Teaotter

Rose! It smells like nasty scented soap, amps like mad, and drowns out everything in any blend. I've tried every color rose there is, rosewater, rose-infused, even tearose, and they all do it.

 

Until I tried Dream, which pairs white rose and oudh. Those two notes together work for me, both in Dream and in Delight and Consternation. They have a soft, fluffy, non-soapy rose note that plays well with others. Yay!

Strictly from the notes -- I haven't smelled it myself -- you might want to try:

 

Symmakhia - Vanilla, heliotrope, red sandalwood, pear, black lily, white wine grape, and white rose.

 

or

 

Kubla Khan - opium smoke and amber tobacco, golden sandalwood, champaca, tea leaf, sugared lily, ginger, rich hay absolute, leather, dark vanilla, mandarin, peru balsam, and Moroccan jasmine.

 

Kubla Khan has the benefit of being GC, while Symmahkia is an LE.

 

(If you want to go searching through the catalog yourself, you can search by notes at BPAL.org/search.)

I have not, but those notes sound pretty amazing! =D I amp all those notes actually... I wonder how it would smell?

I wonder if there's anything with patchouli I could layer it with... >.>

 

The closest I've come to Banshee Beat is Tezcatlipoca (Deep cocoa laced with patchouli, leather armor, ritual incense, and a touch of Xochiquetzal’s flowers) layered with the Tonka SN.

 

If you can wear other vanillas, it would probably work with something other than the SN -- I just have trouble with almost every other BPAL vanilla *except* in Banshee Beat.

I got a tester of this is a PIF from Caper -- apparently originally from Allidavie, so if you're reading this, know that your testers are still making the rounds!

 

Opening the imp, my first thought was that *this* was the gingerbread scent I've been waiting for! LOL. Seriously, sweet spicy thick syrupy cake.

 

On my skin, it bloomed. The tobacco came out alone briefly, then faded back into the luscious vanilla rum cake. But calling it cake is just not doing it justice -- there is definitely musk and cocoa here, too. But the whole thing blends into this amazing scent that wafts up from my wrist.

 

This is what I wish other BPAL baked goods scents smelled like on me. Um.

 

I really wanted to hate this, y'know?

 

Beth is a fucking genius. I'm glad I got to try this, even if I'll never hold a bottle in my hands.

Update 5/2/13: This is still one of my favorites! Over the last couple of months, the vanilla custard has deepened. The throw is now more of a vanilla-cocoa cloud, with the oud, rose, and lemon blossom playing back-up.

 

Original review:

 

No sludge at all for me! On the other hand, the chocolate/cocoa smell is pretty strong when I open the bottle, so I don't think I'm missing anything. Oh, and I should mention that I usually amp rose so loudly I can't wear it, but I found the white rose/oudh combo in Dream to be very wearable, so I'm hoping this one will have the same effect.

 

In the bottle: Vanilla and cocoa.

 

Wet: My nose gets really confused at first. There's a jumble of notes, a flare of custardy creaminess, then a blast of the kind of floral-shampoo smell I usually associate with certain kinds of amber. o.O

 

Dry: If I put my nose against my skin, I can identify all the notes. But I'm mostly just blown away by the gorgeous cloud of scent wafting around me, which is incredibly well blended. Sweet, not at all gourmand, a gentle creamy-floral with a woody backbone.

 

Overall: The vanilla isn't as strong as I expected it to be, it's more of a background player in this. The cocoa does that woody thing I like so much, the oudh keeps the rose from amping. I get no citrus out of this at all.

In the bottle: Red currants and sweet (not spicy) ginger. Uh-oh. I really wanted the honey to dominate this.

Wet: Oh, that's different! Something tree-sap like takes the forefront, probably a mix of the sugar cane and ginger. It smells like vines to me, green and leafy and sappy. The honey is just barely there right now, and I don't get any currant at all.

Dry: Once it settles in, it blooms gorgeously on my skin. The ginger takes a back seat to the honey and currants. The sugar cane is definitely present, but there's also a mild waxiness from the honey -- not as waxy as the usual beeswax note, but definitely there.

This is a subtle scent but it wafts around me gently. It fades pretty quickly, but I find a lot of scents do when they're brand new. If this is like other honey scents I have, it'll have a lot more lasting power once it's aged a month or so.

Summary: Not as fruity as I thought it would be when I sniffed it in the bottle. The final scent is a soft, fruity-floral honey with just a tang of green sap to it. If it were a color, it would be the translucent green-champagne-pink of ripening pink currants. It's gorgeous!

In the bottle: red musk, ginger, and something that smells fiery to me but I can't quite place the scent.

 

Wet: This is incredibly well blended. I don't get the blast of red musk I was expecting. Instead, it's this soft but somehow seething scent of musky-sweet-spiciness. Not a lot of throw.

 

Drydown: Stays pretty similar.

 

Dry: A hot musky smell, with some spice to it, but mostly this sense of heat, like sun coming off hot sand. I can't really pick out the individual notes. This is a soft skin scent, but it lingers for several hours.

 

I expected something completely different, reading the notes. Red musk and dragon's blood usually amp on me, but this time, they're blending nicely. The Lab's sand note is one that I can't smell -- scents with it disappear entirely to my nose (though not necessarily to the people around me!) so I was expecting this one to go away, as well. But though it's soft, it is definitely present.

Re: My search for a replacement for The Montauk Project:

 

Yggdrasil definitely has the mixed-wood notes; the drydown reminds me a lot of TMP. The hickory isn't as strong, and it needs a sassafras note layered into it, I think, but it's a good start.

in the bottle: milky and grainy, almost like oatmeal.

 

Wet: a blast of creamed corn, followed by fresh soy milk.

 

Drydown: It splits into two levels during the drydown: A warm creamy softly spiced tone, and something thinner and greener. There is definitely something about the second smell that reminds me of fresh soymilk -- kind of green and bean-smelling.

 

Dry: It settles down eventually into a single warm, sweet smell. It is definitely still a warm, creamy liquid, but I can't pick out whether it's a grainy drink or a nutty one. But it's comforting and mildly vegetative, with just the faintest hint of something almost like marshmallow in the distance.

 

ETA; In the late drydown, the amber starts to powder and amps over the rest, but it still works for me.

Ooh, thank you! I'll add them to the search list!

 

The suggestions for similar things that I could find in the review thread were Yggdrasil, Arkham, and Schwarzer Mond. My other recommendation to get something similar would be to find a very woody scent and layer it with a bit of a sassafrasy scent. You may need to layer three, with sandalwood (easily findable in the general catalogue), pine (easily findable in the yule scents), and sassafras (can be found in both GCs and LEs, and I don't know which is best).

Wet: The softest, fluffiest, most comforting floral I've ever smelled. Hmm. That wasn't what I was expecting at all.

 

Drydown: The lavender sinks in, making this a little brighter, but it's still soft and fluffy and comforting. The rose is not doing the soapy thing it almost always does on me.

 

Dry: This is utterly gorgeous! The musk comes out at last, grounding the rest of the scent. It has a hint of clean dryer sheets if I stick my nose right up against it, but the throw is pure comfort and softness. There is a bit of spiciness and a bit of herbiness balancing out the floral notes. All in all, it blends incredibly well and just smells amazing.

 

Verdict: I expected this to go very badly -- rose usually turns to soap on me, and lavender can get screechingly high-pitched. But they both work here, enough that I just want to roll up in it like a blanket. The throw is moderate without being overpowering.

I have only half an imp of The Montauk Project, and apparently, it's not popular -- I can only find a couple of imps for sales, and even then, they're usually half-imps.

 

The notes are: shagbark hickory, sassafras, black gum, bald cypress, pine, dogwood, wild comfrey, swamp sunflower, and trumpet creeper.

 

I tried searching the catalog on the various notes and can't find anything that seems similar. Any suggestions?

Wet: There's a brief tussle between the leather and tobacco before they meld into a sweet, woody scent with just a hint of the honey.

 

Drydown: The woodiness pulls back and the honey comes through. Strangely enough, when I stick my nose right next to the skin I get a sourness that reminds me of ambrette seed. But the throw is all honey at this point.

 

Dry: Eventually, this settles into a gorgeous honey-tobacco. The ambrette sourness sticks around, but as I said, it's only right next to the skin. The throw is very light; I get whiffs of it off and on, rather than a constant cloud of scent.

 

Much later: The sourness burns off somewhere in hour three, but the honey just keeps going. Eventually, this is a creamy amber-honey on me that lasts all day as a skin scent. I never got any of the myrrh, which I usually amp.

 

I'm puzzled by this one, but I like it. I wonder what it's going to age into.

 

Note: I think this is a very aged tester; the oil is quite thick.

Wet: This is very light. I'm barely smelling something spicy, maybe cinnamon. Reading the notes now, I'm confused about there that came from, but it definitely smells like cinnamon to me. Weird skin chemistry, I guess.

Drydown: This takes a while to bloom on me, but gradually, the vanilla/tonka comes out, along with the bitterness that bergamot usually has on my skin. It still smells like cinnamon to me, strangely enough.

Dry: This has a throw that is a gorgeous cinnamon-vanilla that reminds me a great deal of Chimera, but closer to the skin I get the resinous amber and the vague floral that bergamot eventually turns into on me. Right up against my skin, I can smell the odd metallic bitterness of the petitgrain, but if it's in the throw, it's only as a hint of complexity under the cinnamon-vanilla I'm getting.

The throw is very low, but utterly delicious.

Wet: Citrus! Strong, in-your-face lemon verbena and another citrus note I can't place.

 

Drydown: The amber and labdanum come out in a lovely, smooth resinous wave. There is something almost powdery-feeling about the amber. There is a faint bitter note, probably from the oud, that keeps this from being sweet. Instead, it's this complex golden, spicy, resinous mix.

 

Verdict: This reminds me a great deal of my beloved Leo 2007 (notes: Egyptian amber, walnut bark, chamomile, frankincense, and saffron) in the amber and spiciness, but Aelopile has an additional citrus tang. The throw is moderate, and it lasts well on me.

 

Another winner in the Steamworks category for me!

 

Edited for html coding fail.

In the imp: varnish remover. Yikes!

 

Wet: The sharp, chemical smell passes very quickly and sweetens up enormously.

 

Drydown: My overwhelming impression was of drinking ginger ale while wearing Priala. There is that same sweet, smoky myrrh, along with the ginger. I think the almost-effervescence is actually the pepper? Maybe?

 

The ginger fades in a couple of hours, but the lovely myrrh lingers much longer. I love Priala, and I think I will love this one, too.

Some of it will depend on your tastes and body chemistry, but I've done it myself a few times, so here's what worked on me:

 

Elf - added a lot of sweetness and some freshness

Belladonna - This went to spicy and medicinal, which I love but may not be your cup of tea

Snake Oil - honestly, it mostly smelled like Snake Oil with just a hint of the camphor in the background

 

I would assume O might work, too, but it never worked on me by itself so I didn't try it.

 

I also tried Chimera (which usually goes with everything for me) and Sugar Skull (for sweetness), but those went really weird with the leftover Tiger Balm smell and really didn't work.

 

Good luck!

Wet: black cherry and lots and lots of booze

 

Drydown: Sweet, almost candied cherries floating on a cloud of spices. There is something in all three of the puddin' blends that smells soft and fuzzy to me, somewhere between orris and angelica -- this one has the least of it to my nose, or possibly the cherry is just that loud, but it's still there softening up the candy edge.

 

Dry: The amaretto finally makes an appearance, with a sweet caramel-like undertone (I amp caramel, so it's either something else or used very very sparingly in this blend). Of the three, this one smells most like a dessert to me -- the cherries stay food-like, the amaretto and spices blend with that soft note, and there's just a hint of booze around the edges. The throw is softer than the other puddin' blends, too.

Wet: sugary vanilla. Very promising, considering my skin chemistry turns a lot of vanillas into plastic or something equally nasty.

 

Drydown: The coconut bark comes out swinging, giving this a slightly nauseating smell that reminds me of young coconut juice, which I hate, or possibly just rancid lotion of some sort. This is *much* less promising.

 

Dry: The coconut bark pulls back, but I'm still left with something that smells like a faintly vanilla lotion. Darn my skin chemistry!

I swapped for Alterosen's bottle -- #62.

 

In the bottle: Sweet, syrupy cherries.

 

Wet: A loud burst of floral. I'd guess carnation, but I'm not very familiar with florals, so it could be any number of them. It has a warm fuzziness to it.

 

Drydown: Gradually, the fruitiness comes out from under the floral, or maybe the floral drops back. At this point, it smells lighter than carnation usually does on me, and isn't going soapy, which is often a problem with florals. The fruit is dark, possibly black cherry. There is still a syrupy quality, but also something almost smoky.

 

Eventually, this has a smoky, metallic edge under the fruit and floral notes. It settles into a softer scent that I would have thought, almost a skin scent, then lingers a long time.

 

 

Wet, it's a bright fruity floral scent that might be champaca (I'm not at all sure, just basing that on one of the past pumpkin blends which is the only time I've encountered it, could be something else entirely).

 

As it dries, this changes into cherry blossom and then sweet, dark cherry fruit comes out to anchor it (ripe black cherries, not fake or almondy). It gets sweeter & more syrupy as time passes, maybe with a little bit of a cola note, too.

 

Pretty tasty, though perhaps a bit too sweet for me.

 

I'll have to dig out my decant of Suck It & compare - though this doesn't have a booze note, I think it might have a similar feel, especially once dry.

eta: Not at all similar - Suck It is much brighter & fruitier, this is a way darker cherry

 

eta: After about an hour, it turns into cherry blossom incense, hmm.

 

eta: Feb/11 - Trying it again, I get a little bit of a wine note, too, especially in the dark cherry middle stage.

Dark chocolate, and a woody note I would've sworn was patchouli. It's probably the oudh and the sandalwood playing tricks on me. There is some fuzzy musk in there, but it stays in the background with the other notes.

 

This one stays true all the way through on me. Throw is pretty mild.

Wet: A brief blast of cookies, then nutmeg and evergreens.

 

Drydown: Lots of nutmeg and evergreens. A very dry sandalwood starts to peek out, and a note that's almost black pepper mixes with the nutmeg.

 

Dry: This comes together very suddenly. Between one sniff and the next, the nutmeg settled in, the frankincense came out (and I'd swear there was myrrh in here, too), and it unifies into a sweet spicy incense. Lovely!

This is sweeter than I was expecting it to be! There is a blast of something sharp and herby when I first put it on. But it settles into something almost fruity, something that reminded me of citrus candy. Yeah, I don't know either. Sweet herbs on top of something a little sour.

 

Several hours later, it's mostly myrrh with some herbs.

For me, the best bet is Famine: Sleek black tea, tobacco leaf, frankincense, lilac, and white musk. The lilac and musk give it a sort of Victorian-gentleman edge.

 

Also, The Buggre Alle This Bible (Crumbling paper and ancient cracked leather with a touch of tobacco leaf and incense) or Parliament of Monsters (Dust, incense, wet tobacco, and a curl of opium smoke).

Wet: Woody patchouli and sandalwood.

 

Drydown: The patchouli is strong and very earthy in this one. I don't get much of the myrrh or vetiver here, just that deep patchouli and the red sandalwood. But there's a fruity sweetness under there somewhere.

 

Dry: Gorgeous sweet myrrh and sandalwood finally beat the patchouli back enough for the rest of the notes to come out and play. Something in here reminds me of bergamot, only not quite as bitter as bergamot can get. I'm not very familiar with ambrette seeds or ambergris, so it could be those two together. In any case, this is lovely, and likely to get more so as the patchouli ages.

 

Throw is moderate, and it lasts quite a while on me.