Silk Road

[neuilly]

A panoply of cultural treasures, spanning the herbs, flowers, oils and balms of the Romans, the Byzantines, the Mediterranean, the Levant, Northern China, Eastern Europe, Iran, the Bulgar-Kypchak, Mesopotamia, the Crimean Peninsula, Anatolia, Antioch, and North Africa.

 

 

This is a warm, comfortin spicy scent. In the beginning I can pick out the cinnamon but it blends pretty quickly into everything else - and I can't name a single other note! I definitely feel like it's a middle eastern spice blend. Very nice but too exotic for me to pull off.

Edited April 11, 2007 by neuilly

[Carmencita]

In the vial: This is weird. I get the smell of rice. Like a just-opened package of jasmine or basmati rice from the farmer's market. Also something herby, with unsweet spices.

 

On me: Warm tile, clean but well-worn handmade furniture. Sundried sheets that were NOT washed in detergent. Still with the rice. Hot, warm rice, with some bland herbs rolled into it.

 

Later: Flat, brass, unsweet spices, rice pudding. Clean, earthy, herby scent. Saffron coming through I think.

 

I actually really like this.

[maribouquet]

In the imp and wet on my skin Silk Road is a floral cinnamon (that does not burn my skin, yay!) As it dries the cinnamon mellows out a bit and I think I smell patchouli and maybe some sandalwood?

 

I agree with others who detect a sort of dried grassy, sisal scent. This is definitely a warm, dry perfume. I like the complexity, but overall it's not really me.

[mspixieears]

At first, both in the vial and wet on skin, this smells a bit like The Phantom Calliope so I’m pretty sure I detect lemon verbena in this. Could there also be cassia in this? There is something warm and spicy but I’m not quite sure what it is. It’s very complex and warming. It’s definitely non-western to my nose but I can’t quite place it. It’s what I imagine a bazaar night might smell like. There are countless other wonderful things in this that I can’t fully identify but I do like it, though I do prefer The Phantom Calliope’s vibe more. Someone pointed out that the creaminess in this could be milk and I’m inclined to agree. A couple of hours later, this has faded to almost nothing which is a shame as the fragrance is so alluring. Will probably use up the imp of this.

[mystery213]

MMmmmm, Chai Tea! Or maybe Celestial Seasonings Bengal Spice...

I love chai tea, and this oil reminds me of a spicy version of it (cinnamon/cassia, cardamon, black pepper perhaps) with a hint of something else lurking behind. When wet it is a very complex scent, but as it dries on me, it mellowed into this great chai scent that reminded me a bit of BPAL's Bengal oil as well...

I do like this one! It really seems to have a good throw, and decent staying power too.

[kwsix]

Silk Road is amazing, and smells extremely complex but not busy on me. It stays true from start to finish, with practically no morph. The dominant note seems to be cinnamon. Not a red-hots type of cinnamon, but more like a true spice cabinet fragrance. I can't identify the other notes with any certainty, so I'm going to save myself the embarrassment of trying. I'll just say that I absolutely love this blend. It's warm, exotic, unobtrusive, and oh so much like a collection of wonderful natural smells instead of an artfully created perfume. This is definitely on my most-wanted bottle list.

[luna65]

Thanks to kmasden for the imp.

 

Imp: Pungent, in a distinctly herbal sense.

 

Skin: Initially it's primarily spicy, very piquant.

 

Drydown: I enjoy the way this reveals itself in layers; by the end I can envision the spices and the flowers and other elements which give the sense of being in a place filled with different fragrant items. So evocative and complex, yet another olfactory adventure!

[LadyCrow]

In the imp: Sweet, clear.

 

Wet: Sweet and yummy! (Yes, a highly technical term there. Go me.) I think I'm getting milk here, but not the weird milk in Milk Moon '07.

 

Drydown: Not a morpher. Rather, a remarkably consistent, complex, spicy, strangely foody blend that just stayed luscious and regal. I got this very odd mental picture of Shere Khan from The Jungle Book eating cardamom-laced rice pudding, in which case he would have been a lot less grouchy.

[Brianne]

In the vial:

Cassis and ginger

 

On me:

I get the spicey quality of cassis and ginger together right away - and behind it is something very "balmy" indeed - maybe eucalyptus? It's sort of medicinal behind the spice quality. It's very headshopy, I'm sure others have said that too - but it's really appealing also. There is something just overall pleasant about this scent. Very evocative of what it represents. I find that it also reminds me of Shub Niggurath and Red Phoenix both. If you liked either or both of those, I think there is a good chance you'll like this one

 

Final note:

Exotic spiced loveliness. Again, if you loved Red Phoenix or Shub, give this a shot!

[funkmoppet]

Bengal without the honey.

 

There's cinnamon, and to my unsure nose, possibly sassafras, patchouli and amber. There's something that warms it close to the skin on the dry down, mellowing the spiciness of the wet phase. It's very calm when dry. A gentle woodiness. I'm not really getting any floral from this.

 

This is lovely. A nice substitute for days when I want the spice of Bengal, but without the sweetness.

[cadenza]

In the bottle: Oh! This doesn't smell nearly as heavy as I thought it would. It's a very cheerful scent, warm...I'd call it a "pink" or "orange" scent, rather than the heavier red that I expected. I can't really pick out an individual spice, just a general "spiciness."

 

On, wet: I smell like a red hot! And almost immediately, it gets a little less sweet-smelling, so more like cinnamon gum than a red hot.

 

Drying: Ooh, this is multilayered and really just spices over spices. I hope it blends down a little bit better.

More drying: It is starting to blend down (I think this is my skin’s tendency to swallow up spices and laugh at me, as notes keep disappearing) into something that smells kind of like my chiropractor’s office (which isn’t a bad thing; it smells of incense and homeopathic remedies). This is probably too masculine a scent for me to ever reach for when I'm heading out in public, sort of the loud, hardened male second cousin of Snake Oil’s spices—no softness or sweetness. But I bet it’s

still something I would wear to sleep, because it smells gooooooood.

 

Dry: It’s gone flat and swallowed, thanks to my spectacular anti-spice skin chemistry.

 

Verdict: Fortunately, it’s not a scent I love love, because it’s too masculine for me and my skin swallows half the notes, leaving a much less complex scent. But it’s definitely an “all spice! all the time!” scent, so I’m sure there are a lot of people who will love it (which makes me happy, because I like it enough that I know it deserves to be loved).

[steelfaerie]

I just got my new bottle of Silk Road and it smells like a cinnamon single note. *groans* I'm not sure if my skin chemistry changed somehow or something is amiss with the blending, but this particular bottle smells like getting hit in the face with a bat made of cinnamon. It smells nothing like the amazing notes in the imps.

[cinderfallen]

Three words: cinnamon rice pudding.

 

Reminds me a bit of Bengal, but with a basmati rice grain note and cream.

[WidgetAlley]

In the Imp: Cloves? And something astringent, maybe birch or sassafras. It's almost medicinal-smelling, and very faint, and that unpleasant sharp note reminds me of a commercial perfume.

 

Wet: Cinnamon? Definitely-- my arms are tingly. But cinnamon with a sickening sort of watery undertone for a minute, until that burns off and I'm left with a straight-up cinnamon... but a surprisingly faint one. Maybe some ginger as well, but nothing's jumping out at me. Perhaps it's the "rice" note that's not agreeing with me.

 

Dry: It's already starting to fade even further, becoming just a breath of dusty spices. You know, it's weird, I thought this would be in my top ten, since the description is exactly what I'm looking for in a perfume, but alas, no dice. On to someone whose skin chemistry treats it more kindly.

[spessartine]

Silk Road was the first BPAL oil that really made me sit up and take notice! It's an amazing blend.

 

The only way I can describe it, and how I think of it, is this: It smells like the inside of a wagon that's travelled the silk road, picking up various sacks of spices and grains and incense and food on the way. It's travelled through vast swathes of grassland which have left a hay-like untertone, and the wood it's made of is old and imbued with the scents of the spices it's been carrying. There's road dust and splintered wood in there, and maybe some kind of butter-and-flour cakes got transported in it once, but they've been replaced with bolts of cloth now.

 

That's exactly what it smells like to me. Funnily enough I don't really want to smell like a wagon, so I never wear it, but I keep an imp of it for a burner, because it's the most evocative scent I own.

[LittleMissAspie]

I think this smells just like a new age shop. All incense and patchouli and smelly candles and swathes of rich coloured cloth with decorative jewels and astrology books and dingyness and oh, in this one the woman at the till is drinking a mug of cinnamon tea.

 

I've always hated the smell of new age shops, sorry BPAL.

[madeleine]

Silk Road really is a panoply of scents. The primary note for me is cinnamon, but I find that even when the cinnamon is shouting at me, I am always aware of other scents in the background. Clove, maybe myrrh and a bit of rose. There's amber (of course!), and something that might be almonds. Oranges and ginger. For a while about half an hour in it has a sunscreen-y edge that I like (Follow Me Boy does the same thing, but I don't like the direction Follow Me Boy chooses to go on my skin) and then a grainy, smooth scent comes in to compliment the cinnamon. The grain and cinnamon notes are the most prominent when it's really truly dry.

 

One thing I like about Silk Road is that it doesn't feel like perfume, but like you smell like this naturally. It's something I could imagine a Byzantine empress wearing, no problem.

[smillaraaq]

Another recent frimp, and of all the freebies I've ever received from friends or the Lab, this is the first one I've ever fallen head-over-heels insanely in love with...

 

Oh, wow. I am RIDICULOUSLY in love with this -- best frimp ever!

 

In the bottle: tea, really strong, spicy, tannic black tea -- something like chai without the roundness and sweetness of the milk and sugar. Wet: more strong black tea, like a Russian Caravan style blend, heavy and tannic, with spices -- cardamom and clove for sure, maybe some pepper? and aromatic woody incense, like Nag Champa or cedarwood joss sticks, maybe a hint of patchouli. Drydown: the woody sandalwood/cedar incense notes are getting stronger, but the spice and tea elements seem to still be there. Not nearly as strong as I'd have expected from those sorts of notes, and it doesn't have very much throw at all unless I slather it on pretty heavily, but this is absolutely lovely close to the skin. It's definitely one of those scents that's evocative of a man-made place rather than the natural world: I could swear that I've been someplace before that smells JUST LIKE THIS BLEND, a tea shop or a temple or a spice dealer or an herbalist's shop or a little ethnic grocery, or maybe several such places that are all blending together in my mind so that I can't narrow the memory down to more specific locations.

 

I am not getting any of the flowers or herbal notes the description or other reviewers lead me to expect, to my nose this is aromatic but entirely dry -- dry tea, dry wood, dry incense, dry spices. Not a dead, musty fading sort of dryness, but lots of tannins and things that are just sort of preserved and sleeping, waiting for a touch of water or flame to bring them bursting back into full life again. Oh geeze, I love this so much it's ridiculous, there's not an ounce of sweetness to it but it's not sharp and bitter at all; it's just rich and warm and dry and oh-so-achingly-familiar and almost comforting. I love incense/spice scents and scents that aren't sticky-sweet so this really is just perfect for me...and it's so dry and gentle and almost neutral in a strange way that it even can play nicely alongside other fragrances that I love -- it doesn't clash at all with my Perversion-filled scent locket, or my Black Vanilla spray conditioner. It doesn't have quite the insane staying power on my skin that some scents like Perversion or Nyarlathotep do, but even as it fades throughout the day it stays lovely and balanced. This is definitely one I'm going to need to get a full bottle of when the imp runs out.

[Gwydion]

Smells like cookies in the bottle. A little too busy on first application. Not unpleasant, but not interesting either.

[Jocelyn]

I get a cinnamon smell with a slightly herbal backround. Not the loud resinous scent I was hoping for. Not really for me.

[bryghtrose]

This was more sweet cinnamon than the exotic spicy/resin I was hoping for.

[akiko]

Going from the description, I had no idea what this could smell like, so I put it on my list of 'things to sniff at Will Call.' I did, and bought a bottle.

 

Bottle: astringent, spices, very light floral. I can't discern any particulars, except that they remind me of Morocco.

 

Wet: Complex of spices with an astringent tone. A hint of floral, perhaps.

 

Dry: Mainly dry spices (cinnamon? cassia?) and a light floral (carnation?). Maybe some musk?

 

Normally, florals don't work on me (rose turns into nasty fake rose hand lotion, for example), but whatever is in this works on me. Probably because floral isn't the primary here, but the spices are.

 

Edit, 4 pm: Sandalwood makes an appearance late in the game. Nice.

Edited December 12, 2007 by Winterwind

[Northernskygal]

In the imp, Silk Road smells like walking into my favorite tea house here in Columbus. They have a super varied menu of teas from everywhere and the scent of all the flowers and spices and.. it is very similar. This is a fairly light scent overall.. I think it would take more slathering than even I do to make this one overpowering. This has sort of an uplifting vibe to me, maybe because of the good memories I link to the tea shop, which I link to this.. or maybe it is just a happy blend. There is no dark notes in it that I can detect at all. I get a hint of cinnamon but.. my arm isn't on fire, as cinnamon tends to make it so.. I am pretty happy about that. It makes me think of remedies of old, you know? When people used herbs and flowers and balms and.. grains and.. it makes me think of the medicine man/woman somewhere.. this would be what their place would smell like. It is nice.. peaceful and uplifting. It will be a scent that is worn totally for me though.. not to be smelled by the other around me but.. just truly for myself.. like.. a secret that keeps me happy all day.

[seashell]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH

MMMMMMMMMMMMMM

 

Spicy flowers indeed, very spicy! Good throw, lasts and lasts on me, YAY!!

 

I adore this scent, I am trying it on the Man tonight. I foresee a passionate evening!

 

I LOVE THIS!!!

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Cinnamon and almonds (bitter)

 

Wet on me – Soap, stale tea and a touch of cinnamon

 

Dry on me – It warms and deepens becoming very resinous before softening to a creamy skin musk scent

 

Overall – At first it’s a bit of a wash out, but the dry down is very inviting, one for further consideration I think