Lady_Ell

Other things similar to DeSade (to my mind, at least): Loviator, Severin, Hellfire

Other heavy, non-foody things: Aureus, Haunted

There's a ton. Hope that helps!

I had been looking for that traditional Sandalwood smell, like a hippie-head-shop sandalwood smell, and figured that BPAL would do it even better, so I got a 5 mL of Red Sandalwood. In the bottle, this is a strong woody smell, less perfumey and less "red" and "oily" smelling than the oils you get at hippie stores. It hits you high up in the sinuses and smells like the inside of an unfinished chest of drawers (in the best possible way).

Unfortunately, my chemistry doesn't allow a traditional sandalwood smell to develop. It turns spicy and powdery and dry if left to its own devices. I was a little disappointed but instead of being too sad, decided to have some layering fun.

I layered it with O.

And it smells fan-fucking-tastic.

I'm going to go on a layering frenzy and see what other combinations I can come up with. Snake Oil, you're next.

Hi aromatic ladies (and gents),

I've been looking through the LUSH/BPAL similarity thread but didn't find what I was looking for. I'm looking for something that smells just like Skinny Dip, instead of just going well with it. I just tried Skinny Dip for the first time and I'm in love. So far I can't find a BPAL which seems to smell just like Skinny Dip, so I'm thinking of layering.

Do you think that Velvet and Single Note Clove would smell like Skinny Dip? Do you think that layering clove with Snake Oil would be gross? How about clove with Sandalwood or Amber? I have enticing ideas about Clove and Carnal but want to see if anyone has done this kind of layering first... I also need to get some single note Clove, but for now I thought I thought I'd throw some questions out for y'all.

Thanks!

This sounds so interesting, but the vetiver overwhelmed everything else and combined with the lemon, I just got a strong green and soapy smell - anyone remember Prell shampoo? That's what I thought I smelled like.

Interestingly, Mr. L told me I smelled good, and he rarely says any such thing (except for Aureus, he likes that one). I think I'll have to swap this, unfortunately. It got really strong and soapy and sneezy as the day wore on. It didn't smell bad, but I didn't feel like I smelled like me.

This smelled very plastic-y on me, like Strawberry Shortcake dolls, fresh out of a warehouse or something. It burned the back of my throat a little bit, like when you have strawberry gum with real sugar in it instead of fake sweetener (Bubblicious vs. Trident).

I'll try it again later in the month. It has promise, but maybe right now it's not the best time to try it. It also just seems a little too young for me.

Now, I don't know what orchids or stephanotis smell like, but I do know that this is beautiful. Let me just state for the record that aside from carnation, florals seem to DESPISE me and turn chemical and nasty. This is the only floral that didn't do so. It is a light powdery floral and vanilla mix that just seems so... pretty.

I'm not usually a femmy girl but this makes me feel like wearing skirts with lace on them or something.

Delightful!

I love this when it's wet, and within the first 20 minutes of wear. It's minty, bright, clean, and wakes you up, without smelling like air freshener - it's just like actual fresh air.

Then something happens, I don't know what, that makes the mint disappear and a bitter, dusty, angry smell come out that's really upsetting to me. I remember thinking that "if bitterness and despair had a smell, this would be it." It isn't like anything I've ever smelled before and it made me really sad and creeped out.

Mr. L tried it on and had a terrible reaction to it. His wrist is still red and bumpy.

Incense and cedar, with a hint of spice. Which fortunately are my skin's favorite things. I can't describe this very well in poetic terms... except to say that I LOVE IT.

It seems to fade kinda fast, but I didn't put very much on, so I'll be more generous next time I wear it.

It smells very similar to Aureus on me, which is my current favorite... this is the feminized version of Aureus, kind of like "Aureus-lite."

Soooooo good.

Body chemistry strikes again! I am getting a dry, grassy scent when I put this on, but I'm ALSO getting something that smells like a dirty guinea pig's cage... something very herbivore-poop-like.

The poopy smell goes away in about 15 minutes, but then it just smells like old lady drugstore perfume.

I'll make Mr. L try it on, and see what it does for him, because everyone else's reviews sound so wonderful!

Glitter goes candy-sugar-bubblegum sweet on me and lasts for hours.

Dragon's Milk is also very sweet.

So does Hecate, although I get a soapy thing going on with that one, too... but I think that's just my chemistry because other people don't seem to have that happen.

Bliss is pure chocolate sweetness on me.

Dana O'Shee is the best marizpan ever.

ooh ooh ooh, this is something I want to shout to the world:

Snake Oil and Loup Garou are damn amazing when layered.

I have the same problem with Snake Oil as you do - I love it, but it's so bakery sweet unless it gets slapped down a bit by something else. Loup Garou is really woody (juniper and cedar) and for some reason, on me at least, it complements Snake Oil to form the perfect sophistocated blend.

Lots of compliments from strangers when I rock this combination.

I got a bottle of this for my sister, unfortunately without consulting her first. I thought it smelled really deep and spicy and pretty (the clove and myrrh really stuck out to my nose) and thought it would be something she'd like. I even drizzled it onto a scarf I was knitting for her, because it smelled so spicy-Christmasy-woody to me and thought she'd be totally into it. But she took one whiff, backed away in horror, and said it smelled "like Grampy and a hippie." Note to everyone: my grandfather smells like motor oil (he likes to work on cars).

My mom said "it's not so bad, I kinda like it" and from what I can tell it's been sitting on her dresser ever since, unworn. When I visit at the end of the month I'm going to have to do a search and rescue, and will bring it back where it will be appreciated. I might buy my mom her own bottle of Old Shanghai (which she loves) in exchange.

Why does the citrus not stay put on me? Oh well, here's what I thought:

Wet, it has kind of a "generic BPAL" smell, although when you think hard about it it's citrusy and woody and very nice.

Dry, it turns a warm and gold and dusty and a little powdery. It smells exactly like when a big, friendly, orange, fluffy male cat headbutts your face with cat kisses - you know the "cat forehead" smell? It's the best way I can describe this, and it is very comforting.

After an hour or two, it just went straight baby powder and dust. Maybe because I'm a Libra and I was fucking around with the wrong sign?

I'm going to try this again on a less humid day and see what happens, though. More later!

Yup. With Lightning. I couldn't stop coughing or sneezing and it felt like I'd been maced or something. My eyes were so watery.

Hmmm. This worked so well on everyone else, but to quote myself from a review posted elsewhere, this is what happened to me:

"I tried on Akuma today and it was not a nice experience. Yet another body chemistry accident, where the cherry and whatever else was in there conspired to go from really pretty and light and nice in the bottle to hitting my skin with a bitter/rotting note that hits you in your sinuses (like dead swamp plants and that old Tussy deodorant) which later calmed down into a chemical cherry note on top of something like industrial solvent.

I ended up smelling like the cherry-scented cleaner they use in the bathrooms on the NJ Turnpike."

I must have been mistaking the raspberries for cherries. But whatever it is, it sure doesn't work with me.

Koumori and with coffee spoons descriptions combined are how I feel about Old Sybaris. When I smell it, I'm like "eh, kind of whatever, everyday, generic BPAL smell" - the violets stay in the background, the incense and tonka bean are forefront, and the clove sits primly in the back and waits to be noticed (and is appreciated when it is). It's not something that I ever THINK about wanting to smell like, and I can't say I love the specific notes in it or seek them out in general, but I reach for this imp constantly. It's got terrific staying power and the powdery feel on the drydown isn't offensive to me at all (usually I hate baby powder and find it acrid/cloyingly sweet at the same time).

And yes, it's great for layering. It seems to work with anything, and the anythings round out the incensey waft. Right now I'm loving it with single note coconut.

OK, I must have really weird chemistry. This smelled like maraschino cherries in the bottle (apparently the almond) and something sickly-spicy underneath (the musk?). I figured it would change into something lovely on my skin because almonds and I get along well, and I haven't yet had a major problem with musk or myrrh.

Well, instead it turned immediately to a mashup of Dial soap (the yellow kind) and cherry Life-savers.

I was really looking forward to this one based on the ingredients, but no luck.

I tried this on thinking of it as a doomed-to-fail experiment. I'd been having a lot of bad luck lately with certain ingredients (cherry, roses, sassafras, currant) so I had been feeling like nothing was working out. This smelled so weedy and stemmy in the bottle that I was sure it was going to be another weirdly-unsettling scent experience, kind of like when I tried on Laudanum and gave myself a terrible headache.

And then the dandelions made an appearance. I never thought of dandelions as being *sweet* but these are - the tobacco and hemp kind of undermine the bitterness that I usually associate with dandelion and add to the sweetness. It is a very hard thing to describe, but once it was dry it smelled "wet" somehow - like when you cut the stems of carnations or honeysuckle or lilies and that clear sap-liquid comes out in just one drop. I smell like that sap. I'm not a floral type of girl, but because these are stems and not flowers it works out to be a wet, sweet, green, fresh, living smell.

This is really, really amazing and beautiful.

I second Aureus, just because I LOVE it, but it doesn't smell all that sandalwoody on me - it goes really spicy and cedary on me - but that might just be my chemistry.

Velvet, on the other hand, is cocoa and deep, smooth sandalwood. It's an unusual and decadent mix, and very well-balanced. It's really pretty and rich.

This is great. I like leather scents but they're usually very strong on me. This one is a lovely combination and each ingredient keeps the other ingredients in check.

Application - leather and tea (per site description)

Drying - leather... not black and heavy new leather, but a lightweight and not-too-strong older leather

Dry - still leather but with a hint of lemon on top. Just a hint.

When Mr. L tries this on I'll update with what it does for a dude who loves DeSade.

I didn't think I could wear leather scents because they usually scream out of me and turn rancid. But this (so far) is calm and lovely and sophistocated.

ETA:

Mr. L tried this on and loves it. It's the summertime counterpart to DeSade, which is very strong and dark and appropriate for winter. On him the lemon is stronger than it is on me, and the leather yet again mixes with his skin chemistry to make me hang around his ears like a gnat, sniffing at him.

Very perfect.

Pretty self-explanatory... but here goes.

This is a very sweet coconut, not toasted at all. More like a mix of the sugary shredded stuff that you find in the baking section of the grocery store, with a coconut cream/suntan oil kick that I love.

It's a very light/bright sweetness, which lasts for hours and hours, and even days if you wear it to bed and it gets on your pillow.

I layered it with Old Sybaris to calm it down a little, and that smelled really nice.

Unfortunately and oddly, however, Single Note Coconut gave me a horrid itchy-red-burning rash whenever I put it on skin that was more delicate (like the insides of my elbows). It smelled so good, though, that I suffered through and it went away after about 15 minutes.

I'll keep the imp to tart up my Tarot: Star and to layer with Old Sybaris. It's a nice summery smell.

This is a metallic-cinnamon-peppery scent. It kind of reminds me of fresh galangal root as you smash it in a mortar and pestle for Thai food, with a hint of smashed mint leaves. It's really bright and astringent, in a similar way to The Star, but without the sugar-coconut essense. It reminds me a little bit of a light blue fluoride rinse we had to have every day in 2nd grade after lunch, but in a really pleasing way... which is interesting because I really hated that fluoride rinse. I don't see myself reaching for this every day, but it does make me feel centered and matter-of-fact and kind of like "whatever happens, I can deal with it."

Wow, my chemistry must be really off. This smells nice in the bottle, kind of like concentrated root beer and red licorice. As soon as it touches me, though, there is a disastrous reaction. A sickly rotting/funky smell appears over a sugary sweetness. As it dries the rot-funk gets stronger and the sweetness becomes a powdery sweetness. It keeps morphing for about 5-10 minutes and the end result is Band-Aids and corn syrup.

I think there might be some sassafras in here, due to the root beer smell and also because Tombstone did a very similar thing, and all the other ingredients in Tombstone all work great with me except for the sassafras.

Final thoughts - if sassafras works with your chemistry, this would be very nice.

Wet, this smells like Cherry Cold-eze and acetone.

As it dries, the myrrh comes out and darkens it a bit to give it a cherry-smoky feel. Eventually the cherry disappears and a lovely sweet-smoky-spicy thing happens, kind of like Dragon's Milk but less sweet and more muddy. This is a very dirty-sweet scent that seems to work well on me once it's dry, but wet it's kind of upsetting.

I don't think I'll get a big bottle, because it's similar to things that I like better, but I'll use the imp for sure.

This smelled so complex in the bottle, and I for some reason don't have any reaction to cinnamon oil (I usually have very sensitive skin), so I was very excited to try this one out.

However, any cinnamon oil turns overpowering and chemical on me, and I just smell like Fireballs or Red Hots or Big Red gum.

As a room scent this would be nice, but it seems so cinnamon-y that anything else in the mix gets sent to the background.