Bed of Nails

[tesao]

Sharp, shining, metallic: rubbed iron with a dry wooden base.

i'll give a brief review here, but i've got to say that Penance...um..."nailed" the description of this.

this is rain in rio de janeiro. it smells of sea, of the clean breeze that dances across the ocean bearing with it soft autumn rain. it drips and mists and pours down onto the city, the metal street lights, the cars lined up on the mosaic sidewalks, the iron gates around the apartment building and the grates pulled down over the shops and the trees and bushes and flowers that are everywhere in the city.

ozone. metal. aquatics. wet, living green things.

i'm not sure that it is ME, but it is an amazingly evocative scent, and i would love to have my house, my room and my bed smell like this. it brings me home.

[requieminblack]

First sniff from the bottle- Huh. I can't place my finger on this but it smells like the color aquamarine and a men's cologne....I want to say Aramis maybe?

 

After 20 minutes- I can see where the 'metallic' comes into this. My Dad is a welder/blacksmith and always smells of iron. This smells a lot like him minus the cigarette and beer scent he always smells like. It's a formal men's cologne version of a metal smell, but metal none the less. I want to say there is a note in this similar to Bayou...but don't quote me on that.

 

Summery- Not for me but I am amazed that Beth can bottle the scent of metal! Well done Beth!

Edited August 31, 2005 by requieminblack

[Nehushtan]

This DOES smell like a men's cologne, but I can't think of which one. A clean, crisp, light one, not a heavy one. I think it reminds me of something CK. I've had it on for about 20 minutes now, and I can kind of taste the metal on my tongue when I sniff it up close, but unfortunately the metal scent is overpowered by the men's cologne smell.

 

I'll update later...hopefully the CK scent will subside and the metal will take the stage. I really want to like this!

 

Edit: It's been about an hour since I first put this on. Man, all I did was dab from the cap but this scent is staying. It's much like it was earlier--CK Somethingorother with a slight metallic background. Sadly, my impulse is to jerk my head away whenever I get close because it smells strongly of Cocky Young Man--frat boy, as it's so succinctly stated below. I suffer all manner of abuse at the hands of the frat boy crowd for hours each day at a library, so I have a strong aversion to most mass-produced men's cologne.

 

Alas, Bed of Nails is too much torture...I'm going to scrub it off.

Edited August 31, 2005 by Sibyl

[allidavie]

Unfortunately I also get the CKone vibe off this. No metal at all - it just smells like a frat guy to me.... which isn't necessarily a bad thing, seeing as one can be occasionally nostalgic about that sort of thing, but I don't really want to *smell* like a frat guy.

 

I don't get any of the metallic smell others are getting - just citrus and ozone on me.

[darkling]

I have no idea what note it is that gave Bed of Nails a definite metallic scent. The focus of this blend for me was the cologne base that reminded me of Cthulhu and Yog-Sothoth. The combination of metal and cologne made this a very masculine scent.

[quimerula]

Starts citric and metallic.

Strong and true to the concept, masculine but quite wearable.

Edited September 8, 2005 by quimerula

[oatmealneko]

For some reason, Bed of Nails reeks of lavender to me. Wet & in the vial is when this lavender scent is the strongest.

 

I blame my sniffer.

 

Dry - dark, dirty metal. Ozone, like in HoM, but it's grittier version than most BPAL blends. A keeper though.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: A hard wooden plank with sharp iron protruding; the scent is captured exactly. Metallic, almost with hints of rust; a hard yellow wood like pine, and the slightest hint of salt, like human sweat, perhaps?

 

On me: It is saltier on the skin, and reminds me a bit of driftwood on the seaside. The wood is definitely the strongest note - I'm sticking with pine but that's only because I'm not sure of other hard yellow woods. Then the metallic note, which is a bit more discernable to its probably aquatic origin strikes up like one of the nails. It's very interesting, but not for my skin.

[QueenFae]

Although this one is supposed to be gender neutral, it strikes me as incredibly masculine right away. It's a sharp, bright, potent, cologne type scent. It is indeed rather "metallic" but is also a dark green scent for me. It's got somewhat of an aquatic quality as well. I think this will smell amazing on my man, but it's definitely not for me.

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Eucalyptus and something woody - very masculine

Wet on me - Wood shavings, eucalyptus and peppercorns.

3 hours later - Sharp and aftershave like, but with something metallic in the background that makes it smell cold

5 hours later - it actually becomes a quite comforting manly smell, more my brother than me.

[laochodia]

Water and metal. This hot metal being tempered in water. Mmmm.

[sideviewhotel]

Ok. Opening the imp and putting it on gave me such a strong smell of eucalyptus and I was reminded of something my uncle used to wear (probably that Eternity for Men or CK One that was mentioned early on) when I was younger.

 

Ugh. No. This smells too much like cologne on me. If I had a man to try this on, I might keep it, but my 'man' is all the way up in Canada, and he already has something that he wears, so, meh. Off to the swap pile, you smelly thing.

[Abbie]

In the bottle: A faint, fresh, aquatic, with a hint of cinnamon.

 

First on: A lot more scents explode when this stuff comes in contact with skin. The only one I can identify is Eucalyptus. It's a lot heavier on than I would have thought.

 

Dry: Bed of Nails lasts a long long time. Mostly the aquatics are all that's left now. It doesn't seem to have too much throw.

 

Overall: A winner! Glad I bought the 5mL unsniffed.

[AlaskaSnows]

In the Bottle: Wow. It smells like rusty metal nails in wood. IT REALLY DOES. There's also citrus and floral and...tea?

 

Dry: Only the light tea citrus and floral remain with the TEENSIEST touch of a sharp bite. I like it! It's very light and fresh and airy on me. Nice!

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Smells floral to me. How odd.

 

Just On: Okay, so it's not floral, I must have imagined that. It's... well, it's metallic. Go figure.

 

An hour or two later: Hmmm, some ozone jumps out and bites my nose. I have trouble with ozone scents, but this isn't too bad.

 

Around 6 hours: It's mostly gone now, but there is a faint hint of aquatic flowers (there's that silly floral thing again, are there some kind of aquatic florals in here?).

 

12 hours: It's all gone now.

 

Overall: Wow, metal. Interesting, but probably not one I'll wear a lot.

 

After reading other reviews: I guess there must have been some floral there after all, I'm not the only one to get it.

[SeaMonkey]

The first time i smelled this in the vial, I fell in love with it.

 

Then I kept smelling it and it kept smelling familiar.

 

Then I realized that it smells like CK1.

 

Granted, a richer, deeper CK1, bur CK1 nonetheless

[grrrlennyl]

at first: i got this because i heard that it smelled like "dirty panties". is that wrong? anyway, it's definitely iron-y. can't wait to try it out.

on: definitely metallic with a base of wood.

2 hours later: there's a hint of sweet wood to this now.

3 hours later: sweet and metallic. very interesting.

5 hours later: dusty and metallic, with a hint of sweetness.

overall: this is quite a captivating scent. i couldn't stop sniffing my wrists. it's odd, but i like that.

[Fefferbella]

Men's cologne. Warm, sexy and rich.

 

Reminds me of Lucky You men's cologne.

 

Giving this imp to my boyfriend, it smells amazing on him.

[BlackDahlia]

In the Imp ~ Wet. Smells very clean. Reminds me vaguely of a laundry detergent that I don't remember the name of. It also reminds me of Yankee Candle's "Clean Cotton" fragrance.

 

Wet ~ Very light, clean smelling fragrance that is fairly nondescript.

 

On the drydown ~ Clean scent. Fresh. But it is giving me a head ache.

 

I imagine that sleeping on a bed of nails would accomplish near to the same thing... This is not for me. Offward it goes.

[Shollin]

First sniff: How. Very. Strange. It’s muchmuch softer than I ever imagined, almost an aquatic ozoney scent.

 

Wearing: Well, there is a little bit of a metallic tang here, lurking around the edges. But mostly it’s a fresh, clean, storm-washed air scent, totally invigorating. I expected metal and wood and weirdness… very glad I tried it!

[merebrillante]

In the vial: Guy scent. Aquatic.

 

Wet: Guy scent. Aquatic and green.

 

Drydown: Chanel for Men.

 

Dry: This is the truest any scent has stayed on my skin to its first impression in the bottle. I've already wrapped it up for the swap pile.

[Voleuse]

On first application this is both sweet and metallic, aquatic in a way that reminds me of aftershave. There's also, I think, a bit of eucalyptus, and perhaps a faint floral note as well. It's pretty, but it smells sharply masculine to me.

 

As it dries, it takes more of a metallic edge, but overall it stays pretty consistent on me. I'd be interested in how this blend turns out on a man, but it's definitely not one for me.

[this machine]

I'm definitely in the CK one camp on this one. I'm sure if i smelled them side-by-side there would be obvious differences, but i opened the imp and sniffed and immediately smelled my 10th grade boyfriend. I actually like the scent quite a bit, but it's not something i would personally wear.

[jewelbug]

Origin: A generous gift from originalwacky. Thank you!

 

Imp: Strong ozone and very clean. I can smell just a hint of wood, but it’s a blonde wood, barely there, adding to the freshness. I don't really get metal "tang" out of this, but then, maybe I'm just not imaginative enough.

Wet:: There is a citrus to this, I think, but its mostly ozone and cleanliness. This really strikes me as sort of masculine (you know, that sexy clean man smell), but it definitely works as a gender neutral.

 

Dry: You know….it reminds me a LOT of CK1, big in my high-school days….Ozone/aquatic/clean/slightly citrus tart…dept store CK1 (but better, of course, since it's not alcohol fumy). 30 mins in, and I can finally smell the metallic gleam, and a bit more blonde wood, but this only lasts for an hour or so and then its back to high-school CK1 flashbacks….

 

Overall: I can't shake the CK1 vibe. The metal/wood phase was brief on my skin, but interesting. This is too much like a dept store perfume for me, and not what I'm looking for from bpal. It does have great throw though, and lasts about 6 hrs.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 1/5

Summarised in a word or two: Metal.

 

Preconceived notions: Honestly? I have no idea.

 

In the imp: Something like... ozone? Oh...kay.

 

On skin, wet: Oy, ozone. The sharp tang of ozone that leaves a strange trace in my nose and the back of my throat.

 

On skin, dry: Ozone. No wood, or anything like it. Just sharp, biting, wholly unpleasant ozone. Very cologney to me, but that's really only because I tend to associate ozone with cologne.

 

Conclusion: The ozone-as-metal in Bed of Nails, for me anyway, is more along the lines of the scent of what metal tastes like (and yes, I'm well acquainted with the taste of metal -- I have a thing for it [metal/steel/etc]), rather than what it smells like. Definitely not for me. Now, had this been, say, the scent of bloody metal? I may've been much more keen on it.

Edited April 11, 2006 by Aredhel