Sacred Whore of Babylon

[jewelbug]

An ancient formula that inspires unrepentant decadence, lechery and debauch.

Bottle: Pungent cloyingly sweet blooms (gardenia, I guess?) with something bitter and incensey. On second sniff, it's very odd, but I swear I smell bitter, banana, then pungent blooms in that order. How intriguing.

Wet: Something pungent, vaguely numbingly medicinal spice (cinnamon/anise/clove?). NECO'S CANDY, but not sweet smelling. Darker somehow. Hmmmm…..

Drying: This smells just like the white conversation hearts you get at valentine's day mixed with like….one lonely banana candy. It is not really overly sweet, though, actually a little bitter. It’s a warm strangely spicy scent with some pungent floral in the very background. This is really complex, and I stink at identifying notes, so that's the best I can do.

Dry: More conversation hearts, numbing spice, sweetish floral that is dirty somehow.
Fades in 3 hours.

Overall: This was very interesting. I really enjoyed the spicy warm slightly fruity blossom smell, just cuz it was so different, and a tough one to figure out. I think I'll keep it around to give it a second try after my hormones change, and see if it smells less like conversation hearts to me then. My hunch is that it will end up in the swaps, but its defnitely an interesting one. With a booty-kickin name.

[theshapeshifter]

In the imp: STRONG, and something that reminds me of Highwayman (upon looking up reviews, I determine this must be gardenia). I love Highwayman, so it seems promising.

 

Initial application: Oh dear. Here's where I discover that gardenia is the mystery ingredient that almost made me dislike Highwayman. And it's much, much stronger here. Gardenia obviously hates my skin with a flaming passion - it's like a mix of banana scratch-and-sniff stickers, dank vegetation and something caustic. After ten minutes of hoping it would settle into the scent that so many people rave about, I had to give it up and wash it off.

 

I haven't had too many BPALs that abjectly hated me, but alas, the Sacred Whore was one. Woe.

[tesao]

provenance: lab lagniappe! yay!!

 

in the imp: whoa. HEAVY white flowers. my first thought was jasmine.

 

on my wrist: still HEAVY flowers. maybe gardenia. jasmine sometimes likes me, sometimes not. i've yet to find a gardenia scent that likes me, although i adore the flower itself.

 

dry: maaaaaaaaybe a teeeny hint of sugared vanilla or honey. something that isn't the previously mentioned floral, but still SWEET.

 

overall: HEAVY WHITE FLOWERS.

 

if you like them, and they like you, you will love sacred whore of babylon. me? i'm washing off my wrist.

[pranashakti]

Floral, heavy, strong white floral....choking me...must make it to the sink...where's the soap for the love of god?!

 

One of the very few BPAL oils I have no tolerance for at all.

[klowey]

To me this is a heavy red scent. I definitely get the spice of dragon's blood and cinnamon.

 

Unfortunately, as it dries, it reminds me more and more of Fly Nap TM. Something used to put fruit flies to sleep long enough to examine them. Not a necessarily good connotation.

 

I'll have to try it later to see.

[Little Bird]

First sniff. Smells spicy, slinky, and exotic. Something about this strikes me as smelling almond-ish, but I normally hate almond, and this is mouthwateringly good. Also perhaps a bit dragons blood-ish smelling, but I also normally hate dragon's blood. I should hate this, but I don't.

 

5 minutes after application. I am *so* glad that I gave this scent a try and some time to drydown a bit. It has an almost indulgent oily almond/dragon's blood scent in the background, but there is a lovely spice and honey scent coating it now.

 

Half hour later. This just keeps getting better. Sacred Whore of Babylon has dried down into a mouthwatering honeyed vanilla with an unknown exotic spice mingling in it. I love this. It's definitely a 10 ml purchase. It has a lot of throw too. It's almost foodie, but not quite, and very spicy and sexy.

 

I'm going to go through my imp of this one very quickly.

Edited February 25, 2006 by Blood onmy hands

[baygirl]

I've been wanting to try this because I love gardenias, but I just don't really get that with this oil. I smell something gardenia-like, but it's just not for me. It's sweet, a little too cloying, and there's a warm spiciness/incense that's just not working for me. *shrugs*

[gangstaknitta]

In bottle: very sweet and somewhat soapy. I think I smell lotus, and maybe some type of lily? Definitely floral. And did I mention sweet?

 

Wet: a very sharp, sweet scent, like a huge bouquet of early spring flowers.

 

Dry: it's sweet and soft, it reminds of my parents' garden in May. There's some kind of warm buttery note underneath.

[joseybird]

Very cloying, sharp, sweet gardenia and dragon's blood. Like some sort of thick floral medicine...no likey florals...no...

[ABrokenAngel]

In the Bottle: An intoxicatingly rich red scent that reminded me of fire. Delicious.

 

 

Wet: Slightly soapy, spicy overlayed with sweet florals.

 

15 minutes later: The spiciness that made it intoxicating in the bottle has lept up and bashed me in the head making my nose it.

 

 

30 minutes later: Soapiness is gone and the cinnamon has mutated into a mix that I could have sworn was part anise.

 

 

35 minutes later: The cinnamon HATES ME!!! It's run-a-muck on my skin and is burning my nose. I couldn't even last an hour with it on before I had to scrub it off of my skin with anti-bacterial soap.

 

 

Final Thought: And now I know that cinnamon and I do not get along in the slightest. This is deffinately going into the swap pile.

[Freyja Lux]

Hmmm, floral. Ylang ylang? It's a nice perfume to put between the breasts before going out. It's got the most unusual notes sometimes... I really wish I knew what was in it. Maybe orange? On, it smells so different than it does just on fabric or from the bottle. It really warms up on the skin. I like it but I don't think it's "me".

[LyndaM]

This one is really hard for me to pin down. It morphed on me quite a bit, but I got floral and spice, and maybe citrus at one point. It went incensy on the drydown, which didn't work for me, but it is definitely a complex and interesting fragrance. Myrhh ususally does very well for me, so I don't think that is the mystery incense. I wish I could figure it out! I'm glad I got to try it, but it isn't working for me, it's just a bit too cloying, and incensey at the same time on the drydown. Off to a more appreciative home it goes.

[Fishwomon]

I got this in a swap from someone who knows my taste fairly well, and she was sure it would be too perfumey on me (I hate perfumey). But who doesn't want a bottle that says "Sacred Whore of Babylon" on their vanity? Is this what Inara would wear, Firefly/Serenity fans?

 

To my surprise, this isn't too perfumey on me, and I think I know why. For some reason, even though I tend not to like florals, I can do gardenia. It doesn't cloy on me; it just smells fresh and white and pretty. I really like Lady of Shalott, and the flowers in Sacred Whore remind me of her. Out of the bottle, Sacred Whore is pretty white flowers, not cloying, with a bit of spice.

 

In the drydown, the gardenia fades on me, and the vanilla comes forward. As a fan of Snake Oil and O, I love vanilla.

 

And yet...after an hour or two, I sniff my wrist and smell...toothpaste? Ack! It must be that the vanilla and cinammon have gone to toothpaste on my wrist. Drat.

 

I'm keeping the imp around to try a few more times before I decide whether to get a bottle.

[emiweebee]

Sacred Whore smells to me like honeysuckle. I like honeysuckle a lot, but unfortunately, that's ALL I can smell. None of the other notes, nothing. Just sweet flowers. Too simplistic for me.

[em_h]

Really, how can you not try a perfume called Sacred Whore of Babylon?

 

In the vial: Floral, jasmine. Uh-oh.

 

Wet: JASMINE. Maybe some lily of the valley. I think other notes may be gradually making themselves known, though. We'll see if they can prevail.

 

Dry: Well, it's not as overwhelmingly single-minded as most jasmine blends are on my skin, but it's still pretty much just jasmine and lily of the valley. It's not bad, a reasonably smooth sweet floral, but it kind of reminds me of my grandma, which does not seem to match the description exactly. (I mean, I guess it could if my grandma were inclined to decadence, lechery and debauch, but she definitely was not).

 

The late drydown, however, went somehow sour and irritating, and after several hours it was making me so crazy I had to scrub at my wrists with dish soap. So -- no go on this one, unfortunately, because I'd love to be able to tell people that I was wearing Sacred Whore of Babylon. I'm sure this would be a big hit at my church in particular.

[Voleuse]

...huh. I can't quite describe this. It's similar to incense, but milder. It's almost sweet, but not quite. It's slightly smoky, slightly spicy, slightly fruity. It's enticing, because you want to get closer, sniff more deeply, and figure out what it is.

 

After a bit, it becomes a spicy, murky floral--not sharp or sweet, but heavy in a way that's indolent. There's vanilla, and I think roses and gardenias. It's almost a bittersweet floral, if that makes any sense. Very complex, very sensual. It's strong on me, and the suggestion of incense grows stronger over time, but it never crosses over to actual incense. No cinnamon, but definitely some sort of spices.

 

There's a brief stage when I get a strong cinammon, but then it disappears into the general floral-smoky-incense. I'm impressed with the complexity of the scent, but I don't think it's one I would wear regularly.

[ancilla_morte]

in vial:very rich and decadent. I can smell gardenia vanilla and amber. I remember the first time I sniffed this I thought it smelled ancient.

 

wet on skin: mmm very smoky. it almost has that pipe tobacco scent that Hellfire has. but there is this luscious banana smell. I'm thinking that is the gardenia. it is so so so sweet. so incredibly sweet. but for some reason it doesn't bother me like gardenia usually does when it is so overpowering. it is the smoky undertones and tobacco-ey smell that makes it enjoyable for me to smell.

oh this is so sinful and rich and decadent. it smells so good I'm tempted to bite my wrist (but I won't lol).

I am so keeping this one. the imp will last me since the scent is so powerful!

[Wench457]

This is spicy and sweet - smells like baklava in the bottle! As expected I amp up the spice note, but not overly so for a change. I find myself sniffing and sniffing, trying to identify the spice in this. It's not clove, and not quite cinnamon - aha! Cardamom! Very lovely and spicy, with a good throw.

 

Oh, and DH really, really, really liked it. :ahem:

[wingedcorset]

Wet, I got the gardenia tromping all over everything! I got a little whiff of cinnamon, but that's about it.

 

Dry now, it's all gardenia. *sigh* Oh, there was the cinnamon for a second. Damn, now it's gone again.

 

Gardenias remind me of streetcorner flower vendors from when I would come to San Francisco as a kid. They would sell gardenias for ladies to pin to their coats, and I absolutely adored that, and always begged my mom to get me one.

[Lori]

Damn! I am just in *that* kind of mood tonight when I would really like to smell like a sacred whore, but, alas, it is not to be. This just goes pure cinnamon on me. It started out quite a heady, dark floral, and then turned into allspice! I smell like someone's kitchen :-P

 

I married my first boyfriend, and that lasted 20 years, and since then, I have had (and stuck with) one boyfriend, so I guess I am just out of the whoring league. *sigh*

 

You'd think a girl could at least have a night of fantasy, though! :-P

[herdivineshadow]

This is a very heavy and very sweet scent and fairly overpowering. There's a very floral note here and it's a bit too cloying for me I think.

[blaqpearl]

Well...I have had this bottle for at least three months and hadnt tried it...but today I wanted to smell whorish so I reached for it. I never even tested it...I just went straight for the pulse points. A rare occurence for me.

At first I didnt know what to think. It was strong. I smelled something spicy. Not sure if it was carnation or cinnamon. I usually hate cinnamon, but I have been opening my horizons. It is sweet, floral and spicy all at once. I can smell gardenia way in the background. I wish I knew what was in this. First impression was that I should have tested it first. But too late. By hour three, I was really diggin it. I kept saying...I can really like this.

 

I will have to wear it a couple of more times. I think it will be one of those that will grow with me because I am not ready to give up the bottle yet.

[vyola]

Sweet and floral usually does so well on me and Sacred Whore smelled so good in the imp. But as soon as I swept it across my wrist, it sent up all these lovely flowers into the air, got smoky for a second and then settled down on my skin as --

 

Aw, nuts.

 

And I mean that literally. I smell like walnuts.

 

The only thing that's gonna want to debauch me is a near-sighted squirrel or a particularly desperate chipmunk.

 

*sigh*

 

Mom smells pretty good -- heavy florals with just a trace of the nuts like a warm background (she doesn't think it smells like walnuts but can't figure out what it does smell like to her) and it seems to have pretty good staying power. But I'm all nuts and -- this is most frustrating, I get occasional faint whiffs of the floral but it keeps getting overpowered by walnut.

 

ETA: After refreshing Sacred Whore, I finally got more of the rich floral floating about me and really enjoyed it. Yes, my skin still smells like walnut to me, but that isn't what everybody else thinks I smell like and they aren't sniffing right against my skin anyway.

Edited December 29, 2005 by Vyola

[jazlyn]

Sacred Whore of Babylon is a sweet, floral, nutty combination. Hmm... I think this is the first perfume I've smelled that contains nut notes (I wonder which) and I don't think it's agreeing with me. Off to the swap baggie!

[Musamea]

In the imp: sweet cinnamon and strong gardenia, with a touch of the sour scent I get from the jasmine in Mata Hari and Delight – a very potent, hits-you-in-the-face scent; murky and dark

 

Wet: sour and musky up close, sweet cinnamon drift… almost get a banana scent from this

 

Dry: sour-sweet and not for me