Silk Road

[donnatron]

A panoply of cultural treasures, spanning the herbs, flowers, oils and balms of the Romans, the Byzantines, the Mediterranean, the Levant, Northern China, Eastern Europe, Iran, the Bulgar-Kypchak, Mesopotamia, the Crimean Peninsula, Anatolia, Antioch, and North Africa.

Imp: Huh. It's a surprisingly clean smelling, light scent. It reminds me of... the Dormouse, maybe? I'm not sure.

Wet: Oh... it's the tea that's making me think of the Dormouse. Tea goes on my skin, tea makes me smell like I don't wash. I think I'm still batting a 100 when it comes to tea scents going funky on me. Le sigh.

Dry: Where'd it go? Seriously. My skin ate this like there was no tomorrow. I don't even know what the drydown smelled like.

Throw: Other than the few minutes of funk I experience at the beginning, there is nada.

Overall: I love tea. I drink cups and cups of it every day. My tea collection rivals my BPAL collection. And my body has made it very clear that I am to never wear tea scents. EVER! It's a shame because it is quite the pretty scent. Hopefully it will lend itself well to the oil burner or the bath tub.

ETA: Through reasons I still don't quite understand, I wound up with a colbalt 10 ml of Silk Road. My original review of this scent came from an imp lot with several suspect imps and this probably was one of them. I am fond of my bottle because it smells like clean, fresh linen with a cup of chai tea with no milk or sweeteners. It's light, fresh and clean and I wear it to work on a fairly regular basis. It's a lovely scent and definitely one that I find gets better and better with age. Edited July 21, 2011 by paperrose

[AEris]

I can smell ginger, and maybe a hint of cinnamon or some other spicy essence, but other than that, this is a mysterious spicy blend with a zing of crispness to it (maybe something vaguely citrusy, like bergamot or lemongrass?). I'm also getting the rice-dust impression at the opening that someone else mentioned in a previous post....

 

It's very unique to my nose. The closest thing to Silk Road that I've ever smelled (which is not to say that it smells identical) is Zinzibar from the Body Shop, and the main note in Zinzibar is ginger, so that must be why I'm dragging that comparison out of my dusty bwain.

 

This is quite lovely, my favorite frimp from my last Lab bottle-order-binge. So different!!

 

4.8 out of 5

[veronicafranco]

My first ever bpal…

In imp – a sweet cinnamonish smell, but not as nice as cinnamon - maybe cassia? And a slight hint of cleaner-y resin/incense. Huh. Will still see what the fuss is all about ;^}

On, wet, much the same. As it dries, it has a nice warm feeling to it (the smell, not the actual temperature of the oil on my skin) but I am still definitely not getting “panoply.” Just cinnamon and incense.

Eventually I am detecting something more peppery and a fruity note, maybe mandarin. Like 2 hrs in, it has a nice phase where the mystery spice has faded, leaving an interesting well-rounded and blended goldeny smell. But after a while I am left with the mystery fruit and the unidentified resin-i-don’t-love. Meh. At that point I washed it off.

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: sweet and spicy. i get hints of tonka, cinnamon, clove and cassia. mmmmmmm

 

wet on skin: this is like MB:Underbed's sister. sweet, heavy on the cassia, but without the cake aspect of my beloved Underbed.

 

dry down: the cassia stays true.

 

in all: this cassia is so predominant in the is blend, i'm tempted to call it a single note! if you like cassia blends (which i DO) this is one to try. it's less foodie, but just as spicy as some of it's other incarnations.

 

 

 

[jaeyne]

To me, wet it smells like cinnamon/cassia and it kinda gives me that skin burn like cinnamon oil would. I'm not crazy about this stage of the morph. After a half an hour or so the incense/resin finally comes out. There are other incense blends I like better. I don't think I'd buty a big bottle.

[CrazyPretzel]

From an aged imp:

 

Definitely dry cinnamon, but with a weird fruity note on my skin that makes me think fruity chapstick. Kind of like a fruit lollipop melted in a wooden chest...?

 

I guess this isn't a success on me!

[greenranger]

I wanted to love this one, but, I'll have to settle for liking it for now. Maybe something will change with my chemistry or aging it will help.

 

 

Wet on me, there's a high note like wind in the mountains. Then the breeze fades slightly, and under the wind there is the spice from the much closer market or a laden caravan traveling on a dusty unpaved road.

 

 

Then, when it dries, it's cinnamon with a couple extra spice notes in the background....a nice scent, but the trip was too short. The cinnamon scent does last a decently long time, though.

[gchris]

Initially, herbs. Then floral but with the hint of herbs in the back ground.

[ouch!]

Silk road to me smells like Cinnamon tea when it's wet, like a dry cinnamon tea. It smells nothing like I expected it to.

 

The spicy cinammon part dies down VERY quickly so it's more mellow, in fact it's almost instantly..this oil does not want to stay around for too long.

 

It does change slightly when it's dry but not very much and I have no idea what's going on with it. The cinnamon is holding on but something is mellowing it out a hell of a alot. It's hard to describe.. It's taken all the spicy kick away and it's fading fast into a soft cinnamon smell...

 

This one is making me think!!!

 

[taramarie]

On me, Silk Road is cinnamon, tea, herbs, maybe a little musk, and what I think is patchouli. It's interesting but not me. Unfortunately, the cinnamon started to burn so I had to wash it off. Someone else can enjoy this.

[stillalive]

This is one of my favorite scents, I think... it's very similar to Bengal but without the massive headache right off the bat. Much more relaxing than Bengal, much richer than Shanghai. My first impression was of the faint cinnamon, then incense, then something very green, then something quite brown, then something... deserty. It's so many different scents in one, but they all go so well together.

 

To me, this is the scent of an ancient, far-Eastern prostitute forced to make a long journey. I can smell the perfume she adorns herself with, the incense and other goods of the traders she travels with, some sort of male scent from her clients, a richer warm but ever so slightly bitter scent from her owner, the grass, trees, dirt, and sand from different lands, even a touch of some sort of tea or drink brewing? It's confusing but in a terribly relaxing way. I'm in love with this... when my imp is gone I'll probably have to buy a huge bottle.

Edited June 21, 2008 by systemaurora

[marared]

Morocco, Bengal, and Silk Road seem to be the Big Three when it comes to warm, spicy Middle Eastern blends. Now, Morocco is immediately identifiable, but I had to dredge up Bengal because I thought Silk Road was very reminiscent of it. After smelling the two together, Silk Road is drier, dustier, like dry tea herbs and spices in a pot whereas Bengal is tea already brewed and steaming. I bet layering these would be awesome...

[ErinZ]

Wet in imp:

spices

 

Wet on skin:

ginger, sandalwood, "cool," minty spices and herbs - almost a cinnamon/mint

 

Drydown:

develops to vanilla/mint/wood

 

Wearlength:

lasts fairly well

 

Final impression:

This one surprised me. It was a frimp from the lovely and wonderful labbies, and I'm so thankful they sent it. I would have never chosen it myself, but I adore it. It's very warm, grounding, and comforting.

[dzurlady]

A clean, soft, light scent. It reminds me a little of a cake, but not in any kind of foody way. I like it, but I'm not sure I'd ever reach for it. Pleasant, well blended, dry but not incredibly so. I find the cinnamon well blended and had to specifically look for it to find it, but it is there.

 

ETA: It might make a nice room scent, I think.

Edited August 20, 2008 by dzurlady

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Very complex… spices, and this aquatic almost cucumber-like note mainly.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a very complex, full blend. There’s something to the base of this that is almost cool, like cucumber or chamomile. The rest of this is full of warmth: spices, herbs, maybe even a little bit of flowers. There’s definitely cinnamon here, and possibly nutmeg too. It has this really balanced quality to it, but it’s very full of different notes. Eek, and within a couple of minutes of having this on, it is itchy and my skin is getting a bit red.

 

After a little while: This blend is so interesting; it has a very nice cool/warm balance to it and some great smooth spiciness. This smells like a cool flowery breeze through clean linens and the rich smell of all different sweet spices nearby. Very intoxicating.

 

Overall Impressions: This is one of those hard to explain scents… I really haven’t tried much else like it. It’s like the blend is a balance between cool and warm scents; the cool note seems like it may be cucumber, though I’m probably wrong, and the spices contain cinnamon among other things. There’s an underlying floral quality which is nice too. Seriously something you have to try for yourself. So very unique and pretty.

[Allumina]

This was really pretty- it smells like a fancy exotic spice shop. Don't know if I want to smell like that, but it's a nice, comforting smell. Not much of a morpher. There's cinnamon in here. Yum.

[inurbanus]

This smells almost exactly like Bengal to me, except there's something musty in the background that's not very appealing. The spice seems to be primarily cinnamon or cassia, but I can smell a little bit of ginger too. I guess I was hoping for a more incensey vibe from this. I'm sure it's a good blend for spice-lovers, but it's not really for me.

 

3/5

[ALoversCurse]

Haha the first thought that went through my head in putting this on was 'I smell like... hippie?' It was redolent of those tiny, dim shops full of character selling incense and new age CDs. After it dried down and settled into my skin a little more it softened and took on a more mysterious flair that made me want to reach over one of the boys in class just to see if he inhaled in appreciation. I'll for sure wear this when I want to make heads turn!

[DarthArwen]

I'm surprised to see so many comparisons to Bengal here, because I immediately said 'Plunder!'

 

I love spice scents so I had to try this one. Straight off I get cinnamon, pepper, tea and a hint of ginger. Maybe a trace of incense in there too. It's very dry, which is why I thought of Plunder - Bengal isn't dry on me at all, except when it's aged a couple of years. Silk Road is nice, but I didn't think it was different enough or special enough to really make it stand out. It also gave me a bit of skin irritation. I think I'll put this one in the swap box.

[Iceblink]

Spicy! Almost identical to Bengal to my nose, with maybe a hint of tea and woods. This'll eat my skin alive but it certainly smells fantastic.

[smokey188]

smelt lovely but unfortunately it would seem that cinnamon doesn't like my skin it burns.

[GalaxyLei]

It's hard to pick individual notes out of this--it's a warm, dry, well-blended mix of spices, and doesn't really smell like a perfume, more like it's the scent of a person who happens to be traveling along the road, or the scent of the journey itself. My very favorite BPAL!

[femmefatale]

I was sent this by my super sweet swapper. Oh my, I am so happy I got to try this!

 

It smells clean and spicy at the same time, almost like a docked trading ship. I swear I get some water mixed with cinnamon & ginger with a touch of honey to sweeten it and some herbs (maybe tea) in the background.

It's beautiful and I think I'm going to need a bottle.

[crebbsgirl]

So I've wracked my nose about this one, and I still don't have any idea what's in here. It's possibly the most complex and intriguing blend I've tried thus far. There's very much a spice and incense vibe here, and someone mentioned it's similarity to chai which I must agree with. I don't get any cinnamon here, but maybe nutmeg and cardamom? I think I can pick out myrrh as well. It must be noted however that the incense note here is very light and not-at-all headshopy. On me, I didn't get any floral notes. This was very delicious indeed.

[toomuch]

Nice! Very complex. I keep getting different scents at different times of the day. It's spicy and oily and herby and flowery. I can't really pin it down because it keeps changing. It's on my maybe-a-bottle list.