Havana

[SarahScent44]

Date palm, dried tobacco, snakeroot, and leather.

In the imp, this is leather-heavy up front, with just a hint of palm.

On my skin, it softens and widens - I'm not able to pick out any notes I recognize, but it's a nice scent.

It's very soft and subtle when it dries - the leather is the most dominant note, but it's the well-worn soft leather of Western Diamondback, and not the sharp leather note from scents like Wanda. Nice, but not for me.

[Nimthiriel]

Initial impression:

It's really soft and gentle – something herbal (snakeroot?) and something like an old book. I'll interpret that as leather and a tiny hint of tobacco.

 

First on:

It's strong on the leather and tobacco in its wet state! Something sweet lingers in the background.

 

Dry:

After about 10 mins, it's heavy on the leather and tobacco, but I don't mind it. I thought I'd might dislike the tobacco, but it's a really comforting scent.

 

Another 20 mins later, it's a little less intense, but still really warm and comforting. <3

 

Finally:

Loved it. Big keeper! Now to figure out what to use it for...

[gchris]

In Vial:sweet floral and cigarette smoke

 

Wet:sweet floral, a little mossy-ness tones it down and keeps this blend from being too sweet.

 

Drydown: This gets sweeter and is a pretty standard floral

 

ADDED Nov. 10:

 

in vial:sweet wood

 

wet: smells a bit masculine. I think it's the wood note. There is also a sweet herbal note getting stronger.

[cam]

In the bottle, this is all tobacco and mojitos to me, with a hint of a very natural, herb-y smell. On my skin, it maintains this scent pretty consistently. The longer this is on, the more I like it. It's sexy and fun. Definitely a winner for me. I think it will be awesome on Ben, too. I'll probably get him to try this one tomorrow.

[Indigo78]

In the imp this is sweet and green. First applied, the tobacco and leather shyly peer from beneath the sweetness, but don't really come to the front at all on my skin. I'm almost sure that I opened this imp some time ago, and that I got much more tobacco than I am tonight. Perhaps I'm lusting for Ogun.

 

Twenty minutes later this gets sweeter, and I think that's a citrus creeping to the surface - though whether it's lime, lemon or orange, I can't say. It's so soft.

 

If the tobacco and leather came out more with this, I'd be in love... Alas, my skin is drinking the scent and spewing forth a nondescript citrus note.

 

Very short wearlength, minimal sillage.

Edited July 29, 2008 by Indig0

[Dark Alice]

This scent invokes the image of walking down a small alley in Havana, with the smell of lingering flowers on windowsills, Drying tobacco in the Humidor shoppe, and warm leather.

 

It also goes through a phase where the leather note smells just like the wood and eraser of a no. 2 pencil. Then it returns to the smell of a cool leather pouch filled with tobacco!!!!! Imp is definitely a keeper. Don't think it's worth a bottle.

[cyphersushi]

Initial impressions: oh, tobacco... another domnant note on me.

 

In the imp: Smoky leather.

 

Drying: The tobacco is beahaving itself. This is rather nice actually.

 

Dry: Nice subtle and unisex... I like it. A very laid back scent.

[galahad]

In The Bottle

Nothing much from the imp except a thin, dusty scent.

 

On Application

Tobacco and leather. Dry and sweet. Lovely

 

Dry Down

Earthy, dry and sweet. Seems to be a bit light but I may have found the Holy Grail of leather and tobacco scents! Surprisingly cologney but I really like it.

 

Rating (0-5)

4

[charshark]

In the imp: Grassy

 

Wet: Leather that's been laying in the tropical grass.

 

Dry: About the same as wet, but the leather scent fades a bit.

 

Overall: I think it'd be better as a car scent, not as a perfume.

[Allumina]

This one refused to play nice with me. I love leather and tobacco scents, but didn't really get any of that- something in this is way floral, and I ended up smelling like my grandmother. (who is from Havana, so I guess it's appropriate, but...) After a couple of hours I got hints of leather, but it was too little, too late.

 

Yay skin chemistry. My coworker sniffed my wrist and recoiled, so it's not just my nose.

[taramarie]

On me, Havana is very green date palm over tobacco and leather. This is a lot nicer than I thought it would be.

[zankoku_zen]

This, oddly enough, smell entirely of date - it's sticky sweet, and maybe in the background, there's a tiny bit of leather.

 

But yeah, I finally found something that drowns out leather and tobacco.

[Suu4LC]

In the imp this is mostly tobacco and leather on me, kind of wafting through the date palm. I'm not really a fan of tobacco or leather, so I'm hoping I get more date palm as this dries, and less of the leather and tobacco. The combo of those just always reminds me of an ashtray

 

Hmmm...yeah on my skin so far this is total ashtray. Kind of like how my hair and clothes used to smell after I was in a club that allowed smoking. Blech. I also get a bit of a pencil shavings feel from this-moreso as it dries.

 

All in all, this was a totally meh tobacco/leather scent on me. Will definitely go into the swaps pile

[tacey]

I'll blame chemistry for this one. Havana started off with an interesting green & brown scent -- date palm, perhaps? Then a bit dusty -- leather? and something sharp I'll pretend is the snake root. And then it turned to tobacco, strengthening FAST to fully smokey tobacco in the 2nd or 3rd hour of wear.

[BelleAnge]

This one smells pretty good.

 

In the imp: Kinda smokey and almost bitter.

 

Wet on the skin: The leather starts to show and the tobacco note

 

Drydown: Somewhat sweet with a little hit of sharpness. Must be the date palm making it smell sweet.

[lilacea]

Rooty herbal, a brown herb if that makes sense. There's a slight sweetness here, the tobacco is subdued and lovely. I really don't get a lot of leather from this at all, and my skin usually amps leather like crazy. It's a softer, almost olive like aroma to the leather element. Wears very close to the skin.

[lothien]

I got this frimped from the Lab, and despite my initial reservations (how masculine would it be?), I love it!

 

In the imp I get leather and a little bit of sweet - date palm maybe?

 

On wet it's mostly leather right away, but that's normal for me with anything with leather in it. I don't get a lot of tobacco at first (which I confess to writing off to the fact that I smoke, so tobacco is an environmental scent for me), and I couldn't identify snakeroot on a bet...

As it starts to dry I can distinctly smell it though. It smells like leather and tobacco shop! Not just tobacco, but the smell of a real tobacco shop, with pipe tobacco and cigars and big cases and the whole lot. Maybe it's a woody quality in one of the other notes I'm unfamiliar with, but it's lovely!

Later on the leather has gone soft but it's still there and there's still that fresh tobacco smell and it's quite round and gentle. It's not girly - but then neither am I. I got nice whiffs of it even after a few hours applied in a small area for testing.

 

Definitely a nice surprise and a keeper! Woo!

[Iceblink]

Mmm...smokey-sweet tobacco! The leather here is very subtle and mainly keeps the date and tobacco from going sickly sweet; this is a dry, unisex tobacco blend to my nose. A bit like walking into a smoke shop! It's got great throw and staying power, too. Surprisingly good!

[donnatron]

Imp: Tobacco and leather. A hint of something sweet. Very, very masculine.

 

Wet: Who smells like a dude? Oh yeah, it's PaperRose! It starts out intensely masculine as the leather and tobacco have an all out fist fight on my skin. What I guess is the snakeroot is lending a heavy wood quality.

 

Dry: Manly. It's like a tropical Dee. It smells like a guy but it doesn't smell strange on my skin. It's an intriguing scent. I get predominantly leather and tobacco with a slight sweetness and woodsiness. I like it but I'm not in love with it.

 

Throw: Moderate.

 

Overall: I like it. I don't need a bottle but I could see wanting the imp around in the future.

[CrazyPretzel]

Goes on rich and dark but clean-smelling, almost a little soapy. As it dries the date palm comes out stronger and the scent is predominantly fruity tobacco rather than leathery. Nice; a lot smoother than I expected.

[milo]

Perfumey vetiver, or maybe it's the leather? This blend is quite masculine, probably would smell great on a guy, but not on me.

[windbourne]

In the imp it smells quite lovely, all tobacco and rummy leather. On me, after a fifteen-minute wet stage in which it's quite pleasant, it turns into rather scary old lady perfume. You know, the kind of old woman who chomps cigars and carries around a long-suffering little dog in a heavy leather handbag? It's just awful. I had to wash it right off.

 

I'm not sure what it is -- perhaps the snakeroot? I can't remember seeing that note in anything else....(and a quick search tells me that, at least among the gc's, there is nothing else. ^-^;; ) But it just kills this one for me. *shrug* There are other leather and tobacco scents in the catalogue...

[MCS4096]

In the Imp: sweet, dry, smoky, leathery.

 

Wet: Pretty much the same, but more intense. Fairly masculine, but still sweet.

 

Dry: Quite lovely! it's sweet florals on a warm breeze across a tropical plaza where men are smoking. I almost get a suntan lotion vibe. The leather is really nice here, and the tobacco is awesome-- slowly amping.

[crebbsgirl]

I tried this and it almost immediately shot up to my top 10 GC's. I lurve tobacco scents and this is a gorgeous one. The leather manages to not be overpowering (as it seems to be for me often in leather blends). The date palm does in fact add some earthy sweetness to the mix. It may be a little cologne-y when wet, but as it dries, it's sexy and earthy and wonderful.

[Bluestocking]

In the imp: Surprisingly light and sweet, almost-but-not-quite floral. Huh. Mostly date palm, with a subtle earthy scent beneath that suggests the leather—very light, though, not in-your-face leather. Astonishingly, the note I expected to dominate—tobacco—is nowhere to be found. Anyway, it's surprisingly light and pretty, and it makes me think more of Cuba's climate than it does of the nightclubs and cigars of Havana.

On, wet: Oh, THERE are all the earthy smells! They come out the instant Havana hits my skin, particularly the leather and snakeroot, and the light, sweet, pretty date palm is almost totally gone. The leather and snakeroot are strong and giving this an almost dirty, plant-like aroma, shifting this decidedly to the masculine category… although even as I write this, the leather is sinking down and melding with the date palm again. Hmm, that's better—strong, not girly, but with enough sweetness that I could call it unisex. Weirdly, the tobacco still hasn't come out. (Additional strangeness: the waft smells much sweeter than the area where the perfume was applied.)

On, dry: The dirt smell from the dry down disappeared pretty quickly, and now the snakeroot and tobacco (finally emerging) are anchoring everything, adding lots of earthiness. Date palm is still on top, but it's finished merging with the leather, so that I get mostly sweet date when it wafts, but when I take a deeper sniff, there's that sexy leather right behind, keeping this from getting too sweet.

Later: Leather and earthy tobacco, with a trace of the sweet dates. It's a drier scent now, a bit cologne-like, still with some sweetness and—I swear—just a hint of smoke. This is closest to what I originally imagined Havana would be like, and it's nice. Very light, though; I practically have to mash my nose into my wrist to smell it.

Overall: Nice, and yet not quite what I was looking for out of this one. It does finally achieve the scent I'd expected—the earthy-sweet-smoky, slightly gritty scent that suggests hot sun, men's cologne, fine cigars and a cocktail made with rum—but it takes a long time to get there for me, and by then it's very, very light. I was also disappointed that the tobacco isn't as strong as the note in Antikythera Mechanism or Plunder. There's a nice leather note here, but overall this is only okay for me.