SophieCedar

Wet: a blast of orange marmalade, rosemary, pine, and apples. Drydown: cinnamon, orange marmalade and orange rind, with a hint of apples, deeper rosemary. Comforting and energizing (emphasis on the zing part..) Reminds me of fabric and craft stores but not too offensive or too potpourri-ish.

OK, so my 1st impression of Snow White last year was "Smells like Skin Milk", though I was completed pleased I didn't have to deal with nasty chemicals to get this lovely scent any more. Pink Snowballs is a rosy Skin Milk..without the chemicals and fake perfumes...YAY! Wet: sweet soft vanilla and rose with a touch of...spearmint? What's the ingredient that makes it snowy? We'll never know. It's actually incredibly strong during this phase. Joyful, light-hearted indeed, optimistic, bouncy (bouncy? Yes. Bouncy.). Glad I'm starting my day with this. Drydown: still exuberant and fun. Still sweet airy vanilla & rose, with that snowy note. I honestly like this one better than Snow White, which comes across as sweet & sad, doleful. Don't get me wrong, I love that combination, but this is more playful. My favorite morning scent these days. There's basically a protective wall of anti-fuck-up-my-day oil on my wrists, right now. Awesome.

Oooh good one. I do know a couple out there that are similar, but looking at the threads, everyone wishes there was a stronger cherry blossom scent from bpal. Similar to Sakura IMO: Suspiro and Spirit of the Komachi Cherry Tree

Hey ya know look at that! I was *just* thinking to myself yesterday how Ghost resembles Lyonesse. I was trying to figure out why I LOVE Ghost so much but don't really care for Lily Savon soap. Ghost is kinda more vanilla-y than the Lily Savon bar soap..most people compare Ghost to Lily Savon, but my experience was that the Lily Savon bar soap is MUCH heavier on lilies to the point of burning my nose.

This scent, for me, is funny giggly sweet innocent cute cheesecake. I would compare it to the way Bones Trombone plays out on my skin: balance of sweet confection and herbal notes. The lavender is coming out in varying levels of strength with each application. Wet: sweet strong but non-astringent lavender and creamy cheese cake. The honey note stays syrupy during this phase. Drydown: honey tends to go powdery on me. What a shame that is! Honey + lavender = it's clean sweet, slightly powdery..but the cheesecake keeps it all in check. This does not dump itself into the baby powder category due to the cheesecake...awesome! It's this strange innocuous sweet foody lavender blend. Creamy in the way only cheesecake can pull off: pungent, nose filling sweet cream and sugar. Soothing lavender honey stays just that. The powdery part of the honey actually faded and it's back to sweet creamy lavender awesomeness. Glad I blindly ordered 2 bottles. Very versatile.

The milk chocolate cassia and bacon is the only one I can think of that's a direct hit. The other 2 that I smelled meat from, if you're curious to try them, are Drink Me and The Witch's Repast.

I tested this a few times before now. Each time, I slapped it on, shrugged, said it smelled good, then left the house to do whateverthehell. Wet: burst of clean masculine cologne that settles after about 30 seconds. Must be the musk and linen.. The warm smell of tobacco musk and sweet linen with a drop of opium-like laudanum is circling me. It's lovely in this phase! Opium does wonderfully on my skin, so no surprise. Color impressions are cream, dark brown, translucent indigo, with shreds of maroon. Drydown: I think this is the reason I forgot about it after I slapped it on.. it fades super fast. If I smell closely, it's this lovely creamy but dark linen and tobacco musk.. pretty musky actually.. so I'd say 2 primary notes are musk and linen.. which is awesome but can barely smell any throw. This would be an awesome atmospheric smell, so maybe I'll put a drop in my oil burner and hope it fares better than on me. I would also recommend this for sensitive noses that want all that musk, linen, opium smell without the burningsneezinggetitoffme-ness.

Wet: wonderful white dry (not tart) apple and agave nectar with a whisper of moonflower. Smells like something I'd like to drink! Think Fentiman's soda..or a nonalcoholic cocktail with flower essences (ooooohhh!) For me, there's a pinkness about this instead of the intended silver. Think it's the lotus root. Very girly but not childish. Oh wait.. this smells like a sweeter version of VS's Pink. Damn you, brain-scent association! Oh well.. this is way better and isn't accompanied by the customary complimentary burning eyes & nose of VS perfumes. I'llllll take it! Drydown: wonderful, sweet, slightly mournful moonflower, agave (yes still kickin), white sandalwood, and shimmering translucent (but not powdery) orris. Wonderful. Why did I only by one bottle? I can change that.

Klara from last year's yule update was almost a dead ringer for Alice.. just less powdery

Frikkin burnt marshmallows.. seriously?! YES! It's awesome. Wet: acrid toasty smell, with sweet molten marshmallow. drydown: not sure what's up with this but it turns into a sweet, super sugary, smoky, goopy greatness. Still a decent throw to it. Need. 10. bottles. now... this will be great for layering too. I can picture it under mircalla, haunted, or the black rider.

In imp: marigolds and chrysanthemums.. strong and sharp! ow! Wet: wow. what a wonderful surprise. Beautiful sweet almost syrupy bourbon vanilla, yellow green soothing herbal chamomile, wet red and brown autumn leaves. I'm not a marigold or chrysanthemum fan but this is actually working for me. They just provide a fresh greenness to it. They actually make it come alive. The rose is deep and crimson pink without being sharp or too sweet. drydown: sweet, herbal, color impression brown, red and green with flashes of gold. Wonderful autumn scent. This just floats and flows. The surprise like of 2011's weenies.

Carnal is a nice fig scent too. The mandarin is warm and sweet but the fig takes center stage. I second grave pig and hetairae.

Excellent! I haven't worn Alice since I went to see the Tim Burton release. I'll need to break that one out again. I also love Queen Alice. There's a Lush holiday scent out there that reminds me of it but can't remember. Wish I could find a bpal similar to Champagne Snowshowers! *laments loss of favorite scent* I know! The play-doh wasn't too surprising, considering "play-doh" has its own thread here. But the RAID... And I tried the imp a few times, thinking "maybe it was allergies!" or "maybe it was hormones!" or "maybe I ate something weird!" but no. So far, the stats are stacking up against Bread and Butterfly. I do have to say, though, that Alice was a total win.

Play-doh and RAID?! oh no! hahaha! You're right. I got my samples of White Rabbit and B&B. White Rabbit is nice, but there's about 20 minutes of play-doh, then it becomes nearly undetectable except for faint wisps. B&B... smells like Raid (the bug spray) on my skin. SO SAD! So I'm still searching. And so far, Molly Grue is the best match for me.

Oh man.. I tried this yesterday when it was really warm out. it didn't smell good at all. Smelled a bit like poop. I think the opium tar and rose otto ganged up on the jasmine and currant. Reading this on the site, before testing, I thought to myself "well that's a ballsy combination of favorites.. wonder how it'll work out?" Today: tried again and it's gorgeous. Mellower, sweeter, no poop. Wet: The musk and currant are strongest with jasmine burning off quickly like one of those firecracker snakes. A little strong and effervescent here for that reason. The ylang ylang permeates sideways and swirls around. Nice dimension to this one! Drydown: soft sweet dark currant and florals. Hypnotic almost. The jasmine is still very present. It's a less bitter more musky Pannychis.

Wet: sharp lemon peel and grapefruit with white tea and something chemical smelling. Maybe the white mint is setting it off. Ugh I'll just hang on through this.. at lease I'm awake now~! Drydown: the leather, orchid, and amber develop.. slowly promising. The grapefruit has turned very sweet and mingled with orchid and leather to produce this awesome sweet musky pungence. The sheer amber provides a light warmth in the background, but nothing beyond a color impression of light soft yellow. I can smell bits of the kush and teakwood however it just comes across as a type of ambergris when mixed with the citruses and tea. Further into drydown, they smooth out a make themselves distinct from the rest. Very soothing and sexy. This is a wonderful chypre. (why spellcheck, do you only associate the word "preachy" with chypre? hahahaha!)

This is the scent of the cupcakes that her (kind, generous, and wonderful!) Aunt Sarah made for her birthday! Lilith's request was for sprinkle flavored cupcakes ("sprinklecakes!") with pink and purple glitter frosting, and that's what she got. That's what you're getting, too: this cupcake fragrance is the sweetest of the sweet, the sugariest of the sugary! Rainbow sprinkles baked into rich vanilla cake with thick, creamy frosting topped with glittery candy flakes. I was on sugar overload the 1st day this was tested. I could barely smell anything besides for a slight sugar vanilla note... and left it aside, in favor of something stronger. Funny thing was, I got some great compliments on how I smelled.. even though I couldn't smell it. People's compliments were: "it's not strong or overwhelming.. just.. NICE! I like it a lot!" Something in this strikes a cord with people.. nostalgia, cravings, whatever you want to call it. It's a crowd pleaser. Anyways, I went back to it a few days later and smelled the following: Wet: sharp toothachingly sweet sugar blend: purple, pink and white, with sugar loaded vanilla batter. This is not a buttery baked batter; it's wet and sugary. Drydown: sweet sweet soft vanilla with a bit of my little pony smell. It does have a bit of a sugary artificial doll smell to it. Very youthful and dizzying! I do like this, after all. It stuck to a piece of clothing..When I put it back on the next day and could smell the Sprinklecake, it was a really pleasant surprise.

I can tell you that White Rabbit is different than I thought. The white pepper and ginger notes come out stronger than anticipated. I had an aged imp of White Rabbit that was really mellow.. that might be closer IMO! B&B smelled strongly of salty butter a little dry tea and sugar, to me. Unique, I'd say! The Soft Touch was my favorite body butter. I hoarded a couple bars when they said they were discontinuing, but one of the appeals of Lush is the no-preservatives. It also means my last bar of TST is past its expiration date, and aging quickly. Sigh. (it *does* go on cold!) Thanks for the Twilight BB recs. I'll add those to the list. And Ceridwen's Cauldron - is some serious magic. I think the essential oils are only part of the CC equation - the rest of it is all hot water loaded with diffusing cocoa butter and oats and some kind of cooking spices (maybe?) and it's like soaking in spicy, milky tea. Molly Grue is close; I was considering The White Rabbit to see if that's closer, or maybe Bread and Butterfly.

I love opium tar and tobacco but green tea can make my nose burn fiercely. No exception here. I can make out plum and kush too, but the combination of green tea and ambrette seed is causing a reaction... I'll have to enjoy this in small amounts.. from a distance... later.

From descriptions, it looks like Potion is mostly carnation with some rose and clove. I really dislike carnation, so I don't have any recommendations, but the Lab has lots of carnation scents to choose from. There is a thread devoted to it: http://www.bpal.org/topic/21410-carnations/ Ya know I think of Potion every time I put on Hod! Smells almost exactly the same to me minus a touch of mandarin that really doesn't come up too strongly in Potion anyways.

Oh yesss. .Lush was my gateway drug too. The Soft Touch is amazing but from what I know it was discontinued. There might be a little left out there. It's an amazing vanilla mango orchid tonka-ish scent. I can't really think of a close match besides for oddly enough Nymphia. Soft Touch has this cooling mango thing.. it goes on feeling cold, IMO! Twilight BB: I haven't tried TKO but wonder if it compares? I think Aeval would be close, in composition & strength if we're looking at something that has tonka and a sweet soft floral. You might like Twilight the bpal too, but the jasmine makes this much more of a heady floral. Maybe also Paris. Ceridwen's Cauldron: ooh this is a good question. I'll need to think on that one. Molly Grue is oaty but too spicy. Veil is close but too floral. Maybe if you mixed them!

Got a goblin squirt with an ebay purchase and maaaann was I psyched. I'm a fool for sake smells. The creamy boozy rice thing gets me every time. When I sprayed this I walked through it a little too fast..it accidentally stuck to my face. Particularly the nose part. Yes, that was me wandering around Belfast, with a stupid grin, stinking wonderfully of cherry blossoms and sake.

Thanks so much Puddin and Goblins! I really thought I smelled sea spray at first, but it broke apart into wet dirt & ozone, aquatic note, with grey stone. Pretty close to the smell of the Maine coast anyways . Really soothing, dark, earthy. I can see how this would be viewed as a masculine scent, but I don't really jump towards the association "cologne" when I smell this one. The aquatic and ozone notes are present without being overpowering. I like it.

Delicious. Straight up delicious. Sweet, slightly spicy but not nutmeg or cinnamon strong, even a hint of floral from the kukui nuts, and buttery. Reminds me of some Pumpkin Patch scents without the strong overlaying pumpkin note. There's something about the combination that still reminds me of pumpkin or squash. In fact, I was convinced that it was an element in Halfling! This is the winner for layering. ETA: I tried this again today and said to myself "this is what I wished Molly Grue was, but it wasn't".

POW! Ginger and balsam with sweet sarsaparilla. Very effervescent..like fizzy, not bubbly though. This literally reminds me exactly of fizzing extra strong ginger beer. Super cute. It wouldn't be a go-to scent, but adorable none the less. Drydown is a little more peppery and cologne-like but not too much different!