ND¢

In the bottle: Cherry-ey. Like, Red Queen level cherry-ey. Ughhhaghhhugh; cherry is one of my least favorite oil smells. It always seems so artificial compared to, you know, cherries.

On me: Well, thank heavens that's gone. No cherry. This is clearly ylang ylang and myrrh, not that I know what those smell like, and is a sexy woman's scent, and reminded me of a perfume my mother had when I was little. Not, maybe, the scent itself (though to some extent, yes) but more the reaction I had to it then, the mysterious world of woman-things about which I knew nothing. Still waiting for my memo about when I get the info packet, by the way. Like Smut on me, but less overpowering. I don't get anything resembling sex or skin or 'aftermath' and so on. I do get that baby-powder hint people mention, but what I think it smells like is Nag Champa before you burn it. Exactly the same. Uncanny.

n the bottle: A strong whiff of some delicate flower.

 

On me: Definitely the lightest, crispest thing I've smelled from BPAL. Simple, fresh, even a bit herbal. Soothing. The reason it reminds me of freshly laundered sheets is because we fragrance our sheets, but it's still very clean and nice.

In the bottle: Musk and something spicy-herbal, a hint of the 'honey' sweetness.

 

On me: But the strength of the musk is dominant, then the balsam and juniper come out. (This patchouli is more of what I'd expect of patchouli, not very unique, but fortunately not the main smell.) I tried on Medicine Show for comparison and this is far more sharp wood, muskiness, with a hint of richness behind (honey, beeswax?). Medicine Show is more gentle, insidious and herbal, though it does sharpen to something similar.

In the bottle: Something dark and rich with a light citrus note.

 

On me: Lemon for a minute, what I think of as 'Lemon Pledge' but is probably something less complicated, after which a darker undertone begins to assert itself while the lemon is still in the foreground. Like cocoa powder, but unsweetened. Then I get a hint of musk and what I think (?) is the fig? At that point it really starts to seem unified as a scent and is giving off a non-contradictory whiff of some light, lemony-fig plant in the forest and the darker components of the forest itself (not a dirt smell, just a darker smell.) The musk doesn't dominate but adds a nice fullness; I would say that cocoa/walnut are more present than musk.

 

There was something I thought was honeyish coming out around half an hour... I suppose it might be rum. It doesn't seem to smell like rum, just richer. Definitely green, and the darker base managing not to overwhelm that is interesting. The light planty notes make it have a vibrancy (energy?) that most of the oils I've tried lately have been lacking. What I would love to do with a few drops of this is put them in an oil and use it, diluted, on myself when I wanted more energy and vitality.

In the bottle: Like sweet tobacco.

 

On me: A bit of leather, a bit sweeter and less spicy than Dee, which is what it reminds me of. I have a bottle of Dee, but I'll probably seek out more of this as well. Not herbal, definitely confined to scents like leather and sweet pipe smoke. A dry, evocative scent. I want to say it's vaguely Eastern, and recommend it to a friend who didn't like Kathmandu.

In the bottle: A light citrus.

 

On me: This really surprised me. I thought it'd be rich and honey-creamy-foodlike, and though I don't smell ginger, I do smell something light and herbal, almost leafy or flowery, delicate, that is just very comforting in combination with the slight, slight richness. Fresh. quickly fades (I hate how when they're not floral or musky or woody they're GONE) to a light greenness that's still very reassuring. I appreciated this one a lot.

In the bottle: Buttery and creamy and I wondered if I had the wrong one.

 

On me: No, there's the wood. A wood overtone for once, and there is a tangy sweetness... The butteriness I smelled earlier fades on me to a warm background, which seems to do well with my skin (Red Lantern) and the perfume continues to be strongly herbal and woodsy. Lots of ambiance, evokes the fall sort of nicely. A strong scent, not at all unfeminine. Just fresh, evocative. A keeper.

For the sake of thoroughness, I have Old Port-Au-Prince.

 

In the bottle: Light and sharply of sassafras, I think.

 

Got a good bit of sassafras/clove (evocative of Big Red). I can see the bay, too. It reminded me of my reaction to Jack: so strongly asserting the smells that they almost seemed like imitations. Waiting for some dissipation to see how that progresses, it... stays prominent. I think I'd have gone for bay/clove without the sassafras, because the latter two seem to overpower each other on me. I'm not picking up rum on me. Or butter.

In the bottle: Definitely the garden of blooms and not the dry earth or mosses.

 

On my skin: I almost didn't put it on due to my disaffinity with floral scents. The herbs have a slight presence, making it not purely floral. It smells like jasmine, I think? With something organic and dark (the mosses and herbs maybe struggling to come out from behind the jasmine?) Enough to give it a darker tone than some of my other floral scent reviews (Thalia, Languor) but richer than Dragon's Bone, which also smelled floral on me. Given the reviews on the forum, I think I'm in the minority in not reacting as expected with this one. I thought it'd be less bloom and more... the rest of it.

In the bottle: Sweet and musky, dark.

 

On me: Sweet musk. I immediately compared it to Vechernyaya (which I remember as being quite musky) and they're completely different. Vechernyaya is light and crisp and businesslike and professional. This is muddled, burnt caramel musky. After a while I got a weird, cherry response, but maybe that's just me smelling sugary things. It would fall into the category of scents like Hellfire '05 and Red Lantern on me, definitely evoking some sort of emotional response. But if I were going to go for that effect, Red Lantern 'went' better with me.

My bottle is Old Kathmandu, just for thoroughness' sake.

 

In the bottle: Spices and a hint of a vague herbal cleaning solution.

 

On me: Spiciness and sassafras. There is a cedar smell, but it's not as strong as all that. Depraved turns more strongly cedar on me for a while than even this, right now. I feel like whatever made Yggdrasil smell like Icy Hot to me is in this, too, or else the cedar smell doesn't seem as fresh-cut cedar as I'm thinking. The Icy Hot smell fades pretty quickly, and I'm left with a sharply wood-scented wrist with spices. Bit of sandalwood, too, yeah. Then the wood fades and the spices become more prominent (though this is a gentle perfume.) Then it's almost entirely a light, crisp cedar. No, there's the spice. It is an 'atmospheric' perfume.

I didn't think I'd ever like a scent that had to do with food. How naive I was.

 

In the bottle: Thick, rich caramel and spice.

 

On me: The spiciness of tobacco and some sort of, well, smuttiness keep the rich caramel from getting out of control. The currant may be lending some sweetness, but it's very subtle if I can even smell it at all. This smell really does capture a sort of soporific delirium, an indulgence. I love it.

In the bottle: Potting soil.

 

Wet: a super-strong smell of fresh, rich soil, with a hint of something like camphor that was previously mentioned, and a mushroom scent.

 

Dry: Pretty much like mushrooms planted in dirt. I feel like if I put on a lot of this and went out, people would wonder if I was just digging in the garden/myself out from the grave. Very simple. Hard to imagine smelling like this. But oh, I would.

In the bottle: Something sweet but not floral and underneath, alcohol (sort of vodka-ey or rubbing alcohol-ey.)

 

On me: Minty smell? What? Maybe that's pipe tobacco. I'm getting the leather. Okay, it's not minty now. A different leather than in Dee; a shiny leather. I confess I can see why people talk about it being lecherous, decadent.... It is sort of provocative, like it wouldn't be an appropriate smell for a business lunch. It dries down to a sweeter, incensy note. My impression is that this smells sexy in a classy/decadent way. I suppose I do get the sweet liquor impression, too. This is one of the most complicated I've tried yet. Glad I got two imps of this, because it's going to take some wearing before I decide to order a bottle even though, at the moment, the impulse is to order one.

 

ETA: I would test this against Dee and check the similarity if I was more motivated right now.

In the bottle: Herby.

 

On me: It is woody, but also spicy. A lot of the reviews make it sound like this is exactly what it's like walking through a dewy forest, but on me it's not a natural enough smell to really get there. Forests are more muted, subtle and complex (I'm surrounded by them and smell them when I walk out my door.) I also didn't think it smelled like a cleaning solution. It's the sort of holiday herb-spice scent I like. Come to think of it, I wonder if I could wear it with a bit of Hearth 2005 as a holiday smell.

In the bottle: a bit musky, fresh-smelling.

 

On me: More musk and amber than anything. It is a warm smell, and appealing. I truly don't get any leather or plains grasses in this one, and based on the reports I hoped they'd be in the forefront. I'm disappointed I didn't have the ecstatic reaction shared by so many... but he's a tricky one, that Coyote.

In the bottle: So floral... but I put it on despite misgivings.

 

On me: So it doesn't matter to me that I can't tell the difference between plumeria and lily/honeysuckle. It's killing my nose. The floral screams I'M A FLOWER. It's not subtle. I don't smell pear, champagne, just this sweet floral smell that's flooding my life. I had to wash it off. Couldn't even let it settle in. Based on the other reviews I'm sure this is a beautiful floral for someone who can wear them. It did smell elegant and 'rounded' (apart from how poorly I reacted to it.)

In the bottle: Not really getting patchouli. It does smell bizarrely like those chocolate oranges you smack on the bottom to get them to fall into pieces.

 

On me: The (orange blossom?) scent is actually quite apparent, overshadowing anything else. I also do get the ginger, albeit faintly. Nice, authentic ginger smell. Where's the patchouli? That sort of reddish spiciness, is that the patchouli? The chocolate-orange thing, was that it?

 

As time goes on, it gets a little sugary, like a red soda crossed with vanilla almost. This one seems to react well with me, but I'm not sure it's my style. Also, the patchouli in this has nothing to do with the patchouli in Depraved. That is an earthy green patchouli, and this is a red one. No, I have no idea if there are 'red' and 'green' patchouli. There just are. That's all.

In the bottle: No patchouli whiff and that's sort of surprising considering patchouli's tendency to win EVERY thumb war, if smells had thumbs.

 

On me: Wet, I just smell musk. As in, that's all I can smell in the world. WHOO STRONG. Fortunately it evolves into a scent safe for humans after about a minute. A light musk, complex, crisp, somehow seeming to have depth without being overpowering. The patchouli must be nearly nonexistent in this one. My fellow said he could smell it faintly, so the problem is clearly that all my... taste... is in my... mouth. Um, insert nasal equivalent. This does smell like the sort of thing you'd spend seventy bucks on in Nordstrom and get a cheaper, tawdrier scent out of (I don't know if I'm allowed to mention the one it reminds me of.) But I'll keep the imp, because there are occasions where musk would serve me well. It lasted forever, too, even through the Dr. Bronner's treatment.

In the bottle: A gum-like, candyish smell, with something herbal or medicinal very, very faintly behind.

 

On me: Bubble gum, cotton candy, with something like the waxiness of Crayola crayons. It does take me back to the things I liked as a child, but regardless of the potential voodoo hoodoo that you do, Auntie, I can't smell like candy or gum.

In the bottle: Oh my god. Johnson's Baby Shampoo. Suddenly I'm remembering sitting in the tub with my mom washing my hair, wishing she'd fill the tub more so I could be warm, wishing there was any truth to the saying 'No More Tears.'

 

On me: Sadly loses the completeness of that smell, which becomes adulterated with floweriness. Far as I can see, orris is a root of some species of iris (Thank you, Wikipedia) so it's funny that this smelled like Johnson's Baby Shampoo to me, since according to WP orris root is 'the substance left out of products that are labeled hypo-allergenic.' All right. I freely admit that I am ignorant about scents and can't toss around the jargon that others employ (accurately or no), so I look up a lot of stuff.

 

Okay, but the review. It is iris-y. I now accept that iris has a smell. The sage would come out on its own if the iris wasn't stronger, but it is there behind, keeping me from going NO! A FLORAL! Not by much, though. As an hour wore on, it smelled more like No More Tears again. Would that it could have smelled like that the whole time. I'm going to trade this one off for another DC scent I think, because although I love the fact that this goes Johnson's on me, the twenty-nine year old me has passed into other pastures.

 

Edited to add that the forty-five year old me hunted another bottle down after the birth of her son and is happy to have done it.) 

I confess I have really high hopes for this one.

 

In the bottle: Pleasantly foresty/musky, not overpowering, smells like a dryer sheet when I breathe out.

 

On me: Oh my lord, it really does smell like leather. Spiciness, fresh-cut wood and a touch of leather. The spiciness and wood takes over, but the leather comes out from time to time. Not the raw leather smell of a leather goods store, a faded, more cultured-seeming smell. It has a sweetness, but not a candy sweetness or a floral sweetness. I ordered a bottle of this unsmelled, so I sure am glad it's good. I bet it would be great on a man. Too bad the bottle is for me.

This was a strongly flowery perfume, so admittedly I didn't really expect it to work for me.

 

In the bottle: How anyone could say this does not smell like pure lily I don't know. Those huge, reeking lilies.

 

On me: I'm actually sneezing, so I had to wash it off. What I could tell before I was overwhelmed: I think the lily reacts somehow with my skin and overwhelms any other possible scent. There is a breath of rose, a hint of something darker, but it won't come out. Incense, something blacker.

In the bottle: Herby with a hint of spice.

 

On me: The spiciness immediately manifests itself, though I still smell clean wood and greenness. 'MMMM,' I said, putting on more. The spiciness does outweigh the wood, but is such an appealing spiciness that I was pleased about it. No tobacco yet, though the balsam is clear. Elemi is supposed to smell like fennel (thanks, Wikipedia) and I suppose there might be a hint of that. As it continues to dry, it smells less green and more spicy, definitely like opium and light, religious incense as it mellows. It is quite soothing. I didn't get any ginger. Tobacco at the end, as the incense fades. One of the most 'complete' smells I've tried yet. Really fulfilling. I've got to look out for a bottle of this one somewhere.

In the bottle: Buttery and nutty with an herbal tang (how odd.)

 

On my skin: I was expecting the butter/nut smell to overwhelm everything and was already disappointed in advance, but actually, the pine is there, and seems carefully calculated not to overwhelm the nut smell. I'd have had the pine/cedar a little more present, or the alleged smoke more present. Something to make this feel less like a foody scent. I'm not quite getting cedar yet, but maybe soon.

 

As time passes the pine comes out more strongly and the nuttiness recedes a bit. It'd be a lot nicer if it wasn't so ungodly butternut smelling for about half an hour. Then it goes back to nutty. By this time the cedar is present, faintly, but commensurate with how much is left of the smell at all. The final ghost of it on my skin is a musky honey, and that's kind of nice.