Ouija

[cyborgutena]

... this is the essence of Victorian-era spiritualism: rosewood, oak and teak notes with wispy blue lilac, tea rose, dried white rose and ethereal osmanthus.

 

This is weird. I thought I'd like it but I am not a huge fan.

 

On wet it's....something I don't particularly like and very strong. I think it's one or more of the wood notes. I normally like wood but one of them is not for me when it's this strong. Maybe the teak? It makes me think 'cologne' (in a not great way) for some reason.

 

I like the dried rose that I can smell, which becomes more apparent as the wood note I mentioned becomes less dominant. As it dries, it smells a lot more pleasant. It's old wood and petals with this slight weird fruitiness (osmanthus?). The drier smell isn't great, so it's not really worth getting through the wet stage which actively bothers me.

[spookyumbrella]

In one word? Dry. Dry woods, dry flower petals. No lushness or sweetness - its dry as a bone. If you like that, you need Ouija.

[Sugarvenom]

I wasn't expecting to like this. It was a frimp from the lab, and I'd never have ordered it myself, being as how I don't usually like rose. It goes all dusty and powdery on me usually, I'm not a fan. It's also a very femme scent, and I'm just... not that.

 

In the bottle I get rose, but overwhelmingly something sharp and unpleasant. I think it might be the woods but I'm not sure. But I am a brave tester, so on it goes.

 

On the skin it quickly morphs into a rose scent. And aha, this must be the rose that rose fans like. No powder here. Just pure rose, the scent itself. It's blended in very well with a hint of something else, some delicate backdrop that keeps it from being simple. It might be the lilac? Whatever it is, it works wonderfully well.

 

I don't see myself as a rose person. I didn't feel like I liked this scent. But the longer it was on me, to type this review and to let my partner know my thoughts on it, the more it grew on me. It's actually really nice. It's such a well balanced, complex rose, with very little of the sneeze inducing quality I associate with that scent. It's a little femme for me, but the longer it's on me the more I realise I like that, it creeps in and makes me feel femme. It makes me want a sundress. Probably not the image they were going for, but there we are.

[queenshaboo]

Wow definitely the most evocative BPAL I've tried and it's very well done. I only wish it was more wood furniture and less wood furniture polish on me but the lilac is lovely, esp with the addition of osmanthus and rose which blend seamlessly together. 

[myrrhmyrrh]

In the vial: in an ectoplasmic swirl, there something vaguely medicinal that is dominant but I can’t figure out what element it would be coming from.

 

On me, wet: ok this is going to be a hard sell. I love the idea of it and the individual ingredients as described but there is this medicinal scent that overwhelms all these things I love, like rose and lilac and wood.

 

On me, just dried: medicinal scent is thankfully fading, in fact most of the scent is, and I still can’t smell the flowers or the rosewood. I’m not sure what it is I smell, but I’m not in love.

 

After 15 minutes: I can smell something but I don’t even know what, happily that medicinal smell seems to have disappeared or I’d be scrubbing this. I have a headache now. I don’t know if that’s related.

 

After 30 minutes: Now the florals just begin but ever so faintly. The medium cannot quite contact them so that they come through clearly

 

After 1 hour: that medicinal feel is returning, faintly, but above and beyond anything else.

 

I’m scrubbing

 

Verdict. I don’t know what it is in my chemistry that made this such a flop, for reading through most others’ descriptions it sounds like just my kind of thing. At least a few of us did get that medicinal thing, though. And I could have blind bought a bottle of it from the site description alone. Happily this was a frimp, so no harm no foul.

[IoPan]

Ouija

 

In the bottle: astringent, minty, sharp.

 

Wet: Still quite mentholated and Vicks Vap-o-Rub-like. But as it begins to dry a little, I’m getting a nice floral note. I can’t imagine what the solidly minty/camphoraceous note is coming from. Osmanthus, maybe?? That’s strange.

 

Dry: I am definitely getting lilac and rose, but not an overwhelming note of either. The woody notes are noticeable now, too. It takes on a nice, airy quality, with the florals settling into the woods. It doesn’t read like a floral fragrance because everything blends together so nicely—more like a pleasant, fresh, outdoorsy scent—but it is also quite faint by the time it has dried down.

 

After about 45 minutes: A very light and unobtrusive lilac-rose. The woodsy notes have all vanished. It’s nice if you like florals but don’t like really bold fragrances, just something that’s soft and hinting. Way too girly for my tastes, though.

[Laughing Seagull]

Got this as a frimp with my most recent order.  It is definitely not what I expected.

 

This is a Pennsylvania thing, but let me tell you what this smells like initially: someone spilled Frozen Run on a rosewood piece of furniture.

 

To give everyone else a chance to figure out what I'm talking about, the scent is comparable to wintergreen, teaberry, or black birch with a rosewood undercurrent.  I recognize that woodsy note from Red Queen.  I'm not wild about rosewood but I do like that teaberry smell.

 

Then it dries into an explosion of overwhelming waxy lilac.

 

I'm not a lilac fan.

[Llanval]

Another skin chemistry fail, sadly. Like the Laughing Seagull above, I get a blast of wintergreen that trips into those individually wrapped spearmint lifesavers and what I can only identify as envelope glue?!?! Almost right away, only the wintergreen and glue blooms on my skin. Tragic, that this is what I'm getting first.

 

Unfortunately, even as it dries and the rose and woods come out to play, this doesn't turn into the atmospheric delight I was hoping for.  I definitely can SEE the Victorian drawing room this scent belongs in - it's a beautiful room, well acquainted with the principals of maximalist decorating - as the wintergreen gives this an airy, cool sensation I can catch on the back of my palate. If this was louder, if the rosewood and lilac were more present on my skin, I might have really enjoyed this.  As it is, this is a spectral, whispering little ghost gilded in mint and left to stare longingly at the flowers just outside the window glass. Even with the shock of wintergreen and envelope glue, I don't hate it, it's just not enough to really want to keep reapplying.

Edited August 6, 2021 by Llanval
Grammar

[Estamets]

I absolutely adore this scent when it’s wet – there’s a beautiful spice to it, probably the teak but it reads as warming spices on my skin. The lilac and rose are lovely tangy backnotes that balance the spice with lightness. However, when dry, all the spicy wood goes away and I’m left with a bouquet of funeral flowers that have been left in a hot car for a day, which is what my nemesis osmanthus always does on my skin. 

[roseus]

In the imp I get mostly lilac, osthmanus, and oak, with cool minty edge. Despite being woody it feels very wispy and transparent. On my skin it gets a bit more chily, with the rose coming out as well. As it dries I get a smooth wood base, I can pick out teak as well now. The florals have blended together, lightly sweet and swirly. There's a bit of wintergreen behind it all. Very interesting, not quite what I expected but very lovely all the same.

[Ceux]

Wispy, ethereal pale pastel flowers.
Close to skin, yet feels like wearing a light and sheer gown on a sunny sunday in the winter afternoon. I reach a lot for this one when I feel like wearing something soft and subtle yet evocative.

[Lecter]

Gently floral, smells like a generic feminine perfume to me, slight wood varnish smell? Or like fresh cut wood 

[Weirdgirlpilled]

intially? this. smells like a girl i had a crush on in highschool??! I doubt that she wore bpal but what the hell. We were freshman in highschool I highly doubt she wore anything but cheap bodyspray from that dreaded place in the mall. Which is not to say that this smells cheap, it has that plasticky smell initially but once it dries down it smells very expensive and almost a little like antique perfume, and no longer like a girl i will never talk to again.  I doubt I will ever be wearing this one because ough,, memories…. no one needs to be reminded of their highschool years. 

[neonwooper]

My first BPAL review, and for one of my favourite scents!  I’ve got a second-hand bottle from 2015.

 

This oil is extremely evocative for me - growing up in the UK my parents would often take me to old National Trust stately homes at the weekends for something to do, and this captures the general scent in the air of heavy velvet curtains and old polished wooden furniture. There’s a handful of dry, dry flowers on the surface but the woods are strong and hold the whole thing together.

 

I absolutely love it and wear it whenever I want to feel a bit ghostly and somewhere out of time.

[quantquill]

I don't know how old my sample vial is, I received it as a frimp from a lovely forumite. It's not one I would have chosen myself because it's all wood and flowers, especially multiple roses. Rose does not smell good on me, and I amp it. 

 

Ouija is a lovely surprise! I'm so glad to have gotten to try it. I decided to try it without reviewing the scent notes and see what I picked up on. 

 

Wet: a lovely, almost fruity, soft floral. I thought there was coconut husk after the first few seconds because it was so mellow.  

Dry: a lovely, soft floral with a hint of the Morocco spice base. I can't pick out any woody notes, and no rose.

 

I think sampling it was enough, because my heart really belongs to gourmands and spices, but wow, if you love soft florals with a beautiful, Moroccan-like base, and you normally amp rose (and wish you didn't), big time recommend.

[skyturtles]

Woah, this is not what I expected. The brightness is almost carbonated, not at all what I would expect from a woody floral. I'm not picking up any of the smokiness that others have commented on. I think I can pick up that wood varnish chemicalness, but it's not in a bad way. All in all, this is a lovely ghostly floral, with the proper amount of mystery and magic. If I were BPAL, I would be proud of this one. (I don't typically like florals, tbh). I think I'll save this imp of unknown age/origin for the spring and summertime!