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BPAL Madness!
GodivaSyndrome

Smoky, Sweet Scents?

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Thanks for the recs everyone! For some reason I'd totally discounted Light of Mens Lives because I thought it was just beeswax, but I read the reviews and it sounds really lovely. I'll be getting some in my next lab order for sure.

 

Blood Kiss Bonbon sounds just fantastic, but Blood Kiss itself was play-doh on me so I'm not sure if I could pull it off. I'll see about trying a decant, though.

 

I'm also super excited about Witch Dance, it looks amazing, and I'd never even heard of it before!

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Defututa is my absolute favorite smoky sweet scent. I admit to not having tried many of the ones recommended and certainly not Liz with it's leather note of doom but sharing my love of the def

 

Olive blossom, honey, smoky vanilla, cinnamon, jasmine, sandalwood, and champaca flower.

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Digging this topic up because I just realized most of my top favorite scents are dark with both sweetness and smokiness. I don't like things that are pure smoke (Brimstone and Azathoth both failed on me) but when they're in combination with something sweet, jackpot. Examples of my favorites that have the dark, smoky sweet quality on me: Antikythera Mechanism, Xiuhtecuhtli, Goblin, Old Demons of the First Class, Perversion, Great Vampire Bat. Maybe even No. 93 Engine, it's not exactly smoky but it's toasty. Non-BPAL: Alkemia's Caveau des Innocents (sweet pear + spices + dark resins, though I'd like it smokier), Sixteen92's Salem (sweet earthy incense), Deep Midnight's Study in Brown (copal, sugar + smoke) and Halfling's Party (caramelized apple tart + smoke).

 

I can't do dragon's blood and tend to dislike herbal and green notes (exception: Black Tower - again, sweet + smoky - not my fave but still okay). I like myrrh but it seems to always amp up and smother everything else, so I usually avoid it. It doesn't have to be super sweet - resins and musks tend to be sweet enough on my skin. I have Hellfire, Black Rider, and Tlazolteotl headed my way, and I'm thinking those might fit the bill. Does anyone have more recs for dark, smoky sweet scents?

 

because what I really need to be doing right now is finding more smellies to covet

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Digging this topic up because I just realized most of my top favorite scents are dark with both sweetness and smokiness. I don't like things that are pure smoke (Brimstone and Azathoth both failed on me) but when they're in combination with something sweet, jackpot. Examples of my favorites that have the dark, smoky sweet quality on me: Antikythera Mechanism, Xiuhtecuhtli, Goblin, Old Demons of the First Class, Perversion, Great Vampire Bat. Maybe even No. 93 Engine, it's not exactly smoky but it's toasty. Non-BPAL: Alkemia's Caveau des Innocents (sweet pear + spices + dark resins, though I'd like it smokier), Sixteen92's Salem (sweet earthy incense), Deep Midnight's Study in Brown (copal, sugar + smoke) and Halfling's Party (caramelized apple tart + smoke).

 

I can't do dragon's blood and tend to dislike herbal and green notes (exception: Black Tower - again, sweet + smoky - not my fave but still okay). I like myrrh but it seems to always amp up and smother everything else, so I usually avoid it. It doesn't have to be super sweet - resins and musks tend to be sweet enough on my skin. I have Hellfire, Black Rider, and Tlazolteotl headed my way, and I'm thinking those might fit the bill. Does anyone have more recs for dark, smoky sweet scents?

 

because what I really need to be doing right now is finding more smellies to covet

If puddin has any of the atmo spray, chestnuts roasting on an open fire, it's sweet and smoky and amazing.

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Really, no one has said Sheol (Vibrant gladiola, graceful stargazer lily, triumphant iris and bright heliotrope flare, and is finally made somber by heavy copal, a drop of labdanum, and tonka) yet? It is INTENSELY smokey and INTENSELY sweet, so I hope you're down for the mega combo of both. ;) I know you're iffy about myrrh so Penitence might be too much, but the recent anniversary LE, Relics of Herself (Peru balsam, myrrh, frankincense, and ashes) is like a much lighter, sweeter version to my nose.

 

I seem to recommend this all the time (probably because it's my favorite), but seriously, Atlas (Mallow, oak bark, coffee bean, hinoki wood, and khus) is amazing. Like marshmallow s'mores with slightly chocolate-y woods and incense. The Gorobble (A scent redolent of the crusty exterior of burnt marshmallows) would likely fit the bill for you as well, but it was pretty popular and might be tough to track down now. There's also Cthulhu in Love (An amorphous mix of oppressive, piceous ritual incense, macerated kelp, sea salt, sticky dark ocean plants, and… mixed chocolates) which everyone thinks sounds disgusting, but is actually delicious. Kind of like smoky chocolate incense with a hint of green/aquatics, which works surprisingly well.

 

I posted up a review for Tattie Bogle (Hay, gunpowder, patchouli, autumn herbs, and sun-baked wood) today and you miiight like it. It does have herbs, and the smoke is fairly sharp. For me it settles into an outdoorsy, smoky and lightly sweet blend.

 

Midnight Mass (This perfume is a traditional Roman Catholic sacramental incense, most often used during a Solemn Mass) is also great; I'm 98% sure if you like "dark, smoky sweet" blends then it's pretty much the ideal. It's a recurring Yule so not tough to get hold of. Lastly Sissy, The Ascendant (Sassafras and smoke for black vulture feathers, and King mandarin and red musk for the deep red-orange of the vulture’s face. Blue lilac and chamomile / opoponax and vetiver for the blue and black of her eyes. Vanilla bean and fig represent her innate goodness and instinctive kindness) is very much this. It starts out kind of like root bear and incense, but settles into something beautiful and unique. Kind of fruity, rich sugar, dark incense.

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Priala is awesome for a smokey sweet thing.

I also use Bonfire Night layered with sweeter stuff, for me usually Suck It or Stage Blood (no stage blood for you, there's DBR there). It's way too smokey on it's own.

Layered with Tombeur it might be amazing.

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Digging this topic up because I just realized most of my top favorite scents are dark with both sweetness and smokiness. I don't like things that are pure smoke (Brimstone and Azathoth both failed on me) but when they're in combination with something sweet, jackpot. Examples of my favorites that have the dark, smoky sweet quality on me: Antikythera Mechanism, Xiuhtecuhtli, Goblin, Old Demons of the First Class, Perversion, Great Vampire Bat. Maybe even No. 93 Engine, it's not exactly smoky but it's toasty. Non-BPAL: Alkemia's Caveau des Innocents (sweet pear + spices + dark resins, though I'd like it smokier), Sixteen92's Salem (sweet earthy incense), Deep Midnight's Study in Brown (copal, sugar + smoke) and Halfling's Party (caramelized apple tart + smoke).

 

 

dusk, do you like tobacco scents? wearing incipient madness today and it made me think of you and this thread!

 

also, there might still be smutty goblin hg on the trading post's etsy. that to me is very sweet and the musks come across as a bit smokey (not as much as chestnuts roasting on an open pyre smoke). similar to that, and often lurking in the forum sales, is mopsfledermaus, which is dark and rich and somewhat smoky and sweet. warning: addictive!

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Thanks for the suggestions! I'm a little cautious of the iris in Sheol, but I do love copal, so since it's GC I might give it a try. Atlas sounds amazing! And the Gorobble, if I can find any. Especially since that's my cat's nickname, and I'm pretty sure marshmallow scents would be her thing if she was human. :) Cthulhu in Love sounds weirdly appealing. Sissy the Ascendant has a lot of winning notes! Definitely going to look for that. Tattie Bogle could go either way - I think with gunpowder and herbs it could turn into acrid powder on my skin.

 

Penitence, Relics of Herself, and Midnight Mass will be on my radar, but I'll wait until I can get myrrh to behave in a blend where it's a smaller factor, first. Priala, same issue. Which is sad because I do like myrrh as a note but after an hour or two my skin is all myrrh all the time.

 

Devil's Night looks good from the description, then I scrolled through reviews and saw "jolly ranchers," and since some unnamed musk does exactly that on my skin, I'm going to give it a pass.

 

Hmm, I'm going to have to try smoke + Tombeur. Fantastic idea.

 

eta: Tobacco? Yes please! Yes yes yes. Incipient Madness, will try. I'll look into the others too. Thanks!

Edited by Dusk

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I'll add in another vote for Perversion, and Old Demons of the First Class, and definitely Xiuhtehcutli, though I'll also toss in one for The Great Sword of War. I get a sort of smoky, musky orange-dark-chocolate thing with tobacco sweetness and a light herbal note, with a sweet tonka backdrop. So delicious and amazing, I almost want to eat my arm when wearing it sometimes. And Antikythera Mechanism is amazing, though I'd never think to call it smoky. I mostly get sweet and woodsy from it.

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Might I suggest, skekUng the Garthim-Master -- it's attacks on the offset with smoke and vetiver, but I find on me, the dragon's blood resin really steps forward... perhaps a little too much. I was hoping for a drier scent, like Agnes Nutter, but skekUng, mellows out into a slightly, sticky-sweet, cherry scent with the initial fireworks being more subdued.

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