Greed

[Aldercy]

Base and earthy, yet glittering with golden notes: patchouli, heliotrope, copal and oakmoss.

I'm a little wary of patchouli, and I'm afraid Greed doesn't really work on me overall. I can kind of sense what it's supposed to be like, and it's a clever blend, but it seems kind of... dirty... on me. Not garden-y earthiness, which I like, but like a faint "unwashed" dirtiness. There's nothing fresh, green, or floral about this when applied to my skin. It's a decidedly brown scent, but flat and stale, with no richness. It's a little like entering a closet or attic full of slightly damp clothes or slowly rotting old things-- someplace stagnant and quiet. It's a heavy, cold smell. Maybe even with a hint of that unnatural sour way your hands smell after handling a lot of coins... which is eerily appropriate for this oil. I like this conceptually, but I absolutely don't want to smell like it. Greed is not for me.

[hlinspjalda]

In the vial: Sharp, bitter, and tannic. It smells a bit like a rotting tree.

 

Wet: Patchouli and some other floral that I find slightly nauseating. If "copal" means tree resin, that would explain the amber-y note. If this one doesn't smell better in a half hour, I'm washing it off.

 

30 minutes: This smells like some man's cologne to which I have been exposed, but I'm not sure which. It has an amberish base with some resinous, treelike overtones. And if that's oakmoss, then I really don't like oakmoss as a perfume.

 

This is the only BPAL I have tested that I had to actively wash off my skin because I couldn't stand it. That's not a bad thing, really, considering I've tried more than a hundred scents. This one just plain didn't work for me.

[rayvn1]

I'm going to have to go with hlinspjalda on this one. This was included with Black Annis as an extra imp in a BPAL shipment. In the bottle I was kind of excited. I LOVE masculine scents to the point where my husband's response to several of my perfumes is "....you smell like a dude...". I usually take that to be a good thing but sadly not with Greed. It gave me that thick-in-your-throat feeling when I smelled it on dry. It did indeed smell how I imagined a fifty year old wealthy stockholder would smell and not in a good way. It did seem to last a long time and I finally had to wash it off. So long Greed! You're spending some alone time at the back of my sock drawer to see if you'll mellow out in a year or so.

[theseagrows]

all i am getting is the copal and something earthy. i am getting that distinct pencil shaving note that i usually only get from frankincense or sandalwood...so maybe it's the type of patchouli used? i'm not sure, but whatever it is, this doesn't work for me.

Edited September 10, 2008 by theseagrows

[Caerphilly]

In the imp: Earthy patchouli. I need to learn that no matter what the scent, if it has patchouli in it, I won't like it. But, this reminds me if Death Cap. And I liked Death Cap, mainly because it had more of a dirt smell than just the patchouli taking over. And it's slightly sweet, which I like.

 

Wet: The sweetness goes away, and it's all patchouli.

 

Dry: It gets closer to my skin, and turns more earthy. There is a slight powderiness to it. A wood powder. Sawdust. I don't know why this scent is so complex to me. It's all earth an patchouli, but it morphs with my skin chemistry a lot!!

 

Overall: I like this more than other patchouli scents. But this is not for me. It changes too much in a short time span, but all of the changes aren't really changes that I like. I prefer sweet, aquatic scents. This is too dry and earthy for me.

[Magpie]

In imp: Woody and fragrant, a little smokey. Smells almost like it has vetiver in. I don't know what copal smells like, so that might be it, especially as it's a resin. Some of the woodiness undoubtedly comes from the patchouli.

 

On: I would agree with jj_j that this is rich and earthy rather than golden. It's a bit flat and dry on me, almost like sandalwood or something, but less out there. Resiny in a kind of old way, almost like an old, dusty cedarwood bookshelf. I know it's weird, but that's what this makes me think of - a dusty bookshelf in some forgotten corner of a library. Not that it smells like books, it doesn't, just the shelf!

This is really quite faint. Underneath the copal/patchouli resiny scent, there is a hint of a rounder floral, so I suppose the lab succeeded in exactly what they wanted to do! To be honest, I'd associate this more with pride: like the wood of a board room. It's really lovely, mellow and slightly spicy, but not really me.

 

This grows on me over time. Very subtle, but a little too woody for me to wear often.

[milica]

This is woody smokey dirty scent with just a touch of something sweet. And pachouli in this is great, not sharp, but in some way mellow. And something in this reminds me of Mandrake.

 

I think I love this as a scent, but I'll have to think about wearing it as a perfume.

[Juushika]

In the vial: Earthy and ... fruity? Honestly I have no idea.

 

On me: Copal and patchouli, a thick and physical, almost fleshy, scent covered with brown dirt. But there's something more to it which I can't quite pin down—I presume heliotrope, since it's the only note I've never tried before. Rather than glittering, it dulls out the scent. Like playdoh or baby powder, it's flat and slightly gritty and just plain odd. In fact, I get no golden notes at all. This is playdoh and resin and dirt, a distinct and somewhat odd combination which is fleshy and dirty and brown. Throw is moderate to low.

 

Verdict: Resin and dirt are fine together, and may be lovely gilded as well, but Greed's off note, the heliotrope or whatever it is that reminds me of playdoh, isn't to my liking. While quite distinctive and not entirely unpleasant, this is just plain odd—and so, not something I want to wear or plan to keep.

 

[ImperatrixMundi]

Now this is spot on for Greed.

Just like the description says it is very earthy with flashes of gold here and there. Somehow the golden impression comes and goes while sniffing and this is like digging through the dirt for gold coins, slipping in the mud and getting dirty all over but the coins twinkle in the dirt and slip through your fingers. And as soon as you find one an other becons to you and there must be on other and an other and an other...

[donnatron]

Imp: Patchouli and a lustrous, almost singing hint of copal (Copal!!!).

 

Wet: Strong patchouli and oakmoss. The more delicate notes have been lost.

 

Dry: Dirty, dirty patchouli. It's blended with the oakmoss to just be... really dirty. I like it. I like a good, dirty patchouli but this is beyond my usual comprehension of dirty patchouli. I can smell a faint floral to this--must be the heliotrope. My beloved copal has hit the ground running and never looked back.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: A must try for any patchouli lover. I'm glad to have tried it and will probably use the imp up but have found other patchoulis that vibe with my aesthetic better. It does live up to it's desciption--mostly it's very base and earthy but there are glints of something deeper to this.

[Diva Urd]

In the vial, I get nothing but the patchouli.

 

On me, it also stays primarily patchouli when wet, but gets softened up considerably by notes I can't identify from prior experience upon dry-down. For a patch scent, this sadly gets weak in the knees quite quickly, and ends up turning into something resembling Play-Doh in the end. As a lover of the lab's patch blends, I was hoping for something a bit more impressive, but this one sadly doesn't seem to like me. Trade material.

[phantomphoenix3]

This is all patchouli on me. Not necessarily bad, just not what I thought it would be. No golden notes peeking out. Very woody. Unfortunately...off to swaps with this.

[crebbsgirl]

Ok, firstly let me say that I am a patchouli lover. It's normally a note that can't go wrong for me. That being said, this blend on me was pretty much single note hippie patchouli. I have NO IDEA what went wrong, but the heliotrope, oakmoss and copal never showed up. Which is weird because normally I amp the hell out of copal. Nope. Nothing but patchouli. It's not bad, mind you but it doesn't make for a very interesting smell on me.

[milo]

Mmm, this is a warm, masculine blend, lots of patchouli at first, then it fades away. Dry, there is a bit of wood, and cozy vanilla sweetness which must be the heliotrope I'm guessing. I like this, but I don't wear masculine scents. I'll bet it will be great on my guy, though.

[angelicruin]

Wet on my skin, I get mostly patchouli and wood notes. As it dries, it turns slightly sweet, but I'm still getting mostly wood and patchouli. Definitely a more masculine scent.

[Venneh]

In the imp, I get what I'm pretty sure is patchouli and maybe wood? This is probably not going to turn out well. ...Yep. Patchouli and a really sharp woody note that goes straight to doctor's office, and the rest of it turns it into hairspray. Uhm. No. Swaps.

[sqwook]

So. It turns out I love oakmoss. And apparently I love a perfume oil named Greed. *sigh*

 

First, preconceived notions: Without looking at the notes, I'd have thought 'greed' would be a sharp, dry, sour, spiky, pinched, thin scent, perhaps with mint. This is not any of those things.

 

I get a lovely foresty earthiness - not the lab's "soil" or "dirt" note, just a round earthiness. And over the day, a lovely soft green-ness. And I can definitely pick out the soft deep green oakmoss that I have loved in other scents with this note.

 

I don't get a lot of patchouli, myself. And I don't think I know what heliotrope or copal are enough to pick them out. It's not too masculine for me to wear.

 

I think I'll rename this Forest Nymph in my mind.

 

If you liked this, you may like: Faiza The Black Mamba, Salome, Cathode, Danse Macabre, Two Monsters

[cecukemon]

In the imp, it's very strongly patchouli. Wet, it reminds me of Depraved without the fruity part - there's a certain acrid, dark note (the patchouli I guess?) that smells rather similar and unpleasant to my nose. Dry, it mellows down a bit and I get a slightly spicy note from it, but it retains that acrid facet. Too dark, too foreboding for my taste.

[ltrittipoe]

On me, this smells exactly of the cologne my dad wore when he dressed up for a special occasion. I have no idea what cologne it was, but this is exactly it. He passed away in 2001, but sniffing this on my wrist, he is right here with me.

 

 

 

 

[Stormslegacy]

In the imp: Green and a little sour--I'm assuming that's the patchouli

 

wet: I would swear there is an aquatic note here fighting to take the lead. It's definitely a green woodsy scent, no doubt about that. I can't say I'm getting the "golden" in the description though.

 

Drydown: still getting random whiffs of aquatic and what I thought was the green note in Hurricane.

 

Dry: Green, woodsy and fresh. Very much like guy deodorant.

 

Conclusion: This is very well-blended. I would describe this as very masculine, not something a lady could really pull off. It's pretty sexy, like how I picture Kevin Smith would have smelled.

[jamethiel]

In the bottle: Patchouli and something green. Oakmoss?

Wet: Patchouli

After five minutes: Oh. OOOH. There' something resiny coming out. Copal, maybe?

After ten minutes: This is incredibly dry

 

The drydown. This is pure resin. The throw is good and it seems to last. Bottle time!

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Incensey/patchouli

 

On Application

Dusty/dry/ Patchouli and copal. Love

 

Dry Down

This is so not what I was expecting from this blend. So dry and dusty it makes my nostrils shrivel up. I love it! Smells of an old wooden chest. No heliotrope.

 

Rating (0-5)

4.5

 

[voorishsign]

An impulse buy after watching Wall Street What can I say? Gordon has it right, Greed is good! What a fantastic scent! I was concerned about the heliotrope since a man for florals I am not, but the patchouli and oakmoss made me curious.

 

Well, I'm glad they did. This is a unisex blend, not outspokenly feminine nor masculine, but it smells like a golden gleam would if it had a scent. Beautiful, luxurious, amazing. A golden, pale, expensive-smelling scent. A little something for the materialist in everyone Bottleworthy, definitely.

[Banyangirl]

This smells like.... licorice-infused wood. No, Greed. You and I can't be friends ever.

[topaz]

I've read through the reviews and I guess what I'm smelling is unique to me. Yes, it is earthy but completely metallic. It smells like a bag of new pennies. This is so metallic, I can almost taste it when I sniff. Will save this one for ritual use.