Klepz

My roommate got an AWESOME scent in a PIF pack today that wasn't a BPAL oil. It's Lemon Sugar from Starring...! Fragrances. It smells exactly how Lemon curd smells, right when you pop open the jar. That fresh, sweet, sugary smell with a Lemon twang. Absolutely delicious. Too bad I can't find the smell anywhere, so this imp will have to suffice for now.

 

So if anyone knows of a BPAL that smells like Lemon curd, let me know. I'm desperate to replicate this delightful imp.

I think there are a lot of great recommendations in this thread But these are the blends that have come off as distinctly lemony on me. Ehacatl and Dorian are my favorites, and Bones Trombone comes the closest to tart, sugary lemon dessert.

Ehacatl - Hibiscus, matcha, white musk, and lime.

This says lime but I couldn't tell the difference It's a really gorgeous citrus white musk with almost a bite of floral.

Cairo - The essence of holy Kyphi, beloved incense of the Egyptian Gods.

Again, I don't think there's lemon in here but there is something lemony, and it ends up smelling of lemon and wine on me.

Bones Trombone - Pie crust, smears of blueberry marshmallow cream and lemon meringue, and hemlock.

This is a wonderful lemon pie scent. Fluffy clouds of lightly tart lemon marshmallow and barely a hint of blueberry.

Carnaval Diabolique - Opium smoke, lemon flower, heliotrope, tuberose, black musk, vanilla, coconut, apricot flower.

This is a lemon floral on me, big on the lemon.

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

Of course! Lemon tea and white musk.

ETA: I realize these are all "lemon and..." scents. Lemon never seems to come out all by itself on my skin, I guess!

I bought a bottle of this on LJ from an absolutely wonderful forumite. I expected something super foody, but it definitely turned out differently on me

CD023 is powerdery and incensey without being heavy - it's a very golden incense on me. It almost has a fruity feeling (it's juicy in that way), and hints at candy, and is very velvety. I don't get the comparisons to cake, but my skin amps anything remotely incense-like, so perhaps it's under there somewhere. And while the velvety golden-candy incense is nice, it's not really me.

I definitely had the spare change for it, but I feel awful that this didn't work on me. I hope I can find someone who really loves it to give it a great home.

Men seem to looooove Banshee Beat.

This starts off a dry fruit and musk scent (the pomegranate and raspberry are deep enough that they don't smell like candy) with a haze of tobacco and I think I smell patchouli, but it is well blended and far back in there. All of this is sitting on that same vanilla cream cotton from Black Lace.

And then there's the frankincense in there, that screams "you hate me! you hate me and I'm ruining your blend!" It's not screechingly strong; it doesn't take over the blend. But it's there, and I notice it and end up ignoring everything else because I hate frankincense.

Other than that, this is wonderful and womanly - perhaps too much so for my tastes. But I'll keep it; maybe one day it will be perfect

Wet this was metallic and citrusy. It was a rather refreshing scent!

Unfortunately, dry this turned into pure calamine lotion on my skin. While it's not necessarily a bad smell, it's..rather strange and not something I'd wear as perfume.

I've been meaning to ask this since I got this bottle from the lab, but... does anyone else's Black Temple Burlesque Troupe do this?

 

http://twitpic.com/2hsdnz

 

I wasn't surprised that it was thick. But should it be that goopy?

Holy cow! Does it smell the same? I don't use a wand so I suppose I can't be sure, but my coffee straw comes out relatively clean.

That is some thick oil!

This one is mostly blackberry on me when it dries Lots of mushed, juicy blackberries and the thick scent of pumpkin (pulpy is a great word for it) with a ribbon of cinnamon. It's more cinnamon than I'd like but certainly not the red hots I was afraid of getting, and for that I'm thankful! It's a lovely, simple smell and I'm fairly certain I'll be getting a backup or two.

ETA: I went out with my mom today, and she kept sniffing the car. Finally, she goes "YOU SMELL LIKE CURRY!" ...

ETA BUT THEN! While at the pet store, the cashier looks at me and asks me what I'm wearing, because it smells delicious. Like pumpkin and cinnamon. My first BPAL compliment in the 12 months I've been wearing these oils!

Soo.. what to do

Thanks so much, TwilightEyes

I'm also hoping someone has a photo of the new Samhain label. I'm love to see this year's!

The two I got weren't perfect for me and have since found new homes, but I got:

CT 93: Vanilla This is darker berries and vanilla and possibly (maybe; the good kinds never stand out on my skin) a splash of booze. This has lots of throw! It's seriously strong, and didn't go candy-like, which a lot of fruit tends to do. It reminded me a bit of Black Heart, but better.

CT 202: Vanilla This is a light creamy vanilla with something that might be a hint of coconut. It reminds me quite a bit of Love's Philsophy without the medicinal saffron bit. ETA: It could also be shea butter.. gosh, I have trouble with this one!

I'm actually psyched that I got homes for these because I know their new owners will be way better at identifying what's in them than I am.

This is so pretty even though it kind of reminds me of toilet cleaner. Apparently, I have smelled some damn fine toilet cleaner in my days.

It smells of vanilla and spun sugar and floral perfume, and I see where someone got the dryer sheets! It's quite beautiful, and a real shame that more wasn't made.

Oh this is sexy. At first this reminded me quite a bit of Snake Charmer (I haven't worn it in a while, so forgive me if my comparison is a bit off) but then, it's much more leathery and quite a bit sexier (which is saying something).

It's a delicious incense and leather smell. I think I want to get to know these villains

Wet: Oh god. The gin is STRONG, and the spices + booze ends up doing the same hillbilly candle deal that Twenty One did on me (Gin scents, it seems, do not like me).

Dry: The candle finally goes away and this is clovey, juniper gin. The juniper and gin are equal in strength now. I think if something replaced the gin it might be all right, but I don't like the spiced booze.

Further into the dry down this stays exactly the same. It remains strong for quite a while, unfortunately for me!

In the imp this is verrrry boozy, and sticky and almost leathery.

On my skin, this is sexy in a dirty way. The stickiness of the smell repels me a little (I realize this makes little sense, but while the scent is sweet it is not cloyingly sweet), but under that cloying stickiness there's a mostly boozy tobacco smell.

Dry this is lightly leathery and the sticky smell has gone away, leaving that leathery, boozy tobacco with a dash of honey. It's quite pretty dried down, and much less "dirty" smelling than when wet.

In the bottle this is all chocolate and mint and vanilla and more chocolate. The melty, milky variety. There's a hint of something earthier far in the background, but at this point I can't tell what it is.

Wet this is so much dark chocolate / cocoa powder with a ribbon of vanilla-peppermint. And yet it's not just HAI CHOCOLATE MINT! because of the oakmoss. I can't say I smell the cedar or pistachio, though. I generally seem to dislike chocolate blends but this is so seriously awesome.

As it dries, the cedar comes out a bit making this lightly woody chocolate+vanilla with a kick of mint. This is a very fun, but beautiful, blend!

In the bottle: Sweet, spicy, surprisingly berry-scented, which might be a sweeter musk and honeysuckle? It could go smoker's-house or feminine on me at this point, I'm not sure which. I think the pepper is the culprit.

Wet: Oh my. This is.. berry scented smoker's house. You know, one of those houses with about three decades of cigarette smoke clinging to the yellowed walls, with that berry-scented room deodorizer doing nothing to improve the smell. I'm glad I'm not the only one who got berries out of this, but the berry smell and pepper mix is just gross. At least the throw isn't making me wash it off. Which means I can let it dry

Completely dry: This is like.. berry scented room freshener. I still don't like it, but it's a vast improvement from the wet stage. The pepper is no longer noticeable. It's a honeysuckle + berry with the barest hint of ginger to it. A pretty sweet scent with not much spice or backbone to speak of (which I would have expected from War!)

Frankly, I find it gross but I love the bottle art, and I love Good Omens, so I might hang on to it and hope it's a spectacular ager. Shub-Niggurath is, and it's another ginger-blend, so here's to hoping.

In the bottle, this is a very chill scent! It smells like it would be perfect for this time of year, going into late summer. The coconut shell is yelling at the front, backed by a very creamy spice scent. I think I detect some amber, which makes this very interesting, and I'm glad not to notice much cinnamon, which tends to amp on me. Clove does too, but remains relatively mild in the bottle.

On, this is so surprisingly unisex. There's a hint of sweetness to it that's really delicious. The coconut backs off a bit and the blend gets creamier. I smell amber and sandalwood, which surprises me because I thought they'd be inconspicuous in the background. The cinnamon, clove and ginger have blended into something seamless.. something "spicy" but unnameable. This is a pleasant surprise. Suddenly I remembered that there's supposed to be licorice in this, and it's there, prominently on the edges of this scent (does that make sense? It's definitely there, but it's not the scent itself). It's a twang that makes this scent that much more complex, and that much more nummy!

Completely dry, the licorice is now stronger than the coconut, which makes me a bit sad because the wet stage was so beautiful. This is delicious in it's own right, though. It's still creamy and spicy licorice with coconut now as a diminutive sidekick. While somewhat slinky, it's a pretty bad-ass scent, so it might sit next to The Illustrated Woman in my box! Then again, it's such a funny scent. Maybe I need a new category of scents for when I feel funny

Winding down, I think I need a backup!

ETA: A couple hours later, the coconut is more prominent again. It almost reminds me of a Snow White + Pere Fouettard mix, if Le Pere hadn't gone all surgical-gloves on me.

I was going through my backups of Eisheth today and it reminded me that I bought a partial last year that could not have been anything *but* Eisheth and yet was different from any Eisheth I've known before or since. It was a rich brandy color (all my other bottles, even the prototype, are watery pale) and it smelled like there was maybe more cocoa and peach in it than usual. Pretty, but odd. Has anyone else experienced this same batch?

Hm... my decant (what's left of it) is a deep gold/brandy color. It's a grounded fruit scent for me and I get only a little cocoa out of it.. but I haven't read reviews and don't know how this compares to others experience. But it is that brandy color you mentioned!

Thanks so much hkhm! Perhaps just a batch difference then. I tend to amp cinnamon as well, and my decant never smelled much of it while my bottle nearly gave me welts.

I've seen someone say in the aging thread that Chimera's WHOA-cinnamon tones down into just "spice" with age (which is what I smelled), so maybe it could (eventually!) age out.

..good thing I ordered another bottle to compare Why must this be difficult

Hm.. I started wondering about my very cinnamony bottle of Shub, which was very unlike a decant of it I had tried a while back. I chalked it up to aging, but then I started wondering..

Looking through the reviews of Shub, it feels like there are a lot more "OMG Cinnamon!" reviews starting in 2008 (the kind where all people smell is cinnamon, or the perfume burns and they wash it off). Before 2008, I didn't notice any wash-offs.

So, anyone with a bottle of Shub care to comment? Has the blend become more cinnamon-y over time?

Hmm, upon yet another sniff, I noticed that the two "sans-apple" bottles are actually different from each other as well. Very slightly, but one had absolutely no apple note, and the other had a barest hint of it. My in-use bottle screams of it. I wonder if it's not a component that was just much, much stronger in that batch (much like a bottle of Shub that I have which is all cinnamon and can't touch my skin).

My apple-free bottles are from very early January, I believe. The apple bottle is from early February, so it was a while ago.

..all this makes me wish I could have sniffed the original

When I feel like I'm slathering, I put a few (3?) drops of oil behind each ear, a few on my neck, a few in my cleavage (followed by mooshing), some on my inner elbows, then about 5 dots on each inner arm and a few on the outer arms.

When I feel like I'm lightly dabbing, I'll put a couple drops on my wrists and a couple more in my cleavage and usually leave it at that.

I don't know if I slather or dab compared to other people though

Hmm.. are the labels for the Picnic in Arkham scents supposed to have different colors? My Shub bottle's label is a lighter/yellower color while my Miskatonic U label is darker/oranger. I figured they'd be the same? I got my Shub at Whole Foods so I don't really know what's up

 

my bottles are like that too. though i used to have a miskatonic university label that was much more yellow. i think it's just a label batch difference.

Thanks! I was about to buy another to see if they would smell different

Hmm.. are the labels for the Picnic in Arkham scents supposed to have different colors? My Shub bottle's label is a lighter/yellower color while my Miskatonic U label is darker/oranger. I figured they'd be the same? I got my Shub at Whole Foods so I don't really know what's up

GAHH Apparently the Black Lace I have come to love and adore is the one everyone seems to think is the "apple-y" version. I always thought it smelled like Super-Linen, but both my man and my mother think it smells like apple.

So I open my two backups and they smell nothing like it. Sure some linen and vanilla but other than that they are unrecognizable. Much more perfumey, and they actually remind me of Lilith Victoria.

Any hope that DD is still selling this apple-y version? I'm scrambling for more!