Laudanum

[Flowermouth]

The essence of the most debauched hunger encapsulated into a perfume. Desire beyond love, anguish beyond sanity. Nutmeg, sassafras, black poppy and myrrh.

Both in the bottle AND on me, it smells like root beer and Old Spice.
I'm terrible at picking out notes, but does anyone know what may have caused it? Aside from skin chemistry.

[Salvia_spathacea]

When first applied the sassafras was very strong - it actually made my nose and throat tingle! After this it became an incensey or almost floral scent, and finally ended with a very nice smoky, spiced base chord.

After being mixed with jojoba and sitting for a couple of months the sassafras lost that strong, initial edge and was mellower and sweeter. Although it's nice this way, I think I prefer the fresh tingle!

[monsteralice]

Wet: Smells like the Indian grocery where I bought spices - that's not a bad thing, BTW. Alas, a tall office building has replaced "Indian Spices & Appliances"...

 

Dry: Spicy!

 

Duration/throw: Not much wafting, but it lasts well - still strong at 10 hours.

 

It's a keeper!

[theseagrows]

this smells like an old dusty room with traces of old perfume. i smell the nutmeg and the root-beerish smell that others have mentioned. it reminds me of tombstone, if memory serves, but i like it better. it's warm and dusty smelling to me, and i really like it a lot, but something about it keeps me from wanting to wear it a lot.

[icing]

Laudanum starts off as pencil shavings, dry skin, awkward nutmeg, and sweet-sticky, Tombstone-esque sassafras (Tombstone can be rootbeer when fresh, marshmallow when aged, Laudanum starts as the fresh variety, and quickly moves into sticky-marshmallow land in under a minute) for just about an hour, then it turns into spice cookies... ones that smell very similar to, but not quite as warm as gingersnaps.

 

Debauched hunger?

That depends on what your vice is.

 

This is a really nice foody blend, on me, with just about zero throw (but not very faint), and very long-lasting. I enjoy sniffing it, even if the really dry, pencil shavings moments won’t go away on my right wrist (it’s a really, really lovely smelling cookie on my left).

However, I don't crave it as much as others, so I won’t keep it.

 

I wish opium, opium poppies, and poppy notes in general wouldn't vanish on me, and I’d love to see how the black poppy note would change this blend, had my chemistry allowed it to appear.

Edited February 23, 2007 by icing

[Rchll]

Bottle: odd kind of root beerish smell. Must be the sassafras; but it does smell quite like a soda.

 

Self wet: Still really odd, and now nutmeg pops out. After just a minute or two, I smell so strongly of root beer. I am now a soda! Well, a spiced sort of soda.

 

About ten minutes later: I might be kidding my self but now its darkly spiced root beer. Some other reviewers point out the spiced/smoky note and I certainly get that. No myrrh that I can tell but I think that is a good thing since myrrh seems to dislike me (turns oils stale smelling).

 

Later later: root beer, spiced with nutmeg. It has stayed that way since just a bit after applying the oil. Still no myrrh and that is fine.

 

Next morning: I still smell faintly of root beer after about seven hours.

 

Overall: certainly a different sort. I like root beer a lot more than colas but not sure its something I want to smell like. I am not really a (seen this term around here) foodie I guess when it comes to smells; as of now I'm not thinking of getting more of this one.

[Nidaba]

Yes! I almost didn't try this one. I was going to send it to a guy I wanted to try some BPAL, but I decided to give it a try and whooo! This is what Tombstone started to be on me, but morphed into cedar. Root beer, root beer, root beer! Apparently anything with sassafras in it is going to be pure root beer on my skin. Which is great for at home as I love the scent! I doubt I will wear this out though. Seems a bit odd.

[for_the_nonce]

When I tried this imp, I thought I might be going crazy. But then I skimmed through the reviews and found this:

 

Wet/Dry (same on me): I have no idea why this is happening but I get mesquite barbeque sauce.

 

Yep, that's right, barbeque sauce. I can smell the nutmeg and sassafras underneath it, but it's still overwhelmingly barbeque-y.

[Shitow_Haruka]

first sniff: sassafras and a slightly bitter sharpness - the myrrh.

 

wet: sassafras, and the spiciness of the nutmeg starts to come out. The myrrh and poppy are blending to make a smoky note underneath.

 

dry: The same notes as before, but they have melded together beautifully. As I wear it longer it becomes faintly sweet on my skin.

 

This is outside of the normal notes one thinks of for perfume, but I find myself reaching for it again and again. And if you ever wondered what would go good for sitting around a campfire, Laudanum works wonderfully! (Not that it smells like a campfire, more that the smokiness goes good with it )

[Elemcee]

Laudanum (or Laundanum, since my bottle seems to be sporting a rogue N;)) makes me think of being in a place that's alluringly warm and cosy, yet dangerous. The danger creeps up on you, though, maybe seductively, and that makes it difficult to escape.

 

It is a lovely, warm, spicy, unisex scent.

[ankhfangirl72]

Hmm... it smells really smokey on me, but I can't really distinguish the individual notes. This one's probably too heavy for daytime (for me, anyway) so I only wear it just before I go to sleep

[ribcaged]

In the vial this was VERY medicinal. A strong tea tree perhaps with some pepper. As soon as I applied it I sneezed.

It is very piercing I think upon first application but it warms up from it's hard bite to something more soozing and rough. I thought I would hate this but it's getting nicer.. however I still don't think I'd wear it much because it's making me feel like I am recovering from a huge banging! It woke me up at least

 

Edit: Okay half an hour at least and it did what I did not expect! It went very sweet like burnt sugar, a flame of a sweet n spicey candle- it's sleepy! I think I DO like this a lot on second thoughts. My male counterpart really likes it but as he only just applied it he says it smells like antiseptic in a good way... I'll see what else it does to him.

Edited May 21, 2007 by ribcaged

[wolfwynd]

This lures you into a sense of security and I'm not sure how much is simply suggestion but it's heady and oddly comforting and yet in that dangerous 'you know you shouldn't, but you can't help yourself' kind of way. I only seem to get the poppy out, none of the 'root beer' kind of smell. I don't think I'll be getting a big bottle but I will use this for those special occasions.

[jmchau]

I honestly did not think I would like this, I didn't care for it in the vial. but once I got it on the Myrrh & Sassafrass came through, with Nutmeg undertones. The longer it's on, the more I smell the Myrrh, which is a Good Thing.

 

I wouldn't wear it often, but I do like it and can see wearing it for an evening out.

[Styx]

Laudanum

 

Bottle: smells slightly menthol and mediciny, like the stuff we use for soothing muscle cramps.

 

Skin: Smells like Rootbeer on medication. I like this. It smells healthy and unhealthy at the same time. Its faintly sweet, I think I'm going on high, I want to drink this stuff and choke dead on it.

It starts getting smoky. Mr.Rootbeer decided to go to the opium den.

He smokes there for hours on end, until every cell in his body reeks of smoke.

Thats how it ends - very dry smoke, with a very light tracing of nutmeg and Rootbeer conscience.

 

This is addictive. The smoke in the end isn't exactly pleasant, no one's going to brush up to me saying "you smell nice", its more likely going to be "Are you okay?"

The answer is no I'm not, I'm taking Laudanum and I'm taking it again tonight and tomorrow and twice on Saturday mornings.

[Jheya]

In the imp: Spice and chinese preserved plums.

 

On skin: For the first few seconds it's the same strange smell that I get in the imp, but then it begins to change and turns rather TCP-like. Antiseptic mingled with warmth and sourness. Um... So far I think it's quite safe to say that so far I'm really not liking this one.

 

~10 minutes: Sour medicinal with a hint of spice. Unfortunately the spice doesn't do anything to counteract the medicinal smell. If anything it actually makes it worse as it just smells so wrong.

 

~30 minutes: I'm sure on someone with the right skin chemistry this might morph in different ways and end up smelling lovely. However on me it really doesn't. It's taken on the form of a murky, sour, pickled medicinal smell, which isn't terribly pleasant. I think I'm going to go attempt to wash this one off, and the imp is definitely destined for the swaps pile.

[Analise]

In the bottle: It's mostly smoky, but I adore it anyway. I've been attracted to smoky scents, recently.

 

On me: Less smoky and something sweeter and more mysterious comes to the fore. Maybe it's because I'm wearing a purple shirt today but I think of it as a "purple" sort of scent. Smoky purple. Dark and mysterious and generally exotically lovely.

[aquazoo]

I can smell the nutmeg — very nice! Kind of a root beer smell, which I guess is the sassafras. It's warm and it grows on me. Keeper!

[ceiswyn]

In the bottle: I'm sure I can smell myrrh. There's an acrid edge to it that isn't horrible, but which I'm not sure I like. Unusual.

 

On the wrist: There's an overpowering scent of something-or-other; it's too intense to make out. Nutmeg, yes, and myrrh, and oh! Yes! The acrid edge is resolving into sassafras and something else, that surely must be poppy. I'm still not at all convinced I like it, but it's certainly unusual.

 

One hour later: It hasn't actually changed much. The nutmeg's hard to make out; the main scent is the sassafras, but made dark and smoky. The smoke from smouldering sassafras, perhaps, which is fairly appropriate I sort of like it, I think. But I don't think I'd wear it.

[jolarocknrolla]

supposed to be "Nutmeg, sassafras, black poppy and myrrh" ... on me it smells like ben-gay. ::makes face::

 

I'm not sure what made it smell ike ben-gay, maybe the sassafras? IT's hard to say since i don't know what that is, but something in there is STRONG and that's what i'm betting the culprit is.

[Gwydion]

Smells like nutmeg and sarsaparilla scented booze. No really. Sassafras and nutmeg make for serious weirdness. Oddly sweet and vaguely disturbing.

[maribouquet]

I'm digging the sassafras and nutmeg, but opium smells like band-aids on me.

[PersephonesChild]

Every time I sniff this imp, I'm amazed at how dark and deep it smells. It draws me in-- the myrrh and black poppy and nutmeg make for something like deep longing. On my skin, the sassafrass first takes center stage, and I smell like slightly scary root beer, which I love. However, before too much longer, it has a tendency to go to powder. It's worse during my period, but it happens all the time. Too bad, since i absolutely adore this scent!

[waternight]

In the imp: No surprise... smells like root beer.

Wet: On, it's strongly root beer, with a touch of the spices. As it sits on my skin, a bit more of the spices come out.

Dry: *POOF* And it's gone! Well, I'm not too sad, because while this isn't an offensive scent, it's not really my cup of tea either.

[Indefatigable]

In the vial: cloves with a biting sweetness of some kind.

 

On me: cloves cloves cloves. And then... mint?

 

I wish I hadn't looked at the rest of this thread, because then I wouldn't have identified this odd scent combination as 'root beer'. Fortunately it doesn't stay root beer for very long -- in the length of time it took to type that sentence, the mint warmed up and faded back. Now it's just a sweet, mysterious, smoky spice blend.

 

I've seen this listed as a men's scent, but nothing about it is really striking me as masculine or feminine. It's clean and androgynous, not sexy but invigorating. Maybe I shouldn't have put it on before bed, because it might keep me awake!

 

Maybe I'll keep it around for wake-me-up aromatherapy purposes.

 

Mrrr... unfortunately, as it dries it's going a bit powdery, and that makes the mint come out and smell like toothpaste. If this was a warmer scent it would work, but there's an icy note that is doing weird things. Aah well.

Edited November 26, 2007 by Indefatigable