Old Scratch

[outofrhyme]

Old Nick, the Devil himself, as seen through the eyes of Victorian New England. A jaunty, dapper scent, deceptively genteel: a lavender fougere with tonka, amber, rosewood and a whiff of diabolical patchouli.

In the bottle:
Pine and lavender.

Wet:
Whew. Lavender, but also... something... it's SO FAMILIAR. ....OH. Those Clorox wipe things. I swear, this smells EXACTLY like Clorox wipes on me, with a hint of lavender.

Dry down:
Clorox is still there, but it's going away. THANK YOU. I'm now getting lavender, tonka, little hints of everything else.

On the boy:
This will be vague, because I threw some on him yesterday. He does beautiful things to the lavender fougere in Villain, so I thought this might be the same. And in the end, it sorta was. But for the first several hours, it was very floral and girly on him. Very nice man-spice at the end, though.

Final thoughts:
I have no idea why this smells so bizarre on me and so normal on the boy. I wish that it would smell on me the way that it smelled on the boy at first, before it turned all manly on him! I think maybe I'm just having weird chemistry (because, come on, Clorox wipes?), so I'll try this again later.

[500ml]

This smells like male cologne on me. Don't get me wrong, I really do like masculine scents, but this is perhaps too masculine for me. It smelled warm wet, then turned slightly sweet and woodsy as it was drying. Dry it's just sweet, a cloying sweetness which I can't stand. I'm kind of sad, because I was starting to like the scent even if I did think it was a bit too much on the manly side.

[hipslike___cinderella]

Poor Old Scratch... he smelled so good in the bottle. Herbal, deep, warm, earthy, gender-neutral, and CREAMY. Really a "red" blend; lavender touches, but really a base of rosewood and amber. Background of patchouli. My skin tends to EXPLODE amber all over the place, and that's exactally what happened. The rosewood was there for 5 minutes, and was interesting, and the patchouli (which really struck me as red patchouli) had a fighting chance, but no. What could have been good fell flat on me and turned into practically a single-note amber. Don't get me wrong, I like "amber + pretty co-notes", but not "AMBER".

 

In the very very end, all that was left was a hint of amber and a poof! of powder. Boo.

[bryghtrose]

I got a sharp, corrupted lavender that faded rather quickly. In the bottle it was certainly dapper, it did capture the image of Old Scratch very well. It was somewhat perverted Puritain. But just not a scent I'd choose to wear.

[enchantedblack]

If anyone smells pine needles it would be me.

 

Old Scratch loves me apparently but I'm a little lukewarm. In the bottle he has all the airs of a dapper Victorian gent; lavender sweetness, prickly pine needle warmth. Wet on the skin the pine scent took over and dominated. Even dry it does also. Old Scratch makes me smell a little like a man which isn't bad as I sometimes prefer masculine scents over feminine scents, but I smell a bit like my grandfather. I'll keep Old Scratch because maybe I can enable a dear male friend of mine or on those days I want to smell like a man I'll put a few drops of this on.

[prettybird]

Old Scratch is one of my great BPAL loves. I'm a big lavender fan, and this is lavender done up right. I feel foppish and just a little bit dangerous with it on.

 

As it dries down, it gets a bit of an acrid smell, which I think offsets the lavender nicely, but may not work at all on some people. It realy doesn't smell masculine at all to me; on the contrary, I think it's a bit feminine. It has a nice powderyness that I enjoy.

 

Which reminds me, I'm overdue for a big bottle of this.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Lavender

 

On Skin: Lavender and rose, it's a pretty floral

 

On Drydown: I get more of the amber peaking out. And some of the patchouli.

 

Verdict: Interesting. But not for me. I might try it out on the husband, but he also tends up to amp up patchouli and he's not fond of it either.

[GoldenRubee]

This is a very interesting scent. It is definitely lavender in the bottle but not so much after wearing it. I normally shy away from all lavendar scents-they just remind me of my grandmother. But I had heard so much of Old Scratch and how different it was from the bottle to wear, that I just had to give it a try. The very soft, almost not there lavender, blends well with the light spicy amber and tonka, with just barely a whiff of patchouli now and then to make it interesting. Over time, it just gets better and better. I would never have purchased this by ingredients alone, but because of all the great reviews am very delighted with this one!

[Pottersville]

Wow, this was much, much lighter than I expected! I really thought Old Scratch would have more of a commanding presence! It faded away very quickly, not giving me much time to discern individual notes. Overall impression was of fairly generic men's cologne.

[LadyCrow]

Straight out of the imp, and for a good long while after application, this is almost SN lavender -- like a Panacea, rather medicinal when the rosewood starts to come forward. Tonka starts to dominate next, followed by amber; the throw is low for me throughout, but the amber is very long-lasting. What I don't get, which is weird, is the patchouli.

 

Nice enough -- very clean; I can see where wearing this in the summer would have worked -- but not the stuff of my dreams.

[MaidenGenevive]

Old Scratch

 

Initially, this is crisp, fresh lavender. Then, it warms and deepens; lavender becomes a lesser note, mixing well with the others. What started off as bright and feminine becomes more of a quietly sophisticated men's cologne, warm, sensual, and mildly spicy.

 

[3 - Like]

[mhickle]

Just to start off, I am not familiar with tonka as a note, so hopefully as I try out more of the offerings at BPAL, I'll be able to start picking it out. For now, I'm just going to describe this scent the best way I can.

 

In the imp, it smells very clean, almost powdery to me. It goes on my skin the same way, though the powdery part of the scent disappears rather quickly.

 

As it dries on my skin, it becomes a bit more masculine, but very warm and a great choice for this lovely autumn day. I don't detect much lavender on me, and only a hint of patcholi. It's a very rich scent, and once again I'm trying to hide my many wrist-sniffs from my office mates. Hah!

 

I reallllllly like this one! Yay!

[porcelina]

old scratch made me realize that lavender is the note in a lot of bpal blends that makes me want to jump out of my own skin. i can smell the tonka and amber and wonderful rosewood underneath but the lavender is just all-consuming and awful (and it lasts forever on me, too).

[littlegoat]

In the imp - way nicer than expected.

 

Wet on skin, huh, first bpal I get baby powder from.

 

Drying, I think the first note that comes out is the rosewood. Hmm, the baby powder is changing now, and I'm reminded of something that reminds me of being in the Lush store, as has been said by other reviewers

 

Something about this really reminds me of my grandpa's cologne... too bad I think it might be a deal breaker since it's a nice one!

[donnatron]

I woke up with a killer hangover this morning and I thought that Old Scratch would be a perfect compliment to that situation.

 

Imp: Sweet and sort of woodsy. It's a familiar smell but I can't place it. Very calming, actually.

 

Wet: Men's aftershave. It's not unpleasant but for some reason I thought that Old Scratch would be very clove/cinnamon in style. It kind of threw me for a loop.

 

Dry: On me it dries down to a clean, expensive soap scent. It was precisely the type of scent I needed this morning. AFter awhile the lavender (I'd assume the soap smell is the lavender) leaves the stage and I get a nice tonka/patchouli whiff.

 

Throw: Pretty intense in the wet phase. I was walking around in a cloud of Old Scratch. It's about four hours later and I can smell it when I put my nose to my wrist but it's not obtrusive.

 

Overall: I think this is a very handsome scent and I like wearing it because it feels like I stole a daube of cologne from my boy. I think this would be a nice scent for my hair.

[goth_huntress]

Didn't like this one.

[cassandrakfreaq]

leather in the imp and wet but as it drys I get a husky green sweetness. My husband loved this on me and wanted to rip my clothes off which is good lol but I think it smells a bit to masculine for me so we will see.

[Gwydion]

In bottle, sharp green aftershavey. Arresting. Wet: The fougere and amber make it lighter than I expected. It is still a green fresh scent. Dry: Highly androgynous and vaguely intensely floral. Dry: Goes mostly floral and feminine and the patchouli amps.

[aiko]

No wonder Old Scratch smells so familiar and comforting. For someone who is surrounded with rosewood furnitures, I can be pretty slow when it comes to placing a name to the smell. Old Scratch smells mainly of rosewood and a touch of lavendar on me. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long on me and is more of a skin scent.

[milo]

I like lavender, but the other florals ruin this for me, making this blend too sweet and perfumey on me. I actually had to see what was in this, as I couldn't tell. Oops, I guess that is a bad thing! I do recognize the lavender, only after I knew it was there though..

[voodoocatwoman]

In the imp and wet: Lavender

 

Dry: Amber mixes in a bit and this turns fairly powdery on me. Not bad. I like it.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Lavender sweetened and softened by amber

 

On Application

Tonka, amber and lavender. Really quite nice.

 

Dry Down

What started off, briefly, as a clogney lavender/amber has been darkened by the patchoulli ending up a deep, warm and ambery scent lightened slightly by the lavender. Nice.

 

Rating (0-5)

4

[greenranger]

Um...chocolate? It smells like there might be cocoa in this...? Or my skin is just being strange. There's a smooth creamy note under the patchouli that my nose is claiming is cocoa, though it is probably not.

 

Drying, I can smell the lavender and tonka, in addition to the patchouli.

 

How come it took me this long to try this? Oh, yeah, I had a hundred other imps to test...

 

Spicy, lavendery tonka! Mmmmmmmm.

[Greensleeves]

In the bottle: Light orangey yellow oil. Ferny, citrusy lavender.

 

Wet: Woo, powdery floral explosion, with tangy undertones. Citrus gone, there is none actually in the blend, but this is similar enough to Villain at first.

 

After a few minutes on skin: Now very woody, but not woodsy, and the amber note is starting clear up from its powdery incarnation into something more clear and resinous. The lavender, of course, has completely died.

 

After first hour: The tonka doesn't smell so bad in this blend as it did in Wilde, but I'm getting a definitely hint of ammonia that is quite unpleasant. This is powdery/resinous and darkly spicy, I think the patchouli helps a lot in this case to tone down the tonka into something friendlier.

After two and a half hours: This is a resinous, powdery, spicy scent, pleasant enough to wear. I'm a little disappointed by how similar many scents containing amber begin to smell on me. I'm getting strong impressions of O from this, but that's surely the fault of my body chemistry and not the blend itself.

 

After 5 hours: Resinous amber, powder, spicy patchouli.

 

Final Verdict: Pleasant enough, but not remarkable.

[Iceblink]

Sweet and almost foody--gotta be the tonka talking. Tonka and rosewood and amber. I know this is supposed to be masculine but I find it almost too sweet and powdery for a man. Strong throw, good staying power.