ModderRhu

love at first sniff. I love creamy, foody aquatics like this one and the sea foams milk. this one smells just as spa-like as TSFM, but creamier and beachier. very comforting.

I love this. it's a playful, peppery cherry blossom and sandalwood. the anise is subtle but serves as a nice contrast to the salty sandalwood and sweet blossoms. it's great on its own, but the dryness of it pairs really awesomely with kabuki. which is a much wetter and juicier scent.

i got Morocco as a frimp at NYCC 2010. ive loved it ever since and found it hard to review.

my first impression was that it smelled sandy. like sun warmed sand. and the most wonderful creamy vanilla milk with spicy carnations steeped in it. i guess the sandalwood is giving the impression of dry, warm sand. maybe the cassia, too. it's almost like a hyperreal sensation of smelling the actual tree that cinnamon comes from. woody cinnamon. the only kind i can do.

it's awesome in perfume oil form and just as awesome in hair gloss form. layers well with snake oil.

everyone seems to like it on me. my best friend said it smelled "like a girl."

definitely a work-friendly scent. wore it on my job interview. it's not gonna offend any sensitive noses even if you overapply.

color impression is most definitely a creamy pink.

i find it nice both fresh and aged, but aging seems to make it more intense.

highly recommend for anyone anywhere.

Morocco, Scherezade (not so much vanilla in this one) from the GC. for a more masculine version, try galvanic goggles. I think it has the same musk, or something. it's like a cousin of black lace.

 

Autumn Moon of the Mirror Stand was a Lupercalia scent from 2010. the notes include cognac, honey, and quince. it reminds me a lot of black lace. maybe a little brighter. ive seen it for sale. it's kind of a hidden gem, so won't be as hard to find as Black Lace.

 

hope & faith kind of have that "lace" base. but they're probably hard to find as they were popular carnival scents. if you like rose and violet give em a shot. even if you don't, try them anyway. they're not your typical rose or violet scents.

 

see if you can track down decants of the other lace scents. most of them are pretty close. except maybe mourning lace. that's verrrrryy clove cigarette.

I don't know if this counts at all, but I really enjoy dressing extremely """girly""" and then wearing a scent like clockwork couture: male. (leather, sandalwood, iron, patchouli)

 

I also enjoy pairing that one with super sweet delicately pink scents like hope, antique lace, and morocco. it just tickles me

 

oh, also the blockhead. it's from the carnival so might be hard to find. but it's bubblegum with leather and metal.

 

great thread!

My friend is extremely masculine (shes a girl, but just masculine, and NO that's not an insult, just her gender identity), so maybe she would like Jolly Rodger. One of the reasons I love BPAL is because I hate the smell of Alcohol or whatever is put in most mainstream perfumes. They seem to all give me a headache. My friend is the same way. She loves the smell of Light Blue but hates the Alcohol-ness( or whatever is put in most designer perfumes) so she only wears it on special occasions when shes willing to put up with the headache to smell nice.

 

 

So maybe I am going in the wrong direction with the beachy. Maybe more crisp without smelling like laundry or too floral. Im so bad as describing scents

Light Blue smells like dry, scratchy almost cottony woods with green apple.

 

if that's Light Blue, then Mme. Moriarty is Light Red it's got the dry scratchy wood thing going on, but with pomegranate and plum instead of green apple. when I first smelled Mme Moriarty, I immediately thought of Light Blue. it's also a fav of mine.

 

however, it's pretty rare seeing as how the Carnival series is on hold for now. I got my bottle from eBay for like $40 I think. you may be able to find an imp in the sales and swaps section of this forum. maybe even a full bottle.

 

I honestly wouldn't know what else to suggest. Mme Moriarty is seriously the closest BPAL to Light Blue.

 

I'll edit this post if I think of anything else!

 

ok, some others:

 

Anne Bonny: this is sort of like Light Blue but with no fruit. it smells salty, beachy, and woody to me. gender neutral. it's a general catalog scent so a full bottle is $17.50 and a sample is $4.

 

Aureus: another general catalog oil. similar to Anne Bonny, but a bit less salty and a little dirtier smelling. one of my favs.

 

Lilith vs The Giant Crab: probably the beachiest of beach smells, to me. it's a bit sweeter than light blue. it's like an orange creamsicle with dry, salty sandalwood and salt water. I love this one so much that I buy it whenever I see it for sale without question. it's a very common limited edition scent. you can usually find some on the forum and ebay. it usually goes for no more than $20.

this is the single note I was most looking forward to. when I smelled it at NYCC, i got blasted with booze followed by spoiled milk and super salty butter. I only sniffed out of the bottle so maybe it would have been different on my skin. but the out-of-bottle funkiness didn't exactly compel me to do a skin test. milk and cream notes and foodies in general work beautifully for me so maybe this was way too fresh or something.

if this didn't have the leaf note, it would be awesome. it smells like delicious minty cocoa butter. unfortunately the leaf note gives it an undercurrent of bell peppers

I love the lab's champagne note. it's amazing how it really smells carbonated.

 

this is sweeter than most of their champagne blends. it smells more like virgin sparkling apple cider to me. it may also have a little ginger and lemon in it. thankfully no cinnamon.

 

I've been dealing with a sinus infection for like a month now, and I often feel nauseated. smelling this makes me feel better. it might be really great to wear to bed when my nausea is at its worst.

this smelled just like severin to me. I didn't skin test, just smelled out of the bottle.

this is one of those perfumes that kinda smells like the listed notes, but way better. it's better than the sum of its parts. to me, it's almost like less sweet red musk with little tiny amounts of the rest of the ingredients added. you just have to try this one. if any of these notes are death notes, try it anyway. unless you don't like musk. this is one of my most complimented perfumes. great throw and very long lasting.

this is one of the longest lasting BPAL scents I've tried. it smells like a cherry-honey-vanilla-cream scented body powder that you'd apply with a big fancy poof. I find it's well balanced and not overly sweet. didn't notice a huge difference between fresh and aged. guess I just like it both ways.

 

the way it smells is consistent with the listed notes, so if you love all the notes like I do you should probably try this one. no funny business with morphing or hidden notes or anything.

 

I do recommend this one and I'm gonna get a full bottle soon

I don't want to say what this smells like on me. I'll just say that I expected to love this scent based on the listed notes, but something about it smells acrid and bitter and toxic on me.

this is indeed a dry coconut scent. the best version of coconut, IMO. almost a little scorched and toasty smelling. the musk and incense play very well together and smooth out the coconut. don't really detect much orris, so if that's a death note for you, don't worry too much about it. the sandalwood doesn't really smell like the white version to me, which I love but sometimes can make me sneeze. it smells dirty, salty and a little tea-like.

 

this smells like a mix of Tiki King (dry coconut), Al Azif (incense), Aureus (sandalwood) and Comforting Plush Companion (musk) without the fruit.

 

in other words, everything good and not bad at all

Current top 5 (no particular order except Mermaid which is my number 1)

 

Mermaid

Lamia

Destructive Vagina of the Fox Spirit

Eat Me

Ava

 

Not really sure exactly what that says about my tastes, but I'm OBSESSED with Mermaid right now! Any thing similar to that especially would be amazing.

Pumpkin Princess was a Halloweenie LE that smells just like Mermaid to me, but with a bit of foodiness. Might be worth tracking down a decant.

 

Since you like Eat Me, try Bread and Butter Fly and Snake Oil. Comforting Plush Companion is also a lot like Eat Me, but it's LE and can be somewhat hard to find. Same with Sprinklecake.

 

Any scents that are similar to Ava that I can think of are super rare. So I don't know how helpful it would be to rec them. But they are: Black Lace, Giant Vulva, and Eve (from the same series as Ava). Maybe also The First of the Three Spirits. That one is an easier to find LE. similar in "feel" to Ava but not that close. (Edited to add: Bastet is a general catalogue scent similar to Ava.)

 

happy sniffing

this smells just like sprinklecake but with a very very strong boozy note. I prefer sprinklecake.

I thought I loved this one but now I'm not sure. it smells too much like a beeswax single note to me with some vanilla. I would have loved more of the sandalwood. I think I need to have a face off between this one, The Lights of Men's Lives, and Hanerot Halalu.

smells a lot like TKO + chocolate! the vetiver and birch are present but are background players. this is a very gentle scent and if you are afraid of anything except the lavender and choc, give it a try anyway.

this smells just like Antique Lace with just a little sugary rose added. seriously, this is the closest perfume to antique lace and I've smelled most of the ones people recommend as dupes of AL. it's a very creamy, marshmallowy rose with great throw and lasting power. might be great for rose haters. very youthful smelling.

this is beautiful. it smells better than the sum of all its parts. it's a lovely creamy wearable rose with steamy chrysanthemum tea smoothed out by honeycomb. it has good lasting power but stays close to the skin. would probably be great for work.

it smells a bit too maple syrup-y for my liking. and a bit like a cinnamon candle. I am ridiculously picky with anything having to do with cinnamon, so keep that in mind. I just think this one is overrated.

 

if you are like me and are a cinnamon hater but desire a nice cinnamon scent, try Playful Wooden Mallets.

this might be silly to say about a perfume oil, but this smells oily.

 

it smells like deep, oily incense. almost raisin-y. kind of like the natural smell of someone's hair.

 

I don't dislike it, but I don't particularly love it either. it's definitely one of the softest and most understated incense blends from BPAL.

I get the custard and toffee and all the other yummy stuff, but with an undercurrent of turkey cold cuts so sad!

this smells like Aureus with some sweetness added. Aureus is in my top ten general catalogue scents so that's a good thing! it smells like dry earth and tea and sunlight with some non foody vanilla and fresh sweet pea flowers. it's very well balanced. I think I need a big bottle of this!

I definitely smell the "dried" aspect of rose in this perfume. that and the oakmoss are pretty much all I smell. maybe a tiny bit of dirt. it's a really calming, true to life smell. almost like a forest.