Ouija

[indicolite]

Lush parlor rooms draped in thick velvets and gilded in gold, unearthly whispering in the distance, fleeting flashes of wraithlike figures rushing just outside your vision, the chill of a phantom presence brushing by your cheek, the inscrutable knowledge that disembodied eyes are peering at you from darkened corners… 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.

Sweet spirits, I smell like teak!

Seriously, in the imp Ouija smelled very intriguing and I thought "I could like this." on me it very quickly turned - to very polished, expensive wood. Indeed, I smell like an antique piece of furniture someone sprayed lightly with floral.

I'll clean my room and then I'll scent it with you, Ouija my love. Definitely. But alas, you have no place in how I want to olfactorily project myself to the world.

Edited to add lab description. Edited September 29, 2007 by Shollin

[nerdcraft]

in the imp:

Smells very dry - I'm definitely smelling the rosewood the most.

 

wet:

On, this smells very much like a traditional ladies' perfume, with heavy wood notes underneath. It's also a tiny bit smoky.

 

dry:

I like this pretty well - it's dry dry dry, and very evocative of seances in Victorian parlors. A lovely old-fashioned perfume, mostly lilac on me, mixed with the darker notes of the wood. After a couple hours on, the wood notes are all that's left.

[Miseraya]

In the imp: Spicy and floral. This seems like it will be a winner.

 

On my wrist, wet and immediate drydown: This is nice! It's woody and spicy with just a little bit of floral in it. I like this!

 

After about 20 minutes: Hmm, getting far more flowery, but still ok.

 

Soon after that: Powder. Really expensive floral powder that reminds me of my grandmother.

 

Off to the swaps.

[fairy]

From the description I should like this but I don't. In the bottle it was really sharp and strong. On, it settled a bit but has an odd smell...like melting plastic. Not a keeper for me

[storme]

In the imp: dry roses and a generic 'commercial perfume' alcoholish sort of scent.

 

On me, wet: man, this is totally a generic commercial rose perfume on me, and not much else.

 

On me, dry: oh, hey, there's a dash of the lilac, and this has softened a bit, but enh, nothing amazing. No woods at all.

 

Verdict: off to the swap pile it goes, while I grumble about how this sounds like it should have been great but was just enh. Sigh.

[Alchemy21599]

In the vial: spicy floral. Yum!

 

Wet: light spicy floral. Kind of like Omen's much younger sister.

 

Dry: Drat! The lilac is overpowering everything else.

[steffanina]

Ouija-

 

In Bottle: Wood and something that's not quite chocolaty, but rich and dark.

 

Wet: Interesting--this is a little smoky and a little woody and pleasant.

 

Dry: Continues to be pleasant but doesn't really bloom into anything nicer. There's a strong scent that borders on insect repellent but not quite that noxious as that usually is nasty and eye-watering for me. But I can't say I'm actually fond of it.

 

Overall: Not for me.

[sophia_helix]

Wet, this was a really evocative scent -- faint hint of rose sweetness, but something much richer and more woody/incense/sophisticated over it. It's hard to describe, except that I really did think of a seance in a Victorian parlour. (More specifically, I thought of Disneyland's Haunted Mansion!)

 

On the drydown, the rose got stronger and stronger, and while it didn't go sickly like most rose scents on me, it didn't quite hit the heavenly scent of Rose Red (although, not bad, for rose). It lost some of the mysterious, herbal scent from earlier, which is too bad, and the throw was very light. I might try this again, but I think I'll probably be swapping it along.

[dawna]

In the vial: I can't pick it out but it smells of a bouquet of flowers to me. Im not sure I should even put this on.

 

Wet on the skin: ROSES! dried roses and a hint of a woody background scent. A bit of green, dried green.. This is actually pretty!

 

On drydown: There is something sweet in there, I cant tell what it is but it is really lovely. Its a very light scent on me, I am getting the wafts of dried roses and green still but there is that sweet undertone that makes everything just wonderful. This is a complete surprise to me and I am SO glad I decided to try it!

[Faeried]

Ouija

 

On me. Very peppery at first, fading to rosey floral, with a hint of what smells like musk to me. It's a delicate scent, that sort of creeps up on you. It's pleasant, but I don't think I would put it in my favorites list.

[LiberAmoris]

Ouija's exciting for me because I feel like I'm finally able to find the teak note in a BPAL blend, and it's quite nice. I'm also a lilac lover, so the blue lilac in this is another winner. Sadly, something in the combo of notes here is feeling muddled on my skin---nice, but not a standout. It does smells like a Victorian parlor, though!

 

This is something I think I'd rather smell in the air than on my person. It might also make a nice blend for a drawer sachet.

[Christine Daae]

In the bottle: Spicy rose.

 

Wet: Okay, there's the rosewood and other woods! This does smell like a seance parlor!

 

Drydown: I was really hoping for more lilac in this (I love lilac and the other lilacs I've tried have had lemon in them, grrr). But it's very softly floral with the woods overpowering it. I have no idea what osmanthus smells like, but this smells a bit incensy.

 

While wearing: This is very "musty." There's a very "musty" closed-in, Victorian feel to this perfume - being locked in a parlor on a rainy day, having to do something to amuse yourself and your guests...I swear I smell tea, even. Tea and soft florals and woods. I quite like this, though I'm not sure if I'll wear it too often.

[batsy]

Fitting I get to review this in October.

 

In the vial: Smoky, a wet smoky. Damp and dreary, with age and wisdom.

 

On the skin: ok here's the florals. Kinda strong... the smoky left me. Getting the lilac here... and I think jasmine? Eep. Hrm. It does remind me of a spooky scene involving an ancient gypsy woman using an oujia board. Just, sadly, my nose can't take whatever's in it.

[PilotKitten]

The blue lilac in this is such an intriuging note. This is a light, floral scent with a sprinkling of woodsy background. Like a drawing room table outfitted with a vase of white blooms.

[melrose]

I was excited to try this as I love most of the notes listed.

 

On, wet: Sharp, green herbs.

 

Drydown: Herbs with a hint of powder and generic sweetness. Faded completely within an hour.

 

Oh, well . . . on to the next imp!

[zankoku_zen]

This was a really woody blend from the beginning. Mostly got the teak and oak and then it started to mellow out to a rosey wood floral.

 

It ends up being a very nice sophisticated floral. The rosewood is rosey enough without being overtly powerful. There is a certain darkness to the scent, or perhaps spooky is a better description?

 

Quite interesting... but I'm not sure that it's for me...

[supremegoddessofall]

The good rose scent in some tea. Not really getting the wood notes or lilac here so much. Pretty good but somewhat indistinct.

[Voleuse]

I get light rose on first sniff, but it's quickly shored up by the woods behind it. There's something spicy and dry in this, subtle but noticeable. The lilac is a nice balance to the rose, as well. Though the blend leans toward soapy florals, but the woods keep it from tipping over that way. In the end, I get rose/lilac and lingering smoke, like a feminine sort of room that someone smoked a pipe in, hours ago. Definitely a Victorian scent.

[jasmine]

This is a wooded smell as it lies wet on my wris. There’s a hint of wetter vegetation about it, but it’s really not a floral. Some thin, high floral drifts above the wood, but the wood is indubitably dominant.

 

The lower floral manifests slowly, but when it blooms, it blooms beautifully. The lilac has no real power, and it glimmers out as quickly as it came, but the wood and the roses blend into a calm, majestic, august creature. There’s nothing spooky about this to me. It is graceful and serene, with the hint of disapproval held in abeyance. This is indubitably not a young rose: that first floral breath has faded away, and now this seems like a middle-aged scent, or even a grandmotherly one.

 

I wait, and the wood starts to fade away, but that leaves the scent seeming unbalanced -- as if the scent had been flowers piled on a log, and now, although the log has been removed, the piled flowers still hang above where the log ought to be. It loses its commanding presence as the wood fades, leaving a malformed rose-ness behind that just doesn’t impress. What a pity.

[girl_android]

I'm doing this before I have to go back to work after a lovely, but far too short break from work... 2 days around a weekend just isn't long enough!

 

Anyways ... in the imp, it smells like ... rich smoky wooden furniture infused with rose oil. It's a little sharp, but not too spiky to my nose.

 

Seeing as it's going to be mighty warm today (39 degrees celsius in Melbourne.... eeep! I'm thanking something that the air-conditioning in the office is going to keep me cool!), I'm hoping this doesn't get too heady once it's on me.

 

While wet, there's something so familiar about part of this scent, I'm wracking my brain (admittedly only after half my serve of caffeine in the morning), and I'm drawing blanks. There's something a little green and herby floating about also.

 

Once it dries down, the sharpness mellows out. It's now a rosey floral with woodsy notes in the background.

 

I do like this, but I am worried about it and me in the heat today. I might have to put this aside for some cooler weather ...

[slave1]

OUIJA

 

In Bottle: Dusty dry floral

 

On Skin: This scent doesn’t work on me at all. It smells very dusty which cause my nose to twitch. It is very dry in tone, purely dried out roses that have been sitting in a potpourri bowl for years and have inches of dust covering them. The woody notes add to the dusty dry feel but give the scent it’s depth. This is a very light scent, I really have to lean in close and breathe in as deeply as I can to even begin to smell it. Not a scent for me at all. It has a super light throw and very short wearlength.

[Lari]

It starts out woody with a bit of lavender for some reason. Some very dry floral comes out as it dries, and then, extremely weirdly, celery and green pepper. I can't say it's not a Victorian scent, because it IS, but it's Victoriana crossed with a salad bowl.

[monsteralice]

Wet: Lilac with a woody scent backing it up.

 

Dry: Rose comes up to blend with the lilac. The wood is still there. I don't know what osmanthus smells like, so I'm guessing it's that "other scent" that is driving me crazy trying to isolate it.

 

Finish: A little dusty - dried roses and lilac crumbled into a hot bath in a claw-footed tub.

 

Duration/throw: Had good throw for the first few hours - still getting occasional wafts around three and a half hours from application. Steadily diminished until it was completely gone at the nine hour point.

 

Nice. It made me want to put on a high-necked dress and high buttoned shoes.

 

Edited to fix spelling.

Edited February 8, 2007 by Monster Alice

[lapillus]

In bottle: floral sweetness with a nice woody edge.

 

Wet: the floral sweetness, the edge becomes a warm peppery dryness which I can feel in the back of throat and reminds me of certain curries.

 

Dry: stays sharp clean floral but makes my sinuses unhappy.

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Later: fades to faint sharpness within three and a half hours.

 

Summary: I like the scent but given the sinus issues it’s a trade.

[filigree_shadow]

This smells wispy and sweet and has a nice wood undertone. Something about this scent smells like a tea party to me, even though I've never been to a tea party. It doesn't smell hazy or smoky or anything, but it definitely has kind of a ghostly quality. Soft and gentle. It smells old-fashioned to me.