Silk Road

[AnnetteL]

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.

 

Unfortunately, I didn't get any of the spices / woods / tea / herbs / green notes mentioned in other reviews, nor did this resemble Snake Oil (which I like). Silk Road on me was overwhelmingly floral, and likemost of BPAL's florals it morphed into soap in very short order. To be fair, I really should have guessed this from the description, but the wonderful poetic language drew me in

[requieminblack]

First sniff from the bottle- Starfruit? There is something lemon like and sharp in this.

 

After 20 minutes- I was hoping to get a cinnamon spice out of this seeing that cinnamon and clove are my favorite notes, but it is not spicy in that way at all. In fact this one is very light and breezy. The lemon-starfruit scent is dominant but I can pick up myrrh and something green floral smelling like the notes in Santa Muerte. As it fades it becomes very gingery, though it's more of a freshly sliced ginger root scent. Very fresh and lemony, not hot and spicy like I was hoping.

 

Summery- As it faded it went a bit soapy on me. Nice, but not for me.

Edited May 26, 2005 by requieminblack

[tempete]

Silk Road started out as a strongly spicy, herbal scent, and then quickly morphed into spicy soap. I was disappointed, as I was quite intrigued by the concept behind the scent.

[rhubarbbear]

in the vial i loooove this. it's so...silk roadish. it makes me think of a trip i'd really like to take some day. spices and dust and silks and resins.

 

on: hmmm. kind of soapy. and masculine. weird.

 

10 min later: is my wrist all red? goodness!

 

30 min later: soapiness is fading, but i've got a big red swath of skin, and it has a strong perfumey scent.

 

overall...i can't wear this. i'll probably keep it for after the pregnancy tho, and see if it can play nicely then.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 2/5

Summarised in a word or two: Incensey.

 

In the imp/bottle: Hmm. This is...flowery incense?

 

On skin, wet: There seems to be something citrusy here. Other than that, light spice, some sort of musk... again, I can't discern individual notes.

 

On skin, dry: This now smells of incense, musk, smoky vanilla and citrus. Very pretty.

 

Conclusion: It's a bit too heavy on the incense for summer, but this would may be a great winter scent!

Edited December 24, 2005 by Aredhel

[cricketshay]

I wanted to try this one as soon as it came out, it sounded so lovely! I too had some difficulty picking out certain notes. I've also found the longer I wear it, the more it changes. Very complex blend.

 

In the VialMy first impression was cinnamon. Very spicy. I think there is some ginger as well.

Wet~Not as spicy as it was in the vial and the herbal notes are surfacing. It reminds me of Opium perfume. Though not as strong, Silk Road is softer.

Dry~ Still spicy with the herbal undercurrents. I like it better after 30 minutes than I did upon first application.

 

Great for a room scent, but I'm not sure I would wear it often. Maybe just when I wanted the capture the essence of the Orient. I tend to not care for the Wanderlust blends in general, but this one is an expection.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: All the spices of the Old World blended together so skillfully I can't pull them apart. There's a light greenish note that makes this note crisp, hints of a citrusto give this juice and an edge, and a vast collection of mystery spices, which bring about mystery and allure and sexiness. The scent is light and playful, something I never expected.

On me: Cinnamon and ginger. Light, delicate florals and green, leafy herbs - this is a beautiful and complicated scent, very difficult to describe. It seems very youthful for a spice scent; it isn't heavy with age like most incense-scents seem to be.

[nineveh]

This one is shifting around quite a bit on me. Sometimes I can smell citrus/ginger, sometimes cinnamon, sometimes tea. Sometimes it's light and cool, sometimes it's spicy.

 

Overall, this is exotic without being heavy or overpowering. It would be great for summer. I can't really pick out any individual notes, but I like it a lot.

[Sheila]

This is herbal without being bitter. It's gently spicy and softly sweet, but not too foody. It's very lovely, and like others have said, very well blended. It does remind me a bit of Hamadryad (but without the musk). It's light and would make a great lotion.

[Ardisian]

I guess I shoud have read more reviews, but I was expecting something much spicier (something, it turned out, more like Morocco) when I tried this imp.

 

first application: right off it's a very light, lemony scent. But not a sharp citrus, more of a mellow lemon balm with a light herbal depth.

 

drydown: the lemon balm mellows some more, and a light tea scent as well as the spices become more apparent. The spices are not so strong - no more spice than say a carnation (though I don't smell any florals in here)

 

A few hours later I can't smell it anymore. It's not bad, I'll definately keep the imp. but it veers a little close to the Zephyr school of scents that are just too light to do anything for me (spicy/resinous girl).

[fragrantgrasse]

Silk Road conjures up images of the exotic far east, souks, spices, resins, herbs.....so maybe it is the flowers in the description that didn't work well on my skin. Silk Road went Soap Road pretty quickly on my skin.

 

Silk Road may be good in a candle burner which I plan on trying - I like the sweet top notes I smell right out of the imp and they may translate more harmoniously in a candle than they did on my skin!

 

[Muppetk]

Sniffed from the imp: Oh wow. I would like to thank whoever ordered this bottle and caused me to recieve a gift imp of it. Oooooh, spice goodness of all kinds with a hint of sweet maybe apple or pear underneath.

 

Wet on me: less spicy.

 

Drying: The hint of sweet is going rose-like, so I'm thinking it's either rose (very traditional) or a hint of dragon's blood (which often goes rose-y on me) or... oh no... oh don't let it be anise, please please please don't let it be anise. But the other spices are still a nifty medley, but much more sedate. Too bad. I loved the nifty spiciness.

 

5 minutes later: It's not anise at least. But where did all my spices go??? Now it's a light floral with a pinch of something green-incensy, like vertiver, and a very very bare pinch of cooking spice (cassia?) left. *sniffle*

 

10 min later: Nearly gone! It's basically a hint of soap now, very clean. My skin is just eating this stuff up!!! Nononono! It's so GORGEOUS in the imp! Not fair! Just because I love to eat silk road foods (chinese, japanese, indian, thai, afghan, etc etc) doeasn't mean that my skin should too!!

 

Will have to try this on later over unscented moisturizer. Because this should NOT have dissappeared so quickly!! So bummed! It's started out as a new favorite!

[lokelani]

I was really excited about this one; the description sounded amazing. But on me it immediately turned into cinnamon -- almost a single note. Cinnamon's not bad, but I was really expecting a far more complex scent (and it seems like most folks got that -- my skin chemistry apparently looked at all of those wonderful ingredients and just said, "cinnamon." What can you do? Can't argue with the skin chemistry.)

 

I ended up swapping this.

[urraca]

This was a kind frimp from the lab. Glad I got to try it.

 

Sigh, spice. It just does not work on me.

 

Wet this smelled like flowers and flour and it quickly morphed in the way spice usually does on me into a doughy bakery smell. Maybe a doughnut shop without the grease. Nothing like a souk, and I've been in a souk (and would love to smell like one. Oh you guys are lucky!). It was backed by a light, crisp white floral scent that was very nice.

 

It's like New Orleans but with crisp flowers instead of sweet flowers. Individual spice notes, like cinnamon or ginger, seem to work on me but whatever this collectivity is doesn't .

Edited June 24, 2005 by urraca

[bellis]

Dusty spices. That's about all I can smell. I'm reminded of a back room in a florists shop in my hometown. It's an interesting scent, but just not for me. Off to the swap with it.

[gingersnapp]

This is very warm, nutty and spicy, and it has quite a bit of throw. I'm sitting in a circle of incense and loving it. It reminds me of this wonderful, quirky little shop in downtown Ann Arbor, MI with incense and fabrics and antiques. It's a really wonderful rich scent. Two thumbs up.

[Falathwen]

This is splendid, but remains surprisingly close to the skin. It evokes its namesake very well. There is a gently cinnamon that makes itself known at first - and burns my wrists a little. I can also pick out tea, something wonderfully resinous, and a floral I cannot name which reminds me of lilies. As it dried down it grows ever spicier, softer, and sweeter.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: pretty and, above all, interesting. a crowded blend. i can't really pick anything out.

on: at first, i smell something grassy. however, it warms up right away. it's a bit citrussy and a bit spicy to my nose. interesting, but i'm not sure i like it.

1 hour later: weird. this just isn't me. it's a bit biting, but a bit...almost foody, too. i think it's the spices in it.

overall: just not me.

[cuervosueno]

Ah Silk road!

I keep wanting to call it spice road, which I suppose says it all.

In the imp: spicey candle. Like a Christmas spice candle. Everyone else is saying cinnamon, and that's likely it, but to my nose it could be clove instead, which is a softer note to me, and doesn't get so amped up by my skin. There is a slightly waxy undernote too, hence candle comparison.

On--pure spice. The waxiness goes away and I get a light spice scent. It is mild, but has some throw, esp. since I put it on before working out, and kept getting light wafts of spice as I threw a punch while boxing.

No citrus here. Vanilla? maybe--there is something sweet in it.

but mostly just pure spice.

I like it--will most certainly use the imp, and will consider buying a bottle.

[aidenraine]

Ok, this was gifted to me with an ebay purchase and lord knows it has enough reviews, but here's one more.

 

 

This might be my new favorite BPAL scent. I am absolutely smitten.

 

It's sweet, but with an incensey undertone. I want to say it has sandalwood or pachouli in it somewhere; the musk is similar to to the ambient smell of a wee hippie store in my hometown, bit with a lovely sweetness on top.

 

The scent is so jarring that it also brought me immediately back to the smell of an occult store I used to go in. I was once compelled to ask one of the proprieters what she used to scent the room, but she just shrugged and smiled. I've always wondered.

 

This is the smell of heavy black velvet curtains, a cool room with many little bottles in it.

 

The kind of scent you only get when you're in a place that carries many different perfumes... it's the mingling of many layers. I never thought anyone would bottle that; I thought I'd have to just haunt perfumiers and occult shops.

[olympia301]

 

If ever there was a fragrance that captured my idea of "the smell of silk fabric" Silk Road does it. There is a citrus start to it that wakes your nose up, and an indefinable drydown to something which is a melange of different appealing smells impossilble to pull apart and blend into "that silk fabric" scent.

 

On me Silk Road is fugitive. It does not last very long at all, and considering that it is not a big "broadcaster" I would suggest this as a "personal perfume", the kind you wear just to smell it yourself and not think about bowling everyone else over. When I put it on, I can smell it from time to time, but it is never intrusive. It is amiable, warm (without being horribly hot) and pretty in an unusual way. It's a great scent which fills the slot such an item would do in the vast listing of things on offer from The Lab. Also, I would opine that it cuts across age, gender, and event lines. In other words, anyone could wear it for any occasion.

[Janie]

On me, this should be called Gone In 60 Seconds (But Very Nice While It Is Around)

 

It's on, it smells lovely and interesting, then it goes.

 

Chemistry, oh where is thy sting!

[Racecar Gibson]

This is how imagined Three Witches would smell on me. Very sweet-spicy. I don't see me wearing this one a lot, since I do get the tiniest hint of "craft store" when I sniff my arm, but I think that might have to do with the fact that I'm first testing it in 90+ degree July. For now, I'm def. keeping my imp so I can dab during what passes for our "winter" and then reassess.

[telesilla]

With no notes listed in the catalog, and me buying this six pack before I really started reading the forums, this is strictly a name and association sort of purchase.

 

In the bottle and wet: Oh dear; there's rose in here. And other stuff, mostly floral so far.

 

Drying down: It's fading like crazy. Literally two minutes and it's a ghost of some faded florals. Maybe I just didn't put enough lotion down first.

 

Reapplying gets me something a little greener than the first time, but this isn't exotic or really much of anything, as it's dying again. I'd suspect I got a diluted imp but this one's straight from the lab.

 

Weird. I'm going to see if it's something Nancy wants and if not, put it on my swap list.

[Sara]

Initial sniff: Soap!! Not just any soap, but guest soap that is for display only in many home bathrooms across the country. You know what bathroom, the one that's off-limits to you, but not to your mom's friend visiting for the day.

 

Swipe: Still guest soap, but it's fading pretty quick....

 

Drydown: Well, this doesn't smell quite like it did to me the other day. I thought it smelled nice and semi-spicy. But for some reason today it smells just like guest/display soap that I've smelled in a bazillion bathrooms.

 

Overall: Not for me. It didn't morph from imp sniff to skin, which is weird, cuz normally scents do...but anyway, I'm just not looking to smell like soap...even on my dirty days.