Numb

[Gin]

Numb

... a singularly chilly, delectably ice-rimmed perfume. Revel in the gelid polar frostiness that is Numb, and forget about the heat for a moment.

 

Sharp, soapy flower scent. It is cold and powdery... but not the way roses sometimes are. This is like powdery snow. But soapy. Makes me feel a bit sneezy.

[darkwitch]

Just got my bottle of this in the mail today. In the bottle it reminds me of something from my childhood and I just can't place it. It's a pleasant sensation, just not sure the what or why for the nostalgia. On my skin it reminds me of laying out in the yard on a hot summers day in Easter Washington and my Mom just hanging the laundry out to dry, getting splattered with wet wash as my Mom tossed towels on us so we'd move from under the clothes line. All in all I like this one.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Yuck! Athlete’s Food medication!

 

On Skin: It seriously smells like Athlete’s Foot medication, I remember when my brother had Athlete's Foot and had to use a cream to get rid of it, it smelled exactly like this.

I have never disliked a BPAL scent as much as I do this one, sorry Beth. I guess it was time for me to dislike one of your scents. LOL!

As it dries down it turns into the spray powder version of Athlete’s Foot medication. It does have a cool, numbing minty scent, but I think the medication did too since it was supposed to cool off enflamed toes. There is also a light floral, violet or lavender. This one is off to the swaps… so sad because I was so excited for it.

[k00kaburra]

I must admit that I anticipated a mint, and from what I've heard that note makes not even a peep in Numb. I can't wait to try it.

In bottle: It's chilling, but difficult to describe. It seems to be a cold musk to me. Cold musk on pure baby powder. This is a very neutral scent to me - dare I say, it's a bit boring.

 

On me: Hmm. No. I'm sorry. It doesn't have such a cold sensation to me, and worse - much worse - it smells like an anti-fungal foot cream my brother uses. Not a scent for me!

[coulrophobe]

When I first tried this, I thought it smelled familiar, but couldn't quite put my finger on it... then I saw blueoceanflower's review and it hit me - it does smell like White Linen, which I haven't worn since I was a child! Kinda nostalgic.

 

It's a soft, powder/floral, a little soapy - I rather like it. It doesn't smell cold to me at all - it smells like wrapping up in a fluffy pale purple blanket right out of the dryer. Extremely feminine, light, suitable for daywear, a bit old-fashioned smelling in some way... I know some people will find this too "old ladyish," but I want to slather myself in it. I'm wondering if my two bottles will be enough.

 

Yum.

[sarada]

I love "cold" scents so I was very excited about Numb...Ice Queen, Skadi and Szepasszony currently epitomize what I think of when I think of frosty scents.

 

This is closest to Szepasszony out of those but what this is really, really like is Yog-Sothoth. It's almost identical actually, to my nose, and I just tried Yog again to compare. I literally don't think I could tell them apart, but I love Yog, so this is great!

 

I don't think that I could describe any of the notes. I am sure that there might be floral elements but the overall smooth, clean, clear glassy (not not aquatic) quality of the scent comes across to me more than anything else. It is ice blue, grey, white or transparent in character if I think of it as a color. It's a little stronger and more airy than Yog-Sothoth, so people who found that too unsettling in its infinite darkness might get along better with this in its crystalline purity.

 

Violets? I don't know, maybe...I think of this as "clean" which could also be interpreted as soapy, which is how violets are on me. I'd guess that pale purple flowers were a major component of this but overall I just get that wonderful astral starry clear feeling from this that I get from Yog Sothoth.

 

And the weather is utterly horrible right now with endless oppressive humidity and heat even stronger than we had in the summer, even though summer should be gone by now. This is very refreshing. I'd enjoy this a lot on a cold snowy day as well.

 

I was using my Yog sparingly because it was such a unique fragrance and I figured I wouldn't ever see anything like it again but now I feel I could use the two interchangably.

[luxuria]

This smells like a clean, light floral in the bottle.

 

On my skin..pure Dove soap. It just dries to fainter and fainter Dove. I'm SO disappointed, I was really looking forward to this if I inhale this too deeply, I really feel like I just took a whiff of powdered soap. It gets stuck in my nose, almost.

Edited September 16, 2005 by luxuria

[UltraViolet]

In the bottle

Ozoney perfume-y, and quite good at that.

 

On

Ozone and baby powder.

 

30 minutes

Doesn't morph at all. Still ozone and baby powder.

 

Throw:

Lots of throw

 

Scent category:

Ozone

 

Summary

Ozone and baby powder.

Initially it's quite addicting, but after awhile it's too much, kind of cloying.

 

Purchase again?

No.

 

1-5 rating (5 being best)

3.5

[joseybird]

Numb is Yog's girlfriend.  I like it very much. 

<{POST_SNAPBACK}>

 

Yog-Sothath is indeed the scent most similar to Numb. But numb is even greyer. It smells like straight-up chemicals to me

[spanishviolet]

I didn't order this initially because I thought it would be minty, but when I heard reports of violetness, I tracked down an imp.

 

It is, as mentioned above, very powdery. I can smell a little violet, but not much. And it's not a fresh sweet kind, it's both sharper and a little dusty. On me, it doesn't smell cold, but rather warm & clean - ozoney.

 

Overall, Numb isn't unpleasant, but it's not really me. Might try it again later before I add it to the swap pile ...

[inkstone]

I admit I was one of the people who thought Numb might contain some mint, though early reviews proved that wrong. Oops.

 

On me, Numb is a very powdery floral that dries down to something reminiscent of dryer sheets. It's not quite a dryer sheet smell, but it's there. I do smell the violet, but it's not very strong. Then again, violets aren't very strong on me in the first place.

 

I'm not quite sure I agree that it's cold, per se. It's very fresh and clean though, the way you want to feel on those muggy, gross days. But cold? It doesn't fit my perception of cold, at least not on my skin.

 

It's a nice blend, but not quite me.

[sigh]

Violets and tuberose. A touch of night jasmine perhaps? Cool, crisp and comforting at the same - like crisp fresh sheets on the bed and the AC turned down to meat locker while you sleep.

 

All in all, my new favorite sleeping scent, a somewhat colder version of Somnus if you will. Looooooove it. On a scale of 1-5, this is a 7 in my book.

 

ADDED Oct. 1:

 

After reading all the reviews of soapy violets, I figured that Numb would work it's way into my swap pile. Fortunately, that's not the case. I get no soap, no violets, just a cool, crisp, comforting, pale blue-green-white nothingness.

 

It's the exact opposite of snuggling down into a warm comforter in the misery of February - that moment in the middle of neverending summer when you slide your slightly sunburnt overworked just this side of exhausted self into bed made up with fresh crisp cool sheets. The curtains are drawn, the room is almost entirely dark, your skin is still slightly damp from the shower and you just fall into a deep airconditioned state of coma bliss.

[sookster]

oh my beating be still!!

 

this is the most gorgeous violet blend to date...this one morphs with my chemistry and makes for the most stupendous floral arrangement ... just beautiful

[amrita]

This was a real shocker. I think this blend might smell the worst of any BPAL ever, on me! There is some really funky chemistry thing going on: all I smell is a very artificial fragrance like you smell in the diaper/female products aisle at a drugstore (?!), and then my skin sucks it up and it's gone. Wow.

 

No coldness, musk, powder, florals, soap, ozone, violets... Bizarre.

 

Edited to say: damn I wish I knew what's in this!

Edited September 16, 2005 by amrita

[shelldoo]

in the bottle, powder...lots of powder. some musk i actually think it is a bit heavy on the musk. and a floral. i am thinking white floral. possibly white violets bt has a touch of soapy smething

 

wet it reminds me of when i used to work in a high end department store. these wealthy old ladies would come in all powdery and makeup caked on and flash their big bling. this smell is them. older, rich, snob w/ loads of make up...what a scent association

 

it goes very soapy/powdery...as it dries. however it lasts a long time.

[~AmusedMuse~]

My Impression:

Icy coolness after the drydown. Upon applying all I got was the baby powder but after drying, it was lovely cool and clean with a floral note that I am uncertain about but truly it works in this one. Congratulations lab on a beautiful scent. My scale of 1-5....4+

[leahcat]

in the bottle: wow this IS interesting...not very strong but has a crispness to it. Almost smells warm through, not cold.

 

wet: I certainly cannot ID a single note in this but it's not offensive at all, not sweet, not heavy, not crisp, not cold, not warm, not ...huh.

 

drying (2 minutes of heavy sniffing): ok, there might be a very soft touch of something I hesitate to call floral - mostly because I haven't found a floral I can tolerate and this is different. It'd be something like the barest trace of a calla lily or some such.

 

dry: sophisticated and I'll be danged if I know what's in this. However, it's very mild so I can see this being one of the 5ml bottles I actually use up since it needs a bit more for use. I'll do more testing on longevity later

[Thorne]

Soft, clean, powdery, almost metallic violets. Sooooo not me. But happily, my bottle is going to live in Australia with a floral girl, so hopefully she will love it.

[laochodia]

How to describe Numb? I can't distinguish a scent from it. In a way, it is almost a cooling absence of scent.

Have you ever been in a crowded area, and there there is no way to make space for yourself, and you hum under your breath and the note you hum seems to fill the area and mute everyone, even though they are talking? This is the scent to go along with that note. This mutes the heat around it, but it's still hot out.

 

A masterful scent that baffles and intrigues the senses. (my senses, at least )

[Northernminx]

The ozone tang in the bottle goes powdery on my skin, combined with a whiff of florals my chemistry makes this a very chemical, soapy scent, reminiscent of commercial perfume and something that sets off my allergies a bit too much. Sad on this one as I was really looking foreward to it but the gorgeous crystal flowery smell in the bottle just dissapears on my skin. Ah well

[cranberry]

Numb is a very interesting scent. I too get the similarity to Yog-Sothoth (in fact Numb inspired me to review YS just now). I think that I prefer the musky sweetness underneath in YS but they are so close that if I wasn't wearing one on each arm I probably wouldn't know the difference.

 

Numb is a bit cooler than YS but also a touch more floral. I never consciously knew what violets smelled like before but I guess this is them – good to know. When I first applied Numb on my arm, it was as if I actually felt a cooling sensation which was pretty strange. It’s very light, open, airy and empty. I’m traveling somewhere hot tomorrow so I'm glad this arrived today. I’m looking forward to trying it out in the heat and seeing what happens.

[RogueFeenix]

In the bottle: musky and powdery, reminds me of my dad's old vasline lotions he always out on when I was a kid. Reminds me of summer morning's when I was little and mom would let me get in bed with her when dad took his shower and he would come out of the bathroom dressed and smelling exactly like this scent.

 

wet on skin: same musky but even more of a baby powder note on me.

 

dry on skin: still smells like that lotion but I can barely smell it.

 

5 mins: it has disappeared save for a bare hint of the scent

 

I think this will be swapped away. I thought I would love this and bought 2 bottles. Both going to new homes.

[anmorata]

I really had high hopes for Numb. I envisioned crisp winter air and a hint of snow.

 

What does it smell like on me? Soap. Particularly Dreft detergent. I also agree with the forumite that mentioned that it smells like something from childhood.. I'm not sure if it's Dreft, or perhaps Ivory.

 

Either way, while it's a clean, fresh smell, it doesn't smell cold to me at all.

[QueenFae]

What a hard scent to descibe! It's lovely and light and sort of a powdery floral, but not in an overpowering way. It's a bright white smell, no doubt about that, almost to the point where it's angelic. It goes on nice and cool and has a bit of the cooling effect on my skin like Ice Queen does. There's perhaps a faint breath of a citrusy base, but it's beautifully blended. I live in Tampa, man am I glad I ordered two bottles to keep me cool for a long time. Very nice scent, innovative.

[empi girl]

Add me to the Soap club! It's a dissapointment, as I was hoping I'd get violets, as some others do. In the imp, I do catch a very faint waft of violets, before a sharp, soapy smell takes over.

 

On me, it is the sharp smell of lathered soap. No sweetness, powderyness, violets or anything. Just Soap. I don't even associate it with being a nice, "clean" smell, because the soapiness is too harsh (which could be an ozone element, as they don't like me much).

 

Anyway, I will be swapping or selling this for sure!