Scarecrow

[Belladonnastrap]

An agricultural gargoyle. Though he is the Guardian of the Crops and Keeper of the Fields, his visage is still the stuff of nightmares. The scent of a hot wind blowing through desolate, scorched, barren fields.

Thanks to Diana I have an imp of this scent which is great because it's not something I normally would have went after!

First sniff
Wow this is actually...sweet. I don't get really images of barren fields but it does seem a very gold/yellow sort of scent. Maybe a *bit* of wheat in it.

When wet
Whoo okay NOW I get the images of fields. It smells a bit nutty, a bit sweet and there's a note here I've smelled before but for the life of me I can't narrow it down. Ther's an earthy element to it...maybe some sort of grain. It's lovely though and really not something I'd have chosen for myself.

Drydown
Oh this is lovely. As it was drying down I kept sniffing myself...it turned into a lovely sort of masculine scent (BPAL oils make me want to find a boyfriend so I can test out scents on him/sniff him like crazy) that doesn't scream GUY so much. It's very warm, very soothing and ...gosh. I love this stuff.


Aftermath
Ok I gotta get a bottle of this. Which is great because I never would have picked it out orginially for myself..change is good! to Beth for making it.

[fairywingmaker]

I'm getting a hay smell also. (that could just be because of the name) But around the edges sort of a lemon kind of scent. I think my husband should try this one, as everything he tries smells completely different on him than me. Ahh Chemistry!

[Witch's Dagger]

Scarecrow

 

I got this in a swap from Hada Verde. Thanks!

 

Preconceived notions:

This was on my wishlist because of the hot winds, the grasses and harvesty scents, which made it sound like it might be nice for Lughnassadh. I also hoped that the 'desolate, scorched barren fields' might make it a good Samhain scent, since I have a *very* strong Scarecrow-Samhain association. I was slightly worried, because of a couple of the reviews, that it might end up being too bright.

 

Testing it out:

In the vial: I get a sweet, almost honeyed grass scent, a very bright and sunny day. Okay, so I was 'right' to be worried about it being too bright, and yet wrong, because I *really* like this.

 

On me:

 

First impressions: This is a summer day personified. The green is sharper - again, this is a bright, grassy kind of green, rather than a bright electric green or deep forest green, or even a pungent herbal green. This is the green of summer grass. It's mixed with the smell of corn husks right after you've taken them off the corn and they're all piled up in brown bags. And a specific childhood summer memory keeps coming back to me: I'm sitting with my parents on our front porch, snapping green beans, and waving at all the people who walk by. Calm, contented, happy summer and fresh vegetables. Wonderful!

 

15 minutes later: The sweetness I detected in the bottle has now made its presence. What is it? It's definitely not vanilla, nor a floral note, so honey, maybe? I think it might actually be mead... ooh!

 

1 hour later: All gone (this is normal for me), with just a slight whisp left if I smell my wrists. And yes, I really do think the smell I was getting is mead.

 

Final impressions: This isn't a Lughnassadh scent for me, per se, but it is *definitely* a late July, early August scent. It's for those late lazy days of summer, when it's hot and humid, and the fireflies have given way to sandburs *ick*. And because of my associations, this is definitely a childhood scent for me. I probably won't buy more, because it's just too *bright* for every day wear, but I love this, and I'll definitely keep the imp.

[Nepthys]

I was really anticipating this based on reviews. So I was disappointed when I opened the imp to be assailed by a very harsh chemical scent. I tested it out... it took about twenty minutes but somehow it evolved into a grassy smell - bright green - then into that barren, scorched scent I was expecting. Unfortunately the sweeter green-vegetative scent disappeared at the same time. I think I may play around with layering this to see what else I can evoke from this.

[hadaverde]

This oil goes on with just a touch of sweetness, reminiscent of fresh hay. After a moment or two, it begins to take on the scorched quality mentioned in the official description. It also starts off almost overpoweringly strong, but fades to a tolerable level fairly quickly.

 

Within half an hour, the scent is obviously earthy, but not in the typical heavy, moist manner of most earthy scents -- rather dry and bright. There is a distinct floral note here as well, but it is not a sweet one -- it evokes the image of a bouquet that has been dried and bleached by exposure to the sun.

 

While this scent doesn't strike me as wholly unpleasant, it is definitely not *me*.

[Penance]

First sniff:

 

Straw. Drying straw that's still slightly green. It reminds me of the inside of a barn after the harvest.

 

Wet on skin:

 

Now it smells more like a corn field after the harvest. There's a very unique smell to a field after hte dried stalks have been cut and hauled away, leaving the tangled remains for the bird's to pick over and Scarecrow has that smell. It's a smell I really like, personally. It has a lot of happy memories for me.

 

Dry down:

 

I really need to slather this one on to get it to last on me, but the result is well worth it. This is a scent I would classify as clean in a very unique way. It almost smells like bamboo in a way, if that makes any more sense. It's hard to explain but gorgeous.

 

Bottom line:

 

I really like this one, being a country gal and all. This is a definite winner.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: And my head, I'd be scratchin', while my thoughts were busy hatchin'...if I only had brain.

 

Second Impression: I get the dryness of straw but also fresh green-ness of fields. It's bright and astringent.

 

Final Analysis: It's pleasant, not for me as it's not girlie at all. But nicely evocative.

[reina]

I'm not sure scorched is the accurate word to describe this blend. parched is more like it.

it's dry, indeed. herbal and bone-dry. very masculine, like taking a shower with a very manly smelling soap, just without the water - if that makes sense.

it smells pretty nice on me, but I bet it would smell even better on a man. So this is going to the next guy I know who favors dry scents. all in all, good work, beth!

[surf-tormented]

I like this one. I don't know if I would buy a bottle of it because it fades quickly on me, but it smells like fields of bailed hay to me. I was born in the country and the scent brings back memories of corn fields, dried grass and earth. A perfect late summer feeling, yet I didn't get the hot wind note that was supposed to be there.

 

I am sure I will use most of this imp up quickly. It reminds me a lot of Goth Rosary's Graveyard and I love earthy/grassy perfume oils. I would highly recommend Scarecrow. I wish it stayed longer on my skin or was a bit stronger. If it was, I would buy a 10ml bottle of it and use it to lull me to sleep. It's relaxing to me.

 

Very wonderful oil that reminds me of home and country. It takes me back to my youth.

Edited November 28, 2004 by Madame Nyx

[spark]

To some extent I think Scarecrow nails the description. Or vice-versa.

 

On me, however, I'm getting a strange note that my brain is identifying as acetone. Hmmm. I also get some pine. Double hmmm! There does seem to be some smoke there, as well.

 

Chemistry notwithstanding, this isn't me, as I try to be at least a BIT feminine, and to me this is all "guy." I'll have to try it on one sometime!

[teza]

Wet, in the vial and on my skin: It reminded right off something I knew that I knew -- something chemical and craftsy. Glue? Paint? AH-HAH! Nailpolish! Once the glee of figuring it out faded, I started praying for a change.

 

Drydown: It slowly turned sharper and greener and began to evoke other images.

 

Dry: It smells like a church. It smells like Palm Sunday or Ash Wednesday or maybe one of the peculiar Church-type incenses. It is very boy. It is very boy on Palm Sunday.

 

I feel like I should wear it to church.

 

I like it, but since SOMEONE (coughcoughmagikfanficcoughcough) wants to try it, I'll be sending my imp on. I like other things better. There's just too damn much happy-scent.

[xoe]

Scarecrow reminds me of something from my childhood, I'm not exactly sure what it is. It brings back memories of a friend's bedroom. I think she had some make-up or a perfume or something. After a brief while, Scarecrow became overwhelmingly strong to me and I had to wash it off. Oh well.

[pkwench]

Scarecrow

 

Wow. I get straight up straw in the beginning and something that smells a little plastic-y. Wet that same smell, but now with a touch of smoke and something strange, like someone else said, reminiscent of astringent. It does indeed smell hot, desolate, and dry. It's altogether a forlorn and abandoned scent. Rather like someone set up the scarecrow and then came drought to end the farm and everything else.

[Caitfish]

In the bottle, Scarecrow smells pretty acerbic, I'm not getting a particularly "dry" vibe, but it doesn't really smell like any of the other perfumes that I have tried.

 

On, the acerbic harshness fades pretty quickly. It's replaced with something earthy and smoky, but not like vetiver or any kind of moss, and definately not green.

 

I grew up in the Llano Estacado, the part of the panhandle of Texas. It's a flat, brown place that used to be covered with a sea of buffalo grass (tall, thin, yellow grass with soft wheaty tufts at the tips). Apparently a hundred years ago, some fields of buffalo grass would grow so high as to obscure the vision of anyone less than 6-7 feet tall. It doesn't grow like that anymore, but it's still pretty pervasive. I remember walking through a buffalo grass field as a child, the scratchy, dry grass and an intense smell unlike anything else. This is that. A sea of seemingly dead, tall grass, scorching in the 100+ heat.

 

As a perfume, it's interesting. Pretty nostalgic for me but i'm still not certain that I like smelling like it. I think that it would smell very good on a man. Yes, definately. I'm such a girly girl that the dryness of this doesn't appeal to me. I'll see if I can sneak it onto my boyfriend.

Edited January 1, 2005 by Caitfish

[FireInCairo]

This is a very interesting blend. It smells of very old grass... dry grass. Sort od like the yellowed, last blades of grass in the summer. There is also a maltish smell to this.

[Ishtar]

In the imp, Scarecrow smelled very chemical. This did not overly worry me, as I already found several BPALs to have a medicinal/chemical smell at first and then mellow into something completely different.

 

On my skin, the wet stage was definitely the nail polish smell that other people described. Hrm.

After a good 30 mn, a recognizable straw note started coming through, unfortunately overpowered by the chemical smell that didn't want to die. I was beginning to think this would never work on me when suddenly, the dry barren field scent everyone described eventually showed up. Whew. This was much better.

The drydown was really nice, reminiscent of an elegant and traditional masculine blend that I can't quite place but have smelled before.

 

I am not quite sure yet whether I will keep Scarecrow or not; if I do, I will probably only wear it when staying at home as it turns really masculine on me (in a very nice way, mind you)

[rhubarbbear]

this is definitly a dry scent. i'd hoped it would be a sweeter kind of dry, like hay, but it turned out to be a not sweet dry, more masculine. tho i suppose hay isn't uber feminine anyway, i thought it would be lovely on husband, and it was. unfortunatly, he failed to see that, but really, it was great on him!

[sarahmarie]

Oh dear. My skin seems to turn this into a very strange scent that reminds me both of flowers and chemicals - definitely not a great thing! I can almost see how people are comparing it to a shampoo or cologne...but there's this weird, sharp chemical thing that just bites at the nose. It's too bad, everyone else seems to be having mostly great experiences with this, but on me it's just unpleasant. Oh well...skin chemistry strikes again.

[cuervosueno]

Interesting! I got this as a freebie, and my chemistry is making it do something very different. On me, this Djinn light. I like Djinn, so that's not a bad thing, but Scarecrow is just too light for me.

I get no scorched scent at all...(in either of them, btw, so I guess whatever turns up scorched on others just doesn't work on me.) I get a sweet citrus note, and is golden, but soft golden. Sunwarmed hay maybe, but I don't get heat from this at all. Its really very light pale yellow--the citrus note sweeter than what I get in Djinn which smells gloriously lemony on me. Scarecrow is not masculine on me either--its just a light pale yellow scent.

someone noted this has a sweet note, but it is not vanilla. Nor does it seem sugary, yet maybe not quite honey either. I thought mead was a good guess.

Overall, pleasant, and I'll keep my imp, but if I want this sort of scent, I'd rather use Djinn.

[aimeceleste]

This was an extra in a group of imps I bought from the swaps board.

 

All in all, it's a little too masculine for me. Reminds me of wheat or corn fields, baking dry in the summer sun. Reminds me of haybarns, and horse-feeding, and all of that stuff.

 

Definitely one I will pass on. Not because I don't like it, it isn't unpleasant, but I'm a country-turned-city girl and it doesn't have good associations for me.

 

edited for silly spelling mistakes.

Edited January 19, 2005 by aimeceleste

[TheDarkMother]

Just from the description for some odd reason its making me think of Roland in the Dark Tower series by Stephen King. I wonder if the scent will as well.

 

In the Bottle: Very dark, foreboding, sinister, and earthy. A very powerful scent that is very beige, hardpan earth, and faded blue jeans. This isn't really Roland so much as Leatherface. Children of the Corn maybe?

 

On Me: There is something in this that has turned into something very vinegary on me. Its dark and nasty, being buried in the cornfield alive. Life for your crop. This definately does remind me of the rolling dirt hump in Children of Corn, rolling to come and devour the offered sacrifice. If I think hard enough, I might actually be able to smell the blood in this as well. He wants you too, Malachi. He wants you too.

 

Unfortunetly, I don't. This is really nasty and dirty, and not just in a scary corn field sort of way. It smells like there is some civet in here, which means that someone couldn't find the bathroom and just decided to fertilize the Cornfield God. Yuck. No thanks. Off to the swaps.

[Morgan]

This is a review for my boyfriend:

 

First Sniff: Bitter. I don't know if I'm going to like this one.

 

On HIS skin: The bitterness goes away immediately. It smells very dry and grassy. It reminds me of something...

 

After 1 hour: Ooh this is so masculine. it reminds me of Cowboys roaming the plains.

 

Final verdict: Scarecrow smells absolutely amazing on my boyfriend. Definitely a keeper

[Gin]

While wet, this smells almost like apple?? Or some sort of nailpolish remover? I must be having a dodgy-nose day. It's sweet, grassy--but not like a lawn, this is long, wild grass, slightly damp, cut down and drying in the summer sun. As it dries, Scarecrow goes smoky (for lack of a better word), but in a clean, men's-cologne kind of way. I like this enough to wear it myself, but I think it's will be incredible on Mr. Gin.

[autumnviolet]

huh-a real oddity.

Wet: oil, burning, smoky, sweet. weird.

dry down: evolves into a nice masculine scent of woodsy green. The smoke burns off.

Hours later-woodsy guy-scent. nice.

[shelldoo]

hmmm, straw, feilds, fresh earthy smell, very masculine on me....gonna try it on dh