Madrid

[slythwitch]

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

at first, old madrid goes on very candy-mediciny sweet. sort of reminds me of triaminic. very quickly, though, it settles down and the dryer scent of clove comes through.

after a half hour or so, the clove is pretty strong. i still think this scent is a bit too sharply sweet for me, though.

[janelle_hell]

This *does* go on all medicinal-like,but after a little while the sweetness mellows out and you're left with the loverly smell of red wine and cloves. Still, a little bit overly sweet for me,but i got compliments when i wore it.

[lorajc]

I sniffed this out of the bottle and I love it. I'm going to wear it soon....so I'll update here. I like sweet scents and I love Clove and Wine...so this was made for me.

 

After wearing this, I'll say I really like it (not love). I don't get a lot of clove smell on my body. I think the clove just keeps it from being as sweet as Lady McBeth. This is very similar to Lady McBeth, but not quite as strong.

[antimony]

I wanted to like this one...

 

I hadn't tried it since I first got a sample of it a few months ago. I didn't like it then, but I thought I'd give it a 2nd try.

 

I love orange scents, and I love cloves, but it's just too sweet for me. It smells like chewable orange vitamins mixed with clove scented bubble gum.

 

I've given it about an hour to settle in so far, and it's just not getting any better. My skin chemistry just isn't working with this one.

[sedentaryedge]

told me this one had a uriney smell. well, it does: it's the mimosa, I think, mignling with the red wine. This is a verrry very winey scent, and one I quite like. Tannic, acid and a bit bitter, this counteracts the shiny, round mimosa scent perfectly. On drydown, this one loses its bitter edge and mellows out to a winey floral, subtle and piquant.

 

EDIT: This was posted in Old Venice but, as shriekingviolet pointed out, seems to refer to Old Madrid, so I moved it here. --Shollin

[feycat]

I found this scent too sweet on my skin. The mimosa and clove never really mellowed out on me and it turned into bitter hard Bazooka Joe bubblegum within the hour. It WAS very full bodied and vibrant and the scent lasted a long time. Unfortunatly, it just didn't work for me.

[Ishtar]

Mmh... mimosa

I was born in Provence, so mimosa (together with fig and lavender) holds a very special place in my heart. And of course I like my red wine, so I could not go wrong with this one!

 

In the vial, Old Madrid is a bold and vibrant scent for sure; it is refined nonetheless. For some reason, it reminds me of something that has to do with food, yet it is not a foody scent.

 

After wearing it twice:

The first time I tried it, I really wasn't sold on this one. Since it smelled pretty strong in the vial, I had only put the tiniest drop on. Maybe it was a mistake, because I felt that the oil never got a chance to fully develop and express itself. Anyway, after a few hours, I did not find Old Madrid very well-balanced. Extremely winey, with a strident mimosa note and no clove whatsoever. I was not sure I wanted to keep the imp.

 

Then I tried it again tonight. This time I put a liberal amount on, so that I could make my mind once and for all. What a change! It now smells floral, bright and robust. Still no clove, but that's OK because I get plenty of mimosa (yay!). The wine adds a beautiful depth to the blend and prevents it from being just a pretty floral. It's a keeper! For the record, I also used Lush's Soft Coeur on my upper arms and both scents seem to blend quite well. Too bad I don't have any of the sweeter BPAL oils yet, because I would love to try and layer Old Madrid with Snake Oil or Dana O'Shee.

Edited May 10, 2004 by Ishtar

[Effluvia]

in the bottle: Grape children's medicine. Hmmm...

 

wet, on my skin: Holy frijoles, that's sweet! Ooh, but I smell a bit of my beloved clove peeking through...I definitely smell the wine and the mimosa, too...

 

dry, on my skin: Red wine and clove cigarettes. Two of my favorite things, hooray!!

 

Oh my GOD. I just read that someone said this has a urine-y smell. Damn you. Damn your black heart. All I smell dried pee now...NOO! Wait, invisioning the wine and the cloves again...ah, there we go, it's all good now. I'll be wearing this with black velvet...but if someone asks me if I had an accident, I'm gonna be REALLY pissed off... (oops, SO no pun intented LOL)

 

Bottom line, though, it's a wonderful oil. This smells like how port tastes. If that concept catches your fancy, you NEED this.

Edited June 29, 2004 by Effluvia

[chai_girl]

This smelled like spiced oranges in the vial. I thought it was going to be too sweet but as soon as I put it on...CLOVES! All I can smell is cloves. Occasionally I get a hint of a floral or sweetness...but the primary overwhelming scent is cloves. I think this will go well with my Chai shower gel from Lush.

 

I'm going to a BBQ joint for lunch, I wonder how the cloves will meld with the mesquite smoke?

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Juicy sweet wine and lots of cloves.

 

Second Impression: The wine gives over to a sweet and warm clove scent after awhile. The scent is evocative of sitting in an outdoor cafe drinking sweet wine while the sun sets like fire in the sky. Romantic.

 

Final Analysis: Not something I'd wear all the time, but I'd like to slather my husband with this.

[Faerykin]

Swiped across wrists and along collarbone.

 

Initial Wet (8-8:30am): This scent goes on sweet – like liquid candy. It is a familiar scent, but I can’t quite seem to place it. Cherry … Strawberry … definitely foody-sweet. I can’t distinguish separate scents. A couple of times it tried to turn sour, but then it snapped right back to that familiar foody-sweet.

 

Initial Dry (8:30-10am): This dries to a sweet, fruity, semi-floral scent. Less foody with a touch of floral, but still awful sweet – more than likely the mimosa and the red wine – since I don’t detect the cloves at all. *shrugs* It is still a pleasant scent.

 

Throughout the Day (10am-4:30pm): This really doesn’t morph much from its initial dry-down. Around me, I still smell a sweet, semi-foody, fruity, semi-floral. On my skin, however, I can smell spiced mimosa – I suppose the clove isn’t completely absent on my skin, it just likes to take a back seat in this particular instance. This is so different from the clove I’m familiar with at BPAL (Three Witches).

 

It is still present after 4:30pm – so a nice long-lasting scent as far as my experience.

 

Not a scent I would wear often. Won’t be ordering a big bottle, but I may keep the imp … that is, if I can’t find someone to give it a better home.

Edited September 3, 2004 by Faerykin

[Northernminx]

Grape Dymatap cough syrup. Well at least in the vial.

 

This dries out very sweet and sticky on me, almost cloying. The clove peeks through under all of it as it mellows though, cutting some of that sweetness with something a little fresher. Definitly lots of mimosa in here. I'm not getting a great deal of wine, just lots of sweetness and the vague spice of clove. I like this but I'd like more clove and less medicine smell to start so off to swaps.

[bookfaery]

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

 

************************************

 

7am Initial Wet-

Me, Me, Me!!!!! I love this scent, Faerykin is an absolute doll to send this one along. Kind of a spicy fruity scent. Reminds me of Maraschino cherries, yet is playful and oh so mischievous. Delicious already, I just want to go to work and create lots of mischief and chaos among the office and especially for a certain bitchy coworker. *grins* Definitely a me scent, and especially good for fridays.

 

8am Initial Dry-

The scent has stayed the same and on an unexpected side has kept me awake on the drive to work. Love spicy scents for that.

 

9-10am Dried-

Smells like red hot candies almost, yet there's still a cherry like scent there. Although I can detect something else there, probably the wine or mimosa. There's almost a dirty musky scent to it, perhaps the clove coming out more.

 

**Love this scent and will definitely be getting a 5ml of this scent at some point, it's on the list of them. Wasn't really long lasting, but stayed on my wrist pretty well until 5-6pm. Would probably want to carry for reapplication. Really good for fall or mischief making though, a fun scent most definitely. Thanks Faerykin!!!!

[TheDarkMother]

I got this in two swaps actually, so its about time I tried it. Since the imp attacked me when I was pulling out one to try, I figured that it was demanding its turn.

 

In the Bottle: Grape Bubblegum. Huh? Must be the wine, I guess, but its definately grape smelling. I LOVE grape! Its just not something that I was expecting.

 

On Me: Hmm...that grape smell is gone from my wrist, but is still hanging in the air. My wrist smells a little more musty than that, from the cloves would be my guess. But that grape bubblegum smell is hanging in the air so strongly that its hard to think of anything else. My wrist has a slightly sweet smell to it, but nothing like the grape bubblegum smell in the air. Its even the type of bubblegum with the white powder on it that is kinda hard to chew.

 

Its certainly like nothing that I expected, but its not a bad fragrance at all. In fact, its very comforting, and the contrast between what I smell in the air and what I smell on my wrist is very interesting. I don't know if I'll get a bigger bottle, but I will certainly use up the imp.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Um. Bazooka bubble-gum. The End. (This is my shortest review ever, but that's all Old Madrid felt like doing for me; maybe it's chastising me for throwing over my early study of Spanish to switch to French.) Those of you who got wine and flowers, I am jealous!!

[Lucretia]

I'm sorry to say that this is one of my least favorites ever. bleeh.

cough syrup with a hint of clove. I don't even want to open it cause it will make my fingers smell like the stuff my mom would force into me when I was a sick as a kid. I guess it's the alcohol in it, but it certainly does not agree with me at all.

[feline.by.design]

How interesting people's tastes are! This one I quite loved.

 

Yes, it does smell like Dimetap (Dymatap? Dymetap? Dimatap?) in the bottle. But this really worked for me, because once the impie wand hit my skin, I noticed a more grapeseed oil scent from Madrid rather than wine and such. The clove was there, too, and the mimosa adds a sweetness, just enough for Madrid to come off as full-bodied and really interesting. There was a super-slathering session with me and the bottle on this one, and if someone was outside the room, they would here nothing but "Mmm... MMMMM!" coming out of me.

 

For the record, I got NO urine smell. At all.

 

I popped the imp bottle open in class and smeared some on me and a classmate turned to me and said, "Ooh, girl, that smells good!" So someone else out there is as nuts as I am in thinking this scent really rocked. It's well balanced, at least on me, and I can really see myself getting a bigger bottle sometime down the line.

 

-doreen

[JazzieCazzie]

Freebie imp ... I wasn't sure what I was going to think. Now take into account that I LOVE red wine but more as drink than to wear (though admittedly there have been a few times when I have drunk so much I HAVE ended up wearing it). I love mimosas too, ditto. And I love clove. But my experience with mimosa note is that it tends to get bubble-gummy when combined with my body chemistry.

 

Still, I was determined to show patience with this whether or not I liked the initial impression.

 

IN THE BOTTLE: Whoa. I don't think I'm going to like this. VERY fruity and medicinal ... a lot of people have mentioned grade cough syrup, for me it was more cherry coughdrops but I'll concede the point.

 

One small dab per wrist to be safe. I'm hoping for clove to emerge in a hurry.

 

WET: Eeeeeek. Very cherry, my least favorite fruit when it comes to scents, probably because of the mental connection I make with cough medicine (I loved dimetapp but was forced to take Cheracol as a kid. ICK).

 

DRYDOWN: Happily, the fruitiness fades in a hurry to make way for predominant mimosa on drydown. Still not my favorite scent but pleasant enough. Very orange-blossomy but still, alas, too bubble-gummy for me. NO cloves at all as far as I can tell.

 

This is a definite regifting.

[tempete]

Unfortunately, Madrid taught me that mimosa smells like cat pee on me. And with the red wine note smelling like grape juice on me... (what is up with that? stupid body chemistry ) Hopefully this will work much better on someone else, although I'm sure that it's not hard to beat grape juice and cat pee

[silverangel]

This was a giftie in my last order. And do I love it! It was on my wishlist, but who knows when I would have gotten to it! It's mostly clove with what I think is the mimosa right behind it, but I'm not sure what mimosa smells like, and this juicy sweet smell hangs out in the background. A definite keeper!

[erishkigal]

i agree, madrid smells a bit like children's cough syrup in the vial... it stayed that way for the first few minutes of wearing it... then it mellows down to a spicy warm almost cherry scent... but not the heavy cherry scent.. a warm robust spicy cherry......

 

i'm going to buy a bottle for sure.

[sarahj]

(Old) Madrid

 

in vial: sweet cherries with a hint of red wine

 

wet: sweet fruity cherries, wine scent is fading fast

 

dry: same as wet...the wine has disappeared and I never smell any clove (I seem to be having this problem lately...I couldn't smell the clove when I tried March Hare yesterday, either)...lasting power is pretty good...lasted 6+ hours on me

 

verdict: a very nondescript sweet scent on me...I will try this again later before making my final decision

[phaedrine]

I got this one in a swap, because I love clove, and don't mind red wine, either.

 

I think it's meant for someone that likes red wine a LOT more than I do, at least to wear!

 

I didn't get any mimosa at all, and for me, it stayed the exact same dry as it was wet.

 

It smelled as if red wine and clove were waging a full-scale war on my skin! It was exactly divided, they fought and fought, and it was finally too strong for me to do anything other than wash it off.

 

Back in to the swap pile with ye!

[shelldoo]

in the bottle: Grape gum

 

wet: wow there are teh spices, smells like a juicy grapey smell w/ spices.

 

dry: the clove is right there, the wine is mingling w/ it. it ha a lush, fruity, rich smell, I adore this one

 

 

(my lunacy order is gonna be so big it will be lunacy )

[darkitysnark]

Madrid

 

I love cloves, I love red wine, I love mimosa. So I should love this one extra much, right?

 

In the bottle:

Wow! This is pure sangria in oil form. My mouth is watering a bit.

 

Wet:

Madrid wins the prize for fastest transformation, the sangria went straight to a strong cinnamon on my wrists. Very unexpected, but not unpleasant. This is more of a baking cinnamon smell rather than a red hots cinnamon.

 

Drydown:

Still cinnamon, but also... playdoh?

 

Later:

Between my slightly light hand at applying, the panic of a clogged bathtub, and my suddenly stopped up nose, I haven't been able to keep track of Madrid that well over the course of the day. Right now, about five hours after initial application, I'm barely getting a floral playdoh note.

 

I'll need to test this one again before putting it up for swaps... but I think that's where he'll end up.

Edited January 25, 2005 by darkitysnark