Savannah

This smells a bit overpowering to me. I can see how it would be pleasant if it's your thing. Think, yes, a pleasure garden, sun-soaked and absolutely choked with fruit trees and flowering plants, with a little ornamental pond in the middle, heated by the sun, the water barely visible through the lily pads! Very rich and enveloping. Not at all how I think of the Ace of Cups, however! This goes in the swap pile, hopefully to someone who will appreciate its sterling qualities more than I.

I've been sniffing my arm for about five minutes trying to identify this maddeningly familiar scent, and I finally got it: Salt water taffy. It smells exactly like a box of mixed flavors of salt water taffy. There's also a slightly gritty, sandy, exhaust-y smell that I associate with the seedy little strip mall at the beach where I buy salt water taffy. But mostly just the sweet, odd smell of the taffy itself. I get no aquatics at all. Not an unpleasant scent, but not for me.

Very similar to High John the Conquerer on me-- herbal and soapy, with an unpleasantly baby-powderish sweet note that my skin does bad things with. I don't smell any cinnamon-- maybe that hint of an aseptic note is clove, but it isn't working for me. These are the only two Voodoo oils I've tried, so there might be a common note to all of them, or it might just be these two. I ordered them for personal empowerment purposes, but I think they open the sixth chakra or something, which I need like a hole in the head, and they don't smell good enough on me to justify wearing them as fragrances. But if you like herbal/sweetish/comforting scents, I think you'd quite like this one.

In the vial: Hmm. Strong, and masculine. Don't know if it's going to be my thing. On the wrist: Ooh. Strong. And... floral. And... green... and... SOAPY, DAMMIT! WHY, MY SKIN, WHY? Why must you torture me by turning everything remotely herbal SOAPY? Drydown: *spent sulking because it smells soapy and floral and citrusy and cough droppish* Later: Ooh. Oooooh. There's the sun god. Oh, I smell the frankincense, and the cinnamon-- it tickles my nose in a good way-- and the orange! The mental image I get from this is of Haroun al-Raschid, or some powerful ruler of old Araby, standing on the balcony of his palace as the blazing sun begins to heat up the day, looking over the marketplace which is already buzzing with life and wares-- the scents of spice and incense and oranges wafting up from the tangle of bright colors and loud, cheerful haggling and pushing. The Sultan is looking out over all this, a part of it but removed from it, very dignified and powerful. Five hours later: Still just as powerful and yummy. Quite masculine. That isn't a problem for me, though. My current everyday scent is a very cool, semi-aquatic, slightly creamy scent with a nose-tickling cinnamon note, and Ra strikes me as the perfect warm, earthy/firy, masculine yang to that fragrance's cool, feminine, water/airy yin. I foresee a bottle of this in my future. I'll just have to grit my teeth through the drydown. What would be just perfect is if I could get my fiance to wear this. He's not much for fragrances though. I'll have to see what I can do. :plot:

My first oil! My first review! I am so psyched!!! I bought a 5ml of this off the forums because I need personal empowerment talismans like whoa. First sniff in the bottle: Wow! Very sweet and... sort of mentholated, like cherry cough drops. Yikes. I hope it settles down on my skin. Wet: Ooh, soapy and green. The sharp fruity sweetness retreated into the background. It's still there, but mingled with the other scents it's quite pleasant. It smells like the handmade soaps you can get at street fairs, with bunches of herbs embedded in them. I can smell grapes, too, but more like smelling a bunch of grapes than eating a grape-- a bit subtler and more dusty, less juicy and sweet. Like standing in a vineyard, maybe. Dry: Two hours after application, the only change is that it's all softened a bit and the different scents are harder to pick out from the whole. Either it has a really long drydown or it's just really consistent on my skin. I really like this-- I agree with the person who compared it to baby powder for grownups. It smells clean and comforting but also complex. Really good staying power so far, hasn't faded one bit. Voodoo efficacy: As yet untested, though I really like the mood the scent seems to put me in-- not so much calm and collected, as just... okay, no matter what. I wore it to my appointment with my therapist just now and even while I was crying over some very difficult things in my life, I felt better and more able to articulate what I need and want then I have been for a long time. I don't know if it was the High John or the other forces I've been enlisting to my aid, but I am definitely keeping my 5ml and will possibly keep you updated as to its effects!

Thanks for all your suggestions! I have ordered imps of Tezatlipoca and Centzon Tch... thingy-- they sound most like what I'm looking for, as I really don't care for woody notes in my fragrances. Now to settle in and wait.

I really want a chocolate scent, but all of the chocolates I've tried (most famously Serendipitous and Amour de Cacao), or read descriptions of, were sweeter than sweet. I can't wear candy-sweet scents; they turn cloying and headachey on me and I end up smelling like an Easter basket in late August. I prefer to eat dark chocolate and drink British cocoa, and I'd really like a cocoa scent without all the butter/sugar/vanilla-y scents they always seem to be wedded to. Can anyone recommend a good scent along those lines, from BPAL or elsewhere? Ta muchly!