Roux-Ga-Roux

[Heavenlyrabbit]

Just in time for Lent, cher! A native of Louisiana, this Cajun lycanthrope stalks the swamps, forests, and fields of Acadiana and New Orleans in search of prey. It is believed that if one breaks Lent by failing to give alms, fast, or pray for seven years in a row, she will be God-cursed, and will transform into this snarling beast at every sunset, a slave to her desperate, mindless hunger until dawn.

Spanish moss, swamp jessamine, bog water, cypress, hickory wood, lobelia, sweet flag, wisteria, and marsh milkweed.

Okay, I really like this in the bottle. There's floral notes topped by a slight aquatic and Beth has captured a murkiness.

Upon first application, I was really pretty skeptical. Something in here is very Pungent (capital "p") and masculine.

Within about 30 seconds the perfume started developing. So now this is an androgynous blend. Can smell the Spanish moss; can't smell the cypress.

An aquatic floral with a paradoxical earthiness to it. Much more substantial than most aquatics. WAY more complex.

This softens a bit more and becomes very centering.

This changes ALOT as it wears. And it also takes on a different character when smelled at a distance.

Later in the day, the florals give way to moss and still later the slight aquatic edge comes back.

Please give this a chance.

[Extispex]

This is one I wanted to love - the description sounded so compelling I had to have it.

 

I absolutely adore this in the bottle, its rich, woodsy, heady - its gorgeous.

 

The first time I tried it was on the back of my arm (my wrists were busy sporting a different scent). It went straight to floral powder. I was horrified! But I also suspected that some medication I'd taken was messing with my body chemistry, because all morning the scents I usually love were making me nauseous.

 

I tried Roux-ge-roux on my niece and it was heavenly. I got very strong hickory and moss aromas with a delicate balance of floral and just a hint of cooling cypress. Like a merciful breeze that relieves the swampy heat, if only for a moment.

 

Later, when my meds wore off some, I tried this on my wrists. Now thats more like it. On me, very green and foresty, warm, moist.... lush. The throw is slightly more floral than the aroma close to the skin, like a flower that lures you in with its scent, to entrap you in a heady mire once you get too close. And as the first reviewer pointed out, Roux-ge-roux does change with wear, at times moist and aquatic, at times earthy and foresty.

 

I'll have to try it again once I'm feeling better and off medication completely, but I do believe that despite my initial experience, this one is going to be a winner.

[AmyAngel]

I've just tried this for a half-hour or so, so I'll try this again when I can take more time with it. In the bottle there's a definite aquatic woodsiness, not salty at all like Jolly Roger, and it does make me think of a damp, dark, boggy foresty area. That could just be because I read the description, though.

 

On, it's become quite sweet, but not TOO sweet. It's aquatic, but not headache-inducing as they sometimes can be, and manages to be fresh-yet-slightly-murky at the same time. I'm not good at identifying notes, but I think I smell the moss and bog water, but it's sweetish earthy slightly woodsy bog water, not sour or brackish at all. The throw is sweeter and slightly floral (but not unpleasantly so, as I'm not usually a huge floral fan). I only put a tiny bit on so there's not much throw, but so far I like this a lot. Very pretty! I'm glad I took a chance on this one!

[edenssixthday]

Roux-Ga-Roux - I expected this to be a heavy, woody, and earthy aquatic like Bayou. Rather, it's strongly aquatic, but has a gorgeous and sweet touch of floral to it, along with the earthiness of Spanish moss. I don't know what half the notes in this smell like, but ultimately, it doesn't matter, because what I do know is that I positively adore this blend. I put some on for the first time right before going to bed and I haven't been able to fall asleep because I can't stop sniffing my skin! (Which explains why I'm now up and reviewing Roux-Ga-Roux.) Aquatics can often be very cologne-like on me, and even though this one leans in that direction, it doesn't actually go there. It's a scent I imagine could be worn well by a man, as well, as it's incredibly gender-neutral. If you like aquatics, I would definitely recommend giving this a try. I really, really love it and already know what BPAL scent I'll be wearing tomorrow. The throw is really strong when first applied and about average after drydown. The scent lasts a lot longer on me than most aquatic scents do, and it's long-lasting compared to most BPAL blends.

[Archaic Smile]

Mmmmm. Soft floral with a woody base - I knew I would love it. The big test for me though is its longevity. Aquatics and florals tend to disappear on my skin after only an hour or two, but this one has some staying power. I put a small amount on before I went to bed and I woke up to that lovely scent the following morning.

 

For a snarling beast, she smells so very nice.

 

 

 

EDIT: I love the label, too.

Edited March 16, 2007 by Archaic Smile

[filigree_shadow]

I ordered a bottle of this even though I thought from the description that it if I wore it I would smell dirty and gross like I'd been dragged across the bottom of a swamp.

 

HA! Not at all. It smells like a combination of dry wood, very light moss, and faint pretty florals. It's humid, but not like startlingly strong hothouse flowers. It doesn't smell heavy or muggy, it smells damp. But not dewy. It's hard to describe! It smells like a summer afternoon in Louisiana, without the horrifying heat. Lilting, with a light breeze blowing over someone's garden that's next to wetlands. It gets more aquatic as it dries, but it never becomes overbearing.

 

I can imagine a man wearing this because of the aquatic and dry wood notes, but the light pretty florals make it smell quite feminine to me.

 

This is surprisingly lovely. Considering I didn't think I'd like this at all, I'm truly amazed.

I'm really looking forward to wearing this over the summer, and I'm very, very glad that I have a bottle of this.

 

 

p.s. I don't know how to pronounce Roux-Ga-Roux, so I've been calling it Ragnarök in my head.

[Medici]

In the bottle: Heavy swamp moss and cypress, decidedly masculine.

 

Wet: Cypress with florals coming up fast and strong. Dark, murky and aquatic with a hint of musk, and still very masculine and robust.

 

Drydown: Soggy wood notes, but most surprising is the fact that this really smells like the Bayou - or at least, the bayou in autumn on a cold night. It's not nearly as muggy as I expected. The florals come up, with the wisteria dominating, and evening off my initial impression that this might have fared better on my boyfriend than on me. Alas, I'm a girl who loves the Lab's spanish moss and cypress, so I'm glad that as it wears, Roux-Ga-Roux begins showing its more feminine side. It's still aquatic, but it's a deep, murky aquatic that spells mystery and darkness. (Totally up my alley, right there.) The cypress, though its taken a subtler turn as the blend warms on the skin, is ever-present and accompanied by a much dryer woodsy note, I'll assume that it's hickory. Very nice, overall.

 

4/5 on Medici's Scale o' Lurve. Tucked away neatly with her other rainy day blends.

[fiddlehead]

This is woodsy, aquatic, mossy and musky on me. I'm not getting the florals except in the beginning and a vague hint later if I concentrate. It dries down to what seems to me to be pretty masculine. It's very nice and sort of fuzzy smelling, which is appropriate I'm going to try this on my husband.

 

 

ETA I'm trying this again and now it doesn't seem masculine AT ALL. I'm getting the florals this time! Gorgeous!

Edited April 2, 2007 by fiddlehead

[QueenFae]

I love the label on this one, so cute!! I was very nervous about this one, because it has some of my enemy notes in it like spanish moss. I was afraid this would smell like Undine on me, and man oh man, did Undine disagree with me.

 

Roux Ga Roux is actually quite lovely. It is indeed an earthy, boggy smell, but it's sweet and floral rather than being sour and deadly. The floral note in this is so innocent it's almost girly at one point. But my first instinct is that this is a rather masculine scent. There is a lovely, subtle, aquatic base that balances out the sweetness of the floral. This is a very complex, creeping, dark, swamp creature scent.

 

This is nice, but not something I'd usually wear. My husband already likes this, and will surely claim my bottle for his own.

[halcyon_flight]

I would contest the calls that this is a masculine blend, to me it’s an armful of fuzzy white florals with some spicy moss thrown in. Fuzzy is a weird adjective, not one I would think of using before smelling Roux-Ga-Roux in the same way I started understanding the label ‘soft’ after smelling Buck Moon.

 

Come to think of it, Roux-Ga-Roux seems to fit into the Buck Moon and Wolf Moon ’07 scent family I’ve started collecting. I could probably use another bottle of this.

[impadua@aol.com]

I have no idea what I smell, I can't even separate the ingredients.

I smell aquatic, but not the watery type; more full of other, secret, items. Dark items, not sinster, however. More comforting, warm, natural, close to the skin.

Lingering for a long time. I don't think it is masculine, I think it is wonderful and understated.

I am loving the scent of a female werewolf? So be it.

Edited March 24, 2007 by Esscentual

[bloody sore]

On my skin this smells like it does in the bottle-like a very aquatic scent with some woodyness thrown in. Not really my cup of tea. I tried it and thought 'meh'.

 

But then . . .

 

My girlfriend decided that she wanted to smell what this 'scooby doo' scent was that I had been going around the house and mumbling about smelled like. So she put some on.

About half an hour later, I asked to smell her wrist and blurted out "OMG that smells like having sex with you when we were 16!!!!"

Seriously, it's the smell of that summer. Swimming in the creeks and lakes in our home town, laying together in the middle of the night smelling the warm summer air float through my windows and smelling the lakewater still in her hair. Her own smell seems to be amped by this perfume, making it smell like bits of her are floating around in it. This is the best BPAL for her so far, IMHO, and . . . just wow. It's amazing on her.

[PurringPulsar]

Roux-ga-Roux

 

In the bottle: this is surprisingly nice. No evil moss monster yet, just a lovely dark herbal-floral scent. Beautifully blended.

Wet on skin: a warm, green, slightly herbal powdery floral scent. It smells almost like there's lavender here even though it's not listed…

Dry on skin: oh, this is gorgeous! It is mossy, but not in the overwhelming, almost scrubby way that Spanish moss usually is-this is actually more like the soft green powder I get from oak moss. I smell a gentle aquatic note to this as well, not what you'd expect from bog water, this is more like a cool stream. I smell floral notes but can't really tell what they are, and the wisteria note is being surprisingly nice. I also smell the soft woodsy green of cypress, and even something spicy. It actually reminds me of House of Night, very slightly, and it seems that there's a white musk like note to this. It isn't even as humid and muggy as I expected.

After a while: the moss gets a little stronger but doesn't become as strong as the moss in the Wild Men of Jezirat Al Tennyn or RM Renfield, or even Bayou. This is a lovely soft green moss, almost velvety, with that soft balmy purple floral note and a hint of what might be hickory smoke. There are also hints of reedy notes in here as well. I find this a very calming scent, actually-and it's so well blended. Eventually, soft hints of aquatic notes come out to smooth out the scent, along with the cypress, herbal floral notes and soft moss. This is very different to Bayou, and I really like the way that the watery note isn't turning to soap (but usually freshwater aquatics are good on me anyway) or smelling like stagnant water like I feared. It really is a soft, almost delicate and incredibly well mixed scent of watery florals and mossy woods and a hint of spice…I can't pick any of the notes out at this point except to say that this is a lovely night time scent of green and purple.

Verdict: wow. Just wow. I'm really glad I got a bottle of this despite it containing two notes that can be dodgy-Spanish moss and wisteria, and bog water. I was worried this would make me smell like a scary swamp monster. But this is actually the softest, loveliest mossy-floral-woody-aquatic scent I've come across. Marvellously blended, I can't pick out individual notes here except for this wonderful scent of green and purple velvet, calm and soft, a little sultry but certainly not as oppressive and stuffy as I was expecting-this is a night in the bayou, but with a cool breeze. The Spanish moss really surprised me by smelling not like that unnerving 'lichen of doom' scent I usually get, but more like oak moss, a much gentler, fuzzy moss scent which smoothes out even more to a powdery finish which is almost like a light musk. The wisteria didn't turn harsh on me either-it just merged with the other floral notes to give the scent a delightful floral aspect, whilst cypress adds a nice, deep green woody backing. There's even something smoky and spicy to it, and also a hint of reeds…and the bog water is actually a very agreeable freshwater aquatic, fresh and damp but clean, bringing everything together. I never thought I'd like a swampy scent but I can't help but love this scent, probably my favourite of the Southern scents so far.

Emoticon rating:

Is it a keeper? yes! This is quite beautiful, I think.

If you like this, try: Bayou, House of Night, Wild Men of Jezirat Al Tennyn, New Orleans, Dunwich

[Little Bird]

I was intrigued by the list of notes for Roux-Ga-Roux, so I added a bottle in my last order. I always want to like swampy scents, but they rarely work on me.

 

In the bottle and first on my skin, this starts out smelling somewhat dirty and sour, bringing to mind a picture of stagnant water. Murky water. In the drydown, it starts to turn powdery and sweet. The aquatic edge disappears and I'm left with a sweet, powdery floral. It turns more and more to baby powder the longer I wear it. White and powdery and smelling like clean skin after a while.

 

I'm not sure what I expected from Roux-Ga-Roux, but this isn't a 'me' scent.

[Em-]

I had no idea what to expect from this - but something sweet, almost creamy, and not in the least bit watery was certainly not it. This is a very fresh scent. And I get a sort of blue-green feel from it, but not aquatic in the traditional mossy sense.

 

It fades on me faster than I would like, so I will have to do some playing around, but I do like this alot, I think.

[sookster]

straight sniff from the imp is mossy, deep and aquatic...gorgeous

once applied this gets musky and slightly floral...yet there remains a

definite darkness...lasts a good long time...i need a big bottle of this baby!

[supremegoddessofall]

Very aquatic, but inland aquatics rather than oceanic aquatics. Something floral, too, but light - the wisteria? Another one that I'm not sure is for me.

[theseagrows]

despite not being my normal kind of scent, i like this! something in it is so familiar to me. it smells like a commercial men's cologne that i've smelled before. it is very cologney to me- aquatic and sort of powdery. i wish i could place what it smells like. not sure i would wear this much, i might like it better on a guy.

[Alchemy21599]

In the bottle: Mossy and wonderful, yet with a wisp of floral to prevent the scent from becoming too earthy.

 

Wet: I may have found my moss nirvana. So far, this is a mossy scent that stays feminine.

 

Dry: Boo! I am amping the jessamine something fierce! Jessamine is only a cousin of the dreaded jasmine, so I thought I could wear it. Oh, well.

 

This is a gorgeous scent and it brings back fond memories. I will try it in my oil burner

[Electra]

I'm so sad about this one. I was really excited about it, but it turned to dryer sheet on me. Aquatic dryer sheet, but dryer sheet nonetheless. I don't know what note my skin disliked. I usually do so well with Spanish moss blends.

 

Boo .

[sarada]

I grudgingly passed on a bottle of this one, since Spanish moss has been a headache culprit for me in the past, bog water doesn't sound very appealing and the floral notes sound like they might be a little pungent.

 

But wouldn't you know it...it turns out I like it! It's actually a bit resiny -- it makes me think at first of some incense I had a long time ago. One of the slightly perfumey, Airs incenses, though I'm not sure which one.

 

The cypress and hickory wood must really be taking over for me, because I like that sort of deep green scent and I am getting that much more than the swamp water and flowers that I feared.

 

I had also thought this might be a bit like Ulalume, which I like, but it's a fair bit different. The initial perfumey hint of flowers is quickly drawn under by rich, wet woods and deep green moss.

 

Oh dear, I think I might like this quite a bit. Especially on a wet spring day where it's just a little on the warm side and you're walking through the woods alongside a creek or brook after the rain. Yeah... I don't think I'm going to be missing out on any of the Therianthropic blends again. They are all winners!

[spidersinmyhair]

Without even reviewing the components,should they sway my perception,I will try to describe this.It is a very wet,dark,swampy aquatic scent.It is a little sweet at first,but dries down more earthy and woodsy.It keeps a certain sharpness all the while,something green and moist.

This is very gender neutral.

[bunnymcfoo]

Oh good lord, I have no idea what I'm getting out of this besides the hickory (maybe the moss and milkweed?) but after about a half hour of dry down time, I can safely say that this is one of the sexiest things I've ever had on my skin.

 

It's very warm and kind of spicy on me, with a decidedly strong throw which gets sweeter and more feminine the farther you get from my wrist. This is very very earthy, and I freaking love it. WHY didn't I get a bottle? Curses!

[jessiesquash]

I've been obsessed with aquatics lately (perhaps because summer is coming and I'm also obsessed with going to the beach) so I was really eager to try this. I was intrigued by the idea of smelling like bog water.

 

Initially it's very cologney and pretty masculine on me. I can barely detect those salty water notes but they are there. As it dries, the aquatic fades and I begin to get the other notes although I can't pick them out. In the end, I was left with a murky salty scent with something else lurking in the dark. It's a gorgeous scent; deeper and darker than most aquatics. The only thing I'm not quite sure of is if this is too masculine for me. I'll just have to wear it one day and see how I feel!

[hackess]

Imp: woodsy and wet greens. definitely aquatic, but not smotheringly so.

Wet: Moss and cypress - it's very green. It's not giving me the usual drowning sensation that most heavy green aquatics give. The floral notes are very pretty!

Dry: Wow, milkweed. I remember this stuff from a conservation center I used to go to as a kid. The marshes were laden with it. It was a very clean scent - none of the moldiness of bog water.

 

I'm just disappointed I didn't get any hickory! Still, not my usual type of scent, so I'll pass it along.