very much a spring/summer scent. It's not overpowering, but it does seem to have a little throw to it. The longer it dries, the more the florals come out to play and the sweetness is tempered by them. I think if I hadn't forgotten that I had this and what it smelled like, I would've been reaching for it more often during these hot summer days.

I'm a little amazed I haven't reviewed this scent yet. I honestly don't remember when I got my bottle, but it was after the 'Weenies had come down and I got it from a forumite. So, it's just a bit aged now (I'm retrying my stash randomly). Wet, this very much is a fresh marshmallow - gooey, sticky, and sweet. As it dries, the sweetness gets tempered by the cotton note so that it isn't so overpowering - but trust me, it's still there, and still a main component. The cream is either so entwined with the sugar that my nose can't separate it, or it's sitting in the background far enough that distinguishing it is difficult. While I like this scent, it is not something I would automatically grab for as my top 5 when I'm indecisive. I may or may not hold on to it. We will see...

In the bottle I get a sort of Pine-Sol scent - if it were to be soaked with tobacco leaves. I know I amp cypress to an insane degree, I wonder if the same will hold true for "pine pitch" Wet on the skin, the pine comes out much more than I had originally noticed. The longer it is on, the more the pine sort of ... lets everything else come through. It does have a "smoky" scent to it, somewhat heavy though. Dry it's a sweet smoky pine scent. This scent is a bit heavier than I thought it would be, but I like it.