Mary Read

[jessiesquash]

Salt air, ocean mist, aged patchouli, sarsaparilla, watered-down rum, leather-tinged musk, and a spray of gunpowder.

Holy cow, I can't believe I'm the first to review this!! It makes me all tingly inside because pirates are so yay!

Sniffing in the bottle I definitely get the ocean mist and salt air. Uh-oh, is what I'm thinking because I guess I amp the cologne aspect of aquatics and they just smell really generic like Cool Water for men. Not really what I want. And Mary Read does do this for a bit. Thank god for the other notes though because they do finally rear their piratey heads. The leather-tinged musk is definitely there and it's pretty sexy. RAWR! I was a little worried about the sarsparilla too because in Organ Grinder it was just downright odd on my skin. This though, is fantastic! It's rough and tumble but at the core, you sense the primal female is there. She'll kick your ass for staring at her breasts - grrrr - and then drink rum with the boys and win a spitting contest!

I think I may have found a pirate blend that I REALLY love!! Mary Read is certainly floating my boat right now!

Edited to actually make sense....I hope. Edited September 17, 2007 by jessiesquash

[slave1]

MARY READ

 

In Bottle: Sweet aquatic

 

On Skin: I love this aquatic! Usually I don’t feel one way or the other about aquatics, but this one is so sweet and pretty! Fresh and clean, yet sweet and shadowy as well. The darkness from the patchouli, rum and leather really tone down the brightness of the salt and ocean notes. Most the other piratey, ocean-like scents haven’t really worked on me. But hello! This one does. Slightly sour, slightly sweet, slightly dark, slightly bright… such gorgeous contrasts. When I need a break from the super dark musky and sweet foody scents I wear, this is a great one to reach for. It is a bit perfumey, but I like that here. It starts strong but fades nicely to a come hither skin scent. I smell water, the salt in the air, the wood of the boat, the rum that’s been spilled, a gun that’s been fired and the leather clinging to the pirates skin. Such a beautiful blend. Can be both masculine and feminine at times. An interesting morpher. Starts with strong throw but fades to about average to low throw. Long wearlength.

[tartchef]

Lots of salt water & clean aquatics - a more complex Jolly Roger. The musk & patchouli help anchor things (forgive the pun) a bit, but ultimately I find myself wishing for more... I'm just not a watery girl, I'm thinking, as I can see this being lovely on someone else.

 

ETA: In her final throes, Mary Read smells remarkably similar to Sri Lanka's drydown - a peppery, smokey scent, with some camphor behind. OK, so this might work on me after all... (weighs holding onto imp)

Edited September 20, 2007 by tartchef

[daiconharuko]

Hey! I got my imp from Tartchef!!

 

In the bottle all I smell is RUM! Maybe a bit of a spiced rum.

 

On my skin I really only smell the water downed rum scent with only a HINT of of the other elements. Me thinks my skin doesn't like this scent that much. I'm straining to smell the other scents (I get a tiny hint of something... but I can't pick it out).

 

This smells way to boozy on me. Anne Bonny is still my only Pirate girl!

[oceandreamer001]

I tried this on last night, and am in love. I am huge aquatic fan, I love the ocean scents. This does not disappoint. Initially I get ocean with sassparilla. It's a fairly light scent on me, I think this will be a slatherer.

 

As it dries down I get more salt, and some rum and leather. It's what I wanted Jolly Roger to be. I'm not a patchouli fan, but the aged patchouli is nice, not overwheming. It braces the scent, and I have visions of salt-soaked logs.

 

At the very end it is salt air and light florals (must be the musk).

 

I need to invest in a 5ml, the imp just won't hold me.

Edited September 26, 2007 by oceandreamer001

[Keslynn]

I wasn't even going to try this one because the gunpowder notes in Agnes Nutter and Mad Meg turned me way off. Somehow I ended up with some slathered on my arm at ECWC, and now I'm reviewing it with the bottle I brought home.

 

In the bottle, it smells something like a mountain fresh laundry detergent with a little bit of pepperiness from the gunpowder. I'm wondering if this is the same scent I fell in love with...

 

On my skin, Mary Read morphs a lot. It starts out with that same verging on soapy "mountain fresh" scent. Then it becomes this absolutely gorgeous salty sea air scent. It's amazingly accurate and makes me think of standing on the shore on a crisp day. This is my favorite phase of the scent. After the salty air phase, it verges on soapy again, but never quite goes there. At this stage, the scents are so well-blended that I can't really pick out notes that well, but I think I can smell some leather and that slight kick from the gunpowder. It's a little masculine but not enough to make me hand it over to my boyfriend. Mine! The last stage smells like carnation to me - creamy and slightly spicy. In fact, I was really surprised to not find carnation among the notes when I got home from Will Call. I just looked up sarsaparilla on wikipedia and found out that it's used to make root beers, and I can definitely see that. I think maybe this is where my nose is getting the carnation. Whatever it is, it's luscious.

 

Verdict: Mary Read is quite a morpher. The salty sea phase is amazing as is the creamy yet spicy finish. Sometimes she verges on soapy but never actually goes over the edge. I would never have tried this scent based on the description, but I'm so glad I did. I can't stop smelling myself! This is a great unisex scent.

[dragonrain]

Oh, I love this. A very light aquatic, dabbled with leather and salt and patchouli. It's not as boozy as I was expecting; it's not boozy at all, in fact. I must get a bottle when I can.

[AmyAngel]

This started out as ocean air with wood, then turned strangely soapy. There's a lot of salt air and ocean mist going on there. After it dried down, though, I got soapy leather. By the ocean. My sister's response: "You smell like a clean saddle on the beach." I happened to see my grandpa while testing it, and he just gave it a squinched-up face. Although this obviously didn't work quite right on me, at the same time I still couldn't stop sniffing it!

 

After several hours, I have to put my nose right on my wrist to smell anything, but there's a sweetness now that's making it much nicer. I think this is the creamy spiciness mentioned above. It's much better! Unfortunately it takes a while to get to this point, and there's also no throw whatsoever. I'll keep this for a few weeks and test again probably, but I think this may end up headed for swaps.

[pzb]

In the vial - sweet and kind of sour (in a good way)

 

Wet - Sarsaparilla and the salt air are most dominate - definitely getting a bit of that salty air effect, but not overpowering

 

Dry - Musty leather and ocean mist are starting to show, still sweetened by the sarsaparilla

 

Later - Softened to something that reminds me a bit of Sea Breeze astringent (which isn't necessarily a bad thing - memories of my childhood, as my mom used to use that stuff.) Really light and fresh. Never really got the gunpowder though. But I totally love it (especially layered with Dorian.) Definitely will be getting a bottle of this.

[sookster]

straight sniff from bottle is a wharf that has been soaked and bashed by the ocean's waves...

amazing !!!

once applied, some seaweed and more aquatic notes...slight musk and smoke from

freshly shot guns on a pirate ship....luuuuurve

[laliloo]

GUH!

 

I absolutely LOVE Mary Read. It smells like a salty blast of ozoney sea air and wakes me up as soon as I apply it with a big WHAP around the head. I don't smell any booze and I can't pick out the patchouli. I have no idea what sarsparilla smells like, but despite my rubbishness at picking out notes, I really, really love this blend. I ordered an imp, but this is definitely going on my 5ml wishlist. It smells like a really, really expensive spa. yummy.

[alicia_stardust]

MARY READ

 

Wet: Salty air, mist, and patchouli.

 

Dry: Beth has done Mary Read proud. This scent is a work of art! It's the right amount of feminine and masculine and it is my favorite pirate scent to date. I love the way the higher-pitched ocean air, salt, and mist mingle with the lower, darker notes of patchouli, leather, and rum. The gunpowder and rum remain subtle in this. The aged patchouli is perfect and I can practically taste the salty air. I am just blown away by how amazing this scent is!!

[Little Bird]

I so wish that I could pull off aquatic blends. I wish that I had the sort of skin chemistry where they smelled more natural. Mary Read sounds so beautiful on so many other people. I would love to get salt soaked logs and sea breezes from this. On me, though, Mary Read smells like salt soaked soap and a clean leather with some sort of spiciness in the drydown. The soapy leather is definitely not my sort of fragrance. This is a pretty strong scent on me too, with lots of throw. This would be gorgeous on someone who can pull off aquatic blends, I think.

[stardreamer]

This is such a well-balanced blend that I honestly can't identify any specific notes. It goes on slightly aquatic and slowly becomes warmer and spicier. It's somewhat masculine in feel, but not so masculine that a woman can't wear it. I can absolutely see a female pirate wearing something like this. Staying power is about average; at 8 hours, it's still present but fading. Bottom line: I can't describe it, but I love it! A definite keeper.

 

Say, did you know that Peter S. Beagle wrote a song about Mary Read?

[Avery]

This is an amazing morpher that I had to try but didn't expect to love. But... wow! Okay, so it starts out aquatic on me (kind of like Snow Bunny... but a little salty and more generally "aquatic", more summer less juniper), and while I have a poor track record with aquatics (they all too frequently just go to soap, or cologne--I'm looking at you, Kingsport) this one stays just this side of the aquatic but ocean-y enough I don't need to wash it off. I don't get gunpowder, or patch, or sasparilla (which I was really looking forward to--Tombstone is my favorite!) at this stage. So, it's a nice hot weather scent (good thing I'm entering summer down here in the S. Hemisphere) and I decided to wear it out. Then I forgot about it. About two hours after application I sniff myself and am just stunned... this is GORGEOUS. As far as the notes go I'm not sure how they are translating into this: the smell of a hot (steam) sauna that is made out of driftwood. The sasparilla is lurking just under that sweet wooden surface to make it creamy. Oh, and in this stage it also also smells like someone was just toasting marshmallows in the sauna, or maybe threw one on the hot rocks and it melted (but didn't burn). This is AMAZING and I absolutely love it. Most times I curse my odd skin chemistry, but there are occasions like this one where I have to appreciate it. 5ml. yum yum yum. Oh, and the boy likes it too! Double bonus.

[porcelina]

this stuff is great. feminine but not frilly or girly- this woman is a bad ass. i don't get any patchouli (thankfully) and the rum and sarsparilla add a certain sweetness. it's definitely salty but it's not all cologney men's body wash, as some aquatics tend to go. at times it's almost creamy. this was a really pleasant surprise!

[steffanina]

Mary Read-

 

In Bottle: A green, spicy aquatic.

 

Wet: Strong aquatic smell, verging on eye-watering like many men's colognes. Not quite at the "insect repellent" level. Oh, wait, I'm getting some Irish Spring off this.

 

Dry: Hm. The dry-down of this is the nicest part, certainly, with that hint of sarsaparilla appearing. And maybe a teensy bit of the clove. I'll try this again but I'm not sure it'll be a frequent flyer for me.

 

Overall: Will try again, but not likely one I'll come back to often.

[taramarie]

On me, Mary Read just smells of salt air. I don't smell any of the other notes at all, but don't think that I'm complaining. This would be perfect for summer.

[Czarina]

I can't pick out most of the individual notes listed for this one, because this is such a well-balanced scent. It just smells green and salty on me, drying down to a sweet saltiness (must be the sarsparilla) but that green saltiness is insanely good.

 

Bought imp, I'm thinking bottle.

Edited October 31, 2007 by Czarina

[gwynethr]

I haven't figured this one out yet. I don't seem to get any of the responses I've seen mentioned here -- and I can't put my finger on what it is I am smelling. I figure I'll have to try it at different times of the day, month, etc. before I can decide if it's a keeper. It's definitely on the aquatic side, but beyond that, I don't know!

[tinyvulture]

at first this is a sharp, biting aquatic. you can really smell the salty sea air. as it dries, an odd combination of mint and smoke comes forward and mixes with the sea air. and now it’s turning sickly sweet, as most aquatics do on me. *sigh*. i hoped this one would work for me. a bit later, the sarsaparilla and leather finally make their appearance. they sure smell nice. but it was hard to resist washing it off during the cloying phase. off to swaps.

[edenssixthday]

Mary Read – I was kind of excited about this blend because I love aquatics and I’ve been hoping Beth would make more sarsasparilla blends. This scent smells like something you’d find in a LUSH bath ballistic. It’s strongly aquatic, patchouli, and aquatic. It’s also slightly effervescent, which I’m guessing is the “ocean mist” aspect of it. I really love the scent, but not as a perfume. I think I would rather have it as a bath oil or bath bomb scent. I’ll bet it would smell amazing on my husband, but I doubt I could convince him to wear anything that has the name “Mary” in it. I may have to figure out how to make/scent some sort of bath product with this blend.

[erraticprophet]

Initial Impression: strong beachy smell that tickles my nose

 

On Wet: strong aquatics, leather, gunpowder

 

On Dry: leather, gunpowder, that ocean-y smell again

 

Final Impression: Really nice summer fragrance. Different and interesting.

 

Rating (on a scale from 1-5): 3.5

[Ajila]

In the bottle – Salt water and coconuts

 

Wet on me – Sea water

 

Dry on me – Clean leather and a hint of salt water

 

Overall – A bit bland on me

[zankoku_zen]

This at the beginning was sea spray and sandalwood, but it's softened to something more feminine. A light aquatic kinda floral, with just an edge of saltiness.