Thirteen (13)

[QueenFae]

In our paean to all the mysteries surrounding this enigmatic number, there are thirteen lucky and unlucky components, including white chocolate, tangerine, currant, mandarin, white tea and iris.

Smooth, creamy white chocolate in a bottle. The chocolate is very strong when first applied, but it softens in to something a little more floral, and the iris actually becomes quite noticable. The tangerine/orange note is definitely there as well, and combined with the currant, it's extremely remininscent of Vice. Bliss is one of my all time favorites, needless to say I love this one. Not what I was expecting, but a very pleasant surprise.

[Janie]

A blast of chocolate in the bottle (and initially on skin) develops into an interesting, complex and varied accord of notes. It has a variety of permutations until it drys down into a delightful tea scent.

 

At first, I smelled like a chocolate orange cake baking, but now I just smell divine.

Edited July 23, 2005 by Janie

[gingersnapp]

While this was a very lovely blend and I enjoyed wearing it, I had a very hard time identifying any of the individual notes listed. On my skin, there was a smell very much like aldehyde... very perfumy. But it was floral and creamy and soft. Not a very foody scent as I would have guessed from all the lovely food ingredients.

 

I did like it, but I think I need to test it again to see if I can get anything other than "perfume" out of it.

[Shollin]

First sniff: In the bottle it’s almost pure chocolate, but there’s something lighter floating around the edges that I can’t quite parse. It’s almost a pale green scent hanging around the outside of the chocolate. (And yes, I know white chocolate isn’t “real” chocolate, but that’s what it smells like.)

 

Wearing: Chocolate and tea. And a little bit of citrus.

[Court Analyst/Strategist]

THIRTEEN

 

When I receive bpals, I wait to try one or two every few days after receiving them, but once I decide to pick up that bottle or imp for good or bad, I apply liberally. Where this is going is 13 happens to be a very rich scent when first applied.

 

Immediately after application: I am inhaling wet cocoa bean and choking. I did apply more than I'd planned to...and there is a sharp wet green scent like grass edging the cocoa that I find nausating(I did think grass at the time..). I enjoy the scent of freshly cut grass in most instances, but not in my cocoa...

 

With removal of excess of 13 on my arm w/ tissue, I was still willing to give this one a chance.

Upon drydown 13 turned out a vast improvement to its awkward, generous accident stage. The cocoa seemed to go to powder, and dominated as the top component. Once it was dry, 13 transformed very well into my skin chemistry, and took to softening a hell of a lot.

 

Final analysis: I like the scent past the drydown stage, and it fits well on me, but I'm not particularly wild on smelling like a cocoa powder packet as a dominant note, no matter how well this works with my chemistry to become lovely and tinged with mainly lighter scents and florals. What could have been white chocolate rounded the cocoa into smoothness and perhaps slight tangerine or a similiar orange was barely there. I detected iris, but it stayed a minor note, as did the orangeness. I still am not sure why I thought grass! when I'd first applied, as any green notes fell to the back of the ranks after about ten minutes, lingering with no sign of the grass remaining. The blend stayed mostly yummy cocoa bean with lighter notes and a bit of orange and what must have been the iris staying underneath and coy to the world . A once in a while scent.

 

Throw: 6/10(but do not spill it on yourself!!)And this throw was after I washed some of the excess oil off. Thirteen is a very durable scent even after driving cold water over my arm for thirty seconds, and drying with a towel. Applying a moderate amount has much more rich throw, 8/10 on my scale.

 

Like it: I warmed up to this one after the incident of applying too much and reducing the damage. Dry this was very lovely, and came into several smooth light notes to dance with the cocoa powder on me once I displayed patience. 7/10

 

Wear-ability Rating: 6 and a half out of ten for limited love with chocolate or cocoa notes

 

I might sell/swap this, but only for a matter of preference. I'm more of a resin/musk/incense/fruity person. Wide spread in categories I love but foody scents are the only ones I tend to stay away from...and while this is not a traditional foody scent to many it meets my marks of one. Would easily reccomend this to a foody or chocolate scent lover, but I'm not a convert yet.

 

Court

Edited July 24, 2005 by Court Analyst/Strategist

[grrrlennyl]

13

 

at first: this smells amazing. i'm getting a cocoa butter sort of scent, with some soft citrus notes. it's very creamy and soft.

on: gorgeous. definitely cocoa butter and some soft citrus.

1 hour later: sweeter, but not foody. very nice.

2 hours later: even sweeter. i think i'm mostly getting the white chocolate with a hint of tea. beautiful.

3 hours later: sweeter and more lush. i really like this.

4 hours later: still soft, sweet, and lush.

overall: this is a very comforting, soft scent. it manages to avoid being foody, which i was pretty surprised about. i can see myself wearing this a lot.

[arabella]

First Impression: Terry's Chocolate Orange.

 

Dries down to: Mandarin orange slices dipped in chocolate and presented for consumption on a bed of edible flower petals.

 

Additional Comments: After a while, the chocolate tones down and the florals and other notes, particularly the tea and currants, amp up. I can't specifically pinpoint any other notes, however. This is a fascinating, complex, constantly changing blend. Overall, I prefer the beginning of the journey to the end.

 

Lasted: Several hours but it became very muted after the first 15 minutes.

 

Rating: 3.5 out of 5

[mmcfa2]

chocolate!!

Chocolate

chocolate with orange orange,

creamy orange

orange flower water,

GONE!

 

all in 15 minutes

 

after 15 minutes there is a faint orange flower water floral on my wrist with occasional puffs of creaminess and that's all folks. what a suprise... I expected heavy, heady foody... only for a second or two it seems...

 

ADDED Aug. 17:

 

chocolate and orange, nice but then it goes all cocoa butter and stays that way gah YECH.

 

I have ordered velvet and now that I see the two have been compared as similar I am afraid. I think I goofed and should have ordered Tezcatlipoca? We will see.

[brownbear]

In the vial I get chocolate and citrus. yummm i want to drink it

 

On my skin the chocolate disappears into citrus and tea. I really wish the chocolate had more staying power. It mellowed a whole lot from when I first put it on. Now it's a soft, still tasty, non-chocolatey, slightly lightly foody, pleasant, light scent.

[darkling]

*sob*

 

13 is my favorite number and I was incredibly excited about this scent.

 

Unfortunately, it didn't work on me at all.

 

In the bottle, it was a faint scent of chocolate with no other identifiable notes.

 

On my skin, the light chocolate was most prominent with a vague orange undertone. The chocolate had an unpleasant artificial edge to it.

 

Adding to my pain, the scent then began to get powdery and the identifiable notes all vanished.

 

No currant. No tea.

 

Very disappointing. Stupid body chemistry

[Xiabelle]

So happy I managed to snag a bottle of this off the forum.

 

Wet in the bottle, this is chocolate. It's very rich and complex chocolate, with a definite orange undertone and some hints of something floral in it. Can't tell what, but it's definitely more than chocolate and oranges to me. Makes me hungry,

 

Fresh on, it changes: there's still chocolate, but it kicks in then fades very quickly. I can't even define what it smells like, to be honest. But it goes through the morphing process relatively quickly. The boy came by about a half-hour after I put it on yesterday and at that time, while it was drying, it changed to a decided spicy white tea and iris scent. The iris was very prominent to me (good because I love irises) and had a bite of white tea tempered by some underlying sweetness (good since I find white tea astringent, although much less so than green tea.) It was strong enough I'd occasionally get some whiffs. It was amazing how different it smelled on from in the bottle.

 

Suddenly, 45 minutes to an hour later, it went back to chocolate with florals. It was a much dryer chocolate scent, like cocoa as others said. No milkiness at all, but sort of like a chocolate tea to me, with the fruit. I could still find it all, but the chocolate was floating over everything. It made me very hungry.

 

And it stayed like that, for hours. It only morphed and softened again to a slightly dusty/mustyness in the last hour before it faded.

 

I put it on at around 10 am or so... I could still smell it around 6 pm, which was when it started fading. Lasts nicely on me.

 

I like this one. It's not a signature scent for me by any means -- it's not as warm or lush in the same way as what I look for in that -- but I'll definitely use it all up.

[joseybird]

I was sure almost immediately after ordering 13 that I'd hate it. White chocolate, iris, and orange? The notes sounded to me like they'd completely clash, and the blend as whole sounded like it'd be a wierd sort of mishmoshed mess.

 

Well, I am happy to say that I was WRONG

 

13 starts off chocolately, like Bliss, but...whiter...I've smelled white chocolate, but this doesn't smell like white chocolate to me...just...milk chocolate but whiter (I know, that doesn't make sense!). The citrus enters and then eventually exits, but the iris (a bit green) springs out almost immediately and stays the entire time. I love the iris--so fresh and springy!--and in the context of the white chocolate, it smells very creamy

 

13 dries down to a lovely creamy floral very offbeat, but still lovely!

[~AmusedMuse~]

My Impression: Chocolate with oranges while wet.

 

After drydown: More Citrusy smelling without the chocolate. The herbal notes come thru now... some floral.

 

I like this scent as I find it soft and comforting. I am glad I am getting a bottle of it as I think it would be a great daywear scent.

[violetblue]

I didn't read through all the reviews, but I immediately thought of Lush's Whipstick and Sonic Death Monkey when I smelled this one. It's very foody on me though, and I'm not usually a foody type. In fact, sniffing my arm, I'm becoming quite hungry! It's inspiring me to make a chocolate orange cake! It morphs into something more floral after just a few minutes. Really pretty, but I don't see myself wearing it - will probably swap it or sell it when I get a chance.

 

I had to edit this as I've tried 13 a few more times, and now the chocolate fades so much better, and am left with such a beatiful floral!

Edited August 6, 2005 by violetblue

[Reinier]

In the bottle this is pure chocolate, similar to Bliss... Wet on my skin the chocolate fades a bit and the tangerine comes out. Once it dries though - WOW. I have never had a scent morph on me at all and I certainly wasn't expecting this! Some floral comes out (couldn't tell you what though!) and blends beautifully with the fruit and chocolate making this a rich warm foody scent. Typically I don't like rich scents... or foody ones, but this is just amazing. I can't wait to have my Mom try this - I am sure we will be fighting over the bottle!

[darkwitch]

My 1st review!

 

In the bottle, chocolate oranges. Which I'm not fond of!!!

On skin:

Wet creamy chocolate for a total of 1 minute the next minute is then chocolate orange, but then it's a British Tea, in a warm sunny garden with a very gentle breeze lifting the fragrance of flowers around you, with orange chocolate biscuits. It really starts to fade after about 10 minutes on me, which is not nice since I could really love this one.

20 minutes has gone buy and I now smell currents, to be exact Twinings Black Current Burst tea. I love it, it brings back so many memories of the 1st time I met my husband, he's the one who got me hooked on Black Current Burst.

Almost 40 mins have passed and it's now faded down to a vanilla white tea which is very faint on my skin. I'll give it another20-30 mins to see if it comes back or not.

After an hour it all but disappears, kinda disappointing it doesn't last longer then that.

Update after 2 hours it's actually come back, it now smells as if the tea was spilt on crisp white linen in that garden. I really like this one!!!

[magdalene]

in the bottle: Terry's Chocolate Oranges.

 

wet on skin: this smells a lot like chocolate cake, with orange flavoured icing. Not something I'm especially fond of eating, or smelling like.

 

dry: Sadly disappointing for me, although I'm sure many other people would love this. I'm just not a chocolate-wearing girl.

[Penance]

Preconceived notions:

 

13 is my lucky (and favorite) number and I was thrilled when this came out, but, based on the reviews, I'm worried. I really don't want to smell like chocolate (white chocolate is fine, but milk chocolate definitely isn't) and the comparisons to chocolate oranges have me worried. Big time.

 

First sniff:

 

Chocolate, ick!

 

The people who've mentioned that this smells like milk chocolate rather than white chocolate are right, unfortunately. I also smell a tiny bit of something fruity in the background that could be either the currant or the orange since it's so hard to isolate. Unless this really changes on my skin, this is going to be a disaster on me.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Strong chocolate and currant in the background. I wanted to love this, but this is so not me that it's not even funny. I despise the smell of chocolate (with a couple of exceptions, most notably Dia De Los Muertos), so this is not working although I'm sure that someone more in love with the smell of chocolate would adore this.

 

Dry down:

 

Chocolate, currants and oranges. There's nothing artificial here and it smells downright juicy but it's really not appealing to me. I was so excited about this, but I just can't love it the way I wanted to.

 

The bottom line:

 

13's a real heartbreaker for me. I wanted to love this so bad, but I can't even really like it. Chocolate just isn't my thing. At all.

[girlmadasbirds]

i just LOVE 13! i was somewhat nervous about it after seeing some of the reviews, but i received mine today and WOW! it's gorgeous.

on me, there's a faint chocolate smell with vanilla tea, a hint of citrus, and something kind of tobacco-ish (i realize some of these notes aren't actually in the description, this is just what it smells like to me).

complex and very beautiful. wonderful job, beth!!

[minky]

I love this one so much that I'm kickin' myself for only buying one bottle! I didn't expect it to be so nice.

In bottle: chocolate!

Wet: Baking chocolate-orange cake

Drydown: a beautiful white chocolate/honey scent.

 

I never get any florals. Interesting.

[madelf]

This scent is amazing. In the bottle it is all white chocolate and smells just delicious.

 

On, the tangerine/citrus comes out, and there is a breif period of smelling like a chocolate orange. Yummy. That stage didn't last very long for me, but it morphed into this amazing vanilla/floral that reminded me of candied flowers.

 

This oil went through a lot of scent changes, but each of them was appealing and pleasant. This stayed soft, pretty and not as foody as I would have expected. It's really a fantastic and complex blend with great staying power.

[tesao]

in the bottle: white chocolate. dead on.

 

on the wrist, wet: white chocolate and tea.

 

on the wrist, dry: white chocolate and tea and vanilla.

 

dry down: white chocolate and tea and vanilla and now, there are hints of orange citrus.

 

my husband tells me that it reminds him of a cake baking....not quite done yet. i might not want to smell like this, but i would definitely use it as a room scent. this is THE scent to have in your house if you are trying to sell it! it will make everyone want it! it really is yummaliscious.

[HoneyHoneyNY]

I was waiting, anticipating the opportunity to try this scent. White chocolate, orange, currant, tea? All things that I love the scent of.

 

Wet in the bottle, I don't get the strong chocolate scent I was expecting. I do smell chocolate, but it isn't really rich or sweet. It's not a true chocolate smell, it's more like someone remembering the smell of chocolate. That sounds odd, but that's exactly how I feel when I smell it. Immediately following the chocolate impression is a waft of orange. I can't figure out what this smells like to me. I give it to the man to take a sniff, and he says "It smells like a orange-cranberry muffin." And it does.

 

On my skin, I get a burst of chocolate, but it's not sweet, it's like cocoa powder. The chocolate immediately dies down to a scent like orange flower water.

 

An hour later, I can smell a soft fruitiness, underlaid by a slightly powdery smell, and a hint of tea.

 

I'm not sure how I feel about this scent. I'm really ambivalent. It's not instant love, but I'm afraid to give it up. I'm going to wait a week and try it again.

 

ETA: I'm not going to keep this after all. I tried it again, and it didn't smell bad, it just wasn't love. My PSP didn't like it at all, he said I smelled like "a funky muffin" I'm hoping it will find a new mommy who will love it like it deserves.

Edited August 3, 2005 by HoneyHoneyNY

[DarkMouse]

(I have a decant imp and it smells different from my bottle, so I have two separate reviews)

 

In the imp: milk chocolate.. like Bliss.. only thicker.. almost a brownie smell

In the bottle: orange zest with a chocolate cake baking in the background

 

on my skin (imp): warm brownies on a table with a vase of orange blossoms

On my skin (bottle): orange creamsicle.. fading down into a milk chocolate base. Its almost floral.. but its so creamy and white and yummy that the floralphobe in me doesn't even care.

 

In general: 13 is my favorite number, Friday the 13th is always my lucky day, and lastly.. my hubby's birthday is the 13th of May - the day this came out of the lab! I had no idea it had come and gone when I saw the review and immediately kicked myself in the butt for missing it. I was SURE this was gonna be a bigtime favorite for me. I managed to get an imp decant on the forum, and now own a 5ml (with another on the way!)... I'm in Loooove. I'm going to be one of the folks counting down the days until the next Friday the 13th ( January 2006 baby!)

[Sistinas]

a review of 13

 

Vial ~ Okay, someone referred to this as chocolate cake yumminess, well

you say tomato, I say tomotto, I am thinking more of chocolate

pudding.

 

Wet ~ still lots of chocolatey goodness

 

Drying ~ Ah now I smell some orange. It reminds me so much of those

chocolate oranges that cadbury would sell around Christmas.

 

Dry ~ It has now morphed into this tea scent, but I am still faintly

detecting the chocolate. Kind reminds me of this chocolate tea that

I had picked up at borders "Mate Latte" made by the Republic of

Tea.

 

Fade ~ Well this scent lasted about 40 mins on my skin before it faded

away. It was lovelly while it lasted.

 

Final thoughts ~ When I deal roulette, I tell players that 13 is one of my

favorite numbers to hit. Lucky or unlucky, it does seem to

have some sort spell on us all. This fragrance seems to

bring out yummy lovely goodness, that lets me remember

what is in a superstition is all what I make of it. Scale of 1 to 5 -> 4

Edited August 1, 2005 by Sistinas