Lightning

[jj_j]

Lightning slashing the midnight skies over the endless reaches of the ocean. The electric tang of ozone, marine notes, and a drop of sharp rain.

Clean, crisp, and yes, electric. Out of the bottle, I was afraid this was going to turn into one of those scents that people put in the middle of toilet paper rolls, but it's beautifully blended and doesn't get "perfume-y."

Tangy salt air, flowing water, and oomph.

[Tesseljoan]

Elizabeth listed this as a gender-neutral scent. It is indeed in between masculine and feminine.

Fresh with a slight bite. Smells like storm to me.

[sirensongsouth]

This is truly amazing, a bottled lightening storm! It has the electrified air smell that happens during one of those intense southern lightening and thunder storms. It even causes my chest to tighten which is the same physical reaction I have to those storms. While I appreciate and am astounded by the amazing evocative qualities of this scent, lightening storms always make me a little tense, therefore I won't be able to wear this often. I am passing this along to my hubby as I am willing to bet it will be wonderful on him, and he does not have the same tense reaction to a weather storm as I do.

[Shollin]

First sniff: Lightning is another beautiful sea scent, with an edge to it. Makes my nose itch a bit.

 

Wearing: This reminds me quite a bit of Yankee’s Storm Watch candle – it’s the same sort of clean, rain-washed-air scent with a hint of sharpness.

 

One of these days I'm going to have to try Lightning, Jolly Roger and Tempest all on together and see if I can pin down the differences, because while they're similar marine scents, they're definitely not the same.

[Lady_Ell]

I love how this smells in the bottle - it really does smell like a thunderstorm in August, that tense, wonderful, damp smell right before the wind really starts to blow.

 

That said...

I put this on and immediately started coughing with a horrible tickle in my throat, and the smell completely changed on impact with my skin to an overpowering smell of fabric softener and dryer sheets.

 

This is great in the bottle, but it isn't something I can wear.

Edited April 16, 2004 by ladylatemar

[TygherRayn]

This was another of jason's first picks, and I loved it. He put it on really strong at first, however, and I think it nearly turned him off to it.

 

When I tried it on it was very crisp .. almost like Old Shanghai was on me, but with a different tang. I don't exactly smell ozone in it .. or didn't on my first wear .. but it still remainds me of lightning. Definitely an invigorating scent, one I will defintiely keep around, even if hubby doesn't like it.

[Dispatcherbert]

I ordered this as part of my imp's ears order and love it! I found it to be pretty much a combination of the good things said in the previous posts: It's tangy and fresh with an edge. I definitely smell the ozone odor in it. Shollin is correct in the assertion that it definitely is reminiscent of a Yankee Storm Watch candle, which is a personal favorite of mine.

 

What I probably liked best about it was at the end of my work day (when I put my jean jacket on to leave) the scent that had been left on my jacket 12 hours earlier was very fresh. I kept sniffing my sleeve all the way home!

 

Lightning is a definite keeper for me.

Edited April 25, 2004 by Dispatcherbert

[Pandorra]

LIGHTNING

Initial: Oohh, strong! Clean. Sharp. I like..

During: Citrussy, watery. I can feel a marine or ocean tone, but not a bright sunny beach day, but not night time either. Maybe just a dark, sunless and windy afternoon. you can almost feel teh pressure for the storm hits. There is a sharp tang to this one. It snaps at you. I think a man can wear this. It’s not masculine but definitely not feminine. Gender neutral.

Final: Interesting. It has dried down to a sweeter scent. Like a watery fresh floral. Almost like being at the shore after a rainstorm and the sun is breaking through the clouds and the bright blue sky can be seen ithough the rips and holes of the breaking clouds. Everything glistens from the sun glistening off of everything that is wet, but its still windy and another storm may be on its way. Yes, it now smells like it would AFTER the lightning has struck. I will definitely use up this Imp’s Ear.

[Northernminx]

In the bottle: a punch of something clean and crisp to the nose. It reminded me at first of that old kid's perfume several years ago called "rain." They had elemental bottles you could buy in pharmecy stores.

 

On me: Thankfully it was just the sort of citrusy crispness that reminded me of such and Lightning smoothed right down. I'm reminded less of ozone and more of something a little more lemony with a sort of salt air tang. I liked this one, very crisp and fresh, but couldn't imagine wearing it often so this one will stay in the "imp only" pile for those times I feel like something different.

 

Lasting: lasted all day long, mellowed a bit but didn't wear off.

[hypothermya]

I've tried Tempest, Hurricane, Tears, and now Lightening. All this in my quest to pin down the perfect water scent. Sadly, I discovered half way through the search that 1) I'm allergic to them all, and 2) there are two many types of "water scents" to really have only one perfect one. That being said, I'm still delighted that I got to take a whiff of Lightening.

 

In the Bottle

 

This smells tangy and crisp. There's a saltyness to it, but not nearly as salty as Tears or as Hurricane. While tears reminded me of a clean rain storm, and Hurricane of a salty tempestuous storm, this is somewhere in the middle. It smells like just before a storm starts, and has the smell of something fresh and charged with energy. It also has hints of citrus, but not as obvious as Tempest did. In fact, this scent is a bit hard to describe because it smells so clean as to be almost scentless (you know that smell that isn't so much a pungent presence of molecules, but rather the absence of them? that's the way this smells). It's really lovely.

 

Wearing It

 

I didn't apply much, because I knew I'd have an allergic reaction pretty much right away. The smell was fresh, and wet, but not something that you could smell from very far away. Unfortunately, within a minute of drying on my skin, the smell morphed into something like a cleaning product or an air freshener. Damned skin chemistry. I'm a bit worried that maybe I'm becoming OCD and obsessing over cleaning products, because several of the scents I've tried recently have reminded me of various cleaning products (Jabberwocky, Chypre, etc.). I washed the scent off pretty quickly (to avoid the fit of sneezing that was coming on), so I can't vouch for its lasting power.

 

 

If I weren't allergic to this, I'd say that this is the closest I've gotten to that clean, charged watery scent. Even though it doesn't work on my skin, I could imagine using this as a linen spray or as a room scent. While Tears was very solitary, and very meditative, Lightning evokes none of the emotional introspection that Tears brought forward -- only the excitement I feel everytime I can smell the air just before the first drops start falling from the sky. And it doesn't have the dark, murky feeling of Hurricane. When I first imagined what Tempest or Hurricane or Tears should smell like, I think I was imagining Lightning all along.

[Lorencita]

This was an imp that Beth and crew threw in. I must say that this is wonderful. It is a very clean fresh smell that is also intoxicating. I cant stop sniffin myself. It does smell like a really good fabric softner, but i like that about it. It seems like it would be good for those days that you dont feel so fresh. Not too lemony either, I love it... I will be ordering a big bottle of this.

[Ina Garten Davita]

First Impression: Bathroom cleaner or air freshener.

 

Second Impression: I can smell the ozone underneath the cleaner smell. If not for that cleaning fluid smell, it would smell just like a violent thunder and lightening storm.

 

Final Analysis: Not good for my skin. Too cold. The air freshener quality never died as much as I would have liked.

[grrrlennyl]

at first: beth included this as an extra, and it sounds really interesting. it reminds me of what the beach smells like by the ocean.

on: simply beautiful. it's very white: like white flowers, crisp apples, cucumbers, sugar...anything white.

1.25 hours later: this has gotten even brighter. it's more ocean-y now, which is good. very lovely and different from the other scents i've tried.

2 hours later: this is so interesting. it's more cucumbery now, which is very watery and refreshing. it also has a nice floral background. however, there's a bit of odd sourness there, too; something along the lines of a pickle-like smell.

3 hours later: the pickle scent has changed to a salty smell, like the salty smell of the ocean. underneath that smell is all floral.

overall: this started out very nice, but i cannot deal with the pickle scent. it's too bad. off to the swap pile it goes.

[Scylla]

I'm with Andrabell on this one. It smells very fresh and clean in a bathroom cleaner/air freshener kinda way. I swapped mine away.

[evil_laugher]

To repeat everyone else, this smells like citrussy, salty rain, very clean and fresh. Very nice!

 

EDIT: This has come to feel a bit more electric as the day went on. Still very clean and nice.

 

This is "clean" as in smooth and clutter-free, not as if it smells like toilet cleanser.

Edited August 13, 2004 by evil_laugher

[asa805]

I agree with others. bathroom cleaner. Nice but i woudlnt want to smell like that. Swapped it away.

[glampyre]

I find this to be a very clean and energizing scent. I smell the 'Bounce' that LadyLatemar refers to, but it's on a higher plane than just fabric softerner on me. I really really like it. It's so refreshing and makes me feel really awake.

 

This is a bad pun, but whenever I see the name "Lightening," I say,

 

"...yes it is...lightening my mood, that is." (warned you!)

 

I've been wearing this a lot the last few days. It's just so fresh when it's so hot outside.

[Belladonnastrap]

First Sniff

 

Like a rainstorm going on outside in the country. With the wind blowing...very fresh.

 

Initall thoughts

 

Wearing this makes me feel like I am standing in the middle of a storm with the wind whipping about me and thunder and lightening crashing around me. It smells like lightening would smell I imagine.

 

 

After wearing it

 

Oh this is lovely for the dog days of summer. Very fresh and cooling it has a tinge of sourness . It smells clean as well but I don't get any of the bathroom cleaner scent othes have. Very ...yellow and crisp. Perfect for the summer months but I doubt I'd use it in the colder ones. Nice!

[TheDarkMother]

Aftr the hurricane, I'm really wondering if this is going to smell like that. I guess here lately that I have smelled enough thunderstorms;)

 

In the bottle, Lightning smells more like a dryer sheet than a rain storm. Its very strong, and very heavy on the aquatic florals. I've capped the bottle and I can still smell it in the air, but in the air it smells more on the money, being lighter and more ozone-like. I'm hoping that on me it continues this trend.

 

On me its still very sharp and powerful as its wet. Its not a smell that I dislike, its just not what I expected. But it dries down quickly and it becomes more airy with that same bite. This is really nice, although it still reminds me of laundry detergent. This is making me remember that I have to do laundry today...LOL! I better not tell my husband that or I'll have a gallon of it on order tonight. I don't know...maybe I should tell him. After sniffing Jack and telling him that it would make me want to cook more, and this makes me want to do laundry, he might just let me go wild with it!

 

My friend swears by this scent, and I agree with her. This is a lovely scent, even more so now that its dried down. This has big bottle written all over it.

[k00kaburra]

In bottle: It smells exactly the way the air does when a lightning bolt has touched down nearby. It's a very exciting, charged fragrance.

 

On me: Eh, not so much. Some quality of the fragrance disagrees with me or has jogged my memory, because I'm now thinking cheap men's soap. I think my boyfriend uses some product that is a simpler version of this. This is one that I swapped away but if I were to get it again I would like to try it in an oil burner to see if it could work as a home fragrance. I quite liked the scent when I wasn't wearing it.

[Ailgwyn]

I've been SO curious to try this one. I have no idea what lightning or ozone actually smell like, but I could picture it being metallic, and electric of course. I love trying out scents that don't list the specific notes or are full of notes I have no idea what they smell like.

 

In the bottle: sharp, sharp, SHARP. A biting green scent, very much like the smell of a storm where I used to live ont he coast.

 

On me: Greener, like cut grass or freshly-cut flower stems. I can definitely smell the marine notes. Maybe it's now more like the herbs dipped in salt water I have at Passover. Still pretty biting, but clean, fresh. Like smelling cold air.

 

Later: Well, it's not bad. I can see what people mean about the bathroom freshener...sort of like a good clean-smelling cleaning fluid. Not something I'd want to smell like, but interesting nevertheless.

 

I'm not sure if I will keep this one. I actually layered it (accidentally) over a swipe of Moon Rose that I apparently hadn't washed off well enough, and it's really pretty nice layered that way on my skin, like rose with a kick. I think I'll try it again layered and see if I actually like it like that, and if not, then off to the swap she goes.

[pkwench]

Lightening

 

Vial: Ohhh, yeah, baby. It smells like a storm. Sweet, but in that purpled light kind of way. My first whiff evoked a "Hmmmmmmmmmm!"

 

Wet: Rain dampened flowers, ozone, and a very lovely freshness.

 

After 10: Oh, this is just lovely. I don't get a bathroom cleaner smell to it or any lemon. It does, however, remind me very much of Yankee's Stormwatch, but not quite as powerful.

 

After 20: Very fresh, very clean, very charged and electric watery scent. I love it quite a bit. There's a note starting to emerge now that really adds to the stormy aspect of it. I somehow get an image of hydrangea pushed almost flat to the earth because it's raining so hard.

[SoapyRN]

A free imp from the last order...thank you so very much.

 

Gone. The bottle is empty...why? Like I have read on previous reviews of other oils...this was like crack to me...I could have bathed in it.

Wonderful scent, very clean without that cleaning smell. I initally thought that is was very bright....like a bolt of lightning, seriously, but it mellows very quickly to a refreshing everyday scent.

 

A favorite. I keep the empty vial in my change purse so my gym card smells great when I whip that baby out!

[Astarte]

This is a very electric scent, its vivacious and glad to be alive. Its citrus spiked with airy notes, to give a watery yellow colour. Its incredibly clean, whereas Szepasszony was white slashes of rain and a very clear scent, this is one is incredibly vibrant and sharp.

 

A wonderful and full of energy blend.

[roisnoir]

Electric! Citrus without being specific, other than it's not something sweet. I'll certainly wear this again, though on a hot day. This wouldn't smell right on a cold, gucky day.

 

Dry, it's definately taken on more of an aquatic feel, and I like it even more!

It smells turquoise. Not the way that Danube does with it's grapefruit, but drier, though it's still a watery scent. Gorgeous.