niffler

Reviving this thread! Considering that my favorite scents so far have been... not very bridal, I thought I'd importune the BPAL hivemind for help. Currently thinking of ordering/testing: After the Winter, Alice, Brisingamen, and White Rabbit. So, suggestions for an early spring wedding? I'm going to be difficult and say no orris, lily, or jasmine. Edit: Sjofn and Liquid Gold is in the Air are currently in the running, but neither last a particularly long time on me... not ideal. I have placed orders for several scents that may work and will update when I get to test them.

Not necessarily a good sleepytime scent, but several times now I've fallen asleep with Black Tower on. Each time I have unusually vivid, unsettling dreams. I haven't noticed any effect with other scents (good or bad), and love Black Tower when I'm awake, so I'm a bit puzzled. Perhaps something to do with the airiness/wateriness previously mentioned re: dreams, what with the ozone and ambergris... or maybe I just reach for Black Tower when I'm in a mood that would produce weird dreams anyway. 🤔

Aglea (amber, musk, peach) and Brisingamen (amber, carnation) come to mind from the general catalog.... possibly Xanthe the Weeping Clown (guava, orange, white pepper) or Coral Snake (Snake Oil, blood orange, lemon peel, plumeria) from the Carnaval Diabolique?

Tentatively poking my head in here... after months of neglecting my yoga practice for various reasons, I finally had some serious mat time today and wore Fighter. Cause, y'know, wellness is worth fighting for. Anyway, seeing this thread pop up has definitely been pushing me to reclaim time for yoga and I wanted to say thank you to y'all. Much love!

Received this as a frimp from the lab. Not one I would have chosen myself, but I was definitely curious to test it. In the imp I mostly get red fruits from the wine combining with the honey and just a dance of flowers on the top, no myrrh to be found. On my skin the fruitiness calms down immediately. It becomes mostly a myrrh scent lightened with honey and flowers in the drydown. Interestingly, does remind me of being in Greece in the summer (minus the blistering heat), but I can't exactly put my finger on why. A very nice blend, we'll see how much I end up wearing it.

Received this as a frimp from the lab, looked up the notes and was very surprised this wasn't previously on my radar. In the imp, the red wines smell lush and sweet and juicy, but that dry grit says wine tasting in a castle's dungeon where at least one person died. On my skin, spooky dry herbs join the party and the wine might have transformed into blood. It's a dark scent but not heavy; there's just a thin veil of shadows between you and the vampire writing sad poetry in the corner. So interesting and atmospheric. Thanks labbies!

I added this to my order on a whim, and I'm so glad I did. Both in the imp and on my skin, honey dominates. It's a warm, concentrated honey scent as though a whole jar of it crystallized and then melted a little in the sun. While it's wet and in the imp, I get very dark green spice that must be deadly nightshade. The deadly nightshade is the shade to the honey's sun, cool and a little sour. But in the drydown, it's like the nightshade has been preserved in a sealed jar of honey. If I really dig I can find some herbal notes... mostly it's dark amber honey. I love honey and I love greens, so this is a great win for me. Edit: Now that it's not so fresh out of the mailbox, I get more of the nightshade in the dry down. The majority of the throw is still honey and probably always will be on my skin, but leaning in close reveals the cool, almost minty nightshade. Makes me wish the rest of Rappaccini's Apiary was still in production.

In the imp I get a lot of pale florals and cool mosses. It's a surprisingly heady mix, definitely a garden after sunset when the temperature drops and a bit of a chill runs down your spine. On my skin there are still a lot of florals and I can definitely identify the jasmine mentioned by previous reviewers. Also I think lilies? Lots of flowers and some sharp herbs want to fly straight to the moon. The moss holds things down to the chill, undisturbed earth. Long after it dries, the headiness of the florals fades and I get just a hint of soil. The throw is good, wear length medium, no incense to be found.

Perfectly captures its namesake. In the imp, I smell sharp grasses with a bit of wood that gives me the impression of sagebrush and sun-warmed plains. It's not a desert of dunes and sand, but one with lots of rocks and scrubby little plants and pines growing on the distant mountains. On my skin, the grasses provide surprisingly heady top notes and musky doeskin the base, with amber filling up the space between. This is so soft when it dries... this coyote has a thick, fluffy undercoat and super velvety ears. Incredibly comforting with a touch of mischief to start; not a huge throw but lasts a good long while on me. I may need a bottle of this.

In the imp, this is very much sweet coconut with orris playing second fiddle and everything else hiding in the shadows. It's a creamy, light nut brown kind of smell. Nothing about the coconut is tropical, so maybe the sandalwood and musk are actually hard at work behind the scenes. On my skin, it's still coconut orris with just a hint of sandalwood trying to pull things away from sunscreen territory. Musk shows up to help as it dries but the coconut orris is just too headstrong... orris has shown a tendency to go sickening sweet plasticky on me, and unfortunately this does too. Sigh. Saving this for a scent locket. Edit: dabbed a touch on the ends of my hair and omg this is why people love this scent! Creamy coconut sandalwood snuggle. Dear gods, I wish this was how it smelled on my skin... but even applying it I carelessly got just a tiny bit on my hand and it immediately went sickening. Definitely keeping the imp but this will never be a bottle scent for me.

Oh my. First sniff in the imp is lemony, second is spicy. Sage and balsam lead the charge with frankincense not far behind, but from there I can't separate individual spices (believe me, I tried). My visceral impression was a flash of afternoon sunlight on polished brass. Maybe it's the result of growing up in a house decorated in brass fixtures and oak cabinetry, all cleaned with that lemony Pledge spray... this scent instantly had my attention. On my skin, soft beeswax immediately smooths over any sharpness. In the wet stage I can pick out saffron, but really I couldn't tell you what any other notes are doing. When it's dry, the beeswax binds everything together into something esoteric but very quiet and comforting. It stays in a sort of golden hour for a long time on me, glowing close to the skin.

I got this scent for the moss and earth notes, eyeing the rose a bit warily. Actual roses make me sneeze to high heaven, but I'd been exposed to the lab's rose via Roses Pearls and Diamonds and the rose note was not my issue, so... In the imp, I get a lovely waft of moist, dark soil with plenty of greens. The moss and rose stay out of focus behind a veil of heavy rain. I see how this could be sad or funereal for some people. Me, I just love the dirt. On my skin, the sun comes out. Magic! The soil dries, the moss gains a spicy edge, and the rose wafts forward. It's a light, desiccated rose and reasonably balanced despite being very old fashioned. I really enjoyed the early and middle stages of this dry down when the mosses said hello. The rose's ghost sticks around for quite a while on me, which was less charming but certainly didn't go so far as to require an exorcism. I very much like this scent overall and will add it to my layering experiments for sure.

Received this as a frimp a while ago, smelled it immediately, and noped right out. In the imp it's thick, viscous maraschino cherries with a dose of anise. But I promised myself I would test EVERYTHING I have now before anything else arrives, so... The cherry calms down fairly quickly on my skin. Definitely still present, but it's using its inside voice instead of yelling. Something is coming across as almond-adjacent to me... possibly the anise combining with the cherry? I really appreciate the clarity of red musk in this scent and how well it plays with the fruit. Sweet and sophisticated, I'd like to try layering it with a darker scent.

Wow, that's a lot going on in one concoction. I searched in the general catalog (maybe more likely in your stash?) and picked ones that share 4+ notes with Georgio Red (shared notes listed). Mata Hari: rose, jasmine, vanilla, tonka. Rapture: rose, myrrh, jasmine, bergamot. Voodoo: myrrh, patchouli, vetiver, vanilla. Fallen: sandalwood, amber, vetiver, florals. Al Shairan: peach, orange, patchouli, incense. Obsidian Widow: myrrh, sandalwood, patchouli, jasmine. Wilde: patchouli, tonka, bergamot, moss, jasmine. Les Bijoux: rose, orange blossom, peach, frankincense, myrrh. Nephilim: frankincense, patchouli, vetiver, rosemary, oak moss. Caterpillar: incense, carnation, jasmine, bergamot, iris, patchouli, vetiver. Vicomte de Valmont: sandalwood, orange blossom, jasmine, rose geranium, rosemary. Any notes she's specifically averse to? Might help narrow down the search.

I couldn't think of a book scent without leather off the top of my head and just went to search here on the forums, BPAL's website, Etsy, and even straight up Google thinking, "I swear I've seen one before, surely there must be one here..." No such luck. You're absolutely right @mountainwitch, they ALL seem to have incense or leather in the mix if they're "old" books. What the heckity heck?? I'll continue to keep an eye out (would love an old paperback scent myself). I think part of the problem is that the old book smell is made up of so many compounds, and people fill in the blanks with a smidge of leather or incense as the books often absorb those smells anyway...

Received as a frimp from the lab. I must confess I almost didn't open it after reading the notes. A childhood of "cherry" flavored medicines has scarred me, I'm afraid. And I know anything but the most tart real cherries turn my stomach. But vetiver is so good, my curiosity whispered, and what does poppy smell like? We must know. In the imp: I expected a much more foodie scent, but oh was I wrong. Dark, alluring, with all the fructose of vanilla and cherry tempered with vetiver and musk. Somehow not overwhelmingly sweet… temptation won out and I tested it. On my skin: when wet, it's a freshly opened bottle of cherry vetiver wine. Definitely not something I had ever smelled before, and I was really looking forward to see how it morphed. Drying, vanilla and clove push their way to the front and then it finishes as a BLAST of cherry clove... I had to wash it off. This scent nearly had me until the drydown, and I don't even LIKE cherries.

In the imp: Mmm, fresh chopped greens and a background of shady musk. The greens are herbaceous and robust rather than new sprouts. On smelling it, I was so excited to test it. On my skin: Sunny herbs up front, with the sage dominating when it's wet, and then the scent pulls back to show the mossy trees behind. As it dries we get a better view of the forest, with all its old growth trees and the forest floor in shadow. It's a drier scent than Druid, a forest of oak and moss and low undergrowth rather than loamy wet dirt and fresh sprouts under the cottonwoods. The dry down is musky and gentle, staying close to the skin. I love it.

In the imp: Mostly I get hemp on top of super soft leather, with maybe a touch of rosin adding sweetness. On my skin: Sweet rosin and leather, kind of a suede feeling rather than a hard or shiny leather. Overtones of hemp play on the sweetness of the rosin. It’s a clean, outdoorsy smell instead of the cloying mustiness that hemp could bring and finishes with that soft comforting leather/rosin. The overall mood doesn't say "rogue" to me, but I enjoyed the scent a lot anyway.

In the imp: Golden delicious apples, freshly picked from the orchard with one bitten into. Not at all candy-like or overly sweet. On my skin: Fresh apples, just washed and ready to be eaten or cooked. Definitely golden delicious apples to me, just barely ripe so they retain that crystal clear tart juice. The apple blossoms are in the background adding a fantastical headiness. I can't pick out the birch specifically, but I really don't mind. It makes me miss going apple picking in the fall, although the scent itself feels more like spring. Lovely.

In the imp: Sweet, fruity, a bit spicy. The prickly pear is incredibly juicy, while the other flowers and herbs blend seamlessly together and hide behind it. Maybe someone with a more precise nose could pick out notes, but all I get is prickly pear. On my skin: Initially, all prickly pear, bubblegum sweet. Then suddenly coriander and sage join the party just before it dries… whoops, and they’re gone. The result is prickly pear potpourri on me. Sadness, because I adore the smells of coriander and epazote. Oh well.

In the imp: The sage, carnation, and cedar combine into an elegant spice, laid out on a smooth sheet of white musk. It's floral enough to dress up the roughness of the cedar, but not so much that it's overwhelming. The lavender is curiously only apparent for me on the exhale, adding a tingle in my sinuses. On my skin: Still spicy and gorgeous, no lavender when wet on me but the vanilla has decided to show its face. The white musk is so… pretty. Midway through drying, I can get hints of the lavender buried in the musk and it threatens to go powdery white and florals on me. As it fully dries the leather materializes, softened by the vanilla. This is not my usual cup of tea but oh it's so elegant. I'm entranced by the result of this morpher.

In the imp: Much lighter than I expected (as previous reviewers have said). What I think is ambergris, ivy, and wine come together to make a melancholy fruit, with woods and leather hiding in the shadows. No hint of burnt grass. On my skin: The fruit is very much present, but the ivy and woods suggest it’s still on the vine. Curiously reminds me of being at the local garden center, elbow deep in alyssum and petunias about to bloom with wet metal grating and concrete underfoot. Still no burnt grass. The strong woods I was hoping for are still mostly hiding. This tower may be isolated, but the witch who lives there dearly loves to sit in the window surrounded by trailing ivy, sipping a glass of fruity red wine and contemplating the moody grey sky. Edit: Just when I thought this had totally disappeared (~6 hrs), I got a whiff of something new-- the woods and dry grass have come to wave goodbye!

Black Forest will definitely go on my list for a future order. Re: Epidote, maybe someday I'll work up the courage to order a full bottle of an LE without testing first. Metal notes seem wildly unpredictable with my skin chemistry so perhaps I'll keep stalking the reviews for Berzerker for a while... thanks for the suggestions

Ok guys, I'm looking to order a few imps and I was wondering if anyone had recs for woodsy/earthy scents! I've been scrolling through the catalogue for a while and there's just... so many options. I get lost reading all the descriptions and daydreaming... So far I've tried and LOVED: Druid, Dee, Antikythera Mechanism. Tried and liked ok but didn't love: Ranger (wanted so much to like it but patchouli amps like crazy on me), Strangler Fig (too sweet), Apothecary (fades quickly, lighter than I was looking for). Nope notes: patchouli, almond, rose, lavender, lily. Reading through this thread, I'm considering ordering: Loup Garou, the Black Tower, Coyote, Robin Goodfellow, Yggdrasil, Thanatopsis. Any and all thoughts appreciated!

In the imp: Very wet, grassy greens but not particularly cucumbery to my nose. After wearing, it's cucumber. An actual liquid cucumber that I really should have expected, but somehow still surprised me with how assuredly cucumber it was. Not a zucchini or green grass or some other "fresh" plant, but a real, fresh cucumber straight from the farmer's market. It lasted quite a while on me as well, and stayed very true. Layers well with Envy and Apothecary.