Obatala

[pastrydeity]

... Obatala’s ofrenda is soft, white and pure: milk, coconut meat, shea butter and cool, refreshing water.

On me, this smells exactly like the Burt's Bees lotion with the milk, honey and coconut oil. I love the scent of that, and this lasts even longer, so I'm very happy with it. I think it's perfect for lazy summer days.

[metaldog32]

I am not sure if I bought the 5ml bottle outright for me or for my sis..but I have a sneaking suspicion it’s the former and not the latter..since I love coconut. The BPAL blends I have tried so far with coconut have pretty much worked for me..except for Spooky..and that one I still feel worked to a degree. This promises to be a different coconut..the unsweetened kind….and I am looking forward to see how it wears on me.

 

I like the whole concept of Obatala…taking the sting out of life’s harshest blows through laughter. I find myself lately studying my life…though this contemplation I am dealing with the reality of the state of my personal relationships with my family, my boyfriend and my own personal growth . It’s a bit painful..and I find it hard to communicate this pain..but I am trying also to find the laughter and keep moving.

 

Initial sniff from bottle: It smells almost a bit buttery…with the rich coconut meat..perhaps that’s the shea butter??? There seems to be some sort of cool note..so this does seem rather soothing...soft but not invisible.

 

Applied wet on skin: Unsweetened creamy coconut with the shea butter..and at the tail end again I register the coolness..it seems like water..but not like the aquatics I am used to in some of Beth’s blends..which is to say..no ozone/dryer sheet notes popping up. It smells very tranquil..as if I were walking through a tropical forest and came upon a quiet little waterfall..behind it is an ofrenda made up of coconut. That’s the mental image I get. It’s quiet..and all you hear is the running of the water over the stones.

 

Couple of minutes on skin:Still smells the same…and that smells awfully good to me. Quite linear and I don’t mind it one.darn.bit.

 

For a coconut fanatic this blend is a like a soft white blanket…one that protects and comforts me. I kind of need that right now.

 

It’s not overly sweet..in fact..it’s not really very sweet at all..just creamy and soothing.

 

Ten minutes later:Cool creamy shea butter with the coconut meat. It doesn’t waft very much..but hovers close to my skin. Enjoying it very much.

 

Half an hour later: Same as above..softened a bit.

 

Drydown: Interesting…it seems to get creamier…and a tad sweeter actually..

 

Lasting power: 10+ hours with little to soft throw.

 

Bottom Line: Obatala is soothing and creamy and just what I needed. I think its great on it’s own and I suspect would work well as a layering partner. I think it’s a good option to wear for spring could work in summer as well. Heck..I find this very much a comfort scne to me so I would probably wear it any time I feel the need to seek a bit of refuge. If you normally are not a fan of coconut give this a try anyway..it so isn’t about suntan oil or macaroons…more natural and creamy and just..well..beautiful.

[Nia]

in the imp: coconut, but slightly acidic, like coconut yoghourt. There is something intensely sweet, like burnt caramel, too.

 

Wet on skin: the burnt note is accentuated.

 

Dry: The burnt-ness doesn't improve, but after a while the coconut comes back. I like the scent, but I wouldn't want to smell like this myself.

[Browneyes]

Imp: *Sweet* milk, burnt sugar

Wet: It seems as if the "burnt" impression may actually come from the coconut now... As if it were toasted coconut. The milk is cloyingly sweet.

Dry: I wish that I got more "cool refreshing water" from this, as well as shea. After a while the "burnt/toasted" note fades somewhat, which is good news, but ultimately this may be a bit to sweet for me.

I'm going to have to do some more testing with this one. I'm glad I got to try it though; of all the milky/creamy scents this was the one that appealed to me the most. It confirms my suspicion that milk is not amongst my favoured perfume scents. - It doesn't go sour or rancid on me, so I suppose that as such it *works* on my chemistry, but I just don't think I like it as a note in perfume very much. Good thing I didn't order Milk Moon.

I can see how this could be gorgeous and sexy as well as comforting to someone else though, and it does have a very warm and golden summer/tropical vibe. I just miss the water and shea, which I hoped would balance this scent out on me. I am going to give it a couple more chances though before I decide.

[The_Merf]

In the imp: Very buttery--as others have said, I don't know if this is the shea butter or the coconut meat (I'm tempted to say the latter, unless this is much stronger than the same note in Ochosi)

 

Wet: Milky and buttery--almost too foody.

 

Drydown and wear: I always wondered how a "cool water" note would function, and it appears that here it provides some dilution of what would otherwise be a very foody and rich blend. The buttery note goes down in intensity and one is left with something that is almost, but not quite, that sunscreen smell. It is certainly very beachy and tropical and summery, and while I'm really more of a Spring/Fall lady, I find this one intriguing, and certainly enjoyed it more than I thought I would.

[voodoobaby]

In the bottle: Nosegasm alert! It smells sooooo good. It's juicy, creamy coconut with a little bit of tartness from the aquatic notes. Oh wow, I need this injected into my veins now.

 

Wearing: It's basically the same, only creamier. The longer it stays on the skin, the more the aquatics fade. You can still tell it's there, though. I admit that there is a hint of a plasticky smell that I got from blends like Snow White, but it's very faint and unnoticeable, so it doesn't bother me. This scent is so refreshing and summery and soothing, I really want to drink it. But because that's a bad idea, I think I'll just wear it all summer long and feel pretty and tropical.

 

Edit: It's been over a year since I wrote this review... Either this one doesn't age well, or I just didn't pay enough attention to the drydown last time. It still smells lovely when first applied, but after a few hours it takes on this weird stale smell...it's hard to describe, but I got a much stronger, grosser whiff of the smell in Cockaigne after a few hours. As much as I love it wet, I think I'm going to have to trade it off.

Edited August 12, 2008 by voodoobaby

[Jheya]

In the imp: This smells like...a heat haze. It's a scent that takes over my nose and makes me think 'warmth', and puts me in mind of baking; not in the foody sense of baked goods but more the concept and heat of the process.

 

On skin: Still warmth. A touch of coconut with a slightly burnt tone. I have two imps of this, and strangely one is cooler and lighter and the other is warmer and heavier, huh. I guess it's either that one is slightly more aged, or it's down to batch variance.

 

Smelling this in the imp I was sceptical about the "cool, refreshing water" part as I couldn't smell any hint of that. However though the coconutty warmth does very much dominate the scent, there's an edge of coolness flitting around the edges that I was unable to detect in the imp.

 

It dries down to one spot being cool, a little creamy and gently coconutty, whereas the other spot is still warm, slightly burnt coconut. Oddness.

 

I prefer the cooler imp, but it dries down to be quite faint and it doesn't really jump out at me as a keeper. I think they may both end up in my swaps pile.

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Strong coconut and shea butter smell

 

On Skin: Coconut is the predominant note. I get a hint of cool aquatics.

 

On Drydown: Suntan lotion

 

Verdict: I'm not a huge coconut fan but this sounded intriguing. I wanted to test it out. Unfortunately, the coconut note turns on my skin and I end up smelling like suntan lotion. Sad. Off to swaps for this one.

[brit_brat100]

I'm not a big fan of coconut, but this came from a friend with similar tastes as mine, so I thought I'd give it a shot.

 

Imp: A really light sweet (but not sugar sweet) coconut and something aquatic.

 

Wet: A twinge of something, maybe the shea butter, but still a really nice soothing coconut sweet milk.

 

Dry: Sweet and creamy coconut milk.

 

Final Thoughts: I really get a water feeling from this...mildly beachy, almost reminds me sunblock. But very creamy and gentle. This could easily be a bigger bottle for summer.

[Lexie]

This smelled so beautiful in the vial, fresh and comforting coconut. But on my skin something went terribly wrong. It started to smell like milk that's been left outside a fridge on a hot day.

 

I wish I could get those lovely impressions that other reviewers had. If it just have stayed like it was in the vial... Stupid skin chemistry! Unfortunately Obatala has to go to the swap pile. I'm heartbroken.

[LadyCrow]

This is a juicy and worthy ofrenda: wet, it's almost pure coconut; as it dries, the coconut is still the dominant note, but the milk and shea butter are more prominent. I don't know how the aquatic note is functioning here, except diluting what could easily have become an overly rich blend. I don't smell sunscreen, and this isn't one of those overly foody scents for me -- the coconut is very clean, very fresh-smelling. I do get the sun, and sunlight -- this is so summery and happy!

 

Lots of people compare this to Milk Moon. I tested the '07 version of that, which still seems to be a bit of an acquired taste for some. Obatala has much more throw, and the milk note never goes funky on me the way the Milk Moon did -- it was sharp, almost sour, in Milk Moon, and was the dominant note there; Obatala is considerably sweeter, and here coconut is dominant (on me, at least). If you're specifically looking for a milk blend, you may still prefer Milk Moon, Milk and Honey, Sudha Segara, etc., because the milk here is hard to detect until the intense coconut dries down -- similar to the way the woods are masked by the lemongrass during the initial stage of Namaste.

 

This is nice. I don't feel the immediate need for a bottle, but it's lovely to have around.

[asciident]

Wet: Milk! The milk in Milk Moon '07 actually. A vague hint of coconut, but fresh like the actual food, not suntan oil.

 

First on: Same, but with a stronger sense of coconut meat. Overall a bit watery (which makes sense obviously).

 

Dry: Creamy coconut lotion. The particular scent of the milk that I recognize from Milk Moon '07 kind of fades out a bit.

[stardreamer]

First impression: Coconut!

 

Fresh on: Yes, lots of coconut, but also something underneath that I'm not sure I like. Fortunately, that note backs off in 15 minutes or so.

 

Drydown: Still mostly coconut, but not as light and sweet as a lot of the other coconut-based blends. This is about halfway to suntan lotion (which is almost certainly the shea butter!), and/or a distinct tinge of toasted coconut. Milk is going to disappear under that, and I never get any kind of aquatic note at all. I was wondering whether I'd like another coconut-based scent well enough to hang onto it, but this is significantly different from the others I've got (13, Black Pearl, Elegba, and Eden).

 

Bottom line: This is a good summery scent, not too strong. I touched it up midafternoon, so I can only say that the staying power seems fair-to-good. Definitely a keeper.

[Jenesis]

Bottle: Liquidised coconut!

 

Wet: SWEET. Very, very, very sweet. Smells like that Lush soap 'I Should Coco'. Rather Brown Jenkins-esque (another coconut scent) on me. The coconut is still very strong, although it is much lighter and less warming than Jenkins, and much better for summer!

 

Drydown: A sweet, soft scent, light and "fluffy" for summer. I can smell a buttery smoothness under the coconut, evidently the shea butter.

 

Dry: Oh no, where did that come from? The butter has gone rancid. It's not overpowering, but it's still rather unpleasant.

 

Dry (20 mins): Well, it's gone. My skin ate this completely. I'd have loved this blend if it has stayed the same as in the drydown stage, however I think butter doesn't work on me (odd for a foodie eh )

 

Verdict: Lovely when first applied, but goes rancid and then disappears. Booo

 

Rating: 3/5 (It will make an excellent room scent for me!)

[porcelina]

creamy, gentle and cool. this is very faintly sweet and really soothing... the coconut meat is SO good. i want to make this into a body lotion. mmm, i need a big bottle now.

[aiko]

In the imp: Extremely sweet coconut. It reminds me of coconut candies from Malaysia.

 

On the skin, wet: Still sweet, but more tolerable compared to the smell in imp. The coconut scent remains strong.

 

On the skin, dry: The sweetly scent tones down while a creamy shea butter smell merge with the cocnut scent to remind me of coconut body butter.

 

It has long staying power (~ 8 hours so far). I will have to try this again to decide whether to keep it or not.

[500ml]

I got this as a frimp as I generally don't go near coconut - don't know why, I sometimes do have a craving for the scent and love to eat coconut anything, but as a perfume it always puts me off - but this was surprisingly lovely! Milky and creamy, this is a true coconut scent which also reminds me of the Lush coconut soap.

[willowtreeling]

I wanted to like this as it sounds lovely and I love the smell of coconuts--both realistic and sunscreen-esque. However, I could hardly smell anything...and once on, it smelled...weird...sort of like a dirty plastic inflatable raft that someone left out by the pool all summer, forgetting to use it. And also, sort of nutty. Luckily it went away quickly. I think I will stow it away and try it in a few months before I decide--I might have been a bit off when i tried it because it was my TOM and also, I had bronchitis and was on heavy antibiotics....

[dronzeka]

Oooh, something that can almost serve as a substitute for one of my favorite scents ever, the original Milk Moon!

 

On me, Obatala has a creamy, milk note mingled with coconut - but FRESH coconut, like you can get on the street in Greece and Turkey, cut into chunks and displayed under a fountain of fresh water, something that's cool and refreshing and only mildly sweet - NOT the vile suntan lotion or bad beachside drink kind of coconut that so often shows up in perfumes. This is the note that's at the center of Milk Moon 2005, and which I adore. It's fresh and light and sweet and tropical without being heavy or sickly or overdone. What makes this slightly different from Milk Moon 2005 is the shea - I can just catch it as an undertone, and it makes me think of the shea I use on my heels before bedtime, which is not exactly the world's most exciting scent, it is certainly inoffensive - and the water, which is also there in the background as a very faint undertone. This is cool clear rain water, not something oceanic or marshy, and it's something else that makes this a very mild but bright and pure scent.

 

The only complaint I have (well, apart from the fact that it's not QUITE Milk Moon 2005, which isn't really a fair complaint!) is that it's strangely faint on me. (I say strangely because both Milk Moons are strong and last on me.) It's a real skin scent. I haven't had it on long enough to say if it lasts, but it seems promising.

 

This is LOVELY. I'm so glad I took the risk on a big bottle unsniffed. It's not quite as good as Milk Moon 2005, but it will serve admirably as a substitute and allow me to eek out my Milk Moon bottle a while longer.

[CrazyPretzel]

guh. This is sweet, creamy, milky, custardy coconut. Like a coconut flan. Soooo damn good. I've ended up with two imps of this from various swaps, purchases, and frimpage, and I'm actually going to hang onto both of them, which is rare for me.

 

Very, very good.

[Esatres]

In the imp: wet coconutty goodness....very sweet.

Drydown: Still coconutty...a little sourness coming out, probably from the milk. I seem to have a problem with that note.

Dry: So I've put Obatala on one wrist and Milk Moon 2007 on the other. After the drydown, I can't tell the difference between the two. Obatala is absolutely a dead ringer for Milk Moon 2007 on me.

[Miseraya]

In the imp: Coconut and soured milk. Yick! Definitely smells like my milk note curdled!

 

On the wrist: A little more coconut... a little less soured milk... Something perfumey?

 

Drydown: Pointy, perfumey yicky sour coconut. Blech. Eric just came and smelled me and said "I smell a hint of McDonald's french fries in that". *sniff* He's right.

 

I think it's pretty safe to say that this one does not work on me.

[ClareN]

Here's what I wrote when I tested Obatala, before re-reading the lab's notes.

 

It smells like a Cherry Ripe (an Australian chocolate bar) - and that's a bad thing for me, but probably great for some of you foody scent lovers. I am always tempted by foody scents, but I need to learn that I never end up liking them unless the sweetness is balanced out by something like spices or incense. Anyway, Obatala, to me, is coconut, dark chocolate, and sweet cherry with a hint of dragon's blood, and the pineapple-y note from Milk Moon 07 comes out in the drydown.

 

Now, I know that sounds nothing like the Lab's notes, and no-one mentions it in the reviews at all, but I'd swear it has chocolate and cherries in it! And I'm at least 80% sure about the dragon's blood. There are no aquatic notes, not the way I know them.

 

I don't like the Obatala I tested, but I might like the one some of these reviews are describing. Maybe I'd better try it another day and see if my nose changes its mind. I'll edit this review if I test it again.

 

Good news for those of you who like it, it's quite strong and has a good throw - I could smell it all around me as I was wearing it.

[aestien]

Bottle: the best coconut cookies ever

Wet: a yummy shea butter base under delicious coconut and a soft sweetness

Dry: the soft sweetness must be the cool water, it’s blended perfectly with the other notes, not powdery, not dry, not musty or cloying, just straight sweet comfort

 

This scent just makes me so happy. And it’s on its happy way to being a favorite. It smells to me like being wrapped in a soft, clean blanket, enjoying coconut cookies.

[modernsaints]

Someone was talking in another thread about how you can smell a blend, and you know it "works", but it doesn't work for you personally. Obatala in a nutshell.

 

I know this is a soft, milky, almost sugary-sweet coconut, but something about it makes me go "blech." Sometimes I get a whiff of something almost hazelnutty, which is weird; sometimes I smell just coconut. And I think I should come to terms with the fact that I don't like BPAL coconut. If it were even that fake-tan-coconut I'd be happy (what? I LIKE that coconut!) but it's just... not for me.

 

If you like coconut though, hit this up, I mean, it is an awesomely milky delicious coconut smell. If you like that.

Edited December 30, 2007 by Shollin