Arachnae

In the imp, syrupy melon mocktail! Yummy and tropical. Once on the skin, more juicy and sweet melon and I can pick out a hint of cool green grape as well, but the florals come out to play and kind of take over. Along with the sea moss, those florals cut through the syrupy sweetness in the imp and lend the scent a fresh and delicate aquatic quality. However after about 15 mins, once the scent has settled into my skin, the perfume-y florals calm down and allow the sweet melon to come to the foreground again. Throughout the drydown I was trying to remember what this scent reminded me of and it finally came to me; in the 90's my mother used to use this watermelon scented sun screen from The Body Shop that I absolutely loved the smell of and this scent is a dead ringer for that. Very pretty, very tropical, and very Summery. Medium throw with low staying power, so a second or third application throughout the day may be necessary but for a scent this gorgeous and nostalgic for me, I don't mind. A 5ml bottle is in my future!

In the bottle, super SUPER sweet strawberry candy. Like if it was an actual candy and you were chewing on it it would make your teeth hurt, it's that sweet. I'd definitely say it borders on sickly but for a sinister doll scent I think it's perfect! Once on my skin the mimosa kicks in and instead of just saccharine strawberry candy I get sour sugary strawberry candy. Like those fizzy strawberry laces. I don't get the slightest whiff of floral, but on the drydown the whole thing becomes a tad powdery and, as someone else said above, chalky. It's definitely a lot more wearable than the tooth-rotting sugary candy scent in the bottle. I've been craving more strawberry and peach scents recently (maybe because Summer is imminent?) and this partly fills the great big strawberry shaped hole in my bpal collection, so I am happy to have a bottle. And it goes without saying the name is one of the best in bpal history!

I've never smelled it, but just based on note, The Witch Queen shares a few - Wild plum, red musk, tuberose, calla lily, heliotrope, pimento, ylang ylang and beeswax beneath a dark haze of sinister purple-hued incense smoke. Maybe The Waltz of the Flowers? White musk, Madonna lily, jasmine sambac, ylang ylang, bourbon vanilla, and clove. It has the lily, jasmine and ylang ylang in common. What are the most dominant notes on you? That may help in narrowing down something else that could be close... Thank you for your suggestions, The Witch Queen has been on my radar for quite a while and it will probably be in my next lab order! I've never actually tried Suspiro, but plummy florals are my jam and every note in there is perfection to me. Orchid, jasmine, lily and ylang ylang are some of my favourite florals, and now I'm a bit obsessed with this perfect sounding scent with all my favourite notes in it.. And of course it is DC'd and hard to find!

Anyone have any recs for a scent similar to Suspiro (Ylang ylang with white plum, white orchid, jasmine, calla lily and lily of the valley)?

Of all the Lupers I blind-bottled, this was the one I was most looking forward to. The 'drop of star anise' gave me pause initially, but seeing as I have a thing for jasmine, the thoughts of a sweet, creamy jasmine scent was too tempting to pass up on. In the bottle, ahhhhh it's beautiful! Jasmine heavy, yes, not a problem for a jasmine lover like me, but this jasmine is so soft I think even those that are afraid of the 'cat-pee' aspect that I personally have never experienced might be able to appreciate this. It's like jasmine scented cupcake frosting, super sweet and super creamy. I could weep tears of actual joy! Once on my skin, more beautifully creamy jasmine, but the so-called 'drop' of star anise is stomping all over it. This is a problem for me, and exactly the thing that I feared, as anise/licorice of any kind tends to turn my stomach when it is strong. And for a little drop, this is STRONG. It's upsetting for about 5 minutes, and then miraculously, the anise backs allllll the way up and disappears. And I'm left with exactly what I dreamed of, a gorgeous, sweet creamy jasmine. Is it worth tolerating the nauseating first 5 mins?? Completely. It's perfect and heavenly and I am kicking myself for not getting a back-up. As with most jasmine blends, throw and staying power are both crazy strong. LOVE. ETA: Looking back at my review that I wrote when I really should've been asleep, I'm not sure that I mentioned the fact that this jasmine is sweet and creamy enough, so: this jasmine is sweet. And it is also creamy. /sarcasm.

In the bottle, this is just pure chocolate. I'm not getting anything 'white' about it, it just smells like straight up milk chocolate which has me worried as I was so looking forward to the Labs glorious glorious white choc note. And no pear! Just milk chocolate. Yep. On my skin, ahhh there's the white chocolate! And the pear! The white chocolate is lovely and creamy, with those strong hints of milk and vanilla that enables me to distinguish the fact that it is indeed white chocolate that I can now smell. It's adding a slightly powdery/dusty quality which I personally like. And it doesn't overpower the pear at all, both notes are balanced beautifully. The pear is deliciously sweet and fresh, combined with the white choc note, this blend is seriously mouth-watering! Definitely one for the foodies with a sweet tooth. After the initial concern at the bottle sniff, this turned out to be exactly what I was hoping for, and it's currently wrestling with The Perilous Parlour for the title of My Top Pear Scent (PP has held the title for a loooong time). Throw is surprisingly strong, medium staying power.

I'm going to preface this by saying that I usually steer well clear of anything citrus-y, as it amps to the high heavens and turns into headache-inducing bathroom cleaning product on me. HOWEVER. I was gifted a tester of Alcie and seeing as all of the notes in this except for the nectarine are notes that I love (especially oakmoss) I threw caution to the wind and found out that this particular citrus note behaves on me. Hallelujah! So naturally I bought a big bottle. In the bottle, very nectarine dominant, with a lush green backdrop. Very sweet, and very mossy. On my skin, the nectarine becomes less dominant, and like I said, for once stays nice and juicy instead of turning chemical and giving me a headache. You have no idea how happy I am about this! I think the honey is in part to thank for this, for although it is quiet, it is definitely there, amounting to a light, almost nectar like sweetness that I suspect is stopping the nectarine from turning nauseating on me. Oakmoss is one of my absolute favourite notes and it is really really beautiful here. Together with the green musk and sea buckthorn berry, it lends the scent a cool, green aquatic quality. This is one of the prettiest aquatics I've ever smelled. Whereas most aquatics tend to err on the masculine side, this stands out as gorgeously feminine to me, perhaps due to the juicy nectarine and sweet honey. I love mermaid/selkie/siren folklore and have a section in my perfume oil collection that consists of scents that I feel would be evocative of those creatures, and Alcie definitely fits that bill. In the end, the longest lingering notes I get are soft honeyed nectarine, intoxicating oakmoss and green musk. Medium throw and staying power. I can see myself reaching for it a lot in the coming summer months.

Having not tried any of the previous incarnations of Pink Moon (or necessarily been aware of them, I only got into bpal in late 2012), this is the first time I've been moved to buy a lunacy as soon as the lab has put it up. All those gorgeous spring florals, sugary sweet stuff AND strawberries? The thoughts of it all kind of sent me into a rose-coloured daze and before I knew it, I'd made an order. In the bottle, damn that is PINK. So many pretty florals that my nose can't discern one from the other at this point, with a strong background of thick honey, and the slightest hint of something tart and green. Once on my skin, I'm able to start making out some of the florals, mainly the spicy carnation and peony. I'm also getting a whisper of something waxy, which someone above guessed might be the daffodil, though I have exactly 0% experience with daffodil so idk. And all the while there is super sweet, pink cotton candy fighting for my attention. I guess pink sugar + honey + bourbon vanilla = cotton candy on my skin, and I ain't mad about it. At all. It is candy sweet on me, yes, but like, an expensive artisan floral candy, not childish at all. I love it! I don't get strawberry at any stage, which I am sad about, though it's entirely possible that it is there, just quietly adding to the pinkness. Medium throw and staying power. I'm so happy that this turned out to be exactly what I imagined when I first read the notes; a very pink sugared floral. I'm so glad I have a bottle and I can definitely see myself reaching for it a lot in the coming spring/summer months!

Sniffing from the bottle, it's a very sweet and perfume-y honeyed lilac. Pretty! On my skin, the sweetness dissipates very quickly but the lilac becomes beautifully creamy and soft, and the teensiest hint of spicy cardamom appears. The lilac is indeed strong with this one, which is not what I was expecting when I first read the notes. As an amber and honey fiend I was rooting for those two notes to be strong contenders in this blend, which, on me at least, they are not. This lilac is so stunning that I can forgive all that though. It ends up a slightly dry, slightly spicy, creamy lilac, absolutely gorgeous, and perfect for this time of year! Throw is fairly low, and rather unfortunately, it seems to be one of those scents that my skin just eats up because it all but disappears after a couple of hours. I will be interested to see whether a bit of aging will deepen the amber and honey, and increase the longevity, because I do so want this gorgeous scent to stick around!

Thank you VetchVesper! I've had Obsidian Widow and Morgause on my to-try list for ages now, should definitely get round to purchasing some imps of those two. Wanda is one I have tried, unfortunately leather and I don't get along and the leather is strong in that one! Wow, lots to research in that thread, don't know how I missed it! Thanks again!

Ooo I'd appreciate some recs right now! My current top 5 in order: Blood Countess Lady Lucille Sharpe Drink Me O Love and Sleep I'm especially interested in recs for Blood Countess and Lucille, I need more femme-fatale type florals

These scents are evocative of beautiful vampire ladies for me, and incidentally are among my all-time fave bpals: Blood Countess Corrupted black plum, smoky opium and crumbling dead roses covered by a deceptive veil of Hungarian lilac, white gardenia and wild berry. Lady Lucille Sharpe Faded red roses and a glimmer of garnet with black lily, ylang ylang, smoky plum musk and black amber. The Vampire Bride Icy skin touched by a perfume of violet leaf, white tea, olibanum, elemi, myrrh, wormwood, crypt dust, and saffron with a dribble of blood red musk. Penny Dreadful Soft perfume evocative of noir heroines over rich red grave loam. And as for a running-away-from-a-haunted-castle-in-a-nightgown scent, the one I think of most is Edith Cushing Pearlescent vanilla musk with white sandalwood, grey amber, white patchouli, ambrette seed, and oudh.

I only discovered how much I love oakmoss when I bought Lucille's Room atmo ~ Lilac water, fossilized black amber, lily of the valley, violet leaf, and oakmoss. While I also get the musky amber and subtle violet from it, the strongest and most lingering note I get is the oakmoss, and I. Frickin. Love. It. I was devastated to miss out on the super limited Crimson Peak atmofumes (the Posts CP atmos turned into perfume oils) a while back because having it in perfume form would have meant I could die happy.. I really hope the Oakmoss SN returns someday!

Love Makes Monsters of Us All (soil and rot and the heat of rage, blood-smeared musk and sharp decay) has a wonderfully fresh soil note that layers beautifully with The Ghastly Garden (overgrown oleander, marshy water hemlock, the sugared nectar of carnivorous blooms, putrefying wet greenery, oozing sap, crushed rosary peas, withered climbing roses, and nightshade berries), which I think may be kind of what you're looking for. Ghastly Garden is one of my all time BPAL faves and when I tried LMMOUA I immediately thought of how good the soil note would be with it. The combo just screams 'evil greenhouse' to me...

I had this happen with an imp I ordered mid January, the top broke off in one slice but left the little stick part still stuck firmly inside the imp. I just left it as I didn't know what to do other than try to get the bit left out and maybe steal a cap from an unloved imp even though it would pain me to do so! I had only opened it once previously to sniff, I wouldn't mind if only it wasn't a scent I liked and wanted to skin test properly, I may just end up getting a big bottle eventually anyways!

So I missed the boat on the very limited edition bottles of Crimson Peak atmos that were made into perfumes, which upset me greatly as I spray Lucille's Room on my clothes on a near daily basis and a perfume version would have made my life complete! I've tried wearing it on my skin but it lasts for all of 5 minutes before vanishing completely. So I am wondering if anyone has a rec for a similar perfume version of Lucille's Room? Notes are: A room of cobalt hues, shadowed, with walls adorned innumerable pinned butterflies and moths. Lilac water, fossilized black amber, lily of the valley, violet leaf, and oakmoss. What I get most from it is the oakmoss, a note I never knew I enjoyed so much until smelling this, so I guess I'm looking for an oakmoss heavy scent, but one with some pretty florals in there to keep it feminine. If anyone can help me out I'd be eternally grateful!

I waffled on this one a lot as I was unsure about the carrot seed and elemi, but my love for the other notes eventually persuaded me to blind-buy a bottle. Sniffing it straight from the bottle, whoof! I get this strong blast of earthy vetiver with an undercurrent of rotting vegetation. It smells cold, damp and sharp. Almost astringent. Now I love vetiver, but this is scaring me off a bit! I was a little afraid to put it on my skin, but the most wonderful thing happened when I did... The sharp rotting vegetation is nowhere to be seen (thankfully!), instead the vetiver becomes beautifully soft, and the musk and frankincense come out to play with the frankincense adding the tiniest bit of sweetness. After 5 minutes all the notes have melded into each other so seamlessly that it becomes hard for me to pick out any particular note, but I think the frankincense ends up on top. I'm not picking up on the carrot seed or elemi so I'm guessing wildly that those two are responsible for the frightening sharpness that blew my head off when I sniffed the bottle. If I had just sniffed the bottle without skin-testing it, I would've run a mile and not looked back but the end result I get once Beware has settled into my skin is exactly what I had hoped for when I read the notes; a vetiver and incense heavy musk. I think this would be amazing on a guy, but it's not so masculine that I wouldn't wear it. Throw and longevity are both strong. I think Beth did such an incredible job with the Crimson Peak scents, in particular this scent is incredibly evocative of the first time Edith encounters her mothers ghost in the film, I can imagine this is what she would've smelled like (I haven't had the chance to smell Mother Ghost yet but I have a decant coming my way). That sense of dread and fear that is so palpable in that scene, this scent encapsulates perfectly.

This was a surprise favourite for me! In the bottle, the violet hits me first, though it isn't a super sweet violet, it has a hint of green-ness that divulges the fact it's violet leaf rather than the flowers petals. I get a hint of the sweet incense underneath too. On the skin, oh my god it's beautiful! The florals get stronger, but they are very powdery and soft, they don't ever assault your nose. I am a huge lover of violet, and while I typically love that cloyingly sweet, candy-like scent that you get from the flower, I am in no way disappointed by the more subdued violet that the leaf lends this scent. If violet scares you, this may be the blend that changes your mind! The incense is dusty and sweet, adding to the powdery, soft feeling of the whole thing. Throw starts off strong but fades gently into a ghostly whisper after a couple of hours, which of course I think is fitting for this scent, even if it means frequent reapplication. So in end I'm left with a beautiful dusty violet incense. I think annemathematics said it perfectly when she said the whole thing feels translucent, it really does! It feels very old time-y and Victorian, and very appropriate for a ghostly scent. I think I will wear this a lot!

In the bottle, the plum and that lovely soft, velvety patchouli are the most dominant notes, with the faintest hint of vetiver in the background. I was intrigued by the 'cashmere' patch, and it really is so soft and smooth, a lot softer than the normal patchouli that I know and love, but I really love this! On the skin, the plum becomes the main player, it adds a sweetness but it never becomes overly sweet, the patchouli and musk keep it grounded. I get a hint of woodiness, but surprisingly the vetiver is nowhere to be seen! In the end, I'm left with a gorgeously dark, sexy plummy musk. All of the notes blend together so smoothly, if you are scared of patchouli or vetiver, I urge you to try this. Medium throw and staying power. This is exactly what I wanted and what I was expecting from Black Moths, but where BM is all rose-y incense on me, Elevator has that strong plum and soft musk that I was after. After Lucille, this is the only other scent from the CP line that I'm thinking I need a backup of. It's seriously beautiful!

After watching the film, even before the notes were released, I was sure that I would be getting a bottle of Lucille and that I would love it. Maybe it's because I'm biased a little bit (Jessica Chastain is my ultimate lady crush), but I loved LOVED Lucille's character, and I was hoping that the Lab would get her scent just right. I wanted something dark, feminine and sinister. And of course Beth got it so completely right! In the bottle, I get that rich smokey plum blended with the faded rose and the lily. It's quite sweet but not in a light, cutesy way, in a thick, suffocating syrupy way. The red roses are definitely faded, they've been sitting in that vase for weeks slowly losing their vibrancy and their bright perfumey-ness, their scent is becoming more subdued and dusty. I keep thinking of that 'glimmer of garnet' in the notes, because the colour that comes to mind when I smell this is a dark velvety red. On my skin, WOAH. Heart eyes for days! This is such a complex scent, blended so beautifully, that I am in complete love. It's less plummy on my skin than in the bottle but the sweet smokiness it lends the scent never fades away. The florals are just so soft and velvety, surprisingly the ylang ylang doesn't overpower the roses or the lily. I think out of the three of them, the lily is coming out on top. The black amber adds a lovely dark muskiness. Gorgeous, gorgeous, gorgeous! Lucille is haughty and sinister, with the plum musk and the florals trying to sweetly cover her true nature up. Throw and staying power are both strong, she lasts all day long on me. I thought I would love this scent, but I had no idea exactly how much I would love this scent. Pretty sure this has gone right to the no.2 spot in my all time favourite BPAL scents, which reminds me, for anyone who loves the discontinued Blood Countess as much as I do (she's at no.1), Lucille is totally in the same vein. They aren't the exact same, they are (evil, murderous) sisters not twins, but I get the same sweet smokey sinister floral feeling from the both of them. So seeing as I only got one bottle of BC before she was discontinued and I use my bottle very conservatively, I am going to make sure I get backups of Lucille so I don't run out of her for a very, very long time

When I first saw the notes for Edith, I was intrigued by the grey amber and the white patchouli, yet I was entirely sure that she was going to be wayyyyy too light for me so I initially passed on her. Then when I saw she was popular and going pretty fast I suddenly started regretting my decision, so I threw caution to the wind and got her. I did like her character so I was interested to see how the Lab would interpret her via scent! Upon sniffing her in the bottle however, I started to think I had made a mistake and that I should've trusted my initial thoughts on her.. Pure baby powder. Baby powder with a hint of vanilla. Not bad or offensive, just not me. I thought, okay maybe I need to let her settle a bit and skin test her before I condemn her completely, though in all my excitement for the other CP scents I got, she was the last one I skin tested. On the skin, I was immediately relieved to find that that dreaded baby powder doesn't put in an appearance at all. Instead I get a lovely soft, sweet, warm musk. The sandalwood and amber keeps the vanilla musk from going too sickly sweet, though occasionally I do get a whiff of butter which seems to come and go, I have no idea where it's coming from! The combination of the vanilla musk and the ambrette seed maybe? It doesn't last for too long though, and the sweetness from the vanilla musk fades away slowly. I don't get any of the white patchouli at any stage which I'm sad about as I am a patch lover and it was one of the notes I was most excited about, find out how white patchouli differs from the usual stuff. Though it's possible that it's just so different from the patch that I know and love that I'm just not picking it up. To me, the end result is a skin smell, like a very natural musk. It stays very close to the skin, I don't smell it unless I bring my wrist right up to my nose. I think it suits Edith's character perfectly, quiet, natural, and unassuming. I actually think this would be perfect for someone who doesn't typically like to wear perfume. I'm so surprised by how much I like this, given that it's very light and innocent! So yes, I will be keeping my bottle (even though I am more of a Lucille! ).

I thought this was quite an odd Weenie when I read it but then again I was more excited at the thought of 4 of my favourite notes all rolled into one scent so I couldn't resist getting a bottle. Sniffing it from the bottle, it's pure apple (and like someone said above, specifically red apple) with a whole lot of powdery sweetness underneath. On the drydown, the apple is still the main player but the fig comes out to play and the tiare becomes quite strong and takes over for a minute until it calms down and a soft creamy-ness comes out, which I'm assuming is the blend of the coconut and tiare. It takes a while for the coconut to become detectable, and I was initially disappointed that I couldn't smell it straight away as I looooove coconut but I realised it just needs to sit on the skin and warm up for a few minutes before I can pick it up. So at the end of the drydown, I am left with a soft, powdery coconut with a hint of apple and fig underneath. Nice! Unfortunately my skin just eats it and after an hour or so, there is only the faintest vanilla-like whiff remaining *sadface* So this is going to be one I'm going to have to reapply frequently, and for that reason (and the fact that I love it) I'm contemplating getting a back-up!

Out of my teeny lil' Weenie order, this one was the one I was bursting a gasket to sniff first. Sniffing it straight from the bottle, it's all extremely sweet and creamy pumpkin. I don't know how Beth does it, but it really does smell like a pumpkin cheesecake! Completely yummy Once on the skin, and on the drydown, I get the dreaded hint of play dough for about 30 seconds until it vanishes (thank the lord!) and the creamy pumpkin cheesecake comes back to the front, this time with the added spices. It truly is what it says on the tin, if you are a foodie and into pumpkin even just a little bit, you will need this! For a long time, Pumpkin V from 2012 has been my all-time favourite pumpkin blend and even though I don't think this has surpassed it for me, I am still very glad I got a bottle. Yum!

Hi guys, I have no idea if this is the right place to post this but I've been looked extensively on the forum for an answer to no avail so here we go.. Can anyone recommend a scent similar to Blood Countess? I got a bottle just before it was discontinued and unfortunately fell in love with it It is one of my top 5 scents but I don't wear it as much as I want to because I am afraid of running out. Wondering if anyone with greater knowledge of the bpals can help me out?

The salts come nicely packaged in a good size clear plastic jar with a black lid, and they are VERY nicely saturated with oil (as violetblue said, they are 'juicy' looking, yum!). In the jar, I mostly smell the apple blossom and ginger, it is a super sweet candy-like scent which I luuuuurrrve, a bit like those Fruit Salad sweets. I keep sticking my nose in and taking a massive sniff! Bath-wise, I used two small scoops and I found that was more than enough for a lovely, strongly scented bath. Once in the water, I can definitely make out more of the rose but it's still very much a tutti-frutti candy scent. Makes the water very silky and the scent was still lingering on my skin a few hours later. Thumbs up! Now I definitely need to get the Lust bath salts too...