Black Lotus

[byrdie]

Born in the shadows of a Temple to Set, this corrupted Egyptian scent evokes images of black pyramids, river demons, and bleak, deadly desert sands. Black lotus flower, amber, myrrh and sandalwood.

Vial ~ Mainly a berry syrup scent with anise or licorice underneath.

Wet ~ Incense?!? A teeny-weeny bit sweet, perhaps, but this is one of those resin incenses.

Drying ~ This is reminding me a little of Hearth, actually. However, this is just the cherry wood and the incense smoke -- no tobacco.

Dry ~ This fluctuates between the plastic Barbie doll smell that resin can produce on me and a cherry wood incense. Sometimes it flirts with the idea of becoming cherry dusting powder, but Black Lotus is rather a tease that way.

Fade ~ Within a work day, all I can smell on one wrist was a memory of Barbie Doll Dreams. The other wrist is definitely smelling like the distant offspring of cherry dusting powder and cherry wood incense.

Final thoughts ~ A fan of cherry who can also wear resins well may adore this oil. Alas, it didn't do much for me.

[quimerula]

Wet it's sweet (very, very sweet, almost fruity) lotus with amber. Almost like chewing gum but darker thanks to the sandalwood and the myrrh.

 

Dry it looses almost all its sweetness and it goes quite better, almost smoky, dark and powdery in a velvety way. Really really nice. I need a big bottle of this one!

[cormeretrix]

i keep forgetting that lotus does NOT like me.

 

i wanted to like it, but lotus makes me dizzy and lightheaded.

 

meanie head lotus.

[darkitysnark]

Black Lotus

 

Ok. So I've figured one thing out. Me + Lotus = bubbalicious.

 

Dangit.

 

The instant bubblegumminess of Paris must've been due to the lotus.

 

This isn't as shockingly bubble gum as Paris, but I just can't get past it to pick up anything else. No myrrh, no amber, no sandalwood. Ack.

 

I'm about six hours in, and the practically single-note lotus is still here. It's not as obnoxiously candy-like, but I'm still gonna hafta say, this one's a swapper. Ah well.

[shelldoo]

maple syrup???? i was expecting abit more floral

 

as it dries it becomes maple syrup and sandalwood which is intresting enough but i was expecting a bit of lotus huh.

 

actually i am quite fond of sweety, maple syrup type scents, and this would be imho an alternative to sugar skull altho not as complex as sugar skull, i keep sniffing thinking i would get a hint of lotus, but nada

[PurringPulsar]

Black Lotus

In the imp: sweet, with a slightly 'boozy' smell, like a sweet alcoholic spirit. There's a dark sugary smell about this-it's candy sweet, but a candy sweetness spiked with darkness. Interesting.

Wet on skin: this smells slightly like dark caramel or treacle syrup, with a hint of booze. There's also a hint of resin, like Egyptian incenses. I think that must be the myrrh. I can just about detect the lotus but this has been darkened, indeed.

Dry on skin: whoa, there's a sinister and frightening sharpness to this now. Still sweet but there's something piercing, slightly resinous and probably woody or perhaps camphorous or sharp herbal-even like wood polish! It's very intense on the nose, quite jarring-either it's going weird on my skin or this scent really has been made with Set in mind…it certainly conjures up dark, unsettling moods and is not a scent to be worn lightly. I can't find the lotus in this as much as before.

After 15 mins: I cannot find bubblegum like others mentioned, but the sharpness is sort of more like a woody or smoky smell, it's dry and harsh, like a sandstorm in a vicious desert ruled over by the dark god Set. There's sweetness to it underneath but it's definitely become corrupted.

After half an hour: thankfully the wood polish like smell is softening but the smell is still a sharp, woody smell. It's sandalwood, perhaps, and it's not too bad now. In fact, there's also a smell of charred, smoking incense-when loose incense has started to char and burn with a more smoky than resiny smell-which is quite apt. There's also a sweetness in the background from the amber and the lotus, and maybe the myrrh is making it more of a treacle-y sweetness ie a dark, rich sweetness.

After 1 hour: yes, the lotus is there, I can smell it better now, it softens the smell out more. The charred dark woody smell still lingers but not as strongly as before, but it's still there, hitting my nose before the sweet lotus and amber come in. It's more tolerable now.

Verdict: it's sinister and wicked, and really does stick to the description. It conjures up images of a corrupted, darkened Egyptian desert where the sky is blackened with smoke and storm clouds, the sun is gone forever and the ruins are plagued by curses and the sands hide demons waiting to be awakened. It's sweetness with an evil side. Unfortunately it's not really my thing. I was hoping it would be more lotus-y, and this does happen over time, but I much prefer the lighter, fruity sweetness of Blood Lotus. Maybe I'll see if it grows on me.

[slave1]

In Bottle: Sweet deep and beautiful.

 

On Skin: The lotus has a beautiful sweet bubblegum scent to it… but the amber and myrrh make it an adult smell. Spicy and dark yet sweet and light at the same time. The sandalwood gives it a nice earthy woody note as well that adds to it’s more adult feel. Finally a scent with lotus that doesn’t make me feel like a bubblegum smacking kid.

[amberlox]

I adore Black Lotus. It took me completely by surprise but I knew from the start that I LOVED the description. It was so creative, so dream-worldish... like something out of a horror writer's mind. More than that, a dream within a dream. I didn't expect the scent to actually live up to the description but oh, it did. It is to be experienced as no words can truly bring the sensation to life in a mere sentence. All of the notes blend together in harmony... it is scrumptious. I can't really wear it because of my skin chemistry but I might just buy a bottle to keep it around to smell.

[antimony]

Incense flavored jelly beans. Cloyingly sweet, dark and spicy, but mostly sugar sugar. (Obviously from the lotus) a good choice for anyonr who is all about the sweet.

[magikfanfic]

In the bottle: Very interesting scent. Dark and odd in the mixture of the scents. I can pull the lotus out, but it is a much deeper, darker lotus than the one I'm used to and can wear. Sandalwood, amber and myrrh have been known to give me problems but on it goes.

 

Wet: Lotus and...it almost smells like lotus and some kind of really sweet, dark candy. Like a coffee flavored candy or something. Yeah, this has a definite coffee like scent; more like the flavoring in a coffee more than coffee itself though.

 

Dry down: The lotus smell is going into the background and letting the sandalwood/amber combo come more to the front of this scent. Very much sandalwood and amber with some myrrh on me now, which makes me a little bit ill to my stomach for some unknown reason. It still has the interesting waft of coffee smell that comes up occasionally, though.

 

Dry: Sandalwood with a slight coffee scent to the background of it. Not anything I'd really consider wearing.

[fathom]

In the imp: full, lush lotus scent, very sweet and heavy.

On the skin, once it dries I start to smell coffee and the scent gets very shadowy. It's still floral, but a very dark and gloomy floral.

As it wears, somehow it went wrong on me. I was glad someone else mentioned used motor oil, so I know I'm not alone in this! It started to smell like dirty pavement to me, somehow. Oh well...

[Brianne]

In the bottle:

Sharp and fruity, not floral at all to my nose

 

On me:

At first... I'm kind of worried. I'm getting the bubblegum thing that I hear some people get from lotus. It's not awful, but it's definitely not my thing. Really does smell like bubblegum though. After a while though it starts fading and though it's still slightly sweet, and definitely not floral - that myrrh and sandalwood starts to kick in and add an extra dimension to this. Now it's got this smokey, sweet, underlying fruitiness to it. It makes me think of the beach in a way, when you pass by a woman warmed from the sun, the smell of suntan lotion just barely lingering on her and the scent of some Hawaiian fruit drink mingling with her warm skin smell.

 

Final note:

To be honest, I kind of like this. I'm not sure if it's something I'd wear often, but I could see myself wearing this out on a warm summer night, so I'll be keeping this imp!

[cranberry]

Thanks to the generosity of the Lab I got the opportunity to try Blood Lotus. From the idea (lotus) to first sniff I really wasn't sure I'd like this, I tend to steer away from florals.

 

But once I put it on I was pleasantly suprised - I really like this! It's a dark sweet floral resiny scent - I love sandalwood, myrrh and amber so I should have known that this scent would suit me. It has great sillage - most of BPALs that I've tried have stayed close - but not Blood Lotus (a good thing).

 

I never got any bubblegum scent - thank God! The floral doesn't last too long on me but instead melds to become this dark, sweet, resiny sexy scent wafting gently around me. Definately a keeper.

[Lucretia]

I think this was my first lotus scent, and it seems I am a member of the very very sweet club, because this smelled like warm sugar on me. Not for my chemistry sadly.

[couscous]

yes, lotus is sweet. Depending on preference and skin chemistry, it can either go way too sweet or just sugary enough.

 

Thankfully, lotus is exactly right on me.

 

So....black lotus on: I get lotus, sandalwood, smoke, and an as-yet unidentified incense. I get halloween candy, candy corn, maple syrup, and other assorted autumn-only sweets, with a touch of smokiness.

 

LOVE it. love it, love it, love it.

Edited October 24, 2005 by couscous

[nineveh]

In the imp this smells sweet, exotic, and slightly incensy.

 

I guess that I can only do lotus sometimes. I like it in Kali and Bastet, but it's too sweet in this blend. I love myrrh and amber, but the amber is hiding here and the myrrh is mixing with the sandalwood in a way that makes this smell burnt, the same thing that happened to me with Velvet.

 

After a while, the sweetness calms down, but it leaves me with a weird detergent smell. This one is not for me.

[dcmo]

In the imp this smells very sweet, but on and in dry down, it is really balanced out from the myrhh and sandalwood which give it a smokey darker feel, so it's not out and out sweet. This is a soft scent to me with pretty good lasting power. It's nice but sorry, not one of my favorites. Definitely keeping the imp though. I think this might be nice on an oil burner.

[elphaba]

In the bottle and just on my skin, Black Lotus is a sugar-sweet scent with just the slightest hint of aquatic. That must be lotus. It doesn't take long for it to gain depth. Ten minutes in, a dark, incensey note comes into play. The lotus and the smokey, resiny notes are gorgeous together, making a scent that's pretty and dark at the same time.

 

Black Lotus isn't something I see myself wearing often. It's just not...me. I do like it, though, for someone who's a bit darker and more mysterious than I am.

[Sara]

Imp Sniff: Woo! That beautiful sweet candy lotus, man I loves it.

 

Swipe: The lotus just "pops" right out, it's so rich and sweet. There's also this subtle sweet smokiness peering out from behind the lotus...hmm...I hope this isn't called "black lotus" because there is black musk in it...

 

Drydown: The sweet smokiness never truly emerges from the background. Unfortunately the scent also borders on "playdoh", but doesn't actually cross over the line for a few hours..just sort of hovers. Then, hours after application, right when I can't fix it, it's all out playdoh. Ugghh.....

 

 

Overall: Damnit. I wanted to love this soo bad. If only the smokiness would've come out and the whole damn thing hadn't gone playdoh. It doesn't say "black musk" per se in the description..but it makes me wonder. Lotus is usually coolies with me (blood lotus was fine, just not my taste), sandalwood is glorious (though never came out in this blend), myrrh I guess is cool...can't pinpoint it as a culprit or anything. Amber, though, I'm not sure about. I guess it could've made me playdohy. But black musk is a huge playdoh maker on me... Which sucks, cuz of all the musks I like its smell the best, it just doesn't love me quite as much.

 

So this blend isn't for me...damnit....I really wanted it to be. It was soo gorgeous. But the playdoh kicked in on an already nauseous tummy and is making me miserable (yep, after several washings). *sigh*

[coulrophobe]

I'll preface this by saying I have a love-hate relationship with lotus. When lotus is good, everyone is happy. When lotus is bad, it's bad in a very funky way and the people around me suffer because of the weird "some forgotten part of my body is decaying" odor I produce. Luckily, lotus is good to me *most* of the time.

 

This was not one of those times. I didn't get the "full-blown decay in progress" scent I get from Undertow and Paris, but I smelled a bit off, in a syrupy kind of way. First a sickly-sweet fermentation, then a touch of motor oil. The impression I'm getting is fruit and flowers that have been on a compost heap behind a garage for a few days.

 

This simply does not work with my chemistry, which is a shame - I really dig it out of the bottle, but my skin just doesn't like it.

[Miss Lynx]

This was one of the first four oils I received, via a forum purchase, and it's the first one Im reviewing because - well, it's what I happened to be wearing today, so it's fresh in my mind.

 

I really liked the description of Black Lotus, but unfortunately I don't like the actual scent nearly as much. My first impression of it in the bottle, like a lot of other people have posted, was a cloying bubble gum/candy sweetness. I really, really, really dislike overly sweet scents, but I know how some scents can change on your skin (Lilith most dramatically, for me), so I tried it anyway.

 

Once it was on me, the sweetness did begin to gradually diminish, but it took a while -- it wasn't the sudden drop-off I got with Lilith. About 15 minutes after I'd put it on, the scent was still strong and sweet enough that my partner wouldn't stand downwind of me and wrinkled her nose if I came too close to her -- and this outside in the open air. Not an auspicious beginning. It took a good few hours before the sweetness faded to a point where I could regard the scent as fairly pleasant. The lower notes do come out more over time, and eventually it was relatively nice, but still definitely not me. Now, 9 hours later, I'm almost liking the scent that's left, but that's too long to wait.

 

This one will form the beginning of my swap pile, I think.

[HoneyHoneyNY]

I got this from a decant.

 

In the imp it smelled really fruity, almost like tropical fruit bubblegum. I had read the description and was very surprised that it smelled so super sugary. I don't mind sweet, so I was more than ready to try it.

 

On my skin it turned even sweeter, I didn't think it was possible, but it did. I started smelling like red Kool-Aid, the pre-sweetened kind from a can. A bit unsettling, but it reminded me of being five and begging my mom to buy me Kool-Aid as a treat.

 

After an hour, I can still smell it quite strongly, but the scent has warmed. It's not so sharp and fruity, but is more caramelized, and what I think is myrrh makes it almost smoky.

 

When I sniffed at the imp yesterday, I didn't think I would like this at all, but the fruity sweetness of it attracts me. I think this imp is a keeper.

[Scarlettfish]

Way too sweet for me at first. The amber, myrrh and sandalwood came out after a while, but the lotus was just too strong to really settle down as I would have hoped. Not unpleasant, but too sweet for me.

[sookster]

upon app......

grape bubble gum

is that it?!?!??

 

ok....after a bit ..... more incense like......i do like it ...in a weird way.....

 

warms up immensely within 15 minutes.....i may be in love here.....incense smells are my most fav

[Eros]

In the imp and first applied, gorgeous amber and lotus Very quickly goes *irritating to sinuses powdery*...Something that happens every now and again with sandalwood. Another one that gave me a headache

Oh well, try try again