ivyandpeony

I bought a bottle of Hermia unsniffed when that scent when live, I thought it sounded so good And I think the description of your bright-orange imp sounds much more like my bottle. There's a lot of pink pepper in it, which is spicy and sweet - I can't say that it actually goes so far as to smell like cake to me, but still, much closer to that description than to the way you describe the second imp. I think it is fairly rare that something actually gets mislabeled at the lab, but between the naturally sourced ingredients and the way aging affects the perfumes (especially bottles vs. imps) the batch variations can seem really drastic sometimes.

Now I'm wondering if someone just got distracted while decanting the Possetts scent and wrote the wrong name or something - I don't think there are any BPAL names that come close, though, so at least you can eliminate one possibility.

I've found complete mystery vials when cleaning out drawers and boxes - you know how some of those boutique perfume shops make their own samples for you? They will put them, unlabeled, in a tiny zip-loc bag and put the label on the bag. Like that makes sense. Or even commercially prepared samples sometimes won't have any label or identifying info on the vial itself, they'll use a fancy foldover card that the vial hangs within. So those are always a lot of fun. I don't know if having a mystery name to start with is any more helpful than having no name, though!

I've been around here just a little bit longer than you, but I've never heard of a BPAL called Snow on Bare Shoulders, not even a prototype that's been out for sniffing at Will Calls or what have you.

Possets has a Snow on Bare Skin - I wonder if what you have could be an earlier or alternate version, in the vein of BPAL's Lick It, Lick It Again, Lick It One More Time, etc. Maybe some of the Possets enthusiasts could tell you if you asked in that thread.

Hetairae is a gorgeous scent and I do get lots of clove from it, but it is also pretty sweet from the fig and honey. And I may be an oddball, but Pickled Imp definitely falls in the "sweet" category on my skin - like all BPAL scents, YMMV (your mom's mileage may vary ) but I thought I'd mention my experience. It seems like clove is in more BPAL scents with sweet and fruity notes than dry, tobacco-y or spicy ones, but there are a few - Malice and Dracul are two that came to mind.

The Smiling Spider definitely gets mentioned most often as the scent that's most like clove cigarettes.

This particular list is a work in progress and even though I am posting it in December 2009, in reality I am quoting a post of mine from sometime in 2008 that hasn't been updated for a while. But watch for that little "edited" line at the bottom, I will update it.

This is a list of the most commonly noticed BPAL-to-commercial perfume "smell alikes." if you happen to notice something that seems oft-discussed that I've left off, feel free to drop me a line. If you enjoy discussing this sort of thing, have some comparisons to share or some questions to ask, this thread is the one for you.

You'll find it very helpful to search for the perfume name and company within the Recs subforum - it may have its own thread. If it doesn't, and you want to start one, that is fine.

You may also find this thread helpful - if you can provide a list of the notes that are in the commercial perfume, people can more easily help you match BPALs that contain those notes and share their experiences about which are dominant in those blends.

I will periodically add links here to threads that have lots of discussion and suggestion - if there are only one or two replies to someone's request for a smell-alike or similar scent, I'm going to wait until it's a juicy enough topic to earn a link here.

This first list is for specific scents that are very popular and will link you to threads about them if they exist - and when particular BPAL blends have been identified by members as similar, I've attempted to list them for your convenience.

Alien by Thierry Mugler: GC 51, UFO related coincidences completely unintentional according to the Lab

Angel by Thierry Mugler: GC Xiuhtecuhtli

Body Shop White Musk (find and discuss other Body Shop fragrances here, too)

Butterfly - Hanae Mori

Chanel No. 5: GCs Ozymandias, Dance of Death

Chanel No. 19

CK One: GC Vicomte de Valmont; LE House of Mirrors

Flowerbomb by Viktor & Rolf: GC Xiuhtecuhtli

Jo Malone Red Roses: LE The Peacock Queen

Old Spice: GCs Dracul, Omen; LE Count Dracula, Mr. Jacquel (Yes, lots of us LOVE Old Spice! )

Opium by YSL

People of The Labyrinths - Luctor et Emergo

Poison by Dior: Venom (sadly discontinued), GCs Spellbound, Shadow Witch Orchid; LE Dark Delicacies

Shalimar: GCs Vixen, Haunted, Snake Oil, Ravenous; LEs Jacob's Ladder 05, Stardust 05

YSL Yvresse (fka Champagne) - GC Bon Vivant

There are a few companies that members seem to really like, and you can find links to threads discussing their scents here:

BPAL blends that resemble Victoria's Secret fragrances

BPAL blends that resemble Bath & Body Works scents

BPAL blends that resemble Aveda scents

Since they're closing down after Christmas (sadly), does anyone know of any BPALs that are similar to B Never Too Busy to Be Beautiful's "Superworldunknown" and "Love"?

 

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Be sure to check out the Lush similarities thread that's pinned at the top of Recs - there's been some B Never discussion there too. (You can search the thread using the "search topic" box that appears at the top and bottom of the topic itself. )

It might be worth talking to your doctor/allergist about it - but it does seem to me that if you are allergic to something in food form, the essential oil made from that food could trigger an allergic reaction. I have heard of people who are allergic to shellfish or nuts who can't even handle those foods or prepare them for others.

I remember hearing somewhere that black pepper and pink pepper come from unrelated plants, so that might be something worth researching - if that's truly the case you might be allergic to one and not the other.

Benadryl cream/ointment or hydrocortisone cream will work pretty quickly to set you right. My husband and I both have itchy, reactive skin so we have both on hand all the time, not specifically for BPAL related problems of course.

The list I compiled in the first post came from posts that people made in the big "comparisons" thread as well as comparisons from reviews. What I did was search for "Antique Lace" within posts, within the Reviews forum - I got 41 pages of results because it pulled all of the AL reviews from that thread, too, but I skimmed those pages looking for a pattern, where more than one or two people mentioned that a scent reminded them of AL, and if there were some comments that seemed to be typical that stuck with me, that's where those comments came from.

so THESE comments are mine, from the ones I've tried.

LEs

Atrocious Attic - definitely see the resemblance, although there's more violet and more of a powdery quality.

Bearded Lady - I don't remember BL well, but I do remember that it went sharp and odd on me, so I didn't get a resemblance.

Berenice - definitely a lineny floral, worth a try if you track it down

Black Lace - much darker and muskier than AL. I wouldn't seek it as a replacement because I find it so different and it is so hard to find - you'll swap your dearest bottle or pay through the nose on eBay.

Boo (current Halloweenie) - One of the few vanilla scents that's ever gone a little plasticky on me, but a lot of people are loving it and I can see why they are making the comparison.

Cottonmouth (current Carnaval Diabolique) - I need to revisit this one.

Enraged Bunny Musk - I can see a resemblance here, on the powdery/lineny side as opposed to the vanillic side.

The Girl (current Halloweenie) - definitely! One of those scents like AL that reminds you of vanilla even though vanilla isn't listed as a note, has that airy quality too.

Hope and Faith (current CD) - Very similar, but if you do not like rose or violet respectively, you will not like these. They are very strong on their respective floral notes.

La Fee Verte - never saw the vaguest resemblance. This one's very heavy on the honey and anise-y absinthe notes on my skin.

Love's Philosophy - much creamier and sweeter than AL on me.

Monsterbait: Underpants - Also a lot creamier and sweeter than AL to me.

Opuhi - don't get much resemblance, it's more similar to Regan to my nose.

The Oval Portrait - maybe a vague resemblance, much more floral, and that's lots of honeysuckle/white florals.

Pink Moon 2007 - See Hope and Faith - to me this is like a carnation version of those scents.

Snow White - I find Snow White to be unique, I am one of the few people who don't smell vanilla, coconut or almond in it. Nothing about it reminds me of AL.

White Rose - It is a clean and crisp scent but I don't find it very close to AL.

GCs

Black Opal - definitely, whatever gives it that crisp mineral quality is similar to the crisp linen note or notes to me.

Dirty - on my skin, this one almost veers to ozone instead of clean linen. Nope.

Dorian - I'd say it's worth a try, the lemon & fougere add a crispness to the vanilla. Can be too masculine on me at times.

Euphrosyne - this one's hard-core gardenia on me with very little of anything else.

Lyonesse - definitely worth a try as well. Has an airy vanilla quality.

Morocco - not much resemblance to me, but lots of people disagree. I find it much spicier, more carnation-heavy, very little vanilla.

Mouse's Long and Sad Tale - definite similarities.

Peitho - very floral on me, little vanilla.

Regan - a lot heavier and sweeter than AL without any linen or airy quality

Vechernyaya - mostly a white musk blend on me

Victoria - heavily floral but with a creamy vanilla undertone

White Rabbit - this is a creamy, honeyed pepper on me, no resemblance

Zephyr - a lemony white musk on me, very little resemblance

others

Haloes (Retail Exclusive) - One of those occasional odd experiences - I could barely smell this on my skin when I first got a decant; when I bought a bottle at WF I loved it at first but every time I wore it, it faded in about 30 minutes so it eventually was re-homed. So I just don't know this one well enough.

so... there you have it from me =)

Here's the official announcement Beth made last week about it - she doesn't know yet if they're going to have to discontinue it permanently or if they'll be able to overcome the component problem.

Antique Lace is temporarily unavailable. =( There is a possibility that it may have to be discontinued due to component issues, but we’re holding onto hope. The AL dilemma does not affect anything else in the GC; the component in question has been in past LE’s.

 

Over the next few days, we will be contacting those of you that have orders pending that contain Antique Lace to make arrangements for either a refund or substitution.

 

Thank you so much for your patience and understanding through this challenging time. =/

And one modly note - if you haven't had a chance to read over this topic, please take a quick look at it - and please take any discussion of other companies' scents to their respective threads in Retail Therapy and/or to PM. I've actually had to send a couple PMs about this lately in other threads so I figured I'd go ahead and mention it here. It's certainly not something that I send reminders or warnings over, just a housekeeping thing, and I think it's pretty well explained in my posts there, but feel free to shoot me a PM about it if you have any questions.

The temporary hiatus of Antique Lace has so many people flustered, I thought I'd compile some of the suggestions from the big similarities thread, reviews and a couple of other spots for easy access. These suggestions come from lots of different people and different chemistries, so some may make you go "Huh?" and some may make you go "Yeah!" but that's the fun (and occasional frustration) of BPAL.

Feel free to comment on what you do and don't find similar, add suggestions, discuss at length and comfort one another.

LEs

Atrocious Attic - more floral, but with similar lineny notes

Bearded Lady

Berenice

Black Lace - pretty hard to find so if you are new to BPAL, skip for now

Boo (current Halloweenie) - vanilla with a little linen

Cottonmouth (current Carnaval Diabolique)

Enraged Bunny Musk

The Girl (current Halloweenie)

Hope and Faith (current CD) - rose and violet AL respectively

La Fee Verte - another HTF one

Love's Philosophy

Monsterbait: Underpants - if you don't have it now, pretend you didn't see this, but enough people mentioned it in reviews that I thought I'd note it.

Opuhi

The Oval Portrait

Pink Moon 2007

Snow White

White Rose

GCs

Black Opal

Dirty - the lineny notes more than the vanilla

Dorian - likely to be more lemony than AL

Euphrosyne - a heady white floral AL

Lyonesse

Morocco

Mouse's Long and Sad Tale

Peitho

Regan - sweeter and girlier than AL, must like orchids

Vechernyaya - not vanilla-y but similar musks and airy feel

Victoria

White Rabbit

Zephyr

others

Haloes (Retail Exclusive)

This comment is just to point out the differences in skin chemistry & perception, of course, not to invalidate Beevee's comparison - her post just jumped out at me because Brit was one of my go-to scents before discovering BPAL and I still get fond memories when I smell iam very fond of it although I can't remember the last time I wore anything other than a BPAL perfume. (I still get the shower gel in my Christmas stocking from my MIL. )

On me, Brit has/had tons of lime and green notes, and even after drying down it never was anywhere as warm and spicy as Morocco. But then again, on my skin, Morocco has lots and lots of carnation that never goes away and I don't get any vanilla from it. (Add to that the batch variations you get from natural perfumes - enough occur in Morocco that I think there's an entire thread in Chatter discussing the variations in Morocco, whether your version smells heavily sandalwoody or carnationy, etc., and you can really start getting confused )

It has me thinking, though, if I personally were to want to replicate Brit, I might be able to layer Morocco with something a little bit green and citrusy.

I wore Anais Anais in college and I haven't been struck by a BPAL that reminded me of it yet.

AmandaKay, those three scents are the only ones that actually include tomato leaf in the description. I did a search in reviews and found that some members have caught a whiff of this elusive note in Envy, Hemlock, Black Hellebore, Belladonna (makes sense to me, all are green abd herbal scents ), Pruno (which did playfully mention ketchup in the description) and oddly, Aizen-Myoo (not that I doubt them, my skin has made odd notes that you'd never expect out of certain scents too).

Pruno seems to be love it or hate it scent, so if you haven't tried it I feel sure you can track a bottle or decant down very easily in swaps and all the others are GC. Tomato leaf also seems to pop up in the odd bottle of Chaos Theory. It may not be as popular a note as vanilla or amber or sandalwood, but its devotees really love it and one of these days it wouldn't surprise me if Beth gave them another scent.

bumping this one for your Halloween chatter =)

Red musk has proven unique and so popular that it eventually spawned its own thread - if you want to take a look at it, you can find it <a href="http://www.bpal.org/index.php?showtopic=48594" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">here</a>.

I think maybe with me, the linen notes in AL are similar to the crisp/crystalline notes in The Girl and that's part of the similarity I'm noticing, too. With MLST, I don't get the musky undertones and I tend to amp the sweet pea (which doesn't bother me, it is one of my favorite GC scents ) With the way that our chemistries can vary, it's definitely another one worth trying for anyone who missed out on buying AL or who wants to try to conserve their supply until we know if it will be around permanently again.

Sh!t, Antique Lace was on my list of loves. I'm glad i have a nearly full bottle, but wish i had been a bit more proactive in getting a back-up. I truly will be keeping my fingers crossed it doesn't get entirely discontinued. And i'm going to hoard a couple more bottles of The Girl, since it's a brilliant vanilla-musk that i feel is very good for everyday wear (in the event that AL really does go bye-bye for good).

I found this over in BPAL Chatter and had to quote it - until Hillary mentioned it, I hadn't put these two together. Both are vanilla-y, lightly floral light musks (I know The Girl doesn't have vanilla listed as a note, but neither does Antique Lace!) AL is deeper and richer, The Girl is brighter and more crystalline. But if you like AL and are upset about its hiatus, try The Girl.

Is it kosher to send our pp money to the lab and mark it as a gift? I know gift transactions aren't charged pp fees, which is why I ask. I'd love for the lab to pay less in pp fees.

 

Maybe I should email the lab...

I have a feeling that this would be a violation of the vendor's terms of service with PayPal - best bet would be to e-mail the Lab to find out. You know that PayPal wants those fees, no matter how good your intentions are. I think the only issue that you open yourself up to personally by doing this with a vendor is that you probably are waiving any rights to dispute the transaction if you have a problem with your order, so in general, I"d only do it with someone I really, really trusted - some smaller e-tailers who use their accounts for personal and business purposes probably can get away with it if they don't receive too many "gifts."

Delphinine, how long has it been since you placed a large BPAL order w/PayPal? They instituted a limit on characters in the comment box a while back (300 characters max). If you don't have room for everything you need to say, you can just say "details to follow via e-mail." Then send an e-mail to the answers@bpal addy with all your order details and be sure to include your PayPal e-mail addy if it happens to be different from the one you are using. I always tell them the amount of money I sent, when I sent it, include the transaction number PayPal assigned, etc. although I don't know if that is all necessary, it's a Virgo thing. Anyway, Bill or another helpful CS rep will match it up w/your payment and all will be well.

The more colors they add to a tee, the more exponentially expensive it gets, which is why they try to limit those designs to one or two ink colors - that's probably why they were able to be more creative with color on the label. Not that lots of color on the lunacy tees wouldn't be fun but Ted & co. want to keep them within a more affordable price range.

I love Aeronwen, too, and having tried a lot of BPAL scents I really haven't found anything like it. (I love the word "misty" to describe it, that's perfect!) If anyone has noticed a resemblance to something else, I'd be thrilled to hear it - in the meantime I think I am going to have to get another bottle for a back up once the Carnaval scents aren't available anymore.

IIRC the key contact person at Healthy Living is also a forum member but for the life of me I can't remember her name! I will take a peek around and see if I can jog my memory - if I can't find it and no one else pipes up, you might just want to call them. This is the contact info from the first page of the thread.

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Healthy Living Market

222 Dorset Street

South Burlington VT 05403

(802) 863-2569

 

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I'm not the first person to notice a resemblance based on what reviewers have said so far - so if you loved Gluhwein from last year's Yule Inquisition but have had trouble tracking it down, try Soothing System. You won't get the spices, but I found the wine note to be the same, to the point that I immediately thought "GLUHWEIN!" when I opened the bottle. From there a dab of whatever spicy blend floats your boat: I haven't tried any yet but I think Bengal, Plunder, Sin, & Al Sharain could all be good layering candidates (not that S.S. isn't nice on its own, but if you're seeking the Gluhwein effect.)

I popped in to write a brief review, read the newest arrivals first and realized that Little Bird and I had very similar experiences with Soothing System. And she said it all very well, so I may not add much to what she's said about this one.

On first sniff I immediately picked up the wine note from Gluhwein too - totally Gluhwein without all the spices! And I'm a big fan of that scent so that got me giddy right away. It stays sweet on my skin, but doesn't really morph to the super-sweet grapiness or bubble gum that a lot of reviewers have mentioned. My chemistry doesn't tend to make most sweet things sweeter, and dry scents stay really dry on me, which may work to my advantage with Soothing System. As it dries down a bit, I sense a little bit of woodiness, like grapevine or wine barrel oakiness?

One thing I really love here is that BPAL's red wine scents can sometimes get a little tart or sour on me, veering towards BPAL pomegranate, while grape notes can just be a little weird and heavy on my skin (Bess and Urd for example, just didn't work) - but somehow this one stays right in the middle, light and grapey and cheery (perfect word, so why change it? ) My preconceived notion was that this would be a dark, sexy nighttime scent, but I really think this will be more of a bubbly daytime perfume - but once again, with credit to Little Bird, layered with other scents it could really go to some new and exciting places too. If you loved Gluhwein and had trouble scoring a bottle, I'd grab a bottle of Soothing System and get to experimenting.

I love this scent and I am looking forward to wearing it as it ages, too, since the patchouli and resin will only get better and better. Currently, I get lots and lots of white rose (my favorite rose note) and frankincense. Of all the resins, frankincense is the hardest for me to wear - it can get sharp and kerosene-y on me, especially when the blend is new from the Lab. The fact that it isn't doing that here makes me so happy. I wonder if one of the notes that I don't really pick up (neroli, which is not a favorite, or the orris root?) could be tempering that quality.

For me, this scent exemplifies the fact that you never know how great a BPAL might be until you skin test it! I might not have even looked for a decant of this due to my dislike of neroli and lack of enthusiasm for frankincense in general. But I was lucky enough to get to the Georgia will call, decided to try it and here we are. I think this one will go over well if you like Parlement of Foules - you've got the white rose and the resin, then the spicy and woody elements of the sandalwood and patchouli to take it in a different direction. Good stuff!

When I left last month's Georgia Will Call, I couldn't believe I loved this scent enough to order a bottle! One sniff and it evokes autumn, yet in a unique combination of notes (at least unique to me, since I usually run from anything described as smoky, brimstone-y or with black musk ) The clove is sweet and gorgeous, there are some lovely rich resins underneath and there's something that reminds me of being outside in the cold air with maybe just the faintest hint of smoke from a far-away fire that you smell every now and then when the wind shifts.

I agree with the comparison to Minotaur and I'd add, Minotaur ultimately didn't wear well on me - it was a little too masculine and dry, I am the girl with no natural sweetness in my chemistry. I think the clove sweetens Hell-Gate and makes it work for me, so if anyone else wanted to love Minotaur maybe this one will happen for you. And if you love Minotaur, definitely grab this one up.