ivyandpeony

Why did I think I had reviewed this one, then spend a few minutes wondering if the forum had flushed my review down the toilet along the way? Duh, I realized I never posted it here, but was so moved by the scent of Candy Phoenix that I had posted in the Lush similarities thread over in Recs. So to make it easier on myself, I'm just quoting that here, but I wanted to give a thumbs-up to what Little Bird said about her SO's response. I often don't like candy scents but this one's special, so it could prove an exception for others who are averse to sweet scents. Nothing caramel-ly, maple-y, brown sugary or buttery, which are things that can take a candy scent into the mountains of Mordor for me!

Of all the sweet BPALs I've tried, Candy Phoenix is the most similar to the Candy Fluff - Rock Star - Melting Marshmallow Moments - Think Pink family of scents. (I know some people find these four Lush scents to be vastly different, but to me they are very similar despite some wee differences.)

 

Wet and in the first hour or so, the black currant in Candy Phoenix makes it a very black currant-y scent, but as it dries down the black currant fades into a more generally fruity-sweet note, losing the tartness and tangy edge, and this is where I start getting the Candy Fluff whiffs. If you positively despise black currant, you may not want to take a chance on it, and of course we never know what our chemistry is going to do when we hand it a new combination of BPAL notes

 

But even this old grinch, who doesn't like sweet scents very much (I draw the line at Snow Fairy and won't let her in my shower, I couldn't stand to wear either of the Beaver Moons) has always loved Candy Fluff, MMM and Think Pink and I'm doing cartwheels for Candy Phoenix!

I know this has been discussed before (and I'm late to the party) but I got a chance to try Storyville today and I was shocked both at how good it is and also by how much it smells like another BPAL. The problem is ... what is it? I've browsed the thread and I honestly don't think it smells like Smut (which is all Bounce dryer sheet to me) and Shub is a little too spicy. Then I thought maybe it's Hod or Hellhound ... but those have too much clove! What is it? Its like a nice vanilla musk ... it's driving me crazy!

 

HELP!

Was it Devil's Night? I find storyville to share some similarities with that one...

 

Oooh, I just thought of another that reminded me of Storyville--Wezwanie/Hold, perhaps?

Wezwanie/Hold and Devil's Night are the ones that remind me most of Storyville. Smut does to an extent, but it's more like Smut reminds me of Devil's Night which reminds me of Storyville Smut is on the far end of the musky scale and sometimes it's too musky for me!

This is drop-dead gorgeous and delicious! It's like a clove-studded orange pomander but so much better - there's ginger and cinnamon for starters, it's 100X stronger than a measly little orange sitting in a bowl on your table AND you can spray your entire house with it. Plus you don't get little poky fingertip injuries from trying to cram 500 cloves into an orange just to make a single pomander, Beth did it by magic. It truly does invoke Christmas in all the best possible ways and is amazingly fresh smelling too - nothing stale or artificial like you might find in the average candle or potpourri that tries to capture this type of scent. Like MeiLin, it will not surprise me if my bottle doesn't last much longer than the holiday season itself!

Of all the sweet BPALs I've tried, Candy Phoenix is the most similar to the Candy Fluff - Rock Star - Melting Marshmallow Moments - Think Pink family of scents. (I know some people find these four Lush scents to be vastly different, but to me they are very similar despite some wee differences.)

Wet and in the first hour or so, the black currant in Candy Phoenix makes it a very black currant-y scent, but as it dries down the black currant fades into a more generally fruity-sweet note, losing the tartness and tangy edge, and this is where I start getting the Candy Fluff whiffs. If you positively despise black currant, you may not want to take a chance on it, and of course we never know what our chemistry is going to do when we hand it a new combination of BPAL notes

But even this old grinch, who doesn't like sweet scents very much (I draw the line at Snow Fairy and won't let her in my shower, I couldn't stand to wear either of the Beaver Moons) has always loved Candy Fluff, MMM and Think Pink and I'm doing cartwheels for Candy Phoenix!

Posting the first review is always pressure-pressure-PRESSURE! And Scattered Gloom is a really hard nut to crack for me. It is dark, and resinous, and a bit on the dry side. One of those scents where I can't pick out any single note in the bottle or on my skin. If you love resins, then I think you will love Scattered Gloom - it strikes an excellent balance between sweet and dry, which I find that I am enjoying, and I think that it is only going to get better and better with age. I'm so infatuated with black currant these days, I am hoping that note will peek out a little bit as my bottle settles, too. All in all, a gorgeous blend and so very evocative.

ETA: I promise I'm not crazy, abejita! But my skin absolutely refuses to let that sweet black currant show its face or even take a peek at what the big resins and slightly bitter opium are doing. I may not be crazy... but I am stinking jealous of your skin chemistry

This is the most delicious spiced-honey blend I could ever imagine. I don't get a lot of the legendary BPAL wine note, although in the first hour or so there is a definite fruitiness, even a grapey quality, present - it's very balanced with the spices and the sweetness of the honey. Now, honey may be my favorite BPAL note of all, so I certainly don't mind that my skin is bringing it out so strongly in Gluhwein, although I don't tend to amp honey in general so I was surprised that it was so dominant.

There's definitely something that reminds me of Christmas here, sweetness and spices and a bit of citrus, but I think I could pull this one out as soon as the weather starts cooling off and wear it until spring. Of every single item the Goblins were dangling in front of us this season, this is what I coveted most, so I am beyond thrilled that it came my way!

Black currant and cassis lovers... get thee over to the Lab site and order Candy Phoenix. I don't love sweet, "candy" scents and I am picky about the fruits that I like (hey, they are picky about working on me, so I figure I am entitled!) Anyway, despite those facts, something compelled me to order this one and it is phenomenal! I get tons of black currant iced with a little white sugar

Hello

I was just wondering whether anyone who has tried Hanerot Halalu could comment on whether it's similar to Lush's olive branch? I got the impression the two might be similar....

 

Thank you!

I don't find them remotely alike, Sarri - on my skin, Hanerot is creamy, smoky beeswax with none of that soft citrusy goodness that is The Olive Branch. But since so many people have mentioned getting some orange notes from it, maybe you should put it on your list, and I would be interested to hear what someone who does get the orange from it has to say!

I've tried all three of the Salons that contain saffron (And There Was A Great Cry In Egypt, Cleopatra Testing Poisons, Lot and His Daughters) and in my experience, none were especially saffron-y. Of course, that doesn't mean they aren't beautiful, or that someone else might get more saffron from them! I adore Great Cry, but it's more of a spicy red-musk resin blend on me with no distinct saffron scent - the other two didn't work very well because of various notes so I've long since sent them to new homes, but Cleopatra was a green, almondy scent (really interesting, just not me) without notable saffron. I don't remember much about Lot except that it was very heavy on me, I didn't write anything down about it =)

If you are tempted, I really do recommend that people try as many Salons as they can, treat themselves to imp packs from the Lab (the imps are always easy to swap or sell if you don't love them), etc. - the whole category seems to have a feel of its own. It's like the perfumes themselves are a little more "formal" than many of the regular GC creations but there are many, many gorgeous scents! And every time I've had an experience where I have tried several new ones at a time, my predictions about which ones I will love and which will not work at all are terrible. That's why I think the imp packs from the Lab are fun, but I understand that's a big cash layout for most of us, especially with the lousy economy.

50€?!

Problem is that I'm not home... I KNEW customs would mess up my order this time, just when I'm not home to sort it out!

I hope my mother is able to print that PayPal Email or something and sort it out. Ack! Just when I stopped worrying about customs...

 

Just to update that - I finally received my order (WHEW) and didn't even had to pay whopping customs but "only" 11€.

For some reason this BPAL package was declared differently than all my previous orders - my previous orders were always declared as a gift while this one was declared "merchandise". I think the German customs had problems with that because the package lacked a bill inside or something, at least this is what they said.

Can anyone confirm that? I don't know if I should email the Lab about it or something because I don't want to have to go through this again with my next order...

I remembered that Beth had made an announcement about being contacted by Canadian customs a while back and that the Lab was going to have to be extra-strict with customs declarations to Canada - it would not surprise me if they are adopting this policy company wide. With the state of the world economy, governments are pursuing every opportunity for extra revenue (as well as doing what they can to stimulate their own economies - strict customs policy leads to more purchases within your own borders.)

There's no easy answer, I'm sure the Lab hates the idea of international customers getting dinged with duty fees (not to mention the slowdown it causes with packages), but they also can't afford to pay fines for inaccurate customs forms &/or be vulnerable to even larger penalties, which can come from both the customs and postal authorities in the receiving country and the US. So declaring an international package as a gift as a favor to a customer may be out of the question in the current environment, not just for the Lab but for any US business.

If you look back at the customs forms and it looks like you were charged an additional amount because the paperwork was incorrect, not just duty/import fees for the value of the merchandise, you should definitely e-mail the Lab and let them know. If there's something that they did incorrectly, I'm sure they will want to know about it so that they can try to make that up to you as well as change their procedure when preparing other packages to send to Germany, so it would be helpful for them to know.

They certainly have their differences as well, but I was struck by something similar between The Piper at the Gates of Dawn and The Illustrated Woman. They do have some notes in common: pine, patchouli, amber/resins, honey; although they contain different types of musk, I think the musk in Piper is very soft and not drastically different from the skin musk and white musk families.

Anyway, those who really liked one and haven't tried the other might want to add to their wishlists, those who tried one and didn't like it might find the other works for them. (Of course, if it was the pine, patchouli, resins, honey or musk that did you wrong, you might be out of luck. )

This is very pretty and feminine on me - the florals really come out, lots of sweet, light rose (maybe yellow, like the rose note in Schlafende Bagneuse, or white rose? Definitely not the diva that is red rose.) I think the comparison to The Unicorn is good, there might be some linden blossom in here too. I don't get much in the way of mist notes, aspen, wood, or anything like that, just a hint of brightness, coolness and dampness. I am really fond of light, sweet rose notes, so this is a winner for me. I probably won't wear it a lot until the weather is warmer, but it will be a perfect spring and summer scent.

This is very nice now, fresh from the Lab, but I am really looking forward to a few months from now when everything has mingled, melded and aged a little bit. I particularly love patchouli and/or amber blends after they've had some time to age, sometimes they can seem a little raw to me when they are brand new.

Not that Piper is in any way unpleasant now! It reminds me a bit of The Illustrated Woman - a less sweet version with some light citrus and floral notes on top. The pine is very well behaved and allows some of the other notes out, which isn't always the case. Overall, it's a little bit orangey, with woody, spicy and musky notes emerging immediately as the orange wafts away. I think it will be a bit more resinous in time and the patchouli will get spicier, which are pluses for me! Whatever Beth has done to come up with "brown musk," I commend her - it's a warm, furry feeling musk without any pungency or animalic tendencies, yet it's still strong enough to stand up to some very assertive components like pine and patchouli here.

I seriously love Hanerot Halalu! I adore the Lab's beeswax so much that I took a chance on the smokiness here - smoke notes can be fabulous on me or they can be horrid, not much in between. This is the former.

This is a gorgeous creamy beeswax scent, definitely has that beeswax feeling versus honey that BPAL fans may be familiar with if they've compared a few scents with those notes. Beeswax is a little less sweet, a little more "waxy" for lack of a better word. The smoke is subtle and adds a bit of a spicy feel - the comparisons to a blown out candle are really accurate, it reminds me of what you get when you blow out a beeswax taper, just a little bit of subtle fragrant smoke. There's a slight fruitiness in the background here, which I couldn't place, then it hit me - olive oil! That fruity peppery note that you get when you sniff a really yummy extra-virgin olive oil? I swear, Beth's worked some kind of magic here.

This is my favorite of the batch of Yules and Willows that just landed here - not that there are any losers in the bunch, this one is just SO GOOD!

I am so glad that I gave in and ordered a bottle of this. It's a soft, fluffy, slightly sweet snow scent - a cold winter scent that doesn't scream out "SNOW! ICE! BRRRR!" The elements are balanced so well that I don't get floral, or herbal, or fruity, or grassy - all these are present with a layer of soft evergreen on top, a little bit more dominant but barely so. It stays close to the skin in a cuddly, cozy way. Really beautiful.

It isn't a scent that worked out for me, but I find Scherezade to have a really strong saffron note!

Too-large signatures continue to be a bit of an issue around here, so we would appreciate it if everyone would double check theirs. We do continue to monitor them and issue reminders (or warnings). We also appreciate when members report problem signatures.

I've quoted a couple of important things below from past announcements/posts that may help you with any signature problems you are experiencing and I'm including a few tips.

Some people have told me they don't know how to determine pixel size - to do so, right click on the image and choose "Properties." Among other info listed, you'll see "Image Dimensions" which provides the width (first number) and height of the image in pixels.

Look at the box size that shriekingviolet posted in the second quote below - if your signature is significantly taller or wider than this visual guide, chances are you need to edit it. Unless you are especially skilled at resizing images, chances are you will just need to remove some images. It's very possible that you can exceed the height and width maximums without using up the maximum 8 images allowed, depending on the size of your images, so don't rely on the number of images alone to keep your signature within the guidelines.

If you have signature questions, feel free to PM a moderator or administrator - just be aware that we aren't able to create signatures for you or work out problems with coding if you are having trouble due to the constraints on our time. There are some threads in Forum Questions that you may find helpful: Adding links to signatures and Formatting signature pictures. You can ask specific questions about Dragon Cave, etc. in those threads, but be aware that any info you get from forum members other than moderators that is in conflict with the guidelines (i.e. the number of images you can have, the size of images that are permissible) can get you a reminder or a warning if you decide to rely upon it. When in doubt about those issues, read the guidelines and if still in doubt, ask a moderator.

Hey everyone. Browsing the forum I've noticed that there are a lot of signatures out there that are not in compliance with our guidelines. Some of them contain too many big images, or too many images period, and some take up more than the ten lines of space required (if your signature takes up more space than the content of most of your actual posts, it's ridiculous). I noticed a few are even messing up the summer layout (which became the default yesterday) because there are too many images in a row and they stretch the table beyond the prescribed limits. Which is the quickest way to make me annoyed.

 

Anyway we've rewritten the signature guidelines so that they read a little more coherently. Nothing is really new here except that we've added a row maximum for multiple images as some signatures were fine in one screen resolution and not in another. Or fine in one skin but not in another. So now there's a prescribed max that's allowed so there's no question.

 

Below is the rewritten signature guidelines:

Signatures are a place for members to personalize each of their posts, but there are rules in place to make sure they don't get out of control or violate other tenants of the board guidelines. Big signatures are unkind to members with slower connections and drag down the speed of the forum, so we encourage moderation.

 

In terms of size, no signature should exceed in length the equivalent of 10 lines of text (which is approximately 185 pixels high). This goes for both text-only signatures and signatures with images. Images displayed in signatures must be no wider than 480 pixels and no taller than 100 pixels (though really, we'd be grateful if you didn't use anything that achieved both the width and height maximums). No image should be over 20kb in size. Members are allowed a maximum of 8 images in their signature, provided that all 8 together don't amount to over 100 pixels high (assuming the images are on multiple lines) or 480 pixels wide (if they're all in a row). In essence, if your signature has 8 tiny images, that's likely going to be ok. 8 larger images will not be.

 

We allow links in members signatures, but not to off forum sales as this has been used as a way to skirt our swapping price caps. We do make exceptions for sales of nonBPAL items or for eBay auctions (bpal or otherwise). Other swapping in signatures (i.e. wanted notices, panhandling and mentioning items for sale) is not allowed. Please keep the swap and sales into their respective areas only!

 

Violations of the signature guidelines are a warnable offense, though first time offenders will be given a reminder.

 

We're giving everyone two weeks (until July 6) to comply. After that, we'll be issuing reminders to offenders.

 

 

A special note to Dragon Cave players: you must keep a close eye on your signature if you want to post them there. As your dragons grow, your signature might grow beyond the guidelines. Some adult dragons are taller than allowed, and having multiple adult dragons is likely to exceed the signature maximums. As warnings will be issued on a second offense, you won't want to let any developments of your "pets" surprise you.

...

Some helpful Dragon Cave info as well as a visual aid for sizing your signature:

I just checked out the new guidelines, and basically we'll be able to have adults on our signature, but as the adults are about 100 x 80 pixels (that's the green's specs, and the green seems to be one of the larger ones), we can only have about 5 in our signature at any time, and only one row of them. That will leave enough room for a couple of lines of links, etc. The eggies and hatchies should all fit as usual.

 

Don't be askeered!

 

 

Thanks savage rose!

 

 

Basically if your signature can fit in this box:

 

and there no double rows of images** or images taller than 100px, you're square. If you have text in your signature that goes wider than that box it's ok. Your row of images just can't be any wider than that.

 

 

**except in cases where you images are so short that their combined height is less than 100px, which is the height of my avatar if you need a visual guide.

Because there seems to be confusion about this as often as once a week - there is a difference between editing your sales/swaps post and bumping your sales/swaps posts.

You are free to edit your posts as often as you like - you can do so every 5 minutes as you answer PMs about items or as often as you find new items you want to add to the list. However, editing the items in your post does not entitle you to a "free" bump.

A bump occurs when you reply to your own swap post in order to send it back up to the top position on the first page of the sales, swaps, wanted, etc. forum. You can only do this once every 24 hours regardless of how many items you have edited out of your original post, how many new items you have added to it, or how many other reasons you have for editing your original post.

Thanks - please direct any additional questions to a member of the moderating team.

I wasn't sure if I was going to click with this demon-spawn or not at first. I love red musk, but mango and I have a contentious relationship. However, I saw the label art and laughed so hard, there was no way I was going to pass up the chance to get my hands on a bottle and try it. It's gorgeous! Now, I'll warn you that it is one of the strongest perfumes I've ever tried in the BPAL catalog. I dabbed a spot on the top side of my lower arm (doing that must-try-five-at-once thing) and I could smell it through the long sleeved heavy cotton shirt I was wearing. But it was such a sexy smell, I didn't mind. Sweet, slightly fruity, slightly spicy red musk - what's not to love?

I'm a person who doesn't get too excited about cake and cookie scents, and who usually runs the other way at the word "strawberry."

but despite all of that... even I FELL IN LOVE WITH A FLOATING BRAIN!

The cake here seems to be heavy on the vanilla, instead of heavy on buttery notes, which may be a key to why it works so well on my skin. The strawberry is the most natural and genuine strawberry note I've smelled in any perfume, and its sweetness is balanced by the grapefruit and carnation - I don't so much smell those two notes distinctly as perceive their tempering, complementary effects on the strawberry.

There are so many beloved strawberry scents that ultimately didn't work on me - Pink Moon, Strawberry Moon, Beaver Moon 07 - I think the only strawberry scent that worked on me until now was Maenad, and I wonder if the spicy, dry carnation and poppy are the factors that make it calm down. Since the iffy-on-strawberry me loves this blend so much, I think anyone who loves strawberry will need a bottle (if not two or three ) of this scent.

"awaiting shipment" is a CCNow term, not a Lab term - "shipment" in this case is when CCNow sends a batch of orders to the Lab. (I understand that the Lab works those into the production queue based on the order date itself, not the date they receive them from CCNow, so that customers will not be at a disadvantage using CCNow instead of PayPal, particularly at update time when there's a rush of orders.) So as far as meaning nothing, that is true in the sense that it has no connection to when you are going to receive your order.

The actual wait time on orders seems to be running pretty consistently with the time posted on the Lab's welcome page, which is currently 14 to 21 business days. I usually watch the CnS thread in BPAL Chatter to see what dates the Lab seems to be shipping. Right now I'm seeing a lot of orders from the time period November 11 through 13, which falls about 16 to 18 business days back. There are always exceptions - if you are waiting on an order from significantly earlier, it would probably be worth e-mailing customer service to find out if there's a problem - but between the Lab's posted turnaround times and the CnS data people post, you can get a pretty good feel about how fast things will be moving.

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And I have no idea what Sassafras smells like but I'll try everything once (well... ALMOST everything!)

 

....

 

I dont want to bore you to death, you really dont have to read all of this but these are the things with vanilla I have tried:

 

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Oh, you will never bore the regular Recommendations crowd, we LOVE this stuff and ask for it by name.

You will recognize sassafras when you smell it - it's the dominant flavor in root beer. It goes really nicely with vanilla, even has a little bit of a vanilla quality of its own. It's a note that I amp until I smell like a root beer bottling plant, so I don't often go for blends that have it, but I've smelled Stimulating Sassafras Strengthener on a friend of mine and it was gorgeous on her.

So I've put on my thinking cap this morning, I have some theories. It sounds like the sweetest vanilla scents aren't working for you, they need something that balances out the sweetness, and florals can amp on you, so they aren't a complete "no" but the strong ones will kill off the vanilla. It also sounds like scents that only have one or two notes to accompany the vanilla are letting it go wild, so maybe blends that are a little more complex will let the vanilla shine but will offset any weird things it wants to do on your skin.

Can you wear cocoa notes at all? Velvet might be nice on your skin, the sandalwood and myrrh are such a nice complement to the vanilla and the cocoa is on the dry side as opposed to the rich and sweet chocolate scents like The Candy Butcher. And there are some people who have found Boomslang is great even though Snake Oil wasn't their holy grail, so it might also work out as your Snake Oil scent. It is pretty sweet, though.

In fact, if you haven't explored the Snake Pit, it might be worth seeking out some decants in time to try them and pick up bottles before CD leaves. Western Diamondback is so popular and there's tonka bolstering the vanilla, which might work nicely on your skin. If you can do vetiver, Death Adder would be worth trying. I love the mossiness of Banded Sea Snake - it isn't a strong vanilla scent, the vanilla would probably be on a par with Mr. Ibis. Habu might also work for you, Snake oil with musk and woods.

Mr. Ibis ultimately became a little too manly on my skin, but the vanilla note in it reminded me of the vanilla quality in Victoria (from Stardust). I know they sound like they are worlds apart, and there are some florals in Victoria to contend with, but they are pretty soft and delicate, far from the gardenia family.

If you are tempted by Sugar Cookie - try Chimera. And don't let the honeysuckle note scare you, most people barely smell it if at all, I think there must be only a drop in this blend. It's a beautiful spicy vanilla. I've had this secret theory that people who can't wear Chimera can wear Eclipse and vice-versa, so if Chimera doesn't work, try Eclipse It's a lovely vanilla-cinnamon blend too, with a hit of almond and heliotrope.

A few other GCs that might need to go on your wish list - Perversion (smoky and dry vanilla/tonka), Lyonesse (vanilla, musk, sandalwood, ambergris, very complex and pretty), and The Antikythera Mechanism (rich teak and vanilla).

....

But the Vanilla Bean note in some of the blends seems to be much nicer, richer and a little bit more buttery. I dont like rich, sweet, buttery foody stuff usually but that is the vanilla I like.

Am I just imagining things or are there really distinctly different vanillas? I'd very much likr to find one that my chemistry likes too.

I think there are different vanillas that the Lab uses, definitely, and some are creamier or butterier, some are sweeter, etc. And then the combination of ingredients they're used with can play up those characteristics even more.

Which vanilla blends do you like the most? Are there any others that have had the same effect as Antique Lace for you?

My favorite saffron scents range from hard to impossible to find more of these days - Love's Philosophy and Monster Bait Underpants. Saffron can be a little sharp to my nose, but I love the way that it helps balance both of these scents which could be way too sweet and creamy without it. I don't know what I would think of a vanilla-saffron combo in my food, but I love it in my perfume!

The saffron note really seems to make Baghdad shine, too. I think it makes it something much more special than the average rose-sandalwood type of perfume.