The Hesperides

[samhainschimera]

The Hesperides are the Nymphs of the Evening who dwell in a verdant garden located in the Arcadian Mountains, guarded by the terrible three-headed dragon, Ladon. Within their garden lives the tree that bears Hera's sacred Golden Apples. Their perfume is that of sturdy oak bark, dew-kissed leaves, twilight mist and crisp apple.

In the bottle, it almost smells like band aids and jolly ranchers. On my skin, it has mellowed out into a medicinal icky apple/certs smell. It's not an overpowering smell but it's just not meshing well with me.

[loladae]

TOOTHPASTE?!

 

The dry down smells like autumn apples, but it takes too long and it's too light. Does anyone else get this? I'm hoping aging will help beccause I want golden apples, darnit.

[verbranden]

In the vial, it smelled nice, like a mellow golden apple, but the instant it touches my skin, it starts to smell like plastic, fake apples. Like I'm wearing an apple scent of that old Lip Smackers kids chapstick from the 80s/90s. >.<

 

There's not much of a dry down phase because it doesn't last very long on me, which is good considering. I'm sad because I wanted to like this so much. I think I'm going to try to age it and try it again. Otherwise, it shall be the first to end up on my swap/sell list. Or maybe I'll browse the forums on what people do with bpals they don't wear, come up with some potpourri or something. It's just unwearable on me.

[het4377]

In the Bottle: too sweet apple (almost to the point of boozyness) but still crisp over the heavy oak bark.

Wet: heavy woody sweetness. Where has my beloved apple gone? And where's the mint?

Drydown: Wow, scent memory! This really reminds me of how my maternal grandmothers house used to smell. Not a hint of ANY of the notes listed, more like aged potpourri, dust and toilet bowl cleaner with a hint of cigarette smoke.

Dry: ok, it's past that previously unpleasant stage, although the scent is still EXTREMELY familiar, I just can't place it, other than it keeps making me think of playing the early pokemon games when I was a little kid. This is a much more pleasant scent memory than the last.

 

Overall: Too odd for me to wear with any frequency. Maybe it was just an off day when i tested this; will have to try again before saying adios.

 

[Leopard403]

I can only wear The Hesperides if it is very fresh, as that gives me boozy, woody apple that makes me yearn for Autumn.

 

But after this has aged for a while--even just a few months--all I get is apple cider vinegar.

[bLissKite]

how my maternal grandmothers house used to smell. Not a hint of ANY of the notes listed, more like aged potpourri, dust and toilet bowl cleaner with a hint of cigarette smoke.

 

this, from haley, made me snortchoo a red spray of JuicySqueeze soda across the screen of my laptop.

 

i've been tug-of-warring a lot lately about whether/how to post my first review. it seems unfair to start with THE HESPERIDES because i loOove so many oils, but i'm extremely unambivalently not-in-favor of this one on me. yet it's the one i'm testing at this very special moment.

In the imp:

though the actual oil is clear, at inhalation it immediately strikes me as syrupy emerald green. and it's dry but wet. though i hadn't realized i knew what they smelled like, this blend reminds me of the frigid, soggy rubber mats rinkside at the Ice Capades Chalet. waiting for the zamboni, waaiiiiting for the zamboni machine. i'm thinking, at this point, that me + the hesperides = uh oh.

X'd across the backs of my hands:

oh, you're a trip, aren't you? you're proudly AstroTurf green. you are the unsexiest scent ever on me. you're somehow evoking the soft, yet sticky, old shag carpeting of some random <> single-diamond AAA motel on the outskirts of vegas. in the '80s. you're grossing me out, body chemicals. why take such a stand?

At drydown:

the feeling of a (mythical?) childhood-me, freshly 8 years old or so, behind the kid line at a small-time casino. we're in vegas, circa 1983. maybe it's part of a leg of our summer vacation...

 

wait! this is way evocative; i know this scent! after a long inhalation of the stigmata oil splotches on my hands, the imagery gets even sharper:

 

we just had brunch at a smoky diner, like Coco's, with dark formica tables and stackable jellies. the boring adults are yammering on, even though the food's long gone. little kid me, i'm looking at everyone's feet and the crinkled lost napkins on the floor. a few minutes ago, our server slipped me a bright green lollipop, one of the cheap cello-wrapped ones that might be lime, or it might be apple. it's just green flavor. and it's mixing with the taste of the trident wintergreen gum i was already orally busy with. ...or was it that perfectly square pillowy gum with the gooey green liquid center i was chawing on? it's that unsettling melange of fragrances/flavors/feelings.

Well beyond drydown:

nostril-singeing cold, dry, snowy weather and air-conditioned sweat. er, i know i'm wayyy off, but those are the notes as my nose decodes 'em.

 

every now and then i get a sharp whiff of that nasty green Chloraseptic Throat Spray™, a smell reminiscent of my tonsil-infected youth. or it's a chilly midnight in the fluorescently-lit lounge at the ER, the hospital-issue industrial cleanser, the colored pathway lines on the linoleum. with an undercurrent of Ace bandages and the infirm. and Tiger Balm.

 

but then it's the scent of toothfairy money from my mom's big ol' suede wallet. ok, what's up with my clearly disturbed skin chemistry???!

 

damn it, i just couldn't make this happen.

 

To: blisskite

From: The Hesperides

 

dyawanna, you know, go out n stuff??

 

[ ] yess! [ ] sure. [ ] okay. [ ] just not even! [x] right. step off, hoser.

Edited January 2, 2011 by Shollin
Removed Lab description

[odalisque]

I've gone back and forth on Hesperides several times -- from meh, it's a novelty to sniff but not for me to I must have it NAOW.

 

I have to say it's probably one of the most evocative blends I've tried from BPAL. Maybe this is because apples are so ordinary a part of life? And maybe because I grew up in Washington state where so many apples are grown, the climate is perfect for apples and, like, everyone has an apple tree? But this is eerily true to the smell of apples remaining on a leafless tree, Golden Delicious apples to be exact. It's appley enough to have an edible, juicy edge (as even wrinkled apples hanging on a leafless tree still do) but there's a hint of .. not rot, exactly, but age, something that suggests chill dampness and the end of apple season with fallen leaves carpeting the ground rather than a bursting, lush sunny apple in late summer. There's even the slightest hint of booziness, as if apples underfoot have started to ferment but not turned into a squishy carpet yet.

 

I want to like this more than I do but it's almost a lonely scent, maybe because of the chilly end-of-season character. It's a really stunning blend, though.

 

It has probably the most throw of any BPAL I've tried, too. I applied it on my wrists and poof! The whole room filled with the scent of apples. The throw is much more Golden Delicious apple than the close-up sniff.

[reynardine]

In imp: Very sweet apple on top of something else (maybe the oak?)

 

Wet: Just the apple. Absolutely lovely, though. I'm not picking up any of the other notes at all.

 

Drydown: More apple. This is a wonderful apple scent!

 

An hour later: It didn't even last an hour! 30 minutes, max. Faded completely into nothingness.

 

It's a pity. I really liked it, but I'd prefer my scents to stick around longer. Will use up the imp, though.

[donnatron]

Imp: Golden delicious apples and wood.

 

Wet: Soft, warm sweet apples. Almost a cider smell. Touch of something odd underneath--maybe a sassafras?

 

Dry: Wintergreen... wtf? This must be something from the dew and leaves components. Not a sharp wintergreen, soft and skin close. A bit like a rootbeer. This is pretty but completely not what I was expecting. Almost effervescent.

 

Throw: Mild.

 

Overall: It's interesting but doesn't deliver on the promised ingredients on my skin. I might use the imp up out of weird interest but will never, ever need a bottle.

[MinxyMinou]

Nooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!

 

Out of the imp this has a super strong grandfathers linament type smell with some apple underneath.

 

This overpowering linament scent continues until it drys down on the skin..

 

Then I get a weak apple scent for an hour or two..

 

Then gone!

 

Damn! I was really hoping this was going to work out for me given the notes and how loved it seems to be.

[angelicruin]

This is boozy apple on my skin. Great apple scent.

[starfish327]

fresh from lab

 

in the imp: so um hespy why do you smell like my root cellar? cuz you do. you smell like carrots and parsnips. i prefer my parsnips in me not on me for the record.

 

wet: soap, spice, and parsnips. now i'm just getting annoyed. really? parsnips? parsnips, my most loathed vegetable in my youth behind beets, why are you haunting me?

 

dry: CERTS MINTS? how did we go from parsnips to breath mints? i'm really not sure how this happened actually, but that's what this blend just did.

 

sorry hesps, this isn't going to work.

[Banyangirl]

BAND AIDS.

 

BAND AIDS.

 

DAMN YOU, HESPERIDES.

 

[neveroddoreven]

First review on an imp I didn't even order, haha.

When I first got my packet of imps, I had no memory of this and I've looked through all the category almost a hunderd times through the years before my first order. I decided to try this one today when I got home and March Hare wore off. So, I placed it on my wrist casually...

Wet-It was horrible! I kept gagging...for some reason it smelt like baby poop and spit up. I couldn't stand it and wanted to wash it off, but stopped myself.

Dry-Different...I can smell the tarty apple slightly, but the memory of it wet haunts me. I asked my sister if she liked it so I put some on her. She said she couldn't smell what I smelled and actually smelt a chocalaty scent to it.

 

[EmpressPixie]

In the imp, it is really fruity and juicy smelling. Yummy, yummy.

 

Tragically, on my skin it is apples in the rain vying with bandaids. I dabbed some on one wrist not even five minutes ago and the scent is already gone from that wrist. I'm actually timing the other, but in short? My skin eats this. Just straight up eats it. For dinner. It's lovely while it lasts, but 5 minutes isn't exactly what I'm looking for in a perfume.

[hmelt004]

Mmm. Sweet green apple and sweet wood and sweet leaves. There's a bit of an aquatic note as well. This doesn't quite feel candy-like to me, but it's very close. Unfortunately, it doesn't last long on my skin.

[Juushika]

In the vial: Mostly golden apple, but there's something a little darker in the background. This reminds me oddly of a lighter, golden Fearful Pleasure—that's probably just the apple/wood combo, though.

 

On me: Yellow apple and musky wood. The apple is dominant, golden-yellow and slightly dewy—the aquatic goes a little strange on my skin, but mostly behaves itself. (When I first got this scent from the Lab, the aquatic made me nauseous; it's had some months to age, and that note has toned down a lot.) The woods aren't dark but they have a strange musky fuzz to them—or perhaps that's the leaves? Either way, there's a fuzzy, almost-powerderiness to the woods. Scent-color is yellow, throw is moderate to low.

 

Verdict: A not unpleasant scent, but not quite good. It's distinctive and it fits the notes and name, but to my nose the bright golden apple doesn't mesh well with the fuzzy musk/leaves, and while the combination isn't quite unsettling it is strange—and not in an intriguing way. I'm also not a fan of aquatics, even when well-behaved. In short, not offensive but a little strange, and not something I'll wear again. I'll pass my imp along.

[London]

It's apple testing day. This imp smells similar to eve but with a bit of mint?

 

Oh..is that eucalyptus? Or evergreens? If you ran across a pine tree in the woods and it had apples dangling from it's branches, that's what Hesperides smells like on me.

 

It's a fun visual.

[Torrilin]

Wet: plastic apple

 

Later: disappeared

 

This was very depressing.

[Frills]

I got this and The Apple of Sodom to try, because I was in an apple mood. This is gorgeous on my skin. Warm, almost magical, clean, beautiful. I had the imp a total of two days before I realized I needed a bottle.

[animalcule]

imp: what the hell is <i>that</i>?

 

wet: more of the same. Wow, this is weird. Okay, now I can smell a little bit of apple... and do I detect black licorice? It's becoming more pleasant, slowly.

 

dry: black licorice and apple with a general impression of freshness. It's a nice smell actually, but not what I think of as a <i>fragrance</i>. This is a new imp so I will try aging it.

 

ETA: I wore this and my friend told me I smelled like a cat's anus! LOL. It's still a weird smell but I didn't think it was THAT bad. The 'oak bark' seems to be incredibly strong on me, very acrid.

Edited July 31, 2010 by animalcule

[malibusunny]

I didn't have a description for this one, but I did get apples when I sniffed it. Unfortunately, that is all I got. But reading the reviews tempts me to skin test it. Because caramel and oak bark sounds fantastic.

[AnotherLucyGray]

In the bottle: crisp, delicious apples. Kind of dry, like the skin, not the fruit inside. Either way, I’m betting this is going to be great…

Wet: um, what? Did this happen to anyone else? It smells like delicious apples, but with… cheese snacks in the background. The apple smell is lovely, but the strange baked cheese thing is throwing me off, and it’s pretty strong…

Drying: okay, the cheese has gone away, but now it just smells like this certain apple-scented soap they always used at a camp I used to go to, so it smells like bathrooms…

Dry: finally, the delicious fruit I smelled at the beginning, but sweeter and juicer. None of that weird cheese or bathroom smells from earlier, just juicy, sweet apples.

 

Final thoughts: once I get past the initial weirdness going on, it is a yummy, juicy apple smell. Unfortunately, it's too light and doesn't last very long once it starts behaving. I might try to age it, but if that doesn't work (or if I'm impatient) I'll go ahead and swap it...

Edited July 7, 2010 by AnotherLucyGray

[smellygood]

In the imp and wet on the skin, something smells bonfire-y to me. I have a really unsophisticated nose, so I'm guessing that's the wood. Yeah... bonfire + apples to my nose, which makes me think of autumn. Sigh, I love it already. It turns a little bit boozy after a few minutes.

 

As it dries the wood note fades to the background and the scent of crisp, tart apples comes out on my skin. Getting sweeter as it dries. Yummy I will definitely think about getting a bottle of this after my imp is gone It kind of reminds me of that scrub Haunt came out with last Halloween... Wilding Apple, I think? Delicious.

 

Throw is pretty decent too, and that's saying something because my skin sucks up scent like crazy.

[SophieCedar]

omg.. I had trouble placing the smell when wet, but the 1st poster has an accurate association.. wet band-aids.. mixed with apple. It's very medicinal. However, drydown it disappears, but so does the rest of the scent, left with a faint apple smell. Weird!