Love's Torments

[slave1]

LOVE'S TORMENTS

 

Love's torments sought a place of rest,

Where all might drear and lonely be;

They found ere long my desert breast,

And nestled in its vacancy.

 

White sandalwood, neroli, and vetiver.

 

In Bottle: Vetiver

 

On Skin: The vetiver screams out at me. Earthy, dark green and slightly feral. The neroli is also planty with a citrus edge. The sandalwood is soft and doesn’t come forward much, it’s more of a woody base. The vetiver really controls this scent. The planty notes are quite sharp and a bit minty. This scent is pretty harsh on me and gives a feeling of pain and isolation. It’s not really something I’d wear, but the scent does fit the description very well. This blend has a decent throw and the wearlength is quite long on me.

[alicia_stardust]

This is much nicer than I expected a vetiver blend to be. While that dark, vegetative vetiver is prominent, there is a different edge to the scent overall. It's smooth and almost cool. The white sandalwood is dry and it sort of envelops the vetiver, thus tempering it. The neroli lends just the right amount of orange floral to the mixture. This is simple yet artistic, and the fact that I appreciate this despite the vetiver is a strong statement. If you are wary of vetiver, satisfy your curiosity. If you love deep earthy vetiver, you MUST try this.

[filigree_shadow]

First things first: I usually like vetiver. Most varieties smell good on me -- earthy, kind of woody, slightly grassy, and smoky.

 

This is vetiver at its very best. It is not dank and murky at all, it smells so fresh you can really imagine those tall grasses. It's smoky, light, and beautiful.

 

The neroli is so soft it almost whispers. But, OMG, that vetiver and sandalwood smells so good.

 

This is the sort of scent that I never wear when I'm out -- I wear it when I'm at home by myself and hog it all to myself. It's one of my "skin scent" kind of scents.

[Melenass]

I wanted to love this scent... but vetiver is too overwhelming here

[GoldenRubee]

I didn't like this at first, it smelled like it hadn't aged enough. But I know how some of Beth's blends work and I love vetiver so I decided to wait it out. I even put some on my husband because I was determined that if it didn't work on me, it would on him. This was worth the wait! Twenty minutes later, the soft, gorgeous woody smell comes out with a very slight citrus note in the background. The vetiver is light and brings everything together like a hug. I love it and it smells great on my husband too.

[sookster]

 

straight sniff from the imp is pure vetiver

 

ooooh!! applied the neroli and sandalwood balance this out ...

 

this gets smoky and i get some sense of an orange note...

almost orange wood...very interesting blend ... not one of

my fav vetiver scents but i am glad i tried it nonetheless....

Edited February 22, 2008 by sookster

[Miss Lynx]

Mmmm, nice -- I was a bit worried that the vetiver would pull its playground bully act and beat the other notes into submission, but it's just a background presence, adding a bit of darkness and depth to what is otherwise a rather soft, pretty scent. (Although looking at the other reviews, this does not seem to be everyone's experience!)

 

It's not too sweet -- the neroli does sweeten it some, and make it fairly feminine on my skin, but I think a guy could probably wear it too, as the sandalwood and vetiver keep it more incensey/oriental than floral.

 

It wears down nicely and becomes a soft, just slightly sweet, skin-scent. Never really a bad moment in its entire development. Don't think it's bottle-worthy, as I'm getting pickier these days (due to already having more BPAL than I'll probably ever have a chance to wear), but the imp's definitely a keeper.

 

Grade: B+

[steelxrose]

Love's Torments

 

In the bottle, it was heavy..a bit bitter smelling. I'm no expert on vetiver or neroli, so I can't say it was either. Upon applying this oil to my skin, I believe the white sandalwood came out to play, as the oil lightened. Having not read the ingredients when I put it on, I was almost sure there was musk in Love's Torments as well.

 

I think this one needs a second trial run before I can decide what to do with it.

[Little Bird]

I smell more vetiver in the imp vial with this one than I do on my skin. The vetiver ends a light touch of something like dry grasses and rotting, crumbling wood (but it doesn't smell bad to me at all). The white sandalwood adds a smooth, slightly powdery woodiness to this blend that ends up dominating on my skin. And the neroli pops out more and more over time, sort of smelling like a creamy orange blossom on my skin.

 

In the drydown, this is really a rather nice scent, though I'm not sure that it's full bottle worthy for me, because it does have a baby powdery-ness to it that I don't like, getting dryer and more powdery on my skin over the hours. I do like the initial creamy, soft orange, powdery-smooth sandalwood, and dry grasses though. It's especially nice for the first hour or so.

 

Love's Torments might be a keeper for me if my skin chemistry didn't turn it to powder over the hours.

[naeelah]

(testing a lab fresh imp)

 

I initially commented that this could just as well be called "naeelah's torments" because vetiver is one of the few notes that I hate (it also makes me sick), and sandalwood usually just doesn't behave well on my skin. It often goes really sharp and prickly and generally unpleasant. Neroli I'm ok with.

 

Wet, I'm beginning to think I've found a blend that makes vetiver wearable. I can smell all three notes in about equal measure: the vetiver is brightly grassy, the sandalwood is light and pure, almost like linen, and the neroli is fragrant with a faint bitter edge. Definitely not orangey. Everything combines well to make a light, crisp, clean scent. It reminds me of a piece of sweet grass or some reed like that. A little green, fresh and woody, with an underlying bitterness.

 

As time goes on, I keep expecting for the sandalwood to take over, or for the vetiver to go all barbecue.... and it doesn't. The vetiver here smells like the vetiver in highwayman -- it's a grassiness that I don't mind so much, but it just gives me a headache after a while. It never smells burnt, but it does gradually become sharper and more bitter. I think it conveys the poem well: "where all might drear and lonely be."

 

I'm pleasantly surprised by this one, although it hasn't turned me into a vetiver lover. I won't be keeping the imp, but I'd definitely recommend it to fans of crisp grassy scents.

[savage_rose]

"Torments" is the operative word here. The vetiver kicks all the other notes down and grinds them into dust. It's the vetiver show! Starring vetiver, and featuring a very special guest, vetiver. Yeah, this one's for the vetiver fans. I can't even smell any of the other notes.

[AEris]

I have to agree that the vetiver note totally dominates this scent, but its initial burst of "HI!!!" chills out as it dries down. It's still definitely a vetiver scent, but there's an interesting, highly complimentary background with the pale sandalwood and the faintest hint of neroli (I can barely pick out the neroli, I wouldn't have guessed its presence without the scent description).

 

filigree_shadow said it best:

earthy, kind of woody, slightly grassy, and smoky.

 

I like vetiver, but usually find it to be too masculine with my chemistry (the main exception being Death Adder). I like this blend more than I like most, but I still think Love's Torments would smell fascinatingly different and fresh on a man. On me, I'd worry that I just smelled manly.

 

3.8 out of 5

[theseagrows]

wow, this is a strange scent on my skin. the vetiver and sandalwood are most prominent. this scent smells very empty. like an old, empty room with stale air. it kind of reminds me of the smell of a car too. weird. this is one of the lab's very evocative scents, but i don't think i'd wear it much so i'll swap it.

[enui]

Wet on skin this is very nice, a delightful balance between the sandalwood and the vetiver, with a hint that is almost nutty. I'm sure the neroli plays a role in this but I cannot detect it, and in my case it's a good thing, as we usually don't get along very well.

Unfortunately as it dries on my skin I can smell only the vetiver. A very nice, earthy and rounded vetiver, not harsh at all, but not much else.

[plunderparlour]

wet- this is super vetiver. very sharp.

 

dry- this scent really surprised me. it dried to a nice softer smell with the other notes coming out.

i'm surprised how much i like this.

[megank4]

Um, peanut butter? How is this possible? It smells like Skippy or that it should be named Agnes Nutter.

[Iceblink]

This is OH HAI VETIVER when wet but it dries down into a soft nice sandalwood with a faint fruity tinge from the neroli. It's pretty! I'm a little surprised that there are so few reviews for this one. Give it a try!

[taramarie]

Wet on my skin, Love's Torments is sandalwood over vetiver, pretty strong. A little neroli comes through once it's dry. While interesting, this just isn't me.

[crebbsgirl]

I was mildly wary of this because sometimes vetiver just doesn't work on me. This blend was beautiful though. Light, and stayed close to the skin. The sandalwood and neroli were beautiful here. I'm not usually one for the lighter scents, but this made the big bottle list.

[femmefatale]

Wet.... VETIVER! Holy cow. As it dries the sandalwood and a hint of neroli comes out. It's very pretty and unisex, but I've decided to only keep what I really love, so it's off to swaps.

[hypatia]

I've finally found a vetiver blend that really works on me! Hurrah! I like vetiver, but it sometimes goes too strongly earthy and scorched-smelling on me. I thought Love's Torments might work out, though, and I was right -- the sandalwood makes the vetiver more wood-like than earthy, and the neroli makes it lighter, greener, and airier. Instead of overwhelming earth, it's like cool breezes blowing through a forest, with the ground a little damp. It makes me think of evening, for some reason.

 

Love's Torments doesn't morph very much; it's pretty much constant green-wood-earthiness all the way along. Very nice. I might put this one in the wear-to-work rotation.

[Coldfire]

Imp: Sandalwood and Neroli with something eck underneath

Wet on Me: The sandalwood and neroli are gorgeous..but the

vetiver just makes it smell like rot over it. Like they went bad.

Drying Down: the vetiver seems like it’s fading to let the white

sandalwood and neroli shine a bit more.

Dry: The vetiver has calmed itself down now and I get the white

sandalwood and very little Neroli. This is okay. Thisisthe one

vetiver I found so far I like.

[Brianne]

Sharp vetiver with a touch of neroli, pretty straightforward.

[zankoku_zen]

Woodsy, a tinge grassy and very dirty. Vetiver for me is such a dirty note, and I mean, it smells dirty and earthy, and gritty. The sandalwood kinda polishes it out a bit, smooths the grittiness of the vetiver over, but it's not enough.

[blu°]

This, as many reviewers above have already pointed out, is an especially nice vetiver blend.

 

I can't always handle vetiver. Sometimes it is just too dark and thick and oily, but together with the sandalwood and neroli it has a dryer, cooler finish while still remaining dark and smoky.

 

Love's Torment ends up a woodsy, smoky, earthy, cool scent with a citrus tinge to it. Somehow it reminds me of The Cracked Bell.

 

I'm looking forward to wearing it to work tomorrow and seeing how it feels as a day/outside scent.