The Lion

[Naamah_Darling]

The dry, glorious warmth of the Savannah. A golden, spiced amber, proud, regal and ferocious.

Bottled, amber is the dominant note, overlaid with a cool sweetness and a bit of something like seeds or grain – a sweetish, dryish, birdseedy smell. How very strange!

Wet on the skin, it becomes amber spiced with the smell of . . . Pier 1 Imports. Wild, dry grasses and exotic woody tones. Vetiver, perhaps, though in moderation. There is spice here, ginger or cinnamon, but it is most definitely not a foody scent. There is probably a musk in the base note, but it's being firmly sat on by the amber.

After an hour, it hasn't changed much. The spice scent has come out just enough for me to identify it more surely as cinnamon, but it's not overwhelming or candylike. A beautiful scent, warm but not hot, slightly sweet but not cloying, playful, but not too light. It's windy and dry and sunny. Beautiful. There's not a lot of throw to this one, sadly, because it's lovely like sunbeams.

Three hours and its worn down almost completely without changing again. This smell is too good to pass up. Edited February 4, 2006 by Shollin

[ohvanity]

In the bottle: I can hardly smell it in the bottle and i have to move it up right near my nose. From what I cant smell, it smells nutty like almond but with a sweetness.

 

Wet: The nuttyness goes away, and I can smell something else. I have no idea what. It reminds me a bit of a field where the grass and flowers are kind of dried out. But I can still smell some sweetness to it.

 

Dry: This scent I'm finding it really hard to distinguish individual scents. It has a almond smell, and I can smell a bit of cinnamon which is part of the spicey smell. It also has a sweet smell that really complements the almond smell. Possibly amber?

 

Overall I'm really, really liking this scent. I deffinaltey want to take this with me when I go to England next year. It just seems as though it will be so fitting with my surroundings.

 

 

edit: fixing tags.

Edited February 8, 2006 by ohvanity

[astridclaire]

Wet: Oh! What is this? There's a base of amber, yes, but it's lighter and drier than most ambers. And then there's the spice! Cinnamon bark with cardamon and clove maybe? It's so well blended that I can't tell. It almost smells floral.

 

Dry: Sunbaked honey colored grasses on the African plains. If this were a color it would be a carmelized orange. The slight floral note is there wafting in the background. I can't stop smelling my wrist!

 

Overall: I absolutely adore this!!! I must get a 10ml right away!!!

[fiddlehead]

I can't pick out any individual notes in this oil unless I *really* concentrate. Amber and something spicy but dusty. Something that might be cinnamon. And even then I'm not sure. But that's okay because out of the bottle, wet on my skin and dry, it gives me an instant mental image of fields of dry, sweet grasses and dust. Warm and comforting, I can almost feel the intense summer sun on my skin. I can see how some people get a tea note out of this. That's okay because I like the smell of tea.

 

This may be a candidate for a 5ml, or at least another imp.

[GemmaCat]

In the imp: warm and soft; cats zonked out in sunbeams

 

On my skin: Woah! Another crazy morpher! Now I get sweetgrass, amber, clove, and cinnamon in equal measures. Actually. . . it's starting to smell like a really good cup of chai tea.

 

Drydown: sweet, lightly spiced tea scent; proper black Indian tea, none of the fake stuff, with a slight hint of Earl Grey too.

 

Overall: tea and spices? A BIG keeper. I'll probably get a bottle of this.

[white_jenna63]

This is my first experience with amber, so please, be gentle.

I wanted to like this from all the great reviews. On first application, it reminded me very strongly of Sudha Segara (the spices, maybe?) I never cared for Sudha Segara. As The Lion dried, it became spicier, but still wasn't anything I wanted to keep, and I never got any of the dry grassy impressions that other reviews mentioned. I passed it on to my fiance (who has my imp of Sudha as well).

[Neely]

In the bottle: spicey amber.

 

Wet: cinnamony amber goodnes.

 

Dry down: waiting with baited breath to see if the amber goes powder or the cinnamon beats me up and takes my wallet. Nope, this is very nice. I am liking this very much.

 

30 minutes: spicey amber (less obvious cinnamon spice, but still spicey) with something citrusey and grassey joining the party. Also something almost minty. None of the scents vies for attention. It reminds me of a very polite group of well bred, well dressed Victorian ladies all having a polite tea together. Not like some BPAL's and my chemistry that have been like a ladies wrestling match in mud in the French Quarter.

 

Conclusion: I like this very much. This is the first BPAL scent where I see colors in my minds eye. This is reds, and golds like a lion in a sunset in the long grass. Very lovely. I think we have another big bottle purchase from the Tea Party collection.

 

Rating on my skin, this is a 4.5.

[damuddymeg]

Now, we have to take into account that my skin LOVES amber. Snags it and holds on for dear life, and will only relinquish it after repeated scrubbings.

 

In the bottle, it's, well, amber. Hot and sweet and fiery, with a touch of spice. And, oddly, almonds. Perhaps my nose is broken from sniffing Hellcat all day yesterday? Perhaps, but I don't think so.

 

Wet, the almondy note rises and then, poof, it's gone. What I'm left with is amber purring on my pulsepoints, with a high spice note in the background, like snorting ground ginger. I feel it between my eyes and at the back of my nose as I inhale. This could be potentially dangerous, and I'm praying I don't wind up with a migraine.

 

Dry, this stuff has amazing staying power on me--7 hours later and I can still smell it. The punch-in-the-nose ginger has mellowed, but is still detectable. However, it goes from almost acrid in the beginning to a more alluring note as time goes by. The amber stays front and center the whole day, sweet and playful without being cloying.

 

I have to wonder what my current hormones are doing to my body chemistry, and therefore, the scent. This may require retesting to determine whether it's a keeper or gets relegated to the swap bin... So far, undecided...

 

Ye Gods, I love this stuff!

[batsy]

Somehow Beth bottled the sunlight warming the tawny coat of a big lion. I'm seriously impressed!

 

There's almost a bitter tang to the amber, probably is ginger or something that is sweet but not overloaded. It's like sun in a bottle and dries sweetly on my wrists. Just a whiff of it is like a pick-me-up mood lifter. It reminds me of how my cat likes to lay in the sun and you smash your face into his fur and it smells of warmth and life and love.

 

I'm in love with this one!

[aedes]

I'm so happy this scent came in to my life. I had long sworn off amber as a note that only turned to powder on me, so I was actually disappointed when I was gifted with not one, but two frimps of The Lion from the lab. But trying it on, this smells like no amber I've ever experienced before. Brisingamen and a boat load of other ambers went rancid on me. But this, this smells so warm (REALLY warm) and spicy, a little musky almost. It smells... it smells... like a LION! Rawr!

 

It really is amazing how much lion-ness Beth captured in this blend, and it's shown me that I can wear amber! Score!

[themerrybaker]

Cinnamon at first and a little soapy. When dry, yes – it is warm. I really like Beth’s amber scents. This one is a good amber fix, but not as complex as some of the more recent LE’s. It has reasonable throw and good staying power. This would be a great scent for an amber&cat fiend (like me) but I've been spoiled by some of the LE's.

[storme]

In the imp: oooh, sweet florals - it does smell golden, but not in a cloying honey-ish way..

 

On me, wet: sweet florals with a hint of... citrus? something sharper behind the florals and amber, anyway. There's some muskiness creeping through, also.

 

On me, dry: Hmm, this has gone sour on me. Urgh. Iain's comment is that it smells aniseed-y (but he didn't smell Kyoto on me). I don't think it's aniseed but it is unplesantly chemical and bitter and stale.

 

Verdict: Ick no. I wish I knew what was in this aside from amber so I could avoid it.

[Heretic]

In the vial: Vaguely almondine.

 

On my wrist, wet: Sweet amber, warmed with a touch of cinnamon.

 

After 20 minutes: Soft, warm and golden. I can't distinguish any particular notes here, just a blend of perfectly harmonized notes with a subtle muskiness.

 

After an hour: The Lion is a beautiful, comforting scent, deep and golden. I do not get any powdery notes from the amber and the components all seem to blend together on me without any one taking precedent over another. A bottle for the next order.

[bifemmefatale]

I looove amber. And this is the best amber I've smelled from the Lab yet. Not powdery but the good stuff. Really good amber is sometimes sold in metaphysical shops as storax or styrax, and this is what the amber in The Lion smells like. True, sweet and incensey. The Lion also has a distinct cinnamon note, and the combination is fabulous. I think naamah_darling is right, and there's a light musk lingering in the background, just peeking out on the dry-down. There's something else in the midrange, something nutty like a grain field curing in the sun, but I can't quite pick it out. I adore this scent. I will be getting more of this.

[Ciircee]

Sister of Circe was converted and got this as a freebie in her order. For once we actually wore it the same, too (normally we get really different scents off of stuff).

 

Wet: Amber. Straight up.

 

Dry 5 minutes: Sweet amber with something...dry.

 

Dry 20 minutes: Dry, golden amber with something spicy to it. Since it's still wearing really sweet on me I'm going to guess it's cloves.

 

Dry 45 minutes: Still very sweet but it's also very warm with that dryness and spice. It's a 'golden' scent, sweet without being cloying or floral.

 

Notes: The scent--like so many light ones--is gone in less than three hours on me and the twin. It goes to powder/soap right before it disappears (not unpleasant, mind you) and lays pretty close to the skin.

 

It's a nice scent, unobtrusive and just right when you're longing for some summer warmth.

[Torrilin]

Original review post got ate in the forum troubles:

 

The first time I tried this it felt "perfumey" and a bit headachey. It also didn't seem to blend well.

 

It seems to have settled in tho, and now it's sweet and spicey, with no headachey element. Yum. It's a lot less flat out sexy than amber usually is, and it feels like it'd make a good everyday scent. It's a *bit* less complex than I'd really prefer tho. It doesn't change and morph as much as Haunted and Maiden do, and I enjoy how those morphers wear throughout a day. There's a dry, green note that sometimes appears in The Lion, and that can be a bit unpleasant since I'm not fond of most green notes.

 

This layers really well with Haunted. Haunted gives it depth and morph, and this mellows Haunted out so that it's less prone to overwhelm. The Lion is a very light scent, I can slather it with abandon. And do . If I slather, it lasts all day as a mellow close to the skin scent. Even with slathering, there is very little throw. If I dot it on like a heavier BPAL, it's gone fairly quickly. The Lion is a strong bottle contender right now, because it's very wearable, and there's almost no risk of overapplying.

 

Kalli

[gingersnapp]

This is warm and dry and spicy. Absolutely to die for. It is so comforting, it's like wrapping up in a blanket in a beam of sunshine and just soaking in the warmth. I cannot put into words how wonderful this blend is. It's just so soothing. I feel protected wearing it.

[lady_pandora]

Sorry, this is going to be a rather short review.

 

The Lion is, quite simply, a warm, unobtrusive amber scent, soft and mellow. It works quite well on my skin, as most ambers do. It doesn't knock me dead like some of the more dramatic amber blends do (Haunted Palace, anyone?), but it's often the unobtrusive scents that I end up wearing a lot, because they're not overpowering. Warm and comfortable; the "favorite pair of old jeans" of amber scents.

 

ADDED Nov. 22:

 

This was a frimp from the lab, and it took me a long time to really come around to appreciating it, sadly. I remember it smelling good when I first tried it, but it didn't knock my socks off, probably because I had a bunch of other scents dotted up and down my arms, drowning it out! So it sort of collected dust in my imp box until today, when I was browsing the forums and saw a random comment comparing The Lion to Bengal. As I've just run out of Bengal, I decided it was time to give this kitty another try.

 

To me, this definitely does belong in the same scent "family" with Bengal, and to some extent Sed Non Satiata. SNS smells like a darker, sexier version of Bengal on me, and conversely, The Lion smells like a lighter, less sexual Bengal. It definitely has that same "chai latte" blend of spices that made Bengal such a great morning pick-me-up for me. I don't know what spices are in The Lion, but I smell cinnamon, maybe ginger...quite yummy and delightful.

 

The longer I leave it on, the stronger the amber becomes. This was to be expected. My skin loves amber beyond reason. But fortunately, it doesn't drown the other notes when it does.

 

I may not buy a big bottle of this--I like Bengal slightly better, and they fill the same niche--but I'll definitely use up this imp! Thank you lab!

[lizardling]

In bottle: Spicy, warm amber. Mm. I think I've definitely decided that amber's one of my favorite notes. I called the spicy part cinnamon when I was talking to my friend about it. Like those red hot candies, really. Cinnamon isn't my favorite, but there wasn't enough of it next to the amber to make me back away from it.

 

On skin: OMGLOVE. This is pretty much the same on my skin as in the bottle, only with less of a sharper component to the scent. It's more spicy at the start, but softens to a sweeter and warmer amber after a while. The throw is probably around arm's length -- you'd have to get inside my personal space to smell it. It stuck around on my wrists pretty much all day, and I kept raising my head to catch a whiff of some delicious smell until I realized that it was me.

 

Overall: I wear this to work when I feel like I need an extra shot of courage, definitely. Work's pretty stressful right now, and having this makes me feel better about facing the day (in addition to good coffee!). The scent is... yes, very honey-gold colored in my mind's eye.

 

Score: 4.0 out of 5.

[nancybridget]

The Lion is a warm, foody blend, which reminds me of fall mulling spices. The amber balances the blend out nicely, but alas, I'm not one for a lot of spice.

[elspeth]

I got this as a frimp with a swap. I could smell the amber right away and it felt overall really warm to me. It is very strong and seems masculine without being too spicy. In fact I really don't get much spice from it. i do get some sweetness and the staying power is good. It lasted for quite a bit of time. I've noticed that a lot of Beth's scents seem to do that and I usually have a hard time finding one that does. This scent makes me want a bottle. in fact I bought an empty in case I swap for more imps!

[Abbie]

In the bottle: Mmmmm. A warm hot-day smell, like too much sunshine. A sleepy kind of fragrance. Not detecting specific notes, apart from general "spice" and "amber" , but not too intense.

 

First on: An oily oil... to me this smells a little bit like polished wood. I believe I also detect a hint of musk now. A soft scent, though.

 

Dry: As it dries it gets more musky but remains a wonderful summer scent.

 

Overall: A keeper!

[terrierhead]

The Lion is terrific. I wasn't expecting much from this imp, gifted to me by a generous forumite who I met at the Kansas City meet and swap event last month. Amber usually goes straight to baby powder on me. However, the Lion stays rich and spicy for hours. The scent has considerable throw when first applied, but the throw decreases with dry-down and becomes a close to the skin scent. I will be buying a bottle of this.

[septima_pica]

Almost all cinnamon and ginger, with maybe a touch of musk and almond. This scent is warm and cuddly, with a hint of baked goods -- the most vivid memory I'm getting here is of an outdoor market somewhere, some August, where my parents and I bought cinnamon bread and then went and had a picnic in the sun on the grass...second one in ten minutes, oddly, that's made me think I ought to get my dad an imp of it. That's never happened with any others.

Twenty minutes later -- aha! there's that sour thing from O! It's not nearly as bothersome here, but still -- I think it must be amber that's going bad on me. Good to know.

[pennydreadful]

In the bottle: Pure amber resin.

 

Wet: The scent of amber resin rubbed directly onto the skin mixed with exotic spices and the slightest hint of brown sugar.

 

Drydown: The amber becomes soft and warm with the spices and sugar blending together into a very pleasing scent. It is comforting and alluring at the same time.

 

Verdict: This is one of the first BPAL oils I ever sampled, and the second 5 ml bottle I ever purchased. It’s a wonderful scent that smells just as nice on me as it does my husband. It’s the perfect scent for wearing on warm August nights, when summer is thinking about turning into fall.