BPAL blends that resemble "White Diamonds"?

[dany06]

Hi you all

 

Im new to BPAL and know nothing about perfume notes. The only notes that I know are vanilla and lavendar. I have looked through millions of threads and pages trying to find what separates one scent from another. I know that I like smells that are fruity or smell like candy but I dont want those to be the only ones I get because Im afraid of smells I dont know. Some none bpal perfumes that I really like are Amor Amor by Cacharel and Tommy Girl.

I thought about just looking at the fragrances in the perfumes that I have and look at the bpal ones that have them, but I ran into a little problem. Beyond there being way to many different fragrances to look at, some of the descriptions I get from others are not what Im looking for. There is some hope though because I know what I dont want. I dont want to smell like baby/talcum powder, White Diamond, or any of those 99cent aerosol perfumes.

 

Maybe if I give you the frgrances within those two perfume you could do better than me to find something I might like.

 

Amor Amor by Cacharel is a sparkling fruity floral blend that celebrates love, newly found or rediscovered. Passionate. Impulsive. Electric. Notes include Mandarin, Black Currant, Melati Blossom, Lily Of The Valley, White Musk, Grey Amber. This feminine scent posesses a blend of: A luscious aroma of fruits, florals, fragrant woods and vanilla.

 

Floral, Fruity, Green. Created in 1996, Tommy Girl is an elegant, floral fragrance. It is the result of the following top fragrance Notes: black currant, mandarin and spearmint. The middle notes are: cedar, apple blossom and jasmine and the base of the fragrance is: violets, oakmoss and sandalwood. Tommy Girl is recommended for daytime wear.

 

If I look at the discriptions for both they say floral. I have always thought I hated floral scents becuase I associated that with white diamond but they smell nothing like it.

 

So please please help me. I've been sucked into the bpal blackhole and there is no turning back. I must buy. NOW. I plan on getting the 6 imp ears and a few of the soaps. Hopefully I will purchase by mid next week.

Edited September 18, 2007 by ivyandpeony
edited title to indicate general discussion was appropriate

[naeelah]

Beyond there being way to many different fragrances to look at, some of the descriptions I get from others are not what Im looking for. There is some hope though because I know what I dont want. I dont want to smell like baby/talcum powder, White Diamond, or any of those 99cent aerosol perfumes.

 

Don't worry, you won't find any crappy drug store perfume scents here.

 

It's definitely a bit overwhelming to start out. Since you have a few types of scents you know you like, I'd search the bpal catalog for those notes. For example, if you know you like mandarin, just search "mandarin" and it'll show you everything that contains it. Since you have the notes for your favorite non-bpal perfumes, it should be easy to compare.

 

It's also good to look through the guide to common recommendations. It can help you find guides for particular types of scent (fruity, floral, etc), and also recommendations for bpal that smells like other perfumes. (I didn't find Tommy Girl in the thread, though, so you might be the first to ask.)

 

Don't be afraid of notes you aren't familiar with. (Wikipedia is your friend for identifying strange notes!) It's fun to order, for example, 6 different mandarin scents and see how each one has a different character. Little by little, by trying new things, you should get a better idea of what you like and what doesn't work.

 

If I look at the discriptions for both they say floral. I have always thought I hated floral scents becuase I associated that with white diamond but they smell nothing like it.

 

There are many flowers in the world and they all smell different. It all just depends on the other things mixed with them, how the notes are balanced, etc.

 

White Diamonds says it contains: lilac, citrus. The middle notes are peach, jasmine, cattleya orchid, exotic spices and heliotrope. The base notes include amber.

 

You'll find a lot of perfumes in the bpal catalog with those notes that smell nothing like white diamonds.

 

I'm not familiar with the two fragrances you mentioned, but I'll try to dig up some recommendations based on the notes.

[naeelah]

There are lots of sweet, fruity, and floral scents in the catalog, so here are some ideas for things to investigate. They're just my best guesses, because I'm not familiar with Amor Amor or Tommy Girl.

 

Hunger

Jezebel

Les Bijoux

Lolita

Siren

Eve

Shango

Calliope

Terpischore

Thaleia

Thalia

Jail Bait

Bon Vivant

Delirium

Fae

 

 

To find any of these in the catalog, just search for the name. It's good to check out the forum reviews to give you an idea of how the scent smells. Of course, everyone reacts differently, so a scent that's beautiful on one person could be baby powder on another. You just have to try and see.

[ClareN]

I'd also recommend Bordello. Very fruity and popular around here.

 

When I first started getting interested in perfume, I was terrible at identifying scents too, but learning about everything is really fun. It will definitely help if you do some "research" outside BPAL, like sniffing flowers, herbs, spices and essential oils and learning their names, so you'll be able to recognize them in BPAL.

 

In mainstream perfume you often can't pick out many of the listed notes when you actually smell the perfume. (I've never tried it, but I bet it's hard to pick out violets in Tommy Girl.) I think a lot of those notes are just listed to make it sound pretty. But with BPAL I find that the scent usually matches the description quite well. eg. Alice is supposed to be carnation, milk and honey, and when I smell it I can smell carnation, milk and honey. That's one reason I enjoy BPAL.

 

More help with searching: Go to Advanced Search from the menu at the top of the page. Under "Search Where", scroll down and select "Reviews". Then click on "Search Titles Only". That should save you from having to hunt through several pages of results.

 

Hope this helped!

[LadyMedb]

Big second on Thalia, and you might like Muse, too!

[Ahania]

Amor Amor by Cacharel is a sparkling fruity floral blend that celebrates love, newly found or rediscovered. Passionate. Impulsive. Electric. Notes include Mandarin, Black Currant, Melati Blossom, Lily Of The Valley, White Musk, Grey Amber. This feminine scent posesses a blend of: A luscious aroma of fruits, florals, fragrant woods and vanilla.

 

Floral, Fruity, Green. Created in 1996, Tommy Girl is an elegant, floral fragrance. It is the result of the following top fragrance Notes: black currant, mandarin and spearmint. The middle notes are: cedar, apple blossom and jasmine and the base of the fragrance is: violets, oakmoss and sandalwood. Tommy Girl is recommended for daytime wear.

 

"sparkling fruity floral" sounds like Katharina to me! You might also try Belle Epoque or Pannychis for this. I tend to avoid mint and cedar, so I'm no help on Tommy Girl.

 

 

White Diamonds says it contains: lilac, citrus. The middle notes are peach, jasmine, cattleya orchid, exotic spices and heliotrope. The base notes include amber.

 

Damn, you're making White Diamonds sound good! Isn't that the one Liz Taylor used to peddle? It hurts my brain.

Edited June 30, 2007 by Ahania

[Concupiscentia]

Try getting one of those big newbie packs on Ebay. Then you can find out what works for you.

[dany06]

Thank you all so much for the advice. Im glad to know that Im not the only person to go into this as a total novice. Everything sounds so good even the notes in white diamods just as Ahania said. It's gonna take some practice learning all of these smells. I hope this will be as fun as you guys make it look.

[evilbee]

Hmmm, how about Manhattan? It's elegant but bubbly and bright - sheer amber, black leather, white mint, lemon peel, white tea, grapefruit, kush, teakwood and orchid. Or maybe Horreur Sympathique, a darkly fruity, honey musk - blood musk, golden honey, thick black wine, champagne grapes, tobacco flower, plum blossom, tonka bean, oakmoss, carnation, benzoin, opoponax, and sugar cane.

 

I also agree with the Bordello and Les Bijoux recs.

[Serrated_Angel]

I wouldn't worry about not trying anything different than your preferences. With every order, you get free imps (we sometimes call them frimps or lagniappes)

 

While I assume they're just randomly tossed in before the box is shipped, I would swear that I end up enjoying those more, despite them being utterly different or the opposite of what I ordered intentionally.