Eden

[lucy gray]

... This oil contains the innocence of the Garden, coupled with the Truth and Erudition found in the fruit of the Tree of Evil: fig leaf, fig fruit, honeyed almond milk, toasted coconut and sandalwood.

Milky scents tend to be hit-or-miss on me; sadly, Eden landed on the miss side. It's a very ripe scent, with the big juicy fig* battling the sharp sweetness of the coconut/almond for domination. I think on someone else it could be gorgeous, but on me it's sickly sweet.

*And when I say big, I mean BIG. I kept hearing Tim Gunn's voice in my head going "Hmm, I have to say I'm a bit concerned. That's a lot of fig."

[Andrea912]

Gorgeous; the fig is toned down and rounded out by the smoky honey and milk; this is a keeper

 

ADDED Dec. 16:

 

Bottle: heavy almond, medium coconut, touch of fig and sandalwood

 

Wet: heavy fig now; can't tell if it's leaf or fruit...coconut is gone, milk is now subtle, and sandalwood is starting to blossom...

 

Dry: honey almond milk and fig is the overtone with a touch of milky sandalwood

 

Sensual, sexy, foodie without sugar...very nice.

[Iceblink]

Oooh. How come I never tried this one? It's delicious--coconut and almond and a hint of fig to spice things up. The milk gives it a creamy-sweetness that I really like. This smells like something you'd wear to bed for the comfort quality. Very yummy!

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Sweet, fluffy coconut and almond.

 

Immediately on skin: This smells like almond and coconut frosting. It’s sweet, creamy, and fragrant. There’s a slight hint of fig (the fruit) in the background of this, but the coconut and almond definitely dominate.

 

After a little while: The almond and coconut confection I was getting at first has faded into something a bit less foody and sweet. The fig fruit has come out a lot more and is the base of this scent now, and the coconut and almond blend in lightly, along with a nice touch of sandalwood. There is also a little green bite to this from the fig leaf that I can feel as I sniff this. There’s a grittiness to this that wasn’t evident in the blend until the fig came out as well.

 

Overall Impressions: This blend was love at first sniff… until it morphed that is. I loved the almond and coconut frosting scent that I got out of the imp and immediately on my skin, but when this dried down the fig started to dominate the blend and gave it an almost gritty and sour feel. I’ll have to try this in my scent locket because I love the wet stage of this.

[maika]

In the imp, pure coconut

 

Wet, it's sweet and musky, almost candylike, but in a rose undertoned, turkish delight kind of a way...and even saying that, not foody, but almost maternal - very comforting.

 

Dry, it's coconut. But the rose seems to be floating underneath it, so while I normally don't like coconut on me I'm enjoying this. It's reminding me of something...I just wish I could work out what. Actually, I think I've worked it out...it smells exactly like coconut ice on me...and I used to make that with my mother when I was little, no wonder I thought of it being maternal and comforting.

It's morphing again though...the coconut is dissapating, in favour of something that smells like lilies. That in itself doesn't make much sense given the scent notes, but that's what my skin is giving me.

Ultimately though, the coconut is getting stronger, (even after I said it was fading...it was obviously only teasing) so it's getting a little too foody for me. I can't smell the sandalwood at all, so unless that makes an appearance this is not really going to work for me. I do think it's very pretty though.

[Schmoozy]

First Sniff: Almond, coconut and sandalwood.

 

On Skin: Sweet honeyed figs, coconut, greens, and sandalwoo. There is a touch of almond in the background. I can't believe how comforting this scent is. Besides comforting, can I just say I feel very sexy as well. The sex appeal reminds me of O. It must be the honeyed almond milk. Slightly foody, but there is this presence of green from the fig leaf.

 

Drydown: For the most part sweetness from honey can be a hit or miss. Thankfully, the honeyed almond milk and all it's sweetness, fades fast and drops completely to the background. I am left with fig and coconut and sandalwood.

 

Final thoughts: A beautiful, comforting scent that makes me feel like the most sexiest woman alive in my grannie panties and flannel nightgown.

[rayvn1]

This smells on me exactly as the description says - warm fruit and milk. Yummmmm! I had bought this from Ebay as an extra along with Hay Moon. Figured I should try some feminine scents along with all the Troll and Calico Jack I'd been ordering. This wasn't quite what I had expected since it IS feminine, but very much Woman with a capital "W". This isn't fragile flower-woman but serious earth-mother. That's all I can come up with to explain how rich and warm this is. Definitely a keeper!

[Emera]

IN THE IMP: Warm, smooth almond milk followed by the buttery coconut, which is a very odd counterpoint to the light tartness of the almond. The almond becomes a little high-pitched, which I hope won’t happen on skin.

 

ON SKIN: A golden combination of sweet almond milk and coconut, which is definitely nutty and toasted, not fresh. The earthy fig becomes more evident, but remains in the background. The almond/coconut combination oddly reminds me of Love’s Philosophy, which very faintly like coconut macaroons to me, but the subtle fig gives it much greater depth and maturity.

 

LATER: This goes through many stages! For a while it moves into a sort of deep, fruity-creamy stage much like Yerevan, with the fig really emerging. The final-final drydown is a lightly spicy, musky fig (and fig leaf?) – lovely. Unusual, yummy, and wearable.

 

SUMMARY: Light, smooth almond milk and nutty coconut grounded by earthy, musky fig. Warm and sweet, not quite foody, not quite fruity. Good throw, short wearlength (~3 hours).

[zankoku_zen]

I think the fig in this makes me think of the horn. It's fig and coconut and soft and musky. If you like fig and/or coconut, you definitely have to try this.

 

I can see this scent being popular.

[Victory]

I received Eden as a lab frimp and tried it without looking at the notes. The first thing I noticed was a scent similarity to some of the fall-themed oils, which I think must be the fig. I smelled almond- yum!- and the coconut, which seemed to me to be a coconut- milk/cream fusion. In the dry down, the honey popped up- another yum! When I sniff my wrist, the fig was most prominent, followed later by the honey. Behind my ears, the throw is all creamed coconut. It made me think a little of Obatala, the only coconut scent I've enjoyed, but while Obatala is very cool and watery, Eden is warm and milky. I like it!

[mgrazulis]

Fresh imp from the lab...Eden is gorgeous! Earthy fig doused in toasted almond and honeyed milk. It does go through a fabulous creamy stage, but alas, in the drydown the sandalwood goes powdery on me! Back to the imp box Eden goes to age!

[vikitty]

Eden is wonderful. I get the most droolworthy toasted coconut and almond on my skin from start to finish. The throw is average, staying power was about 3 hours.

[Dark Alice]

wet in the imp: sandalwood and something else floral and fruity.

 

 

Drydown: Plasticky Coconut and fake almond oil.

 

Off to swaps/frimp pile.

[brettashley]

Wet: smells delicious! I like coconut & fig, so I was really looking forward to this, and it was simply gorgeous. Sultry, comforting, sweet in a fruity way... it called up images of a damp, hot day in a fertile garden.

 

Dry: Mm. Still delicious but... wait. is that soap I'm detecting?

 

1.5 hours later (i.e., after lecture): DAMN. It's completely gone, and whatever whiffs of Eden I happen to catch smell like *soap*

 

I really wanted this to work for me! (But I suppose it's better for my wallet that it didn't. )

[gargouille]

In the imp: HOLY ALMOND!! Strong enough to make me cough.

 

On me: This starts out as a strong almond scent; as it dries, it's tempered a little bit by something vaguely fruity-floral. Still, almond remains the super-dominant note and I feel as though I smell like a bakery around Christmas time. Undoubtedly a pleasant scent, but not at all perfume to me. I'm not big on almonds in any case though; I imagine this would be great for almond-lovers.

Edited October 27, 2008 by gargouille

[jencallisto]

In the imp: Oh. Oh my god. If this were a dessert I would eat this up so fast. It would make a wonderful ice cream, actually. Perfectly ripe fresh figs just swimming in cream, drizzled with rich, dark honey. God, I love this.

Fresh on the skin: If there were such a thing as a fig and honey gelato scratch and sniff sticker, I think it would smell like this. There's enough of something else -- I think probably the sandalwood -- that makes it not quite entirely like dessert, but it's really close. I also think the coconut is getting in the way of the amazing fig I smelled in the imp, a little bit, and coconut can sometimes smell a bit soapy or lotiony to me. This is a little too much like tasty-smelling suntan lotion for comfort. Only with honey. It's still lovely, anyway. We'll see how it dries down.

7 minutes later: Oh my god. The air around me smells amazing right now. Like I want to find whatever's making that incredible creamy honey and exotic fruit smell and just gobble it up. God, so good.

15 minutes later: This is amazing. It's sweet and rich without being heady or syrupy or cloying -- no headache in sight. And at the edges of the scent I'm starting to get something oddly less sweet, a bit green, a bit woody, that's probably some combination of sandalwood, fig leaf, and unripe fig. It does still sort of smell like suntan oil, though. But the kind that kind of makes you want to find out if it's edible.

1 hour later: This is still amazing, but I think it's starting to give me something of a sugar high! The image I get is of a ripe fresh fig, cut in half, the cut side dipped in white sugar, crystals starting to turn clear as they melt.

2 hours later: Ah, this is doing that powdering down to mostly honey thing that honey notes seem to do on my skin. Luckily I like that, and this one's still got some complexity to it. The sandalwood is coming through more now, making it a little more perfumey.

3 hours later: And we've reached the cloying stage, all honey lozenge and potpourri. It doesn't have much throw anymore, which is probably good because I don't love this stage, but it's still very present on my wrist.

4 hours later: Still there.

5 hours later: Fading fast. Probably doesn't help that there's still the inexplicable lingering lilac scent of Dragon's Blood from when I applied it yesterday.

7 hours later: There's just a little warm sweetness still there, but with barely any distinct character.

 

Verdict: I really really enjoyed this, and the early stages were astonishingly striking. It is _extremely_ sweet (though much less cloying than that might imply), which I might not always be in the mood for, and I'm a little worried about the hints of suntan oil. Plus I didn't love the linger, though I didn't really hate it, either. But mostly, it was intensely delicious in a very foodie way, more so than any of the oils I've tried so far, even Shango, whose tropical fruit cocktail nature made me want to slurp it off my wrists. I conveniently have two imps of this (thanks, Lab!), so I'll probably wait on the big bottle until I see how often I use it. But I know I'll be reaching for it again.

 

One phrase: fig and honey gelato

Edited November 4, 2008 by jencallisto

[Sapphiremo0n]

In the bottle: Screaming Almond and Nothing else. I hope a little air will mellow it out so the other things come through.

 

Wet on my skin: Almond and coconut. It smells strongly toasted, and highly edible.

 

Dried and time elapsed: Almond and coconut have faded back enough for the fig and sandalwood to blend in. I love this as a sandalwood blend. I'm so glad I have my Imp and my GF has a bottle. this one is Paradise ;-)

[RottenLullaby]

In the imp - cake and fruit, reminds me of a christmas dessert. (or maybe it’s the season? Lol.)

 

Wet on skin - Cake with a hint of fruit, I guess that’s the fig, coconut start to emerge.

 

dry down - a powdery almondy coconut. The fig leaves almost completely, but its still lovely and totally foodie.

 

Overall - A foodie scent, but not one in a “MMM I must eat this” sort of way, it reminds me of a dessert but still a perfume and deffetinly something I’d want a bottle of.

[milica]

in the imp and wet on skin, cake and something sharp, almod does that sometimes to my skin, smells like burnt nutts.

 

after a while, cake smell dissapears, then fruitiness and something creamy comes out, and after few more minutes everything turns to coconut, with a bit of fig, almond, honey and a hint of sandalwood.

 

I don't like foodie scents, but this is a bit differend and I kind of like it, maybe because of the sandalwood. still, not for me.

[gnl]

Bottle: My first thought upon sniffing this was "Wow! Christmas wreath!" I have no idea where that came from, as the impression instantaneously went away, but yeah. What it does smell like is a lovely combination of honey and fig. It's warm and lovely, I can only hope it stays this way on my skin.

 

Wet: Mmmm. Very warm and sweet, fig with coconut, almonds, and a bit of honey. Smells like something that would be lovely to drink.

 

Dry: Once in a while, while drying, it juuuuust toes the line of turning plastic, but never actually does it, thankfully. Everything's blended together so nicely now, it's hard to pick out individual notes besides the fig.

 

Verdict: Beyond the initial reaction, I'm not getting any of the green that everyone was mentioning. It is, however, a very lovely scent that I will definitely be keeping and likely getting more of.

 

4/5

[obsidienne]

Eden is absolutely, utterly fantastic! I can smell the toasted coconut, honeyed almond milk and fig. The fig seems to develop as the central note as it wears on me. This blend is slightly sweet, foodie, and warm. Slightly tropical.

 

Beautiful beautiful beautiful.

[Saya]

In the Imp

Nom nom nom. Milk, almond, honey and coconut make this a great scent in the imp.

 

On My Skin

This is a decadent scent! The almond is sweet rather than bitter, it reminds me of marzipan cake. The honey, coconut and milk work to make this a very creamy blend. The fig and sandalwood are begining to come out adding just another layer of complexity. I’m super impressed, this is wonderful.

 

After a Bit

Some of the initial complexity of this scent has died down. Now it’s primarily coconut and almond, but not much else. It’s still really good but not the OMG WTF good that it was when I first applied it.

 

Rating 1-5 (5 being best)

Scent - 4.5 Throw - 3 Longevity - 3

Overall (not an average) - 4.3

 

Final Thoughts

I’ve got to try this out in a scent locket. It was one of my favorite BPAL smells straight out of the imp and I’d love to recapture that scent and make it last. Even if I can’t do that I still think this is bottle worthy. I’ll just have to reapply often.

 

 

[kikithepirate]

Coconut and almond are two of my favorite notes, so it's unsurprising that I love this. The milky quality doesn't go sour or plastic like in some BPAL oils, and the fig leaf adds just a slight sharp note that helps this smell like quality perfume, and not some coconut body spray you bought at Walgreens.

[Lamia]

In the bottle and fresh on skin, this is painfully coconut, but not sunscreen chemical coconut - it's a foody version. Almost instantly, a peach/mango scent bursts through.

 

This smells like ... coconut cookies, with fresh sliced ripe tropical fruits laid out on a pretty tray on a warm sunny day.

 

Too coconutty. Trade bag.

[Bluestocking]

In the imp: Sweet, creamy, both fruity and nutty, and very delicious-smelling. I get mostly the juicy green fig, surrounded by honey, almond and coconut,. This smells like a plate of fresh figs and coconut macaroons, drizzled with sticky honey.

On, wet: The fruit, leaves and sandalwood really bust out when this hits my skin, so now they're front-and-center with the coconut, with the sweeter elements tempered by the dry sandalwood and lush green fig leaves. It's less creamy now, and almost exactly like the garden of Eden itself—fresh and green and perfect. The honey and almond are just in the background, biding their time.

On, dry: The creamy elements are back, but they haven't elbowed the fig and leaves out of the way at all—it's just a symphony of sweet/nutty/fruity/fresh/creamy/woody bliss. The sandalwood is a nice woody base for all the other elements: sweet honey, juicy figs, glossy green leaves, creamy almond milk. The toasted coconut (emphasis on toasted) dances around all of them giving off these brilliant little whiffs now and then. And for all the foody elements, this isn't heavy or too rich.

Later: Coconut is most prominent now, followed by the figs and honey. Fig always takes on a kind of brown sugary smell on me after a while, which in this case blends perfectly with the honey and coconut. The sandalwood is nice and mellow underneath, grounding everything.

Much later: Coconutty sandalwood—sweet, dry, toasty wood.

Overall: Eden is the right name for this blend, because it smells like paradise. I've been searching for a honey scent that wasn't too heavy or overwhelmingly sweet, as well as a scent that had as much coconut as I wanted. Lucky me, because Eden satisfies both of those needs! It's complex, combining many different elements (fruity, green, creamy, foody, nutty, woody) into one smooth, beautifully blended perfume. This also had great throw and wear length, so I was walking around all day trailing a little cloud of warm, coconut-fig paradise everywhere I went. (And people noticed, too, because I got a ton of compliments.)