51

[Magda]

Luminescent, glowing, and otherworldly: green mandarin, neroli, honeydew, white amber, guava, freesia, white and green musks hovering over desert scrub, smashed wood, and the dry, biting scent of night air over the Groom Lake salt flats.

This is not the type of scent I usually prefer. I like dark, heavy scents, thick with resin and vanilla and incense. If I go lighter, I prefer mints or pine, definitely not aquatics and fruits.

Until now, that is. This is just...unbelievably gorgeous. It's lightly fruity, slightly floral, with musks that make it more sexy than sweet even though it's never heavy. There's a salty hint of ozone without the unpleasant nose-tingling that I tend to associate with ozones and aquatics. It feels beachy to me, like palm trees and coconuts and suntan lotion--without smelling like any of those things.

Everything just blends so well that I can't pick out one note over another, and it's such a gorgeous combination that I feel sexy and sophisticated and pretty even in Arizona's 100+ degree heat. I'm kind of in love with this one.

(eta description) Edited September 22, 2007 by Shollin

[TheIceMaiden]

I'm loving this scent but its a little difficult to review because the notes are very well blended together. Its a little floral, a little fruity, a little musky, a little ozone-y and aquatic, and very mysterious and green . Its refreshing and light, perfect for summertime wear.

[Alchemy21599]

In the bottle: fresh and green with a whisper of musk.

 

Wet: Wow, the oil really is green! I wasn't sure how the green notes and musk would react with my skin, but this is lovely. The scent is green, but has more depth than most green fragrances. This is a gorgeous scent and I think I will wear it often this summer.

[kwsix]

In the imp: Soapy aquatics

 

Wet on my skin: Still soapy aquatics, with florals peeking through. I'm not getting any fruit at all.

 

Drydown: More of the same. Still no fruit.

 

Overall: Eh, it isn't an unpleasant scent by any means, but it smells very much like a type of "commercial" perfume that I'm not fond of. I can't pinpoint a specific perfume, but it reminds me of the smell of perfume counters and sample strips in magazines. It's just too bright and sharp for me. If I had gotten any fruit smells, I might have felt differently.

[underline2]

51

 

First Sniff:

Honeydew and perhaps a bit of grassiness.

 

Initial Reaction:

Commercial perfume, but with a slightly sweeter base. It's nice.

Drydown:

It's still a little sweet, but more green and slightly sharp. The commercial perfuminess has all but completely gone away. It stays VERY close to my skin and completely softens up, despite the sharp note.

 

After 15 Minutes:

Okay, I can now smell a little bit of the musk. I still can't smell much of anything unless I put my nose to my wrist, but it's very lovely.

 

After Time:

It turns slightly powdery, and the sharpness turns sour. It ends up smelling rather old-lady-ish and clinical.

 

Overall:

It's nice for about an hour, but the throw is rather poor and after time it completely turns on me. Oh, well. Into the swap pile! The lasting power is amazing, though (14+ hours). If only I liked it...

 

Season: Spring

 

Rating (out of 5): 2

[funkmoppet]

I really expected something a bit more...odd...from 51. Something unearthly and eerie, and I wanted to smell the scrub and smashed wood and night air. But I didn't.

 

Green floral wet, green floral on dry down. Settles into the type of standard perfume that I've never been fond of. Not a whiff of the fruity notes. I suspect the freesia and neroli are the culprits.

 

Musk usually shows itself on my skin, but it's not here. Doesn't morph much at all actually.

 

51 is pretty, inoffensive and sadly unremarkable. Not for me.

Edited June 21, 2007 by funkmoppet

[zankoku_zen]

In the imp: Fruity and floral

 

On Skin: Fruity, very juicy and just slightly floral

 

On Drydown: Fruity floral, but pretty generic. Slightly muskier now.

 

Verdict: It's pretty, clean and generally a pretty juicy. Not strange alien here.

[purplemoonshoes]

Incredibly crisp and lush- like walking through garden at night. More floral on the skin, more green in the imp. The musks ground the scent, and on me it lengthens the time it stays on my skin. This is more of a jungle scent than a desert scent to me, but I'm weird.

[maribouquet]

imp: Sharply floral citrus

wet: Kind of powdery, like sugar. Oooh - grapefruit!

dry: sour & powdery, a little plastic.

[500ml]

I would have written 51 off as 'not for me' if not for it suddenly morphing into a green scent with a strong smokey wood about an hour after applying. It's truly lovely and worth going through the previous stages of laundry detergent with a citrus twist and commercial floral perfume!

[Ajila]

In the bottle – All I can smell is the freesias and they are very faint

 

Wet on me – Cold soapy freesias

 

Dry on me – A sort of absent cleaness

 

Overall – It’s peculiar, which I suppose is fitting, but it’s not something that I could wear

[Diana]

I regret not getting this sooner. It is a perfect summer scent, and on top of that, it is amazingly wonderful.

 

It reminds me a bit of Machu Picchu--it has a very fresh, airy quality to it, but it's so much "juicier," for lack of a better word. It's very green, but not in an herbal/grassy way... it just seems like it would project a neon green aura around you. And the musks. Oh the musks. I am a huge fan of them, and this blend provides no exception. They round out the scent and give it a long lasting, sweet aroma, with a really nice throw. I was very surprised at how long this lasted... I could still easily detect it after all day at work!

 

Very pleased!

[modernsaints]

The first word that comes to mind is "syrupy" - I suspect it's the guava and mandarin; one is usually enough on me, and two can get sticky-sweet. There's a heavily perfume-y aspect as well. I was hoping for a bit more fresh melon, a bit less sweetness - this is off to swaps, I suppose!

 

The color is hilariously perfect though - the EXACT pale, glowing green of alien skin.

Edited July 25, 2007 by modernsaints

[starwild]

The description and name alone amused me enough to convince me to try this, but when I read that it's similar to Lancome Miracle, it was on my to-buy list in a heartbeat (I love Miracle!).

 

Bottle: Sweet and floral and JUST like Miracle. Pinkish and happy and a little bit of greenery.

 

Wet: Fresh, soft, lush flowers. Pink and white and green.

 

Drydown: Here is what separates the BPAL from the commercial scents. It's suddenly less "pretty garden" and more "spaceship crash-landed in pretty garden, crushing the flowers and OH CRAP that green scent is from a little green man!" In drying, I get the crushed wood, and the florals bow out considerably.

 

I love, love, love this scent and will seriously consider a bottle. The only problem is that it fades fast on me.

[bryghtrose]

The cololr of this perfume is an alien shade of yellow-green. The color that the Mothership glows as the pod bay doors open and the flying saucer exits on its mission.

 

It smells...complex. There's a freshness, an aloofness....It's full of high ozone scents, and dry, dusty earth at the same time. It's innovative and interesting, but it's just not a scent for me.

[naiade]

Mostly melon. Vaguely pretty and airy, and I agree - rather generic perfumey.

 

Good, but just not for me.

[hushmesilent]

This is a very green, citrusy scent. Very clean. I can smell the melon in it on skin, but in the imp it's overpowered by other leafy scents. Very nature-y.

 

It's more like a meadow than a desert, IMO. Lovely, but it seems like this would give me a headache after a while.

[greencat03]

in imp: Sharp dry green floral. can smell hints of wood

 

on me: a bunch of the notes seem to be combining into this one supernote the grabs me by the nostrils and goes "Smeeeeeeeell meeee!" I am quite happy to oblige.

Hmm I'm thinking it's the neroli, amped up by the freesia and the musks, with the amber and some saltiness grounding it a bit. I only get whiffs of the fruits occaisionally.

 

after a few minutes: this calms down (a bit) and is now a very similar to how I described in the imp: green, floral, and yet dry. My mental image when sniffing is glowing green and sandy colors flowing past each other like the inside of a lava lamp.

 

Overall I luuurve this scent. It is so unique and gorgeous. Good scent if you need a pick me up.

[herbhealer]

Love this scent! 51 started off as a green apple-lime-green mango scent on a woodsy/musky base, a few minutes later I could smell some of the guava and salt. The notes really blend well together here, it smells like an expensive scent on me. This is what I wanted Tweedledum to be: tart, sophisticated and not tutti-fruity.

[Catmint]

I love intensely fruity scents, so the fruits in this seem very subtle compared to what I normally recognize as "fruity." In the imp and on wet, it's a light, pretty, green scent, very reminiscent of Calyx. As it dries it loses that green freshness fairly quickly and becomes a musky floral that has a bit of a generic "department store perfume" quality to it -- very pretty but not distinctive. I will probably use up the imp, but not get a bottle. Which is sad because I live in New Mexico and I sooo wanted to wear a perfume named after Area 51!

[walkingundine]

Oh, this was a sad moment.

 

In the imp: STRONG green perfume, like an upgrade to everything Bath & Bodyworks wishes it could be. Fruity, juicy, and rather Springy.

 

Wet: My skin did something horrible to 51. It can't appreciate the delicate balance of complex ingredients. It all turned to a horrible sickly mess.

 

I'm going to have to swap this one.

[Styx]

51 (light greenish yellow oil)

 

Imp: Sweet, musky and a tad sour.

 

Skin: REFRESHING! Smells nothing like the imp, its so much better. Wet, light, fresh and fruity. Honey dew is what I get the strongest during the first hour. Its a very ripe honeydew so it doesn't smell melon green. However the scent itself, as everyone else says, strangely does have a "green feel" to it. It is green in a sense that it smells clean, not soapy, cool, not warm, and definitely not blue or white. Gosh, I wish I had a wider vocabulary to describe this...

In the drydown the musks come out very lightly. The scent develops an unusual twist. I'm loving this.

 

Its unoffensively unique. It is modern, pleasant, stylish, something I could wear to work.

"Modern interior designer" is the image I get.

[Christine Daae]

Okay, I'll admit it: I bought this stuff purely for the name. I don't normally go in for "green" or "fruity" scents, but I had to try this stuff.

 

In the imp, it's sweetly cucumbery. Cucumbery? I don't know why it smells like that to me, but it does.

 

On my skin, wet, it's...gorgeous. Wow. Again, not usually my thing at all, but this is fresh, sweet, lightly fruity and crisp-smelling. It's watery and clean smelling, and so, so, so pretty.

 

It just keeps getting lovelier and lovelier. Clean without smelling soapy, green without smelling bitter, fruity without being cloying. I absolutely adore this stuff, and a bottle of this will definitely be in my next order (whenever that may be!).

[YoakeNoKami]

In the imp: Faintly floral, with a hint of freesia--s bit sharp, but a clean kind of scent.

 

On/wet: The freesia drops a bit to bring forward other notes--a bit of daffodil, clean wood, and something which lends a faint aquatic note to the blend.

 

Drydown: Generally speaking, I try to avoid aquatic notes... but this is one blend where I have to admit it's because they don't do well on me, not because I don't adore them. The freesia drops to a bottom note on drydown, with clean, cool air in twilight coming to the foreground, carrying the lakeshore with it. There's the faint smell of wood on the banks, and the aquatic note becomes the clarity of pure water of a lake which never sees the moon, bathed in starlight.

 

ETA: Upon reading some of the previous reviews, I have to agree that there is a sort of absentness to this scent--there is a lightness, a stillness, an impression of a single endless moment that is difficult for me to shake off. It's a bit spooky really... not sure if I'll feel comfortable wearing this when I'm alone

Edited September 14, 2007 by YoakeNoKami

[Emu Nymph]

I want to bathe in this scent! It deep green, without being heavy. It's fruity sweet, and the amber just brings everything together into a beautiful medley of scents. It's not light but it's not heavy. This will be a great blend to grab for everyday use or if I just can't decide what to wear.