Depraved

[Pixie-elf]

A salacious, lecherous, leering scent - dirty and dark, slapped with a wet sweetness. Earthy black patchouli swelling with apricot.

A gift impie from the lab that I'd wanted to try.

In the Vial: Sweet Apricots and something a little dark in it...

Wet: It starts out as sweet apricots, then the patchouli.

Dry: Apricots being defiled by Patchouli. Young sweet tender apricots, with dirty, old, patchouli using them for it's own pleasures... The apricots like it though.

Conclusion: This one just isn't for me. Off to swaps!

[Malista]

Patchouli has this Thing for my chemistry. The lighter patchoulis tend to go deep and creamy and spicy on me. Apparently black patchouli feels that when on my skin it should smell like a very dark, molasses-y bread toasted just to the edge of burning, and lightly buttered. It's a lovely scent, actually, reminding me that I want to do some bread baking in the near future (I mix my flours and other ingredients by guess and by golly, and sometimes use molasses instead of sugar or honey, if I'm adding dark rye or other heavy grain flours or ground nuts to the mix).

 

Add in the apricot, and I smell like toast spread with home made apricot preserve or conserve. I would have thought depravity would smell a little less like breakfast -- a late supper, maybe -- but, OK!

 

I don't know if I'll get a bottle of this, but I actually might, along closer to Autumn.

[donsixgun]

When I put it on, I didnt get much of anything. It was muddled, to a point where I couldnt figure any note. It smelled somewhat spiced and musky, and thats it. No obvious patchouli, nor apricot. I wanted to like this one too.

[brownbear]

In the vial this one smelled dark, fruity, and earthy.

 

Wet on my skin it smelled woody with the apricot in the background.

As it dried it went even woodier and the apricot dropped away. I really wish the fruit had been bigger. It smelled to me like there was ceder in it. I guess I'm not used to this type of patchouli. My roommate's verdict- "dusty closet." oh well

[sookster]

ok....wow....this is the first scent that i have tried from the lab that is dead on to the description .... total patchouli and apricot....those are the only 2 scents that come out....really interesting....extremely unique.......

 

if you are a patchouli lover, this is a must try

[Tess]

Apricot? Not usually something I'd go for, but as this was a frimp, who can say no?

 

In the vial - Wow, you can really smell both the apricot AND the black patchouli in here. Are they both base notes or something? Meh, this promises to be a strong one.

 

Wet - Apricot! Yeehaw! With just a touch of patchouli in the background, smells like.

 

Drying - The apricot is really strong, but the musty scent is the strongest right now. In fact, the patchouli is dominating this one. Every moment that goes by, the apricot is getting eaten up by it. Hrm.

 

Dry (1 hour) - Yup, this has become all patchouli (strong!) with just the barest hint of sweetness in the background. I don't have any bad associations with the scent, but I just know that it's not for me. Le sigh.

 

Overall - ...I can't get this to wash off. I ended up having to lather in French Vanilla, just to cut it. =/ Very much not for me. Swapping this one.

[DarkMouse]

in the bottle: apricots.. fruity baby food apricots.. and shoe leather.

on my skin: burned coffee and apricots.. I don't get it, patchouli and I are big buddies usually and this is just odd. I smell leather too.. no idea why. This patchouli has a bite to it - serious bite. I have to go wash this off.. again.

in general: I love patchouli but this one doesn't do it for me.. off to the swap pile with you!!

[OriginalWacky]

Bottle (Imp): Oh, this is sweet.

 

Just On: Very, very sweet fruit.

 

An hour or two later: Musky fruit?

 

Around 6 hours: Hmm, kinda hard to pin this one down.

 

12 hours: Barely there now.

 

Overall: This one confuses my nose a lot.

 

After reading other reviews: Ahh okay, apricot and patchouli. I see where the fruit comes from, and it's obviously the patchouli that smells musky in this one. This is utterly interesting to me. I don't get the feeling of depravity in a bad way, more the innocent looking one who has that 'bad' side to them that only comes out with a bit more knowledge of them.

[ange_glorieux]

I really, really WISH this had smelled like apricots on me. I adore apricots. Instead, it smelled -- well, really awful. I don't want to tell you the thought that actually came to mind. I'll say 'dirty diapers' instead, but it was actually something much more, well, 'depraved' than that.

 

I'm very disappointed. Then again, patchouli has NEVER agreed with me. Normally, however, it takes on a smell like dirt or earth -- not the scent of an act that is illegal in some states. ::snort::

 

I've got it for swap in imp form, if anyone who is GOOD with patchouli would like to try.

[cataura]

In the bottle it smells like over ripened apricot in a room with no air circulation that someone has forgotten to throw out. Not bad, just ready to go! Kind of sweet, but with an edge that is not quite bitter. After putting it on my skin (my fiancee’s too) it smells just like a sawmill. (My fiancee said it smells like a work shed.) Then the apricot starts making its way through to make it smell sweeter …umm sweet wood shavings. It doesn’t change much on dry down and stays strong, the sweetness recedes just a little and it smells like a freshly opened bag of wood shavings. I don’t get the dirty that the lab describes, but that is probably because I associate wood shavings with being clean. It is very earthy and I suppose dark for some. It’s a very interesting scent that would be great for the right mood.

 

This is a great scent. I always loved opening fresh bags of shavings for the horse stalls when I was in the horse business & this is what it brought to my memories. I think it would be better for my fiancee than for me though.

 

Visual: I guess with a name like Depraved and the scent of wood shavings, I get a picture of some crazy person sawing up bodies in an old abandoned sawmill.

Edited August 6, 2005 by cataura

[valentina]

In the imp: Loved it. Made me do a happy dance. Not very analytical on my part, but that's what happened.

 

Initial application: I was a smidge concerned that Depraved would blow up and become very strong on me, but I could tell it wasn't going to do that, so I threw on a little more, because I loved it -- very apricot and patchouli.

 

Dry-down: I was slightly worried that the apricot would overwhelm or become disgustingly sweet. To my joy, it does not. I think I smell like apricot-flavored black tea, the way it smells before it's been brewed. To me, the fragrance is mellow and reassuring.

 

Two hours later: Friends who sniff me like the scent and find it subtle and mysterious. I tend to avoid a lot of fruity aromas because they become too cloying on me, but apparently apricot is not going to do that, at least when mixed with patchouli.

 

8 hours later: This fragrance holds on, but not obnoxiously. Just politely hanging around. It does not morph, and the component parts remain rather balanced.

 

I have a late, great friend who used to rub his hands together and say in his most sinister voice: "Oh, the utter depravity of it all..." But on me, Depraved comes out as a very earthy, nectary, mellow scent. Almost comforting. I keep coming back to apricot-flavored black tea. For me, it won't be a devastatingly sexy scent, but actually something I could wear on a day when it might be appropriate to be a little subtle with my fragrance.

 

valentina

 

[telesilla]

Why I tried it: I love the lab's apricot and I wanted to see if I could deal with the patchouli.

 

In the bottle and wet: Yup, apricot and patchouli.

 

Drying down and dry: A very very earthy apricot. I like it, but not as much as March Hare and I already know that Nancy's not gonna like the patchouli note. Oh well.

[tinyvulture]

luscious, juicy apricot and dark, resinous, patchouli. what a fabulous contrast. the apricot is so realistic and mouth-watering that i want to lick my arm. this is truly a flirtatious, dirty, sexy scent and i love it.

[QueenFae]

This is my favorite incensey smell. When I first apply it I can sense a tiny bit of apricot, but on the dry down there's none at all. It's a sharp, straight up, incense stick patchouli scent. It's like a hippy in a bottle, I really love it. Normally scents like this just go in my oil burner, but this one really works on my skin. Bravo!

[voodoobaby]

Depraved is a very odd scent, in that it's sickly sweet and juicy, yet at the same time bone dry and bitter. It's also very strong and doesn't change much between the smell in the imp and the final dry down. Thus, I decided I wouldn't even give it a structured review.

 

I think I like it, but I can't be sure.

[magdalene]

in the bottle: warm apricot, with a tiny bit of earthiness.

 

wet: I had high hopes for this, because March Hare has made me love apricot. I've also become a secret fan of patchouli. So, when I read the description for Depraved, I got excited because I thought those two scents would work well together. Not on my skin, apparently. The apricot is so sweet, that it's becoming cloying and the patchouli is too earthy.

 

dry: Still going strong, neither note has backed down from the other.

[quimerula]

Bold and ripe apricot blended with black patchouli.

If you like both notes, go for it!

[AliBabble]

ick - this one doesn't work on me at all. it's weirdly sweet in this earthy, grassy way. - way too much patchouli is what i'm getting, pretty much wiping out the apricot, and reminding me of a "fig"-type smell, which i don't like. also has a "hair salon-chemical" smell - like dyes and perm solutions. oh well.

[bodegaselkie]

Depraved is so lovely - I applied it to my wrists last night before bed, and sniffed and sniffed as I fell asleep. On me, it's a nice balance between the apricots and the patchouli, which smells less like patchouli in this case and more like earth, like walking through an apricot orchard where some of the fruit has fallen to the ground and split open. I like other apricot blends: Yerevan started out beautifully, but the fruit faded and it just became musky, and March Hare fades on me within a few hours. This one lasted last night, but I slathered it on my cleavage this morning and it's already fading a lot. Sigh.

[turbojenn]

Anyone ever eat those Trolli gummy peach frogs or penguins...Depraved smells like that to me, and I have to say, I *love* it! Never would've thought fruit and patchouli go together, but this is divine. On such a lovely fall day as this, in the heart of the midwest, in the midst of peach and apricot season...this is exactly what I want to smell like!

 

First whiff is sweet, with the grounding warmness of the patchouli, but its wearing nicely, settling in and warming up. Decent throw, and 6 hours later, I still catch hints of apricot as I move.

 

I now want to go outside, and shuffle my feet in fallen leaves, and take a long walk.

[thren0dy]

This was a freebie included with my order, and I hadn't intended to try it out until I got home, but I opened it to take a whiff and spilled it all over my hands.

 

I LOVE it. I don't normally like patchouli at all, but for some reason it works. My coworker commented that it's almost more sandalwood-y, and I agree. There are defintitely woodsy tones to this. The apricot is calming down a bit after first application and on me, this is starting to smell somewhat like pencil shavings, but in a good way.

 

It's one of the more surprising and unusual scents I have gotten from BPAL, and I might be ordering more.

[dubh_ceol]

This scent hates me. It smells like a musky and dark cellar, with the occasional whiff of peach preserves. *sniffles* My second BPAL wash off ever. Edited October 12, 2005 by dubh_ceol

[SevenSins]

I LOVE LOVE LOVE patchouli. And generally like apricot. I was excited to get this one. In the bottle it was all slightly sweet earthy patchouli. Wet it was strong patchouli with just a hint of earthy sweetness. Not too bad, but I've learned that I have to wait for drydown before I really know for sure.

 

Drydown - couldn't wait to get it washed off. This turned so bad on me I can't even describe the smell. Think composted fruit gone bad mixed with some unknown sickness. I couldn't wait to get it off - and had to really scrub then slather something else to get rid of it.

 

How disappointing. I love good patchouli - always have! But this makes even the worst really bad dirty hippie patchouli smell like heaven.

[Miss Lynx]

I had high hopes for Depraved, because I've found that fruity/earthy combinations tend to work pretty well on me, and overall, I'm not disappointed. It's funny how the interaction of just two ingredients can sometimes produce something unexpectedly complex... Unles maybe there's more in here than just the black patchouli and apricot that the Lab site lists.

 

It's simultaneously sweet and juicy, and dark and earthy, with all kinds of interesting harmonics going on in the middle. Both Kettu and I could have sworn there was some hazelnut in there, and sometimes there seem to be some kind of green notes as well. At one point, she thought there was a scent like black walnut hulls in there... It really does seem to have a quirky multi-layeredness to it.

 

I wouldn't call it a perfect scent -- the patchouli is kind of agressive, and sometimes verges on playground-bully behaviour, but fruit scents usually hold their own fairly well on me. The particular patchouli used in this blend is also kind of musty-smelling with an edge of decay, like damp earth, which I don't find too pleasant, but the apricot balances it out fairly well. And the scent stays fairly true on the drydown, though like most BPAL scents it doesn't last as long as I'd like, and overall the scent is not that strong.

 

It lives up to its name pretty well -- it's simultaneously lush and dirty, like overripe fruit fallen on moist earth and just beginning to decay, smelling of both sensuality and a touch of corruption.

 

I don't know if it will become a top favourite or not, but it's definitely a keeper.

 

Grade: B

[thefaeriegirl]

All I can smell is dust and dirt and, lots more dust. If I were dating a mummy, this would be perfect.

 

It has the most lasting power of anything I have tried.