Yemaya

[oedipa]

... Her ofrenda is a bounty of melons and grapes, strewn with the petals of the flowers of motherhood, draped with sea mosses.

Got this as a frimp from the Lab. Thanks, Labbies!

Wet on skin: Watermelon? Sugar? This smells like crystalized watermelon.

5 minutes: Soooooooo much watermelon.

10 minutes: A little bit of grape peeks out but then it's back to the Watermelon Show.

2 hours +: Now that it's almost gone I can smell the honeydew, rather than watermelon - but like I said, it's almost gone.

Final verdict? Too sickly sweet for me, but I'll try and pass it on to someone who can love it.

[fiddledragon]

In the imp: Giant cantalopes and honeydews!

 

On me: an overflowing mound of ripe dew-kissed fruits. I smell like a fruit salad. This is very much a fertile mother-goddess sort of a scent; very evocative, but not the kind of thing I usually wear. Into the costume pile!

[steffanina]

Yemaya-

 

In Bottle: Honeydew! Nice to have that without the usual cucumber scent that accompanies melon scents so much.

 

Wet: Melon and lemon and...aspirin?

 

Dry: Sadly, this goes musty and fades without excitement. Oh, well.

 

Overall: Doesn't work for me.

[shellyshells]

Yemaya-

 

In the imp.......

A melon scent consumes me! On me I get watermelon & honeydew. It's very juicy & sweet at first but mellows out into a creamy fruity incensey scent on my skin.

I'll be coming back for this when spring comes around!

Edited October 24, 2006 by shellyshells

[supremegoddessofall]

Melons, with a touch of something aquatic underneath. Has a "watermelon bubblegum" feel to it that is going kind of plastic on me. Not for me, although I'm sure this would be great on someone else.

[jasmine]

Tasty! Yemaya reminds me of green apple Jolly Ranchers, but not precisely -- it’s a moderated version, yet still distinctly candyish. I detect grape and melon underneath, and something that is faintly floral, yet the candy waft remains very strong.

 

As it starts to dry, it still smells like candy of some kind, but now I find myself thinking of Mambos. It’s indubtably sweet, but perhaps a different kind of candy. The sweetness fades slightly (very slightly) as the oil continues to interact with my skin.

 

As time passes, Yemaya seems less layered to me, which is saddening, but this effect may also be the influence of other smells in the area (tea, brownies, and Zombi on my other wrist.) While it continues to remind me of candy, I should mention that the flavor isn’t artificial -- there is a candylike quality to it, but the fruit scent (which has definitely metamorphosed into honeydew melon) doesn’t strike me as artificial. I can pick the grape up a tiny bit more after a while, but it’s white grape, not red.

 

This mutated after a couple hours into something faintly warm, but heavily muted, with very little sweetness. I would have to reapply it over and over in order to keep this from happening. I do like it, and I think it’s fun, but I don’t see myself buying a bottle.

[blackfelicula]

In the bottle: Yemaya is all watermelon bubblegum to my nose.

 

Wet: It is a touch more floral and complex, but still overwhelmingly watermelon bubblegum.

 

Drying down: This is fruity and sweet with an aquatic undertone. It is slightly soapy. I keep bouncing around, because it is mostly good ol' watermelon bubblegum.

 

Dry: If watermelon bubblegum could be stately, this would be it. I keep imagining a tall woman dressed in white and blue smacking her watermelon bubblegum yet somehow staying sexy while doing it.

 

Later: My husband thought the scent was overwhelming. I am okay with it, since it was fun to wear. However, I doubt that a big bottle is in my future.

[Lanet]

Melon through and through. I don't think I really want to smell like this (not that it's bad), but I think this would be appreciated much more in the burner next spring & summer. It's the juiciest, freshest melon - really nice!

[Musamea]

frimp from the Lab

 

In the imp and wet: Holy watermelons, Batman! It's melon bubblegum.

 

Dry: Melon, melon, melon. Sunkissed and ripe, to be sure, but still. Melon. It's a scent I could see wearing only if I were on a tropical vacation, which isn't going to happen any time soon! Off to the swaps!

[lady_pandora]

From the bottle to my arm, from wet to dry, Yemaya is pretty much 100% watermelon bubble gum on my skin.

 

I think it would make an excellent scent for the dog days of summer.

[rainbow]

Like just about everyone else, I get melon, melon, melon from Yemaya. As others have experienced, for me this is pretty much a honeydew single note. This oil is fruity! I am all about fruity, so this is a good thing.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Like biting into the juiciest piece of honeydew imaginable.

 

Wearing: Pretty much straight-up honeydew. It’s brilliant green, very wet, and incredibly melony. And it vanishes within a couple of hours. Dang.

[cecelle]

Got this in the mail today and promptly tried it out.

 

In the bottle, wet, and dry this really smells like almost a single note melon to me - more cantaloupe than honeydew. I can't really make out much of anything else at all!

 

Very nice summery scent - I can see myself wearing this on a dreary, rainy day to cheer me up!

[little_galaxie]

HONEYDEW! This scent brings back waves of nostalgia: it remindes me of the honeydew popsicles I would eat when I was little, and now, by gods I shall have to search for them again.

 

Good throw, but i wish it had more staying power.

 

Still, this is definitely one of my top five scents, even if it's only because I worship at the altar of anything vaguely reminiscent of my favorite melon.

 

I need bottles of this. I'm addicted. Eep.

 

5/5

[edenssixthday]

Yemaya - I normally dislike grape scents, but the grape works amazingly well with the melon in this blend. It’s very similar to the TAL Yemaya, but the honeydew scent seems stronger and there's a stronger aquatic aspect to this blend. The sea mosses definitely lend a deep, murky, aquatic note that is just gorgeous. The first time I tried this, I had also just applied melon-flavored lipgloss by coincidence, and I was surrounded in the scent of melons, and I thought I had died and gone to heaven. I love this scent. It’s not good for a cold, heavy, winter day, but it’s going to be perfect next summer, when the sun is shining and the air is hot and I want a refreshing perfume scent wafting around me. This scent is very, very strong (a teeny tiny bit on my wrist and my whole body is swathed in honeydew scent for hours) and has incredibly long staying power.

[alliekat13]

In the imp: beautiful honeydew, cantaloupe, and watermelons! Just smelling this makes my mouth water.

 

On my skin: just cantaloupe for about ten minutes, then this wierd herbally smell comes out that I don't really like, it kind of reminds me of the smell of bad breath. I think that might be the mosses, but I'm not too sure. Sometimes the lab's moss blends work on me and sometimes they don't. Well, this would have been the perfect fruity summertime scent if the evil mosses hadn't ruined it for me. Oh well.

[storme]

In the imp: wow, this is very melonish - a ripe, newly-cut-open melon, with white grapes on the side.

 

On me, wet: melon, melon melon melon and a tinge of something slightly sweet and cloying behind it.

 

On me, dry: a plethora of melons - mostly the fresh yellow honeydew type, maybe a trace of sweet galia, and even some pulpy overripe watermelon. That last is slightly repellent-smelling to me - in real life and here - but it's fairly minimal, and subdued by the others.

 

Verdict: I don't know that I'd ever wear this, but I might keep it around until I'm somewhere hot and want to wear a refreshing scent that's not cucumber or mint.

[Peaches 2]

Yemaya in the vial smells of a very strong and sweet blend of melons, for me, predominately honeydew which I love. However, like some of the other reviewers, I found it cloying, and that's not a word I use very often. I hoped it would have more of an edge and lose a tad of that sweetness during wearing. It did, but the edge it developed on me went from too sweet melon to rotting produce stand. It got stronger and stronger the longer I wore it, with a tremendous amount of throw. I was able to tolerate it through to the final fade stage, when it finally became the soft melon I'd hoped for. I don't think I could wear this unless it is cut with something else, maybe 3-1 with jojoba. If that doesn't work, it's definitely not for me.

[mspixieears]

Very fruity – fresh and nectary, and reminds me exactly of the Asian melon sweets you can buy at Asian grocers. There does appear to be hints of peach and even fresh yellow-green apple. It’s a lot more pleasant and mouthwatering than I initially invisaged. Sadly, it’s gone in 2.5 hours – I do wish it had more lasting power as I love it.

[Spring Snow]

I didn't think I'd like this scent at all. I tried out my frimp this morning for the first time and surprised myself by loving it right away. It smells exactly like those honeydew flavored caramel milk candies you can get at the Japanese grocery store from my home town when it's wet, and it was really fun wandering around smelling like candy. On the drydown, the candy-sweetness gets more subdued, but it doesn't go away. The moss and florals come out and ground the scent a bit more, creating a luscious fruity mix rather than straight out fruit candy. I am going to love this one for summer, but I feel like if I wear it outside, bees will chase me!

[taramarie]

Yemaya smells just like a watermelon Jolly Rancher, not that I'm complaining. There might be another melon, but nothing else. It's a good summer scent.

[smallvoice]

Yemaya smells like honeydew bubble tea. There's even that slightly soapy undertone that they all seem to get at my local bubble tea vendor. It is melon, melon, melon! Watermelon begins to appear, and then... there's this oddly sharp and heavy floral that I'm wondering if it might be the sea mosses and the aquatic note respectively. It does smooth out but I never quite get back to that beautiful melony scent. As for the grape? It blends well with the melon. I love the fruits in this!

[stellans]

Imp: Melon goodness abound in this blend. I was looking for a cool summer scent, and smelling melons almost make me feel cooler regardless of the actual temperature, so I think this is the one.

 

Wet: There aren't too many BPAL blends which don't stay true from imp to skin, and this is no exception. Melons follow from the imp to the wrist, and float delightfully to the nose. I want a honeydew and I want it now!

 

Dry: The lovely cool melon scent never goes away, but dry the floral notes come out to play! (sorry for the doggerel.) For what is really a light scent, it has amazing throw and staying power.

.

Verdict: I ordered a bottle of this and love it so, so much.

Edited February 9, 2009 by stellans

[Iceblink]

Ohhh yum...it's like diving into a bowl of fresh honeydew melon! So sweet and crisp. I get the mossy note, just barely, like the melons are lying on a bed of moss, maybe...very unique, this one; I don't recall any other BPALs that are so overtly melon-y. Delicious.

[Laz]

This is absolutely beautiful.

 

In the vial, it's melon, with a hint of something else I can't make out- I'm inexperienced at this! On my skin, it's very very melony, but that's fine with me! As it dries down, it's like a melon tropical smoothie. I went to visit my mum and she said "oh- you smell tropical!" as I walked in, which I'm going to take as a compliment!