claudia6913

I'm reviewing the recently re-released Scholar's Tower up on the lab's Collaboration page.

The oil is a very ambery-red color.

This is very soft with a nice undertone of woods. The incense wafts around without being offensive, and the gleaming tinkered items shine at just the right moments. This is a mostly close to the skin scent, but every once in a while I catch a faint whiff from my wrist of books and woods. It's sweet without actually being sweet. This is more what I'd wished Anthikythera Mechanism had smelled on me. Glad I got a bottle of this. It's a very cozy, snuggle up with a good book, type of scent.

This is JASMINE when wet, but as it tries the gardenia and tea rose get a bit of time to play with the vanilla coming in the back to usher them all to play nice.

I'm glad I waited until this blend had sat before reviewing it. 7 months aged and Venustas has really started to come into it's own. The frankincense and myrrh are nothing like Midnight Mass, but softer and sweeter, flowing and gentle in the breeze. There is a hint of the lemon tea others have mentioned when wet, and I'm sure there is a bit of lavender in the fougere but it's nothing like the lavender in TKO which doesn't play well with me. This is a softly sophisticated blend, very grown up ... but with a hint of child-like glee under it all. There's more bourbon than vanilla. But overall this is a very gossamer like scent - very pretty.

I start pulling out Smoky Moon 2012, Grindhouse, Dragon Hide, Dragon Moon 2006, and the Laces (Red Lace, Black Lace, Beautiful Death) when it gets towards the end of summer. Midnight Mass is also wonderful during that time. Golden Apple of the Sun really blossoms in the early fall.

Oh. My. Goodness. Wow. A beautiful floral garden right here on my skin. I was super worried about this scent as most of the flowers listed I had to google just to get an image in my mind of what they were. This is just a heady glorious pile of beautiful and full flowers. The vanilla and tobacco give it a nice base.

I'm not normally a "flower" person. I very much prefer my musks and ambers ... but something about this just puts a smile on my face.

This is a very languid scent, as though you are draping yourself across furniture while a haze of opium smoke drifts about you. This feels a lot like Langour in that way. But the carnation gives it a bit of a spicy edge that does not detract from the scent, rather it heightens it and gives it depth. Very floaty and flowing.

The star is the rose-infused sandalwood by far. It's a very woody scent, with the elemi lifting it up from being too heavy. If you like rose and sandalwood, this is a wonderful blend that showcases them!

I'm not a newbie, but I've been away from BPAL for awhile. I'd love some inspiration and recs!!

 

My top five are:

Smut - Three swarthy, smutty musks sweetened with sugar and woozy with dark booze notes.

Dorian - A Victorian fougere with three pale musks and dark, sugared vanilla tea.

Snake Oil - A blend of exotic Indonesian oils sugared with vanilla.

Love Lay Upon Her Eyes - White amber and Bulgarian rose.

Under the Harvest Moon - Blue and white musk, summer roses, wild crimson leaves, grey amber, carnation, lavender bud, and vanilla bean.

Oooh, you and I share 3 oils (though SO and LLUHE are not in my top 5), but maybe I've got some suggestions ... I love the Smut, quite truly. Try Dee. It was a Surprise! win for me and had a musk that felt similar to Smut (or maybe it's the incense note). Bonus is Dee is a GC. With that amber/rose combo (one of my favorites right now), try something like Spellbound - though Tamora is becoming one of my favorite amber blends. The White Witch (from last year's weenies) was a wonderful rose blend as well.

I have some go to's when the weather starts heating up.

Snow White

CC: Female

Bathsheba

Tamora

High-Strung Daises

The Passionate Shepard to His Love (more of a late spring early summer scent)

Heart's For Ghost Friends

Leanan Sidhe

Alice

Miss Jenny

Shadow Witch Orchid (just received, but OMG did it bloom in the sun the other day)

Lyonesse

Vasakasajja

Love Lay Upon Her Eyes

I've got a lot that I prefer in the summer months ... but some of them also smell awesome warmed on your skin in the winter under a cozy sweater.

Very sharp in the bottle. Wet on my skin its very leathery and dry. But it almost seems like there's a dampness to it as well, like wet ink. As the oil dries, so too does the ink and paper. It's starting to crack and crumble at the edges. This is what I would imagine an old forgotten book would smell like. This is only a month old, but I bet it ages beautifully.

 

I have a small obsession with the lab's bamboo note, but I'm always on the lookout for some wonderful BPAL.

 

Currently, my all time favortie BPAL hovers between Autumn Coolness and Leanan Sidhe.

 

Top 5:

1) Autumn Coolness

2) Leanan Sidhe

3) Clockwork Coture: Female

4) Mme. Moriarty

5) O Daughter of Death and Priapus

 

Anything you can suggest I should try out?

If you can get your hands on decants of Riding in the Palanquin or Shamisen I recommend those for Bamboo notes.

But other suggestions I recommend are La Belle Au Bois Dormant..... It has the same feel as Leanan Sidhe to me and if you haven't smelled it I think you would really love it. If you have not smelled Le Lethe I recommend that as well, it's glorious (:

 

Thanks for the suggestions! I have an imp of La Belle Au Bois Dormant. I tried it recently (just a small test) and thought meh (though it was nice), but maybe I should give it a better test. Le Lethe I bought when it first came out, and maybe it was because of freshness, but I didn't like it. I might have to hunt down an aged bottle, or buy another and set it back.

This is another of Beth's wonderful scents in her "Lace" series. As always, she captures the feel of being veiled for a Victorian funeral - only this one you become the corpse instead of the mourner. There is a dryness to this lace scent, and just a tad hint of something not-living. It is beautiful!

I bought this from a forumite on a whim, and man am I glad I did. My favorite autumn scent is Autumn Coolness - but Magnificent Autumn is very quickly making it's way to the top.

Wet this was very much a green scent, full of wetness from the tops of the leaves to the bottom of the forest floor.

However, as this dries, so does the forest. The leaves turn from green to gold and red, the sticks on the forest floor crack and pop whenever they are stepped on. A cool breeze comes in heralding the coming of winter. The ground stays a little damp due to the covering of leaves.

Overall, I'm truly in love with this scent. It is the perfect autumn day wrapped up in a bottle.

You could always toss the dice and grab some Chaos Theory: Woods!

Aphrodesia is the third down on the list you linked to. Why not e-mail the makers and explain you're trying to find a companion perfume and could they give hints as to what scents make it up?

I don't know how many times an imp of Dee passed through my hands in the years I've been buying/selling/swapping. I'm sure if I knew I would kick myself for ever letting this blend get past me.

It is wonderful. Softly sweet leathery goodness. It's domfy, cozy, and warm. Like being held by your love as they tuck the blanket closer around the two of you and you snuggle together to watch the fire as it crackles in the one room cabin you rented.

I can't even sing it's praises high enough. I love this blend and need more. And this is FRESH from the lab Dee. I can only imagine it aged.

Leanan Sidhe is one of my HG scents. It's close to being a water fairy IMO.

Fairy Thorn is good too, and has a bit of a bite (though that might age out).

Though maybe an "outside the box" scent is Black Butterfly Moon. I always think dark and ethereal when I wear it. It very truly has a "black" feel, but it's feather soft and light as air.

Edit: Thought of another, though finding it will be difficult as it's discontinued. Fairy Market from Stardust.

Also Snow White gives me an ethereal feel too.

I just made the happy discovery that A Bachelor's Dog and Dee (fresh) are very closely related. The brazillian tobacco gives a slightly more "yellow" sweetness in A Bachelor's Dog, whereas in Dee the incense and tonka give it a slightly different, almost deeper feel. Both are wonderful blends!

Very leathery - reminds me of DeSade leather. The musk is super soft and the tobacco is just barely there. Very warm and cozy.

Edit: This just keeps getting better the longer it sits on my skin. The leather stops overpowering and it becomes this sweet smooth leathery musky thing that just makes me feel like cuddling up on a soft leather couch with a warm cozy blanket just pulled from storage and watch my favorite movies.

I'm wearing the 2008 version today. Bought from Etsy store. This is softly sweet with just a hint of flowers. There's a "snow" feel, but more the feel of it being soft and fluffy, not so much the cold feel (which I was afraid of). This is very, very close to the skin, but I really like it!

This is bottle #125. This is a rather low fill just barely at the top of the shoulder and is clear with a slightly yellow tinge.

Bit of citrus, maybe some orange blossom. I smell a bit of balsam or maybe a hint of pine. It's a sweet, piney, citrusy scent with just a hint of floral. Has a touch of resin, possibly amber.

This is bottle #135. Oil is quite full into neck and clear in color.

This almost smells exactly like a vanilla single note. There's not much going on here. I like vanilla and all but meh. It's like Detestable Putrescence.

Edit: After a bit more of a dry down there is a hint of a sweet wood note and a touch of a flower, but mostly just a very sweet vanilla.

Oh. My. Goodness. Sweet, spicy, delicious blood. This is way better than I thought it'd be. This is better even than Blood GC. There's a berry aspect to this, yes, but also it's heady and almost has a floral feel to it as well. And you can almost smell the popsicle stick.

This is bottle #163. This is quite full into the neck and the oil is clear in color.

Immediately get a blast of citrus, lemon to be exact. There's something else in here. Maybe some of that burnt caramel. It's a sweet yet "brown scent. But really this still reminds me of Lemon Pledge.

This isn't morphing much as it dries. It's just lemony, fuzzy, but barely sweet.

This is bottle #45. The oil is clean with a slight yellow tinge and full to the neck.

There is definitely some coconut meat or shell in this - a lot of it. It gives it a creamy tone to it. Some brown musk and maybe some orris. It's soft and brown and cozy. Smells like there might be a bit of leather in here too.

Not my favorite CT, but it's really nice and well blended for sure.