Scarecrow

[urbanruralferal]

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.

first of all, when I put this on, I was taken back immediately to my senior year in high school when I made out for a really long time with a boy who was wearing polo. You know, Ralph Lauren Polo.
I tell you that is what this smells like to me, which is a good thing. I love that smell, but...
I cannot quite picture myself wearing it regularly.
However as the hours go by, and Scarecrow stays with me, I keep getting pulled back to my wrist, sniff sniff. sniff sniff. There is something so familiar about it, something beyond the original association. At first I was thinking it was Vetiver, but it isn't, it may be oakmoss, which my husband used to wear.
I told my daughter that it was the smell of a warm wind blowing over a summer field of dry grass full of stoned, sleepy hippies. then I realized I am the hippie...
so, yeah, to keep? Or not too keep? I don't know, and I don't care. I think I will just keep flirting with this one.

[Aredhel]

Rating (on skin): 1/5

Summarised in a word or two: Hot and dusty.

 

Preconceived notions: I have no idea what this will smell like, but I've been wanting to try it for about a year now. (I have no idea why I never just bought an imp of it, but that's entirely beside the point.)

 

In the imp: Woodsy and dry. I can't pick out specific notes, except maybe sweet grass?

 

On skin, wet: Holy... sweet grass and... dust. How very odd. And sweet! I like grassy notes, but not straight up, suh-weet! grass. Um.

 

On skin, dry: Scorched woods and sweet grass. There's something about this that heads straight to the back of my throat and kind of tingles. It's an exceptionally dry, hot scent complete with sweet grass and dust.

 

Conclusion/Notes: Sweet and hot and dry, and distinctly dusty? Nope, don't think so.

[littlefarmgirl]

Whoa. Rubbing alchohol. Or bleach?

This is not a keeper.

[edenssixthday]

Scarecrow - Sniffed wet in the vial, the first thing I smell is nail polish. Then, as it dries down, in addition to the nail polish scent, it begins to smell like eau de pieds. Yeah, that’s right: nail polish and feet. Not stanky feet – just feet. Ooh…and what’s that? It’s lotion! It smells like a nail salon! It’s not a foul scent, but certainly not what I want to wear on my skin as a fragrance. I’ll be sending the Eau de Pieds to someone else. Blech!

[HennaFairy]

bottle:

very dry, incensy, grass/hay

 

wet:

same - pretty masculine, although now a touch of warmth emerges

 

dry:

reminds me of a farm or horse barn, a dry mild spicy hay scent!

 

overall:

I like this - very different

 

rating: 7/10

[karengypsy]

In the vial: Hot winds across burnt grass.

 

On me: This smells like burnt hay. It's the weirdest thing. As it dries down, it gets a little softer and almost nice in a way. But still, I don't think it's the right scent for me.

 

Verdict: Off to swap/sale.

 

Rating: 2/5

[Rouge]

This perfume is less evocative of the burnt, crow-haunted early autumn fields I was expecting and more of the stillness of a summer cornfield while the crops are still slightly green.

 

One note of caution – Scarecrow is a fairly thin oil in comparison to some of the more viscous offerings of the Lab and as such there’s a lot of potential for leakage and drips when the imp is opened.

 

In the bottle - Dry, slightly green and with a very faint cereal undertone.

 

Wet On the skin – An unexpectedly gentle scent, as I was expecting something acrid and dry perhaps with an edge of smoke. There’s a faint sweetness of dried, cut meadow flowers, something sugary. It smells very much like mallow flowers.

 

Dry down - I don’t detect any new notes, but the scent becomes very mellow and soft and powdery. Scarecrow is very pleasant but for me, doesn’t quite match up to its site description.

[gangstaknitta]

Scarecrow was odd. It actually smelled like slightly-earthy hot wind in the vial--very nice, in fact. There was a dry spiciness about it. I can't pinpoint one note in particular. On my skin, it smelled faintly musky, but then faded. I don't know if my skin swallowed the blend or what! So I slathered some more on, to the same effect. Hmmm. Just a faint musk and then *poof*.

[forspecial_plate]

First try, I put it on my forearms/wrists, where I could put my nose right up to it and sniff. Bad idea, as it has an alarming magic marker/chemical smell, mostly when wet. As it dries this becomes a grassy note that I did like a lot. There's also a deeper, darker green, almost like Burial, floating in and out of the mix.

 

Second try, I put it mostly on my neck, with a little on my wrists. That way I got the throw more than smelling it up close. This made a big difference, I got much more of the pine green smell and couldn't pick up the grassy note as much. It's a very masculine scent to me, probably the most masculine bpal I've tried so far. It was a little overpowering, and I did actually rinse off in the shower, just to dull the impact a little. What was left over was (finally) the balance I was hoping for. Something about it makes me think of commercial men's colognes and after-shaves (Polo specifically, even though I hesitate to compare, it's definitely there). I'd wear this when I want to feel very manly. It is a sexy scent to me, and I'll keep the imp around for sure. Also it lasts for hours, even after the rinsing off.

[dierne]

Scarecrow.

 

In the imp.

Smells like dry grass.

 

When it first hits skin - wow - boiled sweets but quickly turns to fresh green. It's settling down now to undertones of hay and something sharper. So far I like this one.

 

Later: Definately dried grasses but with undertones of something fresher and sharper. I like it but it's very faded now, very subtle. Must make my boyfriend try it later

[QueenFae]

This is a really unique one. It defintely does conjour images of sun scorched, barren fields, which is a feat in itself. There is a woodsy note in there, like a light oak or sandalwood. There are some resiny/smoky undertones, and they make this yellow/red scent for me. A very interesting blend. Not really my thing, but not bad.

[ND¢]

In the bottle: A little like cleaning solution (the bleach kind rather than the Pine-Sol kind), but not unpleasant, with a vague herby scent I eventually identified as plains grass.

 

On me: no cleaning solution smell. Brought out a sweet and more overtly herbal overtone, less like grass and more aromatic. A bright, warm smell that manages to be crisp and not muddled without overpowering my easily-overpowered nose. As it dried I started thinking about the sort of flowers that grow in dry places and sharp fresh-chopped wood, though I'm not getting anything scorched or barren about it. I'd compare it to Yggdrasil, not in the actual scent at all but in the way that the potent herbal tone asserts itself and sets the tone as an aggressive perfume.

 

But then later I noticed that on the wrist that just got a second-hand taste, it's woody, soapy, comforting. Maybe if I used less I wouldn't get so blown away by smells. I tried that, just a dot; but it went through pretty much the same process on a smaller scale. I can see how people would describe it as masculine, but I think that's more of a stereotypical classification than a useful one in this case. I actually found it a good deal more floral than I was expecting. If it'd stayed at all like the smell in the bottle, I think it'd have been more desolate and barren, etc.

[Ghost_Light]

This was the frimp from my first order and I am very pleased it was included. I never would have picked it out for myself.

 

I was rather intimidated by how masculine it sounded in the reviews but I opened it so my friend Paul and I could try a side-by-side comparison.

 

In the vial it just smelled like GRASS! Overpoweringly green.

 

On Paul, it faded very quickly, moving from the grass notes to kind of a warm juniper scent and then settling on a nice, clean, soapy note before it vanished.

 

On me, it stays forever. It starts out grassy and then picks up a very strong juniper note. It makes me feel very tough when I wear it, but I am occasionally self-conscious about smelling like a boy.

 

And did I mention it stays forever? I put it on in the late morning yesterday and I could still smell it when I woke up this morning. It has faded into a kind of warm, grassy-sweet scent, but it is still there.

[sofiaviolet]

This smells very sweet and isn't what I expected from the description. It smells a little like straw. It has very little throw.

[Scrangie]

This smells scary.

 

Sharp, strong, hot. A little bit like acetone. Dry grass.

 

Makes my head hurt.

[kuanyin]

I would have never ordered this one from the description or the reviews. It sounded horrid to me. But, it was part of a 4 bottle group that I got in one auction on eBay. I really wanted two of the bottles. Of those two, I like one. The third that I was curious about, I like. This one? Well, gosh darn it, is my favorite of the four! I was in no expecting it to be so PRETTY. My take on it is fairly far from most of the posts. I get golden warmth, not heat, definately not scorched. Maybe a golden field just before harvest as it begins to warm up in the morning. It is light, but for once, that doesn't mean fleeting. It has very nice throw and for quite a while. It is quite comforting and uplifting. Perfumey, but not in a way that I recognize. Usually when I use the word pretty to describe a scent, it is floral, which this is not. It has a similar feel to it that vanilla has. It doesn't smell like vanilla, but it has a like effect. This is wonderful.

[steffanina]

Scarecrow-

 

In Bottle: A hot screaming floral. Like I just tortured a flower to its last breath. There's something really familiar about this in the bottle. Some fruit scent.

 

Wet: This is like...the nicest nail polish remover ever made. Made to be as non-noxious and floral-fruity as they could.

 

Dry: Wow. Ozone and hot and, like I said. Like the nicest nail polish remover ever. Yet not acetone-headachey like Arachne was. Remarkable. This is more of a novelty scent but I'm so glad I tried it.

 

Overall: More of a novelty but neat.

[Tess]

My computer crashed and erased my review. Poo!

 

In the vial - It does smell like nail polish or remover.

 

Wet - VERY nail polish. Very, very.

 

Drying - It almost smells like aguave over nail polish. But it's still very chemical-like.

 

Dry (1 hour) - This turns into an interesting scent. It reminds me less of hay and dry fields. It smells like a nightflowering cactus in the desert captured in a perfume.

 

Overall - After the initial stages, this turns into a very interesting floral. I'm not a floral person, but I could see it working very well on someone who can pull off the heat notes. An unusual but very interesting scent.

[Naamah_Darling]

Have I ever said that scarecrows give me the creeps? Not the jolly cartoony ones like you see at Halloween, those just look like hillbilly clowns. I mean the real kind – faceless stuffed clothing crucified in a field. They just give me the wig.

 

This smells really, really weird. It's got an odd chemical smell in the bottle not unlike nail polish, and a bit of dry sweetness. There's sage in it for sure, possibly sweetgrass or vetiver.

 

On, I'll second what everyone says about it. There is something terrifyingly familiar about this. And I'm frustrated by my inability to describe the scent itself in anything but semi-synesthetic terms. It's an odd, vinyl, wedge-shaped smell that sits right in the front of my nose. I'm not getting anything organic from it at all; it smells like a hot car interior or the inside of a perfumey school bus. Just . . . really, really strange, vaguely bitter, vaguely smoky.

 

I can tell that there are green notes, and grassy ones, and a floral, and just a touch of something metallic, but they do not combine to make an earthy smell. This is very artificial and reminiscent of some unpleasant memory I cannot place, yet I can't stop sniffing it.

 

Someone mentioned the smell of dandelion blossoms, and I'll second that. It does, sort of. That funky, dirty, close smell over what is supposed to be a flower but really smells more like some weird plastic. This has hardly any throw, and what throw it does have smells the same as the close-in scent.

 

It ages to a grassy smell, like long stems of cut grass that have been sitting out in the sun for days, until they crumble at a touch. The sage comes out more, and whatever that floral is has gone just a little powdery. Smells a bit like a smudge stick, actually. This fades quickly to a dry, spicy powder. Hay dust.

[supremegoddessofall]

This is a corn field right after the crop's been harvested and it's starting to get a bit cold at night. Hints of florals, some earth tones.

[cinderfallen]

At first, it's definitely like what the description says--a little earthy, with a high note of dry hay that's slightly sweet. As it dries down though, it's mostly patchouli on me.

 

Okay--that was last time. This time: sweet! The description says: "The scent of a hot wind blowing through desolate, scorched, barren fields." More like a fertile, happy field! It's definitelyl autumnal in feel, no fresh green grass, but the stacks of hay are sweet, and the soil is definitely ready to be harvested. A little floral, too. I'm not getting the patchouli this time.

Edited November 8, 2006 by cinderfallen

[sh1mm3r]

Picked this up as a frimp at the Atlanta Meet n' Sniff.

 

This reminds me of the time I moved across the country in August and stopped at the Iowa state fair. It was SO hot. I spent most of my time standing under the misting stations. The sheer heat with the hay - that's what I smell.

 

As it dries it gets a little sweeter, as hay tends to, but I was hoping it would turn into the sweetgrass scent that I have some shower gel in, and it didn't. I probably would not wear it.

[talula_fairie]

Harsh, masculine, chemical at first, though it sweetens up some with wear. Smells like a man's cologne -actually, I think I might test it out on my husband. It's definitely not feminine, and though I like woodsy scents, I won't be wearing this.

Edited November 21, 2006 by talula_fairie

[RaeiNarcissus]

After I put it on, I was smelling this odd fruity smell, like I had put on Jester. Gradually, it changed to smelling like hot scorched fields, not really pleasant. This is going in my swap pile.

[lanablade]

In the imp: To me this smells like soap in the imp.

 

Wet: Bad mens cologne. That acrid alcohol nail polish smell everyone's been getting. But only for about the first minute or two. Then it smells a pretty much the way I expected it to. Dry grass, something slightly spicy that does indeed smell like a hot dry wind. There's something perfumey in the back that smells alternately like dirt or like the perfume section of a department store.

 

Dry: Sweet, grassy, warm. Like laying in the middle of a crop circle in a field of gold corn.

 

Interesting. I'm definately glad the lab frimped me so that I got to try this one, but I think I'll pass it on to someone who will love it more than I can.