Hamadryad

[this machine]

Nature spirits and protectors of the world's groves and forests that appear as breathtakingly beautiful women. Hamadryads are born into a tree that serves as both a home and an anchor for the creature's soul. They are sometimes tricksters, sometimes seducers, sometimes helpful and benign, but they are always fierce and furious protectors of the natural world. Seven dry woods with mossy lichen and a gentle breeze of forest flowers.

 

I'm in the pepto bismol/wintergreen bunch.

It's minty and bright and relentlessly green at first, and only as it dries down over the next half hour or so do i start getting the whiffs of light florals. But the pepto bismol smell remains prominent throughout for me. It definitely seems to have decent staying power, and i can see how many people would love this but the pepto smell overwhelms me and it's off to the swap.

[seamor]

Wet: Spearmint candy, very intense. Is there a little patchouli or something underneath? It stings my skin, but I persevere.

 

10 minutes: Spearmint candy and patchouli, with a nice spearmint throw. The stinging is lessening.

 

30 minutes: A light sweet patchouli with a minty top.

 

40 minutes: Still patchouli-ish, with a touch of - tobacco? This is actually not bad, but not at all what I had expected.

 

75 minutes: Light, sweet patchouli with spearmint. I keep trying to find the mosses and woods and flowers, but I guess they don't want to find me. Must be the alien skin again...

 

[poppycocteau]

Hamadryad... wintergreen! A leetle bit more refined-smelling than drugstore wintergreen oil, but there's not much difference. Time passes... the wintergreen wisps away completely, leaving a very gentle floral that reminds me of commercial perfume.

[sissa125]

Imp: The Wintergreen Cinnamon everyone mentions

Wet: Wintergreen, but other woody smells. I'm not smelling actual wood, rather wood extracts. Wintergreen is still the strongest. The woods arent dry. What does lichen smell like? Where are the flowers?

Dry: Dry woods, unidentifiable. Faint floral, also unidentifiable.

 

At first, the very unromantic scent of breath freshener. On repeated use, I can smell past the wintergreen and cinnamon. Some cedar, something soft and dry, powdery and ghostly. Less wood nymph and more the memory of wood.

 

I'll use up the imp, but I doubt I will get another. It was too weak and unsatisfying.

[Celestyna]

Smells sort of like the dried floral section of Hobby Lobby, with a veery very slight waft of powder. A really nice woodsy scent, would be great for winter.

[kylni]

I got this one as a frimp from the lab a bit ago. I looked up the description, wasn't too enthused, then read the first few reviews and was more optimistic. Woody cinnamon? I like cinnamon!

 

I put some on my wrist, smelled it, and was confused. It smelled neither woody nor cinnamony. I couldn't quite place it... then it hit me: Wintergreen tic-tacs! Exactly!

 

I was dismayed, and tried to mentally shove my brain into smelling cinnamon or wood, but my nose adamantly insisted there was nothing there but wintergreen tic-tac smell. I feel less insane now that I see that other people have gotten this too.

 

But now I really want to smell the cinnamony version.

[Meg]

In the bottle: Gack. Violent evergreen resin, sickly sweet. I'm afraid.

 

Wet: Still strong, sickly evergreen resin, slightly minty.

 

Drydown: The resin veeeery slowly subsides, leaving a smell of wood behind it. I think that the very sweet component is honey, it reminds me of chestnut blossom honey, bitter and dark. There's still a very mentholy smell from the evergreens. Oh, and perhaps linden blossom, too.

 

Overall: It fades rather fast... fortunately. I get blossom, yes, and resin, but I don't get very much wood. Really it's very sickly on me, I like the touches of blossom, but it's not enough for me to like the blend in general. It certainly does smell like forest spirits, but they're too sweet for me.

[stardreamer]

First impression: Wintergreen! Sadly, that doesn't last long. The woods are very much to the background, which was a disappointment. Main impression: soft, inoffensive florals, fading to a green note at the end. Staying power is poor-to-moderate, it was mostly gone after only 5 hours. I'd be more tempted to keep this if the wintergreen scent had hung on longer, because I like wintergreen; as it is, I think it's a swap.

[Eunice]

In the bottle: All cinnamon with an underscent of green. Seemed especially strong in the bottle but I think that is due to the cinnamon being right up front.

 

Wet: Very cinnamon and green on my skin. I love the green scent, like a spring leaf that's just been crushed.

 

Dry: The cinnamon is fading a bit and the nutmeg comes out. Such a warm scent! And I get a hint of rose now which really rounds out the scent.

 

Overall: This a very elegant smell. I want to say it is all about summer but every time I sniff my wrist I feel Christmas. This is a scent I would want to put in a very hot bath and relax with. Very soothing!

[kakiphony]

In the imp: Toothpaste. The old fashioned, non-gel kind like the original, pale blue Crest.

 

Wet: Still minty toothpaste, but there's a slight hint of something richer and sharper underneath. I'm betting it's the wood base, but it hasn't developed enough for me to identify it yet. I have to say, that for its pungency in the imp, this is very subtle on my wrist. It smells very clean.

 

Early dry down: After twenty minutes, this is still very minty on me. The throw is medium to good, which is a bit unfortunate with this scent. The up-close smell of my wrist is pleasant (minty, but not sharp), but the throw smells uncannily like my dentist's office. It's rich, yet sweet and high, and a bit medicinal. I'm not getting any mossy lichen or florals from this, it's pure mint laid over a very subtle wood base.

 

Late dry down: After a full hour, the predominant note is still a sweet mint, and it still reminds me of toothpaste. My two wrists always develop slightly differently, and Hamadryad is no exception. The left wrist is a much stronger odor, with more mint and less subtlety. The right wrist faded much more quickly, but also developed a slightly peppery note along with the mint.

 

The seven-wood base of the scent is detectable on both wrists only if I snuffle them. I would not recommend this as a dry wood scent (I'd recommend Anne Bonny), but I would recommend it as a sweet mint. It's a gentle, mild, sweetened mint, and not a sharp, or pungent mint. I think this would be an excellent scent for a young girl, and might smell quite interesting on a man.

 

However, since I don't particularly relish smelling like toothpaste, I'm happy to say that I do not covet this one and it can go onto my sister, as intended.

[Medici]

In the imp: Oh boy. This is a sweet floral.

 

Wet: Sweet, syrupy floral on top of damp woods. What woods? I have no idea, but I imagine birch. Visually, I get light trees and thick, swollen blossoms in the warmth of a summer's day with just enough shade for you to be comfortable.

 

Drydown: It's sweet and tangy, though not tart. It is still fresh despite its heady aspects, and it does have a bit of a zing to it... like honey with a drop of lemon juice.

 

There's the metaphor: honey with a drop of lemon juice. (Though I don't smell any honey in here, nor lemons. Just sayin'.)

 

3.5/5 on Medici's Scale o' Lurrrve

[Jettcat]

In the Bottle: Minty and woody at the same time.

 

Wet: Hey there cinnamon, where did you come from? It's a sharp wide awake scent. I still get a minty/cinnamon note on top, but a woody incense below.

 

Dry: It was very sharp in the bottle and wet, but dry it mellows nicely. Not nearly as minty, definately more woodsy cinnamon now.

 

1 hour later: My skin eats this up and there's barely a trace of it's earlier brightness. Then again, I didn't slather this on since I always test lightly.

[HennaFairy]

bottle:

green and woody

 

wet:

green/fresh wood, and white flowers… really nice and light

 

dry:

same - very nice green floral, with some grounding wood notes behind it. Very fresh for summer!

 

overall:

lovely!!!

 

rating: 8/10

[medvssa]

On the bottle and wet, I smell something very medicinal, that I can recognise, but I don't remember what it is... can it be camphor? (hey girls, I also got the batch that contains what you call wintergreen it seems ;P)

 

Strong camphor, that fades away after a while, but it is still a strong medicinal smell, and no flowers, cinnamon or nutmeg whatsoever, as some people say. Camphor and wood??

 

The thing is, after a long while, I love this. Later on I smell the flowers, but so subtle, and wood, and it is lovely, perfect, a Hamadryad.

 

Two hours later: too good. I don't care to wait 15 minutes for the camphor to dissapear. Bottle!

[Elrianra]

In the bottle, I get a breath of florals and a touch of something dustier - must be the moss/lichen; the woods are soft and a wonderful base. Honestly, this is like walking in a forest and finding a small open area full of wild flowers - vines and ground cover and stubborn buds that refuse to be trampled by the woods... lovely! A second whiff of the bottle brings out the woods: cedar and pine and oak with birch and is that maple? I smell ferns and grass and florals as well all in one big blast of the outdoors. Wet on my skin, this is sweet and resinous: like pine or maple sap smeared on your hands. Sticky and sweet and more than a little insistant. As the scent begins to breathe, the florals really light this up; it's suddenly sunny and basking in the warmth of a mountain-forest summer - windswept and cool but lovely and so alive! The moss/lichens really play out in this one like none other - one moment they're in the background, just kissing the woods hello and the next moment you have a face full of them like you fell asleep using a mossy rock for a pillow. The general depth and range of this perfume is making me crazy: I want to go hiking, I want to go biking, I want to go horse riding - I WANT TO GO OUTSIDE AND NOT COME IN AGAIN. Ahem. As it dries and warms, the woods and moss take to the foreground again, slightly sharp but not bitter and with a touch of the dusty green that I've come to associate with the moss scent from BPAL; the florals are there but they're muted now and just a sweet inflection that blends oh so nicely with the rest of this. The final blend is woods over florals and lichens... something peppery - cedar is my guess - and something menthol-ish that I'm guessing is juniper mix to make a spicy/cool scent while the birch and oak layor softly over that and the maple (if it is maple) lends a sweet note. I wonder if there's willow in this? Oh I'm dying to know what those last few wood notes are now! After several hours, the woods have faded to a hint of the original scent but the inflections are by no means lost, the mosses lay atop everything like a heavy blanket and the florals pillow the woods in a bizarre twist - a floral BASE on MY skin?! Unheard of! This has next to no throw and is delightfully playful from the opening of the bottle to the final die down.

Edited July 29, 2006 by Elri

[finecurvedhips]

in the bottle - ack! as my daughter said - minty band-aids.

 

i was so excited when i started reading all the cinnamony reviews, but i got one of the oddball wintergreen/camphor/medicinal smelling batches, it seems.

 

wet- still really minty, very strong, i could smell my one wrist (very lightly tested, mind you) from over a foot away.

 

dry- the sickly smell has slightly dissipated. now this reminds me more of gum or candy that's mint flavored. i also get a hint of freshly-sharpened pencil in the background.

 

it faded really fast on me, thank goodness! this did not agree with me at all. i'm jonesing to find some from the other batch now, though!

[oregonmom]

This is my first review, so bear with me. I picked Hamadryad at random from my collection of imps and tested without reading any reviews or even the lab description. I had no idea it was such a complicated and commented-on scent!

 

On me it is initially a big multifloral with cinnamon. The cinnamon fades and is replaced by an earthy, almost resiny - medicinal? - quality. I'm guessing this is what others have described as moss/lichen. On the drydown it was very clean, slightly green, almost masculine. A lot of men's colognes are woody, so maybe that is the association. It's still going strong after six hours, so it's long lasting on me.

 

I barely got the wintergreen note at the beginning. I get that sometimes and am on a personal mission to track down what causes it. I hope it isn't sandalwood. Please don't let it be sandalwood!

 

I will hang on to this and test again later.

[redlisse]

I ordered an imp of this back in March, and just now got around to trying it - 'seven dry woods' sounded lovely, but the reviews said cinnamon, and cinnamon gives me welts, and...And then I opened the imp and got a completely surprising blast of WINTERGREEN.

 

And it was a very specific wintergreen - a little syrupy and very sweet, like those white breath-saver candies with green crystals in them. The imp sat untried on my shelf for almost two months, because the idea of putting that much mint on my skin grossed me out just a little. I love mints in my mouth, but I am a firm believer that they have no place in my perfumes.

 

Yesterday, however, I was feelin' brave (and also planning on a shower in half an hour ) and put a tiny swipe of Hamadryad on my hand.

 

Almost immediately, the wintergreen backed off, becoming a light, sweetly sharp waft that I loved smelling. It was like the candies lost the white 'candy' part and I was just smelling the crystals, and I was surprised by how much I liked it. But then it got better. The mint burned off completely after about fifteen to twenty minutes, and I was left with a gorgeous, subtle blend of woods and sweet, unassuming florals. I love woods, but normally they're more...robust, somehow, than Hamadryad is. In this, they are soft, very soft, like an oil rather than a wood. And the florals are soft and pale and sweet, truly like a breeze rather than a bouquet. All in all, the drydown is cottony-soft, subtly sweet, and simply lovely and unusual.

 

After my shower, I put on more. And you can bet I'm ordering a bottle of this.

[Trish]

In the imp: Cinnamon, with a touch of floral.

 

Wet: Cinnamon, maybe a touch of cloves? Sweet without being foody.

 

30 minutes: The cinnamon has subsided somewhat, and has blended with the florals so that it's hard to tell where one ends and the other starts. They've become intwined. I can just detect woods in the background, just enough to ground the spice and florals. It is still fairly sweet.

 

2 hours: Has barely changed except to fade a bit. Clings fairly close to my skin.

 

8 hours: There's still just a hint of warm sweetness on my wrists.

 

Verdict: This was the first Bpal I ever tried and it was a good place to start for me as I love cinnamon and woods. I don't know if I'll get a bottle as I'm still extremely new to Bpal and want to test a lot more before deciding. However I can definitely say that this imp is a keeper.

[ladymissspyder]

In imp: .....................................teaberry?

 

Wet: Dude, I smell like old-fashioned bubble gum.

 

Top notes: OK, this has just got to be the combination of notes here, because there is no way this is straight teaberry oil.

 

Middle notes: oooh, there's some sandalwood. But still with the teaberry. W. T. F.

 

Base notes: the teaberry's starting to break down a little, and now I can smell the woodiness and the oakmoss underneath it.

 

Huh.

 

ETA: I seem to have a wintergreen'd imp.

Edited June 10, 2006 by ladymissspyder

[eviltemptressdq]

i could be totally insane, but this smells a bit like how Pepto Bismo tastes! LMAO. but, well, i LIKE it. it smells good. and crisp.

 

i'm a weirdo. sorry. LOL.

[filigree_shadow]

I appear to have one of the weirdo imps. (The imp has one of the new labels, the ones with the new phoenix art, so it must be fairly recent.) It's it minty-camphor hell at first. Yick. But after it's dry it's really, really nice. It doesn't smell like woods or moss, it smells like a fruity floral blend, and it's a bit perfumey. It's sweet and pretty. I'm really glad that beginning icky phase faded out because the dry scent is quite lovely.

 

ETA:

I found a really old Hamadryad imp in my imp box -- one with the old style art on the paper label. I'm guessing it's from before 2006. At this point, it smells faintly like apples and mint, but it's really smooth underneath. This is a lot nicer than I remember.

Edited May 6, 2011 by filigree_shadow

[edenssixthday]

Hamadryad smells exactly like Ben Gay in the vial. Other people smells woods and spices and florals, but on my skin – it’s 100% Ben Gay “Lite.” Although it stays fairly close to the skin, I will occasionally get a highly medicinal waft of this scent during the first 30 or so minutes, after which it fades to a floral with a hint of B.O. It’s not something I’m ever going to wear in public. It fades fairly quickly, after only an hour or so.

[portalkat]

I found this scent so confusing. When I first put it on it smelled so strongly of wintergreen that my head snapped back. I could still smell it after about 5 minutes, then everything began to settle down. Everything had a soft, hollow quality to it. I could smell soft woods, the lichen and the florals. The mint became much less noticeable, however something in the floral notes had a bit of spiciness to it, maybe like carnation. The whole effect (after the wintergreen lightens up) is very soft and quiet. Maybe this will be a good sleep scent.

[Galatea]

In the Imp: Dry and mossy.

Wet: Halfway between rootbeer (i guess that is what everyone else is smelling as wintergreen?) and teaberry gum. Weird and strangely strong.

Dry: No more rootbeer, now it's mroe flowery and sweet. Almost cutesy smelling to me. A bit powdery too.
It's reminding me of a perfume my grandma used to wear.
After a couple of hours of wear, it's considerably better. More like the dry woods and flowers it's suppose to be. At first it was just too powdery and rosy smelling.

Throw: Not much at all.

Overall: It's really odd how much the smell of this changes from wet to dry and from dry to even drier. I've had it on for three hours now and I'd say it's changed about three times at least.