The Illustrated Woman

[Wwindy]

Skin musk, smoky vanilla, pine pitch, patchouli, Indian resins, golden honey, and tobacco.

Ta-da! This is exactly what I was hoping Hexennacht '08 would be -- sexy smoky forest witchery! Hex revised didn't quite do it for me, but Illustrated Woman is gorgeous.

At first I get mostly the drop-dead stunning musk (which does seem amber-y to my nose); as the blend dries down, the tobacco comes out more and more, with the pine, honey, and vanilla playing supporting roles. The exception is on my wrists, where the vanilla is significantly more pronounced than in the crooks of my elbows or elsewhere.

The throw doesn't seem particularly big; in fact, I suspect this is sticking pretty close to my skin. I don't care, though -- as long as I can smell it I'm a happy woman!

(ETA Lab description) Edited July 17, 2008 by Wwindy

[djsiberia]

wet/in imp: PINE PINE PINE.

 

on me/dry: pine. sharp pine. egads...this is just sharp when sniffing. *cough cough*

 

i do think this would be a wonderful scent if the pine pitch wasn't there - it reminds me of urinal cakes. afer about 30 minutes the pine goes away and i can smell the sweetness of honey, the vanilla warms up and it gets a little smokey. not sure this one is for me and i think it's because of the pine.

[nekogrrl]

This is a very nice soft scent. The main notes I get out of this are the vanilla and honey. The tobacco really doesn't come out, nor the pine. After drying, the scent stays close to the skin.. doesn't seem to have a lot of throw.

[Pika]

Initially, this was a truly lovely scent on my skin. Musky, sweet, but smoky and woodsy. Almost a unisex blend, reminded me a little of Theodosius, but was truly delicious.

 

After about an hour though, it degraded away to a sweet, generic kind of conifer-y smell. I know it says pine, but I smelled douglas-fir, that "traditional" Christmas tree-y kind of smell. I happen to love douglas-fir scent on it's own, especially in the winter, but The Illustrated Woman kind of went to a generic cardboard-tree air freshener for me. I think the lingering vanilla and musk conspired to sweeten and corrupt the fir/pine, and the honey/tobacco just went away. Not sure what to do with this one, because it was so beautiful initially. Maybe a scent locket candidate or something.

[evilbee]

Without looking at the components, I wore this all day and each time I sniffed it I thought "It's a divine combination between The Shivering Boy and Hymn to Proserpine". I detect grapes (wine grapes or concord even), amber, pine and golden musk, a touch of honey and then some smoky vanilla. Now that I read what's in it... isn't that funny? No grapes at all, and that's what I totally smell.

 

I really love this and it goes through a million different stages. Sometimes it's all sweetened musk. Other times it's grapes and pine. And then it's all fruited amber. My least favourite stage is when it's entirely smoky vanilla, but only because it's so plain in comparison to the other stages.

 

I really love this. I even got a nice comment this morning from my boss. Hubby says "it's alright", but he doesn't really like musky scents. Oh well.

[MeiLin]

In the imp: Pine pitch and patchouli, maybe the resins.

 

Wet: Patchouli and tobacco. Very resiny and there was a weird, sickening whiff of floor soap--I think the pine.

 

Dry: Musk, vanilla, honey and tobacco. The resins and pine are gone and the patchouli has faded into the background.

 

Sir likes it. The drydown is splendid, four of my favorite notes together. This could also be a man's scent, again, on the right guy.

[Scylla]

In the vial, I smell pine and sharp musk. I'm a little scared! On application, it is Attack of the Pine Tree--at first. After just a couple of minutes, the pine pitch steps back and the patchouli, musk, vanilla and resins take over making The Illustrated Woman a lovely, "can't stop sniffing my wrist" kind of scent. I have an imp and I've almost finished it, and I'm feeling a little panicked because I Must. Have. More.

 

Of all of the Carnaval Diabolique scents, this is definitely in my top 3!

[Epiphany]

Damn.

 

In every other scent that I have tried so far that has 'tobacco' as a note, said evil plant-substance makes me smell like a stale old ashtray.

 

So I wasn't even going to bother seeking out a decant of Illustrated Woman for myself, but eventually grabbed an empty bottle (I'm a whore for the CD art, what can I say?). In the name of science I decided to test out the few drops left in the bottom.

 

First sniff from the bottle: Very strong piney-tobacco resin. Not promising.

 

Wet: A whiff of pine, but no tobacco in sight..er...smell. Huh. A bit of that smoky vanilla scent that I love in the Grindhouse, some patchouli...and then HONEY! Ahahaha! I win!

 

Oh wow. The drydown on this is exquisite. The pine pitch is there, but it is so...delicate (since when is pine pitch delicate?) and so subtly overlaid with gorgeous, gorgeous honey + vanilla. The resinous aspect of this (pine included) is certainly present, but it in no way dominates the blend.

 

God this is good. And I almost let it slip past me...

 

Also, as a point of comparison, I have Mead Moon on my other wrist and (to me at least) the honey notes are very, very similar. Different overall tone to the blend (Mead Moon=spiced-honey-booze, Illustrated Woman=dark resin honey)...but still...they're like...cousins. I kinda think I'm going to have to try layering them. Just because.

[GhillieDhu]

This is a work of art. Starts out deliciously piney (but it is sap, not needles) tobacco and morphs from there. 15 min. or so of vanilla that seems like it's going to go plastic but never quite does, then half an hour of overtly sexual skin musk and honey, then slow fade to a beautiful, long-lasting incensey skin scent of sweet honey and pipe tobacco with a hint of exotic resins. This would be a great everyday scent. Not too heavy in 95 degree heat, and likely to be even better in the fall... although on me, it has little enough throw even in summer that that may be a problem. Hoarding at least one bottle, two if I can get them.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 5/5

Summarised in a few words/smilie: Musky honeyed vanilla.

 

Preconceived notions/pre-review thoughts: This could either be amazing or amazingly bad on me. We shall see.

 

In the imp: Patchouli, pine, and tobacco! Nice, but very heavy.

 

On skin, wet: Tobacco and PINE. Very aggressive pine. Pine with dominance issues.

 

On skin, dry: Musky, resinous honeyed vanilla undercut by a deep pine. This? This is awesome. It's surprisingly faint, but I'd reapply as often as necessary. It reminds me of MME Moriarty: they're both deep, musky, patchouli-laden vanilla scents, and both are fantastic.

 

Conclusion: It started off iffy, but I'm won over. I'll definitely pick up a bottle or 50 -- this will need to be slathered to keep going, and given that it's all-pine-all-the-time in the decant and while wet, wearing it in a scent locket is out. If you like MME Moriarty, you may well like the Illustrated Woman.

Edited January 30, 2009 by Aredhel

[blu°]

This is wonderful once the pine has gone away a little, but it is SO LIGHT!!!

 

 

I can barely smell it unless I huff my skin closely, and even then it's more a trace of a memory kind of smell. It's a lovely smell - vanillic, warm, resinous, ever so slightly honeyish, with the lightest streak of bitter tobacco, but alas, it seems like either it is hiding in my natural smell, or I have a blind spot for it, I don't know.

 

I'm not quite sure if I'm rather disappointed or relieved that this doesn't come to live on my skin.

[nightbiscuit]

Ohhh yum. A plush, smoky, woody honeyed vanilla. Just like the woman herself, her complexity is dazzling and begs exploration. Wink wink, nudge nudge.

[Iceblink]

Straight-up sweet pine. And I mean PINE. I've not tried many blends with pine and apparently, I amp it like whoa, because there is NOTHING here but pine and maybe a wee hint of patchouli. Definitely not for me, but I'm glad I tried her!

[septima_pica]

The challenge here is whether skin musk will mean powder...usually happens around 15 to 30 minutes in.

Immediately: Smells like pine tar! Once it dries down, some other sweet stuff is evident. This is a good start.

5 minutes: Almost fruity. Not sure what causes that. The resins keep it from getting too sweet, though, especially that bitter pine tar.

10 minutes: Here's the tobacco and the honey. Everything else seems to be sitting on the vanilla quite effectively; it's present but not annoyingly plastic like it is in so many other blends. Lots of resin is good for me. Well, I guess I knew that already. I wouldn't call it sexy, exactly, but it's certainly very good.

30 minutes: Well, damn, I like this a lot. It's a very unique combination, the bitter resins with the sweet honey and vanilla, and the tobacco in between. I can smell the baby powder musk trying to get out from behind the other notes. We'll see if it manages to escape.

1:30: Aw. It's vanilla and musk now; all the lovely resin and pitch, as well as the honey, has dropped down below those two notes. Nice, but not really interesting anymore. I think I'll try layering Antikythera Mechanism with Dracul and see if it achieves a similar effect. At least it never went nasty powdery, I guess.

[Ms Density]

Am I sitting on the porch of a pine cabin surrounded by woods whittling a pine branch and smoking the best hand-rolled tobacco money can buy? No, but I smell like I am. And this scent makes me truly wish I were doing just that. If you’re a born and raised nature girl seduced into moving and living in the city, this will make your heart ache for twilit horizontal expanses of stars and years of clear, bright, cold moons keeping watch over the forest and you.

[oakmoss]

This scent is one of the most intriguing and mysterious I've encountered. In the bottle, the pine pitch whams you upside the head, and I was seriously scared to try it for many days. Finally got up the courage (armed with a nearby lemon in case I needed to take it off FAST) and applied it to my skin. Instantly -- and I mean INSTANTLY -- the pine was gone, and what remained was a rich vanilla spiced with resins, just a drop of honey to make it seductive, a fleeting glimpse of patchouli, a whiff of smoke, and a tingly sense of magic and power. It's like the pine melted into my skin, as ink flows in a tattoo and becomes part of me. This will be a blend I get at least two bottles of before the Carnaval leaves town. One of Beth's all-time best.

[ladyjc]

Are you serious? Am I the only person out there that gets just straight up SKIN.MUSK.OF.DOOM from the woman with all the tatoos?? I'm pretty heartbroken right now. I guess this confirms what I should have learned from Hexennacht. I canNOT do skin musk...especially if it's the first listed note

 

In the bottle: perfumey skin musk

 

Wet: perfumey skin musk

 

dry: perfumey skin musk

 

*washes arm with Dawn ultra*

 

*cries*

 

[twilighteyes]

This was the bottle I was looking forward to most out of this Act.

 

I love EVERY note in here... including pine. But the pine is so overpowering that I can't smell anything else. And since my skin has been ultra sensitive lately I'm all about the scent locket.. so the scent doesn't ever really morph from pine to anything else.

 

Maybe someday I'll be able to wear them on my skin again. I'm going to let it age a bit (as much as possible before the fabulous freaks leave town) and see if it changes for me.

 

Edited August 1, 2008 by TwilightEyes

[mazaru]

This scent is unexpectedly light and airy - I was expecting something much thicker and headier. Initially I found it too light - it almost disappeared on me, fading into the lightest touch of musk and resin, and very little else. Dry, the vanilla and honey started to come through, and I found it much nicer; still very close to the skin, with little throw, but rich and complex and mmm foody. Later on the pine came through, cutting the sweetness nicely and cooling the scent right down. It's an interesting scent, and one I will definitely wear on hot summer days.

[jehrichardson]

I only have a snimp of this one, thanks to a generous stranger!

 

Preconcieved Notion: I like the concept. Musk is good, and I'm learning to trust BPAL vanilla. I love pine, and imagine pine pitch to be deeper and tarry. Patchouli frustrates me - it usually takes over a blend to my nose, and I can't get past it. Resins - very good, I like resins. Honey - mmm... I can't tend to smell BPAL honey (like BPAL ginger, of all things) but I love the way it mellows and blends other stuff. Tobacco leaf is a favorite smell of mine. I predict I'm going to like this a huge huge huge amount, if the patchouli doesn't make it all nasty.

 

In the Snimp: The pine and resins are very strong. The patchouli is quite light... I can't really tell it is there

 

Verdict: I like. I want.

[tehriaz]

damn.. had high hopes for this one.

 

sickly sweet fake vanilla splattered on a generic rear view pine air freshener. just makes me think of clean leather seats. where are the exotic resins? where's the tobacco? gross.

 

it's making me a little bit ill

 

ETA: I take back EVERYTHING I SAID ABOUT THIS STUFF. oh my god it's so good and has a stay unlike any other bpal I've ever tried. I put some on at 5am when I went to bed, and woke up at 10 and could smell it on my arms and my boy. wonderful. it just needs a little time to mellow on the skin. and don't smell it close up because ech. but wafting... it's the most incredible thing I've ever smelled. WOW. need multiple bottles.

 

one more ETA:

 

DJFKLJHDKJHFKJDHF this is incredible

 

ETA ONE MORE TIME: euuughh! I just got a bottle of this stuff aged, and it's horrendous! it smells like fucking graham crackers and molasses with licorice overtones! what the fuck, I thought this shit would age well. this is gross. maybe I should sell my backup bottles now while they're still worth something.

Edited August 27, 2008 by tehriaz

[lilacea]

Wet: honey and peppery pine! The notes combine in a way that smells almost like fresh mango to me.

 

Dry: Stunning skin musk and and high pitched honey with fresh pine. Lovley and fresh smelling, but grounded. Slightly delicious. It's like fresh night time air.

Edited August 10, 2008 by lilacea

[zomathesadist]

this was one of my most anticipated CDs.

 

in the bottle it smells sort of...murky. and kind of medicinal, almost. not what i was expecting.

 

wet on skin: HONEY! that's really all I get. sweet, sticky, wet honey.

 

this threatens to go the No. 93 Engine way on me (overripe avocadoes) but though I don't smell the patchouli, pine or tobacco, I believe that's what's keeping the honey in check. STRONG. i agree with another poster; if you put your nose right up to it, it's too much but the waft is lovely.

 

sidenote: I asked the boy what he thought (he's my BPAL helper) and he sniffed and said, "Hmm. Snickerdoodles."

 

i think it will be nice once it's colder--definitely too heavy for right now.

[tasty]

I didn't want to try this at first because I am afraid of the pine note of doom. When I first applied this I was apprehensive that I'd come out smelling like I got into a fight with Father Christmas. What I got instead was Dad's Cologne...? At first it's very masculine and has that heady, herbal note that I get in a lot of guys fragrances.

 

About an hour later the eau de dude fades and what's left is slightly sweet (I would suspect it's the vanilla mingling with the honey) and something "fuzzy". I bet that's the skin musk playing tricks on my nose. I also could swear that there's amber in here somewhere but maybe I'm mistaken.

 

Overall, a nice scent, but nothing that I'm dying to hoard.

[zankoku_zen]

You know, I didn't think I'd like this one. I love the artwork of it - but I was worried about the tobacco and the patchouli and the honey. All of which can be very aggressive notes on me. I definitely get a whiff of pine, but I get a honeyed smoky resin underneath. It's strongly, slightly gritty, but womanly.

 

And yes, it does make me think of the picture and it's inspiration. Heh.

 

 

ETA: I had to try this again, and while the tobacco/patchouli bit is interesting, I find that honey sweetens very much, so it's a much sweeter blend than I would like, so I'm gonna have to pass this off to a good home.

Edited July 14, 2009 by zankoku_zen