Ochosi

[LiberAmoris]

... His ofrenda is the soft shea he shares with Obatala, forest herbs, and sprucewood arrow shafts.

Ochosi is like the sharp green tang inside a twisted bough on a flowering spring tree. It's really green and bright, even though the shea note tempers that slightly. There's a hint of something almost aquatic to it, and the woods are very soft.

I was also reminded of Nosferatu---to my nose, it definitely shares a tangy note with that blend.

The drydown is much better than the wet stage on me. It's more foresty and less green-fresh. It's not really my kind of blend, but I'll definitely keep the imp and give it another try sometime.

[steffanina]

Ochosi-

 

In Bottle: Sweet sugar and florals.

 

Wet: A very herbal-y bloom on my skin. Still sweet, a hot floral...quite foresty! Not really pine leaping out at me so much as mulch, undergrowth, the like.

 

Dry: Hmm, rather quick fade.--Oh, here comes the must. Let me see if that stays around.--Yes, it appears that is does. No, this is not a pleasant scent for me.

 

Overall: Goes musty. Don't like.

[Shollin]

I was a half-elven ranger for years in an online RPG, so Ochosi caught my eye immediately.

 

First sniff: Spiced wood and smooth greenness. I think this is what our guildhall in the Great Oak of Thelbane Forest smelled like.

 

Wearing: I smell like a dryad. The green wears off as the scent dries, leaving a fantastic smooth warm woodiness.

[Teggy]

It went from no to yes then back to no.

 

I'm not sure if it was the spruce, but it was a bit tangy for me when I first put this on. A little too much like cologne. Then at drydown, it became much more balanced with the wood and herbs. A nice and soft forrest scent. I didn't detect any shea. Then a while later it started to get really sweet and just wasn't a happy woods scent anymore. Oh well.

[harmonyfb]

This smells to me of watery ozone and faint herbs. It's very light and soothing - I imagine it would make a great men's fragrance. Verdict? Pleasant, but not for me.

[bristlecone]

I ordered a whole bottle of this on a whim. It just sounded appealing to me. I don't think I'll order whole bottles of GC scents on whims anymore. Ochosi just doesn't like me. (Was it something I said? I can change!)

 

In the bottle, this smells... moldy and mildewy, or something. I think it might be the shea. This continues for several minutes after it's on my skin.

 

Dry, it's better. I get a very soft, pale, pulpy wood. It makes me think of a wooden crate. I get a slight green note too.

 

The problem with this scent is that by the time it starts smelling good, it's so faint that I can barely smell it. And since the worst part is at the beginning, I'm not sure if it's going to smell much better in my oil burner- I'll probably just get the moldy shea scent and not the nice woods.

 

Oh well. You win some, you lose some.

Edited October 29, 2006 by bristlecone

[blackfelicula]

In the bottle: This smells soft, sweet, and gently floral.

 

Wet: Ochosi is creamy and sweet. It is not overbearing, though it has a floral touch. It is almost gently spicy.

 

Drying down: This might yet go soapy on me when I stick my nose up close. It is penetrating and mesmerizing, yet soft.

 

Dry: I want this rich sweetnes to last all day. This might be a good locket or brassiere scent.

 

Later: This is lovely, but so light. It is unlikely to grab the attention of others, but it is delightful to smell on myself.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: herbal and a bit powdery.

on: very soft and almost sweet.

2.5 hours later: this is turning to a sour wood scent on me.

6 hours later: powdery and vaguely sweet, but still mostly that sour, woodsy smell.

overall: my skin just did bad things to this one.

[supremegoddessofall]

I don't know what to make of this one. It's definitely herbal, but I don't know that I'm getting anything in particular. Not getting the evergreen I expected to get from the spruce. A touch spicy, too, but in a kitchen spice way.

[Rheliwen]

This is really light. Wet it's a sweet, subtle herb scent. On the drydown it turns into a sweet, creamy pencil shaving (did we figure out this is redwood?)...but I like that!

 

It sort of reminds me the way Sanrio erasers smell! Holy crap it does!

[Ajila]

In the bottle - Green grass with a hint of pepper

 

Wet on me - A not really there bitter green earthy scent

 

Dry on me - Stale dishwater

 

Overall - This just doesn't work on my skin

[forspecial_plate]

Ochosi starts out fresh, faintly herbal smelling. On my skin it quickly develops a woody smell that I like. Green, young wood, with a sweetness and some herbs. It has very little throw at first but then it starts to 'put out' more, kind of the same way Aureus behaves on my skin. This is sweeter though by far, and as time goes by it veers toward a cleaning product quality, with hints of something fruity like banana. These are just minor facets of the scent overall, basically it stays sweet, woody, herbal and fresh throughout. It's a nice scent and I can see the similarity to Obatala. I'm not sure that I would need whole bottles of both but might eventually want one or the other, and the woods might make Ochosi the winner.

 

edit to add: I can almost swear that there is a touch of champaca flower in this. It's a note that my skin likes to shout out, and I recognize it from Dr. John Seward and Two Monsters. It's what was giving me that 'banana' feel earlier.

Edited December 24, 2006 by Forspecial Plate

[Meg]

In the bottle: Herbs... and toilet deodoriser. Hm.

 

Wet: It sweetens pleasantly with what I recognise as the shea note from Obatala, yum.

 

Drydown: Shea and herbs, it smells very much like tropical flowers, I can smell nectar, and very pleasant herbs from a forest. It smells fresh and breezy, and yes now I get the woods in the base, that remind me a bit of pencil shavings (this is a good thing, in this blend).

 

Overall: A generally very balanced blend, sweet with shea, and earthy with herbs and woods. It's a very feminine woody blend because of the shea, that I seem to amp like crazy. The herbs are a bit sour at times, refreshing. It generally conveys a good sense of a hunter-god who's vey close to the forest.

[jiggahava]

Why are the frimps always so delightfully suprising?! I would've never ordered Ochosi on my own. On my skin I get rich green herbs, it is truly evocative of a deep green forest somewhere in the mountains. Lots of woods and a touch of shea. This is fantastic! This is one of the best herbal scents I have tried so far, right after Black Forest and Incantation. I love this, and might get a bottle in the future. Very pleasantly suprising. The throw is excellent as well and three hours later I can still smell it wafting from my skin.

[sarahmarie]

Oh, I really like this! It's just a really *pleasant* scent, very sprucey and sweetened by the shea (which sometimes smells like cocoa to me, just a touch, in this scent). This could be awesome on a guy, but it isn't exclusively masculine. I wore it to the gym and it was very energizing and pleasant even when I was all sweaty.

[theseagrows]

this is a warm somewhat soothing scent. i smell something similar to coconut but much subtler, which must be the shea. this is mixed with an herbalness and something slightly fruity? ack i dont know, the notes are really hard to pick out in this. it's very soft and subtle though.

Edited February 15, 2007 by theseagrows

[The_Merf]

Man, I had a bad feeling that this scent would only have a few reviews--a real shame too, because it's quite lovely, really

 

In the imp: Smells like a light mixture of woods and herbs.

 

Wet: I'm not entirely sure what shea butter should smell like, but there is a creamy edge to the woods and herbs while this is wet that I'm going to attribute to the shea butter.

 

Drydown and wear: This is really, really nice, and I'd say that this, along with Danube, are the only two GC scents in the last 50+ that I've sampled that I wanted to move to the 'potential bottle' list right away instead of testing it again (but I will test again--I always test again). This is very clearly woody/herby, but it is clean, light and really classy. This is light polished wood, not heavy wood on a wild tree, dark, with ancient bark peeling off (like Kathmandu, Yggdrasil and others).

[alliekat13]

This was a frimp from the lab, and something that I would not have thought to pick out for myself....

 

In the imp: sweet sweet shea butter with some spruce or pine.

 

On skin: the shea gets a little soapy at first, but in a good way, like an expensive super moisturizing French, triple milled soap made with real African shea butter. Mmmm. After a while, the shea quiets down a bit and the herbs come out, along with the woods. This is so freakin' good, it takes me back to when I was a kid, playing on the playground with wood chips nearby grassy meadows and forests. This is a very green scent, and the spruce adds a spicy woody kick to the creaminess of the shea and the greenness of the herbs. It's so clean and fresh smelling, I am definetely going to grab a bottle of this for the summer. I'm going to try and layer this with my Obatala and see how it goes. LOVE!

[akw]

In the beginning, wet, I could hardly believe there are no fruit notes listed. I felt like I was sniffing a tropical drink with a little umbrella in it. Maybe this is what shea does on me.

 

On drydown, I start to get more shea and more herbs. The herbs aren't sharp or pungent -- just nice. I'm so happy that the wood in this isn't doing what wood usually does on me -- scented pencil shavings. It's just barely foresty rather than the sawdust pile at the wood mill.

 

This is a happy, summery, enjoy the meadow-at-the-edge-of-the-forest kind of scent. Wear a frilly skirt and take a blanket.

[tinyvulture]

a refreshing green herbal scent. it's masculine, but the clean wood and slightly sweet herbs are softened by creamy shea butter. the sweetness was a bit much at first but it faded after a few minutes and the woodsiness came out more. this is probably my favorite herbal blend thanks to the shea, a favorite note of mine.

[QueenFae]

This is lovely, sweet, light and grassy. This is a sweet herbal blend; sweet in the same way Roadhouse is. The sweet plant note in this reminds me a bit of the dandelion note in roadhouse. This is certainly a fresh green scent; it reminds me of sweet clover on an innocent spring day. The sweetness in this blend is positively enchanting; so addictive I can't stop sniffing my wrist. This blend conjours images of flower faeries, woodsprites, and pixies.

 

I think people who like Beltane, Roadhouse, and Litha will like this.

 

This doesn't have a ton of throw, but it so lovely close up. I really love this, and I am seriously coinsidering getting myslef a 5 ml.

[labeth]

It smelled pretty good out of the bottle, but I can't be more specific, as I couldn't pick up on any individual scents, really. Kind of an herbal smell.

 

When I first put it on, it really came on kind of overpowering, smelling like a cross between a Christmas Tree and bathroom soap. I left it on for a while to try and give it a chance, but once I noticed that bathroom deodorizer scent, that's all I could smell, so a little while later I had to wash it off. It did something very similar to Swank, which I also had to wash off.

 

This'll be an entry into the swap pile.

[GoldenRubee]

Ochosi is very sweet with a creamy note to it. I really don't smell even a hint of an herbal or pine note. It reminds me a little of the edge of the lake where I grew up where I used to pick cat tails and greenery for vases. A little woody edge, a little green, with a sweetness from the shea, with a light watery edge, sums up this pleasantly delightful scent.

[euterpe414]

I got this one as a frimp and I am very pleased with it. I smell soft herbs with a bit of forest and a creamy, almost musky scent. It lasts a long time and has a bit of throw as well. This is a great blend for those who love herbal and foresty blends, as it is quite unique amongst the others in the BPAL GC. I really love the clean feeling it gives off without being an ozone or linen type scent. When my imp of this runs out, I will definitely buy a 5ml.

[Limelight]

This scent has many faces! And the oddest part is, they keep switching back and forth. At first, it is very sweet, almost headache-inducing, but that goes away quickly. It never really comes back for me. Then it's sharp green. Soon after that, it takes on a musky quality, sugar-laced, with some reedy/herbal background. It really reminded me of scents my mom wore when I was a kid. Then, from musky to MUSTY, like at least one other person on here. It's like the scent is frowning at me. Within ten minutes, it's back to reedy/semi-sweet, then musty again, and it dies reedy. All this takes about two hours with minimal throw. Weird, weird, weird. Don't think I want a bottle, but it's been a unique ride