Burial

[daiconharuko]

The Dark Side of Earth: deep, brooding forest scents, including juniper and patchouli. The scent of upturned cemetery loam mingling with floral offerings to the dead.

I can't really decide if I like this, or hate this. There is totally something creepy about this. Like upturned earth in the woods. I think I'll hang on to it for a bit to decide if I really like it or not.

[hkhm]

imp: deep juniper and patchouli. this smells lovely... i don't think it's going to be great on me but it's going onto my husband's imp pile as soon as i'm done with it.

 

wet: the patchouli is gone but the juniper is warming up nicely. i can smell very vague florals hovering near the back. this doesn't really smell like dirt to me (not like zombi anyway) but more like being out in the cemetery after the rain.

 

dry: what's this? the patchouli has reappeared! very faint but there. i'm getting more of the florals and less of the juniper.

[Allumina]

This didn't smell dark to me at all, actually. I smelled dirt, but it was too fresh and wet loamy, if that makes sense. I was hoping for a drier, darker scent. It almost worked, but the drydown became a bit too powdery and perfumed for me. My chemistry seems to screw up all the dirt notes- the same thing happened with Death Cap. Someday I will find a dirt note that gets along with me....

[bodegaselkie]

I've reviewed Burial before, but I ordered a new imp of it recently and the formulation has changed significantly in some way that it's almost like a different scent. While my experience with the "old" Burial was that the earthy notes faded off, leaving primarily the rose/floral scent behind, the "new" formulation is much more intense in its juniper/patchouli presentation. At first I worried that it'd be a little too piney, even like cleanser, but as it dries down those scents mellow and become earthy, foresty. (I love Beth's patchouli, and am glad it has more staying power in Burial now). The rose/floral remains more in the background this time -- a little too much so for my tastes, but I can always layer it with a pure rose scent if I want to amp this back up. In many ways, I think I like this formulation better, even though it isn't what I was expecting.

[SarahScent44]

In the imp - it's juniper! I love the smell of juniper - I grew up in the high desert of central Oregon, and there's juniper trees everywhere. This smells like the desert after it rains.

 

On my skin, though, it's straight-up fake Christmas tree / pine tree car air freshener.

 

When it dries, Burial is just intense pine tree car air freshener.

 

Heartbreaking, and WAY too strong to wear on in its own.

[aestien]

Bottle: Earth with a capital E

Wet: cleaning solution spilled on earth, probably the pine

Dry: thankfully that fades quickly, leaving the Earth notes predominant

 

This is almost overwhelmingly earthy on my skin, earthy, mossy, a little dusty, dry wood, it smells great on a rainy day, but may be too much for me on a day to day basis.

[Laurel the Woodfairy]

Burial is one of the classic old-school scents that's been in the catalog for as long as I can remember, yet I've never tried it. I finally got some for my boyfriend, who likes what he describes as "earthy scents". Well, I figured, it doesn't get much more earthy than burial, right? It's much spicier than I expected--it smells like spicy patchouli and...dirt. But in a good way. I wouldn't wear it for myself, but he likes it and that was the goal. He's a Taurus and I do think earthiness suits him.

[TrailerTrashPrincess]

this sounded SO yummy. until i realised that the Lab's juniper turns into almost-mint on me. other than that, this is a gorgeous, very mascule scent. totally uNf-worthy.

i never did get anything even remotely floral out of this, though.

[violetflower]

This was a gift from the lab.

 

In the vial: Mmmmm, pine! Very earthy!

 

Wet on my skin: Juniper! Earthy. This is lovely! It makes me think of being in the garden with my hands in the soil, inhaling the lovely fragrance of the earth (I LOVE that smell!)

 

Dry: I can smell something floral sweet beneath the Juniper, and earthy smell now! I definitely love this one!

 

This frimp is going in among my favourites!

 

 

I will have to include a bottle of this for sure! This would be something I wore when I want to smell earthy, so I can sniff my wrist to my hearts content!

[prettybird]

Two words:

 

DO WANT.

 

Unf. Usually I have some nitpick, but this is absolutely perfect. It is just what I wanted. It smells like walking through a cemetery. It's a lot like Thanatopsis, but it lacks the pine note, which I've never really gotten along with. I just can't stop sniffing myself.

[tziporra]

When I was growing up I had the kind of "cool" friend that gives every parents nightmares. She had cool clothes and lots (and lots) of boyfriends and drank cool alchohol got kicked out her parents' house at age sixteen and lived in a series of cool apartments (without paying for any of them) in victorian conversions in the coolest part of town.

 

I wanted to be her so bad.

 

If it sounds like she also had lots of problems, she did. For instance she couldn't bear for me to be the least bit cool, so when I found something to-die-for at the thrift store she either managed to talk me out of it or simply stole it.

 

Not cool.

 

Anyway, she wore cool perfume oils from a little shop downtown, and would lie to me about which ones they were so I wouldn't copy her (this actually makes sense, and I'm not bitter about it like I am about the stealing). So Burial smells EXACTLY like the patchouli rose blend she used to wear, at least once the initial dirt/rotting moss blast dries down. It makes me very nostalgic, even though that wasn't the healthiest time in my life. My husband doesn't care for it (I don't think he's wild about the patchouli note), so I don't think it's a big bottle, but I will keep the imp around for those times I want to google old friends and see what they are up to.

 

Best,

 

Tzi

[aleciarivas]

Well what it all boiled down to was flowers and dirt. Cheap flowers and dirty dirt. Ick.

[Rosaleen Dhu]

Wet it's almost all juniper. On drying…aha! There's the patchouli! Yummy! The forest from hell is still there, but as more backround. This almost tickles the back of my palate when I sniff it.

 

I seem to amp forest scents, though, as it gets more pine like as it dries further, throw is like whoa, and I get no lovely dirt. No flowers. The patchouli has been eaten, and I am left alone in the forest from hell.

[lilirose]

My nose must be broken. I get no juniper, no flowers. To me, this smells like patchouli and vetiver, and nothing else.

 

I hope I didn't get a mis-labeled imp, because I love it and want a 5ml.

 

edited to add: On second wearing, the juniper comes out clearly. I still love it and want a 5ml.

Edited January 20, 2008 by lilirose

[VioletChaos]

in the imp: stinky socks. and some vetiver. yipes!

 

wet on skin: more vetiver, more stink. oh dear.

 

dry down: straight up vetiver. which i don't mind. but i can't detect *any* thing else.

 

in all: :shrug: tis ok. nothing special, tho.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Dusty patchouli and light citrusy herbs.

 

Immediately on skin: This isn’t really a heavy scent. It’s dry and dirty, but it isn’t as gritty as patchouli usually smells on me. It’s more of a dusty earthy herbal scent.

 

After a few minutes: This is a lot calmer and sweeter than I was expecting. This scent is mostly that of sweet roses and other floral notes (though the rose is the only one I can identify). Underneath everything lies a light dirt scent. I also sense some sort of amber from this mixing with the dirt. It’s a dirty but golden and sweet rose floral scent.

 

Overall Impressions: This is a surprise for sure. I was hesitant to try this since I hate patchouli most of the time, but this is a very wearable rose and dirt blend. It’s very warm and not gritty at all.

[septima_pica]

The summer I turned 13, I had a friend at summer camp who gave me a present. It was a little tiny bottle of some kind of Chinese medicinal oil. It smelled like all sorts of things -- wintergreen and pine and fennel and various untranslatable herbs. I eventually figured out that it made a great headache cure. And then I lost it.

 

It smelled EXACTLY like this. Win.

[donnatron]

Okay. So I tried on Undertow and wasn't looking at notes. I got confused, thought it was Burial, and then put Burial on to compare notes. Turns out that there is juniper in more things than I anticipated.

 

Imp: Strong juniper and a patchouli that feels wimpy by comparison.

 

Wet: So you know that scene in 300 where Gerard Butler is all like, "This is SPAAAAARRRRRTAAAAA!" Juniper is totally doing that on my skin. It has declared war with the patchouli and they are having a hideous battle on my skin, throttling some flowers in the meantime.

 

Dry: They call a truce and decide to both be kind of funky on my skin at the same time. THANKS GUYS!

 

Overall: You would think that I would have learned my lesson by now. If there is nothing sweet in it, my skin is not going to like it. If you hate sweet scents, this could be the one for you.

[DarkClarissa]

In bottle: Extremely chemical smell, I first thought of formaldehyde and wasn't at all sure about this fragrance. It definitely smelt of death to me.

 

Wet: The extreme formaldehyde has calmed down somewhat, leaving a sharp acidic smell. There are undertones of wet compost coming through a bit.

 

Dry: Wow, acidic smell has totally gone now. It completely smells of wet earth. I feel like I could be standing inside a freshly dug grave just after the rain. I've been smelling this on me all day - I'm worried what other people might think that I smell like...lol! But personally this is very interesting.

 

Verdict: I will have to be in the mood for this, a bit melancholic maybe, but I can see me loving this long term.

 

Marks out of 10: 7

[savage_rose]

This smells like menthol and dirt. I kinda like it, I get the feeling that if I wore this out, people would be remarking, "What is that smell?" This IS what the stylish zombie will be wearing come the undead apocalypse.

[couscous]

This one really is heavy on the juniper, so be prepared.

 

In my case, I'm thankful that it is, because the juniper in this has given me an earth scent I can wear and love- my very first! I can't wear pine-y scents at all, and a lot of bpal's "earth" notes end up too loamy on my skin, so I've been locked out of a lot of otherwise amazing creations. This is perfect for me- medicinal, harsh, and yet comforting all at the same time. Something you hold up to another person's nose, and they hate it, and you laugh and wear it anyway because you adore the way you smell and feel. That's what this is like- a scent you wear for you and you alone.

 

I almost smell like a eucalyptus plant, but I mean that in the best, most compulsively-arm-sniffing way.

 

It dries down to a slightly pine (slight enough that i still love it) patchouli blend, with spice.

 

A masterpiece of suggestion. You can't NOT think of earth when you wear this one!

[evanescence]

ack! too many things going on here - almost abrasive to my nose. Mostly dirt, but overpowering dirt.

[melrose]

I'm hopeful after reading other reviews:

 

On, wet: Pine-Sol.

 

Near drydown: Pine-Sol.

 

Far drydown: Guess what? Yep, it didn't change at all, except to weaken. I wanted lots of patchouli with a little Juniper. On me, the patchouli is nowhere to be found.

 

Sigh.

[arsenicsauce]

Sharp, acidic, smoky (like, wildfire smoky, not happy cooking grill smoky), verrry dark. This smells way too much like sloth on me for it to be a coincidence, but they don't admit to sharing any ingredients (I strongly suspect vetiver). It's unpleasant to my nose and kinda scary, but weirdly compelling.

 

It does make me think of zombies, which is a point in its favor.

[carrickfergus]

I found this scent to be very sharp and heavy -- rose-geranium-dirt, pleasant but wow strong!!! I found it overpowering in a good way -- it doesn't suit me, but if it did, its strength would lend it to being useful as something to apply at the end of a long, long workday when one has no time to shower, as it would cover up other smells one has picked up throughout the day from the office or travel or lunch or whatever.