The Organ Grinder (2006)

[edenssixthday]

Almond milk, sarsaparilla, tobacco smoke, black patchouli and white pine bark.

The Organ Grinder - I wanted so badly to like this one because I was so excited about the almond milk and sarsaparilla combination. Sadly, the strongest notes on me are the black patchouli and the white pine bark, two notes that just don’t work for me at all. I can smell the sweet, rooty sarsasparilla behind the top notes, and I love it and hope Beth makes more blends someday using this note, but with the patchouli and pine bark, this scent is just way too heavy, dry and masculine to suit my taste.

[sarahmarie]

Wet, this is very piney, with sweet undertones. I sort of imagine I smell the almond milk, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

As it dries, there's a nuttiness that emerges. It's not almond-y per se, it's nutty and sweet, sorta creamy. Almond milk! Pine and almond milk are really the main players on my skin. There's a warm, creamy quality to this scent that ties it together. My thoughts about this scent aren't fully formed - it's unusual enough that it's going to require another wear to really process, I think. But it's definitely fascinatingly different, and I like that about it.

[filigree_shadow]

This does seem to be a masculine scent at first, but when it dries it softens up a lot from the almond milk. I'm not really getting sarsaparilla out of this (if that smells like what I think it smells like -- I might be thinking of something else). Mostly patchouli, cold-ish and dry pine, and that sweet almond milk.

 

I think this is lovely. I asked my husband to try it, and it is much creamier on my skin than on his. Hm, that's interesting. For once something smells better on me than on him! (This is the first time in our BPAL history that's happened.)

 

I'm growing to like this more and more the longer I wear it. I'll need to get a bottle of this one, I think.

[jiggahava]

Wow, my chemistry just destroyed this. Thank God for will call, or I would've tried to order this and ended up very dissapointed. On my skin it smells like burned sasparilla and almonds. NOT pretty. This is the second time I've tried this scent, and it was no better the second time around.

[Keslynn]

In the bottle, this one is sweet (from the almond milk maybe) with a whiff of pine lurking in the background.

 

On my skin, it's the exact opposite. I get pine! with a faint sweet edge to it. I can't really smell the patchouli or tobacco, which is a shame because I like both those scents. This smells like one of those Christmas Candles from Yankee Candle - Christmas Wreath, I'm thinking. It smells nice, but it's not really something I want as perfume.

 

Later, the pine recedes a little, and I start to get the patchouli and tobacco (mmmm). But by this point, the scent has faded so much that I have to stick my nose right up to my arm to smell them.

 

Verdict: A nice sweet piney scent but on me, it's a little too Christmasy. I'm going to have my boyfriend try it on and see how it works for him.

[Brianne]

In the vial:

Mmm almond milk!

 

On me:

What's so strange about this scent is that it manages to do two things it really shouldn't:

 

a) I get very little pine. Pine is a note that usually goes berserk on my skin and takes over, but I just barely smell it here.

 

It smells very much like Death Adder on me, and I can't see any good reason why it SHOULD

 

It is sort of masculine, but in the way I find Dorian to be mildly masculine. It's not enough to make me not want to wear it, it's rather subtle. It's a little woody, a little musky and deep and yet there is this undercurrent of sweet, creamy and smooth that has the tiniest hint of something *green* (that isn't the pine, it's sort of a fresh green smell).

 

It's an unusual combination and it doesn't quite smell the way I imagined. Not that that's a bad thing, it's actually a really nice scent. Exotic, slightly sweet and creamy - very interesting.

 

I don't know why it smells so similar to Death Adder on me, I put Death Adder on my other hand to compare and they are very similar at first. Organ Grinder is slightly greener and "cooler" than Death Adder. In the long run though - once Organ Grinder has been on my skin for some time, it loses a lot of it's similarity to Death Adder. The wood is woodier at that point, and the creamy note has settled quite a bit.

 

Final note:

This is a hard scent to describe. I really like it, but I had to contemplate for a while about whether or not I felt that I really needed a bottle of it. At first, I was sure I did. But when I thought about the similarities on me between it and Death Adder, I ultimately decided that I like Death Adder better and I will just go with that. I will keep my imp though, because it's a nice scent!

[little_galaxie]

This is a rather...odd, scent. It wavers between masculine and feminine, between smoky and sweet, resinous and foody. I get equal parts almond milk, tobacco smoke, and pine. It's really STRONG, too, so don't apply with a heavy hand. This definitely isn't something I would ever wear as a perfume, but I think I'll keep playing around with it (and thanks to the lovely mountainwitch's suggestion, it gets much better when layered with Arcana's Haint. Smoky vanilla+almond+pine = yum).

[hackess]

Imp: Smoky pine.

Weird. On initial application, it smells like...nothing. Absolutely nothing. It's like I never put it on at all. As it dried, I got whiffs of cocoa and smoke, but it's got zero throw and disappeared after about 20 minutes.

[flco]

Just from skimming this review thread, I gather that The Organ Grinder is not really a smash hit. I ordered it on a whim because I love all things almond--marzipan is my favorite kind of sweet. And when TOG dries down, I smell like marzipan all day, but it's marzipan with an interesting, dark, eerie edge. I think it's the tobacco and the patchouli. I love it.

[Limelight]

Such a friendly scent on me! The pine and the sarsaparilla come first, in tandem, with the almond milk hovering in the background the entire time. It's just laced with smoke and patchouli - they're not prominent on me at all. Not much throw either. I think I'd love this if it were stronger. As it is, I'm glad I got to try it.

[forspecial_plate]

I wanted to try this for a long time.....I thought I might like it. Unfortunately something about it really disagrees with me. Maybe it's the almond milk because it's the same sour-milk note in Milk Moon, which made that scent unwearable for me. It's a little more bearable here, because after a while I can smell the other notes teasing me from the background.....pine.....a little bit of something smokey.....but nothing can break through that heavy, sour, milky note. Just not something I can really enjoy wearing!

 

Edit: Something told me to try this again the other day, and I'm so glad I did! This is yet another one of those oils that did an about face on my skin, and became something that I really like. I almost feel like revising my review completely, but I'll leave the first review up there as an example....this tends to happen sometimes with oils that don't work for me....all of a sudden they work for whatever reason.

 

I think what I was smelling before was the almond milk combined with some of the other notes, and it came off as sour. When I tried it more recently, it came across as something deep, somewhat smokey, rich and almost creamy, strong but very calm and mellow. I think I'm actually getting the scent as it was intended this time, and I think I really love it. I may actually end up getting a whole bottle of this! I really am not picking up on sarsaparilla or patchouli, I think they just quietly contribute to the scent as a whole.

Edited October 19, 2007 by Forspecial Plate

[valentina]

Wow. Now I can add almond milk to my "amps the hell outta" list. I had great hopes for Organ Grinder, what with the patchouli and tobacco smoke. I thought that the almond milk might mellow out the pine, and it certainly does, but it overpowers everything. Maybe the sasaparilla shows up a bit, by making the scent almost unbearably sweet, sort of like a liquified Almond Joy candy bar. I am shocked that I didn't develop diabetes on the spot and go into a coma. To say that my body chemistry destroyed the balance of this scent, which smells so wonderful in the bottle, is an understatement. I'm giving it to my spouse for his birthday (this was a sneaky toothpick test), and I can hardly wait to smell it on someone whose body chemistry normally agrees with most scents. I think it's probably wonderful on the right person.

Edited June 27, 2007 by valentina

[crazyredhead17]

In the imp, this was a creamy, mysterious scent.

 

Wet it smelled like someone put almond milk into Death Adder. Things would have been great if it stayed that way.

 

As it dried I could sniff more of the black patchouli and something else. I know what white pine, sasparilla, and tobacco smell like it wasn't any of them, but right around this time something in my sinuses picked up the tobacco because I got a screeching sinus headache. It's been scrubbed off, which is sad, because it was promising.. but I can't wear stuff that gives me headaches.

[Jilara]

Well, this one seems to only smell good at certain times of the month (say, whaa???). Then it's almond milk and sasparilla, like some sort of fascinating soda drink.

 

But most of the time, it's Pine-sol with with a heavy almond milk chaser and the black patcholi does awful things reminiscent of bug spray. I liked it when I first tried it, and then couldn't figure why the next time, it was so horribly wrong. Then I tried it again, and it was back okay. Then... And I started to figure it out. Not for me, methinks.

[Miseraya]

Am I the only one who got burnt cookies from this? From the imp to the drydown the primary scent for me was a burnt cookie. No real variation, just burnt cookie.

 

Swapped.

[alicia_stardust]

This is really... weird. There is something in this that attracts me and makes me want to lean in for a stronger whiff and at the same time there is something in here that almost makes my stomach flip-flop. There is a strong vein of almond milk and smoke. Those are countered by a strong, feral patchouli.

 

I loved the experience of this and it works so well with the ghostly art, but I can't wear it.

[MaidenGenevive]

The Organ Grinder

 

I had high hopes for this one. In the vial, it smells fantastic; almond milk and sarsaparilla. On, it smells the same. Then a slight hint of tobacco smoke arises and I start to question how it's going to turn out. I love the smell of unlit cigarettes, but tobacco smoke is yucky. Fortunately, the tobacco smoke fades into the background.

 

Overall, this scent makes me think Father or Grandfather. I can picture an old man smoking sweet cigars; this scent also reminds me a little bit of hugging my father. He's warm and loving, with the slightest hint of smoke in his clothes. I wonder what this would smell like on him, actually.

 

Hmm. I reapplied, and I'm not really getting cigarette this time. It's just sweet, earthly, and only mildly smoky, but in a complimentary way. *Sniffing deeply* Oh, oh, hold on, there it was again...

 

[1 - Hate] .. [2 - Dislike] .. [3 - Like] .. [4 - Really Like] .. [5 - Love]

 

4 : If it weren't for the off-and-on again cigarette smoke, I would love this. Although, it is completely masculine to me, so I'm not sure if it's something I would wear much.

[brit_brat100]

Imp: Sweet almonds!! I get something else that reminds me of grass.

 

Wet: Oh, something is off. Very heavy and weird. Sweet in a bad way. I really hope it morphs into something much more pleasant.

 

Dry: This isn't awful, but it's still weird on me. A bit discomforting and nauseating. Definetly not for me.

[Morganza]

At first The Organ Grinder smelled like almonds and tobacco on me, and a little vanilla. But after about 90 minutes, it's mainly root beer and patchouli. I smell pine only in the vial.

 

It's unlike anything I've ever smelled before. Really complex. I like it a lot! I worried my husband would think it too masculine, but he says he digs it.

 

ETA: This was actually the first BPAL I ever tried. I have since worn about 2 dozen others, but I keep coming back to The Organ Grinder. It is far and away my favorite BPAL. I just ordered a 5 ml - my first!

Edited December 16, 2007 by Morganza

[suileach]

Wowzer! Crazy sharp ginger and root beer, ridden by creamy vanilla froth. Sounds good, and from a distance it is...but that sharp edge is unpleasant; it's like a musty old entry closet, filled with vacuums, feather dusters, and a whiskey-stained coat with cough drops in the pocket.

[aleciarivas]

Dark and smoky, like a pub-room of olde. I figured this would be quite masculine, and while I think it would be fabulous on my SO (can't wait till he gets home so I can pounce and slather!), I actually like it on myself as well! Definitely not a scent to wear while feeling uber-feminine, but wow! I really like this!!!

[mspixieears]

I can’t pinpoint why I dislike this so much but it’s definitely not to my taste – I think it might be the sarsparilla I don’t like. The patchouli is too pungent for my taste though the tobacco smoke is nice. Unfortunately, the smell makes me feel ill so definitely not keeping. It does dry down to a gentler, masculine scent but still a bit headache-inducing.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Sharp, dark, sweet, hard-edged. I can’t make sense of it and I can’t handle it. It’s the too-loud sweetness of almond with the threatening sharpness of pine.

 

Wearing: Just too much. Too sharp, too sweet, too much.

[scarletgenesis]

I can't really smell much of anything in the imp. Maybe a touch of the white pine bark, but that's it.

 

I applied it and immediately got a STRONG whiff of smoke. On me, though, it's not as much tobacco smoke as it is a wood-fire smoke. There is also something sweet in there, but I can't place it. My guess would be sarsaparilla, since I cannot think of what that smells like alone.

 

An hour after application, the smoke has faded alot, and I get very soft almond milk. On my drive to work, I kept smelling something milky, and thought it was my coffee, because I hadn't remembered the notes in this blend. But when I got here and checked the notes, I realized what I was smelling was me!

 

There is an undercurrent of the pine bark, which combines with the other notes to give this blend a very dry feel to it. Pine bark is apparantly much different than pine on me, because it doesn't go citrusy, which is a good thing for this particular blend.

 

I loved the smoky stage, wasn't sure about the interim stuff that was just sort of vague, but am liking the current phase this blend is going through. My only reservations about its bottle-worthiness is that it seems to fade fairly quickly, so I might have to slather alot and then reapply it. I will have to try using more of this later in the day and see if I still like it this much.

[SarahScent44]

In the imp, I get smoke, and almond milk.

 

On my skin, I get pine bark and a hint of patchouli.

 

When it dries, it's mostly pine and smoke - I initially was disaappointed because I wanted sarsparilla-almond, but this is a really comforting, fatherly smell to me.