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A Golden Idol

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A GOLDEN IDOL
For again Scrooge saw himself. He was older now; a man in the prime of life. His face had not the harsh and rigid lines of later years; but it had begun to wear the signs of care and avarice. There was an eager, greedy, restless motion in the eye, which showed the passion that had taken root, and where the shadow of the growing tree would fall.

He was not alone, but sat by the side of a fair young girl in a mourning-dress: in whose eyes there were tears, which sparkled in the light that shone out of the Ghost of Christmas Past.

“It matters little,” she said, softly. “To you, very little. Another idol has displaced me; and if it can cheer and comfort you in time to come, as I would have tried to do, I have no just cause to grieve.”

“What Idol has displaced you?” he rejoined.

“A golden one.”

“This is the even-handed dealing of the world!” he said. “There is nothing on which it is so hard as poverty; and there is nothing it professes to condemn with such severity as the pursuit of wealth!”

“You fear the world too much,” she answered, gently. “All your other hopes have merged into the hope of being beyond the chance of its sordid reproach. I have seen your nobler aspirations fall off one by one, until the master-passion, Gain, engrosses you. Have I not?”

“What then?” he retorted. “Even if I have grown so much wiser, what then? I am not changed towards you.”

She shook her head.

“Am I?”

“Our contract is an old one. It was made when we were both poor and content to be so, until, in good season, we could improve our worldly fortune by our patient industry. You are changed. When it was made, you were another man.”

“I was a boy,” he said impatiently.

“Your own feeling tells you that you were not what you are,” she returned. “I am. That which promised happiness when we were one in heart, is fraught with misery now that we are two. How often and how keenly I have thought of this, I will not say. It is enough that I have thought of it, and can release you.”

“Have I ever sought release?”

“In words. No. Never.”

“In what, then?”

“In a changed nature; in an altered spirit; in another atmosphere of life; another Hope as its great end. In everything that made my love of any worth or value in your sight. If this had never been between us,” said the girl, looking mildly, but with steadiness, upon him; “tell me, would you seek me out and try to win me now? Ah, no!”

He seemed to yield to the justice of this supposition, in spite of himself. But he said with a struggle, “You think not.”

“I would gladly think otherwise if I could,” she answered, “Heaven knows! When I have learned a Truth like this, I know how strong and irresistible it must be. But if you were free to-day, to-morrow, yesterday, can even I believe that you would choose a dowerless girl—you who, in your very confidence with her, weigh everything by Gain: or, choosing her, if for a moment you were false enough to your one guiding principle to do so, do I not know that your repentance and regret would surely follow? I do; and I release you. With a full heart, for the love of him you once were.”

Glittering gold and loss beyond understanding: antiqued amber, English lavender, vetiver, and tea rose.


Initially there's a lot of vetiver happening here. It's the most prominant note in the imp and wet on my skin. After a considerable amount of time the vetiver has mellowed out enough that the lavender and rose start to come forward. More lavender than rose. I'm not getting amber here, but I'm guessing it's blending with the vetiver. When everything has mellowed and softened up it becomes a rich, warm scent. This smells sophisticated and expensive.

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This was the Yule blend I was most excited to try. The description really intrigued me as I couldn't even imagine how these notes would smell together. I must say this is very different from anything I've experienced before, though I don't know how much that says as I'm still something of a newb. :lol:

 

Initially, A Golden Idol goes on fairly bitter (from the combination of vetiver and lavender, I'm guessing), but after about five minutes the rose begins to show up and mellow out the blend. I feel like the rose adds the slightest amount of sweetness, just enough to keep the scent from being too bitter. This would definitely be a straight-up masculine blend without the rose, I believe, and the rose moves the scent out of the masculine category and into unisex. I'm not sure I can smell the amber either, but it could be the reason that I feel like this scent is "warm." A Golden Idol smells stately and like something I'd save for special occasions. Not special occasions of the party sort, but more special occasions in the vein of going to the opera or savoring a seven course meal in a very expensive restaurant. This is not a blend that will get everyday wear from me, but I might have to pick up a bottle for those days where I want to seem regal and elegant.

 

Edit: By the 45 minute mark, the tea rose was even stronger, but still not overpowering. At this point I would say the scent is lingering on the feminine side of unisex. Other than the strengthening of the rose, this blend has not changed other than a slight fading of the scent which is barely noticeable. I bet this would have average lasting power, but unfortunately I had to take a bath to get ready for sleep, so I can't comment on its exact lasting power or how it might change over a longer period. I imagine, however, that it will stay quite beautiful and prove fairly resistant to major changes.

Edited by calivianya

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This one was a real morpher on me! Wet all I got was pure vetiver. Straight up vetiver. Once the oil was dry, the lavender came out and pushed the vetiver aside and it turned out quite lovely. The lavender is not a medicinal one but a pretty floral kind. I agree with the statement that this smells expensive and in a sense regal.

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Wet, this is pretty much vetiver on me. Dry, still vetiver. I love amber and lavender, so I'm hoping they will come out eventually. So far this is a 'no go'.

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I was curious, but decided to not get a decant of this Idol..

today I got the chance to sniff it anyway and I did not even wanna try :P

no no no, this one is not 4 me I'm afraid, to much of that rooibos I think ;)

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I smell nothing but vetiver in the vial. Wet, the same story, though the vetiver is shifting more over the smokey side as opposed to its bitter side. Nothing else seems to be happening as A Golden Idol is drying down. No amber nor rose, and I usually amp rose. I think I am picking up on a faint suggestion of lavender way in the background, but ultimately, this is just a dry, smokey vetiver.

 

A little over ten minutes later, nothing much has happened. The vetiver calmed down a bit and the lavender is ever so slightly stronger. It's blending right in with the vetiver though, changing the intensity of the vetiver but not necessarily standing out on its own as its own separate note. I'm going to have to pass on this one.

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Amber and lavender with hints of rose and the faint traces of vetiver moving throughout. I think if there was no vetiver this could have potentially been way too sweet, medicinal and powdry, but the smokiness of the vetiver manages to ground all three scents and meld them together beautifully. I don't quite think it is bottle worthy, but I'll enjoy my decant.

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Sigh. I was really hoping this would be mostly amber, lavender, and tea rose, with a wee bit of vetiver. And of course, instead, it's vetiver vetiver vetiver vetiver vetiver. As it dries I get wee wafts of lavender and tea rose around the edges (unless the rose is from Rose Red which I'm also testing on this arm!) - it's kind of like they're there, but they're standing behind a thick screen of vetiver. I don't get any amber (but I frequently can't identify amber unless it's a really really central note - otherwise it's kind of like musk, a general kind of binding scent that blends things together). The vetiver is kind of smoky. But I'm way too much of a sweet fiend to like this. If you like vetiver, give this a try; it seems like a kind of neat blend. For me, it doesn't work (but I probably should have known that!).

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This one is mostly vetiver on me. It's not as brimstone and fire vetiver as other blends, probably due to the other notes in the blend, which I sadly cannot really discern, but are probably saving this from being a harsher scent on me. I didn't figure this would work on me, but with the lavender in it, I had to give a decant of it a try.

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Nothing about this really smells golden to me. I get tons of smoky, earthy, dark vetiver to start with and slowly, over time, a sweet and powdery rose note creeps in and takes over. It smells very dry, smoky, earthy, and powdery on my skin. Rose is a note that tends to be overpowering on me, so I'm left with rose and baby powder with a hint of smoky earth after about an hour. It fades quickly after that hour mark into a faintly sweet powder scent. My decant is off to the swap pile.

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Wet: amber and vetivert with a touch of lavender. Surprised the lavender is taking backseat in this one. Otherwise the vetivert is masking it. The tea rose is coming out like rosewood because of the vetivert too.

 

Drydown: more amber, actually! The vetivert still dominates everything else and turns it into different flavors of vetivert.

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this scent is much less intriguing than i thought it would be, and i think it's because the vetiver is too strong. i don't mind vetiver sometimes, but i was hoping for more tea rose and amber. unfortunately this smells like powdery pencil shavings...which i guess is just the vetiver and amber. i can't smell the tea rose or lavender at all :( i do like amber but combined with the vetiver, this just isn't working with my skin chemistry.

 

 

 

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I get a giant hit of vetiver on wet, but it essentially dries to an amber/lavender combination. Again, a very warm scent and soothing.

 

Warm, soothing, glittery.

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This one is a tricky one. I smell the patchouli note from VILF but it turns out that it is vetiver. Wet..that is all I smell. Now that it is drying down the vetiver has softened and now is replaced by lavender. Gratefully there is no nauseating tea rose in this. Fascinating scent but not something I need to own.

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In the imp: All the notes are here: amber, lavender, vetiver, and rose.

 

Wet: Amazingly, the rose is coming out to play, but it is indeed the delicate tea rose.

 

The dry-down: The tea rose is still present, but there's a dark undercurrent made up of the amber, the lavender, and vetiver, that gives this an edge. The amber and the rose now have a touch of powder to them, but not too much so. If I really huff, the vetiver is more obvious. It's in the same grouping, however distantly connected, as London and The Rose. I was expecting this to be this year's Yule Cat, that is, because of the vetiver. I should note that I sometimes amp rose, so YMMV. Also, I like Yule Cat and bought a partial bottle.:)

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Decant!

 

Imp: Whoa, vetiver! Let's see how this rolls out...

 

Wet: Sharp vetiver springs out and leaves behind a hint of lavender. Teeny hint. Mostly sharp, pungent vetiver.

 

Drydown: Straight up vetiver. Well, guess I learned that I seem to amp that note...

 

Dry: Straightup vetiver with a touch of amber warmth. But not enough to balance out the herbal, medicinal smell.

 

My rating: 1/5

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This is such a beautiful perfume. I was intrigued by the combination, thinking that if the vetiver wasn't too strong that this could be really good. Well, when I got the imp all I could smell was vetiver, which was disappointing. I put it aside and forgot about it for a while. When I dug it out a couple of weeks ago, I skin-tested it and fell in love. The vetiver is very strong when it's wet, but after about 20 minutes it really mellows out. The amber goes powdery on me, but it works with the blend. When I sniff too close I get a strong hit of vetiver, but with a bit of space it is perfect. The whole thing dries down to an expensive-smelling smoky floral, very classic and reminiscent of the time period she was trying to capture. This probably won't mean much to anyone else, but this reminds me of a smokier version of The Body Shop's discontinued Violet Leaf, which I loved and was heartbroken over. I'm so happy to own this, as I know I'll be wearing it often.

 

Also, this lasts for a long time. I put it on yesterday, and after a shower I could still smell it on my skin when I reapplied it this morning.

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I first sniffed A Golden Idol back in November I think, and made a note to give it a second try, as I really wanted it to be the awesomeness that those notes for me could potentially be. After it had aged a bit at Christen's shop (Knows Perfume, Seattle) I went back for a second try and there it was! The scent I was hoping it would be. Vetiver smoked rose, a cousin to Saturnalia. I excitedly snatched up a bottle and went home to slather on the goodness. Ack! At first I thought my nose must have been broken or some other scent was clinging to my skin-- all I got was a sharp smack of vetiver and something piney. :evil: No pine, you're not allowed to hang out with vetiver on my skin. Not cool. Heartbreak.

 

But I had faith. Aging would tell the tale. I tried it again after a few weeks. Pine! Will it be three strikes and out?

 

Today, I felt the urge to try again; it's been a couple of months now. Success! No more pine, just smokey rose goodness with perhaps a kiss of lavender and a bare hint of amber. If I had my druthers, I would like the amber to be stronger, but I'll settle for NO DAMN PINE to ruin it for me.

 

UPDATE 5/25

 

After reading some recent reviews I decided it was time to try again. Yay! The amber is a lot stronger, though it could still be more so. But it really is turning into the glittering thing of beauty I thought it could be when I first read the notes.

Edited by lahdeedah

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Vetiver jumps out of the bottle as usual. I'm halfway tempted to abandon testing altogether, but I soldier on, and I was rewarded for my tenacity. Yeah, it's still predominantly vetiver, but it goes from dirty vetiver to glowing vetiver. It's warm and comforting, bronzy.

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Sniffed: A disconcerting juxtaposition of charred vetiver and sweet florals.

 

On skin: Hmm, all I can smell is smouldering vetiver. But I think the florals and amber, while undetectable, are tempering the vetiver's intensity so that it's merely smouldering and not burning and charred. Indeed, the longer I wait after drydown, the more the floral notes emerge and sweeten the vetiver. Now I can smell tea rose and perhaps lavender in strengthening presence, although vetiver remains dominant. These notes never really harmonize well, however, and merely stand next to each other in jarring juxtaposition. Indeed, my colour impression is slashes of charcoal and the palest of pastel pink-orange.

 

Verdict: When I first got my decant in December last year, the vetiver was absolutely overpowering. Now it has mellowed and the other notes are emerging. I think more aging will balance out A Golden Idol and make it more agreeable. Nevertheless, I don't think any amount of aging will make the notes harmonize enough for me to find it pleasant. And I'm not a fan of such huge amounts of vetiver... so to Swaps this goes.

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In the bottle, A Golden Idol is very prominently a lush vetiver scent. I actually happen to like the note, so I was interested in trying it.

 

On my skin, however, the most prominent note is the amber, with the rose overlaying it in an interesting embrace. It almost smells leathery on me--sort of smoky, yet sweet and glitteringly earthy. If the vetiver is present, it's adding a certain amount of dampness to the amber and rose. The lavender doesn't come through at all on my skin, but I'm not fussed either way.

 

The rose adds a bit of modesty to the amber/vetiver mingling, which I find quite a sexy, saucy combination. It's a very golden bright scent on me, more suited to hot summers than cold winters.

 

It's so amazing the difference one's skin chemistry and what one's nose tends to pick up more. I happen to like how A Golden Idol is interpreted on my skin. It's a good rose scent for me, especially since my bottle of Bearded Lady is on the other side of the Atlantic.

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Interesting how notes you really like can turn into something so different when blended with one another..

 

 

Imp: At first, I only get the sharp note of lavender and the sweetness of roses. Then I can detect subtle notes of the sickly sweet (in a good way!) amber. Vetiver must be the more tart note in the background.

 

Wet: Lavender is fighting for dominance with the rose note. A bit soapy to my nose, yet sharp and a bit medicinal. Amber is only a faint note in this one.

 

Dry: A nice sharp/tart/fragrant blend of lavender and vetiver. Yes, vetiver was the strong medicinal smell I got once the scent was on my skin. Only weak roses, if at all, and the lightest hint of amber, if any. Hmm, too heavy on the lavender and vetiver. Might morph on my skin (vetiver does that a lot) but I guess this scent will still be too sharp and floral for me. Ah, yeah, vetiver is turning into dill and dry hay on my skin. Amber and rose more prominent now. Rose and vetiver actually blend really well. Still, cannot impress me too well.

Edited by Honey

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In the vial: The notes sound very me. I love lavender and vetiver. The oil itself brings about a gust of tea rose and vetiver on the first sinff. The second time around I can pick up the amber as well.

 

On my wrist: Amber and vetiver. After a while the amber takes the lead, and the oil becomes body lotion -like in scent.

As it dries, I'm afraid the scent partially turns to laundry detergent. Amber rarely seems to agree with me. I'm afraid this is just not working on my skin.

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A Golden Idol - It goes on as bitter lavender and amber, but as it dries down, the vetiver starts to behave, and I mostly smell a masculine, husky, cologne type scent. The lavender never smells awful to me (which is amazing, since I lavender is my nemesis) and the tea rose is very faint and dusty. Mostly, it's just warm amber on a bed of husky vetiver and it's nice, but not something I'd really ever reach for since it's a bit too masculine for my preference.

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