Brown Jenkin

[hammy]

A small, furry, sharp-toothed scent that will nuzzle you curiously in the black hours before dawn: dusty white sandalwood and orris root, dry coconut husk, creeping musk, and the residue of ceremonial incense.

 

In the imp - Peppery wood? Smells a bit like Visions of Autumn I.

 

Wet - Still kind of peppery, but maybe that’s supposed to be the “dusty” part of the white sandalwood. Something kinda playful in here too … coconut husk?

 

Drydown - This one has me at a loss. Furry is a good descriptor. The scent is definitely brown and very fuzzy. That’s about as helpful as I can probably be here.

 

Verdict - Not bad, but not my favorite by a long shot.

[Veronica]

In the bottle, this is spiced incense and sandalwood. Wet, it's much the same with some kind of underlying sweetness from the coconut. Dry, this becomes primarily sweet, juicy coconut--pretty and I am not a coconut fan--over a musky base. Very pretty and I can see why people like it, but not for me.

[DiesMali]

In the imp: Faint, dusty coconut.

 

Wet on my skin: Dusty, slightly earthy coconut husk and sandalwood. A tinge of the coconut meat.

 

Dry: This is a very brown, dusty, woodsy scent on me. Hints of the spices start to come out as it wears, but that coconut husk and sandalwood remain the primary notes on my skin. It's an oddly snuggly and comforting scent, and it's fuzzy and brown. The notes really do translate into "fuzzy and brown." I can see this scent being a good one for a day in on a rainy day, when all you want to do is curl up in bed and read a book.

[Malaena]

In the imp: Coconut.

 

Dry: It starts off smelling a bit like sun screen but then moves on into a lovely coconutty/woody stage. Soon after that it goes into smelling like hair dye. I washed it off at that point!

[LizziesLuck]

I think I kind of love this, but I'm not entirely sure.

 

Wet it's very much incense.

 

As it dries I do get some sweet coconut and lovely dry sandalwood as well. It's lovely. My skin kind of ate it though, and it was gone quickly. Need a full slather before I decide if I want a bottle or not.

[lady_pandora]

I put off testing Brown Jenkin for a long time, I think because I irrationally thought it would actually smell like rodents. Spoiler: it doesn't.

 

It starts out a surprisingly sweet nutty vanilla scent, on me, and then turns to incensey coconut. It kind of makes me want to eat my arm, and yet there's something a little unsettling in this stage, and I think it's the juxtaposition of the foody coconut with the very much not-food incense, like you're thinking "I want to eat this NO I can't eat this it's incense."

 

And then finally it settles down to a waxy vanilla blended with sandalwood and some smoky spices I can't identify. This smells a lot like...um...Not So Penitent Mini Magdalene. I'm not sure if the comparison makes sense. They do have sandalwood in common, and I think there's unlisted vanilla in Brown Jenkin, and I guess the rest of the sameness comes from something unlisted among the smoke and spice notes. I haven't worn Mini Mag in a while, so I need to wear it again soon to be sure, but if there's a GC substitute for Mini Mag, that could be quite handy when I run out. Anyway, I like it a lot.

Edited November 4, 2015 by lady_pandora

[unxolve]

Freshly applied: SANDALWOOD, I LIKE IT. This is what I was craving! Smooth, light, dry, sweet, balanced. This is the perfect summer and beach scent. For a second, I thought it was primarily musk, and was like WOW, I thought I hated musk but call me a musk fan! Nope, the sweet cool thing going on here is sandalwood. The coconut is contributing to this. Augh, this is beautiful. It's subtle, for sure, not a big loud scent, but what it has is very pure and very suited to skin.

 

THIS IS NOT the smell of rats, or dust, or dirt, or fur. THIS IS the smell of summer, tanning oil, woods, coconut, and skin. It is primarily bright, light, fresh, cool and clean (but not too bright, still dry).

 

I hope it stays like this smell forever. T_T

[lizabelle]

Hmm. I'm a bit on the fence on this one, mainly because it's so strong; it has a huge amount of throw. The coconut is powdery, possibly thanks to the addition of orris, and the sandalwood is very dry and wood shavings-esque. The overall effect is very masculine, despite the notes list, and I think it would suit someone more masculine better than it does me.

[Casablanca]

On the wand, super-dry sandalwood and coconut. A hint of orris when I think about it.

 

On my skin, dusty-dry coconut-sandalwood, but this takes on more of an overall woodiness on my skin than it had on the wand. The orris is lightly there, just adding a little pale powder impression. I also get vanilla mixed in with that, like a vanilla powder. Mostly, though, this is making me think “rugged coconut,” like an Indiana Jones coconut.

 

Yup. Pretty much archeological tomb-robber coconut, with dust on his hat, but without his leathers.

[ramblingrambler]

Brown Jenkin was all wood on me, very masculine and overpowering, so I had to pass it on to my boyfriend, who smells intensely of cherry pipe tobacco (not listed, but still comes out) and suede arm patches---a very "history professor" (or archaeologist, from above? Indiana Jones, mayhaps?) scent for my political science professor partner. This was the first BPAL he was convinced was made with him in mind. <3

[agirlnamedfury]

This smells like a candle. It's the coconut husk I guess, which is more subtle than most coconut scents, and I actually don't get much sandalwood (which is a shame as I love woody scents). This is a very mellow skin scent, and I really like it.

[Pixie-elf]

All of my current hair products have coconut in 'em, and Brown Jenkins has tgat same loverly scent. The sandalwood makes a wonderful combination with it!

 

The incensed make it so the coconut isn't a whole straight up exotic or food scent, if that makes sense? It's definitely snuggly. It's nice and creamy.

[roseus]

Worried that I would not like this because of the orris, which usually goes dusty and weird on me, but it is not a problem with this one. I got whiffs of wonderful coconut during the dry down, but am left with a dry, woody incense scent. Nice but I was hoping for more coconut!

[doomsday_disco]

In the imp: The white sandalwood and orris root are the first notes to jump out at me, followed by a bit of the coconut husk, and then the musk.

 

Wet: The musk and incense notes are actually the strongest notes on my skin at first. Then, the coconut husk and orris root emerge. The coconut husk is adding a bit of welcome sweetness to the scent, while the orris is flaunting its powdery self all over the place. The musk, incense, and orris are now the dominant notes.

 

Dry: Now the orris root reigns, backed by the musk and incense. The coconut husk is still present, adding a bit of sweetness, but it is fainter than it was before. After a while, the dry, white sandalwood emerges, making this an orris dominant scent, with the white sandalwood and musk in the background, and just a hint of coconut husk.

 

Verdict: Orris root and I are not friends, and this scent was no exception. Glad I got to try it, though!

[follis]

Testing an imp of unknown age. Brown in colour.

Brown Jenkin feels very masculine to me. Its dominated by sandalwood and musk, through out with a hint of orris, incense and coconut. 

Good throw, long wear 

[Teamama]

I love Brown Jenkin, despite how much its namesake creeps me out.  I don't typically enjoy wearing the Lab's "dusty" notes, so if the description of the white sandalwood as dusty puts you off, take a risk. It is dry, as the Lab's white sandalwood generally is.  The coconut husk & musk are the stars of this blend for me. It's the coconut that I love from Goblin, that goes so beautifully with woody scents. The musk sweetens the dry wood & coconut delightfully.  The orris root & ceremonial incense notes are pretty subdued on my skin. Brown Jenkin is consistent--in the bottle, freshly applied, & dry, it's an unexpected musky coconut wood. Medium throw, medium wear length.   

[artisjok]

Brown Jenkin is dry, sweet, and cozy, and I’m so happy to have it slathered. I’m not sure how much of the dry is sandalwood and how much is orris, yet it works really well with the coconut. The nuzzling is definitely that musk, which is probably what really makes this scent for me (love a snuggle musk). The incense only slightly peeks out later in the drydown for me, well entwined with the others.

I don’t really go for coconut scents, but the Lab sure knows how to spin them to my liking. Maybe it’s only a mental construction I hold onto tightly, and in reality I love smelling like coconut...  Curious, indeed. 
Definitely keeping imp. I’d totally bottle this furry baby. 

Edited March 13, 2020 by artisjok

[VetchVesper]

This smells like it has a smooth, understated cedar to me, but I guess its the sandalwood mixing with something. I do smell the dry orris. The coconut is prominent, dry, and non-tropical. This is sort of a non-foody cousin to Goblin. 

 

It's very "brown" smelling, has a nice weight, but could still be worn in the summer. I think guys or girls could pull it off. 

[niffler]

In the imp, this is very much sweet coconut with orris playing second fiddle and everything else hiding in the shadows. It's a creamy, light nut brown kind of smell. Nothing about the coconut is tropical, so maybe the sandalwood and musk are actually hard at work behind the scenes. 

On my skin, it's still coconut orris with just a hint of sandalwood trying to pull things away from sunscreen territory. Musk shows up to help as it dries but the coconut orris is just too headstrong... orris has shown a tendency to go sickening sweet plasticky on me, and unfortunately this does too. Sigh. Saving this for a scent locket. 

 

Edit: dabbed a touch on the ends of my hair and omg this is why people love this scent! Creamy coconut sandalwood snuggle. Dear gods, I wish this was how it smelled on my skin... but even applying it I carelessly got just a tiny bit on my hand and it immediately went sickening. Definitely keeping the imp but this will never be a bottle scent for me.

Edited October 10, 2020 by niffler
re-tested

[Diesis]

A frimp from long forgotten times…

In the imp: I’ll be honest, everyone was talking about this being a comfort scent one day & I was envious, so when I realised we had an imp of it, I didn’t stop & smell it, I didn’t even know what it SHOULD smell like, I just put a test patch on & immediately… 

Wet: ...regretted a lot of my choices in life. Being impulsive & covetous is one of those things. It’s two, but look, that requires me to do more soul searching than I want to do.

The drydowns: After 15 minutes, I washed it off, because look… [let’s pretend for a second we’re on a recipe site & you have to endure my annoying life trauma before I tell you how to boil an egg] when I was young, I was ripped away from all I knew & forced to live on an island. Now, some people might be like, “But Lamp, kids love the beach! The ocean! That sounds great! Eternal summer!” Nay nay, I say [yeah, I watch her, shush], I was a fine little specimen of many generations of Irish & Welsh stock. There were some other cultures in there, but they were just as pathetically burnt by the great fire in the sky, so they weren’t gonna save me. So because of this, I was LOADED with sunscreen. LOADED. Like a little potato smothered in sour cream. It didn’t help. So, very quickly, I learned to just stay out of the sun, but this did not stop the scent of suntan lotion, oil, or even sunscreen (helpfully scented!) from reaching my little pre-beeple nose. So! Is this a comfort scent for me? I think we can answer that with a simple look at the notes. Even my love of incense cannot save this. The coconut is there. It creeps along like a ghost of white sandy beaches & it will burn me like the witch I am. So, 15 minutes was actually an impressive amount of time to let it linger. In all honesty, if I had stopped to really think about the name “Brown Jenkin” & the fact that there is a line of perfumes that come from the nightmarish world of Lovecraft, I should have just stopped at that point, but no. No, I was like, “I too want the love & comfort other’s find with this.” My hubris was rewarded with exactly what it deserved. So, in regard to its namesake? Well done, Beth. It’s not even a golf clap, it’s a full out, clap so hard my hands hurt. 

Wear & Throw: Don’t mock me.

On Me: Look, let’s just stop. This isn’t even a real review anymore. You know it, & I know it.

Final thoughts: You like coconut? You like those other notes? This little monster is for you.
(For the record, this is not a bad scent. I've been told this is being over dramatic & "extra." I've been told it's actually a very nice floral coconut. For their betrayal, that person is definitely not buried in my garden, no. They are probably on the beach. With a Pina Colada.)

Edited April 20, 2021 by TheLampades

[Estamets]

It's been a minute since this guy got some love, so lemme pour it on.

 

I wouldn't have believed that something could be both DRY and SNUGGLY, but here we are. 

 

The overall effect is sweet on me, with a slight edge from the sandalwood. There's a faint hint of perfumed smoke from the incense.  This is coconut husk, not coconut, and I get all the brown husky beauty of that note with zero sunscreen. The orris is dry, yes, but also creamy, and the musk plays nicely with my skin, making this addictively huffable. 

 

Lovely throw, and the scent is soft enough that I can enjoy it without being afraid of blasting anyone else with it. 

 

Brown Jenkin is in my top 10. 

[ittybitty]

Mmmm coconut (funny coincidence, since I made coconut macaroons today! They were delicious!) and incense. It's sweet but not cloying. I really like it! It doesn't have much throw, though.
As it dries down, it becomes a beautiful, musky coconut and incense. It's gorgeous. Sadly, the throw is fading fast. After an hour, I can't really smell anything anymore. It's too bad, because this was really, really nice. It was warm and cozy.

[MolyH]

This smells like a Buddhist shrine on a tropical island in the scorched heat of the day. Hmm, maybe not tropical island. Those are often too humid. As other people said, this is a very dry scent. It honestly, I swear to god, smells furry and dusty. Even the coconut smells more like dried scrapings of coconut than the fruit itself. I'm not sure this is the coconut scent I'm looking for either--for me, the incense in this is almost the predominant note instead.

 

EDIT: As it dries, the coconut comes through more and more, and now, it smells like a delicious, oven-baked coconut. This really scratches my coconut itch.

Edited November 25, 2022 by MolyH
Adding on thoughts

[Cali]

Strong coconut husk and sandalwood on me! This has something sugary and almost "funny" about it. There's a tinge of darkness in that has similar vibes to benzoin to me, and the incense here is very faint and far away, but perhaps adds that sugary element to it.