Madrid

[Rock Geisha]

Swarthy and vibrant! An elegant, full-bodied scent that ignites all the darkest passions. Bold red wine, mimosa, and a trickle of clove.

In the bottle: Bright grape with a slightly sweet, slightly sour back.

Wet: Still grape but slightly spicy.

Drydown: The clove becomes the dominant note but there's still a big fruity background.

[Iceblink]

Yum. This smells just like I spilled very fruity red wine on my arm and then rubbed cloves over it. Not a daytime scent, but great for a night of barhopping!

[Shitow_Haruka]

A frimp from the Lab - thanks!

 

first sniff: The grapes in this red wine a very strong and sweet!

 

wet: Still that tasty wine, with a spicy sweetness to it.

 

dry: This settles down to a lovely spicy sweet scent with a bit of soft floral to it.

 

I'd wear this a lot if it wasn't for the fact that I'd be afraid that people would think I'd been imbibing on the job. I'm glad the Lab sent it my way.

[maijasu]

At first, this is overpowering red wine, but it dries down nicely into a perfect rendition of my mother-in-law's spiced grape jam. Delicious!

[belegwen]

This was a bit sweeter than I was expecting, but still nice. The cloves balanced it out so it wasn't cloying. It smelled like mulled grape juice, which is a rather nice smell. It lasted almost forever too. I put it on first thing in the morning before church, and I could still smell it when I got in the shower right before bed.

[batsy]

In the vial: whoa, red wine!

 

On the skin: Mimosa. And lots of wine, like buckets full. It takes some drydown but the clove shows up and it's a full blown party. I really like this, the balance of the sweetness of the red wine and the spicy clove... yum!

[ladybird]

In the bottle: Mmm, spicy wine.

 

On skin: Spice spice spice. After a little while, a tiny bit of fruit comes back, but it's mostly a whole lot of cinnamon and cloves. It's like mulled wine smelled from the next room - a nice scent, but too spicy and intense for me, alas!

[Aiglet]

I almost didn't try this one, but since I know these things change on skin, I figured I would.

 

In the bottle: Sweet and fruity, with something tangy underneath.

 

Wet: GYARGH! Lots of fruit, very very sweet.

 

Dry: Now I smell of fake grape.

 

Off to the swaps pile to live with someone whose skin doesn't turn this into the scent of the grape-flavored Strawberry Shortcake doll.

[Trish]

This barely changed on me from start to finish. Mulled red wine: sweet, warm and spicy. It has a bit of soft throw and average last. It's lovely and the imp is a keeper.

[kwsix]

Madrid isn't anything like I expected, really. I don't get red wine from this at all. In the imp and wet on my skin, I get sweet grape candy, sort of like grape Jolly Ranchers. As it dries, the clove comes out and the "OMG GRAPE" settles down into something less candy-like. It becomes a little less sweet, and settles into an appealing and slightly powdery spiced grape fragrance. Oddly enough, it also reminds me of grape soda now. I think the clove is making it seem fizzy. I am seriously tempted to lick my arm, but I manage to restrain myself. I would certainly wear this again, even though I'm not putting it on my bottle list just yet. For the record, I tried Old Madrid on my skin, but plain ol' Madrid smells identical in the imp.

[Wildbriar]

Madrid

Source: imp fresh from lab

 

In the imp this is very grape-y and fruity. Not what I expected, and it makes me a little afraid to try it as the fruits tend to go all nasty-sweet on me. Ok, here goes...

 

Initially on my skin I'm tempted to run and wash this off, it is so overwhelmingly sweet and cloying, Ugh. I stick it out though and as the oil dries and warms it does become less cloying and the clove really warms it up. After a bit this dries out to remind me a lot of a sweet mulled wine, or spicy sangria but without the brandy. It isn't warm like mulled wine, but does have a spicy-fruity flavor that is really pretty.

 

Overall I don't hate this blend but its not really for me. I amp sweet far too much to really enjoy it.

[naeelah]

In the imp, this smells much like red wine. On the skin, it smells much like red wine.

 

As it dries, more and more of the spices come out, and it smelled exactly like mulled wine. Very sweet, thick, warm, and spicy. I didn't care for it, but my friend who sniffed my arm liked it. She agreed it smelled like mulled cider or wine.

 

So, if that appeals to you, check this one out. If not, avoid it. This is probably a really nice one for cold weather and the holiday season, because it's so heavy and warm. Throw is about average, maybe a little stronger. Staying powder seemed average.

 

This would be a good as a room scent, but if it smells like mulled cider or wine, you might as well just make your own mulled drink and let that scent your home.

[maribouquet]

imp: mmm, grape soda

wet: spiced winter fruit

dry: um, above with note of stale popcorn? huh.

 

I like the spicy fruit scent, but apparently my skin disagrees!

[PurpleHeather]

In the bottle: Very definitely red wine, with a deep cherry like background. Don't know where I'm getting cherry from.

 

Wet: Very cherry like, wine is noticeable from a long way off. Faint background of clove. I love the cherries, but I'm not sure about the wine. About 5 minutes later there is less wine, just cherries. All of the num. Must eat dinner, not my wrist.

 

Later: Gorgeous - a deep rich cherry scent, with a faint spikiness from the clove. Nice throw. A definite keeper, possible bottle. 8/10, easily.

[Naamah_Darling]

Grape! Grape is the top note here. It goes on a bit drier than the super-wet scent of the raw oil, but it's still very sweet.

 

There's a hint of clove in there somewhere, buried way down deep, but the major note in this is still wine, or rather, grape.

 

There's another note here that I assume is "mimosa" though it smells nothing like what I'm used to smelling from real mimosa trees. It's a kind of astringent floral that is holding down the worst of the over-sweet grape. The clove is underneath, just barely there.

 

This has the overripe, almost stinky feel of a humid summer day when the plants are all blooming. It's all melting sugar from grape popsicles and the stifling scent of blown blossoms. Not really objectionable, just very heavy. A scent to apply with care.

 

It's blatantly sexy, too. It's very much a scent that screams "notice me!"

[Nia]

Initially it smells sweet as candy, like Hanging Gardens. It was disappointing because I didn't expect a scent inspired by Spain (especially Madrid) to be sweet. Later, the wine slowly comes out, with what appear to be roses underneath.

 

It doesn't take much, about half an hour, for the wine to give way to the mimosa, which for some strange reason smells a lot like roses when the wine is still playing about. After an hour, the barest hint of mimosa is all that is left. Definitely disappointing, and Kali and Wanda are still competing to be my favourite wine scents.

[modernsaints]

OOF. Dusty, dry, SOUR wine. Blech blech ack get it off

 

Oddly enough, once it's been scrubbed off, I get some aftereffect of - supersweet red-grape candy? Sparkling red-grape juice? What? It's delicious, but in a very strange way.

 

It is also the scent I smelled through the hours I spent reading HP7, so I REALLY have no qualms about letting this one go :|

[The_Merf]

In the imp: Bright red wine--a more sparking sibling of Lilith

 

Wet: Grape Kool-Aid drink mix, freshly done

 

Drydown and wear: The Grape Kool-Aid mix smell does not go away, but simply gets more faint

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

For some reason this smelled like baking when I first sniffed it! Or wine-making... or both.

 

First on:

Wine and wine and wine and... potpourri. Peculiar!

 

Dry:

After about 10 mins, it's spicy wine with something else lurking in the background. I assume it's the mimosa, but I couldn't really tell. I think my skin really amps clove like crazy!

 

20-30 mins after application, it's mulled wine with too much clove, and that faint and confused fruity mimosa in the background.

 

Finally:

I didn't like this very much, because my skin just screamed ”CLOVE!” and went nuts. And then it all just disappeared – no throw. So, swapping!

[ClareN]

I'll get drawn in by a Spanish name every time, so I bought a partial bottle of this unsniffed even though fruit notes aren't me. Luckily, I really like it.

 

The "wine" note sometimes registers more like wine to me, sometimes more like grape candy. The first time I tried it I got all artificial grape/wine and no cloves; on the next try the clovey goodness came out a lot more.

 

I can't really add anything to the other reviews. Yes, Madrid smells like grape candy with cloves. If that sounds good to you at all, you'll probably enjoy this. I like wearing it when I dress in purple.

[aquazoo]

Whew, that's a very sweet red wine! It is what it says, but the same problem as I had with Tintagel — do I want to smell like a drink? This is very strong. I really am enjoying it, sniffing and re-sniffing myself. Ok, it's turning to grape cough medicine on me. No worse than the wine. Not something I would wear.

[filigree_shadow]

I adore the mimosa in this one. It's really cute and sparkly. Unfortunately, cute and sparkly mixed with red wine evidently smells like grape juice to me. It's not straight-up grape juice, but it's a little too close for my comfort. I can't tell there's any clove in this, to be honest -- just the barest hint of a spice, but I wouldn't have been able to identify it as clove.

[madeleine]

I was really wary of Madrid, because the idea of wine notes in perfume doesn't appeal to me. (I hate the scent of anything alcoholic, generally. Can't stand it.) But Madrid smelled like Sweet Tarts in the imp. On my skin it was bold, heady and intoxicating. Overall, I liked it much more than expected but it didn't last through my first class so I won't be looking in to a bigger bottle any time soon.

 

It's a nice scent, and even if you're skeptical of the wine note I recommend you try it out.

[cranberry]

In the vial and on the skin, this is quite sweet. It’s familiar – slightly floral, bright smelling, happy. In terms of notes, I’m thinking grape, bubblegum and clove. I wouldn’t be surprised if lotus was here in small amounts.

 

I don’t know what mimosa smells like – I’ve never been a fan of cocktails for breakfast, but I found out that mimosa is also a short lived evergreen-type plant with a crazy looking flower. I’m figure that the cocktail drink is the mimosa used here, but kinda interesting to know. Anyway, as it wears, there’s still that grape-bubblegum-clove smell. It’s staying pretty consistent and not changing much.

 

I like this, but it’s not something I would ever wear. It smells edible, and would be really nice in a tart or an oil burner.

[eleventhousand]

Powerfully sharp and oozingly syrup-y.

It hurts my nose!