Kweku Anansi

[any_old_actress]

KWEKU ANANSI:

I'll spare you one of my Anasi tales. Besides, I haven't decided which one to use on His scent description! Vetiver, dusty pepper, nutmeg, thyme and grass over a deep, mossy wooden core.

 

 

FIRST SNIFF: the darkest pepper

 

WEARING IT: this is a very thick smelling scent, there is nothing light and airy about it. i find it to be very dark and foreboding. it reminds me of opening the door to a really scary, creepy house and being totally unaware of what may lie in wait for you. vetiver and what i think is thyme make up the background, while the heart and soul of this dark scent is made up of pepper and dampened, dark woods.

 

VERDICT: a heavy scent, that's a little too dark for me! would make for a lovely scent on a guy.

[slotown]

Got this one with my first order of samples this weekend. I would have tried it sooner if I'd noticed it was a "pre-release".

 

Wet: Pepper and dark earth.

 

Drying/Dry: I was reading my mail while this dried and found myself thinking of a forest. About 30 minutes after application, it reminded me of camping in northern California when I was a kid. Big trees, trekking through the woods, green foliage. Still there at the one hour mark so I think that's where it's going to settle.

 

I don't know if I'd wear this one on a night out but I'll keep it around and give it a couple more tries.

[AnnetteL]

This was an extra in my order (thanks Beth!), but sadly not for me. It is mostly heavy woody notes, though I can definitely also pick out the pepper and grass. It's just too masculine for my tastes, but I think it would be wonderful on the right person. (Probably, though not necessarily, a man.)

[Effluvia]

in the vial: Daaaarrrkkk!! Vetiver and wood, maybe cedar. Incredibly, unfathomably DARK.

 

on my skin: Still dark, to point of being almost sooty. I smell something familiar...pencil shavings...charcoal dust, maybe? I think it's the pepper. Mmm, yummy. I imagine this would be sexy as hell on a guy. I normally really dig masculine scents on me, but this might be a little too masculine. It's not masculine in a "He-Man" sorta way, but in a skinny, pale man with black eyeliner sorta way. lol. I reeeeeeally dig this, even if it's too masculine for me. Oh well, I dig androgyny, so I suppose I could get away with this.

Edited August 16, 2004 by Effluvia

[OdetteOdile]

Wow, I seem to be in the minority here but I liked this. On my skin, it smelled like cedar, wine, berries and finally, thyme. Not too masculine - more neutral. I can smell a little bit of the pepper if I try, but it doesn't dominate.

The thing that really struck me when I first put it on was how well-blended it smelled - I had to struggle to distinguish the different notes. It's an interesting scent, rather than a pretty one, but the fruitiness (which isn't in the description but I swear I'm not wearing lotion or other scents) makes it wearable and even a bit addictive. I'm curious to see what the final version smells like.

[Northernminx]

Ooo a preview scent!

 

Dark and herbal and spicey, but not in an exotic spice sort of way. There's a definite wet, dark earth scent to this and a tang of pepper. Quite a lot of pepper actually, very strong and the vague scent of a burnt offering of something herbal upon first application. This was very strong and masculine when I first put it on but mellowed quickly.

 

Actually it mellowed a little _too_ much. It's now vaguely herbal sweet with that overlay of black pepper. It's a stunning mix that i love but it's a little bit too faint to detect without putting my nose right on my wrist. Sadly, this one didn't want to stick on me. Sad sad sad.

May send this one to the boyfriend as well

[madame royale]

This was the last imp I tried since, quite frankly, I had no idea what it was and what notes were contained therein (thanks for the freebie Lab goddess). Two words: burnished wood. Cedar, to be exact. This is not the same cedar of Lear. Where Lear was freshly shaved cedar slapped around by a bunch of herbs, KA is a deeply polished cedar, rubbed with a little lemon and peppercorns. Lear is spring & summer, KA is fall & winter. The vetiver is most noticeable when wet, but when dry it prevents the wood from drying this scent out too much. This would be unusual and elegant on a woman, urbane and polished on a man. Very nice. Very, very nice. Me likey. Will use up my imp and decide from there.

Edited August 24, 2004 by madame royale

[SpinalDesign]

Wet :The scent is crisp . I wouldn’t say over bracingly strong . You can smell cracked black pepper with a strong hit of thyme .

 

Drying : It’s drying into a deeper smell of black pepper thyme and I want to say rosemary.

 

Dry : The smell of wet lemon grass comes through the pepper, thyme, rosemary and clove to me . It has a sweet and sour effect like Greek olives do... but it’s a crisp clean scent . You have to draw the smell in.... to really smell the different notes. It dose have a wood like smell but I get so much of a earthly sent like being next to lake in the early shadow mornings. So you have that dew like fog smell as a drifting sent lingers around you . I like it but to me it's more for man.

 

Aftermath : The scent is intriguing, mysterious, and dark. Sort of a brooding effect off your skin. It’s not my taste in a smell I would wear... Even tho I really do enjoy the darker notes then the floral notes on my skin it became more sour . It is a great scent tho... thank you lab for letting me try it !!

Edited August 25, 2004 by SpinalDesign

[diabolique]

i decided this one was too masculine for me, so i made grandpa my guinea pig.

 

when it was wet, all i could smell was green herbs, pepper, and nutmeg. when it dried, all of the scents rounded out beautifully.

 

my grandpa officially smells like christmas thanks to this scent.

 

i just tried this on myself, and it reminds me of that long drive to a friend of the family's house for his wonderful thanksgiving dinner out on his ranch. my family and i would pile up in the car with blankets, pillows, and our dogs, and we would watch the texas country side unfold as we drove farther and farther east. kweku anansi, to me, smells like that piney, chilly, late-autumn/early-winter air, but.. from a distance, i suppose. this made me feel VERY nostalgic.

Edited August 25, 2004 by diabolique

[Vaniclion]

Another VERY surprising scent! Also, another generous freebie from Beth & Co. It’s always so fascinating to see what they pick.

 

Perhaps what I’m smelling is grass and thyme rather than the lemon verbena it smells like. It’s a very confusing scent, turning around inside my nose and going very watery for brief periods as I try and study it. The darkness begins to emerge, but as yet I’m catching none of the darker, spicier notes.

 

Returning after a few moments, all I can say is this smells clean. Not fresh washed clean, but the clean of fresh cut wood and earth. There might be a hint of pepper, but it’s not tremendously strong. Like I said, a very interesting scent indeed. What I’m getting is not so much the Trickster, or his dark heart, but perhaps the savannah hut where prayers are being muttered to him in the shadows.

[ismene]

This brings to mind an aged cedarwood box storing peppercorns, on a ship's hold somplace making the trip from the Orient back to renaissance Europe. I mostly smell the wood and the pepper with just a a hint of green. It doesn't smell like I expected, despite knowing the notes; nothing reminds me of a trickster god, or spiders, or Africa.

 

It is a rather masculine scent, but normally that doesn't bother me and I often wear more masculine scents. This makes me think of something an old man would wear for some reason and I'm a bit bothered by that idea. I don't know where it comes from, either. I like the scent, but I feel weird about wearing it with that assocation in my head.

[Morrighana]

In the bottle: *nose crinkles* What is that? It's not unpleasant, really, it's just...something that I can't put my finger on...that I'm not sure I like.

Wet: Ugh. Wood, and that other note. Again, what the heck? Even looking at the description, I cannot figure out what, exactly, I am smelling here. Perhaps it is a combination of moss and the dust from the pepper, but...whatever it is, it certainly doesn't agree with me.

 

Dry: This one fades quickly on me. I've found that a lot of the scents that I dislike do so, much to my relief. The trace that is left on my skin is actually quite nice---nothing like what I was smelling before!---but I have to get my nose right up to my skin and sniff to detect it.

 

Overall: I can see this one performing a lot better on someone else. Woody scents just don't like my skin, it seems. *shrugs*

[morleigh_s]

I'm loving this scent. Straight outta the bottle it smells just like a cozy little fire in the fireplace and it stays pretty true to that the whole time on my skin. The vetivert comes out a couple minutes after I put it on and that's the only thing that I don't like so much about this scent. Vetivert + Me = I tried this last night when I put on my Chaos Theory, which is an autumny scent to my nose...I put this scent on a little further up my arm and I was in love with the outcome because every now and then I'd get a little whiff of burning wood, which I love, so it was wonderful for me!

[VelvetSky]

This is one of the most compelling and interesting scents I've tried thus far. This is dusty sun-baked earth. I'm also getting something that's almost leathery and dry here. As it dries, peppery, herbal and musty. I'm having strong images of Africa right now in my mind as I smell this. This scent has a feeling of nature and antiquity.

 

I don't really know yet what I think of Kweku Anansi as a perfume, but as a sensory experience it is quite amazing.

[malanna]

The first time I tried this, I had Old Kathmandu on my other wrist, which I wasn't so fond of, and I couldn't really make this one (Kweku Anansi) out, so, I think in comparison, I thought that Kweku Anansi was pleasant enough. I couldn't get a real grasp of it, so, this is my second test with it. This is very strong. I was afraid that I wouldn't be able to really smell it like last time, and swiped, not dabbed. I was hit with an overwhelming spicy smell. Not Snake Oil spices, but dark, strong spices (nutmeg, I suppose, and definitely pepper). Not processed spices, but raw spices, gathered from the woods. The spices has a woodsy feel--maybe cedar? This makes me think of the rotting wood on the front porch of a deserted cabin in the woods. I had just thought this was the rotting wood on the stairs of a haunted house, but this is also a bit of a green smell (vetiver), hence the cabin in the woods.

 

ETA: This is really long-lasting, too. It's still going strong after six hours and a shower. I can still smell it--faintly--underneath my lotion.

Edited September 6, 2004 by malanna

[Ishtar]

Well, this is officially the first BPAL scent that *scares* me. Literally. Eeek

 

Wet, the vetivert is almost overwhelming, underscored by something very green and herbal. At first Kweku Anansi is an extremely strong scent, but it quickly mellows into a pepper/wood/spice combo which is much softer and less unsettling than the wet stage.

Still, I washed it off after 30 minutes, as I really felt uncomfortable wearing it.

 

Don't let my negative review put you off, though. Vetivert, pepper and dark wood are all notes that I dislike to begin with, so I didn't expect this blend to work on me. This is certainly a powerful scent, both for its strength and its *gulp* dark evocative power, so it is probably a good oil to try if you like that. As for me, I am off to the Swap board with this one!

Edited September 18, 2004 by Ishtar

[Witch's Dagger]

Kweku Anansi

 

I got this from diabolique in a swap. Thanks!

 

Preconceived notions:

Woody, mysterious, and Anansi... I really want this!

 

(Warning - I did my review on paper, not looking at the description, and of the notes I mentioned specifically, all are wrong )

 

Trying it out:

in the vial: I smell spicy dragon's blood and woody notes

 

On me:

First impressions: sharp and pungent in a very, very good way. I can't make out any notes specifically, but I'm getting dragon's blood and . . . maybe some juniper? This is very dark green, and it seems like there are some dried herbs in it. There's also a scorched herb sort of scent, what I was looking for in Scarecrow. This is a hot, dark green scent overlaid with a dark red haze (which I keep calling dragon's blood). I'm also wondering if there's some patchouli in this, because it's very, very strong.

 

Later: Good wafting power. I smell mysterious and powerful.

 

45 min. later: Still no change, and still going strong. From past non-review wearings, I know this won't change anymore, so I'll go write it up!

 

Final impressions: I love, love, love, love, LOVE this! It's not a scent I'd wear every day (well, maybe it is), because it smells so powerful, so dark, so mysterious, and so foresty that it seems to almost require a special occasion. And that occasion is definitely related to rituals, particularly intense and high-powered rituals like Mystery work or anything else that would require a really solid circle. This isn't your 'light a candle to bring (insert goal of choice)' kind of magic, but deep transformative work. I may have to get a bigger bottle in order to use it both to smell wonderful and to use it for the above purpose. Magnificent!

[TheDarkMother]

Ah Miss Spider....How do you get an oil to live up to the expectations that I have? I shall resist the urge to pull out Anansi tales, resist the urge to spin more, and resist the urge to compare this with those expectations....for now at least.

 

In the Bottle: Kweku Anansi is dark woods and pepper. This is exactly what I was expecting. I wonder why I always think of pepper when I think of spiders. I LIKE pepper!

 

On Me: VERY peppery and dark, with a hint of something sweet in the background. What is that sweetness? Is it a musk? Its so hard to tell. It smells vaguely fruity as it begins to change. A spider luring a fly into its web with bait before it pounces.

 

It has a vague dryer sheet quality now, though. Oh darkness, come back!!! Wait...more pepper. Ahhh, the spider snatches the fly. Flawless victory.

 

Oh I can't wait till this comes out and I'm done with the imp. A big bottle for me!

 

Slathering now!

Edited September 16, 2004 by TheDarkMother

[xoe]

This to me, and on me, is all pepper. Very masculine. Very dark. And it hits me in the back of the throat when I sniff it. Never had that reaction before.

 

Different.

[autumn24]

BLECK!!! Pickles! Pickles and burnt rubber!

 

Okay... please ignore me, vetiver just doesn't work that well on me.

 

Reading the other people's descriptions of this scent, however, does warm me up to the scent quite a bit... it's definitely woody-- like you've got your nose in a board, there's lots of dark, dry earth around... almost like you're at a construction site and there's nothing but the skeletal frame of a house being built, and dark, empty corners. It's a VERY evocative scent, and highly unusual.

 

**** I have since revised my opinion of this one because it's been about 2 hours since I applied it, and now it smells GREAT. It mellowed and sweetned up a bit, and now it smells of sweet, dry wood, as if shafts of sunlight found their way somehow through the slats in those boards, warming them just enough to release their kinder scent...

Edited September 23, 2004 by autumn24

[Jezebel873]

My first review!

 

Well, I have to say that I LOVE Kweku Anansi. It was a freebie in my first order, and it ended up being one of my favorites. I'm terrible at picking out individual notes, but here's what it makes me think of...

First, a very strong dusty spicy smell, masculine, but not too much for me to wear. I see a teeming desert marketplace, with lots of booths selling dried and fresh herbs. It makes me feel strong and somehow balanced. After a few hours, it mellows out and sweetens, and I see a wooden box filled with herbs and dried flowers. It's an extremely comforting smell to me.

This scent is one of my favorites to wear in the evening at home. It lasts a really long time on me, so every time I wake up in the night I have that comfort smell to lull me back to sleep.

This will be a definite 10ml bottle for me when it's released!

[hadaverde]

This scent starts off deep, wet, and peppery. It is a rich, dark-green and brown-black when initially applied.

 

As the scent progresses into drydown, the sharpness of the pepper dissipates and something murky emerges. It seems a little bit "off" in combination with my skin, almost like the muddy darkness of pond water.

 

Additional time brings out more herbal notes, and the murkiness recedes to a somewhat more tolerable level.

 

All in all, this strikes me as a rather more masculine scent, and one that isn't altogether unpleasant, but it isn't something I am likely to wear again, because of how it combines with my body chemistry. I tested it on my sweetie, as well, to see if it transformed itself into something a bit more palatable to me, on his skin. Though he liked it fairly well, it behaved very much the same on his skin as it did on mine, so this one will likely be heading off to the swap pile shortly.

[foolssilver]

at first, the pepper dominated, and i was excited. but the lemon became the top note, and i just don't like to smell like lemon very much. i'd agree that this is not 100% for men only, but that it would almost surely work on men.

 

sometimes my skin seems to absorb certain notes, which is frustrating.

 

ETA: i don't think thyme agrees with my chemistry, which may be why i don't love this.

Edited October 1, 2004 by foolssilver

[glampyre]

Dark Woods, Pepper, and Dry Earth!

 

Kewku Anansi is beautiful!

 

It is so dark and definitely mysterious. I love to smell like the forest and this one does just that! No hint of sweetness or anything to soften its edges. Just straightup woodsy goodnes...I'm going to try to sneak some of this onto my husband and see how is smells on him (He won't wear perfume!)

[sagitare]

When I first put this on I was a bit 'meh' on it - it smelled nice but nothing really jumped out at me. I did catch a pine-y type of smell which put me in mind of Nero. I figured it would end up smelling like that on me so I wasn't really expecting much of Kewku.

 

It was a few hours later as I was on the bus finally heading home after a crappy afternoon when I realized I was smelling this rather lovely soapy/sweet/herbal-y scent. It really took me by surprise because I did not expect Kewku to settle into something somewhat soft and pretty. I had to wait until I got home to give my wrists a good sniff to confirm that yes, I was really liking Kweku!

 

It reminds me of Hamadryad in that it's one of those scents where I think 'I smell good' rather than 'this perfume smells good', if you know what I mean - it just seems to get into your skin and warm you up all over.

 

Hopefully the formulation won't change (much!) when it comes out in regular rotation. I'm hoping to get a bigger bottle - it'll be lovely for winter!