Ether

[hellomoonglow]

Glass globes fill with sweet vitriol, and the gas passes lazily through slim tubes. A misty fog veils the senses, and the world fades to hazy, opaque nothingness.

Translucent blooms, ethereal white resins, and davana.

My first sniff of Ether was, "Oh wow, this smells like Jackson!", who is my son. I can't really say WHAT part smells like a little boy, or better stated, my little boy, but I think it could be the fact that this has a very clean smell. Like when he gets out of the tub. It also smells a little outdoor fresh (sounds like fabric softener!) like air, and sun and little boy all rolled into one.

On my skin it still holds this scent, which lasted for a good 2 hrs. then faded. I wish the stay factor was stronger, because I really like this! It smells clean, fresh, nostalgic, young. Not at all what I expected something titled Ether to smell like, but it's surprisingly wonderful!

[fairnymph]

In the bottle: Davana, pikaki, delicate white flowers, light ozone. Floral, but sort of creamy and citrusy and fresh.

 

Wet: Still hard to pin down, and quite similar. Appropriately, it's a delicate, even ethereal scent, but on my skin it softens and warms up, really amping that pikaki - recalling Lover's Parodies. I do think there is an orange citrus note too, but it's mild, as is the faint davana.

 

Dry: More herbal and more citrusy - fresher - an amazingly backwards morphing. The pikaki is closer to the skin, but still a rich, primary note. This is a bit sweeter, both from the citrus and the davana.

 

Summary: The florals amp over time, and generally this scent is very mutable. It settles after a bit into a davana, white flower (but not the heady sort) and pikaki floral with a faint hint of orange citrus, and a woodsy/resiny/mossy dry down. Feminine and light in feel, but with great throw and lasting power.

 

Quite possibly bottleworthy.

Edited May 4, 2008 by fairnymph

[penemuel]

I don't know the individual notes in this other than the ozone, but it smells light and clean and slightly sweet, slightly sharp. It's a floral blend, but not heavy floral, and it's actually quite nice. Flower lovers will definitely like it. The resins don't seem to be very noticeable, or they may be what keeps the flowers in check.

 

It's a very pretty scent. Airy.

[Delirium1009]

In bottle/imp: Clean, crisp white florals and a bit of ozone.

 

Immediately on skin: This is a very clean, crisp floral scent. It’s slightly sweet, but in a very fresh way as opposed to being heavy or cloying. There’s also a bit of ozone in this, almost citrus-like. I think I also smell a hint of something like a touch of pine, but it’s far off and faint.

 

After a little while: This doesn’t change much on me as I wear it. I think the ozone and citrus (there definitely seems to be lemon in this) get a little stronger, and the white florals fade to the background, but it’s still a very crisp, pretty scent. I don’t know what davana smells like, but the flowers in this smell light and sweet with a very airy quality about them.

 

Overall Impressions: I was expecting this to be a little more floral, and perhaps have more depth, but the airy, crisp floral scent it actually is is quite nice. There’s a bit of ozone and lemon to this, but the flowers balance it nicely and this isn’t too sweet or too sharp.

[hipslike___cinderella]

I had a hard time reviewing this, as I have difficulty picking out nuances in very light oil scents. Needless to say, this is a light, transluscent blend. Bright, light, almost sunny, and clean. It's a bit boring until the drydown, where it becomes a sweet scent that is incredibly familiar to me. It's youthful feeling, and I think I can understand what the first reviewing was saying. This smells like little-girl perfume I had when I was like eleven. Nice, but not me at all; swapping.

[inurbanus]

Granted I'm still a little stuffed-up from a prolonged cold, I'm having a really hard time smelling this one. What I can smell is hazy ozone. I think there's something floral in the background, but it's so light that I might be imagining it. It's sweeter than Tempest and Lightning, but not as fruity as Thunderbird. This is a good summer scent, light and clean, but if you're looking for something more intricate, I would suggest skipping this one.

 

3/5

[savage_rose]

This smells like spring clouds to me...puffy, white, floating on a floral breeze of white florals. It smells like calm happiness, with a sprinkling of excitement.

[phantasmmysteria]

After reading the initial reviews and seeing that dreaded word "ozone," I had to wonder again why I felt the need to go straight for a big bottle of this one! But, I had to push on and at least test it out before deciding whether to cull it or not.

 

Bottle: Ooo, zingy! This smells totally citrusy in the bottle, and slightly sweet.

Wet: It starts out, again, mostly citrus, but this starts to morph quickly: a hint of flowers here, that citrus note there. I suddenly get a noseful of that awful ozon note and, disheartened, decide to stop sniffing my wrist and go about doing other things.

 

Another 5 minutes pass, and I suddenly catch a whiff of some lovely sweetess wafting from somewhere. Huh! It's one of the sweet flowers I recognize in the throw of Tiki Queen, but I realy couldn't tel you which it is. Up close cannot smell it, but now and again I catch the ghost of a scent, and it's really lovely.

 

This is incredibly light (perfect for the dog days of summer, I reckon) and fades fast -- perhaps those white resins will become less ethereal with time. For now, I think I should keep it around to find out.

[alicia_stardust]

This smells like sweet ozone and fluffy clouds to me. There's a soft element of sweet white florals and something about this smells very translucent and bright. I really like this one, even though it's hard to describe beyond what I've said. It's very breathy and evocative, not too ozone, not too floral... just right. Perfect for the concept. =)

[Christine Daae]

This is quite pretty! It's a sweet, bright/clean floral, with hints of moonflower and linden blossom (to my nose, anyway - it smells a lot like The Unicorn). It's very pretty and light, and does indeed smell, er, ethereal! I quite like this!

[Reaver]

White flowers, quite bland. This is a fairly simple blend, it seems, and it clings close to my skin even though I slathered. Quite english-country-meadow, and makes me think I'm going to sneeze from hayfever. I WANT to swap this away, but it's a Steamworks scent! Pah.

 

Conclusion - Meh, someone will like it.

2/10. NEXT!

[Dracoo9]

As soon as I saw the name of this scent I wanted it (oh, Final Fantasy, I blame you!). So, I got my imp off a fellow forum member and immediatly when I put it on it reminded me of another scent BPAL related. This continued to bother me for a long time before guessing that it does smell slightly similiar to Mad Hatter before it disapates into nothingness (that kind of cool mintyness) then I figured it out! On me this has the dry down of Mad Hatter after hours of wear with a dandylion like scent from Fairy wine with the muskyness (and slight citrus) of Croquet (which was what it reminded me from the start). And I LOOVVEEE Croquet (and the lab knows it I think because I get imps of it all the time). So, yes I will probrably get a bottle of this in the future, I'm sooo glad this worked out on me!

This is definently a spring/summer scent and makes me feel girly. 5/5

Edited May 19, 2008 by Dracoo9

[slave1]

ETHER

 

In Bottle: Green, clean and planty

 

On Skin: This scent remind me of the green on flowers, and plantlife. I smell a greenhouse before the flowers actually start to bloom and release their sweetness. This is crisp, clean yet also dirty with a bit of soil. It’s very light and I have to lean in to really experience it. I like it, but it’s not really a scent I’m drawn to. I like that it is different and really does evoke a mood. It has a light throw and fairly short wearlength on me.

[gchris]

In Vial Fresh fruits with something industrial

 

Wet: Wonderful fresh fruit but also something "grey" smelling in the backdrop that serves to ground the scent.

 

Drydown: This dries quickly and becomes faint. Smells like a soft perfume - sweet, girlie, youthful.

[tereshkova2001]

This is pretty and seductive, in the same way as Kylie Minogue's Doctor Who character, Astrid, from "Voyage of the Damned." The white resins are sweet and mild, but definitely resinous. I am surprised how much I like it. (And as an organic chemist, this doesn't smell anything like the solvent. )

[carrickfergus]

This is, without a doubt, a very pleasing scent. However, its effect on me can be summed up in two words:

 

Suntan lotion.

 

Ayup. No different than slathering on some SPF. But without any aquatic-type smells to associate it with a locker room, it really is a very nice smell and worth trying.

[zankoku_zen]

I had high hopes for this one. However, it was REALLY soapy upon application. It was like a soap haze. Now that its calmed down, it smells like really nice hotel soap. I like hotel soap. I don't know if I want to smell like it.

 

Boo on my skin chemistry.

[Bagfish]

In the imp, Ether is light and bright, I don't get any particular florals, it's just a clean, simple scent with a very slight hint of pine.

 

Once applied, it has a citrus sharpness about it, quite similar to Shanghai. It's still light and bright and I still don't get any florals and I certainly don't get ozone which is a real deal-breaker for me. On drydown, after 20 minutes or so of wear, Ether oddly begins to develop a celery-like scent to it which is slightly unnerving!

 

The celery note must be something I don't recognise which my nose is morphing to smell like celery.

 

Ether sticks close to the skin, and never really develops into separate identifiable florals. It does smell quite different on my skin than in the bottle and whilst it's pretty, it's not really a me sort of scent, and I don't like the thought that my nose is misreading something as celery

[waternight]

In the imp: Light and sweet

Wet: Translucent blooms indeed! Fresh, light, watery florals, followed by incredibly light, barely-there resins. There's a slightly spicy note as well, but it's quite soft and gentle... like a very gentle ginger or carnation. This certinaly fits the name and description - definitely ethereal and misty-wispy. Very lovely.

Dry: The florals amp up a bit and get sweeter - the resins are thickening up this blend. All in all, this is a lovely, fresh, feminine scent.

[thatpirategirl]

It's nice and light, like ozone and flower petals soaking in water. And although it's nowhere in the description, I also detect a bit of honeydew melon, or some other watery fruit. I'd call it a girlier version of Lightning (one of my favorite scents) but lacking the electric kick. It's the kind of scent I'd wear on a day indoors, because its lightness totally gets lost among the smells of the outside world. Not my favorite of the Steamworks blends, but it does call to mind the image of a mad scientist's terrarium, filled with oddly glowing flowers.

[Miss Lynx]

Wasn't at all sure this one would work -- anything with a mix of florals and resins can go either very good or very bad on me, depending on the proportions. But I think one of the main reasons I had to try it was the fact that the name instantly evoked "There is nothing in the world more helpless and irresponsible and depraved than a man in the depths of an ether binge!" for me (from Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas).

 

Anyway... My first thought on actually trying it was that, well, it wasn't horrible, but it wasn't exactly happy-making, either. The florals definitely dominate, giving it a powdery, perfumey feel, with an edge of nose-irritating dryness. And after a little while on, it began giving me a headache, so I had to wash it off.

 

I see some of the other reviews mentioning ozone, and that's probably the culprit both in the irritating dryness and headache -- ozone is pretty much a deal-breaker note for me, that kill almost any scent it's added to. Sometimes when it's in with a lot of stuff I otherwise like, like in Lurid, I can handle it for a while, but sooner or later it always gets really annoying.

 

Anyway, final verdict: I've smelled worse things, to be sure, but this one is definitely going straight into the swaps.

 

Grade: D

[Little Bird]

I've tried Ether a few times now, always hopeful for the 'white resins' to do something spectacular on my skin. Unfortunately, this flips between giving me an impression of generic, white floral, drugstore perfume or it smells like sharp, floral soap on me. It's more perfumey and soapy-clean than resinous.

[innocent]

The first time I tried Ether it smelled like soap... then gave me a rash on my wrists. But I waited a few weeks and tried it again (I can never quite give up on a BPAL scent)... and this time I'm getting a light, airy floral spiked with fairly subtle citrus. And no rash! It's a nice counterpoint to the lemon tea I'm sipping. I'm glad I didn't give up on this one - I don't have many good summer scents and this one is perfect for those early mornings when the sun isn't quite up yet and I have to drag my butt out of bed and head to work.

 

Sadly it seems to be fading very quickly, but I'm allergic to everything in TX, so that might just be my nose.

[deprongmori]

This started out as a light, clean citrus-floral, and after about an hour morphed into a delightful Snow White-esque sweet, dusty air. Since Snow White is a personal favorite, I'm happy to have a similar scent that's more suitable for warm weather. This is very light, wispy, and beautiful - for me it evokes a sunny summer day, with white linens drying on a line outside or a pale blonde girl in a white dress. It's youthful and wistful. I wish it were a little stronger, but its lightness is true to the idea of the scent. I think I might look into a 5ml for this one eventually.

[copyshopclerk]

In the imp - clean aquatic, with something that's almost like a not-quite-citrus fruitiness (the davana, perhaps?)

 

On - a sweet, clean aquatic. Something in here reminds me of how Tiki Queen smells on me when dry - I guess maybe they have a floral note in common? - combined with that almost watermelon-rind scent that I get from Szepasszony. I really liked both of those so this is a very enjoyable scent!

 

Dry - Doesn't morph very much from the wet phase. This is really lovely - it's refreshing and sweet without being overly sweet, and there's still something there that smells a lot like Tiki Queen did when dry, and since I didn't buy a bottle of that when it was up, I like having something in the GC that wears very similarly!